" . . . . the prospect clear,
The mists disperse, and all the coast appear."
Let us then, humbly supplicate the irradiations of wisdom, and
follow Plotinus as our divine guide to the beatific vision of the
Beautiful itself; for in this alone can we find perfect repose, and
repair those destructive clefts and chinks of the soul which its
departure from the light of good, and its lapse into a corporeal nature,
have introduced.
But before I conclude, I think it necessary to caution the reader not
to mix any modern enthusiastic opinions with the doctrines
contained in the following discourse; for there is not a greater
difference between substance and shade than between ancient and
modern enthusiasm. The object of the former was the highest good
and supreme beauty; but that of the latter is nothing more than a
phantom raised by bewildered imaginations, floating on the unstable
ocean of opinion, the sport of the waves of prejudice and blown
about by the breath of factious party. Like substance and shade,
indeed they possess a similitude in outward appearance, but in
reality they are perfect contraries; for the one fills the mind with
solid and durable good, but the other with empty delusions; which
like the ever-running waters of the Danaides, glide away as fast as
they enter, and leave nothing behind but the ruinous passages
through which they flowed.
I only add, that the ensuing treatise is designed as a specimen
(if it should meet with encouragement) of my intended mode of
publishing all the works of Plotinus. The undertaking is, I am
sensible, arduous in the extreme; and the disciples of wisdom are
unfortunately few; but, as I desire no other reward of my labour,
than to have the expense of printing defrayed, and to see Truth
propagated in my native tongue; I hope those few will enable me to
obtain the completion of my desires. For then, to adopt the words of
Ulysses,
"That view vouchsaf'd, let instant death surprise
With ever-during shade these happy eyes!"[3]