Part 26

For a union with the ineffable _one_ of the Demiurgus, the true father of the soul, can only be accomplished by the soul recurring to its own _unity_; and having for this purpose previously dismissed and abandoned every thing foreign to it. This occurrence, indeed, of the soul with deity, is, as Plotinus divinely says, φυγη μονου προς μονον[213], _a flight of the alone to the alone_, in which most beautiful expression I have no doubt he alludes to this mystic termination of the wanderings of Ulysses, in the embraces of his father. Proclus also, in a no less admirable manner, alludes to this union in his Commentaries on the Timæus of Plato[214]. The allusion is in his comment on the words, “It is difficult, therefore, to discover the maker and father of this universe; and, when found, it is impossible to speak of him to all men.” On this passage Proclus observes: “It is necessary that the soul, becoming an intellectual world, and being as much as possible assimilated to the whole intelligible world, should introduce herself to the maker of the universe; and from this introduction, should, in a certain respect, become familiar with him through a continued intellectual energy. For uninterrupted energy about any thing calls forth and resuscitates our dormant ideas. But through this familiarity, becoming stationed at the door of the father, it is necessary that we should be united to him. For discovery is this, to meet with him, to be united to him, _to associate alone with the alone_, and to see him himself, the soul hastily withdrawing herself from every other energy to him. For, being present with her father, she then considers scientific discussions to be but words[215], banquets together with him on the truth of real being, and in pure splendour is purely initiated in entire and stable visions. Such, therefore, is the discovery of the father, not that which is doxastic [or pertaining to opinion]; for this is dubious, and not very remote from the irrational life. Neither is it scientific; for this is syllogistic and composite, and does not come into contact with the intellectual essence of the intellectual Demiurgus. But it is that which subsists according to intellectual vision itself, a contact with the intelligible, and a union with the demiurgic intellect. For this may properly be denominated difficult, either as hard to obtain, presenting itself to souls after every evolution of life, or as the true labour of souls. For, after the wandering about generation, after purification, and the light of science, intellectual energy and the intellect which is in us shine forth, placing the soul in the father as in a port, purely establishing her in demiurgic intellections, and conjoining light with light; not such as that of science, but more beautiful, more intellectual, and partaking more of the nature of _the one_ than this. _For this is the paternal port, and the discovery of the father, viz. an undefiled union with him._”

With great beauty also, and in perfect conformity to the most recondite theology, is the father of Ulysses represented as coarsely clothed, and occupied in botanical labours:

But all alone the hoary king he found; His habit coarse, but warmly wrapt around; His head, that bow’d with many a pensive care, Fenc’d with a double cap of goatskin hair; His buskins old, in former service torn, But well repair’d; and gloves against the thorn. In this array the kingly gard’ner stood, And clear’d a plant, encumber’d with its wood[216].

For this simplicity, and coarseness of the garb of Laertes, considered as an image of the true father of Ulysses, is, in every respect, conformable to the method adopted by ancient mythologists in their adumbrations of deity. For they imitated the transcendency of divine natures by things preternatural; a power more divine than all reason by things irrational; and, by apparent deformity, a beauty which surpasses every thing corporeal. This array, therefore, of the father of Ulysses, is, in the language of Proclus, indicative “of an essence established in the simplicity of _the one_, and vehemently rejoicing, as some one of the piously wise says, in an unadorned privation of form, and extending it to those who are able to survey it[217].” And the botanical labours of Laertes are an image of the providential attention of the Demiurgus to the immediate ramifications and blossoms of his own divine essence, in which they are ineffably rooted, and from which they eternally germinate.

Though Ulysses, however, is placed through the theoretic virtues in the paternal port, as far as this is possible to be effected in the present life, yet we must remember, according to the beautiful observation of Porphyry, that he is not freed from molestation, till he has passed over the raging sea of a material nature; _i.e._ has become impassive[218] to the excitations of the irrational life, and is entirely abstracted from external concerns. For,

Then heav’n decrees in peace to end his days, And steal himself from life by slow decays; Unknown to pain, in age resign his breath. When late stern Neptune points the shaft of death; To the dark grave retiring as to rest; His people blessing, by his people blest[219].

I shall only observe farther, that Plotinus also considered the wanderings of Ulysses as a fabulous narration containing a latent meaning, such as that which we have above unfolded. This is evident from the following extract from his admirable treatise _on the Beautiful_: “It is here, then, [in order to survey the beautiful itself] that we may more truly exclaim.

Haste, let us fly and all our sails expand, To gain our dear, our long-lost native land[220].

But by what leading stars shall we direct our flight, and by what means avoid the magic power of Circe, and the detaining charms of Calypso? For thus the fable of Ulysses obscurely signifies, which feigns him abiding an unwilling exile, though pleasant spectacles were continually presented to his sight; and every thing was proffered to invite his stay, which can delight the senses and captivate the heart. But our true country, like that of Ulysses, is from whence we came, and where our father lives[221].”

FOOTNOTES:

[183] Δια τοι τουτο, και τον Οδυσσεα λεγουσι κατα θαλατταν πλανασθαι βουλῃ του Ποσειδωνος· σημαινουσι γαρ την Οδυσσειον ζωην, οτι ουδε χθονια ην, αλλ’ ουδε μην ετι ουρανια, αλλα μεση· επει ουν ο Ποσειδων του μεταξυ κυριος εστι, δια τουτο και τον Οδυσσεα φασι βουλῃ Ποσειδωνος [supple πλανασθαι·] επειδη τον κληρον του Ποσειδωνος ειχεν· ουτω γουν και τους μεν φασι Διος υιους, τους δε Ποσειδωνος, τους δε Πλουτωνος, προς τους κληρους εκαστου· τον μεν γαρ εχοντα θειαν και ουρανιαν πολιτειαν Διος φαμεν υιον, τον δε χθονιαν, Πλουτωνος, τον δε την μεταξυ Ποσειδωνος.

[184] In Plat. Polit. p. 398.

[185] Instead of αναλογοι ψυχαι, in this place, it is necessary to read αλογοι ψυχαι.

[186] Iliad, V. v. 451.

[187] Conformably to this, Proclus, in Plat. Polit. p. 398, says, “that all the beauty subsisting about generation [or the regions of sense], from the fabrication of things, is signified by Helen; about which there is a perpetual battle of souls, till the more intellectual having vanquished the more irrational forms of life, return to the place from whence they originally came.” For the beauty which is in the realms of generation, is an efflux of intelligible beauty.

[188] This second line is, in Pope’s version, “Lotos the name, divine, nectarious juice!” which I have altered as above, as being more conformable to the original.

[189] Lib. ix. l. 94, &c.

[190] Vid. Censoris, De Die Natali, cap. iii.

[191] This is evident from the following passage in the Commentary of Proclus, on the First Alcibiades of Plato: Ταις μεν ουν αποκαταστατικως ζωσαις ψυχαις ο αυτος εστιν ανω κανταυθα δαιμων· ταις δε ατελεστεραις αλλος μεν ο κατ’ ουσιαν δαιμων, αλλος δε ο κατα τον προβεβλημενον βιον. p. 37, Edit. Creuz. But for a copious account of the essential dæmon, and of the different orders and offices of dæmon, see the notes accompanying my translation of the First Alcibiades, Phædo, and Gorgias of Plato.

[192] See the note (p. 90) accompanying my translation of the Metamorphosis of Apuleius.

[193] For an accurate account of the gradation of the virtues, see Porphyry’s Auxiliaries to Intelligibles, p. 217.

[194] For the shuttle is a symbol of separating power.

[195] And this is the meaning of the Chaldaic oracle,—

Σον αγγειον θηρες χθονος οικησουσιν.

_i.e._ “The wild beasts of the earth shall inhabit thy vessel.” For, as Psellus well observes, by _the vessel_, the composite temperature of the soul is signified, and by the wild beasts of the earth, terrestrial dæmons.

[196] Odyss. lib. v. 82, &c. The translation by Pope.

[197] Ibid. lib. v. 269, &c.

[198] Odyss. lib. vii. 84, &c. The translation by Pope.

[199] In Euclid. Element. lib. i. p. 14.

[200] Odyss. lib. viii. 556, &c.

[201] Odyss. lib. vii. 33.

[202] Odyss. lib. xiii. 93, &c.

[203] _i.e._ Philosophy; for of this Penelope is an image.

[204] Odyss. lib. xiii. 373, &c.

[205] Odyss. lib. xiii. 397, &c. The translation of the above, and likewise of all the following passages from the Odyssey, is by Pope.

[206] Odyss. lib. xvii. 201, &c.

[207] Odyss. lib. xxii. 1, &c.

[208] Odyss. lib. xxiii. 88, &c.

[209] Odyss. lib. xxiii. 131, &c.

[210] Odyss. lib. xxiii. 163, &c.

[211] Odyss. lib. xxiv. 215, &c.

[212] Ibid. lib. xxiv. 225.

[213] These are the concluding words of the last book of his last Ennead.

[214] See vol. i. p. 254, of my translation of that work.

[215] This is in consequence of a union with the Demiurgus being so much superior to scientific perception.

[216] Odyss. lib. xxiv. 225, &c.

[217] τα μεν γαρ εστι θεια και εν τῃ απλοτητι του ενος ιδρυμενα την ακαλλοπιστον ευμορφιαν· (lege αμορφιαν) ως φησι τις των τα οσια σοφων, διαφεροντως αγαπωντα, και προτεινοντα τοις εις αυτα βλεπειν δυναμενοις.—Procl. in Parmenid. lib. i. p. 38. 8vo. Parisiis, 1821.

[218] This impassivity, or perfect subjugation of the passions to reason, which is the _true apathy_ of the Stoics and Platonists, is indicated by Ulysses finding a nation

“Who ne’er knew salt or heard the billows roar.”

[219] Odyss. lib. xxiii. 281, &c. By _the people_, in these lines, the inferior parts or powers of the soul are indicated.

[220] Iliad, lib. ii. 140, and lib. ix. 27.

[221] See my paraphrased translation of this treatise, p. 37, &c.

THE END.

LONDON: PRINTED BY J. MOYES, GREVILLE STREET.