Porfírio

Unas son las virtudes del político y otras las de quien se eleva mediante la contemplación, que, por esto, es llamado contemplativo. Unas son las de quien ya es un perfecto contemplativo y vive contemplando, y otras las del Intelecto puro separado del Alma.

Excertos de HISTÓRIA DA FILOSOFIA de Guillermo Fraile

1. Plotinus, the philosopher our contemporary, seemed ashamed of being in the body.

So deeply rooted was this feeling that he could never be induced to tell of his ancestry, his parentage, or his birthplace.

He showed, too, an unconquerable reluctance to sit to a painter of a sculptor, and when Amelius persisted in urging him to allow of a portrait being made he asked him, 'Is it not enough to carry about this image in which nature has enclosed us? Do you really think I must also consent to leave, as a desired spectacle to posterity, an image of the image?'

And thus much for the life of Plotinus, who was a philosopher pre-eminently distinguished for the strength and profundity of his intellect, and the purity and elevation of his life. He was a being wise without the usual mixture of human darkness, and great without the general combination of human weakness and imperfection. He seems to have left the orb of light solely for the benefit of mankind; that he might teach them how to repair the ruin contracted by their exile from good, and how to return to their true country, and legitimate kindred and allies.

If such then is the decision of Longinus concerning the abilities and writings of this extraordinary man; of Longinus, who is celebrated by one of our first poets, as " inspired by all the Nine ; " and whose literary reputation is universal; what judgement must we form of the philosophic taste of the present age, when we find that the very name of Plotinus is known but to a few, and his works scarcely to any ?