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the six enneads-第205章

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 no longer a power entire; partition means lessening of power; and; with part of power for part of body; the conditions of consciousness cease。     Further; a vestigial cut off from its source disappears… for example; a reflected light… and in general an emanant loses its quality once it is severed from the original which it reproduces: just so the powers derived from that source must vanish if they do not remain attached to it。     This being so; where these powers appear; their source must be present with them; thus; once more; that source must itself be omnipresent as an undivided whole。     10。 We may be told that an image need not be thus closely attached to its archetype; that we know images holding in the absence of their archetype and that a warmed object may retain its heat when the fire is withdrawn。     To begin with the image and archetype: If we are reminded of an artist's picture we observe that here the image was produced by the artist; not by his subject; even in the case of a self…portrait; the picture is no 〃image of archetype;〃 since it is not produced by the painter's body; the original represented: the reproduction is due to the effective laying on of the colours。     Nor is there strictly any such making of image as we see in water or in mirrors or in a shadow; in these cases the original is the cause of the image which; at once; springs from it and cannot exist apart from it。 Now; it is in this sense that we are to understand the weaker powers to be images of the Priors。 As for the illustration from the fire and the warmed object; the warmth cannot be called an image of the fire unless we think of warmth as containing fire so that the two are separate things。 Besides; the fire removed; the warmth does sooner or later disappear; leaving the object cold。     If we are told that these powers fade out similarly; we are left with only one imperishable: the souls; the Intellectual…Principle; become perishable; then since Being 'identical with the Intellectual…Principle' becomes transitory; so also must the Beings; its productions。 Yet the sun; so long as it holds its station in the universe; will pour the same light upon the same places; to think its light may be lessened is to hold its mass perishable。 But it has been abundantly stated that the emanants of the First are not perishable; that the souls; and the Intellectual…Principle with all its content; cannot perish。     11。 Still; this integral omnipresence admitted; why do not all things participate in the Intellectual Order in its entirety? Why has it a first participant; a second; and so on?     We can but see that presence is determined by the fitness of the participant so that; while Being is omnipresent to the realm of Being; never falling short of itself; yet only the competent possess themselves of that presence which depends not upon situation but upon adequacy; the transparent object and the opaque answer very differently to the light。 These firsts; seconds; thirds; of participance are determined by rank; by power; not by place but by differentiation; and difference is no bar to coexistence; witness soul and Intellectual…Principle: similarly our own knowledge; the trivial next the gravest; one and the same object yields colour to our sight; fragrance to smell; to every sense a particular experience; all presented simultaneously。     But would not this indicate that the Authentic is diverse; multiple?     That diversity is simplex still; that multiple is one; for it is a Reason…Principle; which is to say a unity in variety: all Being is one; the differing being is still included in Being; the differentiation is within Being; obviously not within non…Being。 Being is bound up with the unity which is never apart from it; wheresoever Being appears; there appears its unity; and the unity of Being is self…standing; for presence in the sensible does not abrogate independence: things of sense are present to the Intellectual… where this occurs… otherwise than as the Intellectual is present within itself; so; too; body's presence to soul differs from that of knowledge to soul; one item of knowledge is present in a different way than another; a body's presence to body is; again; another form of relation。     12。 Think of a sound passing through the air and carrying a word; an ear within range catches and comprehends; and the sound and word will strike upon any other ear you may imagine within the intervening void; upon any that attends; from a great distance many eyes look to the one object and all take it fully; all this; because eye and ear exist。 In the same way; what is apt for soul will possess itself of soul; while from the one identical presence another will derive something else。     Now the sound was diffused throughout the air not in sections but as one sound; entire at every point of that space。 So with sight: if the air carries a shape impressed upon it this is one undivided whole; for; wherever there be an eye; there the shape will be grasped; even to such as reject this particular theory of sight; the facts of vision still stand as an example of participation determined by an identical unity。     The sound is the clearer illustration: the form conveyed is an entirety over all the air space; for unless the spoken word were entire at every point; for every ear to catch the whole alike; the same effect could not be made upon every listener; the sound; evidently; is not strung along the air; section to section。 Why; then; need we hesitate to think of soul as a thing not extended in broken contact; part for part; but omnipresent within the range of its presence; indwelling in totality at every point throughout the All?     Entered into such bodies as are apt to it; the soul is like the spoken sound present in the air; before that entry; like the speaker about to speak… though even embodied it remains at once the speaker and the silent。     No doubt these illustrations are imperfect; but they carry a serviceable similitude: the soul belongs to that other Kind; and we must not conceive a part of it embodied and a part intact; it is at once a self…enclosed unity and a principle manifested in diversity。     Further; any newcoming entity achieving soul receives mysteriously that same principle which was equally in the previously ensouled; for it is not in the dispensation that a given part of soul situate at some given point should enter here and there; what is thought of as entering was always a self…enclosed entire and; for all the seeming entry; so remains; no real entry is conceivable。 If; then; the soul never entered and yet is now seen to be present… present without waiting upon the participant… clearly it is present; here too; without breach of its self…inclusion。 This can mean only that the participant came to soul; it lay outside the veritable reality but advanced towards it and so established itself in the kosmos of life。 But this kosmos of life is a self…gathered entire; not divisible into constituent masses but prior to mass; in other words; the participation is of entire in entire。 Any newcomer into that kosmos of life will participate in it entire。 Admitting; then; that this kosmos of life is present entire in the universe; it must be similarly 
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