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the six enneads-第206章

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。 Admitting; then; that this kosmos of life is present entire in the universe; it must be similarly entire in each several entity; an identity numerically one; it must be an undivided entire; omnipresent。     13。 But how account; at this; for its extension over all the heavens and all living beings?     There is no such extension。 Sense…perception; by insistence upon which we doubt; tells of Here and There; but reason certifies that the Here and There do not attach to that principle; the extended has participated in that kosmos of life which itself has no extension。     Clearly no participant can participate in itself; self…participation would be merely identity。 Body; then; as participant does not participate in body; body it has; its participation must be in what is not body。 So too magnitude does not participate in magnitude; it has it: not even in addition of quantity does the initial magnitude participate in magnitude: the two cubits do not themselves become three cubits; what occurs is that an object totalling to a certain quantity now totals to another: for magnitude to participate in magnitude the actual two cubits must themselves become the new three 'which cannot occur'。     If; then; the divided and quantitatively extended is to participate in another Kind; is to have any sort of participation; it can participate only in something undivided; unextended; wholly outside of quantity。 Therefore; that which is to be introduced by the participation must enter as itself an omnipresent indivisible。     This indivisibility must; of course; not be taken in any sense of littleness: littleness would be still divisible; could not cover the extension of the participant and could not maintain integral presence against that expansion。 Nor is it the indivisibility of a geometric point: the participant mass is no single point but includes an infinity of points; so that on the theory this principle must be an infinity of points; not a simultaneous entire; and so; again; will fail to cover the participant。     If; then; the participant mass in its entirety is to contain that principle entire; the universe must hold that one soul present at its every point。     14。 But; admitting this one soul at every point; how is there a particular soul of the individual and how the good soul and the bad?     The one soul reaches to the individual but nonetheless contains all souls and all intelligences; this; because it is at once a unity and an infinity; it holds all its content as one yet with each item distinct; though not to the point of separation。 Except by thus holding all its content as one…life entire; soul entire; all intelligence… it could not be infinite; since the individualities are not fenced off from each other; it remains still one thing。 It was to hold life not single but infinite and yet one life; one in the sense not of an aggregate built up but of the retention of the unity in which all rose。 Strictly; of course; it is a matter not of the rising of the individuals but of their being eternally what they are; in that order; as there is no beginning; so there is no apportioning except as an interpretation by the recipient。 What is of that realm is the ancient and primal; the relation to it of the thing of process must be that of approach and apparent merging with always dependence。     But we ourselves; what are We?     Are we that higher or the participant newcomer; the thing of beginnings in time?     Before we had our becoming Here we existed There; men other than now; some of us gods: we were pure souls; Intelligence inbound with the entire of reality; members of the Intellectual; not fenced off; not cut away; integral to that All。 Even now; it is true; we are not put apart; but upon that primal Man there has intruded another; a man seeking to come into being and finding us there; for we were not outside of the universe。 This other has wound himself about us; foisting himself upon the Man that each of us was at first。 Then it was as if one voice sounded; one word was uttered; and from every side an ear attended and received and there was an effective hearing; possessed through and through of what was present and active upon it: now we have lost that first simplicity; we are become the dual thing; sometimes indeed no more than that later foisting; with the primal nature dormant and in a sense no longer present。     15。 But how did this intruder find entrance?     It had a certain aptitude and it grasped at that to which it was apt。 In its nature it was capable of soul: but what is unfitted to receive soul entire… present entire but not for it… takes what share it may; such are the members of the animal and vegetal order。 Similarly; of a significant sound; some forms of being take sound and significance together; others only the sound; the blank impact。     A living thing comes into existence containing soul; present to it from the Authentic; and by soul is inbound with Reality entire; it possesses also a body; but this body is not a husk having no part in soul; not a thing that earlier lay away in the soulless; the body had its aptitude and by this draws near: now it is not body merely; but living body。 By this neighboring it is enhanced with some impress of soul… not in the sense of a portion of soul entering into it; but that it is warmed and lit by soul entire: at once there is the ground of desire; pleasure; pain; the body of the living form that has come to be was certainly no unrelated thing。     The soul; sprung from the divine; lay self…enclosed at peace; true to its own quality; but its neighbour; in uproar through weakness; instable of its own nature and beaten upon from without; cries; at first to itself and afterwards upon the living total; spreading the disorder at large。 Thus; at an assembly the Elders may sit in tranquil meditation; but an unruly populace; crying for food and casting up a host of grievances; will bring the whole gathering into ugly turmoil; when this sort of people hold their peace so that a word from a man of sense may reach them; some passable order is restored and the baser part ceases to prevail; otherwise the silence of the better allows the rabble to rule; the distracted assembly unable to take the word from above。     This is the evil of state and of council: and this is the evil of man; man includes an inner rabble… pleasures; desires; fears… and these become masters when the man; the manifold; gives them play。     But one that has reduced his rabble and gone back to the Man he was; lives to that and is that Man again; so that what he allows to the body is allowed as to something separate。     There is the man; too; that lives partly in the one allegiance and partly in the other; he is a blend of the good that is himself with the evil that is alien。     16。 But if that Principle can never fall to evil and we have given a true account of the soul's entry or presence to body; what are we to say of the periodic Descents and Returns; the punishments; the banishment into animal forms? That teaching we have inherited from those ancient philosophers who have best probed into soul and we must try to show that our own doctrine is accordant with it; or at least not conflicting。     We have seen that the
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