友情提示:如果本网页打开太慢或显示不完整,请尝试鼠标右键“刷新”本网页!阅读过程发现任何错误请告诉我们,谢谢!! 报告错误
飞读中文网 返回本书目录 我的书架 我的书签 TXT全本下载 进入书吧 加入书签

the six enneads-第56章

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!



 none of the feebleness of division; and even its parts bring no incompleteness to it since here the individual is not severed from the entire。 In this Nature inheres all life and all intellect; a life living and having intellection as one act within a unity: every part that it gives forth is a whole; all its content is its very own; for there is here no separation of thing from thing; no part standing in isolated existence estranged from the rest; and therefore nowhere is there any wronging of any other; any opposition。 Everywhere one and complete; it is at rest throughout and shows difference at no point; it does not make over any of its content into any new form; there can be no reason for changing what is everywhere perfect。     Why should Reason elaborate yet another Reason; or Intelligence another Intelligence? An indwelling power of making things is in the character of a being not at all points as it should be but making; moving; by reason of some failure in quality。 Those whose nature is all blessedness have no more to do than to repose in themselves and be their being。     A widespread activity is dangerous to those who must go out from themselves to act。 But such is the blessedness of this Being that in its very non…action it magnificently operates and in its self…dwelling it produces mightily。     2。 By derivation from that Authentic Kosmos; one within itself; there subsists this lower kosmos; no longer a true unity。     It is multiple; divided into various elements; thing standing apart from thing in a new estrangement。 No longer is there concord unbroken; hostility; too; has entered as the result of difference and distance; imperfection has inevitably introduced discord; for a part is not self…sufficient; it must pursue something outside itself for its fulfillment; and so it becomes the enemy to what it needs。     This Kosmos of parts has come into being not as the result of a judgement establishing its desirability; but by the sheer necessity of a secondary Kind。     The Intellectual Realm was not of a nature to be the ultimate of existents。 It was the First and it held great power; all there is of power; this means that it is productive without seeking to produce; for if effort and search were incumbent upon it; the Act would not be its own; would not spring from its essential nature; it would be; like a craftsman; producing by a power not inherent but acquired; mastered by dint of study。     The Intellectual Principle; then; in its unperturbed serenity has brought the universe into being; by communicating from its own store to Matter: and this gift is the Reason…Form flowing from it。 For the Emanation of the Intellectual Principle is Reason; an emanation unfailing as long as the Intellectual Principle continues to have place among beings。     The Reason…Principle within a seed contains all the parts and qualities concentrated in identity; there is no distinction; no jarring; no internal hindering; then there comes a pushing out into bulk; part rises in distinction with part; and at once the members of the organism stand in each other's way and begin to wear each other down。     So from this; the One Intellectual Principle; and the Reason…Form emanating from it; our Universe rises and develops part; and inevitably are formed groups concordant and helpful in contrast with groups discordant and combative; sometimes of choice and sometimes incidentally; the parts maltreat each other; engendering proceeds by destruction。     Yet: Amid all that they effect and accept; the divine Realm imposes the one harmonious act; each utters its own voice; but all is brought into accord; into an ordered system; for the universal purpose; by the ruling Reason…Principle。 This Universe is not Intelligence and Reason; like the Supernal; but participant in Intelligence and Reason: it stands in need of the harmonizing because it is the meeting ground of Necessity and divine Reason…Necessity pulling towards the lower; towards the unreason which is its own characteristic; while yet the Intellectual Principle remains sovereign over it。     The Intellectual Sphere 'the Divine' alone is Reason; and there can never be another Sphere that is Reason and nothing else; so that; given some other system; it cannot be as noble as that first; it cannot be Reason: yet since such a system cannot be merely Matter; which is the utterly unordered; it must be a mixed thing。 Its two extremes are Matter and the Divine Reason; its governing principle is Soul; presiding over the conjunction of the two; and to be thought of not as labouring in the task but as administering serenely by little more than an act of presence。     3。 Nor would it be sound to condemn this Kosmos as less than beautiful; as less than the noblest possible in the corporeal; and neither can any charge be laid against its source。     The world; we must reflect; is a product of Necessity; not of deliberate purpose: it is due to a higher Kind engendering in its own likeness by a natural process。 And none the less; a second consideration; if a considered plan brought it into being it would still be no disgrace to its maker… for it stands a stately whole; complete within itself; serving at once its own purpose and that of all its parts which; leading and lesser alike; are of such a nature as to further the interests of the total。 It is; therefore; impossible to condemn the whole on the merits of the parts which; besides; must be judged only as they enter harmoniously or not into the whole; the main consideration; quite overpassing the members which thus cease to have importance。 To linger about the parts is to condemn not the Kosmos but some isolated appendage of it; in the entire living Being we fasten our eyes on a hair or a toe neglecting the marvellous spectacle of the complete Man; we ignore all the tribes and kinds of animals except for the meanest; we pass over an entire race; humanity; and bring forward… Thersites。     No: this thing that has come into Being is the Kosmos complete: do but survey it; and surely this is the pleading you will hear:

    I am made by a God: from that God I came perfect above all forms of life; adequate to my function; self…sufficing; lacking nothing: for I am the container of all; that is; of every plant and every animal; of all the Kinds of created things; and many Gods and nations of Spirit…Beings and lofty souls and men happy in their goodness。     And do not think that; while earth is ornate with all its growths and with living things of every race; and while the very sea has answered to the power of Soul; do not think that the great air and the ether and the far…spread heavens remain void of it: there it is that all good Souls dwell; infusing life into the stars and into that orderly eternal circuit of the heavens which in its conscious movement ever about the one Centre; seeking nothing beyond; is a faithful copy of the divine Mind。 And all that is within me strives towards the Good; and each; to the measure of its faculty; attains。 For from that Good all the heavens depend; with all my own Soul and the Gods that dwell in my every part; and all that lives and grows; and even all in me that you may judge inanimate。

    But there are degrees of partici
返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 0
未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
温馨提示: 温看小说的同时发表评论,说出自己的看法和其它小伙伴们分享也不错哦!发表书评还可以获得积分和经验奖励,认真写原创书评 被采纳为精评可以获得大量金币、积分和经验奖励哦!