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第178节

the six enneads-第178节

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nto the good; so that life in the contemplation of the divine things and especially of their source remains still imperfect; is a question not to be ignored in any enquiry into the nature of the good。     Now to found the good upon the Intellect and upon that state of soul or mind which springs from wisdom does not imply that the end or the absolute good is the conjunction 'of Intellect and state': it would follow merely that Intellect is the good and that we feel happy in possession of that good。 That is one theory; another associates pleasure with Intellect in the sense that the Good is taken to be some one thing founded upon both but depending upon our attaining or at least contemplating an Intellect so modified; this theory would maintain that the isolated and unrelated could be the good; could be an object of desire。     But how could Intellect and pleasure combine into one mutually complementary nature?     Bodily pleasure no one; certainly; would think capable of blending in with Intellect; the unreasoning satisfactions of soul 'or lower mind' are equally incompatible with it。     Every activity; state; and life; will be followed and as it were escorted by the over…dwelling consciousness; sometimes as these take their natural course they will be met by hindrance and by intrusion of the conflicting so that the life is the less self…guided; sometimes the natural activity is unmixed; wholly free; and then the life goes brilliantly; this last state is judged the pleasantest; the most to be chosen; so; for lack of an accurate expression; we hear of 〃Intellect in conjunction with pleasure。〃 But this is no more than metaphor; like a hundred others drawn by the poets from our natural likings… 〃Drunk with nectar;〃 〃To banquet and feast;〃 〃The Father smiled。〃 No: the veritably pleasant lies away in that other realm; the most to be loved and sought for; not something brought about and changing but the very principle of all the colour and radiance and brightness found here。 This is why we read of 〃Truth introduced into the Mixture〃 and of the 〃measuring standard as a prior condition〃 and are told that the symmetry and beauty necessary to the Mixture come Thence into whatever has beauty; it is in this way that we have our share in Beauty; but in another way; also; we achieve the truly desirable; that is by leading our selves up to what is best within us; this best is what is symmetry; beauty; collective Idea; life clear; Intellective and good。     31。 But since Thence come the beauty and light in all; it is Thence that Intellectual…Principle took the brilliance of the Intellectual Energy which flashed Nature into being; Thence soul took power towards life; in virtue of that fuller life streaming into it。 Intellectual…Principle was raised thus to that Supreme and remains with it; happy in that presence。 Soul too; that soul which as possessing knowledge and vision was capable; clung to what it saw; and as its vision so its rapture; it saw and was stricken; but having in itself something of that principle it felt its kinship and was moved to longing like those stirred by the image of the beloved to desire of the veritable presence。 Lovers here mould themselves to the beloved; they seek to increase their attraction of person and their likeness of mind; they are unwilling to fall short in moral quality or in other graces lest they be distasteful to those possessing such merit… and only among such can true love be。 In the same way the soul loves the Supreme Good; from its very beginnings stirred by it to love。 The soul which has never strayed from this love waits for no reminding from the beauty of our world: holding that love… perhaps unawares… it is ever in quest; and; in its longing to be borne Thither; passes over what is lovely here and with one glance at the beauty of the universe dismisses all; for it sees that all is put together of flesh and Matter; befouled by its housing; made fragmentary by corporal extension; not the Authentic Beauty which could never venture into the mud of body to be soiled; annulled。     By only noting the flux of things it knows at once that from elsewhere comes the beauty that floats upon them and so it is urged Thither; passionate in pursuit of what it loves: never… unless someone robs it of that love… never giving up till it attain。     There indeed all it saw was beautiful and veritable; it grew in strength by being thus filled with the life of the True; itself becoming veritable Being and attaining veritable knowledge; it enters by that neighbouring into conscious possession of what it has long been seeking。     32。 Where; then? where exists the author of this beauty and life; the begetter of the veritable?     You see the splendour over the things of the universe with all the variety begotten of the Ideas; well might we linger here: but amid all these things of beauty we cannot but ask whence they come and whence the beauty。 This source can be none of the beautiful objects; were it so; it too would be a thing of parts。 It can be no shape; no power; nor the total of powers and shapes that have had the becoming that has set them here; it must stand above all the powers; all the patterns。 The origin of all this must be the formless… formless not as lacking shape but as the very source of even shape Intellectual。     In the realm of process anything coming to be must come to be something; to every thing its distinctive shape: but what shape can that have which no one has shaped? It can be none of existing things; yet it is all: none; in that beings are later; all; as the wellspring from which they flow。 That which can make all can have; itself; no extension; it must be limitless and so without magnitude; magnitude itself is of the Later and cannot be an element in that which is to bring it into being。 The greatness of the Authentic cannot be a greatness of quantity; all extension must belong to the subsequent: the Supreme is great in the sense only that there can be nothing mightier; nothing to equal it; nothing with anything in common with it: how then could anything be equal to any part of its content? Its eternity and universal reach entail neither measure nor measurelessness; given either; how could it be the measure of things? So with shape: granted beauty; the absence of shape or form to be grasped is but enhancement of desire and love; the love will be limitless as the object is; an infinite love。     Its beauty; too; will be unique; a beauty above beauty: it cannot be beauty since it is not a thing among things。 It is lovable and the author of beauty; as the power to all beautiful shape; it will be the ultimate of beauty; that which brings all loveliness to be; it begets beauty and makes it yet more beautiful by the excess of beauty streaming from itself; the source and height of beauty。 As the source of beauty it makes beautiful whatsoever springs from it。 And this conferred beauty is not itself in shape; the thing that comes to be is without shape; though in another sense shaped; what is denoted by shape is; in itself; an attribute of something else; shapeless at first。 Not the beauty but its participant takes the shape。     33。 When therefore we name beauty; all such shape must be dismissed; nothing visible is to be conceived; or at once we descend from beauty to what but bears the name in virtue of some faint participation。 This formless Form is beautiful as Form; beautiful in proportion as we strip away all shape even that given in thought to mark difference; as for instance the difference between Justice and Sophrosyne; beautiful in their difference。     The Intellectual…Principle is the less for seeing things as distinct even in its act of grasping in unity the multiple content of its Intellectual realm; in its knowing of the particular it possesses itself of one Intellectual shape; but; even thus; in this dealing with variety as unity; it leaves us still with the question how we are to envisage that which stands beyond this all…lovely; beyond this principle at once multiple and above multiplicity; the Supreme for which the soul hungers though unable to tell why such a being should stir its longing…reason; however; urging that This at last is the Authentic Term because the Nature best and most to be loved may be found there only where there is no least touch of Form。 Bring something under Form and present it so before the mind; immediately we ask what Beyond imposed that shape; reason answers that while there exists the giver having shape to give… a giver that is shape; idea; an entirely measured thing… yet this is not alone; is not adequate in itself; is not beautiful in its own right but is a mingled thing。 Shape and idea and measure will always be beautiful; but the Authentic Beauty and the Beyond…Beauty cannot be under measure and therefore cannot have admitted shape or be Idea: the primal existent; The First; must be without Form; the beauty in it must be; simply; the Nature of the Intellectual Good。     Take an example from love: so long as the attention is upon the visible form; love has not entered: when from that outward form the lover elaborates within himself; in his own partless soul; an immaterial image; then it is that love is born; then the lover longs for the sight of the beloved to m

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