The Soul "makes them living beings not by merging into body but by giving forth, without any change in itself, images or likenesses of itself like one face caught by many mirrors"
— Plotinus (c. 205-270)
Author
Work Title
Date
250
Metaphor
The Soul "makes them living beings not by merging into body but by giving forth, without any change in itself, images or likenesses of itself like one face caught by many mirrors"
Metaphor in Context
And how do we possess the Divinity? In that the Divinity is contained in the Intellectual-Principle and Authentic-Existence; and We come third in order after these two, for the We is constituted by a union of the supreme, the undivided Soul- we read- and that Soul which is divided among [living] bodies. For, note, we inevitably think of the Soul, though one undivided in the All, as being present to bodies in division: in so far as any bodies are Animates, the Soul has given itself to each of the separate material masses; or rather it appears to be present in the bodies by the fact that it shines into them: it makes them living beings not by merging into body but by giving forth, without any change in itself, images or likenesses of itself like one face caught by many mirrors.
(1.1.8)
(1.1.8)
Categories
Provenance
Searching the internet. Contributed by PNH.
Citation
See text at The Internet Classics Archive, trans. by Stephen Mackenna, & B.S. <Link to classics.mit.edu>
Date of Entry
10/09/2006
