Select works of Plotinus ... and extracts from the treatise of Synesius on providence / Translated from the Greek. With an introduction containing the substance of Porphyry's Life of Plotinus. By Thomas Taylor.

  • Plotinus
Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Select works of Plotinus ... and extracts from the treatise of Synesius on providence / Translated from the Greek. With an introduction containing the substance of Porphyry's Life of Plotinus. By Thomas Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    627/700 (page 533)
    principle of a beneficent motion in the republics of mankind, after the example of the framers of ma¬ chines* But this happens when they harmonize a kingdom, and send hither for this purpose souls allied to themselves. For this providence is divine and most ample, which frequently through one man pays attention to a countless multitude of men. These, therefore, in providentially inspecting hu¬ man affairs must also necessarily at the same time be attentive to their own. It is requisite, however, that you who are engaged in foreign concerns, should remember whence you are derived, and that you engage in this superintendance of the affairs of others, as in a certain servitude to the world. But you should endeavour to elevate yourself, and not to draw down the Gods. You should likewise pay every possible attention to yourself, as if living in a camp among foreigners, and as a divine soul among [evil] dasmons, whom it is reasonable to suppose, as they are earth-begotten, will be hostile to and indignant with any one who within their boundaries observes laws that belong to another tribe of beings. You must be satisfied, therefore, in being vigilant both by night and by day, and in making this the only object of your care, that you