第 128 节
作者:
卖吻 更新:2021-08-28 17:09 字数:9322
ple is self…sprung; we need look no further: but if we are referred to the Intellectual…Principle we must make clear whether the Intellectual…Principle engendered the wisdom: if we learn that it did; we ask whence: if from itself; then inevitably; it is itself Wisdom。 The true Wisdom; then 'found to be identical with the Intellectual…Principle' is Real Being; and Real Being is Wisdom; it is wisdom that gives value to Real Being; and Being is Real in virtue of its origin in wisdom。 It follows that all forms of existence not possessing wisdom are; indeed; Beings in right of the wisdom which went to their forming but; as not in themselves possessing it; are not Real Beings。 We cannot therefore think that the divine Beings of that sphere; or the other supremely blessed There; need look to our apparatus of science: all of that realm; all is noble image; such images as we may conceive to lie within the soul of the wise… but There not as inscription but as authentic existence。 The ancients had this in mind when they declared the Ideas to be Beings; Essentials。 6。 Similarly; as it seems to me; the wise of Egypt… whether in precise knowledge or by a prompting of nature… indicated the truth where; in their effort towards philosophical statement; they left aside the writing…forms that take in the detail of words and sentences… those characters that represent sounds and convey the propositions of reasoning… and drew pictures instead; engraving in the temple… inscriptions a separate image for every separate item: thus they exhibited the mode in which the Supreme goes forth。 For each manifestation of knowledge and wisdom is a distinct image; an object in itself; an immediate unity; not as aggregate of discursive reasoning and detailed willing。 Later from this wisdom in unity there appears; in another form of being; an image; already less compact; which announces the original in an outward stage and seeks the causes by which things are such that the wonder rises how a generated world can be so excellent。 For; one who knows must declare his wonder that this Wisdom; while not itself containing the causes by which Being exists and takes such excellence; yet imparts them to the entities produced in Being's realm。 This excellence whose necessity is scarcely or not at all manifest to search; exists; if we could but find it out; before all searching and reasoning。 What I say may be considered in one chief thing; and thence applied to all the particular entities: 7。 Consider the universe: we are agreed that its existence and its nature come to it from beyond itself; are we; now; to imagine that its maker first thought it out in detail… the earth; and its necessary situation in the middle; water and; again; its position as lying upon the earth; all the other elements and objects up to the sky in due place and order; living beings with their appropriate forms as we know them; their inner organs and their outer limbs… and that having thus appointed every item beforehand; he then set about the execution? Such designing was not even possible; how could the plan for a universe come to one that had never looked outward? Nor could he work on material gathered from elsewhere as our craftsmen do; using hands and tools; feet and hands are of the later order。 One way; only; remains: all things must exist in something else; of that prior… since there is no obstacle; all being continuous within the realm of reality… there has suddenly appeared a sign; an image; whether given forth directly or through the ministry of soul or of some phase of soul; matters nothing for the moment: thus the entire aggregate of existence springs from the divine world; in greater beauty There because There unmingled but mingled here。 From the beginning to end all is gripped by the Forms of the Intellectual Realm: Matter itself is held by the Ideas of the elements and to these Ideas are added other Ideas and others again; so that it is hard to work down to crude Matter beneath all that sheathing of Idea。 Indeed since Matter itself is in its degree; an Idea… the lowest… all this universe is Idea and there is nothing that is not Idea as the archetype was。 And all is made silently; since nothing had part in the making but Being and Idea further reason why creation went without toil。 The Exemplar was the Idea of an All; and so an All must come into being。 Thus nothing stood in the way of the Idea; and even now it dominates; despite all the clash of things: the creation is not hindered on its way even now; it stands firm in virtue of being All。 To me; moreover; it seems that if we ourselves were archetypes; Ideas; veritable Being; and the Idea with which we construct here were our veritable Essence; then our creative power too would toillessly effect its purpose: as man now stands; he does not produce in his work a true image of himself: become man; he has ceased to be the All: ceasing to be man… we read… 〃he soars aloft and administers the Kosmos entire〃; restored to the All he is maker of the All。 But… to our immediate purpose… it is possible to give a reason why the earth is set in the midst and why it is round and why the ecliptic runs precisely as it does; but; looking to the creating principle; we cannot say that because this was the way therefore things were so planned: we can say only that because the All is what it is; therefore there is a total of good; the causing principle; we might put it; reached the conclusion before all formal reasoning and not from any premises; not by sequence or plan but before either; since all of that order is later; all reason; demonstration; persuasion。 Since there is a Source; all the created must spring from it and in accordance with it; and we are rightly told not to go seeking the causes impelling a Source to produce; especially when this is the perfectly sufficient Source and identical with the Term: a Source which is Source and Term must be the All…Unity; complete in itself。 8。 This then is Beauty primally: it is entire and omnipresent as an entirety; and therefore in none of its parts or members lacking in beauty; beautiful thus beyond denial。 Certainly it cannot be anything 'be; for example; Beauty' without being wholly that thing; it can be nothing which it is to possess partially or in which it utterly fails 'and therefore it must entirely be Beauty entire'。 If this principle were not beautiful; what other could be? Its prior does not deign to be beautiful; that which is the first to manifest itself… Form and object of vision to the intellect… cannot but be lovely to see。 It is to indicate this that Plato; drawing on something well within our observation; represents the Creator as approving the work he has achieved: the intention is to make us feel the lovable beauty of the autotype and of the Divine Idea; for to admire a representation is to admire the original upon which it was made。 It is not surprising if we fail to recognise what is passing within us: lovers; and those in general that admire beauty here; do not stay to reflect that it is to be traced; as of course it must be; to the Beauty There。 That the admiration of the Demiurge is to be referred to the Ideal Exemplar is deliberately made evident by the rest of the passage: 〃He admired; and determined to bring the work into still closer likeness with the Exemplar〃: he makes us feel the magnificent beauty of the Exemplar by telling us that the Beauty sprung from this world is; itself; a copy from That。 And indeed if the divine did not exist; the transcendently beautiful; in a beauty beyond all thought; what could be lovelier than the things we see? Certainly no reproach can rightly be brought against this world save only that it is not That。 9。 Let us; then; make a mental picture of our universe: each member shall remain what it is; distinctly apart; yet all is to form; as far as possible; a complete unity so that whatever comes into view shall show as if it were the surface of the orb over all; bringing immediately with it the vision; on the one plane; of the sun and of all the stars with earth and sea and all living things as if exhibited upon a transparent globe。 Bring this vision actually before your sight; so that there shall be in your mind the gleaming representation of a sphere; a picture holding sprung; themselves; of that universe and repose or some at rest; some in motion。 Keep this sphere before you; and from it imagine another; a sphere stripped of magnitude and of spatial differences; cast out your inborn sense of Matter; taking care not merely to attenuate it: call on God; maker of the sphere whose image you now hold; and pray Him to enter。 And may He come bringing His own Universe with all the Gods that dwell in it… He who is the one God and all the gods; where each is all; blending into a unity; distinct in powers but all one god in virtue of that one divine power of many facets。 More truly; this is the one God who is all the gods; for; in the coming to be of all those; this; the one; has suffered no diminishing。 He and all have one existence while each again is distinct。 It is distinction by state without interval: there is no outward form to set one here and another there and to prevent any from bei