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gious of all nations, but not to abolish the ancient theology from which they were derived. He therefore adopted the doctrines which were received in Egypt concerning the universe and the Deity, considered as constituting one great whole; concerning the eternity of the world, the nature of souls, the empire of Providence, and the government of the world by dæmons. He also established a system of moral discipline, which allowed the people in general to live according to the laws of their country and the dictates of nature; but required the wise to exalt their minds by contemplation, and to mortify the body, so that they might be capable of enjoying the presence and assistance of the dæmons, and of ascending after death to the presence of the Supreme Parent. In order to reconcile the popular religions, and particularly the Christian, with this new system, he made the whole history of the heathen gods an allegory; maintaining that they were only celestial ministers, intitled to an inferior kind of worship. And he acknowledged that Jesus Christ was an excellent man, and a friend of God; but alleged that it was not his design entirely to abolish the worship of dæmons, and that his only intention was to purify the ancient religion. This system, so plausible in its first rise, but so comprehensive and complying in its progress, has been the source of innumerable errors and corruptions in the Christian church. At its first establishment it is said to have had the approbation of Athanagoras, Pantænus, and Clemens the Alexandrian, and of all who had the care of the public schools belonging to the Christians at Alexandria. It was afterwards adopted by Longinus, the celebrated author of the Treatise on the Sublime, Plotinus, Herennius, Origen, Porphyry, Sopater, Edisius, Eustathius, Maximus of Ephesus, Priscus, Chrysanthius, the master of Julian, Julian the Apostate, Hierocles, Proclus, and many others, both Pagans and Christians. The above opinions of Ammonius are collected and re-collected from the writings and disputations of his disciples, the modern Platonics; for he himself left nothing in writing behind him; indeed, he imposed a law upon his disciples not to divulge his doctrines among the multitude; which injunction, however, they made no scruple to violate.

PLOTINUS, a Platonic philosopher, born at Lycopolis, in Egypt, A. D. 204. He attended the most famous professors of philosophy, in Alexandria, but was not satisfied with their lectures. But, upon hearing Ammonius, he became so fond of his system, that he studied under him for eleven years. He then travelled for farther improvement into Persia and India, and followed the Roman army, in 243, when the emperor Gordian set out on his unfortunate expedition against the Persians; in which he lost his life, and our philosopher narrowly escaped sharing the same fate. In 244 he returned to Rome, where he VOL. II.

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read philosophical lectures, which were attended by the people of all ranks, patricians and plebeians, and rendered him very popular. Among other learned pupils the celebrated Porphyry attended him six years; and his reputation for integrity and virtue, as well as learning, became so great, that his arbitration was often applied for to decide or prevent law-suits; and many persons of property, when dying, left their tutorage and their estates to his care. The emperor Gallienus, and his empress Salonina, had so great an esteem for him, that they once intended to rebuild the city of Campania, and assign it over, with its territory, to Plotinus, to be colonized by a set of philosophers upon the plan of Plato's republic; but were dissuaded by some courtiers who envied his merit. But, with all his virtues and merits, Plotinus held some very absurd opinions. He not only entertained the utmost contempt for all terrestrial enjoyments, but despised matter so philosophically that he was ashamed that his soul was obliged to be lodged in a body, which he considered as a prison. From this principle he lived not only very temperately, but even abstemiously, and slept very little, and hence there is reason to believe his brain was in some degree affected; for though a Pagan to the end of his life, he pretended to many of those visions and illuminations by the Deity, which the superstitious devotees in all ages and religions have boasted of. In short, he boasted that he not only had a familiar dæmon or angel, like Socrates, but that he had even often been united to the Deity himself. Yet of this Deity he appears to have entertained some very confused notions. He wrote two books to prove, that "all being one and the same;" which is the very atheistical doctrine of Spinoza; and he inquires, in another tract, "Whether there are many souls or only one." Full of these romantic metaphysical ideas and uncertainties, he died, A. D. 570, aged 66, with these words; "I am labouring with all my might to return the divine part of me to that divine whole which fills the universe!" He left fifty-four treatises on various subjects; which his disciple, Porphyry, collected and arranged in Enneades, or volumes of nine tracts each, and published with his life. Marsilius Ficinus, at the desire of Cosmo de Medicis, translated this work into Latin, which was published at Basil in 1559, and reprinted along with the Greek in 1580, folio.

PORPHYRY, a famous Platonic philosopher, born at Tyre in 233, in the reign of Alexander Severus. He was the disciple of Longinus, and became the ornament of his school at Athens, from thence he went to Rome, and attended Plotinus, with whom he lived six years. After Plotinus's death he taught philosophy at Rome, with literature, geography, astronomy, and He lived till the end of this century, and died in the reign of Dioclesian. There are still extant his book on the

music.

Categories of Aristotle; a Treatise on Abstinence from flesh; and several other pieces in Greek. They were printed at Cambridge, in 1655, 8vo. with a Latin version. He also composed a large treatise against the Christian religion, which is lost. It was answered by Methodius, Eusebius, St. Jerome, &c. The emperor, Theodosius the Great, caused it to be burnt in 338. ORIGEN, a Platonic philosopher, and the disciple and friend of Porphyry, who studied philosophy under Ammonius; supposed to have been the founder of the Origenians.

CHALCIDIUS, a famous Platonic philosopher, who wrote a commentary on Plato's Timæus, which is much esteemed. This work has been translated from the Greek into Latin, printed at Leydon in 1617, 4to.

GENTILIUS AMELIUS, an eclectic philosopher, was a native of Tuscany, and the contemporary of Porphyry, and studied the principles of the Stoic philosophy under Lysimachus. He became afterwards acquainted with the writings of Numenius, and from him learned and adopted the dogmas of Plato, but at length in his progress became the disciple of Plotinus. For twenty-four years he associated with this master; and probably, never would have quitted him, if Plotinus, on account of his health, had not been obliged to go to Campania. Amelius then settled at Apamea, in Syria. It was a strong proof of the similarity of his talents and opinions to those of Plotinus, that he was employed by him to solve difficulties proposed by his disciples, and to refute the objections and calumnies of his enemies. He made large collections from the lectures and disputations of the schools. He then ventured to write his own thoughts. He was author of nearly an hundred treatises, none of which have descended to our times. One of them was a discussion on the difference between the doctrines of Numenius and Plotinus. Eusebius, Theodoret, and St. Cyril, quote a passage from Amelius, in which he brings the beginning of the Gospel of St. John, in confirmation of the doctrine of Plato on the divinity of nature. He had an adopted son, Justin Hesychius, to whom he left his writings. The time of his death is not known.

SOPATER, a philosopher of Apamea, who flourished under Constantine the Great. He was a disciple of Jamblicus, and

succeeded him as head of the Platonists.

NOETIUS, a philosopher of Ephesus, the founder of the sect of Noetians. He pretended that he was another Moses sent by God, and that his brother was another Aaron.

ADELPHUS, a philosopher, who mingled the doctrines of Plato with the tenets of the Gnostics. He was opposed by Plotinus.

POETRY.

AURELIUS OLYMPIUS NEMESIANUS, a Latin poet, who was born at Carthage, and flourished about A. D. 281, under the emperors Carus, Carinus, and Numerian; the last of whom was so fond of poetry, that he contested the glory with Nemesianus, who had written a poem upon fishing and maritime affairs. There are still extant, a poem of our author called Cynegeticon, and four eclogues; they were published by Paulus Manutius in 1538; by Barthelet, in 1613; at Leyden, in 1653, with the notes of James Vlitias. Giraldi has preserved a fragment of Nemesianus, which was communicated to him by Sannazarius, to whom we are obliged for our poet's works; for having found them in the Gothic characters he procured them to be put into the Roman, and sent them to Paulus Manutius. Although this poem has acquired some reputation, it is greatly inferior to those of Oppian and Gratian upon the same subject; yet Nemesianus's style is natural, and has some degree of elegance. His poem was so much esteemed in the eighth century, that it was read among the classics in the public school, particularly in the time of Charlemagne, as appears from a letter of the celebrated Hincmar, bishop of Rheims, to his nephew, Hincmar of Laon.

TITUS CALPURNIUS or CALPHURNIUS, a Roman poet, who flourished in the reigns of Carus, Carinus, and Numerianus. He was a native of Sicily, and wrote seven eclogues, addressed to Nemesianus, another Bucolic poet. They seem to have obtained considerable reputation formerly, and some have classed them next to the Eclogues of Virgil; but though not without some pleasing description of rural objects, they display the declining taste of the age by a want of purity in the style, and of nature in the sentiments.

CAIUS VECTIUS AQUILINUS JUVENCUS, one of the first of the Christian poets, was born of an illustrious family in Spain. He put the life of Christ into Latin verse, in four books; but his Latin is not pure.

SOTERICUS, a poet and historian, who flourished in the reign of Dioclesian. He wrote a panegyric on that emperor, and a life of Apollonius Tyranæus. His works were much esteemed, but are now lost, except a few fragments preserved by the scholiast of Lycophron.

LITERATURE.

DIONYSIUS LONGINUS, celebrated for his treatise on the subiime, is supposed by some to have been a native of

Athens, by others, of Syria. In his youth he travelled for improvement. He was known at Rome, Alexandria, and other cities distinguished for literature; and attended upon the lectures of all the eminent masters in eloquence and philosophy. Such was the extent of his erudition, that he was styled by his contemporaries, "The living library." He appears to have taught philosophy at Athens, where Porphyry was one of his disciples. He was invited to the court of Palmyra, by its illustrious queen, Zenobia, who took his instructions in the Greek language, and made use of his counsels on political occasions. This distinction was fatal to him, he was executed by order of the emperor Aurelian, who proved victorious over the troops of Zenobia, and took her prisoner. The queen, to save herself, imputed the resistance which she made to her counsellors, of whom Longinus was suspected to be the principal. The philosophy of Longinus supported him in the hour of his trial, and he submitted to his fate with resignation and cheerfulness. This event took place in the year 273. Gibbon observes, on this circumstance, that the fame of Longinus will survive that of the queen who betrayed, or the tyrant who condemned him. Genius and learning were incapable of moving a fierce unlettered soldier, but they had served to elevate aud harmonize the soul of Longinus. Without uttering a complaint, he calmly followed the executioner, pitying his unhappy mistress, and bestowing comfort on his afflicted friends. He was author of numerous writings. Dr. Pearce has collected the titles of twentyfive; but his Treatise on the Sublime, already referred to, is the only one remaining; and this, as is well known to scholars, is in a mutilated and imperfect state. The best editions of it are those of Hudson, Pearce, and Josep. It has been translated into the English; but it is one of those works which scarcely admits of a translation. Speaking of this treatise, Mr. Smith, the translator, says, "It is one of those valuable remnants of antiquity, of which enough remains to engage our admiration, and excite an earnest regret for every particle of it that has perished. It resembles those mutilated statues which are sometimes dug out of ruins; limbs are broken off, which it is not in the power of any living artist to replace, because the fine proportion, and delicate finishing of the trunk, excludes all hope of equalling such masterly performances."

ACHILLES TATIUS, a Greek writer of Alexandria, who is supposed to have lived in this century. Suidas says, that at the close of his life he became a convert to Christianity, and was made a bishop. He wrote a Treatise on the Sphere, or rather, a Commentary on Aratus, part of which only is extant; but his romance, entitled "The Loves of Clitophon and Leucippe," has been often printed.

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