Select Works of Porphyry (On Abstinence, Cave of the Nymphs, Auxiliaries)

INTRODUCTION.

^a In Life of Plotinus.

"Hence," he says^a, "I formed an intention of destroying myself, which Plotinus remarkably perceived. As I was walking home, he stood before me and said, 'Your present design, O Porphyry, is not the dictate of a sound intellect, but rather of a soul raging with a melancholy fury' The term "atrabilarious" refers to the theory of black bile, believed to cause depression or madness.. In consequence of this, he ordered me to depart from Rome; accordingly, I went to Sicily, having heard that a certain worthy and elegant man lived at that time near Lilybaeum. And thus, indeed, I was liberated from this perturbation of soul, but was, in the meantime, hindered from being with Plotinus until his death."

Porphyry also holds a very distinguished rank among those great geniuses who contributed to the development of the genuine dogmas of Plato after they had been lost for upwards of five hundred years, as I have shown in my aforementioned History of the Restoration of the Platonic Theology. Among these dogmas, that which is transcendently important is this: that the ineffable principle of things, which is called by Plato the good and the one, is something superior to intellect and to being itself. This, as we are informed by Proclus, was demonstrated by Porphyry through many powerful and beautiful arguments in his treatise Concerning Principles, which is unfortunately lost.