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

INTRODUCTION.

Regarding the works of Porphyry translated in this volume, the first, On Abstinence from Animal Food, is a treatise not only filled with great learning but is remarkable for the purity of life it inculcates and the sanctity of conception with which it abounds. At the same time, it must be remembered that it was written solely—as Porphyry himself informs us—for the man who wishes in this present life to liberate himself as much as possible from the fetters of corporeal nature, so that he may elevate his intellectual eye to the contemplation of truly-existing being original: "τo οντως ον" and may establish himself in the deity as in his paternal port^d.

^d Such a man is arranged by Plotinus in the class of divine men, in the following extract from my translation of his treatise on Intellect, Ideas, and Real Being, Ennead V. 9. The extract, which is uncommonly beautiful in the original, forms the beginning of the treatise: "Since all men, from their birth, employ sense prior to intellect, and are necessarily first conversant with sensible things, some, proceeding no farther, pass through life considering these as the first and last of things, and apprehending that whatever is painful among these is evil, and whatever is pleasant is good; thus thinking it sufficient to pursue the one and avoid the other. Those, too, among them, who pretend to a greater share of reason than others, esteem this to be wisdom; being affected in a manner similar to heavier birds who, collecting many things from the earth and being oppressed with the weight, are unable to fly on high..."