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第76节

the six enneads-第76节

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ll…Soul would always remain above; since essentially it has nothing to do with descent or with the lower; or with any tendency towards this sphere: the other souls would become ours 'become 〃partial;〃 individual in us' because their lot is cast for this sphere; and because they are solicited by a thing 'the body' which invites their care。     The one… the lowest soul in the to the All…Soul… would correspond to that in some great growth; silently; unlaboriously conducting the whole; our own lowest soul might be compared to the insect life in some rotted part of the growth… for this is the ratio of the animated body to the universe… while the other soul in us; of one ideal nature with the higher parts of the All…Soul; may be imaged as the gardener concerned about the insects lodged in the tree and anxiously working to amend what is wrong; or we may contrast a healthy man living with the healthy and; by his thought or by his act; lending himself to the service of those about him; with; on the other side; a sick man intent upon his own care and cure; and so living for the body; body…bound。     5。 But what place is left for the particular souls; yours and mine and another's?     May we suppose the Soul to be appropriated on the lower ranges to some individual; but to belong on the higher to that other sphere?     At this there would be a Socrates as long as Socrates' soul remained in body; but Socrates ceases to exist; precisely on attainment of the highest。     Now nothing of Real Being is ever annulled。     In the Supreme; the Intellectual…Principles are not annulled; for in their differentiation there is no bodily partition; no passing of each separate phase into a distinct unity; every such phase remains in full possession of that identical being。 It is exactly so with the souls。     By their succession they are linked to the several Intellectual…Principles; for they are the expression; the Logos; of the Intellectual…Principles; of which they are the unfolding; brevity has opened out to multiplicity; by that point of their being which least belongs to the partial order; they are attached each to its own Intellectual original: they have already chosen the way of division; but to the extreme they cannot go; thus they keep; at once; identification and difference; each soul is permanently a unity 'a self' and yet all are; in their total; one being。     Thus the gist of the matter is established: one soul the source of all; those others; as a many founded in that one; are; on the analogy of the Intellectual…Principle; at once divided and undivided; that Soul which abides in the Supreme is the one expression or Logos of the Intellectual…Principle; and from it spring other Reason…Principles; partial but immaterial; exactly as in the differentiation of the Supreme。     6。 But how comes it that while the All…Soul has produced a kosmos; the soul of the particular has not; though it is of the one ideal Kind and contains; it too; all things in itself?     We have indicated that a thing may enter and dwell at the same time in various places; this ought to be explained; and the enquiry would show how an identity resident simultaneously here and there may; in its separate appearances; act or react… or both… after distinct modes; but the matter deserves to be examined in a special discussion。     To return; then: how and why has the All…Soul produced a kosmos; while the particular souls simply administer some one part of it?     In the first place; we are not surprised when men of identical knowledge differ greatly in effective power。     But the reason; we will be asked。     The answer might be that there is an even greater difference among these souls; the one never having fallen away from the All…Soul; but dwelling within it and assuming body therein; while the others received their allotted spheres when the body was already in existence; when their sister soul was already in rule and; as it were; had already prepared habitations for them。 Again; the reason may be that the one 'the creative All…Soul' looks towards the universal Intellectual…Principle 'the exemplar of all that can be'; while the others are more occupied with the Intellectual within themselves; that which is already of the sphere of part; perhaps; too; these also could have created; but that they were anticipated by that originator… the work accomplished before them… an impediment inevitable whichsoever of the souls were first to operate。     But it is safer to account for the creative act by nearer connection with the over…world; the souls whose tendency is exercised within the Supreme have the greater power; immune in that pure seat they create securely; for the greater power takes the least hurt from the material within which it operates; and this power remains enduringly attached to the over…world: it creates; therefore; self gathered and the created things gather round it; the other souls; on the contrary; themselves go forth; that can mean only that they have deserted towards the abyss; a main phase in them is drawn downward and pulls them with it in the desire towards the lower。     The 〃secondary and tertiary souls;〃 of which we hear; must be understood in the sense of closer or remoter position: it is much as in ourselves the relation to the Supreme is not identical from soul to soul; some of us are capable of becoming Uniate; others of striving and almost attaining; while a third rank is much less apt; it is a matter of the degree or powers of the soul by which our expression is determined… the first degree dominant in the one person; the second; the third 'the merely animal life' in others while; still; all of us contain all the powers。     7。 So far; so good: but what of the passage in the Philebus taken to imply that the other souls are parts of the All…Soul?     The statement there made does not bear the meaning read into it; it expresses only; what the author was then concerned with; that the heavens are ensouled… a teaching which he maintains in the observation that it is preposterous to make the heavens soulless when we; who contain a part of the body of the All; have a soul; how; he asks; could there be soul in the part and none in the total。     He makes his teaching quite clear in the Timaeus; where he shows us the other souls brought into existence after the All…Soul; but compounded from the same mixing bowl〃; secondary and tertiary are duly marked off from the primal but every form of soul is presented as being of identical ideal…nature with the All…Soul。     As for saying of the Phaedrus。 〃All that is soul cares for all that is soulless;〃 this simply tells us that the corporeal kind cannot be controlled… fashioned; set in place or brought into being… by anything but the Soul。 And we cannot think that there is one soul whose nature includes this power and another without it。 〃The perfect soul; that of the All;〃 we read; 〃going its lofty journey; operates upon the kosmos not by sinking into it; but; as it were; by brooding over it〃; and 〃every perfect soul exercises this governance〃; he distinguishes the other; the soul in this sphere as 〃the soul when its wing is broken。〃     As for our souls being entrained in the kosmic circuit; and taking character and condition thence; this is no indication that they are parts: soul…nature may very well take some tincture from even the qualities of place; from water and from air; residence in this city or in that; and the varying make…up of the body may have their influence 'upon our human souls which; yet; are no parts of place or of body'。     We have always admitted that as members of the universe we take over something from the All…Soul; we do not deny the influence of the Kosmic Circuit; but against all this we oppose another soul in us 'the Intellectual as distinguished from the merely vitalizing' proven to be distinct by that power of opposition。     As for our being begotten children of the kosmos; we answer that in motherhood the entrant soul is distinct; is not the mother's。     8。 These considerations; amounting to the settlement of the question; are not countered by the phenomenon of sympathy; the response between soul and soul is due to the mere fact that all spring from that self…same soul 'the next to Divine Mind' from which springs the Soul of the All。     We have already stated that the one soul is also multiple; and we have dealt with the different forms of relationship between part and whole: we have investigated the different degrees existing within soul; we may now add; briefly; that differences might be induced; also; by the bodies with which the soul has to do; and; even more; by the character and mental operations carried over from the conduct of the previous lives。 〃The life…choice made by a soul has a correspondence〃… we read… 〃with its former lives。〃     As regards the nature of soul in general; the differences have been defined in the passage in which we mentioned the secondary and tertiary orders and laid down that; while all souls are all…comprehensive; each ranks according to its operative phase… one becoming Uniate in the achieved fact; another in knowledge; another in desire; according to the distinct orientation by which each is; or tends to become; what it looks upon。 The very fulfillment and p

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