=The Alexandrian School. The Scientific Theory of Neo-Platonism. The Life and Writings of Plotinus= (204–269 A. D.). Plotinus was born in Lycopolis in Egypt, and received his education in Alexandria, under Ammonius Saccas, who was Origen’s teacher. He campaigned with the emperor, Gordian, against the Persians, in order to pursue scientific studies in the East. He was especially interested in the Persian religion. In this way Plotinus became acquainted at first hand with the mysticism of the Orient. In 244 he appeared at Rome as a teacher, and was received with great éclat by the people, and in the highest circles he gained the most reverent recognition. His school contained representatives from all nations and from almost every calling,――physicians, rhetoricians, poets, senators, an emperor and empress. Plotinus lived in a country estate in Campania, and he almost succeeded in inducing the emperor to found a city of philosophers in Campania. It was to be called Platonopolis and, with Plato’s Republic as a model, it was to be an Hellenic cloister for religious contemplation. The literary activity of Plotinus occurred in his old age, and he wrote nothing until after he was fifty. His works consisted of fifty-four _Corpuscles_ which his pupil, Porphyry, combined into six _Enneads_. For the next three hundred years his school became the centre of the Hellenic movement――the centre of science, philosophy, and literature. The literature of neo-Platonism was enormous, on account of the many commentaries on the philosophy of Plato within the neo-Platonic circle.