[Footnote 116: There is a very explicit identification of Christ with [Greek: Nous] in the second book of the _Miscellanies_: "He says, Whoso hath ears to hear, let him hear. And who is 'He'? Let Epicharmus answer: [Greek: Nous hora]," etc.] [Footnote 117: See Bigg, _Christian Platonists of Alexandria_, especially pp. 92, 93.] [Footnote 118: [Greek: Pistis] is here used in the familiar sense (which falls far short of the Johannine) of assent to particular dogmas. [Greek: Gnôsis] welds these together into a consistent whole, and at the same time confers a more immediate apprehension of truth.] [Footnote 119: [Greek: askêsis] or [Greek: praxis].] [Footnote 120: _Strom_, v. 10. 63.] [Footnote 121: See, further, Appendices B and C.] [Footnote 122: In Origen, [Greek: sophia] is a higher term than [Greek: gnôsis].] [Footnote 123: The Greek word is [Greek: ainigmata] "riddles." On the whole subject see Harnack, _History of Dogma_, vol. ii. p. 342.] [Footnote 124: God, he says (_Tom. in Matth_. xiii. 569), is not the absolutely unlimited; for then He could not have self-consciousness: His omnipotence is limited by His goodness and wisdom (cf. _Cels_. iii. 493).] [Footnote 125: I hope it is not necessary to apologise for devoting a few pages to Plotinus in a work on Christian Mysticism. Every treatise on religious thought in the early centuries of our era must take account of the parallel developments of religious philosophy in the old and the new religions, which illustrate and explain each other.] [Footnote 126: _Enn_. i. 8. 14, [Greek: ouden estin ho amoiron esti psychês].] [Footnote 127: _Enn_. iii. 2. 7; iv. 7. 14.] [Footnote 128: _Enn_. iv. 4. 26.] [Footnote 129: _Enn_. iv. 1. 1.] [Footnote 130: Matter is [Greek: alogos, skia logou kai ekptôsis] _Enn_. vi. 3. 7; [Greek: eidôlon kai phantasma ogkou kai hopostaseôs ephesis] _Enn_. iii. 6. 7. If matter were _nothing_, it could not desire to be something; it is only no-thing--[Greek: apeiria, aoristia].] [Footnote 131: These three stages correspond to the three stages in the mystical ladder which appear in nearly all the Christian mystics.] [Footnote 132: The passages in which Plotinus (following Plato) bids us mount by means of the beauty of the external world, do not contradict those other passages in which he bids us "turn from things without to look within" (_Enn_. iv. 8. 1). Remembering that postulate of all Mysticism, that we only know a thing by _becoming_ it, we see that we can only know the world by finding it in ourselves, that is, by cherishing those "best hours of the mind" (as Bacon says) when we are lifted above ourselves into union with the world-spirit.] [Footnote 133: Plotinus guards against this misconception of his meaning, _Enn_. v. 1. 6, [Greek: ekpodôn de êmin estô genesis hê en chronô].] [Footnote 134: [Greek: zôê exelittomenê], _Enn_. i. 4. 1.] [Footnote 135: See especially _Enn_. iv. 4. 32, 45.]