Isis unveiled, Volume 1 (of 2), Science : $b A master-key to mysteries of ancient and modern science and theologyBlavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Religion
Isis unveiled, Volume 1 (of 2), Science : $b A master-key to mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology
Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Theosophy
Though some have considered Speusippus as inferior to Aristotle, the
world is nevertheless indebted to him for defining and expounding many
things that Plato had left obscure in his doctrine of the Sensible and
Ideal. His maxim was “The Immaterial is known by means of scientific
thought, the Material by scientific perception.”[15]
Xenocrates expounded many of the unwritten theories and teachings of
his master. He too held the Pythagorean doctrine, and his system of
numerals and mathematics in the highest estimation. Recognizing but
three degrees of knowledge—_Thought_, _Perception_, and _Envisagement_
(or knowledge by _Intuition_), he made the former busy itself with all {xix}
that which is _beyond_ the heavens; Perception with things in the
heavens; Intuition with the heavens themselves.
We find again these theories, and nearly in the same language in the
_Manava-Dharma-Sastra_, when speaking of the creation of man: “He (the
Supreme) drew from his own essence the immortal breath which _perisheth
not in the being_, and to this soul of the being he gave the Ahancara
(conscience of the _ego_) sovereign guide. Then he gave to that soul of
the being (man) the intellect formed of _the three qualities_, and the
five organs of the outward perception.”
These three qualities are Intelligence, Conscience, and Will; answering
to the Thought, Perception, and Envisagement of Xenocrates. The
relation of numbers to Ideas was developed by him further than by
Speusippus, and he surpassed Plato in his definition of the doctrine of
Invisible Magnitudes. Reducing them to their ideal primary elements, he
demonstrated that every figure and form originated out of the smallest
indivisible line. That Xenocrates held the same theories as Plato
in relation to the human soul (supposed to be a number) is evident,
though Aristotle contradicts this, like every other teaching of this
philosopher.[16] This is conclusive evidence that many of Plato’s
doctrines were delivered orally, even were it shown that Xenocrates
and not Plato was the first to originate the theory of indivisible
magnitudes. He derives the Soul from the first Duad, and calls it
a self-moved number.[17] Theophrastus remarks that he entered and
eliminated this Soul-theory more than any other Platonist. He built
upon it the cosmological doctrine, and proved the necessary existence
in every part of the universal space of a successive and progressive
series of animated and thinking though spiritual beings.[18] The
Human Soul with him is a compound of the most spiritual properties of
the Monad and the Duad, possessing the highest principles of both.
If, like Plato and Prodicus, he refers to the Elements as to Divine
Powers, and calls them gods, neither himself nor others connected
any anthropomorphic idea with the appellation. Krische remarks that
he called them gods only that these elementary powers should not be
confounded with the dæmons of the nether world[19] (the Elementary
Spirits).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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