Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 4: In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four Periods — John Shaqi
Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 4: In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four PeriodsPlotinus
Philosophy
Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 4: In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four Periods
Plotinus
Plotinus
Besides, if this world contain both bad and good people, and if the
latter play the greater part in the world, there will take place
that which is seen in dramas where the poet, at times, imposes his
ideas on the actors, and again at others relies on their ingenuity.
The obtaining of the first, second or third rank by an actor does
not depend on the poet. The poet only assigns to each the part he is
capable of filling, and assigns to him a suitable place. Likewise (in
the world), each one occupies his assigned place, and the bad man, as
well as the good one, has the place that suits him. Each one, according
to his nature and character, comes to occupy the place that suits him,
and that he had chosen, and then speaks and acts with piety if he be
good, and impiously, if he be evil. Before the beginning of the drama,
the actors already had their proper characters; they only developed
it. In dramas composed by men, it is the poet who assigns their parts
to the actors; and the latter are responsible only for the efficiency
or inefficiency of their acting; for they have nothing to do but
repeat the words of the poet. But in this drama (of life), of which
men imitate certain parts when their nature is poetic, it is the soul
that is the actor. This actor receives his part from the creator, as
stage-actors receive from the poet their masks, garments, their purple
robe, or their rags. Thus in the drama of the world it is not from
chance that the soul receives her part.
LIKE GOOD AND BAD ACTORS, SOULS ARE PUNISHED AND REWARDED BY THE
MANAGER.
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