[4] Such a man as this, is arranged by Plotinus in the class of _divine men_, in the following extract from my translation of his treatise on Intellect, Ideas, and Real Being, Ennead V. 9. The extract, which is uncommonly beautiful in the original, forms the beginning of the treatise. “Since all men, from their birth, employ sense prior to intellect, and are necessarily first conversant with sensibles, some, proceeding no farther, pass through life, considering these as the first and last of things, and apprehending, that whatever is painful among these, is evil, and whatever is pleasant, is good; thus, thinking it sufficient to pursue the one and avoid the other. Those, too, among them, who pretend to a greater share of reason than others, esteem this to be wisdom; being affected in a manner similar to more heavy birds, who, collecting many things from the earth, and being oppressed with the weight, are unable to fly on high, though they have received wings for this purpose from nature. But others are in a small degree elevated from things subordinate, the more excellent part of the soul recalling them from pleasure to a more worthy pursuit. As they are, however, unable to look on high, and as not possessing any thing else which can afford them rest, they betake themselves, together with the name of virtue, to actions and the election of things inferior, from which they at first endeavoured to raise themselves, though in vain. _In the third class is the race of divine men_, who through a more excellent power, and with piercing eyes, acutely perceive supernal light, to the vision of which they raise themselves, above the clouds and darkness, as it were, of this lower world, and there abiding, despise every thing in these regions of sense; being no otherwise delighted with the place which is truly and properly their own, than he who, after many wanderings, is at length restored to his lawful country.” [5] Page 23. [6] The translator of this work, and of the other treatises contained in this volume, having been so circumstanced, that he has been obliged to mingle the active with the contemplative life (μετα θεωρητικου νου πολιτευομενος) in acquiring for himself a knowledge of the philosophy of Plato, and disseminating that philosophy for the good of others, has also found it expedient to make use of a fleshy diet. Nothing, however, but an imperious necessity, from causes which it would be superfluous to detail at present, could have induced him to adopt animal, instead of vegetable nutriment. But though he has been nurtured in Eleatic and Academic studies, yet it has not been in Academic bowers. [7] Page 19. [8] Ennead I. 2. [9] Ennead III. 6. [10] Ennead VI. lib. 4, 5. [11] For even with respect to the treatise On Abstinence from Animal Food, there is every reason to believe that something is wanting at the end of it.