[458] This is a post-Platonic summary of Plato’s conception; into the inner development, and consequently varying expressions, of it in Plato’s own writings it is not necessary to enter here. It is more important in relation to the history of later Greek thought to know what he was supposed to mean than what he meant. The above is taken from the summary of Aetius in Plut. _de plac. philos._ 1. 7, Euseb. _Præp. evang._ 14. 16 (Diels, _Doxographi Græci_, p. 304). The briefest and most expressive statement of the transcendence of God (τὸ ἀγαθόν) in Plato’s own writings is probably _Republic_, p. 509, οὐκ οὐσίας ὄντος τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ, ἀλλ’ ἔτι ἐπέκεινα τῆς οὐσίας πρεσβείᾳ καὶ δυνάμει ὑπερέχοντος. [459] It was a struggle between this and Stoicism. [460] Plutarch, _de Ei ap. Delph._ 18; cf. Ocellus Lucanus in the Augustan Age, ap. Diels, 187, Mullach, i. p. 383 sq. The universe has no beginning and no end: it always was and always will be (1. 1. p. 388). It comprises, however, τὸ ποιοῦν and τὸ πάσχον, the former above the moon, the latter below, so that the course of the moon marks the limit between the changing and changeless, the ἀεὶ θέοντος θείου and the ἀεὶ μεταβάλλοντος γενητοῦ (2. 1, p. 394, 2. 23, p. 400). [461] Max. Tyr. _Diss._ 8. 9. [462] Max. Tyr. 17. 9. [463] Plotinus, _Enneades_, 5. 1. 6; cf. 1. 1. 8, where νοῦς is ἀμέριστος, distinguished from ἡ περὶ τὰ σώματα μεριστὴ (οὐσία). We are between the two, having a share of both. The κάθαρσις of the soul consists in ὁμοίωσις πρὸς θεόν, 1. 2. 3; the love of beauty should ascend from that of the body to that of character and laws, of arts and sciences, ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν ἀρετῶν ἤδη ἀναβαίνειν ἐπὶ νοῦν, ἐπὶ τὸ ὂν, κάκεῖ βαδιστέον τὴν ἄνω πορείαν, 1. 2. 2. [464] _De mut. nom._ 4; i. 582, ed. Mangey. [465] _De mund. op._ 2; i. 2. [466] _De post. Cain_, 5; i. 228, 229. [467] _Quod deus immut._ 12; i. 281. [468] _De Abrah._ 16; ii. 12. [469] i. 224, 281, 566; ii. 12, 654; _Frag. ap Joan. Dam._ ii. 654. [470] _De prœm. et pœn._ 7; ii. 415. [471] _De post. Cain_, 48; i. 258. [472] _De mut. nom._ 2; i. 580; cf. 630, 648, 655; ii. 8-9, 19, 92-93, 597. Cf. in general Heinze, _Die Lehre vom Logos in der griechischen Philosophie_, Oldenburg, 1872, pp. 206, 207, n. 6.