necessity, into the corporeal world, yet without entirely forsaking the world of ideas. The soul's true vocation, then, is to seek to regain its proper home, to free itself from participation in the corporeal, in order that it may ascend again into the world of ideas, and attain the ul- timate aim of all its desires and efforts, immediate union with God through the ecstatic vision of the primal One, into whom it sinks unconscious and loses itself.
III. Concludiuf/ Obser cat ions. — Xeo- Platonism and Christianity, though opposing forces in the religious movements of their age, mutually influenced the doc- trinal developments of each other. This fact is appar- ent not only from an examination 'of individual writers, j but much more from a comparison of the parallel his- tory of each. The works of Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Augustine, and other Christian writers of the early ages of the Church, abound in evi- dences »f the influence of the philosophic spirit. On the other hand, a glance at the historical development of Neo-Platonism reveals a corresponding action of Christian ideas on it. Their opposition to each other arose naturally from the relative positions occupied by each. Neo-Platonisra was a merely human religio-jihil- osophical eclecticism, seeking to found a universal re- ligion under the form of a philosophy which readily accepted the religious conceptions of all nations, and claimed to select the wheat from the chaff of all pre- vious systems. Christianity, as a system of revealed truth, was of necessity exclusive. It could accept no modiflcation of its dogmas, could agree to no alliance with differing creeds. Neo-Platonism was the creed of philosophers lifted, in their conceit, above the vulgar crowd, and despising the illiterate. Christianity was open to all grades and conditions of men. In her fold the learned and the unlearned were alike welcomed as redeemed by the blood of her divine Master. The one made a fruitless effort to revive the life and vigor of the heathen past; the other labored, and not in vain, for the future, wherein Christ " shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." The one seemed to hold itself aloof from contact with the suffering, and made no effort to elevate the lowly; the other sought alike the rich and the poor, relieved the suffering, comforted the sorrowing, and encouraged the weary bj' the hope of rest from their labors. Prom the fires of persecution the one came forth purified as goltl tried in the furnace, the other vanishecl as the stubble. Neo-Platonism, though claiming to be eclectic, did nothing to unite men by means of its philosophy. Christianity, with its "mighty and all-embracing message," and its exhibi- tion of love and self-sacrifice, welded together the hearts of men better than the force of power or the cold ab- stractions of the intellect, proving that the foolishness of the Gospel is wiser than the wisdom (philosoiihy) of men, and that the weak things of God are stronger than men.
IV. Literature. — The original sources of information embrace the works of Philo-Juda?us, Plutarch, Apuleius, Plotiniis, Porphyry, Jamblichus, Julian, Eunapius (Biot 0i/\o(7()^wi' Kitl notpiriTwv), SaUustius {Tlipl ^luiv Kai Kvafiov), Prochis, Suidas, the early Christian apologists and fathers, and the Church historians — Eusebius, .Soc- rates, Sozomen, Theodorct, and Evagrius. To these may lie added among modern or secondary sources, sev- eral of which have been freely used in tiie ]ireparation of this article, and often without special acknowledg- ment: Ritter, J/ist. nj' Ancient P/iilosop/ii/ (Morrison's transl., Lond. 1H4G, 4 vols. 8vo), see Index in vol. iv; ^I idler. Hist, oj' the Literature of Ancient (Ireece (con- tinued by Donaldson, Lond. 18.'j8. 3 vols. Hvo\ see Index in vol. iii; Uebcrweg, Hist, of ]'hilosopli>i from Tlxiles to the Present Time (N. Y. 1872, 2 vtds. 8vo), see Index in vol. ii; Tenncmann, Manual of the Hist, of Philoso- phy/ (Bolm's cd., Lond. 1852, 8vo), see Index; Lewes, //i.it. of Philosophy, vol. ii ; Butler, Hist, of A ncient J'hi- losophy, vol. ii ; Ilardwick, Christ and other Masters (3d ed. Lond. 1874, post 8vo), sec Index; Schwegler, Uesch.
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der Pliilosophie im Umriss (3d ed. Stuttgard, 1857, 8vo ; also Prof. Seelye's transl., N. Y. 1860, 12mo), p. 97-101 ; Fichte, Be philosopfiim moves Plat07iic(e oi-igine (Berl. 1818).; Vogt, Neu-Plutonismus uiid Clnistenthum, pt. i; Neu-platonische Lehre (iiach Plotin) (183C); Kirchner, Die Philosophie des Pludn (Halle, 1832) ; Ullmann, Ein- Jluss des Christenlhums inif Poiphyrius (in Stud. n. Krit. 1854); %\mon, Hist, del' Ecoled'Alexandrie (Paris, 1845, 2 vols. 8vo) ; Kingsley, Alexandria and her Schools (1854) ; Barthelemy St. Hilaire, De VEcole dWlexandrie (Paris, 1845) ; Vacherot, Hist, aitique de VEcole d'A lex- andrie (Paris, 1846-50, 3 vols. 8v()) ; Eiinemoser, Hist, of Marjic (Bolin's ed., Lond. 1854, 2 vols. cr. 8vo), i, 443-457 ; Riiffiier, The Fathers of the Desert (N.Y. 1850, 2 vols. 12mo), i, 180-188; Mosheim, Institutes of Eccles. Hist. (Murdock's transl., New Haven, 1832, 3 vols. 8vo), see Index to vol. i, s. v. Plato ; Neander, Lectures on the Hist, of Christian Dogmas (Lond. 1858, 2 vols. 16mo), see Index; id. Church Hist. (Bohn's ed., 10 vols, post 8vo), see Index ; id. Julian the Apostate and his Gener- ation (transl. by Cox, Lond. Timo) ; Townsend, Eccles. and Civil Hist. etc. (Lond. 1847, 2 vols. 8vo), i, 412- 419; Milman, Hist, of Christianity from the Birth of Christ to the Abolition of Paganism in the Roman Em- pire (Engl, and Amer. editions), see Index ; Schaff, Hist, of the Apostolic Church (N. Y. 1874, 8vo), p. 154, 155; and Hist, of the Christian Church (N. Y. 1870, 2 vols. 8vo), see Index. Consult also Smith, Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Biog. and Mythol. ; Hoefer, A''oiir. Biog. Generale ; the encyclopaadias under the appropriate names and ti- tles ; and the articles in the following periodicals : the London Quarterly, July, 1857, p. 308 sq. ; Revue des deux Mondes, May 15, 1866, p. 498 sq. ; Biblical Repository, 1834. See also Alexandrian Schooi-. (J. W. M.)