which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Phil, ii, 13). All things from the high- est to the lowest turn by native constitution to the more excellent nature whence they are derived, and the love within their soul seeks union with their orig- inal above. This universal conversion, permeating all things, binds the whole universe in an attitude of af- fectionate regard to the One and the Supreme Good, which is the Creator and the desire of all (Procl. Inst. Theolog. § lvii). In the lover of all righteousness, in man spiritualized and filled with the desire of holiness, it becomes ecstatic elevation and intimate communion with the Spirit of the Divine. " We are not cut off, or separated from God. We breathe the One, whose breath is our life, and we are preserved. This support is not given at one moment, and withdrawn at another, but is ever present for our guidance. Nay, more, we incline to the Good, and to the happiness above. There the soul is at rest and beyond ill. ascending to our true country, to the place which is pure of all evils. For the soul filled with God produces beauty and righteous- ness and virtue. God is its beginning and its end — its beginning, because it descends from him ; its end, be- cause he is the Good to which it aspires. There is the heavenly Love, and every soul is love. The soul, in its pure nature, is possessed with the love of God, and longs for union with him, as a virgin nurses the love of the beautiful for the beautiful. Thus the life of good and godly and happy men is a transport from the things of earth — a life uncharmed by things below — (lie flight of the single and solitary soul to the only (tin " i Enn. vi. ix, 9, 11).
For such sublimities of enthusiasm no language will suffice but the rapt Greek of Plotinus or the fervid Latin of Marsilius Ficinus, and even these faint and fail beneath the divine burden of the thought.
Literature. — See the references under the art. Xi:o- Platonism, and add : Plotini Platonicorum Coryphaei, i i/h ra quae i xstant omnia. Per a h In rrimitm ilium Mar- silium Ficinum, Florent. Ex antiquissimis Codicibus Latine translata et eruditissimis Commentariis illustra- ta, etc., Basileae, Impensis Ludovici Regis (1615, fol.); Plotini Opera Omnia (ed. Kreuzer, Oxon. 1835, 3 vols. 8vo); Plotini Enneades (ed. Creuzer and Moser, Par. 1855, 1 vol. 8vo) ; Porphyrins. Plotini Vita ; Taylor, Thomas, "The Platonist," Select. Works of Plotinus (London, 1817, Svo) ; Cousin. (Eurres de Plotin (Par.); Steinhart, apud Pauly, Real-Encyklop. v. ii ; Kirchner, />;, Philosophii des Plotinus (Halle, 1854) ; Valentiner, Plotin und seine Enneaden (1864); Richter, Neu-plato- nisch< Studien (Halle, 1864-7); Neander, Christian Dog- mas; P.anr, I)rekinigkeitslehre, ii. 207 sq. ; Xourisson, Pensees Eumames, p. 134 sq. ; Lecky, nationalism, i, 240; Westminster Rev. 1868, Oct. p. 246. (G.F.H.)
Ploucquet, Gottfkied, a German philosopher, was born Aug. 25, 1716, at Stuttgard. He came from a Protestant family of French origin ; his father was an innkeeper. While he was studying at Tubingen, he was so strongly impressed by Wolf's writings that, without giving up theology altogether, he gave special attention to the study of philosophy and mathematics. This twofold tendency strikingly appears in the theses which he defended in 1740 (Diss, qua CI. Varignonii demons! rat io geornetriea possibilitatis Iransiibslautionis enervatur), and in which he endeavored to reconcile Wolf's doctrines with the teachings of the Christian faith. After discharging in different places the du- ties of a minister and tutor, he was appointed in 174G deacon at Freudenstadt. His memoir on the monads (Primaria Monadologice capita [Berlin, 1748, 4to]) opened to him in 1749 the Academy of Sciences of Berlin, and directed to him the attention of the duke of Wtirtemberg, by whose protection he obtained, in 1750, the professorship of logic and metaphysics at Tubingen, lie taught political economy at the same university, and was. in 1778. called to Stuttgard to teach this branch at the military school. His faculties having given way
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in consequence of a stroke of apoplexy, in 17«2 he was compelled to abandon t< aching. Ploucquel was an honesl and open character, and he was gifted by nature with a clear and methodical mind. "A champion of spiritualism," says .Mr. Haag, "he combated, with a
; penetration equalled only by his erudition, the materialistic doctrines proclaimed by the philoso- phers of the 18th century, and feared nol even to enter into contest with Kant. Then, ascending the stream of i be " nturies, he submitted to stricl analysis the sys- tems of ancient philosophy, which he trieil to build anew in historical essays, worthy even now of our attention." Ploucquel died at Stuttgard Sept. 13, L790. He left a number of works, mostly published at Tubingen, and written with great purity, but rather exaggerated con- cision. The following are the most important: D< ma- terialism*) (1750, Itoi: Principia dt substantiis et phe-
Erankfort, 1758, 8vo) : -De Pyrrkonis epocka (17.")S. [to) •.—Fundamenta philosophia speculative (7th eil. L759, 8vo | : it is an exposition of Leibnitz's system : — D( dogmatibus Thaletis et Anaxagorm i 1763, tto): - Methodus calculandi in logicis (1763, 8vo). In this work he represents the syllogisms by geometrical fig- ures and mathematical formulas; these methods, hinted at by Leibnitz, engaged him in discussions with Lam- bert and others: Problemata <U natura hominis anU et post mortem (1766, tto): Institution's philosophies, theo- retica I 1772. 1782, 8vo): Elementa philosophia contem- plativa . sive </■ scientia ratiocinandi (Stuttgard, 177:;. tto): ( 'on, in, ntationes philosophia selections (Utrecht, 17x1. tto) : — Varia quasiiones metaphysical t 1782, tto). — Uoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generate, xl, I'.U.