Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 2 / In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four Periods

by Plotinus

THE UNIVERSAL SOUL MAY NOT BE JUDGED BY THE HUMAN STANDARD.

7. Elsewhere we have demonstrated[322] that this world never began, and will never end; and that it must last as long as the intelligible entities. We have also shown,[323] and that earlier than these (Gnostics), that the soul's intercourse with the body is not advantageous to her. But to judge the universal Soul according to ours is to resemble a man who would blame the totality of a well governed city by an examination limited to the workers in earth or metal.