[1] I shall give only one example, which is elementary in both senses of the word. Ruysbroeck distinguishes three kinds of life—the active life, the inward life, and the super-essential life. The Gnostics distinguish the spirit, the soul, and the material life, and divide men into three classes—the pneumatic or spiritual men, psychic or soul men, and hylic or material men. Plotinus also distinguishes between the soul, the intellect, the reasonable soul, and the animal nature. The Zohar distinguishes the spirit, the soul, and the life of the senses, and in the two systems, as in Ruysbroeck, the relation of the three principles is explained by a procession which is of the nature of an irradiation; then the theory of the divine meeting, God coming into us from within towards without, we going to Him from without towards within, etc. Cf. also the 5th Ennead, etc. etc.
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Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
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