c. Matter appears as the curse of all existent objects.[411] It also appears as mother.[412]
d. Try as he may, the author of this section cannot escape the dualism so prominent in Numenius;[413] the acrobatic nature of his efforts in this direction are pointed out elsewhere. We find here a thoroughgoing distinction between soul and body, which is quite Numenian, and dualistic.[414]
e. Matter is passive, possessing no resiliency.[415]
f. We find an argument directed[416] against those who "posit being in matter." These must be the Stoics, with whom Numenius is ever in feud.
g. Of Numenian terms, we find "sôteria,"[417] God the Father.[418] Also the double Numenian name for the Divinity, Being and Essence.[419]
Against Numenius as author, we note:
a. The general form of the section, which is that of the Enneads, not the dialogue of Numenius's Treatise on the Good. We find also the usual Plotinic interjected questions.
b. Un-Numenian, at least, is matter as a mirror,[420] and evil as merely negative, merely unaffectability to good.[421] While Numenius speaks of matter as nurse and feeder, here we read nurse and receptacle.
c. Stoic, is the chief subject of the section, namely the affectibility of matter. Also, the allegoric interpretation of the myths, of the ithyphallic Hermes, and the Universal Mother, which are like the other Plotinic myths, of the double Hercules, Poros, Penia, and Koros. We find[422] the Stoic idea of passibility and impassibility, although not exactly that of passion and action. We find[423] connected the terms "nous" and "phronêsis," also "anastasis." The term hypostasis, though used undogmatically, as mere explanation of thought, is found.[424] Frequent[425] are the conceptual logoi of the divine Mind (the seminal logoi) which enter into matter to clothe themselves with it, to produce objects. We also have the Stoic category "heterotês,"[426] and the application of sex as explanation of the differences of the world.[427]
d. Aristotelian, are the "energeia" and "dunamis."[428]