[154] See p. 207.
[155] Damascius and Suidas, loc. cit.
[156] Usually referred to as the son of Nestorius to distinguish him from the well-known writer of lives, who lived under Trajan.
[157] Marinus, Vita Procli.
[158] Marinus, Vita Procli. The schools of rhetoric were not extinct at this date, as they are stated to have made overtures to Proclus, but he refused to engage himself to any of them.
[159] It is generally agreed among scholars that the writings of Orpheus now extant are spurious productions emanating from the Neoplatonists themselves, who, as a pious fraud, expanded very scanty relics to considerable bulk with the object of providing an old traditional basis for their theology. In this age the daughters of philosophers, like Hypatia, often worked with their fathers, and, when advanced enough, gave instruction to the classes. Thus Aclepigeneia, the daughter of Plutarch, was the only one versed in the so-called Chaldaean lore, and she in that department became the preceptress of Proclus; Marinus, op. cit. The work of Damascius (Vit. Isidor.) is dedicated to a certain Theodora who, with her sisters, had been pupils of himself and Isidorus. The course of study is shown to have been prolonged and comprehensive, extending sometimes over a decade or more. It included rhetoric, dialectic, literature in prose and verse, mathematics, and astronomy (Ptolemy's system), besides the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle, and the Neoplatonists; Photius, Cod., 181. From a passage in Olympiodorus (Creuzer, Frankf., 1820, ii, pp. xii, 141), it seems that to the last the school continued to be open free to students as in the days of Plato himself. The fact is also indicated by the anecdote related of Proaeresius and his friend Hephaestion. Armenians both of them, they arrived at Athens so destitute that they possessed between them only clothing sufficient for one person. When, therefore, one went out to hear a lecture, the other had to remain within wrapped up in some old bed coverlets; (Eunapius in Vit.). Presents must, however, have been received, as it is mentioned (Damascius and Suidas, loc. cit.) that under Proclus the funds of the Academy rose to the amount of 1,000 gold pieces.
[160] Vacherot has arranged a table, in which the numerous divinities admitted by Proclus are seen according to their roll of precedence; Ecole d'Alexandrie, Paris, 1846, ii, p. 378. A comprehensive work by Jules Simon with the same title came out almost simultaneously. Zeller (Philos. d. Griech., v, pp. 548, 808) defines the position of matter according to the views of Plotinus and Proclus. The first considers it to be the original evil, but with the latter it is neutral, and bad only in relation to that which is better. These notions, however, are embedded in pages of refinements, so that no real finality is attained.
[161] By the age of twenty-eight Proclus had finished his commentary on the Timaeus, which exceeded in bulk the whole writings of Plato. Half of it is lost, but the portion preserved makes a ponderous tome.
[162] Victor Cousin and Thomas Taylor. The latter professes himself to be a complete convert to the religion of Proclus, and the former, who was a leader of thought, almost goes as far. The difference in theological standpoint between Christians, Stoics, and Neoplatonists is explained by the historians of philosophy. The Christian triune God exists apart from the universe, which he produces by his own voluntary act. With the pantheistic Stoics the Deity is pervasive without limit, and in all best things most immanent. Thus the good man may be his most perfect manifestation, and in no degree less than Zeus himself. But the essence of Neoplatonism is the Oriental conception of emanation, and in this pantheism everything is viewed as progressively inferior in proportion to its distance from the transcendent source, i.e., the One. In this system the good man cannot be equal to the Deity; he can only endeavour to elevate himself to reunion with his source by ecstatic detachment from all lower grades. In the other systems the world had a beginning and end in time, but the eternity of the cosmos was a necessary dogma of Neoplatonism.
[163] See Porphyry's elaborate treatise, De Abstinentia ab Esu Carnium. He tries to prove the quasi-humanity of animals; they have a language of their own, which some men have understood, etc.