INTRODUCTION.

in their ineffable principle (as Proclus in Parmenides beautifully observes), like the roots of trees in the earth; so that they are all as much as possible superessential, just as trees are eminently of an earthly nature without being earth itself. For the nature of the earth, as a whole—and therefore having a perpetual existence—is superior to the partial natures which it produces. The intelligible triad, therefore, because it exists entirely according to the superessential, possesses an inconceivable depth of union both with itself and its cause; and hence it appears to the eye of the intellect as one simple, indivisible splendor, beaming from an unknown and inaccessible fire.

The Orphic theology, however, concerning the intelligible Gods, or the highest order of divinities, is, as we are informed by Damascius 4. See Wolf's Anecdota Graeca, vol. iii, p. 252., as follows: “Time [as we have already observed] is symbolically said to be the one principle of the universe; but ether and chaos 5. These two principles are called by Plato, in the Philebus, 'bound' and 'infinity'. are celebrated as the two principles immediately following this one. And being,