Platonism may be seen from the mere titles of the fifty-four treatises which have come down to us. Providence, Time and Eternity, Reason, Being, Ideas, the "Dæmon" who has received each of us in charge,—such are the subjects of some of the chapters in his "Enneads." He at one time even obtained leave of the reigning emperor to found a city in Campania, to be called Platonopolis, whither he and his friends were to retire from the world; but happily the idea was never actually put into execution.
The next generation of Neo-Platonists carried their Mysticism still further. They revived divination and astrology; they interpreted dreams and visions; they consulted oracles; and practised those ancient rites of expiation which Plato himself had so strongly condemned. Iamblichus, one of their number, traced a mysterious affinity between earth and heaven; and on one of Plato's texts—"all things are full of gods"—he constructed a hierarchy of heroes, dæmons, angels, and archangels. Proclus, again—a fanatic who wished that all books might be burnt except Plato's "Timæus"—interpreted his "God-enlightened master" in his own fashion, and perfected himself in every form of ritual, fasting and keeping vigil, celebrating the festival of every god in the pagan calendar, and honouring with mysterious rites the souls of all the dead.
There was one Neo-Platonist in the reign of Trajan whose genial and sympathetic character stands out in strong contrast to the superstition and pedantry of his age. This was Plutarch of Chæronea, better known as a biographer than a philosopher. He discusses the
