ophic attainments, yet they appear not to have
developed the profundity of Plato's conceptions; they withdrew not the
veil which covers his secret meaning, like the curtains which guarded the
adytum of temples from the profane eye; and they saw not that all behind
the veil is luminous, and that there divine spectacles[17] every where
present themselves to the view. This task was reserved for men who were
born indeed in a baser age, but, who being allotted a nature similar to
their leader, were the true interpreters of his mystic speculations. The
most conspicuous of these are the great Plotinus, the most learned
Porphyry, the divine Jamblichus, the most acute Syrianus, Proclus the
consummation of philosophic excellence, the magnificent Hierocles, the
concisely elegant Sallust, and the most inquisitive Damascius. By these
men, who were truly links of the golden chain of deity, all that is
sublime, all that is mystic in the doctrines of Plato (and they are
replete with both these in a transcendent degree), was freed from its
obscurity and unfolded into the most pleasing and admirable light. Their
labors, however, have been ungratefully received. The beautiful light
which they benevolently disclosed has hitherto unnoticed illumined
philosophy in her desolate retreats, like a lamp shining on some
venerable statue amidst dark and solitary ruins. The prediction of the
master has been unhappily fulfilled in these his most excellent
disciples. "For an attempt of this kind," says he,[18] "will only be
beneficial to a few, who from small vestiges, previously demonstrated,
are themselves able to discover these abstruse particulars. But with
respect to the rest of mankind, some it will fill with a contempt by no
means elegant, and others with a lofty and arrogant hope, that they shall
now learn certain excellent things." Thus with respect to these admirable
men, the last and the most legitimate of the followers of Plato, some
from being entirely ignorant of the abstruse dogmas of Plato, and finding
these interpreters full of conceptions which are by no means obvious to
every one in the writings of that philosopher, have immediately concluded
that such conceptions are mere jargon and revery, that they are not truly
Platonic, and that they are nothing more than streams, which, though,
originally derived from a pure fountain, have become polluted by distance
from their source. Others, who pay attention to nothing but the most
exquisite