Ennead I.6 [1], On Beauty, chapter 9

porphyrian I.6 · chronological 1 · chapter 9 · volkmann page 95-96

τί οὖν ἐκείνη ἡ ἔνδον βλέπει; ἄρτι μὲν ἐγειρομένη οὐ πάνυ τὰ λαμπρὰ δύναται βλέπειν. ἐθιστέον οὖν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτὴν πρῶτον μὲν τὰ καλὰ βλέπειν ἐπιτηδεύματα: εἶτα ἔργα καλά, οὐχ ὅσα αἱ τέχναι ἐργάζονται, ἀλλ’ ὅσα οἱ ἄνδρες οἱ λεγόμενοι ἀγαθοί: εἶτα ψυχὴν ἰδὲ τῶν τὰ ἔργα τὰ καλὰ ἐργαζομένων. πῶς ἂν οὖν ἴδοις ψυχὴν ἀγαθὴν οἷον τὸ κάλλος ἔχει; ἄναγε ἐπὶ σαυτὸν καὶ ἰδέ: κἂν μήπω σαυτὸν ἴδῃς καλόν, οἷα ποιητὴς ἀγάλματος, ὃ δεῖ καλὸν γενέσθαι, τὸ μὲν ἀφαιρεῖ, τὸ δὲ ἀπέξεσε, τὸ δὲ λεῖον, τὸ δὲ καθαρὸν ἐποίησεν, ἕως ἔδειξε καλὸν ἐπὶ τῷ ἀγάλματι πρόσωπον, οὕτω καὶ σὺ ἀφαίρει ὅσα περιττὰ καὶ ἀπεύθυνε ὅσα σκολιά, ὅσα σκοτεινὰ καθαίρων ἐργάζου εἶναι λαμπρὰ καὶ μὴ παύσῃ τεκταίνων τὸ σὸν ἄγαλμα, ἕως ἂν ἐκλάμψῃ σοι τῆς ἀρετῆς ἡ θεοειδὴς ἀγλαία, ἕως ἂν ἴδῃς σωφροσύνην ἐν ἁγνῷ βεβῶσαν βάθρῳ. εἰ γέγονας τοῦτο καὶ εἶδες σαυτὸν καὶ σαυτῷ καθαρῶς συνεγένου οὐδὲν ἔχων ἐμπόδιον πρὸς τὸ εἷς οὕτω γενέσθαι οὐδὲ σὺν αὐτῷ ἄλλο τι ἐντὸς μεμιγμένον ἔχων, ἀλλ’ ὅλος αὐτὸς φῶς ἀληθινὸν μόνον, οὐ μεγέθει μεμετρημένον οὐδὲ σχήματι εἰς ἐλάττωσιν περιγραφὲν οὐδ’ αὖ εἰς μέγεθος δι’ ἀπειρίας αὐξηθέν, ἀλλ’ ἀμέτρητον πανταχοῦ, ὡς ἂν μεῖζον παντὸς μέτρου καὶ παντὸς κρεῖσσον ποσοῦ: εἰ τοῦτο γενόμενον σαυτὸν ἴδοις, ὄψις ἤδη γενόμενος θαρσήσας περὶ σαυτῷ καὶ ἐνταῦθα ἤδη ἀναβεβηκὼς μηκέτι τοῦ δεικνύντος δεηθεὶς ἀτενίσας ἰδέ: οὗτος γὰρ μόνος ὁ ὀφθαλμὸς τὸ μέγα κάλλος βλέπει. ἐὰν δὲ ἴῃ ἐπὶ τὴν θέαν λημῶν κακίαις καὶ οὐ κεκαθαρμένος ἢ ἀσθενής, ἀνανδρίᾳ οὐ δυνάμενος τὰ πάνυ λαμπρὰ βλέπειν, οὐδὲν βλέπει, κἂν ἄλλος δεικνύῃ παρὸν τὸ ὁραθῆναι δυνάμενον. τὸ γὰρ ὁρῶν πρὸς τὸ ὁρώμενον συγγενὲς καὶ ὅμοιον ποιησάμενον δεῖ ἐπιβάλλειν τῇ θέᾳ. οὐ γὰρ ἂν πώποτε εἶδεν ὀφθαλμὸς ἥλιον ἡλιοειδὴς μὴ γεγενημένος, οὐδὲ τὸ καλὸν ἂν ἴδοι ψυχὴ μὴ καλὴ γενομένη. γενέσθω δὴ πρῶτον θεοειδὴς πᾶς καὶ καλὸς πᾶς, εἰ μέλλει θεάσασθαι τἀγαθόν τε καὶ καλόν. ἥξει γὰρ πρῶτον ἀναβαίνων ἐπὶ τὸν νοῦν κἀκεῖ πάντα εἰσόψεται καλὰ τὰ εἴδη καὶ φήσει τὸ κάλλος τοῦτο εἶναι, τὰς ἰδέας: πάντα γὰρ ταύταις καλά, τοῖς νοῦ γεννήμασι καὶ οὐσίᾳ. τὸ δὲ ἐπέκεινα τούτου τὴν τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ λέγομεν φύσιν προβεβλημένον τὸ καλὸν πρὸ αὐτῆς ἔχουσαν. ὥστε ὁλοσχερεῖ μὲν λόγῳ τὸ πρῶτον καλόν: διαιρῶν δὲ τὰ νοητὰ τὸ μὲν νοητὸν καλὸν τὸν τῶν εἰδῶν φήσει τόπον, τὸ δ’ ἀγαθὸν τὸ ἐπέκεινα καὶ πηγὴν καὶ ἀρχὴν τοῦ καλοῦ. ἢ ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ τὸ ἀγαθὸν καὶ καλὸν πρῶτον θήσεται: πλὴν ἐκεῖ τὸ καλόν.

What, then, does that inner sight see? Newly awakened, it is not quite able to look at bright things. The soul itself must first be accustomed to look at beautiful pursuits, then at beautiful works — not the works that the crafts produce, but those that men called good produce — and then look at the soul of those who work these beautiful works. How, then, might you see the sort of beauty a good soul has? Go back into yourself and look. And if you do not yet see yourself as beautiful, then, as the maker of a statue which has to become beautiful cuts away here and smooths there, makes one part clean and another clear, until he has shown a beautiful face upon the statue, so you too: cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, and labour to make all that is dark bright by cleaning it; and do not stop working at your own statue until the godlike splendour of virtue shines out upon you, until you see self-control standing on its holy pedestal. If you have become this, and have seen it, and have come to be at home with yourself in purity, with nothing to hinder you from becoming one in this way, with nothing else mixed within you together with yourself, but all of you yourself true light alone — not measured by magnitude, nor bounded by a shape into littleness, nor again enlarged into magnitude by unboundedness, but wholly unmeasured everywhere, as being greater than every measure and better than every quantity — if you see that you have become this, then, having become sight itself, take courage about yourself, and, having already ascended here and no longer needing one to show you, look with a steady gaze. For this eye alone sees the great beauty. But if a man comes to the seeing bleary-eyed with wickednesses and not purified, or weak, and through unmanliness unable to look at what is very bright, he sees nothing, even if another should show him what is present and able to be seen. For the seeing must make itself akin and like to the thing seen before it applies itself to the seeing. For never yet did an eye see the sun without having become sunlike, nor could a soul see the beautiful without having become beautiful. Let everyone, then, first become godlike and all beautiful, if he means to behold the good and the beautiful. For he will come first, ascending, to intellect, and there he will see all the forms as beautiful, and will say that this is beauty, the ideas; for all things are beautiful by these, the offspring and the essence of intellect. And what is beyond this we call the nature of the good, which holds the beautiful thrown forward before itself. So, in a general way of speaking, the first is the beautiful; but one who divides the intelligibles will say that the intelligible beautiful is the place of the forms, and that the good is what is beyond, and the spring and principle of the beautiful. Or he will set the good and the beautiful together as first in the same; except that, there, the beautiful is.

Greek collated line by line against the Volkmann plate (vol. 1, pp. 95–96); every departure of the First1KGreek transcription from the printed page is corrected and recorded in the apparatus.