Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Apollonius of Tyana and Other Essays
One letter obviously different in style from the others3 is nevertheless interesting as bearing the mark of the period though not of the individual ideas of Apollonius. At the end there is an expression of Stoic pantheism, which, in the transitional phase of the time, was often presented in fusion or confusion with Platonism. Everything done or suffered in appearance by the individual is to be referred to the one first essence (71111611) odcla)' as its cause, both active and passive. The teaching of Apollonius himself, so far as we can judge, though not without Stoic elements, laid stress rather on the transcendence of the supreme divinity. In the earlier part of the letter, what is supposed to be the Platonic or Pythagorean doctrine of immortality is asserted. Death and birth alike are only appearance. There is alternation between the visible and tangible of nature W606) and the invisible and intangible of essence but in reality nothing is created or destroyed. The process is conceived as taking place by condensation and rarefaction of matter; the former being the phenomenon of birth and growth, the latter of death. As may be seen, there is here no strictly defined immateriality Of the soul, which is either identified with or very imperfectly discriminated from a fiery or ethereal in?ux such as the Stoics took to be the basis of life and thought. There seems to be nothing here specially characteristic Of Apollonius but it is clear that in the speculation of the time the Platonic metaphysic was in danger.
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