it is in fourths, when one might contemplate these both in the third order of the intellectual virtues and in the fourth of the paradigmatic virtues, and he himself might tell me also in the second of the contemplative virtues. For then the tetrad of the four generic virtues appears in the third and fourth orders of the intellectual and the paradigmatic rank according to an analogy. What I mean is this: the four contemplative virtues and the four paradigmatic virtues are analogous to the four intellectual virtues. For I repeat myself and often say the same things, in order to make the meaning very clear to you. Therefore, the prudence of the purificatory virtues is not to be yoked with the body, temperance is not to suffer the same passions, courage is for the soul not to fear its separation from the body, and when reason and intellect lead and nothing opposes, justice is constituted. Again, of the intellectual rank of virtues, wisdom and prudence are the contemplation of what the intellect possesses, justice is to act in accordance with the intellect, temperance is a turning inward toward the intellect, and courage is impassibility according to the likeness 111 of that toward which it looks, which is impassible by nature. Of the fourth kind of virtues, the paradigmatic, prudence is the knowledge of the good, temperance is to look toward it, justice is its proper work, and courage is sameness and to remain pure in itself through an abundance of power. These are the analogous virtues in the third and fourth tetrads. And the work of the political virtues is to place a measure on the passions with regard to the activities that are according to nature, of the purificatory virtues, it is the withdrawal from the mortal body, of the intellectual virtues, it is assimilation to God, and of the paradigmatic virtues, it is the return to the good; for intellect is second to the good. And secular wisdom calls the good political man virtuous, the purificatory man a daimon, the intellectual man a god, and the one who acts according to the paradigmatic virtues a father of gods. And the disposition according to the political virtues is contemplated in moderation of the passions, having as its end to live as a man according to nature, but the disposition according to the contemplative virtues is contemplated in impassibility, whose end is likeness to God. Thus your question has been resolved and has been clarified to the best of my ability. And at the same time the whole account of the virtues has been unfolded for you. Iamblichus, however, makes a longer catalogue of virtues; but he places most of them also in a class of substances, which seemed to me to be like interpreting dreams; for I am not accustomed to be captivated by lofty language. But Aristotle in his treatise on ethics considers these differently and appropriately for the treatise which he undertook. Concerning the ideas which Plato speaks of The ideas of existing things which Plato posits, my honored and thrice-desired head, whether having heard them from someone else or being the first to discover and name them, are the intelligible world which he himself is accustomed to call the living-itself. And concerning this all the extraordinary wise men are in agreement; but what this is, few 112 seem to me to have understood. For I have come across books of men renowned for wisdom, who supposed the ideas to be the thoughts of the creator, as certain intelligible substances; with these set forth as paradigms the corporeal world was created according to them, so that these are like intelligible lines proceeding from the creator as from a center, to which their father also assimilated the world here; for with God the thoughts also are not certain types or unsubstantial principles, but existences and substances; for they say nothing there is accidental and adventitious. Those, therefore, who say these things in this way first posit the creator of the universe, then the ideas, his primary thoughts, and after these the world here, the system and composite made from heaven and earth and the things between; for there the things set forth are simple and truly archetypal, but here they are composite and imitations. And they say, however,

τετάρταις ἐστίν, ὅταν τις ταύτας καὶ ἐν τῇ τρίτῃ τάξει θεωροίη τῶν νοερῶν ἀρετῶν καὶ ἐν τῇ τετάρτῃ τῶν παραδειγματικῶν, εἴποι μοι δ' ἂν αὐτὸς καὶ ἐν τῇ δευτέρᾳ τῶν θεωρητικῶν. τότε γὰρ ἡ τετρακτὺς τῶν τεττάρων γενικῶν ἀρετῶν ἐν ταῖς τρίταις καὶ τετάρταις τάξεσι τοῦ νοεροῦ βαθμοῦ καὶ τοῦ παραδειγματικοῦ κατὰ ἀναλογίαν ἐμφαίνονται. οἷόν τι λέγω· ἀναλογοῦσιν αἱ τέτταρες ἀρεταὶ τοῦ θεωρητικοῦ καὶ αἱ τέτταρες τοῦ παραδειγματικοῦ ταῖς τέτταρσι τοῦ νοεροῦ. παλιλλογῶ γὰρ καὶ πολλάκις τὰ αὐτὰ φθέγγομαι, ἵνα σοι σαφέστατον παραστήσω τὸ νόημα. φρόνησις οὖν τῶν καθαρτικῶν ἀρετῶν τὸ μὴ συνδυάζειν τῷ σώματι, σωφροσύνη δὲ τὸ μὴ ὁμοιοπαθεῖν, ἀνδρεία δὲ τὸ μὴ φοβεῖσθαι τὴν ψυχὴν ἀφισταμένην τοῦ σώματος, ἡγουμένου δὲ λόγου καὶ νοῦ καὶ μηδενὸς ἀντιτείνοντος ἡ δικαιοσύνη συνίσταται. πάλιν τοῦ νοεροῦ βαθμοῦ τῶν ἀρετῶν σοφία μὲν καὶ φρόνησις ἡ θεωρία ὧν ὁ νοῦς ἔχει, δικαιοσύνη τὸ πρὸ τοῦ νοῦ ἐνεργεῖν, σωφροσύνη δὲ εἴσω πρὸς νοῦν στροφή, ἀνδρεία δὲ ἀπάθεια καθ' ὁμοίωσιν 111 τοῦ πρὸς ὃ βλέπει ἀπαθὲς ὂν τὴν φύσιν. τοῦ δὲ τετάρτου εἴδους τῶν ἀρετῶν τοῦ παραδειγματικοῦ ἡ μὲν φρόνησις ἐπιστήμη ἐστὶ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ, τὸ δὲ πρὸς αὐτὸ βλέπειν ἡ σωφροσύνη, τὸ δὲ οἰκεῖον ἔργον ἡ δικαιοσύνη, ἡ δὲ ἀνδρεία ἡ ταυτότης καὶ τὸ ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ μένειν καθαρὸν διὰ δυνάμεως περιουσίαν. αὗταί εἰσιν αἱ ἀνάλογοι ἀρεταὶ ἐν ταῖς τρίταις καὶ τετάρταις τετρακτύσι. Καὶ ἔργον τῶν μὲν πολιτικῶν ἀρετῶν μέτρον ἐπιθεῖναι τοῖς πάθεσι πρὸς τὰς ἐν τοῖς κατὰ φύσιν ἐνεργείας, τῶν δὲ καθαρτικῶν ἀπόστασις τοῦ θνητοῦ σώματος, τῶν δὲ νοερῶν ἡ πρὸς τὸν θεὸν ἀφομοίωσις, τῶν δὲ παραδειγματικῶν ἡ πρὸς τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἀναδρομή· δεύτερος γὰρ ὁ νοῦς τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ. καὶ τὸν μὲν πολιτικὸν ἄνδρα σπουδαῖον ἡ θύραθεν ὀνομάζει σοφία, τὸν δὲ καθαρτικὸν δαιμόνιον, τὸν δὲ νοερὸν θεόν, τὸν δὲ κατὰ τὰς παραδειγματικὰς ἐνεργοῦντα θεῶν πατέρα. καὶ ἡ μὲν κατὰ τὰς πολιτικὰς ἀρετὰς διάθεσις ἐν μετριοπαθείᾳ θεωρεῖται, τέλος ἔχουσα τὸ ζῆν ὡς ἄνθρωπον κατὰ φύσιν, ἡ δὲ κατὰ τὰς θεωρητικὰς ἐν ἀπαθείᾳ, ἧς τέλος ἡ πρὸς τὸν θεὸν ὁμοίωσις. Ἐπιλέλυται γοῦν σοι τὸ ζήτημα καὶ εἰς δύναμιν ἐμὴν σεσαφήνισται. ἅμα δέ σοι ἀνεπτύχθη καὶ πᾶς ὁ περὶ ἀρετῶν λόγος. ὁ μέντοι γε Ἰάμβλιχος πλείονα κατάλογον ἀρετῶν ποιεῖται· τὰς δὲ πλείους αὐτῶν καὶ ἐν μέρει οὐσιῶν τίθεται, ὅπερ ἐμοὶ ὀνειροκριτικὸν ἐνομίσθη· οὐ γὰρ εἴωθα ταῖς ὑψηλολογίαις ἁλίσκεσθαι. ὁ δέ γε Ἀριστοτέλης ἐν τῇ τῶν ἠθικῶν πραγματείᾳ ἑτέρως ταύτας θεωρεῖ καὶ οἰκείως εἰς ἣν ἐνεστήσατο πραγματείαν. Περὶ τῶν ἰδεῶν ἃς ὁ Πλάτων λέγει Αἱ τῶν ὄντων ἰδέαι ἃς ὁ Πλάτων τίθεται, τιμία μοι καὶ τριπόθητε κεφαλή, ἢ παρ' ἄλλου του ἀκηκοὼς ἢ πρῶτος εὑρηκὼς καὶ ἐπονομάσας, ὁ νοητός ἐστι κόσμος ὃν αὐτὸς αὐτοζῷον καλεῖν εἴωθε. καὶ περὶ τούτου πάντες ἐξαίσιοι σοφοὶ συμφέρονται· τί ποτε δέ ἐστιν οὗτος, ὀλίγοι μοι 112 δοκοῦσι κατανενοηκέναι. ἐνέτυχον γὰρ ἐγὼ βίβλοις ἀνδρῶν εὐδοκιμησάντων ἐπὶ σοφίᾳ, οἳ δὴ ἐνθυμήματα τὰς ἰδέας τοῦ δημιουργοῦ ἐτόπασαν εἶναι οἷον νοητάς τινας οὐσίας· ὧν ἐκκειμένων δίκην παραδειγμάτων τὸν σωματικὸν πρὸς αὐτὰς δεδημιουργῆσθαι κόσμον, ὡς εἶναι ταύτας ὥσπερ ἀπὸ κέντρου τοῦ δημιουργοῦ προϊούσας νοητὰς γραμμάς, αἷς ἀφωμοιώσατο καὶ τὸν τῇδε κόσμον ὁ ἐκείνων πατήρ· εἶναι γὰρ {καὶ} παρὰ τῷ θεῷ καὶ τὰ ἐνθυμήματα οὐ τύπους τινὰς ἢ ἀνυποστάτους ἀρχάς, ἀλλ' ὑπάρξεις καὶ οὐσίας· οὐδὲν γὰρ ἐκεῖ φασι συμβεβηκὸς εἶναι καὶ ἐπεισοδιῶδες. Οἱ οὖν οὕτως λέγοντες ταῦτα πρῶτον μὲν τιθέασι τὸν δημιουργὸν τοῦ παντός, ἔπειτα τὰς ἰδέας, τὰ ἐκείνου πρωτουργὰ ἐνθυμήματα, καὶ μετὰ ταύτας τὸν τῇδε κόσμον, τὸ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς καὶ τῶν ἐν μέσῳ σύστημά τε καὶ σύγκριμα· ἐκεῖ μὲν γὰρ ἁπλᾶ τὰ ἐκκείμενα καὶ ὄντως ἀρχέτυπα, ἐνταῦθα δὲ σύνθετα καὶ μιμήματα. καὶ λέγουσι μέντοι