He, too, determined to travel eastward to drink himself at the fountain-head of ancient wisdom. History does not reveal whither he wandered and whence he found the elixir to allay his thirst. Our only source of information on this point is his own teaching. After an examination of this, one can say, almost with certitude, that this theosophist of the West must have come in contact with many a rishi of the East—if not in India, at least within the city of Alexandria—and must have picked up, according to his own light, some fragments at least of the spiritual lore of Asia. As remarked by Bouillet in his translation of the Enneads of Plotinus, there is such a resemblance between some of the ideas of Plotinus and those of the Oriental mystics that the conclusion is irresistible. But while there is room for doubt as to whether he visited India or not, we have authentic evidence regarding his sojourn in Persia. His biographer, Porphyry, tells us that he visited that country expressly to study the systems of philosophy there taught. Bouillet confirms this statement. According to these accounts, Plotinus had acquired such a great taste for philosophy that he desired to study the philosophy taught to the Persians and prevailing among the Indians. When, therefore, the Emperor Gordian fitted out an expedition against the Persians, Plotinus, although thirty-nine years of age, enlisted in this army. Gordian was killed in Mesopotamia, Plotinus managed to effect his escape to Antioch.
Returning home a sadder and a wiser man, what does he find? The whole atmosphere is vitiated by scepticism. The mighty Plato—what has he left behind? Only a chattering crew of sophists. The Platonic doctrine of ideas has totally lost its influence, for the self-styled followers of the great philosopher have neither the heart to believe, nor the lips to deny. And what about the influence of Aristotle? A few peripatetic followers exist, no doubt, but torpor overwhelms them, and instead of teaching life in death they show death in life. Still ridiculing the doctrine of the ideas, they are unable to substitute anything for it. Meanwhile, the Epicureans and the Stoics have brought forward their rival theories of ethics, and their wrangling merely leaves a wider field for scepticism. Philosophy dwindles merely into a branch of literature, an elegant topic for the discourse and amusement of society.
The times are thus hopelessly out of joint, and the problem that stares Plotinus in the face is how to set things right. To help him in this self-imposed mission a friend takes him to Ammonius Saccas, whose advice to his pupils was to work at the reconciliation of Plato and Aristotle. “You ask me what I recommend. I say, travel back across the past. Out of the whole of that bygone, and yet undying, world of thought construct a system greater than any of the sundered parts. Repudiate these partial scholars in the name of their masters. Leave them to their disputes, pass over their systems, already tottering for lack of foundation, and be it yours to show how their teachers join hands far above them!”.*