But no such " wood, hay, stubble " are ndxed with
the pure metaphysics of Plotinus. His ^^ three
hypostases," The One, The Mind, The Soul (rb h^y
6 vov^, ^ ^xn)^ ^^ ^ ^^ sense mythological and
have no mythological background ; they are wholly
transcendental creations of the speculative reason,
— the result of the sublimest flights of abstract
thought, dealing with the great mysteries of the
world and man and God. Hence, although the
mediative principle drawn from Plato is conspic-
uous in the Plotinian trinity, it remains wholly
transcendental, never lowering itself to the point
of a divine incarnation. There is nothing in Plo-
tinus to remind one of the God-man, Krishna, in
the Hindoo trinity, or Sosiosh or Mithra in Zoro-
astrianism, or the Virgin Athene of Greek mytho-
logy. This fact grows the more remarkable, when
one considers that all the historical elements that
have entered into the development of the various
Ethnic trinities appear in the Plotinian, namely,



THE GBEEK PLOTINIAN TRINITY 157

the peculiar significance of three^ the family or
generative principle, and the mediation principle.
