A Casting of Light by the Platonic Tradition

Description

Sometimes it is necessary to cut back in order to strengthen life. We live in a world already saturated with the printed word, and beginning a second inundation of the electronic word: we are in danger of allowing the mind to become servant to the tongue, the pen and the keyboard. Here is a small book which hopes to reverse the tide: here is a little crystal cup dipped into the great flood of words, and in its measure of bright delight, it offers refreshment and music to the soul.

The best writers in the Platonic tradition have been sensitive to the pulse and rhythm of the universe and their works resonate with it: they knew the processions which emerged from the still and silent centre, and the reversions of all things back to that centre which is the Good. Above is an example, from Plotinus.  The adaptor writes, “The following work illustrates the music of philosophy, to be found within the prose of the philosophers of the Platonic tradition. It is a little book of beauty and of truth; and the pieces it contains are as I heard them, while I listened to their various voices over an extended period of time. Each piece is a meditation in itself. The intention of this book is to inspire . . .”