The subject of the essay is N eoplatonism in re lation to Christianity. The addition of this qualifying clause serves to limit the field of the enquiry, and to differentiate its object from that of a history of philosophy. The writer of such a history regards Neoplatonism purely from a philosophical stand point. He draws out its relation to earlier and later systems, and seeks to assign to it its proper place in the development of human thought. Neo platonism however was not merely a great philo sophical revival: it was a part of a yet greater religious movement: and it is the latter aspect which this essay has to set forth.