' Everlasting '...

Observe that the use of the word ‘everlasting’ and the reference to unbroken continuity must be taken as a mere convenience of exposition;

the word is not strictly applicable to Eternity,

but is at best a pointer to the imperishable and leads the mind to the thought of ever-increasing, not to say unending, expansion.

We might perhaps prefer to speak of ‘Being’, without any attribute;

but since this term is applicable to Essence and some writers have used the word Essence for things of process, we cannot convey our meaning to them without introducing some word carrying the notion of perdurance.



-- Enneads, III.7.6
Plotinus