Plotinus and The Invisibles

"We should be spectators of murders, and all deaths, and the takings and sackings of cities, as if they were on the stages of theatres, all changes of scenery and costume and acted wailings and weepings...

But the actors [in the universal drama] have something extra, in that they act in a greater space than that within the limits of the stage, and the author makes them the masters of the All...

...part of the author, and an author who foreknew what they were going to say, so that he might in this way be able to bring the rest of the play and the consequences of their interventions into a coherent whole." 

                                                                            Plotinus, Ennead III.2