The Commentaries on the Timaeus of Plato — trans. Thomas Taylor

For he de- Monstrates, that itis neither proper to begin from the multitude of beings, nor from the one being, but from the one itself, :

In the third place, therefore, neither do the principles which they assume_pertainany thing to Plato. For ideas are not separated from intellect, subsisting | by themselves apart from it; but intellect being converted to itself, sees all forms. | Hence the Athenian guest assimilates the energy of intellect to the circulation of an accurately-fashioned sphere. But they introduce ideas as things ineflicacious, resembling in themsclves forms impressed in wax, and situated external to intellect. Nor is the Demiurgus the first God. For the first God is: superior to’ every intellectual essence. Nor does ἃ. certain irrational soul move that— which is borne along in a confused and disorderly manner. Mor every | soul is the offspring of the Gods. Nor, in short, did the universe, from being | without order, become arranged. For if God was willing to bring 41} things | into order, how was he willing?) Was he always willing, or ata certain time? For if he was willing αἵ acertain time, this was either from himself, or from matter. Bat if from himself, an absurdity follows. For he is always good. Every thing good, however, which always exists, is always effective.’ And if this arose from the resistance of matter, how came it to be now adorned ? Because, say they, it became adapted to receive the demiurgie productive power, For God observed this, viz. the aptitude of tt. Tt is necessary therefore, that it should have been brought into order, not being itself disorderly. For af it had) been disorderly, it would not have been adapted ; since the disorderly motion of it is inaptitude. IIence matter is not the cause of the privation of order and ornament. Moreover, neither is the will of God the cause of this. For he is always good, and therefore the world is always adorned; and the Demiurgus always arranges the contused/ and disorderly nature. On what account, therefore, did Plato hypothetically introduce this privation of order? It was that we might survey how the generation of bodies is one thing, and the order of them when generated, another; bodies indeed existing, but being moved in a disorderly manner. For they are inca-

‘ Instead of ro δε ayaboy war, act ov ποιητικον,, it scems necessary to read ro δε ἀγαθὸν παν ae ον, ace ποιητικοῦ.

332 . PROCLUS ON 'THTE {[woox ir pable of arranging themselves. Hence Plato, wishing to indicate the order which accedes to bodies from something different from themselves, shows that disorder is consubsistent with their motions, without a divine cause. Aristotle, however, blames him who asserts that disorder is assumed prior to order, merely according to hypothesis, and says that those things will not follow for which the hypotheses are assumed, as is the case in geometry. For the hypotheses of geometry are of

Aristotle, however, blames him who asserts that disorder is assumed prior to order, merely according to hypothesis, and says that those things will not follow for which the hypotheses are assumed, as is the case in geometry. For the hypotheses of geometry are of

_themselves able to effect geometrical conclusions. To this we reply, that itis not said after this manner according to hypothesis, that the unadorned ought to be admitted prior to the adorned, but that Plato saw that which 1s formless prior

- τὸ forms, though it is never separate from them, Thus too, that which is invested with form, though yet without distinction, is assumed prior to order, though it never was prior to it, but is consubsistent with order,

The fourth head, in addition to those that have been already considered, is that in which Plato demonstrates the mode of fabrication ; a divine intellect εἰς fecting this by its very being, which he infers through many arguments. For artists are in Want of instruments to their energy, because they have not dominion over every kind of matter, But this is evident from the instruments which they use, in order to. render matter pliant, boring, or polishing, or elaborating it with a wheel; all which operations do nut insert form, but take away the inaptitude of the recipient of form. Zhe reason itself however, or form, becomes present with the subject from artinstantancously, all the vapediments being removed. Wence if there was no impediment, form would immediately accede to matter, and would not in short be in want of any instruments. Morcover, the phantasy produces many passions about the body by its very energy alone. For a man blushes through the imagination of what is base, and becomes red ; and through the conception of something dreadful is terrified, and his body is rendered pale. And these, indeed, are the passions about the body. But the cause of these isa phantasm, which does not employ impulsions and mechanical contrvances, but energizes by being present alone. Farther still, theologists axsert that there are certain powers superior to us, who employ efficacious imaginations, and which by their very existence are effective of what they wish to accomplish, and who are also able to produce illuminations, and to exhibit certain divine forms by their motions, to such ag are able to behold the visions which they externally present to the view. If therefore human arts, the imaginations of partial souls, and the energies of diemons, effect things of this kind, why is it wonderful that the Demiurgus, by the intellectual intuition of the universe, should give subsistence to the sensible nature; generating, indeed, that which is material immaterially, that

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which is tangible, without contact ; and extending impartibly that which possesses interval? And, indeed, it ought not to be considered as an admirable circum. stance, if something which is incorporeal, and without interval, is the fabricator of this universe. For human seed produces man, who is so much larger than the seed, and in each part of it contains all the diflerences of the solids; as for instance of the bones, those that are compact, and those that are hollow; of the soft parts, such as the lungs and the liver; of the dry parts, such as the nails and the hair; of themoist parts, such as the blood and phlegm; of the adipous parts, as the marrow and fat; of the bitter parts, as the bile; of the parts with. out quality, as the saliva; of the thick-set parts, as the nerves; and of the expanded parts, as the membranes. For all these, the substances of similar parts, and those that in a certain respect are composed of them, derive their subsistence from a small bulk; or rather from that which is without bulk. For reasons [or productive powers} generate these, and they are every where void of bulk. For whatever part you may take of the seed, you will find in it all things. Much more, therefore, is the demiurgic reason able to produce all things, being not at all in want of matter to their existence. But the fabricator of all things is eternally established in himself, and abiding in himself produces the universe.

* But it neither was, nor is lawful, for that which is best, to effect any thing else than that which is most beautiful.”

Themis’ is very properly assumed in the beginning of the fabrication of the universe. For she is the cause of the demiurgic sacred laws, and from her the order of the universe is indissolubly connected. Hence also she remains a virgin prior to the progression of the Demiurgus, according to the Oracles of Night. But she produces, in conjunction with Jupiter, the triad of the Seasons, to whom

Olympus and great Heav'n are giv’n in charge,
And a dense cloud to open, or to close.

She is therefore the monad of all the mundane order; on which account alsa Socrates in the Repablic calls her Necessity, as is demonstrated in that dialogue. He likewise convolves the world on her knees, she preserving the order of it perpetually immutable and unshaken. Conformably therefore to this divine cause of order, the Demiurgus also, leading that which is disordered into order, imparts beauty to all things, and renders the world similar .to, and connects it

! This word which is used here by Plato, signifies both the Goddess of justice, and lawful,

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