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

There are some physiologists then, who ascribe one power to each of the elements ; to fire indeed heat, to air frigidity, to water moisture, and

’ ty earth dryness; in so doing entirely wandering from the truth. In the firstp. 417 place, because they subvert the world and order, For it is impossible for things to be co-adapted to each other, when they possess the most contrary powers, unless they have something incommon. In the next place, they make the most contrary natures allied to each other, viz. the hot to the cold, and the moist to the dry.’ It is necessary however, to make things which are hostile more remote than things which are less foreign. For such is the nature of contraries. In the third place, therefore, the first two powers will have no sympathy whatever with the rest; but will be divulsed? from each other. For it is impossible to say What is common to humidity and frigidity. And in addition to all these things, aa the elements are solids, they will not be conjoined to each other by any medium. It has however been shown that it is not possible for solids to be conjoined through one medium. Nor can they be conjoined without a medium. For this is alone the province of things that are perfectly without interval.

But some others, as Ocellus, who was the precursor of Timwus, attribute two powers to each of the elements, to fire indeed heat and dryness, to air, heat and moisture, to water, moisture and coldness, and to earth, coldness and dryness, And these things are written by this man in his treatise On Nature. In what. therefore, do these err who thus speak ? In the first place, indeed, wishing to discover the common powers in the elements, in order that tiey may preserve the co-arrangement of them with each other, they no more assign communion than separation to them, but equally honour their hostility and their harmony. What kind of world therefore, will subsist from these, what order will there be of things which are without arrangement and most foreign, and of things which are most allied and co-arranged? For things which in an equal degree are hostile and peaceful, will in an equal mode dissolve and constitute communion. But this communion being similarly dissolved, and similarly implanted, the universe will no more exist than not exist. In the second place, they do not assign the greatest contrariety to the extremes, but to things most remote from the extremes ; though we every where see, that of homogencous natures those which are most distant have the nature of contraries, and not those which are less distant. How likewise did nature arrange them, since they are most remote in their situation from each other? Was it not by perceiving their contrariety, and that the third was more allied than the last to the first? How also did she arrange the motions

How likewise did nature arrange them, since they are most remote in their situation from each other? Was it not by perceiving their contrariety, and that the third was more allied than the last to the first? How also did she arrange the motions

δ For ro evayrwrara here, read ra evayrwwrara, and for ry θερμὸν re ψυχρῳ, το Oeppor, x. XA. * For arnprnyeva in this place, I read διηρημενα.

Tim. Plat. Vou, I. 3G

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of them, since fire is most light and tends upward, but earth is most heavy and tends downward? But whence were the motions ofthem which are most contrary derived, if not from nature! If therefore, nature distributed to them most contrary motions, it is evident that they are themselves most contrary. For 45. the motions of simple beings are simple, and those things are simple of which the motions are simple, thus also those things are most contrary of which the motions are most contrary. And this may occasion some one to wonder at Aristotle, who in what he says about motion, places earth as most contrary to fire; butin what he says about powers, he makes the most remote of similar natures to be more friendly than those that are proximate, when they are moved with most contrary motions, Por as the clements have contrary places in- their positions, as they have contrary motions in dations, as they have contrary powers, eravity and levity, through which motions subsist in their forms, thus also they have contrary passive qualities. Aristotle Iimself likewise manitests that earth is contrary to fire. For wishing to show that itus necessary there should) be more bodies than one, he says: ‘ Moreover, af earth exists, itis also necessary that fire should exist. For in things, one of the contraries of which naturally is, the other likewise has a natural subsistence.” So that neither was he able afler any other manner to show that there are more clements than one, than by asserting that fire is contrary to earth,

For in things, one of the contraries of which naturally is, the other likewise has a natural subsistence.” So that neither was he able afler any other manner to show that there are more clements than one, than by asserting that fire is contrary to earth,

Farther still, as the elements are solids, how can they be bound together through one medium? For this is impossible im solids, as we have before observed. Hence those who assert these things, neither speak mathematically nor physically, but unavoidably errin both these respects. For physical are derived from mathematical entities. Jundus therefore alone, or any other who rightly follows hin, neither attribules one nor two powers alone, to the elements, but triple powers ; fo fire indeed, tcnuity of parts, acuteness and facility of motion ; to air, lenuity of parts, obtuseness, and facility of motion ; to water, grossness of parts, obtuseness, and facility of motion ; and to earth, grossucss of parts, obtusencss, and difficulty of motion, But this is in order that each of the elements may have two powers, cach’ of which is common to the clement placed next to it, and one power which is different, in the same manner as it was demonstrated in mathematical numbers and figures 5 this different power being assumed from one of the extremes 3; and also in’ order that earth according to all the powers, may subsist oppositely to fire; and that

For; cay here, it is obviously necessary to read exurepar,

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