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

the Seasons, Years and Months, in the same manner as the Stars and the Sun ; and we do not introduce any thin" new, by thinking it proper to direct our att« ntion to the invi¬ sible powers of these prior to those that are visible. And thus much concerning those particulars.

lad us hour vor return to the text. Plato then, mentions Right before Dav, as conveying an image of invisible and intellectual measures. For common rumour arranges tie* former prior to the latter. Hence we arc accustomed to say the tn/clhnncron [or the space of night and day]; because in the intelligible causes of these, Night subsists prior to Day.* Hut with respect to the words thus, ami on account of these, the won I thus manifests the producing cause of Right and Day, and indicates that it is light in conjunction with the inerratic sphere. And the words, nn account (jthese, manifest the final cause; in order that the nycthcmcron may be the conspicuous measure of all the circulations. .Hut lie denominates the one most wise circulation, the revolution of tie* circle of the same, as lining uni¬ form and intellectual, and most allied to the permanency and sameness of mtel-

‘ •' But »f w ill rrrlniuh do whatsoever thing gm-th forth out of our own in>«itli. In luirii incense to tlie rjuecii ol heaven, and In pour mil <1 rink-ollt-mi-gn unto her, a% nr liavr door, nr, and nur father*, our kings, and our prince*, m t lie cities of Judali, and hi the streets of Jerusalem : for Ihcn had ter filmty vj rictuah , and t rtrr writ, and *aic nn rrif. But since we left off to hum intense to the •juern of heaven, and to pour out drink-offering* unto her, uv hair tranlrd all lhtnt*i, and have bceo consumed by the sword and by famine." Jeremiah, thap. xhv. 17, IS.

’ In the original the pari winch should iiuuirdiatt !v follow the words i rpo r^t ij/ir/mi at »wro wreerrj'Tni', p. C(»(i, s$ by a strange confusion, connected with the latter part ol lire eommrntary on the fol¬ lowing text, and begins at the words to ht o vrwi tai im ravra I. si. p. C70. The order of the text likewise, in p. q66, is perverted, the commentary on which beginning at the words eat y rptry I. xxxv. is imperfect.

p. 248

PROCLUS ON THE

[book IT.

si. p. C70. The order of the text likewise, in p. q66, is perverted, the commentary on which beginning at the words eat y rptry I. xxxv. is imperfect.

p. 248

PROCLUS ON THE

[book IT.

lect, and as j>osses:»ing uniformity from the one principle of things; the wisdom of it being derived from intellect, hut its circulation from the psychical jieculiarity. He likew ise asserts time to bo the wanderings of the stars, not as making the mo¬ tion of these to be time, but as conceiving the temporal intervals to be tin? mea¬ sures of motions, i'ur the number of the visible lift oj each of these, it secondary lime . But he calls both the peculiar, and the common time of the motions of each, infinite in multitude. For he co-assumrs the all-various circulations and configu¬ rations of them. And he says that they are admirably diversified, on account of their dances, their oppositions and conjunctions, their harmonious motion, and the order of their apocatustases. For such are the wanderings of tin* celestial bodies, the whole of them being merratically erratic, existing always in the end, and hastening to one end.

“ At the same time however, it is no less possible to conceive, that the perfect number of time will then accomplish a perfect year, when the celerities of all the eight periods being terminated with reference to each other, shall have a summit, as they are measured by the circle of that which subsists according to the same and the similar."

After the demiurgic generation of the spheres, the period of the seven bodies, the animation of them, and the order which the father inserted in them, and also after the vhrious motions of them, the temporal measures of their several periods, and the differences of their apocatastases ; the discussion proceeds to the monad of the temporal multitude, and to the one* number according to which all motion is measured, under which all other measures are comprehended, and according to which all the life of the world, the all-various evolution of bodies, and the whole of the psychical life, are defined, conformably to an all-perfect period. This period however, ought not to be surveyed doxasticallv, by adding myriads to myriads of years. For thus some are accustomed to speak of it, assuming the aeeurate apocatastasis of the Moon, and m a similar manner of the Sun, and then milling the one to the other, and afterwards adding to these, the apocatastases of Mer¬ cury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn ; and in the last place, the apocatastasis of the inerratic sphere, to the one common apocatastasis of the planets. After this manner therefore they sjwak, if the apoeatastatic times compared with each other are primary. But if they arc not primary, then assuming a common mea¬ sure, they see according to what numbers this measures each of the given apoea¬ tastatic times, and by the number according to which it measures the less of these times they multiply the greater, but by the number according to which it measures

HOOK IV.]

TIM.EL'S OF PLATO.

24 :»

the greater, lli«*y multiply the less ; and thus they have from both multiplication,, the common time of the apocatastasis of both, and whirl) also is measured bv both.