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

“ Hence so far as you are generated, you are not immortal, nor in every respect indissoluble ; yet you shall never be dissolved, nor become subject to the fatality of death; being allotted my will, which is a much

* For »<r« here, rrad tirt.

1 The words cat Xi m i are omitted in the unginal.

’ For avrov fi ctr, it is iiecet'jrv to read n» puli'.

*•« "K \ .]

I’IM.Fl S or PLATO.

3P> greater and more excellent bond than the vital connectives with which vou were bound ;it the commencement of your generation/’

1 The words cat Xi m i are omitted in the unginal.

’ For avrov fi ctr, it is iiecet'jrv to read n» puli'.

*•« "K \ .]

I’IM.Fl S or PLATO.

3P> greater and more excellent bond than the vital connectives with which vou were bound ;it the commencement of your generation/’

Since all the niituilane Gods to whom these wools are addressed consist of divine souls, and animals .suspended from them, or in other words, since they are participated souls, and since the Demiurgus denominates them indissoluble ami a* the same time dissoluble, because the indissoluble of them is not intelligible, and their dissolubility is not mortal, hut the former is through a composition 1 from simple natures, of which the Demiurgus comprehends the separate causes, and the latter is through the immutable connexion of the bond, which the father inserts in (hem;—this being the case, lie now wishes to collect into one point of view, and into one truth, all that he had said separately about them. For at one and the same time he takes away from them the immortal and the indissoluble, and again confers these on them through a subversion of their opposites. For media are allotted this nature, not receiving the nature of the extremes, and ap¬ pearing to comprehend the whole of both. Just as if some one should call the soul impartible and at the same time partible, as consisting of both, and neither impartible, nor partible, as being different from the extremes. Tor see how a middle of this kind may he surveyed in the mundane Gods. That is principally and primarily called immortal, which supplies it-i If with immortality ; since that also is primarily being which is being from itself; intellect which is intellect from itself; and one which is from itself one. For every where that which primarily possi s<e> any thing is siirli from itself; since if it were not so from itsell hut from another, that other would he primarily, either intellect, or lile, or the one, or some¬ thing eFe ; and either this would he primarily so, or if there is nothing primarily, the ascent will he to infinity. Thus therefore, that is truly immortal which is immor¬ tal from itself, and which imparts to itself iiumort ility. But that which is m ilher vital according to tin whole of itself, nor self-subsistent, nor possesses intmorlalitv from itself, is not primarily immortal. Henri as that which is secondarily Ih‘- ing is not lwing, so that which is secondarily immortal is not immortal, yet it is not mortal; for this is entirely a defection or departure from the immortal/ nei¬ ther possessing a conuascent life, nor infinite power. For these three are in a successive order. That wliich possesses from itself infinite life; that which re¬ ceives infinite life from another; and that which neither from itself nor another

' For wnfirht f Itcrf, I frail trv»Omr. For jirior to ihis, Proelm in < ( 'lii'W ftoiis no, r*

'c rovrnti. nXi'rov a^tn rai Xvtov ftrnr, m a»Xv* ith Or

For jirior to ihis, Proelm in < ( 'lii'W ftoiis no, r*

'c rovrnti. nXi'rov a^tn rai Xvtov ftrnr, m a»Xv* ith Or

* For rrw (Jn.arcv here, it is obviously nrerwirs to ri-ad rt¥ aCumrev.

TSO

PKOCLUS ON THE

[book V.

exhibits the infinity of life. And the first indeed, i* immortal; the second is not immortal; the third is mortal; and the middle is adapted to the mundane Gods. For they neither have tin- immortal from themselves, so far as they derive it from that whic h is truly and primarily immortal, and so far as bodies are suspended from them ; nor have they a finite life ; but they are filled indeed from the eternal Gods, and pioduce mortal natures. For the second fabrication is connected with the first, proceeds about it, is governed bv it, and refers to it the production of the mortal genera.

Again, with respect to the indissoluble, that which is principally and primarily so is simple and free from all composition. For where there is no composition what representation can there he of dissolution 1 Hut ili.it is secondarily indissolu¬ ble which is indissoluble w ith a horn! ; wInch is at the* same time dissoluble in con¬ sequence of proceeding from divided t mses. For it is not simply dissoluble, hut dissoluble by its cause. For that which is hound prior to all time is alone hound according to cause; hut that which is alone causally hound, is atone causally dissolved. For every tiling is adapted to h« dissolved, by that by which and alter the maimer m wine i it is hound. And the third from (hat winch is properly indissoluble, is that which was indissoluble for a certain time, because the first indeed, is properly indissoluble in conjunction with simplicity; but the second is subordinately so, to-, ther with composition ; and the third, i dim- oil from both, is in its own nature* dissoluble.