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

Jlut it ought to contain flam, that it may he sufficiently p< rfect. \ et it these aie generated anti pai licipate of life through me, they will become eipiah/ed to the (<oils.”

J io most total, first, and most divine <d idea*., not only give subsistence to Midi mundane nalurcs as arc perpetual, in an exempt manner, hut likewise to all mortal natures, according to one unit, d cause. I’m the idea of winged natures which is there, is tin* paradigm of all winged animals whah \er; tin* idea of the aipiatie, of all aipiatit , and the idea ot tie pedestrial, of all pedestrial animals, lhit tlio progrt ssioiis ot liitelligililes into llie intellectual orders, become the sources of the division of united ideas, pioduee into multitude total causes, and unfold the definite principles of multiform liatun >. For tht re is not in mt. Iligil.les one intelbitual cause of all aerial animals; since there is not a m parate intellection of jk rpi tual animals of tins kind; nm one intellectual cause ot aipiatie, nor m a similar manner ol let rest rial animals; hut the power ot difference [in tin* intellec¬ tual mdei uiiuiitely distributes tin whole into parts, and monads into iiumhi is. lit lice tht causes 01 divine animals, according to which the Dciumrgiis gives aihsisteiice to tht* ordeis ot Gods and (heinous that produce generation, exist in him separate iiom the causes of mortal natures, according to which he calls on the junior Gods to generate mortal animals. For the J)eiitiurgus pre¬ cedes tin gcncrativt energy ot these Gods, and makes by merely saying that u tl. ng ts to he m ule. lur the wards of f/n father arc demiurgic intellections, mul his intellect ions arc creations ; hut a proximate creating is adapted to the multitude of Gods. And again y ou see how the order of eflictive and gi n. rathe causes is unfolded into light. J or the choir ot mundane Gods produces indeed mortal animals, but in conjunction with motion and mutation. * And the Dcmiurms o nnoK v,]

'UMAX'S Ol' PLATO.

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* I »r fitiu ikiA,,,. I read , t rraf\nt. fur iJ lo mundam t.ud, arc in 110 pari of llie Tmixu. njire- >cnted as consulting aliout iLe fabrication of Unufi. Nor w consultation adapted to a diviue nature, because it implies imperfection.

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'UMAX'S Ol' PLATO.

a56 aKo produces them Imt l>y speaking, viz. I»y intellection. For he sjve.iks indeed, intellectually perceiving, and immmeahly and intellectually. Animal itself also produces them ; tor it contains the one cause of all winded, of all aquatic, and ot all terrestrial animals. lint it produces them with silence by its very essence, and intelligibly. For the demiurgic s|>eecli receives indeed the paternal silence, hut the intellectual prodm turn, the intelligible cause, and the generation which ►uhsists aerordini; to energizing, the providence according; to existence. Motion also receives the demiurgic words. Imt the orderly distribution which is mingled with a sensible nature, receives the intellectual energy. For tbe fabrications which exist at the extn nuty ot things require a producing cause of this kind. Eicry thing therefore which is mutable , which is changed in ijuality, which is generated and corruptible , ix generated from a cause, immoveable indeed according to essence, but tnaecd according to energy. Fur the motion which ix there separated from essence , here produces an essence which is mured. Hence, because that which makes, makes both according to essence and according to energy, both which ire as it were woven together, mutation ot essence thence derives its progression. Mortal natures therefore require moveable causes, and those that are very mutable, many such causes. I - or it is impossible that these causes should remain only-begotten ; since the mortal gem ra would not have an existence.