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

If also it he requisite that 1 should pay some attention to my own oracle, I should say, that each of these supermundane souls has the intellectual nature, which it participates lor the impartible which is above it. For that supermundane intellect is primarily participate. Facli likewise, has the partible nature not simply, hut so tar as the multitude 01 mundane natures i" suspended from them. Hence, they are more impartible than partible, just as on the contrary, the last of souls are more partible than impartible, because the partible and not the imparti¬ ble, is the peculiarity of their « sseiice. I h nee too, eai h of these is the peculiarity' of the souls that subsist between the supermundane and the last of souls. For the impartible is peculiar to them, because a peculiar intellect is established above each of them ; and also the partible, because a peculiar body is suspended from each. And as in the latitude of souls there are so many differences, these diffe¬ rences cause tin* soul either not 1 always to abide oil hi^h, or to abide and be supermundane, or to abide and be mundane. By conceiving therefore, the soul wliii h ranks as a medium between these, to be a tiling of this kind, we shall not wonder if souls were generated equal accordin'; to section, but that some of them have their boundaries as far as to superficies, and others, as far as to solids ; w Inch also makes the latter to Ik* mundane, and to proceed into bodies; but preserves the former prior to the world, and w ithout any contact with body. Perhaps too, some of them proceed as far as to linear boundaries, but others as far as to su¬ perficies. Jlence, some of them arc alone supermundane, but others are media

1 Ov is omitted here in the original.

.WO L’ROCLUS ON THE [book v.

between supermundane and mundane souls, just as superficies are media between linear Itouiularies and solids.

Jlence, some of them arc alone supermundane, but others are media

1 Ov is omitted here in the original.

.WO L’ROCLUS ON THE [book v.

between supermundane and mundane souls, just as superficies are media between linear Itouiularies and solids.

Moreover, it is not at all wonderful that the harmony should be dilli-rent from tlie threegenera of modulations in sensibles. For it is not necessary that there should Ik* only three harmonies, but that this number of them should be appre¬ hended in sounds commensurate w ith sense. It is not however impossible that there may be certain harmonies more excellent than these, since these three genera are not assumed from division, but from experiment and sense. These also may lie admitted to exist in su|w-rmmu!ane sends, by the insertion of two media as far as to linear boundaries, and as far as to superficies, in the first duple and triple alone, or in the intervals that follow, and in these producing two cir¬ cles. Ihrc likevvise, cutting the internal circles onlv in half; for there are two intervals; but t/n re, into three parts. For so many are the intervals of the five boundaries. 1 leiice Jure, on* and three are generated, but tfurc one and five, just as IMato in tin* mundane souls, makes one and seven. According to all tilings tin rclure, it is possible for those supermundane to differ from mundane souls, and according to the medium and the multitude of circles. The ratios of IMato also, have that widt h is common, and which extends to every psyehical essence, ele¬ vating us from the psyehogony which proceeds into solid numbeis, to that which is inort simple than this, and proceeds as tar as to superficies, and from this to that vvhith proceeds only as far a* to lines. They also produce three psyehogonies, which accoril with the three genera of souls. For the progression from ail essence* perfectly impartible, into that which is distributed at cording to all imnibers, is not without a medium; but here likewise, as in all oilier things, the pro¬ gression is through media. It however, this lx- the case, it is not at all vvoiideifid, that partial souls, m which the partible nature immediately exists, but the impar¬ tible through other media, which are elevated prior to them to intellects, should cause the divisions to become more numerous with the partible nature, and these to Ik* more than with the impartible. I mean, for instance, that the sesquioctaves should Ik* divided with the apotoma* and tin* leiiumas, and that this same diatonic genus should he in them, with two intervals, but which as it wa re define the diatessaron and diapeiite, the same ratios living preserved in the extremes ; so that in these abo, the psy chogoiiir ratios take place, lint with a more abundant dif¬ ference, For of the middle genera, essence predominating, makes a divine soul, sameness a da-moniaeal, and difference, a partial soul. These likewise predo¬ minating according to different modes, many divine, many da uiouiaeal, and liuuiy partial souls, are cunstiliiled ; as IMato also indicates, when he says, that the Fb miurgiis assuming the second and third gradations of the mixture, gavo

These likewise predo¬ minating according to different modes, many divine, many da uiouiaeal, and liuuiy partial souls, are cunstiliiled ; as IMato also indicates, when he says, that the Fb miurgiis assuming the second and third gradations of the mixture, gavo nooK v.]

TIM AX'S Of PLA'IX).

3«l subsistence to partial souls. For l*y assuming m these that which is similar to tins, wo shall ho ahlo to assign tho dillercnee.s ot’ them with reference to all tho luitldlo ami tho lir-t souls, ami likewise to ■ tho following < oimnoii definition of all of th< m. Soul is an essence, which is a medium l>» tween truly-existing i*sseneo amt generation, being mingled from tho middle genera, divided into essential number, hound together hy all the middles, diatonirally harmonized, living one ami a twofold lift*, and being gnostic in one, and also a twofold man¬ ner. For hv adding to this definition the peculiarities, we shall ha\e the projier numhers of divine or da-tnoniacal, or partial souls, from the essential hypostasis of each. Wo shall likew ise lie very far from saying, that soul is the cutttccheia of the hodv, or of the physical organ hav ing life in capacity. For this definition, neither in asserting that soul pertains to a certain tiling, says what it is, nor does it comprehend every soul. For div ine souls are not the souls of organic bodies ; nor does this definition avoid comprehending in itself the tiling defined, l or that whirl i lives in capacity, has soul incapacity; all which inconveniences are avoided hy the definition gmn hy 11 s above, which is truly a definition, powers that which is common, ami which extends to all the genera of souls, explains its middle essence, and hy no means makes the object of investigation a part of the definition. We have however, been thus prolix, for the purpose of giving complt tion to the parturitions of our soul, though Flafo should not speak of the super¬ mundane soul.