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

1 It aj>|)urs to me, • hat the wore! yul)o\u.<jv is here wanlin".

BOOK ? 1

TIM I L'.s OI PLATO.

p. 417

celestial vehicle; so from this, the descent is into a gcncsiurgic hotly, according to which the soul is in gem ration ; anti from this, into a terrestrial hoilv, according to w hieh, it hvi s vv ith the testaceous hotly. lienee, hefore it is surrounded w ith this last hotly, it is invostetl with a body which connects it with all generation. And on this account, it then leaves tins hotly, when it leaves generation. But if this lie the case, it tin'll received it, when it came into generation. It came howevt r, into gene¬ ration, prior to its lapse into this last hotly. Hence prior to this last hotly it received that vehicle, anti retains the latter after the dissolution of the former. It lives there¬ fore, in this vehicle through the w hole of the gennsiurgic |>eriotI. Oil this account, Plato calls the adhering tumult, the irrational * form of life m this vehicle; and not that which adheres to the soul in each of its incarnations, as licmg that w hich circularly invests it from the first. The connascent vehicle therefore, makes the soul to he mundane; the second vehicle, causes it to he a citi/a u of generation ; and the testaceous vehicle makes it to he terrestrial. And as the life of souls is to the whole of generation,* and the whole of generation to the world, so are vehicles to each other. With respect to the circumposiliun also of the vehicles, one is perpetual, and always mundane ; another is prior to this outward hody, and posterior to it ; for it is both prior to, and subsists posterior to it, in genera¬ tion ; and a thud is then only, when it lives a certain partial life on the earth. Plato therefore, by using the term adherin'', and by suspending the irrational nature from the soul, according to all its lives, distinguishes this irrational nature from this outw ard body, mid the peculiar life of it. lint by adding the words eiternally , and afterwards, he distinguishes it from the ronnascent vehicle m which the Denviurgus made it to descend. Hence, this vehicle which causes the soul to be a citizen of generation, is a medium between both.

Timaius therefore, knew the vehicle of the irrralional life, which adheres to us prior to this outward hody. For that this irrational and tumultuous crowd, which adheres to us, from lire, earth, air, and water, does not pertain to the first vehicle, is evident. For again, this must lie urged, in consequence of some of the inter¬ preters not fathoming the depth of the theory of Plato concerning the psychical vehicles. Hence, some of them destroying the [first] vehicle are com [idled to make the soul to lie sometimes out of all body. But others preserving it, are forced to immortalize the vehicle of the irrational life; neither of them separating

1 For \oyov here, it is necessary to read aXoyor

Hence, some of them destroying the [first] vehicle are com [idled to make the soul to lie sometimes out of all body. But others preserving it, are forced to immortalize the vehicle of the irrational life; neither of them separating

1 For \oyov here, it is necessary to read aXoyor

1 Tlie original, vvliuli is evidently corrupt and defective in this place, is, rai m « x *« •ix*'*' Tt l" ycrtiri* siXijv. Instead of wllub, I read, rai ut f x r * »J <?*"! VX*"' n P °* "1* Y'rtoiv oXijr.

Tint. Plat. Vol. II. 3 G

p. 418

PIIOCLUS ON THE

[book V.

t!><* connate from the adherent vehicle, the prior from the posterior, and that which was fashioned by the one Demiiirgus, from that which was woven to the soul by the many Deminrgi, though these are clearly distinguished by IMato. It is evi¬ dent therefore, that this irrational crowd is not in the connate vehicle of the soul, into which the Demiiirgus caused the soul to ascend, for IMato clearly savs, that “ it adhered to the soul afterwards. It is likewise manifest, that neither is it the life in the testaceous body. For if it were, how is it that he sav>, that the soul in changing its bodies, will not be freed from the allotment of labours, till it subdues the tumultuous and irrational crowd, which afterwards adhered to it f lie savs therefore, that the soul exchanges one life for another, and that the irrational crowd adhered to, but is not connate with it. For this would be to change that which is appropriate and allied to it. Hence, in each of the lives of the soul, there is not a mutation of the irrational life, as there is of bodies. This life there¬ fore, is dith rent trom the enteleehetu, whit h is one in each body, and inseparable from it. For the one is 'idierent, descending with ns into the realms of genera¬ tion; but the other is changed together with bodies, from which it is inseparable. Hence, Tiina us knew, that the irrational life is different from the life of the first v< hide, and from the life of the last body. It is different from the former, because he calls it posterior, and from the latter. In-cause it is not changed in conjunction with the outward body. For it is necessary that the soul should subdue it, whin it is present with it. For the soul is separated from the ente/eeheiu of the body, and changing its bodies In tween the life of the ethereal vehicle, and the life of the testaceous body, it accomplishes the genrsiurgie period. It is however, disturbed by the irrational life. Hutto the rejection of such vehicles as these, which are mentioned by IMato, who particularly names each of the elements, the philoso¬ phic lite indeed, as he says, contributes ; but in my opinion, the telestie art is most efficacious for this purpose; through divine tire obliterating all the stains arising from generation, as the Oracles teach us, and likewise every thing foreign, which the spirit and the irrational nature of the soul have attracted to themselves.

“ But having legislatively promulgated £2i-xWjuo9fTT |( j--xv] all these things to souls, m order that he might not be the cause of the future depravity of each.”

In what is here said, IMato gives completion to the doctrine of the first fabrica¬ tion, but is established at the In-ginning of the second; preserving indeed the

BOOK V.]

1 1 MAX'S or PLATO.

41 f)

former, liberated, monadic, exempt, undel'iled, and unmingled with subordinate natures; hut suspending the latter from it, and delivering all the measures, the arrangement, and the houndaries of production, as the conseipience of the latter, hi in" perfected and governed hy, and receiving all these, from the former. Such therefore, is the scope of the proposed words. Directing our attention how¬ ever. to the demiurgic sacred law, \u> must not say, that it resemhles the law of a city, which a human legislator estahlishes, as energizing only' according to exist¬ ence. For the demiurgic will precedes the energy which is alone estahlished in existence, [or in a subsistence according to hem";] and in short, it is not lawful to consider human as the same with divine concerns. For the former, though they are sometimes assimilated to a divine nature, yet are partihly assimilated, so as in one respect to imitate the stability, in another the efficacy, and in another the perfective power, of divine natures. TV or must we admit, that a sacred law of this kind is ambiguous; as for instance, that if some one should make these things, those will follow, but i! not, the opposites to these, will Ik* the result, according to a dissimilar* intellection. For the father of wholes causally comprehends m himself, all ell’ects; not apprehending them by indefinite, but by stable genera uniformly, and perceiving generated natures in an unbegotten manner, things contmgi nt necessarily, and partibles impartible. For time and place, were generated together with the universe. The Deminrgus therefore, of the universe, estab¬ lished in himsell the principles of all things, without time, and without interval. Hence, it is necessary to admit, that the demiurgic l/icsmos, is the intellectual order, contained in the divine thesmns, which pervades through all things, is present with all things without impediment, and guards all things with purity. For I think that thesmos possi sses something more than law, so far as deity also is more excellent than intellect. For we say that law is the distribution of intel¬ lect, 1 ml thesmos, divine order, and a uniform boundary. And thus much as to tin se particulars.