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

And thus much as to this particular.

But let us in the next place, connect w ith this, a survey of the w ords severally. The semination of souls therefore, with their vehicles about the junior (Hods, pre¬ cedes every other fabrication of thesi (Hods. For it is necessary that they should have leaders not only as souls, but as mundane natures ; and that as being allot¬ ted the gov eminent of animals, they should be arranged under some of the div me circulations. The semination however, exhibits through the very name of it, the partible allotment of the vehicles; the power which is comprehensive in the invi¬ sible of all partial in total souls; and the prolific energy of divine bodies, accord¬ ing to which they fill from their own life, partial vehicles, with the peculiarity of themselves. For every thing that is sown receives something from its subject earth. Hence, from all that lias been said, tins is in the tir-'t place evidi nt, that there is no dissemination about the soul of the universe. For it is not proper to oppose the semination about this soul, to that about other souls, nor the whole world to its parts. For if it were possible for a partial soul to remain on high, during the whole period of" the universe, it would he possible 1 for a semination of souls to take place, about the soul ot the universe. ]>ut this smil indeed , is arranged in the xi orid us a monad. I or it is the cu-arranged monad oj' the mundane souls, that distribute* the potters of it. For with each of the divine bodies, a power of the soul of the universe is present. About this number however, the genera, that are superior to us and partial souls, are divided, these having the order of attendants. And m the second place, there is a semination of souls in each of the sublunary elements, and in the celestial spheres, and the stars. We have however before shown what the natures are about which the distribution of souls takes place; so that the semination also, is about the

’ tor Lcrr, I roil r>.

1 Instead ofratru in I to plait, 1 iMictis*ar\ to read wuirrj.

* Forai v tarot- litre, it is reijuiMte lo read iviarcy.

Instead ot karairi/tufityqt 111 this plate, il is obviously iieicsi.iry to read taraitifiufittuy.

nook v.]

TIM/I US or PI.ATO.

p. 423

1 Instead ofratru in I to plait, 1 iMictis*ar\ to read wuirrj.

* Forai v tarot- litre, it is reijuiMte lo read iviarcy.

Instead ot karairi/tufityqt 111 this plate, il is obviously iieicsi.iry to read taraitifiufittuy.

nook v.]

TIM/I US or PI.ATO.

p. 423

vehicles of them. l or all of them contribute to the generation of time, some by themselves, but others together with wholes, in the same manner as the stars. And all of them are the instruments of time. For all the lived stars, and everv mundane (bid, being circularly moved, have entirely periods of time, according to which, the w bob’' time of the mundane life is measured ; and they have likewise apocatastasrs, hi common with this life, and with each other. Hut Plato only makes mention of those instruments of time, the apocatastatic periods of which may be obtained from sense. Dividing the whole world however, into heaven and generation, he assumes the moon, and the earth, as the extremes of these according to position, and is satisfied with these, because he is speaking of the division of the last souls, and the semination of the most partial vehicles, which are naturally adapted to mutation, and to approximate, and enter into the most gross corporeal masses.

After these particulars also, it is worth while to know in the third place, that vehicles are likewise disseminated about the lived stars. I’or every part of the world is lull of partial souls, who are spread under their saviour Gods, and fol¬ low the (hemons that are suspended from them. lint whether any one of these partial bodies, is elevated above tie* Saturnian sphere; 1 or whether all of them are arranged in the planetary spheres according to an alliance with the fixed stars, deserves to Im* considered. I’or ot the planets themselves, it is said by those who arc skilled in these allairs, that diflerent planets an* allied to ditlcrcnt signs of the zodiac. It is not therctore at all wonderful, if the vehicles of souls Is-ing in the planetary spheres, ditlcrcnt vehicles should revolve in conjunction with diffe¬ rent lived stars. For some one may conceive this to he more rational, than to make them situated above the Saturnian sphere; since this place [i. e. the plane¬ tary sphere] is more adapted to variety of life, to a tendency to generation, and to a nature mingled from bodies that have a circular, and bodies that have a rec¬ tilinear, motion. It is better however to say, that there is a semination about the fixed stars, and that the vehicles which are purified, starry-form, and unincum¬ bered, having a simple life, and a motion about intellect, and wisdom, and fol¬ lowing the period of the same , ascend as far as to the inerratic sphere. For it would he ridiculous, that souls should be distributed about the fixed stars, and that there should lie a semination of their vehicles alKmt another thing. For as soul is to soul, so is vehicle to kindred* vehicle. It is better therefore to admit this,

For it would he ridiculous, that souls should be distributed about the fixed stars, and that there should lie a semination of their vehicles alKmt another thing. For as soul is to soul, so is vehicle to kindred* vehicle. It is better therefore to admit this,

■ There is an omission in ibis place in the original, of the word efvtpa », which evidently ought lo be inserted.

* Instead of rv^iyn here, I read ruyyoo.

p. 424

PllOCLUS ON THE

[BOOK T.

than to assert that rouIs nre disseminated there, hut that their vehicles 1 do not ascend as far as to the vehicles of the fixed stars ; since everywhere parts hasten to wholes, when they subsist according to nature, unless they haji|»eii to l>e dis¬ solved hv tilings foreign to the natures to which they tend; tin* psychical vehicles l>emg indissoluble, and immortal, through their generation from the one Pemiurgus. These assertions therefore, are rather to Ik* admitted than the former, re¬ specting the semination and distribution of souls and their vehicles, both of them lx*ing effected by the Pemiiirgus.