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

* Proclus here alludes to the following Chaldaan oracle: ‘ Direct not your attention to the immense measures of the earth; for the plant of truth is not in the earth. Nor measure the dimensions of the sun by means of collected rules; for it revolves by the eternal willof the father, and not for your sake. Dismiss the sounding course of the moon; for it perpetually runs through the exertions of necessity. The advancing procession of the [fixed] stars, was not generated for yoursahe,” Ac. See my collection of these Oracles, in No. XAVII, of the Classical Journal.

ete AEN SRAM δος σον, TL ονp. 171 and likewise, by what kind of judges, they should be tried, in one place from the tribes, but in another, from other appropriate persons, As Critias therefore admits» that the-men educated by Socrates were Athenians, he follows the conceptions and the law of Solon, conformably to which certain persons are introduced into the polity.

Soc. “ I seem to behold a perfect and splendid banquet of discussion set before me. It belongs therefore, now to you, O ‘Timaus, to begin the discourse; having first of all, as is fit, invoked the Gods according to law.”

Soc. “ I seem to behold a perfect and splendid banquet of discussion set before me. It belongs therefore, now to you, O ‘Timaus, to begin the discourse; having first of all, as is fit, invoked the Gods according to law.”

The perfection and the splendor of the narration indicate the supernatural production of things on account of their paradigms, and which takes place universally. And to these the words of Socrates refer. The banquet of discussion indicates the perfect plenitude of demiurgic forms ; but the calling on Timaus, the conversion of partial causes to the whole, and an evocation of the goods thence derived ; and the invocation of the Gods, the fabrication: supernally suspended from intelligibles. For the expression according to law, is not such as many of the Ttalic or Attic interpreters suppose it to be, butait has the same meaning as the words usually employed by the Pythagereans, “ [loner in the first place, the immortal Gods, as they are disposed by law.” For law manifests the divine order, according to which secondary are always suspended from prior causes, and are filled from them. But law thus beginning from intelligibles, extends τὸ the demiurgic cause, and from this proceeds, and is divided about the universe, At the same time, however, Socrates indicates through these things, that the Pythagoric doctrine requires that physiology should commence from a divine cause, and that it should not be such as that which he reprobates in the Phado, which blinds: the eye of the soul, by assigning airs and wthers as causes, conformably to Anaxagoras. Por itis necessary that true physiology should be suspended from theology, in the same manner as nature is suspended from the Gods, and is divided according to the total orders of them; so that words may be imitators of the things of which they are significant. For mythologists also narrate that Vulean who presides over nature was in love with Minerva, who weaves the order of intellectual forms, and is the supplier of intelligence to all mundane essences. As far as to this therefore, the preface of the Timiwus receives its completion; of which Severus, indeed, did not think fit to give any interpretation; but Longinus does not say that the whole is supertluous, but only such particulars as are introduced

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172 PROCLUS ON THE TIM.EUS OF PLATO. [Book τ.

[Book τ.

about the Atlantics, and the narration of the Egyptian; so that he is accustomed to conjoin with the request of Socrates, the promise of Critias. I mean, he connects with the words, ‘ J now therefore stand prepared to receive the promised feast,” the words, “ But now consider, Socrates, the manner of our disposing the mutual banquet of discussion.” But Porphyry and Jamblichus show that this preface accords with the whole design of the dialogue, the one indeed more partially, but the other with more profound intuition ; so that we also shall here finish the book in conformity to Plato, having adopted their order.

p. 173

BOOK, ἢ.

Tut preface of the Timieus consists of two heads sa recapitulation of the polity of Socrates, and a concise narration of the war of the Athenians against the Atlantics, and the victory which they obtained over them. Each of these, however, contributes in the greatest degree to the consummation of the whole theory of the world. For the form of the [Socratic] polity, considered by itself, is primarily adapted to the orderly distribution of the heavens. But the narration of the war and the victory, becomes a symbol to us of the mundane contrariety. And the former describes in images the first fabrication, but the latter the second. Or, if you are willing, the former describes the formal, but the latter the material cause. For all physiologists make principles to be contraries, and constitute the world from the harmonious conjunction of contraries. And harmony indeed, and order are derived trom form, which in the recapitulation is shown to proceed from the polity in common, and to extend in an orderly progression to every multitude.

For it is one thing to deliver the polity whichis in the soul, another, that which is inmen, and another, that which is mundane. But the recapitulation of Socrates, describing the form itself of every polity separately, exhibits to us primarily the polity in the universe, to which also it entirely hastens to refer (the polities that rank as] parts,

Farther still, if also you are willing to consider the aflair after another manner, the polity may be arranged as analogous to the heavens, but the war to generation. For the polity extends as far as to the last of things; since all things are arranged conformably to the series which proceeds from the demiurgus as far as to mundane natures. Contrariety also pre-exists after a manner in the heavens;

174 PROCLUS ON TUF. [BooK ιν.