The Theology of Plato, in six books — trans. Thomas Taylor

trument, to the cathartic virtues which pertain to reason alone, withdrawing from other things to itself, throwing aside the instruments of sense as vain, repressing also the energies through these instruments, and liberating the soul from the bonds of generation. He then adds, " Proclus having made a proficiency, through these virtues, as it were by certain mystic steps, recurred from these to such as are greater and more telestic, being conducted to them by a prosperous nature and scientific discipline. For being now purified, rising above generation, and despising its thyrsus-bearers,' be was agitated with a divinely inspired fury, about the first essences, and became an inspector of the truly blessed spectacles which they coutain. No longer collecting discursively and demonstratively the science of them, but surveying the in u* it were by simple intuition, and beholding through intellectual energies tbe paradigms in a divine tC.ll^£t p H-SSU til 1 ^lj^ ^ VlF ^Fs>llCs>l 0U2 110 lOO^CT a^^ dcUOIHittea1 sjC^sI wWlCUl 0£ a bttsi ^rYa*adl OU|j^ ll t Flat.}] CP to be called wisdom, or something still more venerable than this. The ; gizing according to this virtue, easily comprehended all the theology of the Greeks and and that which is adumbrated in mythological fictions, aud brought it into light, to those who are willing and able to understand it. He explained likewise every thing in a mora enthusiastic manner, and brought the different theologies to an harmonious agreement. At the same time also, investigating the writings of the ancients, whatever he found in them genuine, he judiciously adopted ; but if he found any thing of a spurious nature, this, he entirely rejected as erroneous. He also strenuously subverted by a diligent examination such doctrines as were contrary to truth. In his associations too with others, he employed no less force and perspicuity. For he was a man laborious beyond measure ; as, in one day, he gave five, and sometimes more lectures, and wrote

■ Socrates in the Phardo of Plato, Orphically calls the multitude thyrsus-bearers as living TilannicaMy. For tbe thyrsus, says Olymjriodorn*, (in MS. comment in Pliasd.) is a symbol uf material and partible fabrication, on account of its divulaed continuity, whence also it is a Titannic plant. " For it is txteaded, says he, before Bacchus, instead of his paternal sceptre, and through this they call him into a partial nature.

a symbol uf material and partible fabrication, on account of its divulaed continuity, whence also it is a Titannic plant. " For it is txteaded, says he, before Bacchus, instead of his paternal sceptre, and through this they call him into a partial nature. He adds, " Besides the Titans are thyrsus-bearers; and Prometheus concealed fire in a read, whether by this we an to understand that he draws down celestial light into generation, or impels soul into body, or calls forth divine illumination, the whole of which is l

INTRODUCTION.

as many as seven hundred verse*. Betides this, he went to other philosophers, and spent the evening in conversation with them. And all these employments he executed in such a manner as not to neglect his nocturnal and vigilant piety to the Gods, and assiduously supplicating the huh when rising, when at his meridian altitude, and when he sets."

M annus farther observes of this most extraordinary man, " that be did not seem to be without divine inspiration. For words similar to the most white and thick-tailing snow ' proceeded from his wise mouth, his eyes appeared to be filled with a fulgid splendor, and the rest of his face to participate of divine illumination. Hence Rufinus, a man illustrious in the Republic, and who was also .1 man of veracity, and in other respects venerable, happening to be present with him when he was lecturing, perceived that his bead was surrounded with a light. And when Proclus had finished his lecture, Rufinus rising, adored him, and testified by an oath the truth of the divine vision which tie had seen."

Marians also informs us, "that Proclus being purified in an orderly manner by the Chaldean purifications, was an inspector of the lucid Heratic visions, as he himself somewhere mentions in one of his writing*. By opportunely moving Likewise a certain Hecatic spharula,* he procured shower* of rain, and freed Athens from an unseasonable heat. Besides tins, by certain phylactcria or charms, he stopt an earthquake, and had made trial of the divining energy of the tripod, having been instructed by certain verses respecting its failure. For when he was in his fortieth year, be appeared in a dream to utter the following verses :

High abo?e a-ther there with radiance bright,
A pure immortal splendor wings its flight ; 1
Whose beams divine with vivUI force aspire,
And leap resounding from a fount of hre.

* Alluding to the beautiful description given of Ulysses in the third book of the Iliad, v. n. which is thus elegantly paraphrased by Pope.

rtal splendor wings its flight ; 1
Whose beams divine with vivUI force aspire,
And leap resounding from a fount of hre.

* Alluding to the beautiful description given of Ulysses in the third book of the Iliad, v. n. which is thus elegantly paraphrased by Pope.

But when he speaks what elocution flows!
8oft as the fleeces of descending snows
The copious accents fall with easy art :
Melting they fall and sink into the heart.

* Nicephorus in bis commentary on Synesius de Insomniis, p. 3da. informs us that the Heratic orb is a golden sphere, which has a sspphire'stooe inclosed in its middle part, and through its whole extremity characters, aod various figures. He adds, that turning this sphere round, the Chaldeans perform invocations which they call Ijnga:. Thus too, according to Suidas, the magician Julian of Chalda-a, and Arnuphis the Egyptian brought down showers of rain, by a magical power. And by an artifice of this kind, Empedvcles was accustomed to restrain the fury of the winds; on which account tie was called t>»«Ji»if«,-( mu erptlltr of wind.

* This signifies that the divine splendor which is the cause of the prophetic energy, would leave the earth, in consequence of the then Misting inaptitude of persons, places, and instruments, to receive it.

Proc. Vol. I. g

I INTRODUCTION.

And io the beginning of his fortj-secoud year he appeared to himself to pronounce with a loud

Lo ! on my soul a sacred Arc descends,
Whose vivid power the intellect estends ;
From whence far beaming thro' dull body's night,
It soars to xthcr deck'd with starry light ;
And with soft murmurs thru' tbeaiura round.
The lucid regions of tlie Gods resound.

•

Besides, he clearly perceived that tie belonged to the Mercurial series ; and was persuaded from \ dream, that he possessed the soul of Nicomachus the Pythagorean."'

In the last place, M annua adds, " that the lovers of more elegant studies may be able to conjecture from the position of the stars under which he was bom, that the condition of his life, was by no means among the but or middle, but among the first orders, we have thought lit to expose in this place the following scheme of his nativity."

0 16° «6* « > 17 29 n

■ No opinion is more celebrated, than that of the metempsychosis of Pythagoras ; but perhaps no doctrine is more generally mistaken. By most of the present day it is exploded as ridiculous ; and the few who retain some veneration for its founder, endeavour to destroy the literal, and to confine it to an allegorical meaning.