Timaeus — Plato

and the motion of the inner circle the motion of the other or diverse. The motion of the same he carried round by the side ^ to the right, and the motion of the diverse diagonally 2 to the left.

And he gave dominion to the motion of the same and like, for that he left single and undivided ; but the inner motion he divided in six places and made seven unequal circles having their intervals in ratios of two and three, three of each, and bade the orbits proceed in a direction opposite to one another ; and three [Sun, Mercury, Venus] he made to move with equal swiftness, and the remaining four [Moon, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter] to move with unequal swiftness to the three and to one another, but in due proportion.

Now when the Creator had framed the soul according to his will, he formed within her the corporeal universe, and brought the two together, and united them centre to centre. The soul, interfused everywhere from the centre to the circumference of heaven, of which also she is the external envelopment, herself turning in herself, began a divine beginning of never-ceasing and rational hfe enduring through- 37 out all time..

The body of heaven is visible, but the soul is invisible, and partakes of reason and harmony, and being made by the best of intellectual and everlasting natures, is the best of things created.

'^^ And because she is composed of the same and of the other and of the essence, these three, and is divided and united in due proportion, and in her revolutions returns upon herself, the soul, when touching anything which has essence, whether dispersed in parts or undivided, is stirred through all her powers, to declare the sameness or difference of that thing and some other ; and to what individuals are related, and by what affected, and in what way and how and when, both in the world of generation and in the world of immutable being.

And when reason, which works with equal truth, whether she be in the circle of the diverse or of the same — in voiceless silence holding her onward course in the sphere of the self-moved — when reason, I say, is hovering around the sensible world and when the circle of the diverse also moving truly imparts the intimations ^ i. e. of the rectangular figure supposed to be inscribed in the circle of the Same. ' i. e. across the rectangular figure from corner to corner.

Timaeus. TiMAEUS. to the left (i. e. the circle of the Other). The latter was subdivided into seven unequal circles (i. e. the orbits of the seven planets).

After framing 'v^ the soul, God formed within her the body of the

The soul, being compounded of the Same, the Other, and the Essence, is moved to utter the sameness or otherness of any essence which she touches. When contemplating the sensible world, she attains to true opinion ; when the rational, to knowledge.

p. 456

' Non in tempore, sed cum tempore, finxit Deus mundum.''

Timaeus. TlMAEUS.

God, to make creation more perfect, endowed it with the immortality of which it is capable. To this end he made time, — a moving image of eternity, which ife immovable. Ihe modes of time are not to' be applied to the eternal essence.

of sense to the whole soul, then arise opinions and beliefs sure and certain. But when reason is concerned with the rational, and the circle of the same moving smoothly declares I it, then intelligence and knowledge are necessarily perfected^ And if any one affirms that in which these two are found to be other than the soul, he will say the very opposite of the truth.

When the father and creator saw the creature which he had made moving and living, the created image of the eternal gods, he rejoiced, and in his joy determined to make the copy still more like the original ; and as this was eternal, he sought to make the universe eternal, so far as might be. Now the nature of the ideal being was everlasting, but to bestow this attribute in its fulness upon a creature was impossible.

Wherefore he resolved to have a moving image of eternity, and when he set in order the heaven, he made this image eternal but moving according to number, while eternity itself rests in unity ; and this image we call time. For there were no days and nights and months and years before the heaven was created, but when he constructed the heaven he created them also.

They are all parts of time, and the past and future are created species of time, which we unconsciously but wrongly transfer to the eternal essence ; for we say that he * was,' he ' is,' he * w^ll be,' but the truth is that ' is ' alone is properly attributed to him, and that ' was ' 38 and 'will.be' are only to be spoken of becoming in time, for they are motions, but that which is immovably the same cannot become older or younger by time, nor ever did or has become, or hereafter will be, older or younger, nor is subject at all to any of those states which affect moving and sensible things and of which generation is the cause.

These are the forms of time, which imitates eternity and revolves according to a law of number. Moreover, when we say that what has become is become and what becomes is becoming, and that what will become is about to become and that the nonexistent is non-existent, — all these are inaccurate modes of expression ^ But perhaps this whole subject will be more suitably discussed on some other occasion.