With respect to the life of Proclus, it his been written with great elegance by his disciple Mari- ons ; and a translation of it by me prefixed to my version of the commentaries of Proclus was pub- lished in 1788. From the edition of that life therefore, by Fabricius, the following particulars relative to this very extraordinary man are extracted, for the information of the reader who may not have the translation of it in his possession. According to the accurate chronology then of Fabricius, Proclus was born at Byzantium in the year of Christ 412, on the 6th of the Ides of February, and died in the one hundred and twenty-fourth year after the reign of the empe- ror Julian, on the seventeenth day of the Attic Munichion, or the April of the Romans, Nicagoran the junior, being at that time the Athenian archon. His father Patriciua, and his mother Marcella, were both of them of the Lyc'tan nation, and were no le*s illustrious for their virtue than their birth. As soon as he was bom, his parents brought him to their native country Xantbus, which was sacred to Apollo. And this, says Martinis, happened to him by a certain divine allotment. " For, he adds, I think it was necessary that he who was to be the leader of alt sciences, should be nourished and educated under the presiding deity of the Muses." The person of Proclus was uncommonly beautiful ; and he not only possessed all tbe moral and intellectual virtues in the highest perfection, but the veatigies of them also, which are denominated the physical virtues, were clearly seen, says Marinus, in his last and shelly vestment the body. Hence he possessed a remarkable acuteness of sensation, and particularly in the most honourable of the senses, sight and hearing, which, as Plato says, were imparted by the Gods to men for the purpose of philosophising, and for the well being of the animal life, in the second place, he possessed so great a strength of body, that it was neither injured by cold, nor any endurance of labours, though these were extreme, both by night and day. In the third place, he was, as we have before observed, very beautiful. " For not only, says Marinus, did his body possess great symmetry, but a living light as it were beaming from his soul was efflorescent in his body, and shone forth with au admira- ble- splendor, which it is impossible to di-scribe." Marinus adds, " Indeed he was so beautiful, that no painter could accurately exhibit his resemblauce ; and all the pictures of him which were circulated, though very beautiful, were very inferior to the beauty of the original." And in the fourth place, he possessed health in such perfection, that he was not ill above twice or thrice in the course of so long a life as seventy-five years.
Such then were the corporeal prerogatives which Proclus possessed, and which may be called the forerunners of the forms of perfect virtue. But he possessed in a wonderful manner what Plato calls the elements of a philosophic genius.' For he had an excellent memory, learned with facility, was magnificent and graceful, and the friend and ally of truth, justice, fortitude, and tern,
■ See the sixth bouk of the Republic of Plato.
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pemnce. Having for a short space of time applied himself in Lycia to grammar, he weal to Alex- andria in Egypt, and was there instructed in rhetoric by Leonas who derived his lineage from lsauru*, and in grammar by Orion, whose ancestors discharged the sacerdotal office among the Egyptians, and who composed elaborate treatises on that art. A certain good fortune however, says iMarinun, brought him back to the place of his nativity. For on his return his tutelar Goddess exhorted him to philosophy, and to visit the Athenian schools. Having therefore, first returned to Alexandria and bade farewell to rhetoric, and the other arts which he had formerly studied, he gave himself up to the discourses of the philosophers then resident at Alexandria. Here, he became an auditor of Olyrnpiodorus,1 the most illustrious of philosophers, for the sake of imbibing the doc- trine of Aristotle ; and was instructed in the mathematical disciplines by Hero, a religious man, and eminently skilful in teaching those sciences. Prod us however, not being satisfied with the Alexandrian schools, went to Athens, " with a certain splendid procession, says Martnus, of all elo- quence and elegance, and attended by the Gods that preside over philosophy, and by beneficent daemons. For that the succession of philosophy, might be preserved legitimate and genuine, the Gods led him to the city over which its inspective guardian presides." Hence Proclua was called x«r' htf way of eminence, the Platonic Succetsor. At Athens therefore, Proclus fortunately met with the first of philosophers, Syrianus,* the son of Philoxenus, who not only much assisted him in his studies, but made him his domestic as to other concerns, and the companion of his philo- sophic life, having found him such an auditor and successor as he had. a long time sought for, and one who was capable of receiving a multitude of disciplines and divine dogmas.
In less than two whole years therefore, Proclus read with Syrianus all the «orks of Aristotle, vii. his logic, ethics, politics, physics, and theological science. And being sufficiently instructed in these as in certain proteleia, or things preparatory to initiation, and lesser mysteries, Syrianus led him to the mystic discipline of Plato, in an orderly progression, and not according to the Chaldean oracle with a transcendent foot. He likewise enabled Proclus to survey in conjunction with him, says Marinus, truly divine mysteries, with the eyes of his soul free from material daikness, and with undefiled intellectual vision. But Proclus employing sleepless exercise and attention, both
' This Olympiodorus is not the fame with I he philosopher of that nunc whose leurnrd commentaries on cer- tain dialogues of Plato are extant in manuscript ; as in these, not only Proclus, but Darnascius who flourished after Proclus is celebrated.
* This truly great man appears to luu o been ihe first who thoroughly penetrated the profundity contained in the writings of the moie ancient philosophers, contemporary with and prior to Plato, and to have demon- strated the admirable agreement of their doctrines with each other. Unfortunately but few of bis works are
by night and by tiny, arid avnoptically and judiciously committing to writing what be beard from Syria ii in, made so great a progress in a little time, that by then he wu twenty-eight year* of age, he had composed a multitude of work* and among the rest hit commentarie are truly elegant and full of science. But from men a discipline as this, his adorned ; and a.s he advanced in science he ;
Marinus after this, shows how Proclus possessed all the virtues in the greatest possible perfec- tion; and how be proceeded from the exercise of the political virtues, which are produced by reason adorning the irrational part as its instrument, 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 con- ducted 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
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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 man- ner, 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 Bac- chus, 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
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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 partici- pate 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 puri- fications, 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.
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
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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.