all celestial and sublunary natures ? For he who introduces partial souls into the universe as into their habitation, and imparts to them a total polity which is the best of all polities, and is governed by the most excel- lent laws, is he who denominates these laws the laws of Fate, who defines the measures of Justice, and legally institutes all things, as Timseus says. Is it not therefore superfluous to endeavour to prove that he who possesses the first paradigm of the political science* is according to Plato the demi- urgus?
If, however, these things are true, and according to the fable in the Protagoras it must be admitted that the political science first subsists in Jupiter, it is evident from what has been said, that the demiurgus of the universe is Jupiter. For to what other cauee can we grant the primary form of the political science to belong, than to that which arranges and adorns the universe ? If the polity ia the heavens is the first and most perfect of all polities, as Socrates in the Republic says k is. Who like- wise is he that produces all things, and co-arranges them when produced to each other, in order to the elegant disposition of the universe ? If, therefore, the first and most perfect demiurgus of the universe is political,, but the political science first subsists with Jupiter, being established with him on a sacred foundation, proceeds from thence to all secondary natures, and adorns and arranges both wholes and parts according ft> intellect, it is evidently necessary that the demkirgus of wholes should be the same with Jupiter, and that there should be one byparxis of both, which administers every thing in the world according to rectitude, and ' circularly leads every thing confused and disorderly into order. For, says Timaeus, it is not lawful for that which is best to effect any thing else than that which is most beautiful. How therefore is it possible that he who adorns and arranges wholes through Themis, and together with ber produces all things, should not essentially possess in himself the whole of the political science ?
How is it possible likewise that he should not be the first Jupiter, who definitely imparts to ail things that which is divine, and weaves one polity from all things, but is exempt from all partial causes and the Titannic genera, and is guarded by his own undefiled powers, beyond the whole
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world ? For the guards which surround him, obscurely signify his immu- table order, and the undeviating defence of fabrication, through which being firmly established in himself, he pervades through all things without impediment, and being present to all his progeny, is according to supreme transcendency expanded above wholes. Moreover, the citadel of Jupiter, according to the rumours of theologists, is a symbol of intellectual circula- tion, and of the highest summit of Olympus, which all the wise suspend from the intellectual watch tower of Jupiter, to which he extends all the mundane Gods, imparting to them from thence intellectual powers, divine light, and vivific illuminations, and compressing all the profundi- ties of the worlds by one most simple circulation, through which the summit also of the apparent worlds is denominated the period of same- ness, and the most prudent and uniform circulation, as Timeeus says, expressing the unical intellectual power of demiurgic conversion, and being allotted the same transcendency with respect to all the sensible world that the supreme summit of Jupiter possesses with respect to all the arrangement of the firmaments. These things may also be assumed by us as subservient to the proposed investigation, from the fabulous fictions in the Protagoras.
RAPIER XXV.
Wb may, however, approach still nearer to the truth, and assume in the present discussion, the fable in the Politicus. For in this it will ap- pear that Plato in a remarkable manner considers the demiurgus of the universe to be the same with Jupiter, and even as far as to the very names asserts the same things a6 Timaeus. The Elean guest, therefore, as we have before observed, assigns £in this dialogue] twofold circulations
380 ON THE THEOLOGY BOOK V.
to the whole of this world, the one intellectual, and which elevates souls but the other proceeding into nature, and imparting things contrary to the former. And the one indeed, being unapparent, and governed by divine providence, but the other apparent, and convolved according to the order of Fate. He also places twofold motive causes over these circulations. For every mutation and period require a certain moving cause. And prior to the causes that move the circulations, he asserts that there are as it were twofold ends of the periods, and assigns first- effective canscs of the motions, coordinate to the moving causes, and to the circulations themselves which differ from each other. Jupiter there- fore moves, and circularly leads one of the periods, whether you are wil- ling to call it intellectual, or providential, or in whatever other way you may denominate it, and he also supplies the world with life, and imparts to it a renovated immortality. But he prcestablishes his father Saturn as the object of desire to, and the end of the whole of this circulation. For he leads back wholes, and converts them to himself.
Moreover, he extends happy souls to the watch-tower of his father, viz. those souls whose corporeal nature is obliterated, and whose circulation is to the incorporeal and the impartible. All the generation-producing* symbols likewise of these souls are amputated, and the form of their life is transferred to the intellectual summit. For these souls are also said to t>e the nurselings of Saturn, but to commit the government of themselves to Jupiter, and through him to be extended to the intelligible, and the Saturnian dominion. For the intelligible is nutriment, as it is said by the Gods themselves. And as Socrates in the Phaedrus elevates souls through the circulation of the heaven to the supercelestial place, where souls are nourished, survey true beings, and the unknown order of the Cods, with the highest powers of themselves, and as he there says, intel- lectually perceive with the lieads of the charioteers,— thus also the Elean guest circularly leads souls under Jupiter, to the Saturnian watch-tower, and asserts that such as have ascended are nourished by Saturn, and calls them the nurselings of the God. For every where indeed, the intelligible is perfective of, and has the power of filling an intellectual life, and the
• For Tttovtwpy*, it is necessary to read yntvMp/x.
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©F PLATO.
pate of the natures that are beyond, establish themselves in more elevated intellectuals, and ascend as far as to the unknown order, but remote from the good, and the one principle of all things. But the souls [that ascend through the circulation of the heaven] are extended to the first intellect, which is imparticipable, and the intelligible itself, and when they are there, and have established their life in the occult order as in a port, they ineffably participate of the union proceeding from the good, and of the light of truth.
With respect however to what remains respecting the twofold periods, as we have said, the world itself indeed moves itself, being moved according to its own nature, and giving completion to the order of Fate. But the nrst-eflective cause of this motion of the world, and of its life, i» the God who illuminates it with the power of being moved and of living, and is the mighty Jupiter. Hence also this period is said to be Jovian, so far as Jupiter is the cause of this apparent arrangement, just as Saturn is the cause of the intellectual and unapparent arrangement. It is better, however, to hear Plato himself discussing these things. That there are, therefore, twofold circulations of the universe, and that the God who moves it is the leader of the one, but of the other the world itself convolv- ing itself, Plato here teaches us. But as was just now said, and which is the only thiug that remains, the universe is at one time co-governed by another divine cause, again acquiring life, and receiving a renovated immortality from the deouurgus; but at another time, when he lays aside as it were the handle of his rudder, the world being left by itself, moves for a time by itself, so as frequently to proceed in an inverted order.
Again, however, that one of the periods, viz. the apparent, in Jovian, but that the other is referred to the kingdom of Saturn, Plato himself determines in what follows, subjoining these words, after the celebration of that life, and of the undented polity of the souls that are there, which is liberated from all corporeal pains, and the servitude about matter : " You have beard, Socrates, what was the life of men under Saturn ; but youyourself have seen what the condition of the present life is, which is said to be under Jupiter." And moreover, that of these two circulations,
Ow the Theology
(since the apparent is under'" Jupiter) Jupiter is the cause and maker of it, is obvious to every one, and that again Jupiter is the power that moves the unapparent circulation, which is Saturnian, may be demonstrated from what in written. For it is necessary that these two Gods should cither rule over each of these circulations, or that one of them should rule over the unapparent, but the other over the present circulation. If, however, Jupiter moves the universe according to this period, the world can no longer be said to convolve itself, and to govern every thing it contains. Nor will it be true neither that the whole is convolved by divinity with twofold and contrary circulations, nor again, that two certain Gods convolve it whose decisions are contrary to each other. For if Saturn indeed moves it according to one circulation, but Jupiter moves it according to a period contrary to that of Saturn, two Gods will move it according to contrary circumvolutions. If, however, these things are impossible, it is indeed manifest to every one that both the divine causes preside over the circulation according to the Saturnian convolution; Saturn indeed as the supplier of an intellectual life; but Jupiter, as elevating all things to the Saturnian empire, and establishing them in his own intelligible. And thus that period may be called Sa- turnian, in consequence of Saturn imparting the first effective cause of the whole [of an intellectual] life. But according to this more physical circulation, and which is known to every one, Fate and connate desire move the universe.
Jupiter, however, is the cause of this motion esemptly, who gives Fate and an adscititious life to the world. These things, therefore, being demonstrated by us, let us consider what the particulars are which are asserted of the God who moves the world according to the other period. And they are these; " that the world indeed at another time is conjointly governed by another divine cause, again acquiring life, and receiving a renovated immortality from the demiurgus." It is obvious, therefore, to every one, that the Elean guest says, that the God who moves the universe according to the Saturnian period, supplies it with life, and imparts to it a renovated immortality, and that he clearly calls him the demiurgus. Hence, if it is Jupiter who conjointly governs that