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Commentaries of Proclus
ON THE
TIMAZUS OF PLATO,
IN FIVE BOOKS 5
Containing a Treasury of
| 5001 PYTHAGORIC AND PLATONIC PHYSIOLOGY. TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK, BY THOMAS TAYLOR. Epos wpos ptAogopous ἐστι φιλια" προς μεντοι σοζιστας, ἡ γραμματιστας, ἢ Υϑιονῆο yeros εἐτέρον ανθρωπὼων κακοδαιμονων, οντε νυν core φιλια, μητε νστερον wore γένοιτο. . Apollonius Ty aneus. TWO VOLUMES. se VOL. i. ες London:
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INTRODUCTION.
OF that golden chain of philosophers, who, having themselves happily pene- trated, luminously unfolded to others the profundities of the philosophy of Plato,
Proclus ts indisputably the largest and most refulgent link. Born with a genius
transcendently ereat, and accompanied throuch life with a fortune sincularl δ δ tad
good, he exhibited in his own person a union of the rarest kind, in which power concurred with will, the benetit resulting from genuine philosophy with the ability of imparting it, and in which Wisdom was inseparable from Prosperity. The eulo- gium therefore of Ammonius Hermeas, “ that Proclus possessed the power of un- folding the opinions of the ancients, and a scientific judgment of the nature of things,in the highest perfection posstale tohumanity,”' will be immediately assented to by every one, who is an adept in the writings of this incomparable man.
I rejoice therefore, in the opportunity which is now afforded me of presenting to the English reader a translation of one of the greatest productions of this Cory- phean philosopher ; though unfortunately like most of his other works, it has been transmitted to us in a mutilated state. For these Commentaries scarcely explain a third part of the Timeus ; and from a passage in Olympiodorus On the Meteors of Anstotle,” there is every reason to believe that Proclus left nu part of the
* Fa δὲ τι και ἡμεῖς δυνηθειημεν εισένεγκειν περι τὴν τὸν βιβλίον σαφηνειαν, απονημονένσαντες των εζηγησεων row θειον ἡμων διδάσκαλον LpoxXov τον πλατωνίκον διαδοχον, Tov εἰς axpoy τῆς αγθρωπινηε φυσεωε τὴν τε εξηγητικὴν τῶν δοκουντῶν τοῖς παλαιοις δνναμιν, καὶ τὴν ἐπιστημονίκην rns φυσεως τῶν Ὄντων κρισιν ἀσκησαντος, πολλὴν av τῷ λογιῳ Dew χαριν ομολογησαιμεν- Ammon, de luterpret. p. 1.
For important particularsrespecting this extraordinary man, see my translation of his Commentary en the first book of Euclid. He was born about the year 412 of Christ.
* See this passage in the notes to my translation of the Meteors of Aristotle.
ΠῚ INTRODUCTION.
Timzus without his masterly elucidations. This is likewise more than probable, from what Marinus says in his life of him, ‘that he was a man laborious to a miracle ;” for it cannot be supposed that such a man would leave the greater part of one of the most important dialogues of Plato unelucidated, and particu- Jarly as these Commentaries were written by him (as the same Marinus informs us) in the flower of his age, and that he preferred them beyond all his other works." Fortunately however, the most important part of this work is preserved ; or that part in which the demiurgic, paradigmatic, and final causes of the universe are- unfolded ; the corporeal nature of it is represented as fabricated with forms and demiurgic sections, and distributed with divine numbers ; and soul is produced from the Demiurgus, and is filied with harmonic ratios, and divine and fabriea- tive symbols. The whole mandane animal too, is here shown to be connected, ac- cording to the united comprehension which subsists in the intelligible world ; and the parts which it contains are so disposed as to harmonize with the wiole, both such as are corporeal, and such as are vital. For partial souls such as ours, are introduced into its spacious receptacle, are placed about the mundane Gods, and hecome mundane through the luciform vehicles with which they are connected. The progression of the cloments likewise from their first incorporeal subsistence to their subterranean termination, and the mature of the heavens and heavenly bodies, are beautifully developed. And as the result of the most scientific rea- that the fixed stars have periodic revolutions on their axes, though the length of their duration is
soning, it is shown that every planet is surrounded with satellites,
tous unknown; and that the stars, which at times disappear and again: become visible, are the satellites of other fixed stars of amore primary dignity, behind the splendors of which they are occasionally concealed.’ These and many other Inost interesting particulars, are unfolded in’ these Commentaries, with an accu- racy and perspicuity which have seldom been equalled, and have never been ex- celled.
' The late Dr. Charles Burney, on being once asked by me, whether he had ever read these Com- mentaries, candidly replied, ‘that they were too much for hin; atthe same time eaclaiming, ‘‘ What a giant was Proclus compared to Longinus!” ‘This confession, as the Doctor had never studied the philo- sophy of Plato, displayed a degree of good serse, which is seldom to be met with in a grammarian and philologist, om such an occasion; aud his cundour is still more remarkable, when it is considered that he had been a Reviewer.
* See p. 270. Vol. 2. in which itis saia, “ that in each of the planetary spheres, a number analogous to the choir of the fixed stars, subsists with appropriate circulations.” Sce also p. 2650 and 281, of the same volume, in which this is more fully asserted.
3 See p. 299. Vol. 2.
INTRODUCTION. v
When T speak however, of the perspicuity with which these particulars are developed, Ido not mean that they are delivered in such a way, as to be obvious to every one, or that they may be apprehended as soon as read ς for this pertains only to the fungous and frivolous productions of the present day ; but my mean- ing is, that they are written with all the clearness, which they are naturally capa- ble of admitting, or Which a genuine student of the philosophy! of Plato can desire. And this leads me to make some remarks on the iniquitous opinion which, since the revival of letters, has been generally entertained of the writtigs of Proclus and other philosophers, who are distinguished by the appellation of the latter Plato- nists, and to show the cause from which it origmated,
The opinion to which T allude is this, that Plotinus and his followers, or in other words, all the Platonists that existed from his time to the fall of the Roman empire, and the destruction of the schools of the philosophers by Justinian, cor- rupted the philosophy of Plato, by filling it with jargon and revery, and by ascribing dogmas to him, which are not to be found in his writings, and which are perfectly absurd. It might naturally be supposed that the authors of this calumny were men deeply skilled in the philosophy, the corruptors of which they profess to have detected ; and that they had studied the writings of the men whom they so grossly defame. This however is very far from being the case. For since the philosophy of Plato, as 1 have elsewhere shown, is the offspring of the most consummate science, all the dogmas of it being deduced by a series of geometrical reasoning, some of them ranking as prior, and others as posterior, and the latter depending on the former, like the propositions in’ Eucla, certain preparatory disciplines are requisite to the perfect comprehension of these doc- trines. Hence a legitimate student of this philosophy must be skilled in mathe- matics, have been exercised in all the logical methods, and not be unacquainted with physics. [16 must also be an adept in the writings of Aristotle, as pre- paratory to the more sublime speculations of Plato. And in addition to all this, he must possess those qualifications enumerated by Plato in the 7th book of his Re- public; viz. he must have naturally a good memory, learn with facility, be magnifi- cent and orderly, and the friend and ally of justice, truth, fortitude, and temperance. Since the revival of letters however, this philosophy has not been studied by men, who have had the smallest conception that these requisites were indispensably
1 Itis well said by Petwin, alluding to this philosuphy, ‘that there are certain truths acquired by a long exercise of reason, both in particular, and likewise in those subjects that are most general, as much, perhaps, out of the reach of the greatest mathematician, as the speculations of Newton are above the capacity of some that are now called matbematicians.”
vi INTRODUCTION.
necessary, or who have attempted the acquisition of it, in this regular and scienti- fic method. Hence, they have presumed to decide on the excellence of works, with the true ments of which, as they were thus unqualified, they were wholly unacquainted, and to calumniate what they could not understand, They appear likewise to have been ignorant, that Plato, conformably to all the other great philosophers of antiquity, wrote in such a way as to conceal the sublimest of his doctrines from the vulgar, as well knowing, that they would only be profaned by them without being understood; the eye of the multitude, as he says, not being sufficiently strong to bear the Jight of truth. Hence, as Proclus well observes, ! “it is needless to mention, that it is unbecoming to speak of the most divine of dogmas before the multitude, Plato himself asserting that all these are ridiculous to the many, butin an admirable manner are esteemed by the wise. Thus also, the Pythagoreans said, that of discourses some are mystical, but others adapted to be delivered openly. With the Peripatetics likewise, some are esoteric, and others exoteric; and Parmenides himself, wrete some things co.formable to truth, but others to opinion; and Zeno calls some assertions true, but others adapted to the necessary purposes of life.” The men therefore, who have defamed the latter Platonists, being thus unqualified, and thus ignorant of the mode of writing adupted by the great ancients, finding from a superficial perusal of the most genuine disciples of Plato many dogmas which were not immediately obvious in his writings, and which were to them incomprehensible, confidently asserted that these dogmas were spurious, that the authors of them were delirious, and that they had completely corrupted and polluted the philosophy of their master. It may also be added, as Olympiodorus justly observes, that the writings of Plato like those of Homer, are to be considered physically, ethically, theologically, and in short, multifariously; and that he who does not thus consider them, will in vain attempt to unfold the latent meaning they contain. By the latter Platonists however, they have been explored in this way, and he who is capable of availing himself of the clucidations of these most benevolent and most sagacious men, will find the arduous sublimities of Plato accessible, his mystic narrations conformable to scientific deductions, and his apparent obscurity, the veil of conceptions, truly
* Ore de azxpern ra Oewrara των Soyparwy ἐστιν, εἰς ἀκοὰς φερομέναᾳ τῶν woAwY, οὐδὲν dec λεγειν, avrov WAarwios εἰπονῦτον, ws παντα ravra καταγέλαστα μεν ἐστι τοις πολλοῖς, θαυμαστως δὲ alia τοις
ovgus. ovrw be και οι luda yope (ut τῶν λυγων TOUS μεν εφασκον εἰναι μυστικους, TOUS δε νπαιθριονς, καὶ οἱ
ex τὸν Tlepexarov, τοὺς μεν ἐσωτερικονς, τους δε εξωτερικους, και avtos Παρμενίδης, τα per xpos αληθειαν : E
eypaye, ta be xpos Solar, καὶ o Zyvwy ke rovs μεν adnfers exader των λόγων, τοὺς δε χρειωξεις.
Procl. MS. Comment. in Parmenid,
INTRODUCTION, vik
luminous and divine. And thus much as to the cause of the prevailing iniqui- tous opinion, respecting the writings of the latter Platonists; for the authors of jt, I have not been able to discover. But of this I am certain, and posterity will confirm the decision, that whoever they were, they were no less ignorant than arrogant, no less contemptible than obscure.