ia answer to this, that lime is indeed prior to soul, as eternity is prior to intellect; but that soul i> tin* host of generated n itures, which arc essentially generated, and not onlv according to their being present with secomlary natures, lint also have a generation according to their inward energy, and an essence divisible into a multitude of parts, such as Plato himself has delivered tons. lint time being, as we have demonstrated, essentially an eternal intellect, is participated in a •reiterated manner, not at once wholly, nor imnmvenhly, like the intellects prior to it, but moveable. Whence also as intellect, it perfects the soul, and is gene¬ rated according to participations; flowing abundantly into its participants, and making generations to 1m* as things numbered. Thus therefore, in consequence of entirely running together with the nuinlwrs of generations, 1 it may be shown to lx* generated. Hence too, proceeding according to numlM-r, it is said to l>e moveable; but not to be number, as the time is, which is prior to things numbered. For these reasons therefore, Plato here calls time eternal, because it is eternal according to its inward energy, the whole of which it possesses at once present. Hut m the Laws he says, that the soul i> indeed indestructible, yet not eternal because it is not allotted an immutable inward energy.
“ Hut the divinity having made the bodies of these stars, placed them, being seven in number, in the seven circulations, formed by the periodic motion of the circle of the different."
That Plato <h nominates the sun and moon, and the other I've stars, as ani¬ mals endued with soul and intellect, is manifest from his adding in what is now said, that the divinity made the bodies of each of them, in consequence of the stars themselves being intellectual and vital. For he does not sav, that he made the bo- dies themselves, * but the bodies of them. It must be said therefore, that the cir¬ culations of them are epicycles, or evolving circles, or the whole spheres, in which each of the stars is placed. Or it must lie said, that they an* no one of these, but as the divine Iainblichus apprehends, the circulations signify the intel¬ lectual souls of the planets. For as before, the divinity fashioned the w hole bulk of the world w ithin the soul, so now likewise, he places the seven bodies in the seven intellectual souls, at the same tune causing souls and intellects to preside over these bodies. 5>iuce however, much prior to this, Plato represented the
1 Instead of rot/ (kniait trvt rtSpn/tmrn tnvrui apiOfiOy m I hi3 }>UtC, it »]>J to H*C to be OCCCtHTJ lO read, rc<» (nn wr ovttKcpafiorTa -n» rmit a, lO/uctf.
* For amjtf here, it is accessary to read aira.
PROCI.US ON Til!.
n o o k ! '
jx-riod of tin* circle of the different in tin* whole soul, us presidio- over those seven tin i„,. bodies, lie very prop.-rly adds, < ivmmdm- us of what had l*-«*n helore sui<l, “/// the seven circulations formed btf th, jari.dic motmn iff tin circlt of tin dtf- 'final in the Me seal." Ami a-ain lu- m o.if.-sls tin., I.y sp.-ahm- m tin- ^in-'tthir lor this nr, I.* is mnln ul< il, tlum-li it is -aid to liav.* In-rii cut. Ami it dors not lose its unity »»> tin- division of it into '. \«-:i envies.
|»,. r i, ;i p, bow ever, it will In- heller to s,>, ll.:.t tin 1 Vmmr-us , -laMished the
hodi. s oi tin-roMiiormtors, in tin-poui rs ol tin- win.:.-soul, but not yet m their
pro|H-r Minis nor in tln ir spln-r.-s. For tin- 'voids, form. <1 by tin* p. no.lu- mo¬ tion of tin- circle of tin* diHerent,'' niniiif.-si tliut tins «U'> n<»t l>\ its motion
cireimiv.ihe tins,- bodies. lot tins cirri. Inin- om-, and diiul.-ilmlos.-ven parts, pio< o ils round tin- li\« > ot tln-s. divine bodies. I’m t.irtln-r on lM.ito '.in, tliut tin fixed stars an- placed in tin- wisdom of intellect, which is tin- soul of tin- ,-in-l.- of thcsanie. For that is most powerful and excellent to winch the D« 1111 - lll4ll s iinparl. il power. Hut tin- wisdom of this U an intellectual life. d'lms therefor. In- now p!ans tin- sev. n hod., s u. the seven circles of the "Imle soul. \nd a-uin, it "ill thnni-J. lh.-s.- tliin-s b. - vid.nl, how tin- sm.pli.-it> ot th. sou! is preserved, a> with n fi-r. in. to tin- .-orp-u.-al pmods. I or tin .me.nvleot the Slime animates accoidm- to oiu- union, hotli tin- in. rrali.- sphere, and th. sta-s .1 contains. And in a similar manner . a. h ot tin- s,-v. u plan, ts, art nrdm- to .un¬ common pow.-r, animates both tin- spin i. s,' and the stars they contain. >"W tin rt fon , 1‘lat.. speaks ot tin- soul whi. li is common to lli.-ui; hut shortly alter h.* also .1. livers the soul p« ruliar to ea« h, win n he >avs, ■ that hem- hound with animat. .1 bonds th.-> h. came animals." For then they are no lon-. r animated as parts, hut as animals, throu-h tln ir proper souls.
“ And tin moon indeed, lie; placed in the First cite illation about the earth; lint the sun, in the second above the earth ; and the star caller! I noth r/ and that which is sacred to Mercury, in circulations proceeding with a swiftness equal to that of the* sun, to which at the same time they are allotted a contrary power. Hence the Sun, Iateih r, and Mercury, mutmdlv comprehend, and are comprehended by each other.
Not only from what is In n said, it is , ml. nt what order Spin-lies t;iv«- to th.
I In liic iiliuiiul kuru h'tttfin /mif tm r«.‘ mI.m Ii i-* " 'h * 4 *
rrroiicoio. t ri.nl lin n (••ii-, inslia.l of t!n», <■; earn /..<** *■*" ‘■“•'C* -"X 1 T< “ n 'i‘ a, t i
* i. c. \ «nu».
Book Iv,]
TIM/HUS OI' PLATO,
planets according to Plato, hut a I so from what is written in the Repuhlic. For he arranges the Moon after the Sun;* since there is a certain most abundant communion of these divinities in the visible production of things. For the one has the order of father, hut the other of mother. Jlnth the intelligible and intel¬ lectual causes of them likewise are united to each other, ami are unfolded into light from one cause. For the same Goddess produced -— the nudity Sun, and splendid Moon
fas Orpheus says]. Pi rhaps likewise the [Chalda an] Oracles teach us this, since they every where arrange the Moon after the Sun, and the air after the Moon, both when they deliver the order of them from above, and when from lieneath. For they say, "Tin* a-therial course, the immense impulse of the Moon, ami the aerial streams." And again, “ O a-ther, Sun, spirit of the Moon, and ye leaders of the air." And elsewhere, “ Of the solar circles, 1 the lunar ratllings, and the aerial bosoms." And afterwards, “ The portion of'.ether, of the Sun, of the rivers of the Moon, and of the air In another place likewise they say, “The broad air, the lunar course, and the jieipetual pole of the Sun " Perhaps therefore, as I have said, it is possible to be |>ersuadeil from the Oracles, that the Sun is immedi¬ ately prior to the Moon, as the Moon is prior to the air, all heaven having the order of fire; which also was the opinion of Plato,* who after the celestial arranges the a’therial idea, in what he shortly after says about the four ideas [in animal itself]. Unless therefore, it is not necessary that the Sun should lie imme¬ diately above the Moon, on account of the analogy to a-ther: for neither is anther immediately above the Sun. So that again, this analogy will not suffer the Sun to he arranged immediately above the Moon. ^Nevertheless ancient rumor gives this cmh r to the Sun. For Aristotle was of this opinion, and likewise Fudoxus and Ins followers. If however, some adopting the hypotheses of mathe¬ maticians, should think tit to arrange the Sun in the middle of the seven planets, who collects and binds the triads on each side of him, it must be observed* that there is not any stability in w hat they say from the mathematics. For to say, that Venus and Mercury would l>e obscured, if they were after the Sun, in the same manner as the Moon is sometimes by the Sun, is confuted by showing that when they are in conjunction with the Sun according to longitude, they entirely
1 In.trail of tov yap ijXiof rarrti per* atXrjvrjv in this place, it is obviously necessary to read, ti)v ynp or\rjvrjr rarrtt ptra rj\toy.
1 For ijXicuou re here, it is ncrev&ary to read rjXtarw rc ihXm*.
* Instead of o rm FlXarwe two in this place, read o rat IlAarwvi torn.
* For nrocar here, it is requisite to read nrrwear.
Tim. Plat. Vo l. II. 2 F
[book IV.
differ according to latitude. And this is the cause of their not being obscured. As it does not, however, necessarily follow that the Sun has a middle position among tlie planets, mathematicians cannot procure that credibility through demonstrations that it has, which they are accustomed to obtain about most things.
Ptolemy therefore says, in his Synto.iis,' that it is tit in conformity to good and probable reasoning, to place the Sun in the middle of the seven planets, in order that of the five planets prior to him, there may In* those that are perfectly sepa¬ rated from him ; and alter him, those that are m conjunction w ilh him, and precede, or att-nd him like satellites, lint in his 11y potlieses, 1 he does not very much contend for the truth ot this, nor infer it from the int. r\als of the planets, neither in that work, nor in his Si/ntmis. Much alt* ntion theretorc, is not to be paid to mathematicians, when tin s reason tnun probability. Put the tln uigist tlcaily t>a\s, * l that the Deiuiurgus sus|»en»leil six zones, and for the seventh hurled into the middle the fire of the Sun f and it is not lawful to disbelieve in what he bays. Plato however, looking to the abundant communion, and coiinascent profession of the Sun and .Moon from tin: same cause, and also their ingress into" the world, delivers them to us as conjoined. IS'or was he the author of this hypothesis of the Moon subsisting immediately after the Nun, but Anax¬ agoras, .is Kiuleiuus relates, was the first th.it vvasot this opinion.
Again, tins also is a subject ol inquiry, on what account the Sun, Venus and Mercury, revolve w'ilh equal celerity. Ami some indeed, say from tin* mathe¬ matics, that the epicycles of these three -l trs are conjoined, and that then- centres are in one right line. As therefore, there is one apocatastasis of the motion of one right line, thus also the epicycles oi these planets make the same apocatastasis; and of the epicycles themselves, the extremes are less, but the middle epicycle is greater; so that both the equable and anomalous motions of them, are in the same ratio. But the interpreters of Plato, Por¬ phyry and Thedorus, who investigate tin-cause of this, refer the principle of the equality and inequality of the course of these planets to their lives. 1 ur accord¬ ing to them, the inequality or < quality of their swiftness, is either from their intel¬ lects tending directly through many media to essence, and ending in the same
* The whole title ol this work is, MeyuXr, r-)» Aorpoio/uru, or Til K hRl AT CONSTRU CTION
of Astronomy ft> the \r.iluans, it was tailed I he /Umagtit
* i. e. Iu his wuik ell titled YWtrvu fwf I lVu.w^o^i, or The Hypothesis of the I’lanlts.
This work illustrated by Jo. Hainbridgr, with a Latm version, and mathematical figures. Loud.
1 G .’ 0 . Uo.
1 i. r The C baldtan Julian.
Book I \ .]
TIMiEIJS OF PLATO.