The Commentaries of Proclus on the Timaeus of Plato — trans. Thomas Taylor (1820)

It i> usual to investigate what the deseent of souls into irrational animals, must be said to he. And some indeed think, that what are call, d brutal lives, are assimilations of men to brutes, for it is not possible that a rational essence should become the soul of a brute. Hut others admit, that if may be immediately introduced into irrational animals, for they say that all souls are of a similar form, so that they may become wolves and leopards, and the marine fishes called pnannnms. The true aiisw. r however to the impiirv is this, that the human sou! may enti r into brutes, but so as to pi issess its proper I ill, t ic nisei ted soul 11 < ng as it Were on, and being bound by sympathy, to the brutal natuic. And this Hide* d, is d< monstrated la ns through many arguuit nts, in our Coinineiitai is on the Plnrdrus; in which we have also snown that tliis is the only mode of inser¬ tion. If therefore it be requisite to remind the reader that this doctrine is Platonic, it may also be observed that in the Republic, the soul of'Thersites is said to have been invi-ti d with tl w nature, and not the body, of an ape; and in the Plradrus, the soul is s od to descend into a brutal life, but not into a brutal body. Por the life is in conjunction with the proper soul. And hi re, 1 imams says, that the soul is changed into a brutal nature. For the brutal nature is not the brutal body, but the life of the brute. And this, as we have said, may be assumed from our Commentaries on the Pha-drus. Hut that it is impossible for a recently perfected soul to become the soul of a brute, we may recollect from this, that brutality is something beyord all human vice, as Aristotle also says. lienee, it is necessary first to have i.iuuan vice, and thus afterwards the vice adapted to brutes. For it is not possible from the most contrary forms of life to have their perfect contraries, lienee Tima us says, “ And in case vice should not even then cease in these," by then signifying in the descent into women ; according to which mode of descent, becoming depraved, they are changed into a brutal nature of this kind. For from the first and more intellectual' forms of hie, the more irrational are produced through diminution ; from the hums that are more remote from habitude, those that subsist >n habitude; and the more imbecile, from the more robust. Since however, vice is multiform, the brutal nature may be survey-

* I or nuirrpw here, It i* necessary to read tcepw rrpw» .

BOOK V.j

TIMAX'S Ol PLATO.

in each; and mi account ot this, (ho soul may lie connected with similar animals, ;»s IMato shows in the I'lnrdo. For the hrutal' nature in injustice, renders inf n "Dives , in timidity stags’ and in giuttonv asses. For each of these entirely possesses a certain transcendency, which departs from human depravity.

“ And that it should not be freed from the allotment of labours, till following the revolution of that same and similar nature contained in its essence, it vanquishes those abundantly turbulent passions, tumultuous and irrational, adhering to it externally * afterwards from fire, water, air, and earth, and returns to tiie form of its first, and most excellent habit."

The one salvation of the soul herself, which is extended by the Demiurges, and which liberates her Ironi the circle of generation, from ahnndanl wandering, and an inefficacious life, is her return to the intellectual form, and a flight from every tiling which naturally adheres to us from generation. lair it is necessary that the soul which is hurled like seed into the realms of generation, should lav aside the stuhhle and hark, as it were, which she obtained from being disseminated into these fluctuating realms; ami that purifying herself from every thins circum¬ jacent, she should heroine in intellectual flower and fruit, delighting in an intel¬ lectual lit**, instead of doxastic nutriment, and pursuing the uniform and simple energy of tin* period of sameness, instead of the aliuud mtlv wandering motion of the period which is characterized by dillen nee. For she contains each of these circles, and two-fold powers. And of her horses one is good, hut the other the contrary. And one of these leads her to generation, hut the other from genera¬ tion to true lieing. I lie one also leads her round the genesiurgir, hut the other round the intellectual circle. For the period of the same and the similar, elevates to intellect, and an intelligible nature, and to the first and most excellent habit. But this habit is that according to which the soul lieing winged, governs the whole world, becoming assimilated to the Gods themselves. And this is the universal form of life in the soul, just as that is the partial form, when she tails into the last body, and liecmnes something Ixlonging to an individual, instead of belonging to the universe. The middle of these also, is the partial

1 Instead of Orupm here, it is necessary to read

* ,n M ,hc c,li,i,,ns «f ‘lie Tini.-E.is, the word tl»Qry is warning in this place. For it is

evident from the Commentary of Prod..*, that it ought to be inserted. Hence, instead of mr woXAve (lege sroXve) e x Xoe, »u. vertpoy rpoa^yra, «. A. we must read, rny no\yy o X Xoy, t^y Kat *«n-cpo, *po&pvyra, «, X,

PitOCLUS ON THE

[book V.

universal, when she lives in conjunction with her middle vehicle, as a citizen of generation. Dismissing therefore, her first habit which subsists according to an alliance to the whole of generation, and, laying aside the irrational nature which connects her with generation, likewise governing her irrational part by reason, and extending opinion to intellect, she will Ik* circularly led to a happy life, from the wanderings about the regions of srnw*; which life those that are initiated by Orpbeiis in the mysteries of Bat e lms and Proserpine, pray that tin y may obtain, together with the allotments of the sphere, and a cessation' of evil. But if our soul necessarily bus well, when living according to the circle of sameness, much more must this be the case with divine souls. It is, however, possible lor our soul to live according to tin- c ircle of sameness, win II purified, as Plato savs. Cathartic virtue, therefore, alone must Im- called the salvation of souls; since tins cuts off, ami vehemently obliterates material natures, and the passions which adhere to us from gi in ration; separates tin* soul ami h-ads it to intellect ; and causes it to leave on earth the vehicles with which it is invested. Tor souls in descending, receive from tin elements eliMi-iviit vehicles, aerial, aquatic, and terrestrial; and tlms.it last enter into this gross hulk. For how, without a medium, could they proceed into this body Irom immaterial spirits? llc-nce before they come into this body, they possess the irrational life, and its vehicle, which is prepared from the* simple elements, and Irom tln-se they ln*etime iuve-steel witli tumult, [or the* geiiesiurgic body,] which is so called as being foreign to tin connate* vehicle of souls, and as composed ol all-various vest¬ ments, and causing souls to be come- In-avy.

The word tidhcrnu' likewise, manifests the external circumposition of a vehicle of such a kind as that of which In; is speaking, and the c olligation to the one nature contained in it; after which this last body, consisting of things dissimilar and multiform, is suspeiiih d from souls. 1 ui how is it possible-, that the de-scent should Ik* [immediately 1 from a life; which governs the whole world, to the* most partial form of life; ? For this particular and indivisible outward man cannot he connected with tin* universe, hut a prior descent into a medium between the; two, is entirely necessary ; whic h medium is not a certain animal, hut the supplier of many lives. For tin; desc e nt doe s not directly produce the* life of a certain man, hut prior to this and prior to the generation of an individual, it produces the life of universal* man. And as the lapse* is from that which is incorporeal into hoeiv, and a liie with body, according to which the soul lives in conjunction with its

* For uunrruffui here, it is necessary to read uyaruvaat.

1 It aj>|)urs to me, • hat the wore! yul)o\u.<jv is here wanlin".

Book ? 1

TIM I L'.s OI PLATO.

celestial vehicle; so from this, the descent is into a gcncsiurgic hotly, according to which the soul is in gem ration ; anti from this, into a terrestrial hoilv, according to w hieh, it hvi s vv ith the testaceous hotly. lienee, hefore it is surrounded w ith this last hotly, it is invostetl with a body which connects it with all generation. And on this account, it then leaves tins hotly, when it leaves generation. But if this lie the case, it tin'll received it, when it came into generation. It came howevt r, into gene¬ ration, prior to its lapse into this last hotly. Hence prior to this last hotly it received that vehicle, anti retains the latter after the dissolution of the former. It lives there¬ fore, in this vehicle through the w hole of the gennsiurgic |>eriotI. Oil this account, Plato calls the adhering tumult, the irrational * form of life m this vehicle; and not that which adheres to the soul in each of its incarnations, as licmg that w hich circularly invests it from the first. The connascent vehicle therefore, makes the soul to he mundane; the second vehicle, causes it to he a citi/a u of generation ; and the testaceous vehicle makes it to he terrestrial. And as the life of souls is to the whole of generation,* and the whole of generation to the world, so are vehicles to each other. With respect to the circumposiliun also of the vehicles, one is perpetual, and always mundane ; another is prior to this outward hody, and posterior to it ; for it is both prior to, and subsists posterior to it, in genera¬ tion ; and a thud is then only, when it lives a certain partial life on the earth. Plato therefore, by using the term adherin'', and by suspending the irrational nature from the soul, according to all its lives, distinguishes this irrational nature from this outw ard body, mid the peculiar life of it. lint by adding the words eiternally , and afterwards, he distinguishes it from the ronnascent vehicle m which the De- nviurgus made it to descend. Hence, this vehicle which causes the soul to be a citizen of generation, is a medium between both.

Timaius therefore, knew the vehicle of the irrralional life, which adheres to us prior to this outward hody. For that this irrational and tumultuous crowd, which adheres to us, from lire, earth, air, and water, does not pertain to the first vehicle, is evident. For again, this must lie urged, in consequence of some of the inter¬ preters not fathoming the depth of the theory of Plato concerning the psychical vehicles. Hence, some of them destroying the [first] vehicle are com [idled to make the soul to lie sometimes out of all body. But others preserving it, are forced to immortalize the vehicle of the irrational life; neither of them separating

1 For \oyov here, it is necessary to read aXoyor

1 Tlie original, vvliuli is evidently corrupt and defective in this place, is, rai m « x *« •ix*'*' Tt l" ycrtiri* siXijv. Instead of wllub, I read, rai ut f x r * »J <?*"! VX*"' n P °* "1* Y'rtoiv oXijr.

Tint. Plat. Vol. II. 3 G

Piioclus on the

[book V.