But let us in the next place, connect w ith this, a survey of the w ords severally. The semination of souls therefore, with their vehicles about the junior (Hods, pre¬ cedes every other fabrication of thesi (Hods. For it is necessary that they should have leaders not only as souls, but as mundane natures ; and that as being allot¬ ted the gov eminent of animals, they should be arranged under some of the div me circulations. The semination however, exhibits through the very name of it, the partible allotment of the vehicles; the power which is comprehensive in the invi¬ sible of all partial in total souls; and the prolific energy of divine bodies, accord¬ ing to which they fill from their own life, partial vehicles, with the peculiarity of themselves. For every thing that is sown receives something from its subject earth. Hence, from all that lias been said, tins is in the tir-'t place evidi nt, that there is no dissemination about the soul of the universe. For it is not proper to oppose the semination about this soul, to that about other souls, nor the whole world to its parts. For if it were possible for a partial soul to remain on high, during the whole period of" the universe, it would he possible 1 for a semination of souls to take place, about the soul ot the universe. ]>ut this smil indeed , is arranged in the xi orid us a monad. I or it is the cu-arranged monad oj' the mundane souls, that distribute* the potters of it. For with each of the divine bodies, a power of the soul of the universe is present. About this number however, the genera, that are superior to us and partial souls, are divided, these having the order of attendants. And m the second place, there is a semination of souls in each of the sublunary elements, and in the celestial spheres, and the stars. We have however before shown what the natures are about which the distribution of souls takes place; so that the semination also, is about the
’ tor Lcrr, I roil r>.
1 Instead ofratru in I to plait, 1 iMictis*ar\ to read wuirrj.
* Forai v tarot- litre, it is reijuiMte lo read iviarcy.
Instead ot karairi/tufityqt 111 this plate, il is obviously iieicsi.iry to read taraitifiufittuy.
nook v.]
TIM/I US or PI.ATO.
vehicles of them. l or all of them contribute to the generation of time, some by themselves, but others together with wholes, in the same manner as the stars. And all of them are the instruments of time. For all the lived stars, and everv mundane (bid, being circularly moved, have entirely periods of time, according to which, the w bob’' time of the mundane life is measured ; and they have likewise apocatastasrs, hi common with this life, and with each other. Hut Plato only makes mention of those instruments of time, the apocatastatic periods of which may be obtained from sense. Dividing the whole world however, into heaven and generation, he assumes the moon, and the earth, as the extremes of these according to position, and is satisfied with these, because he is speaking of the division of the last souls, and the semination of the most partial vehicles, which are naturally adapted to mutation, and to approximate, and enter into the most gross corporeal masses.
After these particulars also, it is worth while to know in the third place, that vehicles are likewise disseminated about the lived stars. I’or every part of the world is lull of partial souls, who are spread under their saviour Gods, and fol¬ low the (hemons that are suspended from them. lint whether any one of these partial bodies, is elevated above tie* Saturnian sphere; 1 or whether all of them are arranged in the planetary spheres according to an alliance with the fixed stars, deserves to Im* considered. I’or ot the planets themselves, it is said by those who arc skilled in these allairs, that diflerent planets an* allied to ditlcrcnt signs of the zodiac. It is not therctore at all wonderful, if the vehicles of souls Is-ing in the planetary spheres, ditlcrcnt vehicles should revolve in conjunction with diffe¬ rent lived stars. For some one may conceive this to he more rational, than to make them situated above the Saturnian sphere; since this place [i. e. the plane¬ tary sphere] is more adapted to variety of life, to a tendency to generation, and to a nature mingled from bodies that have a circular, and bodies that have a rec¬ tilinear, motion. It is better however to say, that there is a semination about the fixed stars, and that the vehicles which are purified, starry-form, and unincum¬ bered, having a simple life, and a motion about intellect, and wisdom, and fol¬ lowing the period of the same , ascend as far as to the inerratic sphere. For it would he ridiculous, that souls should be distributed about the fixed stars, and that there should lie a semination of their vehicles alKmt another thing. For as soul is to soul, so is vehicle to kindred* vehicle. It is better therefore to admit this,
■ There is an omission in ibis place in the original, of the word efvtpa », which evidently ought lo be inserted.
* Instead of rv^iyn here, I read ruyyoo.
PllOCLUS ON THE
[BOOK T.
than to assert that rouIs nre disseminated there, hut that their vehicles 1 do not ascend as far as to the vehicles of the fixed stars ; since everywhere parts hasten to wholes, when they subsist according to nature, unless they haji|»eii to l>e dis¬ solved hv tilings foreign to the natures to which they tend; tin* psychical vehicles l>emg indissoluble, and immortal, through their generation from the one Pemiur- gus. These assertions therefore, are rather to Ik* admitted than the former, re¬ specting the semination and distribution of souls and their vehicles, both of them lx*ing effected by the Pemiiirgus.
Since also, the semination is of souls with their vehicles, and not of souls only, as was the case with the former distribution, Plato very properly says, that the Pemiurgus disseminated some of them into the earth, but others into (lie moon, indicating that each of these souls is non man, and the first man ; the definition here likewise prevailing, that man is a soul using a hotly, and the immortal man an immortal body. It is also necessary to separate tins immortal from every mortal body, in order that man may become that which he was prior to his lapse into generation: for the semination is now of men, hut not of souls. \ er\ properly therefore is it said, that some of them were disseminated into the earth, hut others into the moon. Hence these tilings must he observed tog* tlier with what has Im’cii before said, and likewise that souls will never have a supermundane situation, not even according to those who admit, that there are other spheres beyond till* fixed stars; though the highest and most simple of the vehicles participate of ethe¬ real splendor, lint the distribution is different from the semination. Pur the former, is of souls alone; hut the latter, in conjunction with vehicles. Hence in s|M*aking of the former, Plato says, the Pemiiirgus distributed each soul into each star; hut here, that lie disseminated, some into tin* earth, hut others into the moon, because now they exert the human characteristic property. 1-or there, i e. in the stars,J man is a soul using an immortal * body, and the man there is perpetual. The distribution therefore, is different from the semination, and the former is said to !>e, into the stars, hut the latter, into the instruments of time. Hence it max si-em, that each of these is into difierent places, l or the earth is not a star, so that there will not Ik* a distribution of souls about it; nor are the fixed stars said to he instruments of time, so there will not he a semination about them. Jlut the planets alone, are both stars, ami instruments of time; so that alvout these, there will he both a distribution and a semination. It is manifestly absurd however, that both these should not take place about the earth pnd the
' Thtrc it an omission hi tins place in llie orig o.il of ra c^>/fjnra.
* The word a fiat ary if omitted 10 the original.
book i..]
TI M l.US UI PI.ATO
axed stars. I'»>r it it is the Demiurges who both distributes and disseminates, bolb these are essentially inherent in souls; and if this Im* the case, it is necessary that both should be about the same thing; in order that the apocatastasis of e’u rj soul may be into one thing, and that it may not through the distribution make its apocatastasis into its kindred star, but l»e compelled to make it into something else, through a semination into something different from its kindred star. For that which is sown, is allied and adapted to that in which it is essen¬ tially disseminated. If therefore, these things are true, the earth also, must be said to b<* a star, not according to its visible bulk, but according to its ethereal and starry-form vehicle; since our vehicle likewise is a thing of this kind. It must also be admitted, that the lived stars co-operate in the production of time, lienee these, so far as they have periods, though unknown to us, entirely mea¬ sure the whole of time, some in one, and others in a different way. For there is not the same apocatastasis of all the fixed stars ; hut we have no certain indica¬ tion from sense of their circulation, ns we have of the revolutions of the planets.
All the parts of the world therefore, receive disseminated partial souls, and every mundane («od is the prefect of partial (Jods and souls,* distributed and disseminated about him, conformably to the demiurgic intellect. But Plato savs, that the one peculiarly takes place about the stars, and the other, about the last of wholes, the moon and the earth; indicating by this, the proper dignity of each, viz. that the one is more divine, for it is incorporeal; hut the other sub¬ ordinate, for the semination is with bodies. This however, is evident from the precedaneous causes of the distribution and the semination, l>eing mentioned by him separately at different times, each being into the same things; by which he manifests the difference of them with reference to each other. Ilence, though there is a distribution of the soul about the earth, yet it is so far as the earth possesses something starry-form and incorporeal. And though there is a disse¬ mination of it about a star, yet it is so far as it has something allied to earth; hut this is corporeal. The earth and the moon likewise, were assumed in the semina¬ tion, through their alliance to each other: for it is common to them, to produce shadow. And what the earth is in wholes, that the moon is among the celestial bodies; so that there will he an apocatastasis into the earth of the souls that were originally disseminated into it, and allotments of them in it. But it is not wonder¬ ful, if Plato says in the Phsedrus, that the better allotments are celestial, but the last, subterranean. For there, it was solely his intention to speak of the extremes, neither mentioning the aerial, nor the terrestrial fortunate allotments. Hence,
Tim. Plot.
' Yi>x*r it omitted in U»e original,
Phocu S on the
[hook w.