former, liberated, monadic, exempt, undel'iled, and unmingled with subordinate natures; hut suspending the latter from it, and delivering all the measures, the arrangement, and the houndaries of production, as the conseipience of the latter, hi in" perfected and governed hy, and receiving all these, from the former. Such therefore, is the scope of the proposed words. Directing our attention however. to the demiurgic sacred law, \u> must not say, that it resemhles the law of a city, which a human legislator estahlishes, as energizing only' according to existence. For the demiurgic will precedes the energy which is alone estahlished in existence, [or in a subsistence according to hem";] and in short, it is not lawful to consider human as the same with divine concerns. For the former, though they are sometimes assimilated to a divine nature, yet are partihly assimilated, so as in one respect to imitate the stability, in another the efficacy, and in another the perfective power, of divine natures. TV or must we admit, that a sacred law of this kind is ambiguous; as for instance, that if some one should make these things, those will follow, but i! not, the opposites to these, will Ik* the result, according to a dissimilar* intellection. For the father of wholes causally comprehends m himself, all ell’ects; not apprehending them by indefinite, but by stable genera uniformly, and perceiving generated natures in an unbegotten manner, things contmgi nt necessarily, and partibles impartible. For time and place, were generated together with the universe. The Deminrgus therefore, of the universe, established in himsell the principles of all things, without time, and without interval. Hence, it is necessary to admit, that the demiurgic l/icsmos, is the intellectual order, contained in the divine thesmns, which pervades through all things, is present with all things without impediment, and guards all things with purity. For I think that thesmos possi sses something more than law, so far as deity also is more excellent than intellect. For we say that law is the distribution of intellect, 1 ml thesmos, divine order, and a uniform boundary. And thus much as to tin se particulars.
Proceeding however, to the words of the text, in the first place we shall demonstrate that Plato comprehends all the laws of Fate through the decad ; because the decad also is connate with the demiurgic cause. For such goods as the Deminrgus imparts to the world, end in this number, all~of them being ten. For the decad is mundane, as the Pytlmgori-: hymn says ; which calls it tin* universal recipient, ancient anti venerable, placing bound about ad things, and which is denominated the immutable and unwearied decad. All the a I nm*-mentioned laws of Fate therefore pertaining to souls are ten. For it is necessary that souls
* Instead of aiwxor litre, it is iRecis.iry lo read, nm/iaicr.
p. 420
PHOCLUS ON THE
[book V.
should be disseminated ;that there should l»e one common descent to nil of them in each jieriod ; that the soul descending in the lirst 'generation, should descend into a pious animal; that the soul descending in*o the human nature, should first pass into the se< d of man ; that the soul which is in hotly, should produce partible and material lives ; that the soul which vampiishes the material life, should he just, hut the soul which is vanquished by it, unjust; that the just soul should return to its kindred star; that the offending soul, should again descend in the second generation, into tlw nature of woman ; that the soul which was in the second generation, should ill the third descent, pass into the nature of a brute; ami in the last place, the tenth is the demiurgic law, which is the one saviour of the soul, being the life which elevates it to the period of the same and the similar, and causes the circle nl its waiidering in generation, to cease. All the above-mentioned laws therefore, are comprehended iu the (head, because the Pythagoreans consider the dc'cad as adapted to the 1 leiuiurgus, and to Fate. And these laws are disseminated in souls, in order that they may lead themselves; since the (Hods wish to ml over self-motive natures, as self-motive ; and likewise in order, that they may be to themselves the causes ut the evils which may afterwards brfal them, and not the Demiurgiis. For unless they antecedently comprehended the laws of Fate, if indeed, they were always superior to Fate, they would not descend into generation ; but it they are sometimes to be under its dominion, how could they be accused of deviations from rectitude, whi-ii they had not previously learned the punishment ordained for such deviations ? In order therefore, that the Demiurgus might not lie accused as the author id the guilt of souls, he established in their essences the laws of Fate.
lienee, the nature of evils must not be referred to divinity : for it is here said, that the maker ol the whole world, is not the cause of them. And not only is this asserted of tin* Demiurgiis in this place, but in the Republic also, the prophet who proclaims the decree of Laehesis says, “ that the electing soul is the cause [of the l ml u hu h tuaj/ brfal it] hut (iud is blameless.’' So that div inity is neither the antecedent cause, nor at all the cause, of evils, hut is blameless. For as it was said prior to this, divinity was willing that depravity should, as much as possible, have no existence. Fvil therefore, must not be referred to a divine nature, nor must it be said, that it is without a principle. For if it is without a principle, it will be unadorned and indefinite, and will injure the whole fabrication of things. For what will lx? able to adorn it, if it has no piim iple in beings? Aor must a principle be given to it, but this total. For nothing that ranks as a whole, is receptive of evil. But all w holes perpetually preserve the same nature, undeliled, and free from evil, lienee, it is evident that evil subsists from a partial piinciple.
nook '.J
TIM. EL'S OF PLATO.
p. 421
And after wliat manner does it subsist from this ? Shall we say, according to a prccedaneous hypostasis ? By no means. For things which thus subsist are bounded, and ha\c an end, and are according to nature to their generator. Evil therefore, is implanted in souls according to parypostasis, or a deviation from subsistence, eitherthrough a privation of symmetry, or through commixture, or in some other way. And Plato knowing this says. “ in order that the Demiurgus might not he the cause of the future depravity of each." For the term future, manifests the hypostasis of depravity to be adventitious, foreign, and externally implanted. But what is the legislative promulgation ? For evils have prior to this been discussed.
May we not say, that it signifies the one comprehension in the Demiurgus of all the laws of Fate ? For thesmos is comprehensive of all laws. And the thesmos indeed in Adrastia comprehends the Saturnian and Jovian laws, and also the laws of Fate ; but the thci/ios in the Demiurgus, both comprehends, and gives subsistence to, mundane natures. The promulgation however with the addition 1 [of the words, “ all these things to souls,"} signifies that the dominion of this thesmos is extended with all things, and that its providential inspection pervades to the last of things.
“ He disseminated sonic of them into the earth, others into the moon,and i £* — others into the other instruments ol time.
It must not be supposed that this semination of souls was effected casually For where in things which subsist jierpetnally with invariable sameness is it possible that the indefinite should intervene? Nor must it he thought to he a mere distribution of the generator. For the things which are disseminated, are neither altermotive, nor such as act without deliberate choice. But this semination is supernally accomplished, comformahly to the demiurgic intellect, and with which the will of souls themselves concurs. For each of them both know s and chooses its proper order, and establishes its vehicle in appropriate parts of the universe ; each not being tin* same with the Gods about whom it is disseminated, as some say it is; thus making a part to he the same as the whole. For if this* were admitted, the arrangement of leaders anil followers would be confounded, and the order of nndelded souls, and of those that are not such, would he subverted. N or does each of these souls connect itself with foreign parts, one with these, but another with those parts of the universe. For essential similitude precedes a semination of this kind. For what may some one assign a* the cau^e ol this division? Is it that partial ought to lie without co-arrangement with total souls.
l Instead of wpoOtotvt here, it is necessary to read
42*2
IMIOCIXS ON THE
[book V.
and that their vehicles ought to l>o separated from total circulations? This, however, is impossible, for parts everywhere fuliow wholes. Is it, therefore, l>ec:*use souls (Idler from each other? And how, in short, do they dill'er from each other, since they subsist m immaterial forms? Snail we say then, that they differ from each other, but were not distinguished conformably to the precedaneous measures ot divine souls’ And how in this case, is ascent and |>erfcclion inserted 1 in them through divine souls’ We must say therefore, that this semination is entirely 1 defined, conformably to a divine and perfect intellect. And thus much as to this particular.
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, precedes 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 allotted 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 invisible of all partial in total souls; and the prolific energy of divine bodies, according 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.
p. 423
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.