The Egyptian wishes to conjoin the second to the former period, and to show that there is one connexion and life of the first Athenians, and of those that now exist, through a small seed, as he says, remaining. For thus also in’ the world the seeds of a former period conjoin that which succeeds it to its principles, throuch the essence of causes, the unceasing motion of the universe, and as some one says, its immutable inutation. We must not, however, wonder if the priest now indeed says, that Solon is the offspring of those excellent men. For we must again direct our attention to the cause of all mundane contrariety. For Solon, so far as he is an animal, possesses from them the genus; but 50 far as he is ἃ partial intellect, receiving the narration of a war, he is analogous to the divi- nity, who transports the productive principle of mundane contrariety, supernally from intelligibles to the sensible region. — Nor is it proper to be disturbed by such like objections, but to know the nature of analogies ; and that the same things through analogy, become first, middle, and last.
“ or prior to that greatest destruction by water, there was a most excellent city of Athenians, which surpassed all others in war, and was in every respect governed by the most equitable laws, and whose deeds and polities are said to have becn the most beautitul of all that we have receiv- ed the knowledge of by the hearing, under the heavens.”
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Plato does not perhaps mean by the greatest destruction, the deluge of Deuca- lion, but some one of the deluges prior to it. But he calls the city of the Athenians most warlike, and governed by the most equitable laws, as being an imitation of its guardian Goddess, whom he afterwards says, is both philosophic and philopolemic. For the Athenians partake of the warlike from the philopolemic, and of equitable legislation from the philosophic. By the most beautiful deeds he means the victory over the Atlanties. But by the most beautiful polities he does not intend to signify that they changed many of them, but he thus speaks, because one polity may be called the number of many polities ; just as one world is connective of many worlds. Por if the lite ofeach maividual is a certain polity, but the common life is the communion of many partial lives, the one polity will consist of many polities, the beauty of it depending on its union, Tle also adds, the most beautiful of all that we lnovw under the heavens, Weeause itis the first inita- tion of the polity of the world; so that you may say, itis the best of those under the heavens; for the paradigm of it is inthe heavens. And thus much forpar- ticulars,
Again, however, we should remind ourselves respecting the whole deed of the Athenians, that it is neither called a fable, nor a mere history ; some indeed receiving What is narrated as a history, but others, as a fable. And some assert- ing, that, in the first place, the developement of these, and such dike narrations, appeared τὸ Plato himself tobe the province of a certain laborious and not very fortunate man;' and in the second place, that what is delivered by Plato is not a thing of such an enigmatical mature, as the doctrine of Phereeydes, but that he teaches with perspicuity concerning most of his dogmas, Neither, therefore, say they, should we force him to analyse, since the man proposes to instructus without ambiguity. Phey also add, in the third place, that neither is a developement in the present: instance necessary. Per the cause of the insertion of this narration is known to be the deleht and allurement of the reader. And in the fourth place, that fwe analyse all things, we shall safler the same as those who ina slippery mannerare conversant with) Tomer, Others again think that the developement of this history should be referred to physical harmony, from what Plato savs of the narration about Phaeton, thatat has mdeed the form of a fable, bat: that at} manifests a certain matural event; saice the
Ug yptians also, who, as Plato says, were the fathers of this relation, obscurely signified the arcana of nature through fable. So that the developement of this narration
* Plato says this in the Phwdrus of the man who does uot adapt the eapliations of fables to divine
concerns, but interprets them plysically,
nooKx 1} TIM.EUS OF PLATO. 109
will be adapted to him, who speaks in the person of the Egyptians. For as Timwus himself, contormably to the philosophy of the Pythagoreans, makes his discussion from numbers and figures, as interpreting nature throuch images ; thus, also, the Egyptian priest will teach the trath of things through symbols adapted to himself. Po which may be added, that Plato himself elsewhere accuses those who speak every thing from what is at hand, in order, says he, that they may render their wisdom manifest, even to shoemakers. So that he who delivers true assertions through enigmas, is not foreign from the mind of Plato. And such are the arguments of each.
We however, say, that all these particulars are a history, and also an indication of the mundane contrariety, and the whole order of things; the history, indeed, narrating the past transactions of men, but symbolically comprehending in itself those things which are comprehended in the universe, and the mundane contra- riety. For the progression according to opposition, commencing from the first intelligibles, divides the world by powers that are eppositely arranged. And if you are willing, we will divide the universe according to the divine orders, which are In uninterrupted succession, and survey, conformably to the Pythagoreans, the co-ordinations that it contains. From the two principles, therefore, it is divided into bound and infinity, or rather into things allied to bound and_ the infinite. Tor of things that are mixed, some pertain to the former, but others to the latter principle. But from that which is unfolded into light as the third after these principles, the universe is divided into the united and the multiplied." For there multitude first subsists unitedly. From the triad that is next to this, it is divided into things perpetual, and things corruptible.? For the measure of existence to all things is derived from thence, From the third triad it is divided into the male and female:! for in this each of these primarily subsists: But from the first triad of the next order, itis divided according to the even and the odd; for number characterized by unity — there.4 From the second triad, it is divided into the partial and the total.’ And from the third,’ into the straight and the cireular. Again, of the intellectual triads, it is divided, according to the first, into things that are
This third thing, after the two principles bound and infinity, is being ilself. > This triad constitutes intelligible life, or eternity itself,
This triad forms intelligible intellect, or [avro2wor] animal itself. This tnad is the summit of the order which is called intelligible, and at the same time intellectual.
> The second triad of the above order is denominated [Jeaven, by Plato in the Phadrus.
® Aud the third triad of this order, is called by Plato in the Phadrus, the eub-celestial arch.
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in themselves, and things that are in others. According to the second, into things animated and things inanimate, into things stable and things which are moved. But according to the third, into things that are the same and things
* indeed, it as divided into
that are diflerent.'” And from the order of Rulers, things which rejoice in similitude, and things allied to dissimilitude., But) from the liberated? order, it receives a division into the separate and the inseparable. These things, therefore, which have an arrangement elsewhere, have now also been as it were explored by us. For according to each division, the goodness of better natures, desiring to fill things subordinate, and to take away depravity, produces war, But the desire of less excellent matures, τὸ. divalse a certain portion of beings, of amore excellent condition, excites the apparent opposition of things; since in war, also, those that contend against each other, wish to reduce into their own power the property of their opponents, and entirely destroy them, These things, therefore, are evident,
We may, however, understand the opposition of powers in the universe, by making a division after the following manner, into the adorming and adorned, And, in the first place, indeed, into things super-essential amd essences. Por the venus of the Gods is super-essential, Tn the next place, by divide essences ito eternal lives, and those which energize according to time. Likewise, those which energize according to time, ito souls and bodies. And bodies, into such as are celestial, and such as subsistin generation, These, likewise, we must divide into wholes and parts. For the division extends as far as to these extremes, And, again, we must divide super-essential natures into the divine pecatiaritics, such as the male and the female, the odd and the even, that which unites, and that whieh separates, the stable and the motive. Bat eternal natures must be divided into total and) partial essences. And such as are total, into the divine and angelic. Souls are to be divided into the divine, and the attendants on the divine. And divine souls, into the celestial, and those that pay a providential attentton to weneration, Souls, likewise, that follow the Gods, must be divided into those that follow them perpetually, and those that are frequently separated from them. And the division of those that are separated from therm, is into those that preside over generation with undefiled purity, aud those that become detiled with vice. For
* The intellectual triad consists of Saturn, Rhea, aud Jupiter.
> The order of Rulers, is (he supermundane order of Gods.
> ‘The liberated which immediately follows the supermundane order, is itself immediately followed by the mundane order of Gods. See my translation of Proclus on the Theology of Plato,
3 i SNP ORES
Book 1.] Timaeus of Plato. 1
the descent is far as to these. Moreover, the celestial bodies must be divided into. the inerratic and erratic. And these, into such as are moved with a simple, and such as are moved with a various motion. The latter, also, must be divided into the peculiarities of powers. And universally the division in all the above mentioned orders, is into that which adorns, and that which is adorned, that which fills, and that which is filled.
If, however, 1 be requisite, not to look to apart, but to adhere to the intellec- tual conception of wholes, it must be admitted that this opposition subsists every where. For it is in Gods, and in intellects, in souls, and in bodies. For in the first of these, there is bound and infinity 5 in intellects, sameness and difference ; in souls, the circle of the same, and the circle of the diflerent ; and in bodies, heaven and generation. But) secondary natures are always arranged with reference to' such as are more excellent. Tence, also, we say that this narration ix useful to the whole theory of nature, as indicating to us the mundane contra- riety from energies and = motions. For all the teachers of physiology begin from contraries, and make these to be principles; which Plato also knowing, delivers to us, through symbols and enigmas, what the contrariety is of the genera in the universe, and how less are subjugated to more excellent natures, through the intellectual energy of Minerva. Farther still, Plato very properly calls the polity the work of the Athenians, because it is requisite that such an analogy as this which the junior fabrication connects, should proceed through all things ; but that total powers should by a much greater priority eflect this, from which also the junior fabrication being filled, gives subsistence to mundane intellects, to souls andbodies, conformably to the pec ularity of itself.
* Solon, therefore, on hearing tais, said that he was astonished, and burning with the most ardent desire, entreated the priests to narrate every thing pertaining to his ancient fellow citizens.”
This, likewise, is the peculiarity of divine natures, viz. for such as are secon- dary, genuinely to adhere to such as are first, and to be established in their un- defiled intellectual perceptions ; but for such as are first, to impart by illumination their own plenitude to such as are secondary, through * unenvying exuberant
' For πρὸ τῶν ἀμεινόνων, it is necessary to read xpos τῶν ἀμεινονων.
> Instead of ra Se xpwra, ἕνναμεων αφθονων, cat ἀγαθότητι, rows Sevreps επιλαμπειν τὴν ag’ cavTw,
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