In the third place, therefore, neither do the principles which they assume_per- tainany thing to Plato. For ideas are not separated from intellect, subsisting | by themselves apart from it; but intellect being converted to itself, sees all forms. | Hence the Athenian guest assimilates the energy of intellect to the circulation of an accurately-fashioned sphere. But they introduce ideas as things ineflicacious, resembling in themsclves forms impressed in wax, and situated external to intel- lect. Nor is the Demiurgus the first God. For the first God is: superior to’ every intellectual essence. Nor does ἃ. certain irrational soul move that— which is borne along in a confused and disorderly manner. Mor every | soul is the offspring of the Gods. Nor, in short, did the universe, from being | without order, become arranged. For if God was willing to bring 41} things | into order, how was he willing?) Was he always willing, or ata certain time? For if he was willing αἵ acertain time, this was either from himself, or from matter. Bat if from himself, an absurdity follows. For he is always good. Every thing good, however, which always exists, is always effective.’ And if this arose from the resistance of matter, how came it to be now adorned ? Because, say they, it became adapted to receive the demiurgie productive power, For God observed this, viz. the aptitude of tt. Tt is necessary therefore, that it should have been brought into order, not being itself disorderly. For af it had) been disorderly, it would not have been adapted ; since the disorderly motion of it is inaptitude. IIence matter is not the cause of the privation of order and ornament. Moreover, neither is the will of God the cause of this. For he is always good, and therefore the world is always adorned; and the Demiurgus always arranges the contused/ and disorderly nature. On what account, therefore, did Plato hypothetically in- troduce this privation of order? It was that we might survey how the generation of bodies is one thing, and the order of them when generated, another; bodies indeed existing, but being moved in a disorderly manner. For they are inca-
‘ Instead of ro δε ayaboy war, act ov ποιητικον,, it scems necessary to read ro δε ἀγαθὸν παν ae ον, ace ποιητικοῦ.
332 . PROCLUS ON 'THTE {[woox ir pable of arranging themselves. Hence Plato, wishing to indicate the order which accedes to bodies from something different from themselves, shows that disorder is con- subsistent with their motions, without a divine cause. Aristotle, however, blames him who asserts that disorder is assumed prior to order, merely according to hypothe-
sis, and says that those things will not follow for which the hypotheses are assumed, as is the case in geometry. For the hypotheses of geometry are of
_themselves able to effect geometrical conclusions. To this we reply, that itis
not said after this manner according to hypothesis, that the unadorned ought to be admitted prior to the adorned, but that Plato saw that which 1s formless prior
- τὸ forms, though it is never separate from them, Thus too, that which is invested
with form, though yet without distinction, is assumed prior to order, though it never was prior to it, but is consubsistent with order,
The fourth head, in addition to those that have been already considered, is that in which Plato demonstrates the mode of fabrication ; a divine intellect εἰς fecting this by its very being, which he infers through many arguments. For artists are in Want of instruments to their energy, because they have not dominion over every kind of matter, But this is evident from the instruments which they use, in order to. render matter pliant, boring, or polishing, or elaborating it with a wheel; all which operations do nut insert form, but take away the inaptitude of the recipient of form. Zhe reason itself however, or form, becomes present with the subject from artinstantancously, all the vapediments being removed. Wence if there was no impediment, form would immediately accede to matter, and would not in short be in want of any instruments. Morcover, the phantasy produces many passions about the body by its very energy alone. For a man blushes through the imagination of what is base, and becomes red ; and through the conception of something dreadful is terrified, and his body is rendered pale. And these, indeed, are the passions about the body. But the cause of these isa phantasm, which does not employ impulsions and mechanical contr- vances, but energizes by being present alone. Farther still, theologists axsert that there are certain powers superior to us, who employ efficacious imaginations, and which by their very existence are effective of what they wish to accomplish, and who are also able to produce illuminations, and to exhibit certain divine forms by their motions, to such ag are able to behold the visions which they externally pre- sent to the view. If therefore human arts, the imaginations of partial souls, and the energies of diemons, effect things of this kind, why is it wonderful that the Demiurgus, by the intellectual intuition of the universe, should give subsistence to the sensible nature; generating, indeed, that which is material immaterially, that
Book 11. τινβοβ of Plato. 333
which is tangible, without contact ; and extending impartibly that which possesses interval? And, indeed, it ought not to be considered as an admirable circum. stance, if something which is incorporeal, and without interval, is the fabricator of this universe. For human seed produces man, who is so much larger than the seed, and in each part of it contains all the diflerences of the solids; as for instance of the bones, those that are compact, and those that are hollow; of the soft parts, such as the lungs and the liver; of the dry parts, such as the nails and the hair; of themoist parts, such as the blood and phlegm; of the adipous parts, as the marrow and fat; of the bitter parts, as the bile; of the parts with. out quality, as the saliva; of the thick-set parts, as the nerves; and of the ex- panded parts, as the membranes. For all these, the substances of similar parts, and those that in a certain respect are composed of them, derive their subsistence from a small bulk; or rather from that which is without bulk. For reasons [or productive powers} generate these, and they are every where void of bulk. For whatever part you may take of the seed, you will find in it all things. Much more, therefore, is the demiurgic reason able to produce all things, being not at all in want of matter to their existence. But the fabricator of all things is eter- nally established in himself, and abiding in himself produces the universe.
* But it neither was, nor is lawful, for that which is best, to effect any thing else than that which is most beautiful.”
Themis’ is very properly assumed in the beginning of the fabrication of the universe. For she is the cause of the demiurgic sacred laws, and from her the order of the universe is indissolubly connected. Hence also she remains a virgin prior to the progression of the Demiurgus, according to the Oracles of Night. But she produces, in conjunction with Jupiter, the triad of the Seasons, to whom
Olympus and great Heav'n are giv’n in charge, And a dense cloud to open, or to close.
She is therefore the monad of all the mundane order; on which account alsa Socrates in the Repablic calls her Necessity, as is demonstrated in that dialogue. He likewise convolves the world on her knees, she preserving the order of it perpetually immutable and unshaken. Conformably therefore to this divine cause of order, the Demiurgus also, leading that which is disordered into order, imparts beauty to all things, and renders the world similar .to, and connects it
! This word which is used here by Plato, signifies both the Goddess of justice, and lawful,
334 PROCLUS ON THE (woe τι.
with himself. For being himself most excellent, he very properly causes the world to be most beautiful ; because the first and intelligible beauty itself is sus- pended from, and is in goodness. Hence the world likewise, being most beauti- ful, is suspended from the Demiurgus, who is the best [of fabricative causes]. And because the good is the cause of beauty, on this account also the best of fathers gives subsistence to the most beautiful offSpring. Farther still, as ‘Themis is the guardian of the divine laws, but they make the generations of secondary from first natures to proceed in an orderly series, and preserve the connexion of divine beings, and the similitudes of things second to such as are first ;—on this account also, the Demiurgus, energizing with Themis, renders the universe most beautiful, being himself most excellent. For if Socrates, being a man, says that itis not lawful for him to concede any thing that is false, or to obliterate the truth, how is it possible we should say that the demiurgic intellect effects any thing else than what is beautiful, and that he does not exterminate deformity, being united to Themis, who is likewise always present with bim? And thus much concerning this particular.
But the words, “it neither was nor is,” are very appropriately assumed with that which ts best: for before this, he had called the Demiurgus good, and then also the term zas, was added. For Timeus says; he was good. For the sim- plicity which is above intellect, and the peculiarity itself of deity, are more adapted to the term twas, as being super-eternal, and better than all intellectual perception, Now! however he calls him the most excellent, as being a deified intellect. For that which participates [of deity] is most excellent. The terms also was and is, are adapted to the Demiurgus ; as to a God indeed, the term was ; but as to an intellect, the term ἐς, in order that at one and the same time his divine union and eternal hypostasis may be rendered manifest.
“ By a reasoning process, therefore, he found that among the things which are naturally visible, no whole work destitute of intellect: would ever be more beautiful than a whole work which possesses intellect.”
Amelius in a wonderful manner endeavours to prove that Plato knew the different demiurgic causes, and continually passes in a silent way from one of
these causes to another; exhibiting, on account of their connexion, no one of the
* Novy 1s erroneously printed here for νυν.
δοὺκ 11. Tim.E@S of Plato. 335
divine causes themselves, but discoursing about them as if they were one and the same, through the union of the demiurgi with each other. For all of them are one, and oneis all. Since now also he who wills is one Deimiureus, he who reasons is another, and he who assumes or receives is another. And the first, indeed, makes by his wilt alone, the second by intelligence and intellectual perception, but the third by [as it were] manual operation, For they placed intellect in soul, but soul in body, and thus together fabricated ' the universe. The divine lambli- chus however reprobates all such interpretations, as very superfluously devised. But he defines Ἀογίσμος, OF a reasoning process, to be that which causally precedes beings, Which is fabricative of essence itself, and which is according to energy invariably the same; from which all reasonings are connected, and have their existence.