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SIX BOOKS OF PROCLUS, ...

ON THE THEOLOGY OF PLATO,

Translated From the Greek »

To Which

A SEVENTH BOOK IS ADDED,

IN ORDER TO SUPPLY THE DEFICIENCY OP ANOTHER BOOK ON THIS SUBJECT,

WHICH « « «R!TTEV BY VKOCIA'S, ULT MSCE KMT.

Also, a Translation From the Creek of

PROCLUS' ELEMENTS OF THEOLOGY.

A TRANSLATION OF THE TREATISE OF PROCLUS,

£>n protMDcncc ano jTate;

A TRANSLATION OF EXTRACTS FROM HIS TREATISE, ENTITLED,

TEN DOUBTS CONCERNING PROVIDENCE;

And

A TRANSLATION OF EXTRACTS FROM HIS TREATISE ON THE SUBSISTENCE OF EVIL;

As preserved in the Bibliotheca Gr. of Fabricius.

BY THOMAS TAYLOR.

A>£ «rr»v, «m, run tij tyyiKa

Tlierc are, there are, though laugh the w offer roar, Jove and the God*, who mortal ills survey.

axnif nvt Jmi to Wit, xau xujmi rsXXix. Corinlh. 1. Cap, 8. v. i.

At there be Gods many, and Lord* :

TWO VOLUMES. VOL I.

LONDON :
PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR,
By A. J. I'afpy, Tooket Court, Chancery Lane.
AND SOLD BY MESSRS. LAW AND Co.; LONGMAN AND Co.; BALDWIN AND Co.;

AND ALL OTHER BOOKSELLERS.

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To

WILLIAM MEREDITH, ESQUIRE,

WHO WITH A FIRMNESS AND MUNIFICENCE,
UNPARALLELED IN MODERN TIMES,
HAS PATRONIZED

THE PHILOSOPHY OF PLATO AND ARISTOTLE,

AND ITS ENGLISH PROMULGATOR ;

AS AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF NO COMMON ESTEEM FOR HIS CHARACTER, AND A TRIBUTE OF THE WARMEST GRATITUDE FOR HIS PATRONAGE, THIS WORK IS DEDICATED

BY THE TRANSLATOR,

THOMAS TAYLOR.

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I rejoice iu the opportunity which U afforded me of presenting the truly philosophic reader, in the present work, with a treasure of Grecian theology ; of a theology, which was first mystically and symbolically promulgated by Orpheus, afterwards disseminated enigmatically through images by Pythagoras, and in the last place scientifically unfolded by Plato and his genuine disciples. The peculiarity indeed, of this theology is, that it is no less scientific than sublime j and (bat by a geo- metrical scries of reasoning originating from the moat self-evident trutlw, it developes all the deified progressions from the ineffable principle of things, and accurately exhibit* to our view all the links of that golden chain of which deity is the one extreme, and body the other.

That also which >. most admirable and laudable in this theology is, that it produces in the mind properly prepared for iu reception the most pure, holy, venerable, and exalted conceptions of the great cause of all. For it celebrates this immense principle as something superior even to being itself; as exempt from the whole of things, of which it is nevertheless ineffably the source, and does not therefore think fit to connumerate it with any triad, or order of beings. Indeed, it even apologises for attempting to give an appropriate name to this principle, which is in reality in enable, and ascribes the attempt to the imbecility of human nature, which striving intently to behold it, gives the appellation of the most simple of its conceptions to that which is beyond ail knowledge and all conception. Hence it denominates it the one, and the good,- by the former of these names indica- ting its transcendent simplicity, and by the latter its subsistence as the object of desire to all beings. For all things desire good. At the same time however, it asserts that these appellations are in reality nothing more than the parturitions of the soul which standing as it were in the vestibules of the Prod. Vol. I. 6

adytum of deity, announce nothing pertaining to the ineffable, but only indicate her spontaneous tendencies towards it, and belong rather to the immediate offspring of the first God, than to the first

iuelf.

Hence, as the result of this most venerable conception of the supreme, when it ventures not only to denominate the ineffable, but also to assert something of its relation to other things, it con- sider* this as pre-eminently its peculiarity, that it is the principle of principles ; it being necessary that the characteristic property of principle, after the same manner as other things, should not begin from multitude, but should be collected into one monad as a summit, and which is the principle of all principles. Conformably to this, Proclus, in the second book of this work' says, with match- leas magnificence of dictiou :" Let us as it were celebrate the first God, not as establishing the earth and the heavens, nor as giving subsistence to souls, and the generation of all animals j for be produced these indeed, but among the last of things ; but prior to these, let us celebrate him as unfolding into light the whole intelligible and intellectual genus of Gods, together with all the

supermundane and mundane divinities as the God of all Gods, the unity of all unities,

and beyond the first adyta,1 — as more inefieble than all silence, and more unknown than all essence,— as holy among the holies, and concealed in the intelligible Gods."

The scientific reasoning from which this dogma is deduced is the followiug : As the principle of all things is the one, it is necessary that the progression of beings should be continued, and that no vacuum should intervene either in incorporeal or corporeal natures. It is also necessary that every thing which has a natural progression should proceed through similitude. In consequence of this, it is likewise necessary that every producing principle should generate a number of the same order with itself, vut. nature, a natural number; toul, one that is psychical (i. c. belonging to soul); and uittUtti, an intellectual number. For if whatever possesses a power of generating, generates simi- lars prior to dissimilar*, every cause must deliver its own form and characteristic peculiarity to its progeny ; and before it generates that which gives subsistence to progressions far distant and separate from its nature, it must constitute things proximate to itself according to essence, and con- joined with it through similitude. It is therefore necessary from these premise,, since there is one unity the principle of the universe, that this unity should produce from itself, prior to every thing else, a multitude of natures characterized by unity, and a number the most of all things allied to its cause ; and these natures are no other than the Gods.

According to this theology tlierefore, from the immense principle of principles, in which all ' P. 190. . * L e. The highest order of intelUgibks.

INTRODUCTION. li

thing? causally subsist, absorbed in supcreaseotial light, and involved in unfathomable depths, a beauteous progeny of principles proceed, aU largely partaking of the ineffable, all stamped with the occult characters of deity, all possessing an overflowing fulness of good. From these dazzling sum* mils, these ineffable blossoms, these divine propagations, being, life, intellect, soul, uature, ami body depend ; monads suspended from uniliet, deified natures proceeding from deities. Each of these monads too, is the leader of a series which extends from itself to the last of thing*, and which while it proceeds from, at the same time abides in, and returns to its leader. And all these principles aVid all their progeny are finally centered and rooted by their summits in the first great all-compre- hending one. Thus all beings proceed from, and are comprehended in the first being; aU intel- lects emanate from one first intellect ; all souls from one first soul ; all natures blossom from one first nature ; and all bodies proceed from the vital and luminous body of the world. And lastly, all these great monads are comprehended in the first one, from which both they and all their depending •cries are unfolded into light. Hence this first one is truly the unity of unities, the monad of monads, the principle of principles, the God of Gods, one and all things, and yet one prior to all.

No objections of any weight, no arguments but such as are sophistical, can be urged against this most sublime theory which is so congenial to the unperverted conceptions of the human mind, that it can only be treated with ridicule and contempt in degraded, barren, and barbarous ages. Igno- rance and priestcraft, however, have hitherto conspired to defame those inestimable works,' in which this and many other grand and important dogmas can alone be found ; and the theology of the Greeks has been attacked with all the insane fury of ecclesiastical ?eal, and all the jmbecd flashes of mistaken wit, by men whose conceptions on the subject, tike those of a man between sleeping and waking, have been turbid and wild, phantattic and confuted, prtpotterotu aud tain.

Indeed, that after the great incomprehensible cause of all, a divine multitude subsists, co-operating with this cause in the production and government of the universe, has always been, and is still admitted by all nations, and all religions, however much they may differ in thoir opinions respecting the nature of the subordinate deities, and die veneration which is to be paid to them by man ; and however barbarous the conceptions of some nations ou this subject may be when compared with those of others. Hence, says the elegant Maxim us Tyrius, " You will see one according taw and assertion in all the earth, that there is one God, the king and father of all things, and many Gods, sons of God, ruling together with him. This the Greek says, and the Barbarian says, the inhabitant of the Continent,

' Via. the present and other works of Protlus, together with those of Plolious, Porphyry, Jambluihus, Syruaus, Ammonius, Damascrus,01ympu>dorus, and Simplicms.

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I K TnODUCTIO N.

and he who dwells near the sea, the wise and the unwise. And if you proceed as far as to the utmost shores of the ocean, there also there arc Gods, rising very near to some, and setting very near to others." ' This dogma, too, is so far from being opposed by either the Old or New Testament, that it is admitted by both, though it forbids the religious veneration of the inferior deities, and enjoins the worship of one God alone, whose portion is Jacob, and Israel the line of his inheritance. The following testimonies will, I doubt not, convince the liberal reader of the truth of (In, assertion.

t mt n»i»it f*« «*<rx"*s *vx9V t****! ™f *« Dissert. 1. Edit. rriae.

IHTRODUCTIOH.

the testimony of the Apostle Paul, they were not consistent in confounding angth properly so died with Gods.

But that tiie stars are not called Gods by the Jewish legislator as things inanimate like statues fashioned of wood or stone, is evident from what is said in the book of Job, and the Psalms : " Behold even the moon and it shineth not, yea the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man that is a worm, and the son of man which is a worm ?" (Job. xxv. v. 5. and 6.) And, " Wheu I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained ; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him." (Psalm viii. v. 3. and 4.) It is evident therefore front these passages, that the heavens and the stars are more excellent than man; but nothing inanimate can be more excellent than that which ia animated. To which may be added, that in the following verse David says, that God has made man a little lower than the angels. But the stars, as we have shown, were considered by Moses as angels and Gods ; and consequently, they are animated beings, and superior to man.