Page:Works of Plato his first fifty-five dialogues (Taylor 1804) (Vol 2 of 5) (IA Vol2worksofplato00plat).pdf/423



THE deſign, ſays Proclus, of Plato’s Timæus evidently vindicates to itſelf the whole of phyſiology, and is converſant from beginning to end with the ſpeculation of the univerſe.

For the book of Timæus the Locrian concerning nature is compoſed after the Pythagoric manner; and Plato, thence deriving his materials, undertook to compoſe the preſent dialogue, according to the relation of the ſcurrilous Timon. This dialogue, therefore, respects phyſiology in all its parts; ſpeculating the ſame things in images and in exemplars, in wholes and in parts. For it is filled with all the moſt beautiful modes of phyſiology, delivering things ſimple for the ſake of ſuch as are compoſite, parts on account of wholes, and images for the ſake of exemplars; and it leaves none of the primary cauſes of nature unexplored.

But Plato alone, of all the phyſiologiſts, has preſerved the Pythagoric mode in ſpeculations about nature. For phyſiology receives a threefold diviſion, one part of which is converſant with matter and material cauſes; but a ſecond adds an inquiry into form, and evinces that this is the more principal cauſe; and laſtly, a third part manifeſts that theſe do not rank in the order of cauſes, but concauſes; and, in conſequence of this, eſtabliſhes other proper cauſes of things ſubſiſting in nature, which it denominates producing, paradigmatical, and final cauſes. But this being the caſe, all the phyſiologiſts prior to Plato, confining themſelves to ſpeculations about matter, called this general receptacle of things by different names.

For, with reſpect to Anaxagoras himſelf, as it appears, though while others were dreaming he perceived that intellect was the firſt cauſe of generated natures, yet he made no uſe of intellect in his demonſtrations, but rather conſidered certain airs and