Page:Works of Plato his first fifty-five dialogues (Taylor 1804) (Vol 2 of 5) (IA Vol2worksofplato00plat).pdf/440

 INTRODUCTION TO THE TIMiEUS.

430

ill the ſun they all poffefs a folar property, in the moon a lunar one, and fo of the reft.

From this theory too we may perceive the truth of that divine

faying of the antients, that all things are full of Gods ; for more particular orders proceed from fuch as are more general, the mundane from the fupermundane, and the fublunary from the celeftial; while earth becomes the general receptacle of the illuminations of all the Gods.

“Hence (fays

Proclus *) there is a terreftrial Ceres, Vefta, and Ifis, as likewife a terreftrial Jupiter and a terreftrial Hermes, eftablilhed about the one divinity of the earth; juft as a multitude of celeftial Gods proceeds about the one divinity of the heavens.

For there are progreftions of all the celeftial Gods into the

earth ; and earth contains all things, in an earthly manner, which heaven comprehends celeftially.

Hence we fpeak of a terreftrial Bacchus, and a

terreftrial Apollo, who beftows the all-various ftreams of water with which the earth abounds, and openings prophetic of futurity.”

And if to all this we

only add that all the other mundane Gods fubfift in the twelve above men¬ tioned, and that the hr ft triad of thefe is demiurgic or fabricative, viz. Jupiter, Neptune, Vulcan ; the fecond, Vefta, Minerva, Mars, defensive ; the third, Ceres, Juno, Diana, vivific ; and the fourth, Mercury, Venus, Apollo, elevating and harmonic:—I lay, if we unite this with the preceding theory, there is nothing in the antient theology that will not appear admi¬ rably lublime and beautifully connefled, accurate in all its parts, fcientific and divine.

Such then being the true account of the Grecian theology,

what opinion muft we form of the wretched lyftems of modern mythologifts; and which moft deferves our admiration, the impudence or ignorance of the authors of fuch fyftems ?

The fyftems indeed of thefe men are fo

monftroufly abfurd, that we may confider them as inftances of the greateft diftortion of the rational faculty which can poffiblv befall human nature, while connected with fuch a body as the prefent.

For one of thefe con-

ftders the Gods as merely fymbols of agriculture, another as men who once lived on the earth s, and a third as the patriarchs and prophets of the Jews. Surely fliould thefe fyftems be tranfmitted to pofterity, the hiftorian by whom they are related muft either be confidered by future generations as an impoftor, or his narration muft be viewed in the light of an extravagant romance. I only add, as a conclufion to this fublime theory, that though the w'hole 1 In Tim. p. 282.

2 See my notes on the Cratylus. of