Page:Works of Plato his first fifty-five dialogues (Taylor 1804) (Vol 2 of 5) (IA Vol2worksofplato00plat).pdf/444

 434

INTRODUCTION TO THE

TIM^US.

which the following extraordinary paſſage from Proclus 1 abundantly con¬ firms.

“ It is here (fays he) requifite to remember the Platonic hypothefes

concerning the earth.

For Plato does not meafure its magnitude after the

fame manner as mathematicians; but thinks that its interval is much Greater as Socrates afferts in the Phaedo.

In which dialogue alfo he fays, that there

are many habitable parts fimilar to our abode a. And hence he relates that an ifiand and continent of this kind exift in the external or Atlantic fea.

For

indeed, if the earth be naturally fpherical, it is neceffary that it Ihould be fuch according to its greateft part.

But the parts which we inhabit, both inter¬

nally and externally, exhibit great inequality.

In fome parts of the earth,

therefore, there muft be an expanded plain, and an interval extended on high.

For, according to the faying of Heraclitus, he who paffes through a

very profound region will arrive at the Atlantic mountain, whofe magnitude is fuch, according to the relation of the ^Ethiopian hiftorians, that it touches the aether, and cafts a fhadow of five thoufand fladia in extent ; for from the ninth hour of the day the fun is concealed by it, even to his perfedt demerfion under the earth.

Nor is this wonderful: for Athos, a Macedo¬

nian mountain, cafts a fhadow as far as to Lemnos, which is diftant from it feven hundred ftadia.

Nor are fuch particulars as thefe, which Mar-

cellus the AEthiopic hiftorian mentions, related only concerning the Atlantic mountain ; but Ptolemy alfo fays that the lunar mountains are of an immenfe height; and Ariftotle, that Caucafus is enlightened by the rays of the fun a third part of the night after fun-fet, and a third part before the rifing of the fun.

And if any one confiders the whole magnitude of the earth,

1 In Tim. p. 56. % The latter Platonifts appear to have been perfe&ly convinced that the earth contains two quarters in an cppofite dire£tion to Europe and Afia *, and Olympiodorus even confiders Plato as of the fame opinion, as the following paftage from his commentary on this part of the Phtedo clearly evinces.—“ Plato (fays he) directs his attention to four parts of the globe, as there are two parts which we inhabit, i. e. Europe and Afia ; fo that there muft be two others, in confequence of the antipodes.”

KaratTrox^srai de tuv reacrapuv (T07ruv) B7ritdy duo Had’bt-ioi; turn/, b Eupazn

nai b Atria, ourre duo axxoi Kara tou$ avrirroda$.

Now in confequence of this, as they were acquainted

with Africa, the remaining fourth quarter muft be that which we call America.

At the fame

time let it be carefully remembered, that thefe four quarters are nothing more than four holes with refpeA to the whole earth, which contains many fuch parts; and that confequently they are not quarters of the earth itfelf, but only of a fmall part of the earth in which they are con¬ tained, like a fmall globe in one of a prodigious extent.

bounded