Page:Works of Plato his first fifty-five dialogues (Taylor 1804) (Vol 2 of 5) (IA Vol2worksofplato00plat).pdf/445

 INTRODUCTION

TO THE TIM1US.

435

bounded by its elevated parts, he will conclude that it is truly of a prodi¬ gious magnitude, according to the aſſertion of Plato.” In the next place, by the fable of Phaeton we mud underftand the de¬ duction of a confiderable part of the eaath through fire, by means of a comet beine diffolved of a folar nature.

Likewife, when he mentions a

deluge, it is neceifary to remember, that through the devaluations of thefe two elements, fire and water, a more prolific regeneration of things takes place at certain periods of time; and that when Divinity intends a reforma¬ tion, the heavenly bodies concur with this defign in fuch a manner, that when a conflagration is about to take place, then, according to Berofus 1 • the Chaldaean, all the planets are collected together in Cancer; but when a deluge, then the planets meet in Capricorn.

With refpect to Pallas and

Neptune, who are mentioned in this part of the dialogue, as the reader will find an account of thefe Divinities in the Notes to the Cratylus, I fhall only add at prefent, that, according to Proclus, Minerva moft eminently prefldes in the celeltial conftellation called the Ram, and in the equinoctial circle, where a power motive of the univerfe principally prevails. As;ain, it is neceflary to underftand, that when the world is faid by Plato to bq generated, this term expreffes its flowing and compofite nature, and does not imply any temporal commencement of its exigence.

For, as the

world was neceflarily produced according to eflential power, this being the moft perfect of all modes of operation, it is all'o neceflary that it fhould be coexiftent with its artificer; juft as the fun produces light coexiflent with itfelf, fire heat, and lhow coldnefs.

The reader muff, however, carefully

obferve, that when we fay it is neceflary that the caufe of the univerfe fhould operate according to power, we do not underhand a neceffity which implies violence or

conftraint; but that neceffity which Ariflotle 1 de¬

fines as the perfectly Ample, and which cannot have a multifarious fubflflence.

And hence this term, when applied to the moft exalted natures,

to whom alone in this fenfe it belongs, fignifies nothing more than an impoflibility of fubfifling otherwife than they do, without falling from the per¬ fection of their nature.

Agreeably to this definition, Neceffity was celled

by antient theologifls Adraflia and Themis, or the perfectly right and juft; 1 Vid. Senec. Natural. QuaefL III. 29.

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1 Metaphyf. lib. 5.

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