Page:Works of Plato his first fifty-five dialogues (Taylor 1804) (Vol 2 of 5) (IA Vol2worksofplato00plat).pdf/448

 INTRODUCTION TO THE TlMiEUS.

438

philoſophy itfelf forms fo regular and confident a whole.

But I have in¬

vented the following numbers for the purpofe of reprefenting this didribution of the elements arithmetically. Let the number 60 reprefent fire, and 480 earth ; and the mediums be¬ tween thefe, viz. 120 and 240, will correfpond to air and water 60 : 120 :: 240 : 480.

But 60 — 3 x 5 X 4. 120 = 3 x 10 x 4.

X 10 x 4. and 480 = 6x10x8.

For as 240 — 6

So that thefe numbers will correfpond

to the properties of the elements as follows : Fire :

3 X

5 *

Air ::

4:

3 x

10 x

4 ::

Subtle, acute, movable :

Subtle, blunt, movable.

Water :

Earth.

6 x

10 X

4::

Denfe, blunt, movable ::

6 x

10 x

8

Denfe, blunt, immovable.

With refpetd to fire it mud be obferved, that the Platonids confider lights flame, and a burning coal, (pug, (pXo%, av9pu%, as differing from each other; and that a fubjedtion or remifiion of fire takes place from on high to the earth, proceeding, as we have before obferved, from that which is more immaterial, pure, and incorporeal, as far as to the mod material and denfe bodies :

the lad proceffion of fire being fubterranean ; for, according to

Empedocles, there are many rivers of fire under the earth.

So that one

kind of fire is material and another immaterial, i. e. when compared with fublunary matter ; and one kind is corruptible, but another incorruptible; and one is mixed with air, but another is perfectly pure.

The charadleridic

too of fire is neither heat nor a motion upwards, for this is the propertyonly of our terredrial fire ; and this in confequence of not fubfiding in its proper place : but the edential peculiarity of fire is vifibilitv ;-for this belongs to all fire, i. e. to the divine, the ?nortal, the burning, and the impetuous.

It

mud, however, be carefully obferved, that our eyes are by no means the jdandards of this vifibility : for we cannot perceive the celedial fpheres, on account of fire and air in their compofition fo much predominating over earth ; and many terredrial bodies emit no light when confiderably heated, owing