Page:Works of Plato his first fifty-five dialogues (Taylor 1804) (Vol 2 of 5) (IA Vol2worksofplato00plat).pdf/461

 INTRODUCTION TO THE TI MiG US.

451

underſtand the vivific Goddefs Juno; by the term mingling, a communion of eflence ; and by a fecond mixture in a certain refpedl the fame, but yet deficient from the firft in a fecond and third degree, the Similitude and at the fame time inferiority of partial to total fouls, and the order fubfifting among partial fouls.

For fome of thefe are pure and undefiled, affociating

with generation but for a Short time, and this for the God-like purpofe of benefiting more ingenious fouls; but others wander from their true country for very extended periods of time.

For between fouls which abide on high

without defilement, and fuch as defcend and are defiled with vice, the medium muft be fuch fouls as defcend, indeed, but without defilement. But when the artificer of the univerfe is faid to have diftributed fouls equal in number to the ftars, this muft not be underftood as, if one partial foul was diftributed under one of the ftars, and that the quantity of fouls is equal to that of the ftarry Gods ; for this would be perfectly inconfiftent with what Plato afterts a little before, that the artificer difteminated fome of thefe into the earth, fome into the fun and fome into the moon, thus Scattering a multitude into each of the inftruments of time. But, as Proclus well obferves, equality of number here muft not be underftood monadically, but according to analogy.

For in numbers, fays he, ten is analogous to

-unity, thirty to three, fifty to five, and entirely all the numbers pofterior to the decad, to all within the decad.

And hence five is not equal to fifty

in quantity, nor three to thirty, but they are only equal according to ana¬ logy. After this manner, therefore, the equal in number muft bo aflumed in partial fouls ; fince there is a number of thefe accommodated to every divine foul, and which each divine foul uniformly pre-aftumes in itfelf.

And

hence, when it unfolds this number, it bounds the multitude of partial fouls diftributed under its eftence. Likewife, with refpedl to thefe depending fouls, fuch as are firft fufpended from a divine foul are lefs in number, but greater in power; but fuch as are fecond in progreffion are lefs in power, but more extended in number ; while at the fame time each is analogous to the divine caufe from which it proceeds. Obferve, too, that when Plato ufes the term the mojl pious of animals, man alone is not implied, but the inhabitants likewife or partial fouls of the feveral Spheres and ftars : for, fays Proclus, between eternal animals *, and

l i. e.

ftars and fpheres. 3 M

2

fuch