Page:Works of Plato his first fifty-five dialogues (Taylor 1804) (Vol 2 of 5) (IA Vol2worksofplato00plat).pdf/462

 INTRODUCTION TO THE TIM^US.

452

ſuch as live but for a ſhort period 1, (viz. whole periods of circulation are Ihort) it is neceffary there fhould be a fpecies of rational animals more divine than man, and whole exigence is of a very extended duration.

It

is like wife worthy of obfervation, that the foul is conjoined with this grofs body through two vehicles as mediums, one of which is ethereal and the other aerial : and of thefe the ethereal vehicle is fmple and immaterial, but the aerial fimple and material; and this denle earthly body is comjwjite and material.

Again, when our fouls are reprefented after falling into the prelent body as buffering a tranfmutation into brutes, this, as Proclus beautifully obferves, mull not be underftood as if our fouls ever became the animating principles of brutal bodies, but that by a certain fympathy they are bound to the fouls of brutes, and are as it were carried in them, juft as evil daemons infinuate themfelves into our phantafy, through their own depraved imaginations. And by the circulations of the foul being merged in a profound river and impetuoufly borne along, we mu ft underftand by the river, not the human body alone, but the whole of generation (with which we are externally furrounded) through its fvvift and unftable flowing.

For thus, fays Proclus,

Plato in the Republic calls the whole of generated nature the river of Lethe, which contains both Lethe and the meadow of Ate, according to Empe¬ docles 2 ; the devouring jaws of matter and the light-hating world, as it is called by the Gods ; and the winding rivers under which many are drawn down, as the oracles 3 aftert.

But by the circulations of the foul the dia-

noetic and doxaftic powers are fgnifed ; the former of which, through the foul’s conjunction with the body, is impeded in its energies, and the latter is Titanically torn in pieces under the irrational life. Again, if we conlider man with reference to a contemplative life, which is the true end of his formation, we fhall find that the head, which is the inftrument of contemplation, is the principal member, and that the other members were only added as miniftrant to the head.

With refpeCt to fight,

1 i. e. men.

8

Ev y noti v AvjStj, Hai o tmj At>j$

//coy, u; Qwiv E/*7Ti$0Ktos> y.ai to haQpov vns

hov^cs, us ot Ssot teyoucri, nai ra anoxia ptiSpa, L<p’ uv hi

Tim. p. 339. Myfteries.

woMoi

HaTaaupovTai, us

Hat o puaotpawt

Xoyict (pn?iv.

Prod, in

See more concerning this in my Diflertation on the Eleulinlan and Bacchic

3 Viz. the oracles of Zoroafter.

it