In his seventh epistle also he observes as follows: '' Thus much, however, I shall say respecting all diose who either have written or shall write, affirming that they know those things which are the objects of my study (whether they have heard them from me or from others, or whether they have discovered them themselves) that they have not heard any thing about these things conform- able to my opinion: for I never have written nor ever shall write about them.* For a thing of thb kind cannot be expressed by words like other disciplines, but by long familiarity, and living in conjunction with the thing itself, a light' as it were leaping from a fire will on a sudden be enkindkd in the soul, and there itself nourish itself.'' And shordy after he adds; ^' But if it appeared to me that the particulars of which I am speakiog could be sufficiendy communicated to the multitude by writmg or speech, what could we accomplish more beautiful in life than to impart a mighty benefit to mankind, and lead an intelligible nature into light, so as to be obvious to all men i I diink, however, that an attempt of this kind would only be beneficial to a few, who from some small vesdges previously demonstrated are themselves able to discover these abstruse particulars.
But with respect to the rest of mankind, some it will fill with a contempt by no means elegant, and others widi a lofty and arrogant hope that they sludl now learn certam venerable things."^ MCM ifffovrMM-rixMrrvpa, Epist. 9.
^ Plato means by this, that he has never written perspicuously about intellig^lei or true beings, the proper objects of intellect.
^ This light is a thing of a very different kind from that which is produced by the evidence arising from truths perceptible by the multitude, as those who have experienced it well know.
INTRODUCTION. xIt INTRODUCTION. xIt The prediction of Plato tlierefore^ has been but too truly fulfilled in the fate which has attended the writings of tfie best of his disciples^ amoi^ whom Proclus certainly maintains the most distin- guished rank. This indeed, these disciples well knew would be the case; but perceiving that the hand of Barbaric and despotic power was about to destroy the scho<^ of the philosophers, and foreseeing that dreadful night of ignorance and folly which succeeded so nefarious an undertaking, diey benevolently disclosed in as luminous a manner as the subject would permit, the arcana of tfieir master's doctrmes, thereby, as Plato expresses it, giving assistance to I^ilosophy, and also preserving it as a paternal and immortal inheritance, to the latest posterity. Proclus in the first book of this work has enumerated the requisites which a student of it ought to possess; and it is most certain that he vdio does not possess them, will never fathom the depths of tins theology, or perceive his mind irradiated with that admirable light, mentioned by Plato in the foregoii^ extact, and which is only to be seen by that eye of the soul which is better worth saving than ten diousand corporeal eyes.
With respect to ^ diction of Proclus in this work, its general character is that of purity, clearness, copiousness, and magnificence; so that even the fastidious critic, who considers every Greek writer as partially barbarous who lived after the fall of the Macedonian empire, must, how* ever unwillingly, be forced to acknowledge that Proclus is a splendid exception. The sagacious Kepler, whose decision on this subject, outweighs in my opinion, that of a swarm o( modem critics, after having made a long extract from the commentaries of Proclus on Euclid, gives the following animated encomium of his diction. ^^ Oratio fluit ipsi torrentis instar, ripas inundans, et cosca dubitationum vada gurgitesque -occultans, dum mens plena majestatis tantarum rerum, luctatnr in angustiis linguas, et conclusio nunquam sibi ipsi verborum copi& satisfaciens, proposi- tionmn simplicitatem excedit'' i. e. ** His language flows like a torrent, inundating its banks, and hiding the dark fords and wUrlpoob of doubts, while his mind full of the majesty of things of such a magnitude, struggles in the straits of language, and the conclusion never satisfying him, exceeds by the copia of words, the simplicity of the propositions." If we omit what Kepler here says about the struggle of the mind of Proclus, atad his never being satisfied with the conclusion, the rest of his eulogy is equally applicable to the style of the present work, so far as it is possible for the beauties of diction to be combined with the rigid accuracy of geometrical reasoning.
^In Tpiftt. Ei it (uifli i^MTo ypcMTTM 9* tKarmf fiNM Vfof rwg iroXXov; >uu fnra, n rovrw xaXXtov twtr paxr at nfjur nr^fiift^ ^ rwc Ti aiOfwtwa-i fxtya o^iXo; ypa4^i, xeu vnf ^vffiy fi( fcvf tm; irno-i it^raytvym; aXX* ot/n wBpwmtf ny^vfAOi rnf (ViX"^*' «tf« ^tvwf Uyofjopif ayaOvff u p-n riciy oXiyot;, oiroo'M It/WTM tnwftti mvrot tta fAinfOf wiiifiw;* tw « in oXXivr, fwg fxtf naraff9fn^m( w%»^»i tfAWhuautr ov^v^u^ afAfAiXivs, vwg ^ v-^n^f neu xavrif tXiriiof, vg o-ip* arva fAifM^ntott^e.
xlvi INTRODUCTION.
With respect to the life of Proclus, it has been written with great elegance by his disciple Man- nus; and a transla^on of it by me prefixed to my version of the commentaries of Proclus was pub- lished in 1788. From the edition of that life therefore, by Fabricius, die following particulars relative to this very extraordinary man are extracted, for the information of the reader who may not have the translation of it in his possession. According to the accurate chronology then of Fabridus, Proclus was bom at Byzantium in the year of Christ 412, on the 6th of the Ides of February, and died in the one hundred and twenty-fourth year after the reign of the empe- ror Julian, on the seventeenth day of the Attic Munichion, or the April of the Romans, Nicagoras the junior, being at that time the Athenian archon. His father Patricius, and his mother Marcella, were both of them of the Lycian nation, and were no less illustrious for their virtue than their birth. As soon as he was bom, his parents brought him to their native country Xanthus, which was sacred to Apollo. And this, says Marinus, happened to him by a certain divine aUotment. ^' For, he adds, I think it was necessary that he who was to be the leader of all sciences, should be nourished and educated under the presiding deity of the Muses.** The person of Proclus was uncommonly beautiful; and he not only possessed all the moral and intellectual virtues in the highest perfection, but the vestigies of them also, which are den9minated the physical virtues, were clearly seen, says Marinus, in his last and shelly vestment the body. Hence he possessed a remarkable acuteness of sensation, and particularly in the most honourable of the senses, sight and hearing, which, as Plato says, were imparted by the Gods to men for the purpose of philosophiz'mg, and for the well being of the animal life. In the second place, he possessed so great a strength of body, that it was neidier injured by cold, nor any endurance of labours, though these were extreme, both by night and day. In the third place, he was, as we have before observed, very beautiful. '^ For not only, says Marinus, did his body possess great symmetry, but a living light as it were beaming from his soul was efBorescent in his body, and shone forth with au admira^ ble splendor, which it is impossible to describe.'* Marinus adds, ^' Indeed he was so beautiful, ^t no painter could accurately exhibit his resemblance; and all the pictures of him which were circulated, though very beautiful, were very inferior to the beauty of the original'^ And in the fourth place, he possessed health in such perfection, diat he was not ill above twice or thrice in the course of so long a life as seventy-five years.
Such then were the corporeal prerogatives which Proclus possessed, and which may be called the forerunners of the forms of perfect virtue. But he possessed in a wonderful manner what Plato calls the elements of a philosophic genius.' For he had an excellent memory, learned with focility, viras magoificent and graceful, and the friend and ally of tmth, justice, fortitude, and tem^ * See the sixth book of the Republic of Plato, INTRODUCTION. xlvii perance. Haying for a short space of time applied himself in Lycia to grammar, he went to Alex- UDdria in Egypt^ and was there instructed in rhetoric by Leonas who derived his lineage from Isaurus, and in grammar by Orion, whose ancestors discharged the sacerdotaPofEce aflioog the Egyptians, and who composed elaborate treatises on that art. A certain good fortwie however, says Marinus, brought him back to the place of his nativity. For on bis return his tutelar Goddess exhorted him to philosophy, and to visit the Athenian schools. Having therefore, first returned to Alexandria and bade farewell to rhetoric, and the other arts which he had formerly studied, he gave himself up' to the discourses of the philosophers then resident at Alexandria. Here, he became an auditor of Olympiodorus,' the most illustrious of philosophers, for the sake of imbibing the doc- trine of Aristotle; and was instructed in the mathematical disciplines by Hero, a religious man, and eminently skilful in teaching.those sciences. Proclus however, not bemg satisfied widi the Alexandrian schools, went to Athens, ^' with a certain splendid procession, says Marinus, of all elo- quence and elegance, and attended by the Gods that preside over philosophy, and by beneficent daemons. For that the succession of philosophy, might be preserved legitimate and genuine, the Gods led him to the city over M'hich its inspective guardian presides.'' Hence Proclus was called '"«'' »f oX'Jv by way of eminence y the Platonic Successor. At Athens therefore, Proclus fortunately met with the first of philosophers, Syrianus,^ the son of Philoxenus, who not only much assisted him in his studies, but made him his domestic as to other concerns, and the companion of his philo- sophic life, having found him such an auditor and successor as he had a long time sought for, and one who was capable of receiving a multitude of disciplines and divine d<9gmas.
In less duin two whole years therefore, Proclus read with Syrianus all the works of Aristotle, viz. his logic, ethics, politics, physics, and theological science. And being sufficiently instructed in these as in certain proteleia, or thmgs preparatory to initiation, and lesser mysteries, Syrianus led hiil| to the mystic discipline of Plato, in an orderly progression, and not according to the Chaldean oracle with a transcendent foot. He likewise enabled Proclus to survey in conjunction with him, says Marinus, truly divine mysteries, with the eyes of his soul free from material darkness, and with undefiled intellectual vision. But Proclus employing sleepless exercise and attention, both ' This Olympiodorus is not the same with the philosopher of that name whose learned commentaries on cer- tain dialogues of Plato are extant m manuscript; as in these, not only Proclus, but Damascius who flourished after Proclus is celebrated. ^ * This truly great man appears to have been the first who thoroughly penetrated the profundity contained in the writings of the more ancient philosophers, contemporary with and prior to Plato, and to have demon- strated the admirable agreement of their doetrines with each other. Unfortunately but few of his works are extant.
Xl^ INTRODUCTION.
Xl^ INTRODUCTION.
by night and by day, and synoptically and judiciously committing to writing what he heard from Syrianus, made so great a progress in a little time, that by then he was twenty-eight years of age^ be had composed a multitude of works and among the rest his commentaries on the Tim«us which are truly elegant and full of science. But from such a discipline as this, his manners became more adorned; and as he advanced in science he increased in virtue.
Marinus after this, shows how Produs possessed all the virtues in the greatest possible perfec« tion; and how he proceeded from the exercise of the political virtues, which are produced by reason adorning the irrational part as its instrument, to the cathartic virtues which pertain to reason alone, withdrawing from other things to itself, throwing aside the instruments of sense as vain, repressmg also the ener^es through Ihese instruments, and liberating the soul from die bonds of generation. He then adds, ** Proclus having made a proiSciency, through these virtues, as it were by certain mystic steps, recurred from these to such as are greater and more telestic, being con* ducted to them by a prosperous nature and scientific discipline. For being now purified, rising above generation, and despising its thyrsus-bearers,' he was agitated with a divinely inspired fury, about the first essences, and became an inspector of the truly blessed spectacles which they contain. No longer collecting discursively and demonstratively the science of them, but surveying them as it were by simple intuition, and beholding through intellectual energies the paradigms in a divine intellect, assuming a virtue which can no longer be denominated prudence, but which ought rather to be called wisdom, or somediing still more venerable than this. The philosopher therefore ener* gizing according to this virtue, easily comprehended all the theology of the Greeks and Barbarians, Mid that which is adumbrated in mythological fictions, and brought it into light, to those who are willing and able to understand it. He explained likewise every thing in a more enthusiastic man* ner, and brought die difierent theologies to an harmonious agreement. At the same time also, investigating the writings of the ancients, whatever he found in them genuine, he judiciously adopted; but if he found any diing of a spurious nature, this, he entirely rejected as erroneous. He also strenuously subverted by a diligent examination such doctrines as were contrary to truth. In his associations too with others, he employed no less force and perspicuity. For he was a man laborious beyond measure; as, in one day, he gave five, and sometimes more lectures, and wrote > Socrates in the Phado of Plato, Orphically calls the multitude thyrsus-bearers as living Tltannically. For the thyrsus, says Olympiodoras, (in MS. comment in Phsed.) is a symbol of material and partible fobrication, on account of its divulsed continuity, whence also it is a Tltannic plant. ** For it is extended, says he, before Bac- chus, instead of his paternal sceptre, and through this they call him into a partial nature. He adds, ^ Besides the Titans are thyrsus-bearers; and Prometheus concealed fire in a reed, whether by this we are to understand that he draws down celestial light into generation, or impels soul into body, or calls forth divine illumination, the whole of which is ungenerated, into generation,** INTRODUCTION. xUx as many as seven hundred verses. Besides this, he went to other philosophy rs^ and spent the evening in conversation with them. And all these employments h^ executed in such a manner as not to neglect his nocturnal and vigilant piety to the Gocjs^ and assiduously supplicating the sun when rising, when at his meridian altitude^ and when he sets.''
Marinus farther observes of this most extraordinary man^ '^ that he did not seem to be without divine inspiration. For words «milar to the most white and thick-falling snow ' proceeded from his wise mouthy his eyes appeared to be filled with a fulgid splendor^ and the rest of his face to partici- pate of divine illumination. Hence Rufinus, a man illustrious in the Republic, and who was also a man of veracity, and in other respects venerable, happening to be present with him when he was lecturing, perceived tliat his head was surrounded with a light. And when Proclus had finished his lecture, Rufinus rising, adored him> and testified by an oath the truth of the divine vision which he bad seen.''
Marinus also informs us, ^'that Proclus being purified in an orderly manner by the Chaldean puri- fications, was an inspector of the lucid Hecatic visions, as he himself somewhere mentions in one of his writings. By opportunely moving likewise a certain Hecatic sphaerula,* he procured showers of rain, and freed Athens from an unseasonable heat. Besides this, by certain phylacteria or charms, he stopt an earthquake, and had made trial of the divining energy of the tripod, having been instructed by certain verses respecting its failure. For when he was in his fortieth year, he appeared in a dream to utter the following verses; High above sther there with radiance bright, A pure immortal splendor wings its flight; ^ Whose beams divine with vivid force aspire, And leap resounding from a fount of hre.
* Alluding to the beautiful description given of Ulysses in the third book of the Iliad, v. 8S. which is thus elegantly paraphrased by Pope.
But when he speaks what elocution flows! Soft as the fleeces of descending snows The copious accents fall with easy art; Melting they fall and sink into the heart* * Nicephorus in his commentary on Synesius de Insomniis, p. 368. informs us that the Hecatic orb is a golden v sphere, which has a sapphire'stone inclosed in its middle part, and through its whole extremity characters, and various figures. He adds, that turning this sphere round, the Chaldeans perform invocations which they call lyngae. Thus too, according to Suidas, the magician Julian of Chaldaea, and Amuphis the Egyptian brought down showers of rain, by a magical power. And by an artifice of this kind, Empedocles was accustomed to restrain the fury of the winds; on which account he was called a>^S»ufMf, an espeller of mind.
^ This signifies that the divine splendor which is the cause of the prophetic energy, would leave the earth, in consequence of the then existing inaptitude of persons, places, and instruments, to receive it.
And in the beginning of his forty-second yeai[ he appeared to himself to pronounce with a loud voice these verses: Lo! on my soul a sacred fire descends. Whose vivid power the intellect extends; From whence far beaming thro' dull body's night. It soars to sther deck'd with starry light; And with soft murmurs thro' the azure round, The lucid regions of the Gods resound.
Besides, he clearly perceived that he belonged to the Mercurial series; and was persuaded from a dream, that he possessed the soul of Nicomachus the Pythagorean." ' In the last place, Marinus adds, '* that the lovers of more elegant studies may be able to conjec- ture from the position of the stars under which he was bom, that the condition of his life, was by no means among the last or middle, but among the first orders, we have thought fit to expose in this place tiie following scheme of his nativity."
■ No opinion is more celebrated, than that of the metempsychosis of Pythagoras; but perhaps no doctrine is more generally mistaken. By most of the present day it is exploded as ridiculous; and the few who retain some veneration for its founder, endeavour to destroy the literal, and to confine it to an allegorical meaning. By some of the ancients this mutation was limited to similar bodies; so that they conceived the human soul might trans- migrate into various human bodies, but not into those of brutes. And this was the opinion of Hierocles, as may be seen in his Commentary on the Golden Verses. But why may not the human soul become connected with subordinate, as well as with superior lives, by a tendency of incfination? Do not similars love to be united; and is there not in all kinds of life something similar and common? Hence when the affections of the soul verge to a baser nature, while connected with a human body, these affections, on the dissolution of such a body, become enveloped as it were, in a brutal nature, and the rational eye, in this case, clouded with perturbations, is oppressed by the irrational energies of the brute, and surveys nothing but the dark phantasms of a degraded imagination.
But this doctrine is vindicated by Proclus with his usual acuteness, in his admirable Commentaries on the TimsBus lib. 5. p. 8t9, as follows: " It is usual, says he, to enquire how human souls can descend into brute animals. And some indeed, think that there are certain similitudes of men to brutes, which they call savage lives: for they by no means think it possible that the rational essence can become the soul of a savage animal. On the contrary others allow it may be sent into brute?, because all souls are of one abd the same kind; so that they may become wolves and panthers, and ichneumons. But true reason indeed, asserts that the human soul may be lodged in brutes, yet in such a manner, as that it may obtain its own proper life, and that the degraded soul may, as it were, be earned above it, and be bound to the baser nature by a propensity and similitude of affection. And that this is the only mode of insinuation, we have proved by a multitude of arguments, in our Commentaries on the Phaedrus. If however, it be requisite to take notice, that this is the opinion of Plato, we add that in his Republic he says, that the soul of Thersites assumed an ape, but not the body of an ape: and in the Phsedrus, that the soul descends into a savage life, but not into a savage body. For life is conjoined with its proper soul. And in this place he says it is changed into a biutal nature. For a brutal nature is not a brutal body, but a brutal life."
INTRODUCTION.
8 19 T Mid. Heaven.
] 4 42 Vf 8 or die head of die dragon 24 33 m The new moon preceding his birdi 8 51 tt: And thus much for the life of Proclus.
With respect to the translation of the following work. On the Theology of Plato, I can only say that I have endeavoured to render it as faithful as possible, and to pifeserve the manner as well as the matter of the author; this being indispensably necessary, both from the importance of the sub- ject, and the scientific accuracy of the reasoning with which it is discussed. I have added a seventh book in order to render the work complete; for vnthout die developement of the mundane Gods, and the more excellent genera their perpetual attendants, it would obviously be incomplete. From the catalogue of the manuscripts in the late French king's library, it is evident that Proclus had written a seventh book,' as some chapters of it are there said to be extant in that library. These I have endeavoured, but without success, to obtain. The want of this seventh book by Proclus, will doubtless be considered by all the friends of Greek literature, and particularly by all who are lovers of the doctrines of Plato, as a loss of no common magnitude. It is, however, a fortunate circumstance, that in the composition of the seventh book I have been able to supply the deficiency arising from the want of that which was written by Proclus, in a great measure from other work* ©f Proclus himself, and particularly firom his very elegant and scientific commentaries on the Timaeus of Plato. So that I trust the loss is in some measure supplied; though 1 am sensible, very inadequately, could it be compared with the book which was written by a man of such gigantic ' Proclus at the end of the first book of this work says, " that divine names will be accurately discussed by him, when he comes to speak of partial powers." This, however, is not done by him in any one of the six books that are extant; which shows that another book is wanting.
Ill INTRODUCTION.
powers of mind aa Proclus, and who had ako sources of information on die subject, which at the present period^ it is impossible to obtain.
A translation of the Elements of Theology is added in order to render the treatise On the Theology of Plato, more complete^ and to assist the reader who wishes to penetrate the depths of tliat most abstruse and sublime M'ork; for the former elucidates^ and is elucidated by the htter.
In translating the treatise of Proclus On Providence and Fate, I had great difficulties to encoun- ter, as the original Greek is lost, and nothing but a Latin translation^ which Fabricius observes, is all but barbarous, remains. If the reader compares that translation with mme, he will at once acknowledge the truth of my remark. Indeed, that translation is m some parts so barbarous, that nothing but an intimate acquaintance with the writings of Proclus, and the philosophy of Plato could enable any one to render them intelligible in another language. The same observation b partially applicable to the translation of the Extracts from two other treatises of Proclus.