To the treatise of Ocellus I have subjoined a translation of a Fragment of Taurus, a Platonic philosopher, On the Eternity of the World[7]; and also a translation of the Mundi Thema, or _Geniture of the World_, from the celebrated astrological work of Julius Firmicus Maternus, because it not only admits with Ocellus the perpetuity of the universe, but unfolds the position of the stars at the commencement of each of the periods comprehended in the greater mundane apocatastasis, which consists of 300,000 years; the first period after a deluge and conflagration, being, as it were, a reproduction of the world. I have likewise annexed a translation of select theorems from the 2nd Book of Proclus on Motion, in which the perpetuity of time, and of the bodies which are naturally moved with a circular motion, is incontrovertibly proved, and is demonstrated by what Plato calls “_geometrical necessities_” (γεωμετρικαις αναγκαις). In the last place, I have added copious Notes to these treatises, in order that nothing might be wanting to render the meaning of them perspicuous to the unprejudiced and intelligent reader. FOOTNOTES: [1] viz. falling on _matter_, or the general receptacle of all sensible forms. See my Translation of the admirable treatise of Plotinus “On the Impassivity of Incorporeal Natures.” [2] Περι νομου, περι βασιλειας και ὁσιοτητος, και της του παντος γενεσεως. [3] It is rightly observed by Fabricius, “that this work of Ocellus was originally written in the Doric dialect, but was afterwards translated by some grammarian into the common dialect, in order that it might be more easily understood by the reader.”—Vid. Biblioth. Græc. tom. i. p. 510. [4] In all the editions of Plato, μυριοι, conformably to the above translation; but from Diogenes Laertius, who, in his Life of Archytas, gives this epistle of Plato, it appears that the true reading is Μυραιοι, i. e. Myrenees, so called from Myra, a city of Lycia in Asia Minor, (see Pliny, v. 27. Strabo xiv. 666.) This 12th epistle of Plato, though ascribed by Thrasyllus and Diogenes Laertius to Plato, yet is marked in the Greek manuscripts of it as spurious. [5] Of the Philosophy of Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle, very few of the moderns have any accurate knowledge, and therefore on this subject they may be prolix, but they cannot write well. See this largely and incontrovertibly proved in the Third and Fourth Books of my Dissertation on the Philosophy of Aristotle. [6] For nearly the whole of what is contained in the above three paragraphs, I am indebted to my excellent friend Mr. J. B. Inglis, who has also read Ocellus with great attention, and made Notes upon it; another proof that the work is not neglected. [7] This Taurus flourished under Marcus Antoninus, and the original of the above-mentioned Fragment is only to be found in the treatise of Philoponus against Proclus, “On the Eternity of the World.” OCELLUS LUCANUS ON THE UNIVERSE. CHAP. I.