The six books of Proclus, the Platonic successor, on the theology of Plato (vol. 1 of 2) : $b translated from the Greek, to which a seventh book is added, in order to supply the deficiency of another book on this subject, which was written by Proclus, but since lost, also, a translation from the Greek of Proclus' Elements of theology, to which are added a translation of the treatise of Proclus, On providence and fate, a translation of extracts from his treatise, entitled, Ten doubts concerning — Plato — John Shaqi
The six books of Proclus, the Platonic successor, on the theology of Plato (vol. 1 of 2) : $b translated from the Greek, to which a seventh book is added, in order to supply the deficiency of another book on this subject, which was written by Proclus, but since lost, also, a translation from the Greek of Proclus' Elements of theology, to which are added a translation of the treatise of Proclus, On providence and fate, a translation of extracts from his treatise, entitled, Ten doubts concerning
Plato · en
For they are causes which are moved, and are the leaders
of mutation to their progeny.
If however it be requisite to survey the thing itself by itself, and
how one intelligible form is the cause[206] of Gods, and dæmons and
mortals, Parmenides alone is able to satisfy us about the parts which
are contained in the intelligible multitude. For he characterizes some
things according to being, but others according to _the one_. For the
one being, indeed, is absorbed by _the one_, but being which is one is
rather absorbed by being, and the one being, and being which is one,
contain in themselves each of the intelligible animals. According to
the one being, therefore, Parmenides constitutes the divine genera,
together with an appropriate peculiarity. But according to being which
is one, he constitutes the genera posterior to the Gods. And according
to the one being indeed of being which is one, he constitutes the
genera of dæmons, but according to being which is one, the mortal
genera. And again, according to the one being of the one being, he
constitutes the first and highest genera of the Gods; but according
to the being which is one of it, the second genera, and which have an
angelic order. And thus all things are full of Gods, angels, dæmons,
animals, and mortal natures. And you see how the medium is preserved
of the more excellent genera. For being which is one is the angelic
boundary of the one being which produces the Gods. But the one being
is the dæmoniacal summit of being which is one, and which adorns
secondary natures. As to the unions, however, of secondary natures,
it is not immanifest that they approximate to multitude, and to the
progression of the natures placed above them. Nor must you wonder if
being which is one is the cause of angels, but the one being of dæmons.
For in one place, being which is one is a part of the one being, but
in another the one being is a part of being which is one. And here,
indeed, the union is essential, but there essence has the form of
_the one_. For the summit of being which is one is a thing of this
kind. Deservedly, therefore, is intelligible multitude all-powerful,
and intelligible animal all-perfect, as being at once the cause of
all things, and this as far as to the last of things, Plato all but
exclaiming, [in the words of the Chaldæan Oracle,] “Thence a fiery
whirlwind sweeping along, obscures the flower of fire, leaping at the
same time into the cavities of the worlds.” For the divine unities
proceeding gradually, generate the multitude of all mundane natures.
This triad, therefore, is the fountain and cause of all things: and
from it all the life, and all the progression of the Gods, and the
genera superior to us, and of mortal animals subsist. For it produces
totally and uniformly all things, and binds to itself the whole
principles of the divisible rivers of vivification, and the production
of forms.
CHAPTER XXVIII.