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
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Hence, as the result of this most venerable conception of the supreme,
when it ventures not only to denominate the ineffable, but also to
assert something of its relation to other things, it considers this as
pre-eminently its peculiarity, that it is the principle of principles;
it being necessary that the characteristic property of principle, after
the same manner as other things, should not begin from multitude,
but should be collected into one monad as a summit, and which is
the principle of all principles. Conformably to this, Proclus, in
the second book of this work[1] says, with matchless magnificence
of diction: “Let us as it were celebrate the first God, not as
establishing the earth and the heavens, nor as giving subsistence to
souls, and the generation of all animals; for he produced these indeed,
but among the last of things; but prior to these, let us celebrate
him as unfolding into light the whole intelligible and intellectual
genus of Gods, together with all the supermundane and mundane
divinities----as the God of all Gods, the unity of all unities, and
beyond the first adyta,[2]--as more ineffable than all silence, and
more unknown than all essence,--as holy among the holies, and concealed
in the intelligible Gods.”
The scientific reasoning from which this dogma is deduced is the
following: As the principle of all things is _the one_, it is
necessary that the progression of beings should be continued, and
that no vacuum should intervene either in incorporeal or corporeal
natures. It is also necessary that every thing which has a natural
progression should proceed through similitude. In consequence of
this, it is likewise necessary that every producing principle should
generate a number of the same order with itself, viz. _nature_,
a natural number; _soul_, one that is psychical (i.e. belonging
to soul); and _intellect_, an intellectual number. For if
whatever possesses a power of generating, generates similars prior to
dissimilars, every cause must deliver its own form and characteristic
peculiarity to its progeny; and before it generates that which gives
subsistence to progressions far distant and separate from its nature,
it must constitute things proximate to itself according to essence, and
conjoined with it through similitude. It is therefore necessary from
these premises, since there is one unity the principle of the universe,
that this unity should produce from itself, prior to every thing else,
a multitude of natures characterized by unity, and a number the most of
all things allied to its cause; and these natures are no other than the
Gods.