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
According to this theology therefore, from the immense principle
of principles, in which all things causally subsist, absorbed
in superessential light, and involved in unfathomable depths, a
beauteous progeny of principles proceed, all largely partaking of
the ineffable, all stamped with the occult characters of deity, all
possessing an overflowing fulness of good. From these dazzling summits,
these ineffable blossoms, these divine propagations, being, life,
intellect, soul, nature, and body depend; _monads_ suspended
from _unities_, deified natures proceeding from deities. Each of
these monads too, is the leader of a series which extends from itself
to the last of things, and which while it proceeds from, at the same
time abides in, and returns to its leader. And all these principles
and all their progeny are finally centered and rooted by their summits
in the first great all-comprehending one. Thus all beings proceed
from, and are comprehended in the first being; all intellects emanate
from one first intellect; all souls from one first soul; all natures
blossom from one first nature; and all bodies proceed from the vital
and luminous body of the world. And lastly, all these great monads
are comprehended in the first one, from which both they and all their
depending series are unfolded into light. Hence this first one is truly
the unity of unities, the monad of monads, the principle of principles,
the God of Gods, one and all things, and yet one prior to all.
No objections of any weight, no arguments but such as are sophistical,
can be urged against this most sublime theory which is so congenial
to the unperverted conceptions of the human mind, that it can only be
treated with ridicule and contempt in degraded, barren, and barbarous
ages. Ignorance and priestcraft, however, have hitherto conspired to
defame those inestimable works,[3] in which this and many other grand
and important dogmas can alone be found; and the theology of the Greeks
has been attacked with all the insane fury of ecclesiastical zeal, and
all the imbecil flashes of mistaken wit, by men whose conceptions on
the subject, like those of a man between sleeping and waking, have been
_turbid and wild_, _phantastic and confused_, _preposterous
and vain_.