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
The truth then concerning the Gods pervades, as I may say, through all
the Platonic dialogues, and in all of them conceptions of the first
philosophy, venerable, clear, and supernatural, are disseminated,
in some indeed, more obscurely, but in others more conspicuously;
conceptions which excite those that are in any respect able to
participate of them, to the immaterial and separate essence of the
Gods. And, as in each part of the universe, and in nature herself, the
demiurgus of all that the world contains, established resemblances of
the unknown hyparxis of the Gods, that all things might be converted
to a divine nature, through their alliance with it, in like manner I
am of opinion, that the divine intellect of Plato weaves conceptions
about the Gods in all his writings, and leaves nothing deprived of the
mention of divinity, that from the whole of them, a reminiscence of
wholes may be obtained, and imparted to the genuine lovers of divine
concerns.
If however, it be requisite to lay before the reader those dialogues
out of many, which principally unfold to us the mystic discipline
about the gods, I should not err in ranking among this number, the
Phædo and Phædrus, the Banquet, and the Philebus, and together with
these, the Sophista and Politicus, the Cratylus and the Timæus. For
all these are full through the whole of themselves, as I may say, of
the divine science of Plato. But I should place in the second rank
after these, the fable in the Gorgias, and that in the Protagoras;
likewise the assertions about the providence of the Gods in the Laws,
and such things as are delivered about the Fates, or the mother of the
Fates, or the circulations of the universe, in the tenth book of the
Republic. Again, you may, if you please, place in the third rank those
Epistles, through which we may be able to arrive at the science about
divine natures. For in these, mention is made of the three kings; and
very many other divine dogmas worthy the Platonic theory are delivered.
It is necessary therefore, looking to these, to explore in these each
order of the Gods.