The six books of Proclus, the Platonic successor, on the theology of Plato (vol. 2 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 p — Plato — John Shaqi
The six books of Proclus, the Platonic successor, on the theology of Plato (vol. 2 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 p
Plato · en
If, however, it be requisite to comprehend the whole form of it
concisely, we must say, that the subject matter as it were of it is
Nature herself, but considered as deified, and filled with divine,
intellectual, and psychical illuminations. For the order of Gods called
the presidents of destiny, (των μοιρηγετων καλουμενων) and the genera
that are more excellent than man terminate in Nature. For these impart
powers from themselves to the one life of Nature; and the demiurgus of
wholes collects and unites all these gifts, and demonstrates them to
be one power. For if visible bodies [i.e. the celestial bodies], are
filled with divine[171] powers, Nature, is by a much greater priority
divine. And if the whole visible world is one, much more is the whole
essence of Fate one, and derives from many causes the completion of
its composition. For being suspended from the providence of the Gods,
and from demiurgic goodness, it is united and governed by it, being
a productive principle subsisting from productive principles, one
multiform power, a divine life, and an order of things that have a
prior arrangement. Hence, the ancients looking to this its various
and multiform nature, were led to form different opinions concerning
it. And some indeed said that it is a Goddess, on account of that
which is divine in it; others, that it is a dæmon, on account of the
efficacious and at the same time multiform nature of its production;
others, that it is intellect, because a certain participation of
intellect reaches it; but others, that it is order, so that every
thing which has an arrangement is invisibly comprehended by it. Plato,
however, alone surveyed the essence of it, asserting indeed that it
is Nature, but Nature suspended from the demiurgus. For how could the
demiurgus exhibit Nature to souls, otherwise than by containing the
principle of it in himself? And how could he announce to them the laws
of Fate, after exhibiting to them the Nature of the universe, except by
constituting Nature as the one power that comprehends these laws?