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
But such souls as from a perverse education fall from the gift which
is thence derived, yet are allotted an amatory nature, these, through
their ignorance of true beauty, are busily employed about that which
is material and divisible, at which also they are astonished in
consequence of not knowing the passion which they suffer. Hence, they
abandon every thing divine, and gradually decline into impiety and the
darkness of matter. They appear indeed to hasten to a union with the
beautiful, in the same manner as perfectly amatory souls; but they are
ignorant of the union, and tend to a dissipated condition of life, and
to matter, which Plato calls the sea of dissimilitude. They are also
conjoined with the base itself, and material privation of form. For
where are material natures able to pervade through each other? Or where
is apparent beauty, pure and genuine, being thus mingled with matter,
and replete with the deformity of its subject? Some souls therefore
genuinely participate the gifts of Love, and by others these gifts are
perverted. For as according to Plotinus the defluxion of intellect
produces craft, and an erroneous participation of wisdom sophistry,
so likewise the illumination of Love when it meets with a depraved
recipient, produces a tyrannic and intemperate life.
CHAPTER XLI.
In another part, likewise, of the same admirable Commentary, Proclus
presents us, as he says, with some of the more arcane assertions
concerning Love; and these are as follow:
Love is neither to be placed in the first, nor among the last of
beings. Not in the first, because the object of Love is superior to
Love: nor yet among the last, because the lover participates of Love.
It is requisite, therefore, that love should be established between the
object of Love and the lover, and that it should be posterior to the
beautiful, but prior to every nature endued with love. Where then does
it first subsist? How does it extend itself through the universe, and
with what monads does it leap forth?