PROCLUS, THE PLATONIC SUCCESSOR

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Plato in the Timaeus, of the injury which the soul sustains from the senses. For he there says, that through them the circle of sameness, or the ratiocinative power, is restrained in its energies, [Greek text deleted,ed.] and that the circle of difference, or the power by which we opine, sustains all-various fractures and distortions. [136] splendour of intellect, and the last is the passion of bodies themselves. Hence, the first will be only an apparent evil; but the last will be real evil,—I mean that evil which destroys the nature, of the thing in which it is inherent, —and that which subsists between these, and which is the evil of power, is not adapted to effect anything in essence. In short, that which can injure greater things, is a greater evil; but essence is beyond power, and power is beyond energy. And that, indeed, which is corruptive of essence, at the same time dissipates power and energy; but that which is corruptive of power, destroys also energy; (neither, therefore, is essence the same with power and energy, nor can energy exist after the cessation of power a ;) and that which is corruptive of first power, as far as to energy, is privation, and not the contrary; but that which is corruptive of power is contrary to essence, [because essence is productive of power]. A greater evil, however, is contrary to a greater good; and therefore the evil of souls is greater than that of bodies, not indeed of all bodies [for this is not true of such as are immaterial], but of those the power of which is naturally adapted to suffer. And the evil is less to those beings in whom there is alone a cessation of energy, since it is alone the absence and the diminution of total perfection. One evil, a This part within the parenthesis is in Morbeka, " Neque ergo substantia cum iis, neque potentia post operationis cessationem;" but the true reading is, Neque ergo substantia eadem cum iis, neque operatio post potentia cessationem.
[137] also, is contrary to virtue, but another to the good of the body; and one is contrary to what is conformable to intellect, but another to what is conformable to nature. By how much better, therefore, intellect is than nature, and that which is according to intellect than that which is according to nature, by so much greater is the evil which is a deviation from intellect, than that which is a deviation from nature. If, however, one evil is corruptive of essence, but another of power alone, it is not a wonderful. For when of the same thing, this corrupts the essence, but that the power of it, then b that which is corruptive of essence is evil in a greater degree. But when this takes place in a different thing, and of a different nature, there is no absurdity in admitting, that what is corruptive of power, being more remote from the nature of good, exceeds in evil, as when the power of one thing is better than the essence of another. For thus the powers of the soul are said both to generate and preserve the corporeal essence [and are therefore superior to it]. Hence, Socrates in the [10th book of the] Republic says, that injustice c is not deadly to the soul by which it is possessed, which it would be if the soul was mortal. For it a This sentence in Morbeka is, " Si autem hoc quidem substantiae est corruptivum, hoc autem potentiae solum, mirabile;" but for mirabile," it is obviously necessary to read non mirabile. b For " tarn" in this place in Morbeka, it is requisite to read tunc. c This sentence in Morbeka is, " Hoc ergo et qui in Politia Socrates omnino diken malitiam nominat, et non utique talem esse ait si morlale erat." But for diken here, it is necessary to read adikian, this being the word used by Plato in the passage above referred to. [138] would rapidly lead the souls that possessed it into non-existence. But it is better not to be, than to be in an evil condition since the former is a privation of being, but the latter
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TWO TREATISES OF PROCLUS, THE PLATO
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PREFACE. —♦— NO subjects of d
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February. His version also of the v
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auditors of the Gods, is a most man
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espect perfect, but the other being
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to a part, is different from that w
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kind, but also every particular thi
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which is posterior to itself, but b
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and as the salvation of all things;
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one; but body, on account of the in
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to the form of the incorporeal esse
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than in a greater time, as if the i
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And if it should be said, that they
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divinity; but conformably to his na
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participations should not be the sa
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must be admitted. For that it is mo
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conformably to its energy; and in m
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a Semper is wanting in this place i
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variation in the energy of the Gods
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the guardian care of the former is
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preternatural exists in order that
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called preter-rational and not pret
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y its recipients a . For neither wo
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ecause they do not obtain the same
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frequently oppose the amatory energ
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invented vulgar prosperities as the
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espect to those who are dissimilar
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who prefer that which is mortal in
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Providence, viz. why punishments do
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about these bodies, is perfectly sm
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a The latter part of this sentence
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celebrated unity, knowing and reduc
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suspended from illuminations which
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should dare to assert, that [73] it
Page 69 and 70: [76] being; but that which particip
Page 71 and 72: some things, and produce others [co
Page 73 and 74: greater good, as neither is what is
Page 75 and 76: less excellent part of its unity. F
Page 77 and 78: such natures did not exist. If thes
Page 79 and 80: For that which is true non-entity,
Page 81 and 82: oth those who assert that all thing
Page 83 and 84: to intellect, expanding the winged
Page 85 and 86: good is not congenial with non-good
Page 87 and 88: it is requisite that what is first
Page 89 and 90: that they are susceptive of transmu
Page 91 and 92: who are not worthy to enter into th
Page 93 and 94: equisite that evil, as we have freq
Page 95 and 96: fabrication of things. 3. In the ne
Page 97 and 98: the soul in generation, and on this
Page 99 and 100: intellectual perception of itself,
Page 101 and 102: which the soul is filled with folly
Page 103 and 104: the image of the rational soul, mus
Page 105 and 106: aseness of itself, defalcates indee
Page 107 and 108: aseness of matter. For each organ o
Page 109 and 110: [123] ceed] ? If, indeed, each of t
Page 111 and 112: and verges to the earth. For when t
Page 113 and 114: every nature of the infinite from t
Page 115 and 116: says,—if this be the case, we mus
Page 117 and 118: subsistence to itself, and for the
Page 119: they are what they are; but when ab
Page 123 and 124: survey what evil itself is by itsel
Page 125 and 126: the fountain from which they are ge
Page 127 and 128: everything which perpetually exists
Page 129 and 130: [146] mortal nature, not in consequ
Page 131 and 132: account of another, and, as it were
Page 133 and 134: effective causes of evils, therefor
Page 135 and 136: evil is to be called a parhypostasi
Page 137 and 138: of this, one part of it is differen
Page 139 and 140: c The first monad of forms is what
Page 141 and 142: the energies and the works of evil;
Page 143 and 144: will, and is debile and inefficacio
Page 145 and 146: to turpitude, one kind subsists abo
Page 147 and 148: For this, in the first place, perha
Page 149 and 150: it is not possible for that which c
Page 151 and 152: a In Morbeka, in this place, after
Page 153 and 154: therefore, extends itself about the
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PROCLUS, THE PLATONIC SUCCESSOR

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