PROCLUS, THE PLATONIC SUCCESSOR

a In the version of Morbeka partitionem; but the true
reading is doubtless participationem.
b That which energises essentially does not energise in
vain, because such an energy is natural to it. Hence the
perpetual emission of light from the sun, though it is not
received by opake bodies, is not emitted in vain,
because the very nature of the sun consists
in such an emission, though its light is only received by
bodies that are adapted to receive it. In like manner the
eternally beneficent illuminations of Providence are not
extended in vain, though, through the inaptitude of
participants, they are not always efficacious ; for
Providence is essentialized in an overflowing perennial
communication of good.
[34]
If, therefore, Providence [always a ] energising
something, only participates of it at a certain
time, the thing itself diminishes its own
participation, yet does not exclude the eternal
energy of Providence; but the energy of deity
remains always the same. Just as if a face
standing in the same position, a mirror should
at one time receive a clear image of it, and at
another, one obscure and debile, or indeed no
image at all. If some one, therefore, should say,
that oracles sometimes participate of the Gods,
who are the sources of divination, and
sometimes fail, becoming inefficacious, and, as
it were, without spirit for a certain time, the
causes of the irregularity are to be referred to
the spirits that use and energise through the
prophetic Gods, failing in the power of always
participating of these Gods. For true oracles are
those to which angels, daemons, and heroes
give completion, and which are illuminated by
the Gods, and by the allotments which have a
perpetual subsistence in the universe; though
certain waters and chasms of the earth cannot
always participate of them on account of the
instability of their nature. Or if it should be said
that the virtues of sacred rites, which
sometimes cause statues to be animated b and
replete with divine in-