The Timaeus of Plato

vi
PREFACE.
genuity, the luminous clearness, and (not least) the unfailing
candour of the editor, deserve all admiration. The debt owed
to Martin by any subsequent editor must needs be very great.
The most recent edition known to me was published in 1853 in
the useful series issued by Engelmann at Leipzig, including text,
German translation, and rather copious notes. Bockh's ' Specimen
editionis' unfortunately is but a small fragment
The only English translations with which I am acquainted
are Thomas Taylor's and Prof. :
Jowett's in German there are
several. Martin's edition includes a clear and close French
rendering, considerably more accurate than Cousin's.
Among the most valuable and important contributions to
the explanation of the Timaeus are some writings of August
Bockh, especially his admirable treatise ' Ueber das kosmische
that so excellent
System des Platon.' It is much to be regretted
a scholar did not give us a complete edition of the dialogue.
The chief ancient exponent is Proklos, of whose commentary,
6eiq rtvl fjioipa, only perhaps one third, a fragment of some
850 octavo pages,
is extant, breaking off at 440. This disquisition
is intolerably verbose, often trivial, and not rarely
obscure : nevertheless one who has patience to toil through
it may gain from it information and sometimes instruction ;
and through all the mists of neoplatonic fantasy the native
acuteness of the writer will often shine.
The principal object of this edition is to examine the philosophical
significance of the dialogue and its
bearing on the
Platonic system. At the same time, seeing that so few sources
of aid are open to the student of the Timaeus, I have done my
best to throw light upon the subsidiary topics
of Plato's discourse,
even when they are of little or no philosophical importance
;
nor have I willingly neglected any detail which seemed
to require explanation. But as in the original these details are
subordinate to the ontological teaching, so I have regarded
their discussion as subordinate to the philosophical interpretation
of this magnificent and now too much neglected dialogue.
with a view
A translation
opposite the text has been given
to relieving the notes. The Timaeus is one of the most difficult
of Plato's writings in respect of mere language; and had all
matters of linguistic exegesis been treated in the commentary,