82 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'"' S. N" 57., Jan. 31. '67. 



that " Motion is good both for soul and body, but 

 Rest, the contrary ;" and in proving this, observes : 



" Shall I add further, with respect to the stillness of 

 the air, and calms, and things of that kind, that rest 

 corrupts and destroys, but the contrary preserves. And 

 besides this, I shall put the finishing stroke to my argu- 

 ment by compelling you to admit, that by The Golden 

 Chain, Homer meant nothing else than the Sun ; and in- 

 timated, that as long as the Universe and the Sun are 

 moved, all things exist and are preserved, both among 

 gods and amongst men ; but if they were to stand still, as 

 it were bound, all things would be destroyed ; and, as the 

 saj'ing is, turned upside down." — § 27. 



Proclus, "the Platonic Successor,"* has many 

 beautiful passages on this subject which I would 

 gladly quote in extenso, had I space. In his work, 

 On the Theology of Plato, he thus expresses 

 himself: 



" Love supernally descends from intelligibles to mun- 

 dane natures, calling all things upward to Divine Beauty. 

 It is the binder and conciliator of natures posterior, 

 and prior to itself; the converter of subsequent into prior, 

 and the elevating cause of imperfect natures. Among 

 the intelligible and occult Gods, it unites intelligible in- 

 tellect to the First and Secret Beauty by a certain life 

 better than intelligence. Diotima, in the Banquet, calls 

 Love a great Daemon, because it everywhere fills up the 

 medium between desiring and desirable natures. And 

 Socrates conjoins the discourse about Love with that 

 concerning Daemons. For, as everything demoniacal is 

 suspended from the amatory medium, so likewise the dis- 

 course concerning a da^moniacal nature is conjoined with 

 that concerning Love, and is allied to it. For Love is a 

 medium between the object of Love and the lover; and a 

 Daemon is a medium between Man and Divinity. As 

 there is no vacuum in corporeal, so neither in incorporeal 

 natures. Hence between Divine Essences, which are the 

 first of things, and partial essences, such as ours, M-hich 

 are nothing more than the dregs of the rational nature, 

 there must necessarily be a middle rank of Beings, in 

 order that Deity may be connected with Man, and that 

 the Progression of Things may form mi entire ichole, sus- 

 pended like The Golden Chain of Homer from the 

 summit of Olympus." — Book vii. ch. 41,42. Taylor's 

 ed., Lond., 1816, 4to., vol. ii. pp. 255-7. 



Again, at p. 295., book vii. chap. 50. : 



" Union is present w^ith the World according to the 

 Bond of Analogy ; but much more from the One Soul and 

 the One Intellect which it participates. For thro' these, 

 greater bonds and a more excellent union proceed into 

 the Universe. And still beyond these unions. Divine 

 Friendship, and the supply of good, contain and connect the 

 whole World. For the bond which proceeds from intellect 

 and soul is strong, as Orpheus also says ; but the Union 

 o/The Golden Chain [i. e. of the Deific Series], is still 

 greater, and the cause of greater good to all things." f — 

 See also pp. 186. 7—10. 27. 325. 395. in the same volume. 



* Taylor says, in his Introduction to Proclus's Com- 

 ments on the TimcBus : " Of that Golden Chain of Philo- 

 sophers, who, having themselves happily penetrated, 

 luminously unfolded to others the profundities of the 

 Philosophy of Plato, Proclus is indisputably the largest 

 and most refulgent link." 



t Plotinus says, that the Supreme Deity, " remaining 

 that which He is, has produced many Gods, all of whom 

 are suspended from, and subsist thro' and by Him. This 

 World likewise is thro' Him, and wholly' looks to His 



In his Commentary on the Timceus of Plato 

 occurs a noble passage : 



" The first Analogy, according to which Nature inserts 

 harmony in her works, and according to ivhich the De- 

 miurgus adorns and arranges the universe, is one certain 

 Life, and one Reason, proceeding thro' all things ; accord- 

 ing to which, Sympathy is ingenerated in all mundane 

 essences as existing in one Animal, and governed by one 

 Nature. . . . The Life of which we are speaking, which 

 collects and unites all things, and is suspended from its 

 proper causes, but binds the things in which it is in- 

 herent, is Analogy. . . . And this is the strong bond, as 

 the Theologian [Orpheus] says, which is extended thro* 

 all things, and is connected by The Golden Chain. 

 For Jupiter, after this, constitutes The Golden Chain*, 

 according to the admonitions of Night : 



' But when your power around the whole has spread 

 A strong coercive bond, a Golden Chain 

 Suspend from ajther.' 



. . . This Chain proceeds from the First thro' the middle, 

 to the last, as extending and unfolding itself as far as to 

 the last of things. And it recurs from the last to the 

 First, as converting all things thro' harmony to the In- 

 telligible Cause, from which the division of Nature and 

 the separation and interval of bodies were produced. For 

 by converting them to this Cause, according to one circle, 

 one order and one series, secondary being suspended from 

 primary natures, it causes the World to be one, and most 

 similar to the intelligible [paradigm]. And as intelli- 

 gibles proceeding from The Good, are again converted to 

 it, thro' the goodness which is in them, and thro' the in- 

 telligible monads; thus also sensibles, proceeding from 

 the Demiurgus, are again converted to him, thro' this 

 Bond, which is distributed thro' and pervades all of 

 them, and binds all things together. . . . For thro' 

 Analogy, the Universe is completely rendered one. . . It 

 makes all things to he in all, and exhibits the same things 

 in each other, according to all possible modes." — Book iii. 

 Taylor's ed., Lond., 1820, 4to., vol. i. pp. 406. 408-9. 



This account of The Golden Chain of Analogy, 

 or Love and Likeness, occurs in the comment on 

 that striking passage in the Timceus : 



" It is impossible for two things alone to cohere in a 

 beautiful manner, without the intervention of a certain 

 third ; for a certain collective bond is necessary in the 

 middle of the two. But that is the most beautiful of 

 bonds which causes itself, and the natures which are 

 bound, to be one. This, however. Analogy is naturally 

 adapted to effect in the most beautiful manner. For, ' &c. 



The passage from Orpheus above given, Pro- 

 clus quotes more fully in his second book, and 

 adds : 



" Plato also saj's, that animals were generated, bound 

 with animated bonds. Orpheus, likewise, Homerically 

 calls the Divine Orders which are above the world a 

 Golden Chain; which, Plato emulating, says, that 'The 

 Demiurgus placing Intellect in Soul, but Soul in Body, 

 fabricated the Universe.'" — P. 264. ; cf p. 430. 



Divinity." — Against the Gnostics, § ix. Cf. The Fountain- 

 Chain of the Chaldaic Theolog}'. See Psellus and Da- 

 mascus; also, Taylor's Extracts from the Treatise of 

 Synesius on Providence, p. 529. 



* Taylor appends this note : " This Golden Chain may 

 be said to be the series of unities proceeding from The 

 One, or The Ineffable Principle of Things, and extending 

 as far as matter itself. And of this Chain, the light im- 

 mediately proceeding from the Sun, is an image." 



