42 



according to Plato, the world was generated. 

 But, again, others contend that Plato believed the 

 world to be unbegotten. Since, however, those 

 who assert that the world was generated, cite 

 many other words of Plato, and likewise the pas- 

 sage in which Plato * says, ' the world was gene- 

 rated, for it is visible and tangible ;' this being the 

 case, it is requisite to direct our attention to the 

 different ways in which a thing is said to be gene- 

 rated, and thus we shall know that Plato asserts 

 the world to be generated, not according to the 

 signification in which we affirm this of things 

 which derive their subsistence from a certain tem- 

 poral beginning. For this it is which deceives 

 the multitude, when they conceive the word gene- 

 rated to imply a temporal origin. A thing, there- 

 fore, is said to be generated, which never indeed 

 had a beginning in time, but yet is in the same 

 genus with generated natures. Thus we call a 

 thing visible, which is not seen, nor has been seen, 

 nor will be seen, but yet is in the same genus with 

 things of a visible nature. And this will take place 

 with a body which may exist about the centre of 



* See my Translation of the Commentaries of Proclus on the 

 Timaeus, vol. i. from p. 237 to p. 251. And also the Commen- 

 tary of the same incomparable man on the words of Plato, in the 

 same Dialogue, " But we say that whatever is generated, is ne- 

 cessarily generated by a certain cause." Vol. i. of my Translation, 

 p. 249, &c. 



