4-5 



digm of the universe, and matter. But matter 

 cannot be properly said to be a principle. Again, 

 Plato does not say that the world is a body, but 

 that it has a body ; indicating by this, that so far as 

 it possesses a corporeal nature, the very being of 

 which consists in becoming to be, it may be said to 

 be generated." 



Again, Taurus, in the same Commentaries on 

 the Timaeus, having cited the following passage 

 from that dialogue, viz. " We who are about to 

 speak concerning the universe, whether it is gene- 

 rated, or without generation," observes : " Plato 

 says this, though the world is unbegotten. And 

 the poet, 



' Though in their race posterior found,' 



Plato, however, for the sake of discipline, speaks 

 of the world which is unbegotten, as if it was ge- 

 nerated." Shortly after this, Taurus says, " What, 

 therefore, are the causes through which the world 

 being unbegotten, is supposed to be generated ?" 

 Both these inquiries *, indeed, deserve to be phi- 

 losophically investigated. For one of them excites 

 to piety, but the other is assumed for the sake of 

 elucidation. For Plato, knowing that the multitude 

 apprehend that alone to be a cause which has a 

 precedency in time, and not conceiving it to be 



* viz. Whether the world is unbegotten, or generated. 



