47 



comprehended under one superficies, to which all 

 right lines falling from one point within the figures 

 are equal to each other. But it was usual with 

 Plato, for the sake of discipline, to unfold things 

 which are without generation*, as if they were 

 generated. Thus, in the Republic, he introduces 

 the city as being made, in order that in the forma- 

 tion of it, the generation of justice might become 

 more manifest. When, however, Theophrastus 

 says, that perhaps Plato speaks of the world as 

 generated for the sake of elucidation, just as we 

 consider geometrical diagrams to be generated, 

 perhaps generation does not subsist similarly in 

 diagrams. Aristotle also asserts the same thing ; 

 for he says, that in diagrams it is not proper in 

 the beginning to suppose contraries, but this is to 

 be admitted in the generation of the world ; just as 

 if some one should suppose motion and rest, order 

 and disorder. Neither, therefore, do all things 

 require invariable paradigms ; but the examples 

 show that it is not more obvious to assert that the 

 world is generated, than that it is unbegotten. 

 But how is it possible to suppose contraries in 



* The sentence in the original is : t6os 



us yivofttvu vet^^avat. But immediately after %ecgiv, it is 



obviously necessary to add uytvuret. Mahotius also, who published 

 a Latin translation of this work of Philoponus, has, " Mos est 

 autem Platoni, doctrinae gratia, quce ortu carent, perinde atque 

 ea, qua? oriuntur, explicare," 



