ANCIENT SCIENCE. 23 



" Ideas." At the outset of his discourse Timseus is made to speak thus : 

 " If, then, Socrates, amid the many opinions about the gods and the 

 generation of the universe, we are not able to give notions that are in 

 every way exact and consistent with one another, do not wonder at that. 

 If only we adduced possibilities as likely as any others, that ought to be 

 enough for us, when we remember that I who am the speaker, and you 

 who are the judges, are only mortal men, and we ought to accept the tale 

 which is probable, and not inquire further."* He proceeds, however, 

 with his subject by supposing that the Creator of the universe, desir- 

 ing that all things should be good, made the world, or rather He set in 

 order a world which He found in turmoil and disorder. He planted 

 an intelligent soul in the world, which thus became a living thing like 

 an animal. Between fire and earth, the necessary elements of.a visible 

 and tangible creation, God placed air and water as their bond of 

 union, for these elements fbrm a continuous proportion ; that is, as 

 fire is to air, so is air to water, and as air is to water, so is water to 

 earth. He desired that the created living thing (i.e., the universe) 

 should be perfect and not liable to decay, and therefore He gave 

 to it the most natural and suitable form, which is that of a sphere. 

 This is the most perfect of all figures, everywhere similar to itself, 

 and every way equidistant from the centre. There was no need of 

 limbs or organs, for nothing existed outside of the universe, to be 

 perceived, or approached, or seized. Hence the universe-animal was 

 finished smooth and round on the outside, and the motion assigned 

 to it was that appropriate to its shape, namely, a revolution upon itself. 

 Timaeus then goes on to say that before God made the body of the 

 universe He made its soul, from a compound of an unchangeable 

 essence, and a corporeal one, with a third or intermediate essence. 

 The creation of the sun, moon, and five planets had for its object the 

 distinction of days and nights, months and years, or time divided by 

 uniform motions according to number. To the moon was assigned 

 an orbit nearest the earth. Next beyond that was the orbit of the 

 sun, in which God had lighted a fire to illuminate the whole. The 

 motions of the Morning Star, and of the star sacred to Hermes, are 

 mentioned, but the movements of the other wandering stars are said 

 to be numerous and intricate, so that their comparative length had not 

 been estimated by number. The Creator formed within the universe 

 four races : one of the gods, another of birds, a third of aquatic ani- 

 mals, a fourth of land animals. The divine race were, for the most 

 part, made out of fire, and, after the likeness of the universe, in a cir- 

 cular form, and they were distributed over the heavens. The Creator 

 then delegated to the gods He had made the task of forming mortals. 

 But He Himself provided for these a divine and immortal part, for when 

 the universe was formed He had assigned to each star a soul, plac- 



The quotations in inverted commas are from Jowett's translation. 



