CHAP. XII. COSMOGONY FROM lAMBLICHUS. 217 



forth into light tlie inapparcnt power of the secret 

 reasons, is called Anion, according- to the Egyptian 

 tongue ; and when it perfects all things not de- 

 ceptively, but artificially according to truth, Phtha ; 

 but the Greeks change the word Phtha into He- 

 phaestus, looking only to the artificial ; regarded 

 as the producer of good things, it is called Osiris ; 

 and, according to its other powers and attributes, 

 it has different appellations. 



'* There is also, according to them, another cer- 

 tain principle presiding over all the elements in a 

 state of generation, and over the powers inherent in 

 them, four of which are male, and four female ; and 

 this principle they attribute to the Sun. There is 

 yet another principle of all nature, regarded as the 

 ruler over generation, and this they assign to the 

 Moon. They divide the heavens also into two parts, 

 or into four, twelve, or thirty-six, or the doubles of 

 these ; they attribute to them leaders more or less 

 in number, and over them they place one whom 

 they consider superior to them all. Hence, from 

 the highest to the last, the doctrine of the Egyptians 

 concerning the principles, inculcates the origin of 

 all things from One*, with different gradations to 

 the many ; which (the many) are again held to be 

 under the supreme government of the One ; and 

 the nature of the Boundless is considered entirely 

 subservient to the nature of the Bounded, and the 

 Supreme Unity the cause of all things. And God 

 produced matter from the materiahty of the sepa- 



* " Homer even exempts tlic demiurgic monutl from all the miil- 

 titiule of (iods." Taylor's Introdnct, to Plato's Republic, p. 147. 



