CHAP. XII. DOCTRINES OF TLATO. 219 



place in the Egyptian doctrine of causes. Nor do 

 the Egyptians resolve all things into physical 

 qualities ; but they distinguish both the animal 

 and intellectual life from nature itself, not only in 

 the universe, but in man. They consider intellect 

 and reason in the first place, as existing by them- 

 selves, and on this principle they account for the 

 creation of the world." He also states, that " they 

 rank first the Demiurge, as the parent of all things 

 which are produced, and acknowledge that vital 

 energy which is prior to, and subsists in, the 

 heavens, placing pure intellect at the head of the 

 universe ; and they allot one invisible soul to the 

 whole world, and another divided one to all the 

 spheres." 



I now extract a few observations respecting the 

 outlines of the principal dogmas of Plato, from the 

 Introductory Essay of his translator. * " According 

 to Plato, the highest God, whom in the Republic 

 he calls goody and in the Parmenides the o?ie, is 

 not only above soid and intellect, but is even 

 superior to being itself Hence, since everything 

 which can in any respect be known, or of which 

 anything can be asserted, must be connected with 

 the universality of things, but the first cause, being 

 above all things, is very properly said by Plato to 

 be perfectly ineffable. The first hypothesis, there- 

 fore, of his Parmenides, in which all things are 

 denied of this immense principle, concludes as 

 follows : — The one, therefore, is in no respect. So 

 it seems. Hence it is not in such a manner as fo 



* Tajlor's Trans, of Plato, Iiitiod. p. v. 



