66 GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 



duced subsequently to the mass which it informs, yet that, in fact, 

 this animating principle, as it is more noble in its nature, so must it 

 have been more ancient in its existence. To produce a connexion 

 between essences and accidents which seem of opposite natures, the 

 Supreme Artificer introduced the medium of similarities and differences, 

 and by this medium many admirable ratios were effected. 



Time and Time was produced at the same time with the world, and is, in a 

 mty ' manner, a shadow or fleeting image of eternity. It is not, as it were, 

 a particle discerped from eternity, for eternity is one ever-present 

 thing; and our ordinary expressions applicable to time as the past, 

 the future, and the present, so far as used in reference and in contra- 

 distinction to the others, are entirely inapplicable to eternity. Eternity 

 is the mighty and the real essence of which time is the unsubstantial 

 image, which was born with this visible world, and is accommodated 

 to its unsubstantial nature. And to mark the grand periods of time 

 the Supreme Being produced the sun, and moon, and planets, and 

 allotted them their positions and appropriate revolutions. 1 The period 

 of a month was produced when the moon had completed her circle, 

 and a year w T hen the sun had perfected his revolution. The courses 

 of the other planets are equally regular and significant ; but the neg- 

 ligence or incapacity of men, has caused them hitherto to fail in ren- 

 dering a perfect description of their periods. Out of each of the 

 Creation of four elements, the Supreme Being created living beings; from the 

 living teings re? ftie g 0( j s or beings indued with self-motion ; the revolving souls 

 of the starry sphere, the soul of the earth, which Timaeus asserts to be 

 the first and most ancient of the created gods. The origination of 

 demons or demi-gods, though stated with some detail, is prefaced by 

 a declaration that it is founded solely on tradition ; and that, as it was 

 given by the personages themselves, it is therefore deserving of credit. 

 The soul of man was next produced, but its high or fiery nature was 

 commingled with desire and anger, and their concomitant passions ; of 

 a nature indeed imperishable ; but which to attain its perfection must 

 purge off the dross and defilements of these its meaner ingredients, and 

 become purified from the adherence of every gross and sensual ten- 

 dency. The Supreme Being created all these souls, but indued the 

 inferior gods with the power of accommodating them to their several 

 perishable and material vehicles. Timasus relates with great minute- 

 ness, how with cramps and bonds of adamant invisible to human eyes, 

 material and immaterial substances became connected, and the soul 

 incorporated. The nature of the senses, and the reason of the position 

 of the head and body, are explained at length ; and some profound 

 remarks are interspersed on the benefit which the intellect derives, 

 even in its most abstract speculations, from the suggestions of sight ; 

 and grand philosophic excellences are discovered in melody and 



1 For the ablest dissertation which has yet appeared on this intricate subject, we 

 would refer our readers to a short tract of Bockh, De Astronomise Philolaicas vera 

 indole. 



