flesh, or after contention, and busied himself wholly therewith, all his thoughts within him must needs be mortal, and so far as it lieth in him to become mortal, he cannot fail at all of this; for this hath he fostered: but if any man have earnestly pursued learning and the knowledge of Truth, and have exercised most his faculty of thinking, he must needs have thoughts immortal and divine if he lay hold of Truth; and so far as Human Nature may have part in Immortality, he cannot fall short thereof at all: and inasmuch as he serveth the Divine Part, and hath the Genius which dwelleth in him ordered aright, he must needs be blessed exceedingly:1 and the service required of every man is the same alway-to wit, he must apportion unto each part the kind of nourishment and motion proper thereto. Now unto the Divine Part in us the motions which are kin are the Thoughts and Circuits of the All. These must every man follow, that he may regulate the Revolutions in his Head which were disturbed when the Soul was born in the flesh; and, by throughly learning the Harmonies and Circuits of the All, may make that which understandeth like unto that which is understood, even as it was in the beginning; and having made it like, may attain unto the perfection of that Best Life which is offered unto men by the Gods, for this present time and for the time hereafter.

Now is the commandment which came unto us in the beginning, that we should declare the nature of the All, even unto the generation of Man, well-nigh brought to fulfilment; for the way of the generation of the other living creatures we may tell shortly, if it so be that it needeth no long history. Thus methinks shall a man set proper bounds unto his discourse concerning them.

Let this, then, be said, that of those which were born. Men, it is most likely that as many as were cowardly, and passed their life in unrighteousness, were changed into Women when they were born the second time.

Thus were Women and the whole female sex brought forth.

1 Cf. Arist. E. N. x. 7. 8. 1177 b 26 ff., and E. E. → 3. (H 15) 1249 b 20, where τὸν θεὸν θεραπεύειν καὶ θεωρεῖν seems to be an echo of the ἅτε δὲ ἀεὶ θεραπεύοντα τὸ θεῖον, Tim. 90 c.

τῶν ὀρνέων φῦλον μετερρυθμίζετο, ἀντὶ τριχῶν πτερὰ φύον, ἐκ τῶν ἀκάκων ἀνδρῶν, κούφων δέ, καὶ μετεωρολογικῶν Ε μέν, ἡγουμένων δὲ δι ̓ ὄψεως τὰς περὶ τούτων ἀποδείξεις βεβαιοτάτας είναι δι ̓ εὐήθειαν. Τὸ δ ̓ αὖ πεζὸν καὶ θηριώδες γέγονεν ἐκ τῶν μηδὲν προσχρωμένων φιλοσοφίᾳ μηδὲ ἀθρούντων τῆς περὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν φύσεως πέρι μηδέν, διὰ τὸ μηκέτι ταῖς ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ χρῆσθαι περιόδοις, ἀλλὰ τοῖς περὶ τὰ στήθη τῆς ψυχῆς ἡγεμόσιν ἕπεσθαι μέρεσιν. ἐκ τούτων οὖν τῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων τά τε ἐμπρόσθια κωλα καὶ τὰς κεφαλὰς εἰς γῆν ἑλκόμενα ὑπὸ ξυγγενείας ἤρεισαν, προμήκεις τε καὶ παντοίας ἔσχον τὰς κορυφάς, ὅπῃ 92 συνεθλίφθησαν ὑπὸ ἀργίας ἑκάστων αἱ περιφοραί. τετράπουν τε τὸ γένος αὐτῶν ἐκ ταύτης ἐφύετο καὶ πολύπουν τῆς προφάσεως, θεοῦ βάσεις ὑποτιθέντος πλείους τοῖς μᾶλλον ἄφροσιν, ὡς μᾶλλον ἐπὶ γῆν ἕλκοιντο. τοῖς δ ̓ ἀφρονεστάτοις αὐτῶν τούτων καὶ παντάπασι πρὸς γῆν πᾶν τὸ σῶμα κατατεινομένοις ὡς οὐδὲν ἔτι ποδῶν χρείας οὔσης, ἄποδα αὐτὰ καὶ ἰλυσπώμενα ἐπὶ γῆς ἐγέννησαν. τὸ δὲ τέταρτον γένος ἔνυδρον γέγονεν ἐκ τῶν μάλιστα ἀνοητοτάτων καὶ ἀμαθεστάτων, οὓς οὐδ ̓ ἀναπνοῆς καθαρᾶς ἔτι ἠξίωσαν οἱ μεταπλάττοντες, ὡς τὴν ψυχὴν ὑπὸ πλημμελείας πάσης ἀκαθάρτως ἐχόντων, ἀλλ ̓ ἀντὶ λεπτῆς καὶ καθαρᾶς ἀναπνοῆς ἀέρος εἰς ὕδατος θολερὰν καὶ βαθεῖαν Β ἔωσαν ἀνάπνευσιν· ὅθεν ἰχθύων ἔθνος καὶ τὸ τῶν ὀστρέων ξυναπάντων τε ὅσα ἔνυδρα γέγονε, δίκην ἀμαθίας ἐσχάτης ἐσχάτας οἰκήσεις εἰληχότων. καὶ κατὰ ταῦτα δὴ πάντα τότε καὶ νῦν διαμείβεται τὰ ζῶα εἰς ἄλληλα, νοῦ καὶ ἀνοίας ἀποβολῇ καὶ κτήσει μεταβαλλόμενα. Καὶ δὴ καὶ τέλος περὶ τοῦ παντὸς νῦν ἤδη τὸν λόγον ἡμῖν φῶμεν ἔχειν· θνητὰ γὰρ καὶ ἀθάνατα ζῶα λαβὼν καὶ ξυμπληρωθεὶς ὅδε ὁ κόσμος, οὕτω ζῶον ὁρατὸν τὰ ὁρατὰ περιέχον, εἰκὼν τοῦ ποιητοῦ, θεὸς αἰσθητός, μέγιστος καὶ ἄριστος κάλλιστός τε καὶ τελεώτατος γέγονεν, εἷς οὐρανὸς ὅδε μονογενὴς ὤν.

The tribe of Birds, putting forth feathers instead of hair, was the transformation of men that were guileless, but lightwitted; who were observers of the stars, but thought foolishly that the surest knowledge concerning them cometh through Sight.

The tribe of Beasts which walk on the Earth sprang from those men who sought not Wisdom at all for an help, nor considered the nature of the Heaven at all, because that they no longer used the Revolutions in the Head, but followed the Parts of the Soul which are about the Breast, making them their guides. By reason of this manner of living their four limbs and their heads were drawn down unto kindred earth, and thereon did they rest them; and they got head-pieces of all sorts, oblong, according as the circuits of each, not being kept in use, were crushed in. For this cause their kind grew four-footed and many-footed, for God put more props under those which were more senseless, that they might be drawn the more toward the earth. But the most senseless of them all, which do stretch their whole body altogether upon the earth, since they had no longer any need of feet, the Gods made without feet, to crawl on the earth.

The fourth kind was born, to live in the water, from those men who were the most lacking in Understanding and Knowledge; whom they who fashioned them afresh deemed not worthy any more even of pure air to breathe, because that they had made their Souls impure by all manner of wickedness: wherefore the Gods gave them not thin pure air to breathe, but thrust them down into the waters, to draw thick breath in the depths thereof. From these men is sprung the nation of Fishes, and of Oysters, and of all that live in the water, which have gotten for recompense of uttermost ignorance the uttermost habitations.

Now may we say that our discourse concerning the All is come to its ending. For this Universe, having taken unto itself Living Creatures mortal and immortal, and having been filled therewith, hath been brought forth a Creature Visible, containing the things which are visible; the Image of his Maker, a God Sensible, Greatest, Best, Fairest, and Most Perfect-this One Heaven Only Begotten.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE TIMAEUS MYTH

I

It lies outside the scope of this work to select for separate comment even a few of the most important questions and topics contained in the vast Timaeus, related as these are, not only to Plato's Philosophy itself as a whole, but to subsequent Philosophy and Theology and Natural Science as influenced by this Dialogue, perhaps the most influential of all Plato's Dialogues.

I keep clear of the Timaeus as an Essay on Physics and Physiology profoundly interesting to the student of the history of these branches.

I do not wish to ransack it for its anticipations of later metaphysical doctrine, such as that of the subjectivity of space, which may, or may not, be taught in the passages treating of χώρα and the ὑποδοχή.

I do not trouble myself or my readers with the lucubrations of Proclus and his like on it.

I do not say a word about the theological doctrine which Christian exegesis has found in it in such abundant store.

For these things the reader must turn to editions of the Timaeus, and Histories of Philosophy where the Timaeus is discussed.

Here we are concerned with it merely as one in the series of Plato's Myths; and as most of the observations which have been made in connection with the other Myths already examined apply equally to this Myth, special observations on it need not be numerous or long. Indeed, the translation which I have made, if read in the light of these former observations, almost explains itself.

More might have been translated, for the whole Discourse delivered by Timaeus is a Myth; or other parts might have been substituted for some here translated. I had to use my

judgment in choosing what to translate, as I could not translate the whole, and my judgment may have sometimes erred; yet, after all, I venture to think that what I have translated presents the Timaeus in the aspect in which it is the object

of this work to present it as a great Myth in the series which we are reviewing.

This Myth sets forth, in one vast composition, the three Ideas of Soul, Cosmos, and God: in one vast composition; perhaps nowhere else in literature are they set forth so as to produce such a convincing sense of their organic interconnection. And the impressiveness of this vast composition is wonderfully enhanced by the context in which it is framed. Indeed, what is new in the presentation of the Ideas of Soul, Cosmos, and God in the Timaeus, as compared with other Platonic Myths in which they are presented, is derived from the context in which this Myth frames them. The Timaeus, as we have seen, and shall see better when we reach the Critias, follows on after the Republic. It begins with a recapitulation of the first five books of the Republic, which Socrates offers in order that he may say: Here you have the structure of the Perfect State set forth; now let us see that State exerting function in accordance with its structure. Its structure is that of a highly organised military system. Let us see it engaged in a great war." In answer to this demand Critias introduces and outlines the Atlantis Myth (afterwards resumed in the unfinished Dialogue which bears his name), the History of the Great Antediluvian War in which Athens-representing the Kaλλions of the Republic -maintains the civilisation of Hellas against the outer barbarian. That is the immediate context of the Discourse, or Myth, delivered by Timaeus. But the Myth breaks away from the sequence of that context in the most startling manner, and soars, on a sudden, above the mundane outlook of the first five books of the Republic and the History of the Great War, with which the company were up to the moment engaged, and constrains them to give all their thoughts to the world eternal.

Two things Timaeus seems to tell them in this Myth.

First, the State must be framed in the Cosmos. You cannot have any scientific knowledge of the Social Good till you understand it as part of the Absolute Good realised in the Cosmos which is the Image of God. The knowledge of the idéa Tayaboù which the Republic (in a passage subsequent to the books epitomised by Socrates in the Timaeus) requires