Timaeus
present in anything which was devoid of soul. For which reason,
when he was framing the universe, he put intelligence in soul,
and soul in body, that he might be the creator of a work which
was by nature fairest and best. Wherefore, using the language of
probability, we may say that the world became a living creature
truly endowed with soul and intelligence by the providence of
God.
This being supposed, let us proceed to the next stage: In the
likeness of what animal did the Creator make the world? It would
be an unworthy thing to liken it to any nature which exists as a
part only; for nothing can be beautiful which is like any
imperfect thing; but let us suppose the world to be the very
image of that whole of which all other animals both individually
and in their tribes are portions. For the original of the
universe contains in itself all intelligible beings, just as this
world comprehends us and all other visible creatures. For the
Deity, intending to make this world like the fairest and most
perfect of intelligible beings, framed one visible animal
comprehending within itself all other animals of a kindred
nature. Are we right in saying that there is one world, or that
they are many and infinite? There must be one only, if the
created copy is to accord with the original. For that which
includes all other intelligible creatures cannot have a second or
companion; in that case there would be need of another living
being which would include both, and of which they would be parts,
and the likeness would be more truly said to resemble not them,
but that other which included them. In order then that the world
might be solitary, like the perfect animal, the creator made not
two worlds or an infinite number of them; but there is and ever
will be one only-begotten and created heaven.
Now that which is created is of necessity corporeal, and also
visible and tangible. And nothing is visible where there is no
fire, or tangible which has no solidity, and nothing is solid
without earth. Wherefore also God in the beginning of creation
made the body of the universe to consist of fire and earth. But
two things cannot be rightly put together without a third; there
must be some bond of union between them. And the fairest bond is
that which makes the most complete fusion of itself and the
things which it combines; and proportion is best adapted to
effect such a union. For whenever in any three numbers, whether
cube or square, there is a mean, which is to the last term what
the first term is to it; and again, when the mean is to the first
term as the last term is to the mean—then the mean becoming first
and last, and the first and last both becoming means, they will
all of them of necessity come to be the same, and having become
the same with one another will be all one. If the universal frame
had been created a surface only and having no depth, a single
mean would have sufficed to bind together itself and the other
terms; but now, as the world must be solid, and solid bodies are
always compacted not by one mean but by two, God placed water and
air in the mean between fire and earth, and made them to have the
same proportion so far as was possible (as fire is to air so is
air to water, and as air is to water so is water to earth); and
thus he bound and put together a visible and tangible heaven. And
for these reasons, and out of such elements which are in number
four, the body of the world was created, and it was harmonized by
proportion, and therefore has the spirit of friendship; and
having been reconciled to itself, it was indissoluble by the hand
of any other than the framer.
Now the creation took up the whole of each of the four elements;
for the Creator compounded the world out of all the fire and all
the water and all the air and all the earth, leaving no part of
any of them nor any power of them outside. His intention was, in
the first place, that the animal should be as far as possible a
perfect whole and of perfect parts: secondly, that it should be
one, leaving no remnants out of which another such world might be
created: and also that it should be free from old age and
unaffected by disease. Considering that if heat and cold and
other powerful forces which unite bodies surround and attack them
from without when they are unprepared, they decompose them, and
by bringing diseases and old age upon them, make them waste
away—for this cause and on these grounds he made the world one
whole, having every part entire, and being therefore perfect and
not liable to old age and disease. And he gave to the world the
figure which was suitable and also natural. Now to the animal
which was to comprehend all animals, that figure was suitable
which comprehends within itself all other figures. Wherefore he
made the world in the form of a globe, round as from a lathe,
having its extremes in every direction equidistant from the
centre, the most perfect and the most like itself of all figures;
for he considered that the like is infinitely fairer than the
unlike. This he finished off, making the surface smooth all round
for many reasons; in the first place, because the living being
had no need of eyes when there was nothing remaining outside him
to be seen; nor of ears when there was nothing to be heard; and
there was no surrounding atmosphere to be breathed; nor would
there have been any use of organs by the help of which he might
receive his food or get rid of what he had already digested,
since there was nothing which went from him or came into him: for
there was nothing beside him. Of design he was created thus, his
own waste providing his own food, and all that he did or suffered
taking place in and by himself. For the Creator conceived that a
being which was self-sufficient would be far more excellent than
one which lacked anything; and, as he had no need to take
anything or defend himself against any one, the Creator did not
think it necessary to bestow upon him hands: nor had he any need
of feet, nor of the whole apparatus of walking; but the movement
suited to his spherical form was assigned to him, being of all
the seven that which is most appropriate to mind and
intelligence; and he was made to move in the same manner and on
the same spot, within his own limits revolving in a circle. All
the other six motions were taken away from him, and he was made
not to partake of their deviations. And as this circular movement
required no feet, the universe was created without legs and
without feet.
Such was the whole plan of the eternal God about the god that was
to be, to whom for this reason he gave a body, smooth and even,
having a surface in every direction equidistant from the centre,
a body entire and perfect, and formed out of perfect bodies. And
in the centre he put the soul, which he diffused throughout the
body, making it also to be the exterior environment of it; and he
made the universe a circle moving in a circle, one and solitary,
yet by reason of its excellence able to converse with itself, and
needing no other friendship or acquaintance. Having these
purposes in view he created the world a blessed god.
Now God did not make the soul after the body, although we are
speaking of them in this order; for having brought them together
he would never have allowed that the elder should be ruled by the
younger; but this is a random manner of speaking which we have,
because somehow we ourselves too are very much under the dominion
of chance. Whereas he made the soul in origin and excellence
prior to and older than the body, to be the ruler and mistress,
of whom the body was to be the subject. And he made her out of
the following elements and on this wise: Out of the indivisible
and unchangeable, and also out of that which is divisible and has
to do with material bodies, he compounded a third and
intermediate kind of essence, partaking of the nature of the same
and of the other, and this compound he placed accordingly in a
mean between the indivisible, and the divisible and material. He
took the three elements of the same, the other, and the essence,
and mingled them into one form, compressing by force the
reluctant and unsociable nature of the other into the same. When
he had mingled them with the essence and out of three made one,
he again divided this whole into as many portions as was fitting,
each portion being a compound of the same, the other, and the
essence. And he proceeded to divide after this manner:—First of
all, he took away one part of the whole (1), and then he
separated a second part which was double the first (2), and then
he took away a third part which was half as much again as the
second and three times as much as the first (3), and then he took
a fourth part which was twice as much as the second (4), and a
fifth part which was three times the third (9), and a sixth part
which was eight times the first (8), and a seventh part which was
twenty-seven times the first (27). After this he filled up the
double intervals (i.e. between 1, 2, 4, 8) and the triple (i.e.
between 1, 3, 9, 27) cutting off yet other portions from the
mixture and placing them in the intervals, so that in each
interval there were two kinds of means, the one exceeding and
exceeded by equal parts of its extremes (as for example 1, 4/3,
2, in which the mean 4/3 is one-third of 1 more than 1, and
one-third of 2 less than 2), the other being that kind of mean
which exceeds and is exceeded by an equal number (e.g.
- over 1, 4/3, 3/2, - over 2, 8/3, 3, - over 4, 16/3, 6, - over 8: and
- over 1, 3/2, 2, - over 3, 9/2, 6, - over 9, 27/2, 18, - over 27.
Where there were intervals of 3/2 and of 4/3 and of 9/8, made by
the connecting terms in the former intervals, he filled up all
the intervals of 4/3 with the interval of 9/8, leaving a fraction
over; and the interval which this fraction expressed was in the
ratio of 256 to 243 (e.g.
243:256::81/64:4/3::243/128:2::81/32:8/3::243/64:4::81/16:16/3::242/32:8.
And thus the whole mixture out of which he cut these portions was
all exhausted by him. This entire compound he divided lengthways
into two parts, which he joined to one another at the centre like
the letter X, and bent them into a circular form, connecting them
with themselves and each other at the point opposite to their
original meeting-point; and, comprehending them in a uniform
revolution upon the same axis, he made the one the outer and the
other the inner circle. Now the motion of the outer circle he
called the motion of the same, and the motion of the inner circle
the motion of the other or diverse. The motion of the same he
carried round by the side (i.e. of the rectangular figure
supposed to be inscribed in the circle of the Same) to the right,
and the motion of the diverse diagonally (i.e. across the