CHAPTER XXXVIII.

TIMÆUS AND KRITIAS.

Persons and scheme of the Timæus and Kritias 215

The Timæus is the earliest ancient physical theory, which we possess in the words of its author 216

Position and character of the Pythagorean Timæus _ib._

Poetical imagination displayed by Plato. He pretends to nothing more than probability. Contrast with Sokrates, Isokrates, Xenophon 217

Fundamental distinction between Ens and Fientia 219

Postulates of Plato. The Demiurgus--The Eternal Ideas--Chaotic Materia or Fundamentum. The Kosmos is a living being and a God 220

The Demiurgus not a Creator--The Kosmos arises from his operating upon the random movements of Necessity. He cannot controul necessity--he only persuades _ib._

Meaning of Necessity in Plato 221

Process of demiurgic construction--The total Kosmos comes logically first, constructed on the model of the [Greek: Au)tozô=on] 223

Body of the Kosmos, perfectly spherical--its rotations 225

Soul of the Kosmos--its component ingredients--stretched from centre to circumference _ib._

Regular or measured Time--began with the Kosmos 227

Divine tenants of the Kosmos. Primary and Visible Gods--Stars and Heavenly Bodies 229

Secondary and generated Gods--Plato's dictum respecting them. His acquiescence in tradition 230

Remarks on Plato's Canon of Belief 231

Address and order of the Demiurgus to the generated Gods 233

Preparations for the construction of man. Conjunction of three souls and one body _ib._

Proceedings of the generated Gods--they fabricate the cranium, as miniature of the Kosmos, with the rational soul rotating within it 235

The cranium is mounted on a tall body--six varieties of motion--organs of sense. Vision--Light 236

Principal advantages of sight and hearing. Observations of the rotation of the Kosmos 237

The Kosmos is product of joint action of Reason and Necessity. The four visible and tangible elements are not primitive 238

Forms or Ideas and Materia Prima--Forms of the Elements--Place, or Receptivity _ib._

Primordial Chaos--Effect of intervention by the Demiurgus 240

Geometrical theory of the elements--fundamental triangles--regular solids _ib._

Varieties of each element 242

Construction of man imposed by the Demiurgus upon the secondary Gods. Triple Soul. Distribution thereof in the body 243

Functions of the heart and lungs. Thoracic soul 245

Abdominal Soul--difficulty of controuling it--functions of the liver _ib._

The liver is made the seat of the prophetic agency. Function of the spleen 246

Length of the intestinal canal, in order that food might not be frequently needed 247

Bone--Flesh--Marrow _ib._

Nails--Mouth--Teeth. Plants produced for nutrition of man 248

General view of Diseases and their Causes 249

Diseases of mind--wickedness is a disease--no man is voluntarily wicked _ib._

Badness of mind arises from body 250

Preservative and healing agencies against disease--well-regulated exercise, of mind and body proportionally 250

Treatment proper for mind alone, apart from body--supremacy of the rational soul must be cultivated 251

We must study and understand the rotations of the Kosmos--this is the way to amend the rotations of the rational soul 252

Construction of women, birds, quadrupeds, fishes, &c., all from the degradation of primitive man _ib._

Large range of topics introduced in the Timæus 254

The Demiurgus of the Platonic Timæus--how conceived by other philosophers of the same century _ib._

Adopted and welcomed by the Alexandrine Jews, as a parallel to the Mosaic Genesis 256

Physiology of the Platonic Timæus--subordinate to Plato's views of ethical teleology. Triple soul--each soul at once material and mental 257

Triplicity of the soul--espoused afterwards by Galen 258

Admiration of Galen for Plato--his agreement with Plato, and his dissension from Plato--his improved physiology 259

Physiology and Pathology of Plato--compared with that of Aristotle and the Hippokratic treatises 260

Contrast between the admiration of Plato for the constructors of the Kosmos, and the defective results which he describes 262

Degeneration of the real tenants of Earth from their primitive type 263

Close of the Timæus. Plato turns away from the shameful results, and reverts to the glorification of the primitive types 264

Kritias: a fragment 265

Prooemium to Timæus. Intended Tetralogy for the Republic. The Kritias was third piece in that Tetralogy _ib._

Subject of the Kritias. Solon and the Egyptian priests. Citizens of Platonic Republic are identified with ancient Athenians 266

Plato professes that what he is about to recount is matter of history, recorded by Egyptian priests 268

Description of the vast island of Atlantis and its powerful kings _ib._

Corruption and wickedness of the Atlantid people 269

Conjectures as to what the Platonic Kritias would have been--an ethical epic in prose _ib._

Plato represents the epic Kritias as matter of recorded history 270