The fragments that remain of the lost writings of Proclus, surnamed the Platonic successor / translated from the Greek, by Thomas Taylor.
- Proclus
- Date:
- 1825
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The fragments that remain of the lost writings of Proclus, surnamed the Platonic successor / translated from the Greek, by Thomas Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![does not subsist at once, but according to a part. If, therefore, any thing is in time, though it should be extended to an infinite time, it has indeed an existence at a certain time. But it is generated, or becoming to be, to infinity, and is always pass- ing from an existence at one time* to an existence at another. And it was at a certain time, and is at a certain time, and will be at a certain time.f This existence too, at a certain time, is always different. The world, however, when it exists at a certain time, has a no less [continued] existence. Hence that which has its hypostasis in a part of time, at a certain time is becoming to be, and at a certain time is, and at a certain time will be. But that which exists in every time [or for ever] is * In the original, «xx’ owon us aXXo au ftithfrufttvos. But the sense requires (and this is confirmed by the version of Maliotius,) that we should read, conformably to the above translation, a)./.’ craro rov Wars us «XX«, x. r. X. -|- The corporeal world is continually rising into existence, or becoming to be, but never possesses real being. Hence, like the image of a tree in a rapid torrent, it has the appearance of a tree without the reality, and seems to endure perpetually the same, yet is continually renewed by the continual renovation of the stream. The world therefore was, and is, and will be at « certain time, in the same manner as it may be said of the image of a tree in a torrent, that it was yesterday, is to-day, and will be to-morrow, without any interruption of the continuity of its flux. Philoponus, not perceiving this, has, with his usual stupidity, opposed what is here said by Proclus.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22402068_0024.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
