Platonic Theology (Thomas Taylor trans.) (1816) - Page 23

xviii INTRODUCTION.

κατεχουσι πεδον, οι τ' αντιπεραν χαλκηδονιας εφεπoυσι γυιας.

i. e. “I have supplicated the ministrant Gods that possess the Thracian soil, and also those that,
in an opposite direction, govern the Chalcedonian land.”

And in the last place he says (in Hymn I.) Νοος αφθιτος, τοκηων Θεοκοιρανων απορρωξ, ολιγα μεν, αλλ' εκεινων ολος ουτος, εις τε παντη ολος εις ολον δεδυκως, κυτος ουρανων ελισσει· το δ' ολον τουτο φυλασσων, νενεμημεναισι μορφαι, μεμερισμενος παρεστη· ο μεν, αστερων διφρειαις, ο δ' ες αγγελων χορειας, ο δε και ρεοντι δεσμῳ, χθονιαν ευρετο μορφαν. The substance of which is, “that incorruptible intellect which is wholly an emanation of divinity,

is totally diffused through the whole world, convolves the heavens, and preserves the universe with
which it is present distributed in various forms. That one part of this intellect is distributed
among the stars, and becomes, as it were, their charioteer; but another part among the angelic
choirs; and another part is bound in a terrestrial form.”

I confess I am wholly at a loss to conceive what could induce the moderns to controvert the

dogma, that the stars and the whole world are animated, as it is an opinion of infinite antiquity, and
is friendly to the most unperverted, spontaneous, and accurate conceptions of the human mind.
Indeed, the rejection of it appears to me to be just as absurd as it would be in a maggot, if it

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