Commentary on Plato's Timaeus, Vol. I

PROCLUS ON THE TIMAEUS BOOK III [Preface] 3

140 For the entire DemiurgyThe act of divine creation or "crafting" by the Demiurge, the creator figure in Plato's philosophy. is concerned with the wholes and the universal parts, whereas the indivisible and truly particular things he hands over to the "younger gods." He does this so that, by imitating the Father’s providenceGreek: pronoia. The divine foresight and care for the universe. concerning the wholes, they themselves might display a similar craftsmanship regarding individual things and establish a proportion toward him, just as he himself holds toward the Intelligible ParadigmThe eternal "blueprint" or model of the universe that exists in the realm of pure thought.. For being intellectual in relation to that model, and holding the rank of "Intellect" in relation to the "Intelligible Intellect," he himself becomes an object of intellect for the gods within the world.

Since there are three levels of creation, as we were saying—one according to wholeness, 10 one according to the division into universal parts, and one according to the division into specific parts—Plato is now about to hand down to us the middle level. He makes this transition following the natural order of the things themselves, and he finds a timely progression into this subject from what has been said previously. For since he defined the world as "one visible living being" [Timaeus 30D] containing within itself all things naturally akin to it, he has already demonstrated that the 15 world is unique based on the "uniqueness" of its model [31A]. Now, the division of the whole universe into its universal parts will make it clear to us that it is visible and that it encompasses all akin things.

20 For if we discover for what reason the world is visible, and how all the elements within it are coordinated and through what proportions, we shall easily perceive that it has embraced all akin things and that there is nothing perceptible which has not been included within the single circumference of the world. Having seen this, we would sufficiently possess what was sought; for the question was how the world is visible and how it is all-encompassing of all things naturally akin to it. 25 From what was said before, we have understood that it is unique; from what follows, we learn that it is also complete.

Proclus here begins commenting directly on the text of Plato's Timaeus 31B. 30 But nothing could ever become visible if separated from fire, nor tangible without something solid...

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Critical Notes
The following are technical variations found in different medieval manuscripts (M, P, Q).
2 cf. Timaeus 42DE; Chaldean Oracles 37. 3 "of the providence" (genitive case) in manuscript P. 8 "encomiastic" in Q; "triple" (spelling variant) in P. 10 "wholes — into" omitted in M. 11 "the middle which" in MP. 15-16 cf. Timaeus 30D, 31A. 17 "demonstrated" (variant spelling) in M. 26 "and of the [things] according to" in MP. 30 "having become" in Plato's original text. 30 "but" (particle variants) in various manuscripts and Plato editions. 31 "nor" in Plato.