PROCLUS ON THE TIMAEUS BOOK 3 [Tim. 31 B]

extending through the cosmos. For just as the sphere of the sun is the "eye" of the soul within it, so too that divine light is the eye of the whole Soul, having traveled through all visible things, acting upon the things seen and bestowing life upon them.
5 And you might call this the primary and most authoritative form of sight, rather than the kind that arises through passive affection original: "pathos" — here meaning a physical sensation or being acted upon by an external force and which is separated from the objects of sight. Furthermore, insofar as the cosmos is solid and full of life, it possesses what is called "self-perception" original: "synaisthēsis" — a shared or internal consciousness of one's own state—for we too perceive the movements or affections established within ourselves—
10 and through this self-perception, the cosmos becomes tangible to itself. But the most authoritative of the explanations is the one stating that the Reason original: "Logos" takes hold of the extremes before the other parts, since those other parts subsist for the sake of the extremes, and it intends to establish the remaining elements according to the bond of the extremes.
C Or one might also say this: that through the extremes, it has also encompassed the middle elements.
15 For just as the whole is defined through fire and earth, with the middle elements being contained within these, so too through the "visible" and the "tangible," it has encompassed all things perceptible by the senses. Using this as an axiom—for he Plato is accustomed to adopt an axiom before each of his
20 inquiries, from which the object of search is demonstrated; for example: no envy ever arises in the good concerning anything [29 E], in order to show that the Creator original: "Demiurge" makes all things good; and again: it neither was nor shall be right for the best to do anything except the most beautiful [30 A],
25 in order to declare the whole to be a living being, ensouled and endowed with intellect; and again: nothing that resembles the incomplete could ever become beautiful [30 C], in order to contemplate toward what kind of paradigm the Creator established the cosmos—so then, in these matters as well, having adopted the axiom
30 that "that which is generated must be visible and tangible," he demonstrates from this how the elements contribute to the composition of the cosmos, and how they are ordered within the whole.
D For if the cosmos must be visible and tangible, it has need of fire and earth; for that which is primarily visible is fire; first...