Timaeus

PREFACE.

The present volume appears to be the first English edition of the Timaeus. Indeed, since the sixteenth century—during which this dialogue was published separately no less than four times—it had not, as far as I am aware, been issued apart from the rest of Plato’s works until the appearance of Lindau’s edition, accompanied by a Latin translation, in 1828. Lindau’s commentary, though occasionally suggestive, does not afford much real help in grappling with the main difficulties of the dialogue and sometimes displays a fundamental misunderstanding of its significance. Ten years later came Stallbaum’s edition, concerning which it would be unbecoming to speak with anything less than the respect due to the zeal and industry of a scholar who attempted the gigantic enterprise of editing the entire works of Plato with elaborate introductions and commentary. It would be unfair to disparage the learning that his notes display; nonetheless, it cannot be denied that in dealing with this dialogue, the editor seems hardly to have realized the nature of the task he undertook. Stallbaum was followed in 1841 by Th. H. Martin, whose work, published under the modest title of Études sur le Timée de Platon original: "Studies on Plato's Timaeus", is by far the ablest and most complete edition of the Timaeus in existence. As an exposition of the philosophical import of the dialogue, I am not disposed to rate it very highly; but as far as it deals with the physical and other scientific questions discussed, as well as the numerous grave difficulties of detail, it is invaluable. The acuteness, ingenuity, luminous clarity, and—not least—the unfailing candor of the editor deserve all admiration. The debt owed to Martin by any subsequent editor must necessarily be very great.