Timaeus

PREFACE.

The most recent edition known to me was published in 1853 in the useful series issued by Engelmann at Leipzig, including the text, a German translation, and rather copious notes. Böckh's Specimen editionis is unfortunately only a small fragment.

The only English translations with which I am acquainted are those of Thomas Taylor and Professor Jowett; in German, there are several. Martin's edition includes a clear and close French rendering, which is considerably more accurate than Cousin's.

Among the most valuable and important contributions to the explanation of the Timaeus are some writings of August Böckh, especially his admirable treatise, Ueber das kosmische System des Platon original: "On the Cosmic System of Plato". It is much to be regretted that so excellent a scholar did not provide us with a complete edition of the dialogue.

The chief ancient commentator is Proclus, of whose commentary—θείᾳ τινὶ μοίρᾳ original: "by a certain divine providence"—only perhaps one-third, a fragment of some 850 octavo pages, is extant, breaking off at 44 D. This disquisition is intolerably verbose, often trivial, and not rarely obscure. Nevertheless, one who has the patience to toil through it may gain information and sometimes instruction; through all the mists of Neoplatonic fantasy, the native acuteness of the writer will often shine.

The principal object of this edition is to examine the philosophical significance of the dialogue and its bearing on the Platonic system. At the same time, seeing that so few sources of aid are open to the student of the Timaeus, I have done my best to throw light upon the subsidiary topics of Plato's discourse, even when they are of little or no philosophical importance; nor have I willingly neglected any detail that seemed to require explanation. But as these details are subordinate to the ontological ontological relating to the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being teaching in the original, so I have regarded their discussion as subordinate to the philosophical interpretation of this magnificent and now too much neglected dialogue.

A translation opposite the text has been provided with a view to relieving the notes. The Timaeus is one of the most difficult of Plato's writings in respect of language alone; had all matters of linguistic explanation been treated in the commentary...