Ocellus Lucanus, Firmicus Maternus, Select Theorems of Proclus (Thomas Taylor)

INTRODUCTION.

THE tracts contained in this small volume will, I trust, be perused with considerable interest by every English reader who is a lover of ancient lore. Whatever innovations may have been made in the philosophical theories of the ancients by the accumulated experiments of the moderns, I am persuaded that the scientific deductions of the former will ultimately predominate over the futile and ever-varying conclusions of the latter. For science, truly so-called, is—as Aristotle accurately defines it—the knowledge of things eternal, which have a necessary existence. Hence, it has for its basis universals, and not particulars; since the former are definite, immutable, and real, whereas the latter are indefinite, so incessantly changing that they are not for a moment the same, and are so destitute of reality that, in the language of the great Plotinus, they may be...