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

the world, as being parts of its common arrangement. The world, however, has not a conjunction with anything else than itself.

Further still*, what has been said will be easily known to be true from the following considerations. Fire, which imparts heat to another thing, is itself hot by its own nature; and honey, which is sweet to the taste, is itself sweet by its own nature. The principles likewise of demonstrations, which are indicative of things unapparent, are themselves manifest and known from their own nature. Thus, also, that which becomes to other things the cause of self-perfection, is itself perfect by its own nature; and that which becomes

* Critolaus, the Peripatetic philosopher, employs nearly the same arguments as those contained in this paragraph to prove the perpetuity of the world. This is evident from the following passage, preserved by Philo in his treatise Περι Αφθαρσιας Κοσμου ("On the Incorruptibility of the World"): "That which is the cause of health to itself is free from disease; but also, that which is the cause of a vigilant energy to itself is sleepless. If this is the case, that which is the cause of existence to itself is also perpetual. The world is the cause of existence to itself, since it is the cause of existence to all other things. Therefore, the world is perpetual." According to the philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato, everything divine is a self-perfect essence that initiates its own energy; it is therefore primarily the cause of that which it imparts to others. Hence, since the world is a divine and self-subsistent essence that imparts existence to itself, it must be free from non-existence and must therefore be perpetual.