From the Treatise in which a Solution is given of Ten Doubts against Providence

Fragments that Remain of the Lost Writings of Proclus, by Thomas Taylor, [1825], at sacred-texts.com

From the Treatise in which a Solution is given of Ten Doubts against Providence.

Providence, therefore, as we have said, being defined by the one and the good, and the good subsisting prior to intellect,—for intellect and all beings aspire after the good, but the good does not aspire after intellect,—it is necessary that the knowledge of providence should be above the knowledge of intellect. And thus it is also necessary that providence should know all things, by the one of itself, according to which one, it likewise benefits every thing intellective and non-intellective, vital and non-vital, beings and non-beings; ^* impressing in all things a unity, as an

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image of its Own one. In short, we assert that this one is productive of all things, we likewise say, that all things are preserved by it,—as that which has an hyparxis more true than all essence, and more manifest than all knowledge,—not being divided with, nor moved about, the objects of knowledge. For of these things, physical and intellectual knowledge has the peculiarities. For every intellect is one many, both in its existence, and its intellection. And every soul, since it is motion, intellectually perceives in conjunction with motion. But the one of providence abiding in its unity, being at one and the same time intransitive and indivisible, knows all things after the same manner; and thus knows, not only man and sun, and every other thing of this kind, but also every thing which ranks among particulars. For nothing escapes the knowledge of this one, whether you speak of its existence, or its capability of being known. Thus, the transcendently united knowledge of providence, is a knowledge of all divisible natures, in the same impartible one, and likewise of things the most indivisible, and of such as are most total. And as it gave subsistence to every thing by its own one, so by the same one, every thing is known by it. ^*

Footnotes

31:* In the original, immediately after καθο και αγαθυνει παντα τα νοουντα, it appears to me that the words και τα μη νοουντα, και ζωντα, are wanting. This defect I have supplied in the above translation.

32:* This extract is to be found in the Treatise of Philoponus against Proclus on the Eternity of the World.