THE ETERNITY OF THE WORLD.

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

p. 35

ARGUMENTS

IN PROOF OF

1. The first argument is unfortunately lost; but from what may be collected from Philoponus, the substance of it appears to have been this: "that the artificer of the world being an eternally energising being, and energising essentially, the universe must be consubsistent with him, in the same manner as the sun, which produces light by its very being, has the light so produced consubsistent with itself, and neither is light prior or posterior to the sun, nor the sun to light; just as the shadow which proceeds from a body that is situated in the light, is always consubsistent with it." ^*

Footnotes

35:* Thus, too, Sallust, in cap. 7, De Diis et Mundo: αναγκη δια την του θεου αγαθοτητα οντος του κοσμον, αειτε τον θεον αγαθον ειναι, και τον κοσμον υπαρχειν, ωσπερ ηλιῳ μεν και πυρι συνυφισταται φως, σωματι δε σκια. i.e. " Since the world subsists through the goodness of divinity, it is necessary that divinity should always be good, and that the world should always exist; just as light is consubsistent with the sun and with fire, and shadow with the body [by which it is produced]."