After this, the demiurgus sublimely addresses the mundane Gods in the
following words: “Learn now therefore what I say to you indicating
my desire.” The first address to the mundane Gods, says Proclus, was
deific of or deified the auditors; for it evinced all of them to be
Gods, and to be participated by the bodies in which they ride. For
these very bodies also are Gods, as being the statues [as it were]
of Gods; since Plato likewise calls the earth the first and most
ancient of the Gods within the heavens. But these deified bodies
are participants of the Gods truly so called, from which they are
suspended, and which are prior to generation. For these bodies have,
as we have observed, generation. But the second address to the mundane
Gods, inserted in them an eternal power, through the participation of
an indissoluble connexion. And the present words fill them with divine,
and demiurgic conceptions, proceeding supernally from intelligible
animal [the paradigm of the universe.] For the being instructed in
the fabrication of animals, so far as it is mathesis or learning,
is adapted to soul. But these words fill the multitude of Gods with
the demiurgic intelligence of all the forms that are contained in
intelligible animal. And through the word _now_ indeed, the _eternal_
is after a manner indicated; through the word _what_ the united, and
convolved; through _I say_, that which proceeds into multitude, and is
disseminated about the many Gods; and through _indication_ a plenitude
derived from intelligible and unapparent causes is signified. For we
only _indicate_ in things unapparent to the multitude. But through all
the words together it is evident that the demiurgus establishes himself
analogous to intelligible intellect, and fills the mundane number
of Gods with intellectual conceptions. Farther still, these words
convert this multitude to the one demiurgic intelligence, and prior
to a providential attention to secondary natures, illuminate it with
unmingled purity, and stable intellection. For as the demiurgus makes
by energizing intellectually, and generates from inward, externally
proceeding energy, thus also he wishes the mundane Gods first to learn
and understand the will of their father, and thus afterwards to imitate
his power.
In the next place, the demiurgus says, “Three genera of mortals yet
remain to be produced. Without the generation of these therefore, the
universe will be imperfect; for it will not contain every kind of
animal in its spacious extent. But it ought to contain them that it may
be sufficiently perfect. Yet if these are generated and participate of
life through me they will become equal to the Gods.” On these words
Proclus observes: The most total, first, and most divine of ideas,
not only give subsistence to such mundane natures as are perpetual,
in an exempt manner, but likewise to all mortal natures, according to
one united cause. For the idea of winged natures which is there is the
paradigm of all winged animals whatever; the idea of the aquatic, of
all aquatic; and the idea of the pedestrial, of all pedestrial animals.
But the progressions of intelligibles into the intellectual orders,
become the sources of division to united ideas, produce into multitude
total causes, and unfold the definite principles of multiform natures.
For there is no longer in intelligibles one intellectual cause of all
aerial animals; since there is not a separate intellection of perpetual
animals of this kind; nor one intellectual cause of aquatic, nor in
a similar manner of terrestrial animals; but the power of difference
[in the intellectual order] minutely distributes the whole into parts,
and monads into numbers. Hence the causes of divine animals, according
to which the demiurgus gives subsistence to the orders of Gods and
dæmons that produce generation, exist in him separate from the causes
of mortal natures, according to which he calls on the junior Gods to
generate mortal animals. For the demiurgus precedes the generative
energy of these Gods, and makes by merely saying that a thing is to
be made. For the words of the father are demiurgic intellections, and
his intellections are creations; but a proximate making is adapted to
the multitude of Gods. And again you see how the order of effective
and generative causes is unfolded into light. For the choir of mundane
Gods produces indeed mortal animals, but in conjunction with motion and
mutation.[84] And the demiurgus also produces them but by speaking,
viz. by intellection. For he speaks indeed, intellectually perceiving,
and immoveably and intellectually. Animal itself also produces them;
for it contains the one cause of all winged, of all aquatic, and of all
terrestrial animals. But it produces them with silence, by its very
essence and intelligibly. For the demiurgic speech receives indeed the
paternal silence, but the intellectual production, the intelligible
cause, and the generation which subsists according to energizing, the
providence according to existence. Motion also receives the demiurgic
words, but the orderly distribution which is mingled with a sensible
nature, receives the intellectual energy. For the fabrications which
exist at the extremity of things require a producing cause of this
kind. Every thing therefore which is mutable, which is changed in
quality, which is generated and corruptible, is generated from a cause,
immoveable indeed according to essence, but moved according to energy.
For the motion which is there separated from essence, here produces an
essence which is moved. Hence, because that which makes, makes both
according to essence and according to energy, both which are as it were
woven together, mutation of essence thence derives its progression.
Mortal natures therefore require moveable causes, and those that
are very mutable, many such causes. For it is impossible that they
should remain only begotten; since the mortal genera would not have an
existence.
It is necessary however, that the mortal nature should exist, in the
first place, in order that every thing may have a subsistence which
is capable of being generated, viz. both perpetual beings, and those
which at a certain time cease to exist. For beyond these is that which
in no respect whatever is. In the next place this is necessary, in
order that divine natures and being may not be the last of things;
since that which is generative of any thing is more excellent and
more divine than the thing which it generates. And in the third place
it is necessary in order that the world may not be imperfect, not
comprehending every thing the causes of which are contained in animal
itself. For the ideas which are there, are the causes of every thing
whether divine or mortal. Hence Orpheus says that the vivific cause[85]
of partible natures, while she remained on high weaving the order of
celestials, was a nymph, as being undefiled, and in consequence of
this connected with Jupiter, and abiding in her appropriate manners;
but that proceeding from her proper habitation, she left her webs
unfinished, was ravished, having been ravished was married, and being
married generated, in order that she might animate things which have
an adventitious life. For the unfinished state of her webs indicates,
I think, that the universe is imperfect or unfinished as far as to
perpetual animals. Hence Plato says, that the one demiurgus calls on
the many demiurgi to weave together the mortal and immortal natures,
after a manner reminding us that the addition of the mortal genera
is the perfection of the textorial life of the universe, and also
exciting our recollection of the divine Orphic fable, and affording us
interpretative causes of the unfinished webs [of Proserpine].
The divine number therefore, has its proper boundary and end, and is
perfect. But it is also necessary that the mortal nature should exist,
and have an appropriate limit; and this triply, aerially, aquatically
and terrestrially. For celestially, is impossible, because the summit,
and the first genus of every order is undefiled and perpetual, in
consequence of being assimilated to the cause which is prior to it. As
therefore, the first of intellectuals is intelligible, and the first
of angels is a God, thus also the first of sensibles is perpetual and
divine.
When however the demiurgus says, “Yet if these are generated and
participate of life through me they will become equal to the Gods,”
he confirms what has been before asserted, that every thing which
is produced by an immoveable cause is unbegotten and immutable; but
that every thing which is produced indeed by an immoveable cause, yet
through the medium of a cause that is moved, is partly unbegotten, and
partly mutable. For from the immoveable cause indeed it receives unity,
but from the moveable cause multitude. And from the former it derives
being and form, but from the latter individuality, and a flowing
existence; through which the form or species is preserved, but the
individual is destroyed.