After this, the demiurgus says, “That mortal natures therefore may
subsist, and that the universe may be truly all, convert yourselves
according to nature to the fabrication of animals, imitating the power
which I employed in your generation.” A twofold scope of fabrication,
says Proclus, is here delivered, one indeed providential, but the
other assimilative; the one being more proximate, but the other more
total. For to fabricate for the sake of giving subsistence to mortal
natures, indicates providence, and the perfection[86] of power. For
all super-plenitude of power is prolific of other things subordinate
to itself. But to fabricate for the sake of giving completion to the
universe, indicates an energy according to assimilative power, in order
that this universe may be rendered similar to all-perfect animal,
in consequence of being adorned with all the numbers of divine and
mortal animals. For if all things were immortal, the most divine[87]
of sensible natures would be unprolific. And if the universe was
not filled with all the forms of life, it would not be perfect, nor
sufficiently similar to all-perfect animal. That neither of these
defects therefore might happen, the first demiurgus excites the second
fabrication supernally from his own exalted place of survey. He also
pours on the mundane Gods vivific and demiurgic power, through which
they generate from themselves secondary essences, fill them with life,
and give them a specific distinction. For the peculiarity of vivific
deity is to vivify, but of demiurgic deity to be productive of form.
The expression therefore “_convert yourselves_” is of an exciting
nature, and is similar to the mandate of Jupiter to the Gods in Homer,
Haste, to the Greek and Trojan hosts descend.[88]
For as that calls them to the war of generation, so this in Plato
excites them to the fabrication of mortals, which they effect through
motion. And this indeed is accomplished by all the mundane Gods, but
especially by the governors of the world [or the planets], and in the
most eminent degree by the sovereign sun. For the demiurgus gave him
dominion over wholes, fabricated him as a guardian, and ordered him, as
Orpheus says,
----O’er all to rule.
The words likewise, “according to nature,” bound their fabrication
according to measure and the good: and besides this, spread under
them all physical production as an instrument to their energies. This
therefore which is subservient to their will they move and govern. And
in the third place, these words define their subsistence as media;
for it pertains to the middle to fabricate the extremes according to
nature. For things which sometimes have an existence are suspended
from those that are perpetual according to time; and the latter are
suspended from eternal entities. And primary natures indeed are
generative of media; but these are productive of such beings as are
last in the series of things. The word “_yourselves_” also which
denotes manual operation, excites the divine lives themselves to
fabrication. Nor ought we to wonder whence demiurgic power is derived
to divine souls, this being the peculiarity of the superessential
Gods. For as Orpheus, placing an intellectual essence in Jupiter,
renders it demiurgic, thus also Plato producing words from the father,
evinces that the souls which rank as wholes are divine and demiurgic.
Nor must we doubt why of mundane natures[89] some are immortal,
but others mortal, since all of them are generated according to
intelligible causes; for some of them proceed from one, but others
from another proximate producing cause. And it is necessary to look
to these, and not to paradigms alone. Nor must we investigate ideas
of Socrates, Plato, or of any thing that ranks as a particular. For
the demiurgus divides mortal animals according to genera, and stops
at total intellections; and through these comprehends every thing of
a partial nature. For as the demiurgus makes that which is material
immaterially, and that which is generated ingenerably, thus also he
produces mortal natures immortally.[90] For he makes these indeed,
but through the junior Gods; since prior to their making, he made by
intellection alone. Nor must we deny that mortal natures subsist also
divinely, and not mortally only. For the things which the demiurgus
now extends in his speech are hypostases or subsisting natures about
the junior or mundane Gods, which the heavens primarily receive; and
according to which the Gods fabricate the mortal genera. For the
monads of every mortal-formed life proceed into the heavens from the
intelligible forms. But from these monads which are divine, all the
multitude of material animals is generated. For if we adopt these
conceptions, we shall accord with Plato, and shall not wander from the
nature of things.
Again, when the demiurgus says, “_Imitating the power which I
employed about your generation_,” we must understand by this that an
assimilation to the one exempt fabrication of things, and a conversion
to it, is the highest end of the second fabrication. For it is
necessary that self-motive should follow immoveable natures, and such
as are very mutable, such as are always moved, and that there should
be perpetually a series of secondary beings assimilated to those that
are prior to them. Since however there was a divine will and a divine
power in the demiurgus, he unfolds his will to the mundane Gods through
_learning_; and through this perfects their demiurgic will. But he
unfolds his power to them through this _imitation_, according to which
he orders them to imitate the power of the one demiurgus, conformably
to which they were generated by him. For by saying that which he wills,
he imparts to them will; and by saying that which he is able to effect,
he supplies them with power. And in the last place he demonstrates
them to be secondary fabricators imitators of their father. Whether,
therefore, there is a mundane power, or an efficacious energy of
dæmons, or a fortitude and supernatural strength of heroes, to all
this the demiurgus gives subsistence, and imparts it to those that
give completion to the whole of the second fabrication. For the first
power is in him, and the monad of demiurgic powers. Since, however, he
is also intellect and father, all things will be in him, viz. father,
the power of the father, and the paternal intellect. Hence Plato was
not ignorant of this division; and on this account the demiurgus as
being father, calls power his power. This also he manifests by adding,
“_which I employed about your generation_.” For the father is the cause
of this in conjunction with power; just as father here in conjunction
with the female is the cause of the propagation of the human species.
[For power is of a feminine characteristic.]