It remains that we should consider in the next place, what Time, Day
and Night, Month and Year are, so far as they are deities, according
to the theology of Plato; the Commentaries of Proclus on the Timæus
fortunately presenting us with much valuable information respecting
the nature of these divinities. The speculation also of Time in this
place will be very appropriate, as immediately after, the discussion
of divine souls, angels, dæmons and heroes will naturally follow, with
whose essence Time is intimately and inseparably connected. Plato
therefore in the Timæus says, “that while the demiurgus was adorning
and distributing the universe, he at the same time formed an eternal
image flowing according to number, of eternity abiding in one; and
which receives from us the appellation of time. But besides this he
fabricated the generation of days and nights, and months and years,
which had no subsistence prior to the universe, but which together with
it rose into existence. And all these indeed, are the proper parts of
Time.” Proclus[177] in commenting on what Plato here says about Time,
after having shown that it is neither any thing belonging to motion,
nor an attendant on the energy of soul, nor, in short, the offspring of
soul, investigates what it is in the following admirable manner:
“Perhaps, says he, it is not sufficient to say that it is the measure
of mundane natures, nor to enumerate the goods of which it is the
cause, but to the utmost of our power we should endeavour to apprehend
its peculiarity. May we not therefore say, since its essence is most
excellent, perfective of soul, and present to all things, that it is
an intellect not only abiding but also subsisting in motion? Abiding
indeed according to its inward energy, and by which it is truly
eternal, but being moved according to its externally proceeding energy,
by which it becomes the boundary of all transition. For eternity
possessing permanency, both according to its inward energy, and that
which it exerts to things eternal, Time being assimilated to it,
according to the former of these energies, becomes separated from it
according to the latter, abiding and being moved. And as with respect
to the essence of the soul, we say that it is intelligible and at
the same time generated, partible, and at the same time impartible,
and are no otherwise able to apprehend its middle nature than by
employing after a manner opposites, what wonder is there if, perceiving
the nature of Time to be partly immoveable, and partly subsisting
in motion, we, or rather not we, but prior to us, the philosopher,
through _the eternal_, should indicate its intellectual monad abiding
in sameness, and through _the moveable_ its externally proceeding
energy, which is participated by soul and the whole world? For we must
not think that the expression _the eternal_ simply indicates that Time
is the image of eternity; for if this were the case, what would have
hindered Plato from directly saying that it is the _image_, and not
the _eternal image_ of eternity? But he was willing to indicate this
very thing, that time has an eternal nature, but not in such a manner
as animal itself [the paradigm of the universe] is said to be eternal.
For that is eternal both in essence and energy; but Time is partly
eternal, and partly, by its external gift, moveable. Hence theurgists
call it eternal; and Plato very properly denominates it not _only_ so.
For one thing is _alone_ moveable, both essentially and according to
the participants of it, being _alone_ the cause of motion, as soul, and
hence it _alone_ moves itself and other things; but another thing is
_alone_ immoveable, preserving itself without transition, and being the
cause to other things of a perpetual subsistence after the same manner,
and to moveable natures through soul. It is necessary therefore, that
the medium between these two extremes should be that which, both
according to its own nature, and the gifts which it imparts to others,
is immoveable and at the same time moveable, essentially immoveable
indeed, but moved in its participants. A thing however of this kind is
Time.
Hence Time is truly, so far as it is considered in itself, immoveable;
but so far as it is in its participants, it is moveable, and subsists
together with them, unfolding itself into them. It is therefore,
eternal, and a monad and center essentially, and according to its own
abiding energy; but it is at the same time, continuous, and number, and
a circle, according to its proceeding and being participated. Hence,
it is a certain proceeding intellect, established indeed in eternity,
and on this account is said to be eternal. For it would not otherwise
contribute to the assimilation of mundane natures to more perfect
paradigms, unless it were itself previously suspended from them. But
it proceeds and abundantly flows into the things which are guarded
by it. Whence I think the chief of theurgists celebrate Time as a
God, as Julian in the seventh of the Zones, and venerate it by those
names, through which it is unfolded in its participants, causing some
things to be older, and others to be younger, and leading all things
in a circle. Time therefore, possessing a certain intellectual nature,
circularly leads according to number, both its other participants
and souls. For Time is eternal, not in essence only, but also in its
inward energy; but so far as it is participated by externals, it is
alone moveable, coextending and harmonizing with them the gift which it
imparts. But every soul is transitively moved, both according to its
inward and external energies, by the latter of which it moves bodies.
And it appears to me that those who thus denominated Time χρονος had
this conception of its nature, and were therefore willing to call it as
it were χορευοντος νους, an intellect moving in measure; but dividing
the words, perhaps for the sake of concealment, they called it χρονος.
Perhaps too, they gave it this appellation because it abides and is at
the same time moved in measure; by one part of itself abiding, and by
the other proceeding with measured motion. By the conjunction therefore
of both these, they signify the wonderful and demiurgic nature of
this God. And it appears, that as the demiurgus being intellectual
began from intellect to adorn the universe, so Time being itself
supermundane, began from soul to impart perfection. For that Time is
not only mundane, but by a much greater priority supermundane, is
evident; since as eternity is to animal itself, the paradigm of the
universe, so is Time to the world, which is animated and illuminated
by intellect, and wholly an image of animal itself, in the same manner
as Time of eternity. And thus much concerning Time, according to its
first subsistence, and considered as a God.
With respect to Day and Night, according to their more principal
subsistence, they are demiurgic measures of Time, exciting and
convolving all the apparent and unapparent life and motion, and orderly
distribution of the inerratic sphere. For these are the true parts of
Time, are present after the same manner to all things, and comprehend
the primary cause of apparent day and night, each of these having a
different subsistence in apparent time; to which also Timæus looking
reminds us how time was generated together with the world. Hence he
says in the plural number _nights_ and _days_, and also _months_ and
_years_. But these are obvious to all men. For the unapparent causes of
these have a uniform subsistence prior to things multiplied, and which
circulate infinitely. Things immoveable also subsist prior to such
as are moved, and intellectual natures are prior to sensibles. Such
therefore, must be our conceptions of Night and Day according to their
first subsistence.
By Month we must understand that truly divine temporal measure which
convolves the lunar sphere, and every termination of the circulation
about the zodiac. But Year is that which perfects and connects
the whole of middle fabrication, according to which the Sun is
seen possessing the greatest strength, and measuring all things in
conjunction with Time. For neither Day nor Night, nor Month is without
the Sun, nor much more Year, nor any other mundane nature. I do not
here speak according to the apparent fabrication of things alone; for
the apparent Sun is the cause of these measures; but also according to
that fabrication which is unapparent. For, ascending higher, we shall
find that the more true Sun[178] measures all things in conjunction
with Time, being itself in reality Time of Time, according to the
Chaldæan oracle concerning it. For that Plato not only knew these
apparent parts of Time, but also those divine parts to which these are
homonymous, is evident from the 10th book of his Laws. For he there
asserts that we call Hours and Months divine, as having the same divine
lives, and divine intellects presiding over them, as the universe. Let
these therefore be the parts of Time, of which some are accommodated
to the inerratic Gods, others to the Gods that revolve about the poles
of the oblique circle, and others to other Gods, or attendants of the
Gods, or to mortal animals, or the more sublime or more abject parts of
the universe.
Farther still, concerning Night and Day, Plato afterwards says, “that
through these, the period of one most wise circulation [i.e. the
circulation of the inerratic sphere,] was produced;” on which Proclus
observes as follows: “It may be doubted how Plato calls Night and Day
the measure of the circulation of this sphere. For this measure is
every where, originating supernally from the one intelligible cause
of the universe, and the first paradigm; but in the sublunary region
it is the space of day and night. In answer to this, it must be said
that the temporal interval which first subsists in the circulation
of the inerratic sphere, and the solar light are productive of the
_nycthemeron_ or space of day and night. From the last of things
therefore, and which are known to us, the whole measure is defined. For
this _nycthemeron_ is one thing, but another that which subsists in
unapparent time. And the former is the image and ultimate termination
of the latter. For there are many orders of Night and Day, intelligible
and intellectual, supermundane, celestial and sublunary, as we are
taught by the Orphic theology. And some of these indeed, are prior to
fabrication; but others are comprehended in it; and others proceed from
it. Some also are unapparent, but others are apparent. For with respect
likewise to Month and Year, one order of these is unapparent, measures,
connectedly contains, and gives perfection to the intellectual and
corporeal periods of the sun and moon; but another is apparent, which
terminates and is the measure of the solar revolution. Thus too in
the other Gods, the unapparent Saturnian number is one thing, and the
apparent another. And in a similar manner the unapparent and apparent
Martial, Jovian and Mercurial numbers differ from each other. For with
respect to Month and Year, each of these being one according to each
period, and always the same, is a certain God, immoveably bounding the
measure of motion. For whence have the periods always an invariable
sameness, except from a certain immoveable cause? And whence do they
derive the difference of their restitutions to their pristine state,
except from different immoveable causes? Whence also the unceasing, and
the again and again to infinity, except from the infinite powers they
contain? But Plato considering all this series as temporal, arranges
it under one and that the first Time, which defines the periodic time
of a perpetually circulating body, and is, as we have before observed,
true number. From these invisible causes however, we must conceive the
visible periodic times are derived, proceeding from them according to
that which is numbered, since they are able both to number and generate
them. And in all these astronomy beautifully instructs us, doxastically
apprehending the number of the periodic restitutions of each; and
making comparisons of the ratios of the periods to each other; such
as that the Saturnian period, is the double and a half of the period
of Jupiter, and in a similar manner of the rest. For though their
restitutions differ, yet they have a ratio to each other. Sacred rumour
also venerates the unapparent causes of these, proclaiming the divine
names of Night and Day, and also the causes that constitute, and the
invocations, and self-manifestations of Month and Year. Hence, they are
not to be surveyed superficially, but as having a subsistence in divine
hyparxes. And these the laws of sacred institutions, and the oracles of
Apollo ordered to be worshiped and honoured by statues and sacrifices,
as histories inform us. When these also are reverenced, mankind are
supplied with the benefits arising from the periods of the Seasons,
and of the other divinities in a similar manner; but a preternatural
disposition of every thing about the earth, is the consequence of the
worship of these being neglected.”[179] Plato likewise in the Laws
proclaims that all these are Gods, viz. the Seasons, Years and Months,
in the same manner as the stars and the sun; and we do not introduce
any thing new by thinking it proper to direct our attention to the
unapparent powers of these prior to those that are apparent.” And
thus much concerning Time, Day and Night, Month and Year, considered
according to their first subsistence, by which they are Gods.