[1] viz. falling on _matter_, or the general receptacle of all sensible
forms. See my Translation of the admirable treatise of Plotinus “On the
Impassivity of Incorporeal Natures.”
[2] Περι νομου, περι βασιλειας και ὁσιοτητος, και της του παντος γενεσεως.
[3] It is rightly observed by Fabricius, “that this work of Ocellus was
originally written in the Doric dialect, but was afterwards translated by
some grammarian into the common dialect, in order that it might be more
easily understood by the reader.”—Vid. Biblioth. Græc. tom. i. p. 510.
[4] In all the editions of Plato, μυριοι, conformably to the above
translation; but from Diogenes Laertius, who, in his Life of Archytas,
gives this epistle of Plato, it appears that the true reading is Μυραιοι,
i. e. Myrenees, so called from Myra, a city of Lycia in Asia Minor,
(see Pliny, v. 27. Strabo xiv. 666.) This 12th epistle of Plato, though
ascribed by Thrasyllus and Diogenes Laertius to Plato, yet is marked in
the Greek manuscripts of it as spurious.
[5] Of the Philosophy of Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle, very few of
the moderns have any accurate knowledge, and therefore on this subject
they may be prolix, but they cannot write well. See this largely and
incontrovertibly proved in the Third and Fourth Books of my Dissertation
on the Philosophy of Aristotle.
[6] For nearly the whole of what is contained in the above three
paragraphs, I am indebted to my excellent friend Mr. J. B. Inglis, who
has also read Ocellus with great attention, and made Notes upon it;
another proof that the work is not neglected.
[7] This Taurus flourished under Marcus Antoninus, and the original of
the above-mentioned Fragment is only to be found in the treatise of
Philoponus against Proclus, “On the Eternity of the World.”