Part V;

His TORY of PHILOSOPHY.
■■~*r - — ' — ~
PLATO.
-C H AT. I.
Tfe CoMl/y , Pitrrxfs, Md Time P L A T 0,
4', derived the Profeflbrs thereof taught ; This Sefl was
from Ite by P/atr., conttaued by Sfeujifpu^
. om tils a place \n Athens, YihQi^\y^enofrates,?olesnon, Crates, Crantd', 4ms hi
I ailed
A
i
.LjB
#
0
Part ' V.
T~L'TT1T.
called the Jirjl or old Academy. ArccfiLaus.^ fuc- ceeding Cramo>\ inrtituted the middle Academy^ continued by Lacydes^ Telecles.^ Evandcr^ and Hegejinus. Larne ader iowrAQ^ the new Academy^' of which was alfo Clitomachus : Some reckon z fourth Academy m%XMtQ^hY Ehilo and Char- midas : a fifth by Antiochus.
mLrnt P/
t Txett. chi- are they to be credited who relate him t a liai 11. 390. Theban., born at Cynocephalus ^ Antileon affirms » Loot. his Parents to be of , Collyttus. t He was born i Laert. 'Sm. ^according to Fhavorinus ) in the Ifland iE- gina, in the Houfe of Phidiades, Son of Th^ir les ; his Father fent with others thither at the divijion of the Land ("upon their de^ion from, and fuyefiion by the Athenians., at the begin¬ ning of the Feloponnefian War) and returned to Athens, at what time thofe Athenians were ejeSed by the Lacedaemonians, in aid of the ^netz.
• taeru dpd. ^ He was of an eminent Family •, his Father Jb“iJio ^on of Arijioteles) of the Race of G- drus. Son of Melanthus, who ("as Thrafilus affomsj derived .themfelves from 'Neptune. Melanthus flying Meffena, came to .hhens., where afterwards by a Stratagem killing Xan~ thuSf he was made King after Thymocles., the laft of the Thefeidee. His Mother Feriiiione^ by fome called Potone.^ whole Kindred with I /» pmem, Solon is thus defcribed hy Laertius and t Pro- chts. had two Sons, Solon 2CcA Tiro-
pides : Dropides had Critias^ mentioned by in hisPoems.
[C i -
Bidfair haired Ctiths his Sire ob/erve'y
A wandring mind will from his 'Leader Jwerve*
Critids had Callefchrus Callefchrin had Gritiae.^ one of the thirty Tyrants,, and Glaucon (whom Apuleis calls Grlaucus) Glaucon 1^ Charmides and PeriHione j Per 'iSione by Arifio \aAPlatOy the fixth ftom Solon}, Solon i^as
*55
deicendcd from" Neptune and NeleusC\_ f ather -
Thus . ffiei'tius, from whom Pro- flus dilTents only ‘in that, that he makes Glau¬ con Son of the firft Cr 'itias., Brother to Cal- lefchrus., which Gv/m manifeftly (faith he) in Plat. Charniides confirms, calling Glauco (Father of Chat'mides) his Uncle. Thus was Plato delcended both ways from Neptune.
There are (fPiiXi ^ Apuleius) i\^hoaffertfh.\:o. Dogm.Plati of a more fublime Race : Ariltandef, followed by many Platonifts, thinkd., he was begotten on his Mother by y^w^-SpeUrum 'in the Jhape of A- pollp ; f Speufippus in his Treatife , entituled Plato., or Clearchus in his Eulogy of
Plato ^ Anaxilides in his lecond Book of Philo- (poy-iva Tlyx- fophefsj and Others, affirm it to^^^
•nave been commonly reported at Athens, that he yi;as the Son of Apdllb, who appearing in vifion be UKci'Juv, to her (being a Woman of exraordinary Beau-w irs^i luTTvit iy)^ PeriSione fe mfcuit-, Ihe thereupon con- the
ceived: Ar'ifto ( her' husband) having often is attempted to enjoy her, but in vain 5 at laft A- mentioned appearing to him in a Vifion or Dream, nR*7«i'©-* and a voice commanding him to refrain the ,
com^nypf his Wife for ten Months, until her dUiviky were p'aft, he forbore-, whence Tyndarus,
Me did not ijjuefrom a mortal Bed 3 j A God his Sire, a God-like life he led.
^me thereupon (as ^ Saint Hierom faith ) 2iP* Adverf. JhI. firmed, he was born of a Virgin, and \ it was a common Speech among the Athenians that PhC^us^^^^? Efculapius^W Plato, one to cure Bodies, the other Souls.
^ Arifio \s2A afterwards by Per'iHione,
Sons, Adimaretus. 2bA Glauco, and a Daughter Potone, Mother to Speufippus : Thele Relations of Plato will be more conlpicuous in this Gene¬ alogical Xabk. ,
r'j 3-
) V-
■ 1) r .A
c'
■of 0-di
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■ J 1; . M
• rr . . Mf •
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1
1^6
PLATO.
Part. V.
Nepune-,
1 ’
Veridimenes
I.
t Tenthilus.
1
Borus,
^ Chlor is
Daughter of Tire/ias
* yipolkdcF, VL 5, Schar Find.
•. X
t Paufani.
Andropompifs.
I ,
M.elant]jus,
Codrus'
I
-an Athenian's^ onm.
. ■; Q
. i;
ij ii, 's irrtA
r* • .♦ ^ thirty
Neieus
1
i ; *
^ Exeeejlides.
*'• L(tert,]am cUft
'ajV) 4
Sden, , Dropides.
X^ritias.
7
, , CdlUfchrue.
1
Glauco Critias,
I one of the 30.
— FeriHionel Chamides,
i
F^to. Adimdntus, Glducoi Fot(tne,-^-Eurymedon.
. I ' I
Perhaps Adimatitus the| Speujippui-. younger, Heir! Flato^s SueaJJonr.
For the year of his Birth, (to omit the mi- ftakesof Eufeb ’ius.^ who placeth it in the fourth Year of the eighty eighth Olympiad, in the Archonfhip of Stratocles^ and of the Chronicon Alexandrinum^ that placeth it the year follow¬ ing) Laertius faith, Mejwoi- Boni.^ nccordingjji the Chronology of Apollodorus,/;? the eighty eighth Olympiad., which feems to he towards the be¬ ginning of the firft year, whilft Aminias was yet Archon. For Laertius elfewhere faith. That he was fix years younger than liberates j iox If o- crates (faith he) was born when Lyhmachus, Plato, when Aminias was Archon, under .whom, ■ Pericles died: in the third year of the Argm. Hip. nefian War. This Aminias is by the ^ Scholiaji
pot. fDeipn. 5. * Lib.
of Euripides called Ameinon, by t Athen paneimon, by ^ Diodorus Siculus, Epaminondas. The various reading occafioned either by addi¬ tion or detra8:ion of the prepofition e-r/, but by which of thefe two cannot eafily be evinced, t f fiin.ExenU.Salma/tus endeavouring to prove the name to be
p. 157-
*Donr. temp.,
j Deipn.
’Afiavuv, pofitively affirms, that ths Greeks never name an Archon without the Prepofition but that error * Fetavius confutes, whofe Opinion is confirmed by the ancient Marble at Arundel- Houfe, which addeth not the Prepofition to the Names of the Archons.
Neither is the Opinion of t Athenam much
different, who affirms, Flato was born (the year, before) Apollodorus being Arcbon,who fucceeded^ Euthydemus, who was Archon the third year of the 87th Olympiad, and that undet Euphemus, in the fourth year of the ^loth Olympiad, he was fourteen years old. F or both Laertius, and Ath$- nteus^z^QQ in the year of his death, viz. in the firft of the 108th Olympiad, when Theophilus, theSucceffor of Callimachus, was Archon j Athe- n£us only differeth in this, that, computing 82 Archons, he attributes fo many years to Flato'^
Life, whereas ’tis certain, he lived but eighty one.
The day of his Birth, ^ according to Apollo-* Loan dorus, w'as the feventh of Thargelion, at which time the Delians did celebrate the Feaft of Apol¬ lo. So likwile cited by f Flutarch, whoj. cvw-®
adds, that the Priefts and Prophets call Apollo . **
iCJ'oFecyimy as being born upon this feventh day 5 whence perhaps was occafioned the Fiblion, that he was the Son of Apollo, which Flutarch eft eems no Difparagement to his Deity. In the firft year of the 88th Olympiad, rEz'Keomenia of Hecatombicon fell upon Auguj}, 2d. and (upon thofe Hypothefes which we laid down formerly in the ^ Life of Socrates) the Dominical Letter f c.ip. i; for that year being E. the feventh of Thargeli- * on will (according to the Julian account taken
proleptically
1
proleptically) fall upon fr'iday^ the thirtieth of jWiy : according to the Gregorian^ upon rriday the ninth of June^ in the year of the Julian period, 428^?.
This is according to the Faith of the Hiftori- ans, with whom the Aftrologers do not agree ^ for ^ Julius Yirmicus hath erefted the Scheme ^ Am. of his Nativity after this manner.
* DeDolfr. Sbrijf. 2, 28.
Jf theAfcendent.^fmthheJhallhepi^ 5 and 1 S therein pojited ; and if V- if then be placed in the fevent% having ^ for his Sign, and in the fe- tend the ®itz^ and the (I in h in the fifth Houfe beholding the Afcendent with a a afyeU, and ITj in the ninth from the Afcendent in a. 'Ihit Geniture renders a Man Interpreter of Jfivine and Heavenly Infiitutions, who endued with in- firuSive Speech, and the power of Divine Wit, and forme din a manner by a celefiial Injlitution, by the true Licenfe ofDifputations fhall arrive at all the fecrets of Divinity, Thus whole
Scheme agreeth not with the other Calculation, as being betwixt the midft of February and of March, during which time the © is in K- Hence will appear the great Anachronifm of thole, who affirm, that Dlato went to J^gypt, in the time of the Prophet Hieremie ( whom Eufebius placeth in the thirty lixth Olympiad ) and heard him there. Hieremie at the Capti¬ vity of the Jews into Babilon, was carried by Johanan Son of Caree into JEgypt ; The Jews were carried away hy Nebuchadnezzar, at what time Tarquinius Drifcus Reigned at Borne, Va- phres in JEgypt, to whom the reft of the Jews fled, which was in the forty feventh Olympiad, i on * once held, was afterwards retraced by Saint Augufline, in his Book of Retractions, and confuted de Civit, Dei, 8. ii.
t ElUn. var,
jijf. 19. 21.
C H A P. II.
His firjl Education, Exercife, and Studies.
f TXTHilft Flato was yet an Infant carried in Vy the Arms of his Mother FerMone, A- rifio his Father went to Hymettus ( a Mountain in Attica eminent for abundance of Bees and Honey) to Sacrifice to the Mules or Nymphs
taking his Wife and Child along with him •, as | fjgnifiech an iraferfcftton ot Speech by ftammerin they were bufied in the Divine Rites, Ihe laid ! unlcfs there and here we would read
the Child in a Thicket of Myrtles hard by -, to ’.c/c. divmt. whom, ashellept incunls dormienti) came^'^*** a fwarm of Bees, Artifts of Hymettian Honey, flying and buzzing about him, and ( as it is re¬ ported) made a Honey -comb in his Mouth.
This was taken for a prefage of the lingular fweetnefs of his difeourfe ; his future Eloquence forefeen in his Infancy.
His Parents f faith + Alexander) named after his Grand}ather,AiiItodes: Speulippus '
(injiituted in his Domejiick Documents) extolleth his Jharpnefs of Apprehenfwn, whilji yet aChild, and the admirable Medefly of his Difpofition ( t which was fucli, that he was never, even all t Laert. ] thole year?, feen to laugh immoderately) ajfirm- ing, that the beginnings of his Touth were feafoifd with Labour and Love of Study -, which Vertues encreafed and met with all the reft when he came to Marls EJlate.
t Of Dionyfius the Grammarian ( mention- 1 ed in his dvlnesisAi) he received the firft Rudi¬ ments of Learning. Of Arifio , 2in Argive, \\Q learned the Art of Wreftling (at that time much in efteem,as being one of theOlympick Exerci- fes ) wherein he became fo great a Proficient, that feme affirm, he wreftled at the Ifihmus in the Fythian Games.
^ As in years and Vertue, fo likewife he> Latn. encreafed extraordinarily in outward .proporti¬ on and fhape, infomuch, that Arifto named him Flato (which implieth Latitude) in allufion to the largenels of his Perfen : others fay, to the widenels of his Shoulders j Neanthes of his Fore¬ head; feme, to his large Eloquence. Whatfo- ever the occalion w'ere, this name wore out and difplaced the other. That he vyas called alfo Sa- rapis, is affirmed by t Hefyehius. ^ There was t in not any imperfeClion throughout his perfen, ex- cept a gibbofity in the hinder part of his Head, and (as Timotheus affirms) a kind ot t Hefita- (^cfidcs tion in his Speech. rirrj:;pcona.
fmdlncfs of
Voice, in which fenft ic is here taken by the Jntciprcccrs diid ridnus)
Arijl. hob. n. 30
He
I
158
PLATO.
"p A R^ir.
i t • A. J ^ ,
Luat.
t ^ian, Hiji. a.'afi.
^ He learned allb (as Dkearchus relates ) to Paint : He addiQed himlelf much to Poetry, and wrote many Poems: Firfl, Dithyrambs'^ then Epick Pdetry, which comparing with homer ^ and finding tar fliort of him, he burned. Then he betook himlelf to writing Tragedies : He made a compleat Tetralogy {tour Drama’s, as the manner was, when they contefted, to be prefented^t four leveral Feltivals, Demean.^ Pa- nathenaan.^ Chytnean.^ the fourth Satyrical) and gave it to the Players to be Afted, intending to conteft for the Palm upon the OImpick Theatre : But the day before it Ihould have been prefented, chancing to hear Socrates Di- fcourfe at the Olympick Theatre ( t before the Bacchanals) he was lb taken with that Syren.^ that he not only forbore to conteft at that time, but wholly gave over all Tragick Poely, and burned aU his Poems, faying that of Ho-
mer^
Vulcan come bitber, Plato needs thy aid,
Erom that time (the twentieth year of his age, which falls about the 4th of the 5>2d Olym¬ piad) he became a follower of Socrates.^ and ftu- died Philolbphy.
Some affirm (of the Xiuth of which report, •yar. Ifift. ^Mlian juftly doubts) he was driven by Poverty to betake hiryelf to the JVars, but intercepted by Socrates, and injiruded in that which concerns Mankind.^ he fold his Arms, and through his perfwafwn, addiSed himfelf to Philofophy,
That he fought for his Country is certain, ex- ^lerffiards anfwer to + Crobylus the Syco-
cap. ir. phant : ^ Arifloxenus zvAASlian affirm, he Was • Laert. engaged thrice ; ¥irj},at t Tanagara : the fecond t Var. Hiff, time at Corinth : and lafly at Delium, where he fought beft of all the Soldiers. Thus Ari- Jloxenus. But that this is falle, may be eafily evinced by computation of times. The firft Fight of xkiQ Athenians atTanagra, was in the 4th year of the 80th Olympiad, 17 years before Plato was Born : The fecond, in the firft of the 8pth when he was but fix years old. The Fight at Delium, was in the foil of the 8pth, at what time he was but four years old; ftom the laft words of Arijioxenus, ^ dejs’tvo’tu (imply, ing, that atDdixmpe had the prize for yghting beji) may be conjefkred, that this was meant of Socrates, who was thrice perfonally engaged ^ and at * Delium Ihould have had the prize for fighting beft, but that his Modefty procured it to be conferred upon Alcibiades.
CHAP. Ill-
'His Maflers in Philofophy, and his Travels to that end.
• AiU'.iogm. Platt Lmt.
SuiU.
^Q^Ocrates, the night before Plato was recom- O mended to him, dreamed, that a young Swan fled from Cupid's kltat in the Academy, and fate in his lap, thence fled up to Heaven, it delighted both Gods and Men with its MuficL As [the nextday ] was relating this
to Ibme of his Auditors, Arijio came at the fame t me, and prefented his Son Plato to him.
tp be his Dilcipte. As foon as Sp^rates law ' him, reading in his looks his I^enuity ,: Friends, faith he, thi& is the Swan oPCupid's A^^demy.
_ Eight ydars he lived with Socrates, in VIuch time, he committed (as others of his Dilciples^ the efFc£l of his Mailers Difeourfe to Writing : hereof he c^pofed.^ialogues, but with fo great additions of his Qwn, t that Socrateshsat- f Laert ing him recite his LyJit cry’d out. Oh.' Hercu¬ les, how many things doth this young Man feign of me ? for not ia few things ( adds La¬ ertius) of thole which he writ, Socrates never Ipoke. '
At the titne of Socyates's Arraignment, the firft year of the P5t4 Olympiad, he was one of the Senate, the ypungeft of the Conven¬ tion. That he was a Senator, implies he was full thirty years old at that time, according to Solotds Law. This argues ^ Hermodorus of a ? miftake, who iaith, he was twenty eight years old whSP he fle4 to ^^ara, upon the Death of Socrates, and iubvefts the accounts of thofe who under-reckon his Birth, t The Judges * Laert: •wt, being , much dilpleal^ with Socrates, Plato went up into the O^ors Chair, intending to Plead in his Defence' and begun thus : Though I (Athenians) am the youngejl of thofe that come up into this place. But all the Senate cry¬ ing out of thofe who go down, he was thereup¬ on conftrained to do fo. Socrates being Con¬ demned, Plato offered him to procure fo much Money as might purcliafe his Liberty, but So^ crates refiifed the Offer. ^ About that Tivas,* ,^^then. de'^ Socrates’s friends being met together to condole his Death, Plato encouraged them, and bid th^ not defpair, for that himfelf was capable to Go¬ vern the School : and in fo faying, drank to A- pollodorus, who anfwered, he would fooner take up the Cup of Poifon from the hand of Socrate^ than Pledge him upon that Condition. Upon the Death of Socrates, Plato ( whole exceffive Grief .upon that Occafion is obferved by + Plu- 1 tit virtvtt torch) with others of his Difoiples, • fearing the Tyranny of thole Perfons, who put their Ma¬ iler to Death, ^ fled to Euclid at Megara, who* ftiendly entertained them, till the Storm was blown over.
t Apuleius faith, that before he came to So-t^oe”. crates, he was initiated in the SeU (^Heraclitus.
But more likely is that which is affirmed by La¬ ertius, that after Socrates s death, heapplyed himlelf to Cratylus, a follower of Heraclitus^ndi to Hermogenes. He conceived, Iaith ^t.AuJtine, *pt eft. that his own Invention, aW Socrates’s Injlruffions came Jhort of the true dm of Philofophy : He confideredwitb himfelf what courfe he Jhould take to benefit himfelf moji, for this purpofe he deter¬ mined to travel to any place, where report told him he might drink of the Spring of Leaning,even to the farthef parts of the Earth, faith t Cicero .*
Firji, to ltaly, v}hQtQ he addided himlelf to thet De finik 5. Difcipline of Pythagoras, which, though he law * replenilhed with curious and high reafon, yet, he ^ chiefly affeded to imitate the Continence and Chaftity thereof, though the + Pythagorians f Wpfyr. vif.. themlelves affirm he had all hisNatural Philofd- phy from thence.
a Perceiving the knowledge of the Pythago- j reans to be aflilted with other Dilciplines, he went to Cyrene, to learn Geometry of Theodorus
the
(
AR
T V.
PLAT a
the Mathematician : thence to Mgypt (which ^ . was then under the Empire of Anaxerxes Mnc-
.Plittan ffion) ^ under pretence of felling Oy], but the
icope of his Journey was to fetch Alfrology t Definib. 5. frotn thence ; To learn Arithmetick and Celejiiai Speculations of the Barbarians^ (faith ^Cicero) . ^ and to be inftru8:ed in the rites of the Pro-
t VaJ. Max. phets. t travelled, over the Coiaury^ inform 8*7* 7ning himfelf all the way by their Briefs^ oj the
mult iplicious proportions of Geometry^ and the ob- fervation of Celejiiai Motions. At what time young Students at Athens were enquiring for Plato to injlrubl them^ he was bufied in jurveying the in¬ explicable banks of NilUs, the vajl extent oj a Barbarous Country.^ and the winding cotnpajs oj ^ . their Trenches, a Tifciple to the iEgyptian old
.. Eptft.Socr.i6 ^ Having taken a full furvey of all the Countrjr •, he at laft fetled himfelf in the Pro¬ vince of .Stf/r, learning of the wife men the re, what they held concerning the XJniverfe, whether it had a beginning, and whether it Is moved at prefeni, wholly or in part, according to Rea/on. From thefe, t Mejpen, t Paufanias affirms, he learn’d’the Immortality • of the Soul, which that they held, as likewife the tranfmigration thereof into leveralbodies,is affirm * Lib. 2 j ed by ^ Herodotus, t Some fay, that Euripdes fol-
\ Lmt. lowed him to AEgypt and ^^lling fick, was cured by the Priefts with Sea- water, whereup¬ on he laid.
The Sea doth wajh away allills of Mani
But this agrees not with the time of his death, which was befote that of Socrates, viz. in the 5>3th Olympiad.
From JEgypt Plato returned to Tarentum in Italy, at what time L. CamiNus and P. Claudius I Cat. Mapr. were Cofifuls at Rome, as Cicero affirmeth.
What Fajli heufed, I know not, for in thofe which are now with us received as authentick, there are no fuch Confuls during the whole Life of Plato. And indeed, in thofe times, Rome was for the moft part. Govern’d by Tribunes, t Here he converfed with Eurytus of Tarentum, the Elder, Arclmtas the Elder ( at whole difcourle concerning Pleafure he was Prelent) and with the reft of the Pythagoreans, Echecraies, Timte- us, Acrio (corruptly in a Valerius Maximus, Arid) and Coetus,Locrians. Thus to the Learn* ing of Socrates he added that of Pythagoras, and informed himfelf in thofe things which Socrates negle&ed : He would have gone alfo to the In¬ dians, 2xA to the Magjt, but that the Wars which at that time were in Afia hindred him.
59
Apul.
8 . 7-
CHAP. IV.
What Authors he followed,
♦ re,«,. n-M. t T; u^ubims affirms that Flaw botrowed the 1.27.2^5.1. Ht myftick part of his Philofophy from Hermes Trifmegijlus : particularly, that con¬ cerning the Divine Goodnefs : which, I fup- pole, he rather alTerts from his own Conjeflure,
. in regard Plato had been long in JEgypt, than from any good Authority. He was induced thereunto by thofe Books, which are now com¬ monly, but falfely, vented under the name of Hermes Trifmegijlus : whereas, the Learned Ca
Jaubon, in his b Exercitations upon Baronhs, b Exerdt. i. hath fufficiently taught us tlie Forgery of thofe Books, which leem by forne Impoftor, to have been compiled out of the Works of Plato, and the Divine Scripture. , ,
That received fomeligiit from Msfes, is affirmed with much greater Authorities ot’ feveral Nations and Religions: GVfews by c Arijlobulus, Plato (faith he) he fcUoided our c Eipcb.pr.tp. Law in many things, his various allegations evince him a curious objerver thereof : jor ihe Volums oj Moles wereTranjldtcd be j ore Alexander’s time.
And d fofephus-, Plato chief y followed our Law¬ giver. Of PhiloJ'ophers-, by e Numenius, What is ACmu. Apphn, Plato (laith he) but Moles fpcaking Greek ? Of .
Lathers, by f fuf in Martyr g Clement annus, h Lulebms , Iheodoret, i Saint Aiugu- ^Parm.
June, Stc. h n
k When Plato went to Sicily, he bought the ‘
Books of Philolaus, a Pythagorean, which were ^c'w. De;.* ** three, of Natural Philofophy, the firft that ever a, n. were publilhed out of that School: Some lay, he * had them of Dionyfus'’s friends, for four Alexan- drian Mina : Others, that Tionyfus had them of a young Man, one oL Philolaus''^ Difciples, and gave them to Plato. Others, that he fen't to Di¬ on at Siracufe to buy them for him; wffiich he did h 3. 1 7; for 100 Alma'. I A. GeUiusLTAA, ten thouland Denaries: For having received of Dionyfius above eighty Talents,he was very full of Money,
Out of thefe, he is faid (as A. Gcllius and Laer¬ tius affirm) to have taken a great part of his T/- maus, for which derided by Timeon fin S 'lllk) thus .•
Tou (Plato) with the fame ajfeblions caught. With a great Siiinm a little Treatfe bought. Where all the knowledge "dihich you own^ was taught.
m Alcimus in his four Books to affirms,
that Plato borrow’d much from the Writings ot Epicharmus, the Comick Poet; in the firft Book he hath thele words : In Senjibiles (faith Plato) neither magnitude nor quality is permanent, but in continual fluxion and mutation : as if we Jhoud fubjlraU number from them, which are neither equal, nor certain, nor quantitive, nor qualitative thefe are they where Generation k always, their EJfence never. To Jnfenjible's nothing can be ad¬ ded, nothing taken away. This is the nature of E~ ternal Beings, the like and fame ever. ThusP/ to cited by Alcimus. Indeed, he teacheth this in many places, particularly in Timito, where he at large explaineth what is that which never is, and never had beginning, and that which hath beginning but no being. He concludes the firft comprehenlible, by the intelleO: with Realbn,^ the other by Senfe and Opinion. But the citation of Alcimus feems to refer to Plato's Theatetus, the fubjedf of which Dialogue is Science: there he examines fome Definiticffis of Science by the Antients, amongft the reft, the alTertion of Protagoras, that Science is Senfe : againft which he difputes laregly, the fum this: That the Soul apprehends fome things by mediation of the Body, others without : of' the firft kind are things light, dry, f meet, &c. of the 0-
ther, EJfence, and not Being, Similitude and Dif fimilitudef dent tty and Diverjity, Unite and Nui^'
btr
m
i6o
PLATO.