appears to me to call the mundane Gods junior, as presiding over things which are perpetually in generation, or becoming to be, and which may be considered as ludicrous;-this being the case, the authors of fables are accustomed to call this peculiarity of the providence of the Gods energising about the world, laughter. And when the poet says, that the Gods being delighted with the motion of Vulcan, laughed with inextinguishable laughter, nothing else is indicated than that they are co-operating artificers; that they jointly give perfection to the art of Vulcan, and supernally impart joy to the universe. In short, we must define the laughter of the Gods to be their exuberant energy in the universe, and the cause of the gladness of all mundane natures. But as such a providence is incomprehensible, and the communication of all good from the Gods is never-failing, we must allow that the poet very properly calls their laughter unextinguished. And here you may again see how what we have said is conformable to the nature of things. For fables do not assert that the Gods always weep, but say that they laugh without ceasing. For tears are symbols of their providence in mortal and frail concerns, and which now rise into existence and then perish; but laughter is a sign of their energy in wholes, and those perfect natures in the universe which are perpetually moved with undeviating sameness. On which account I think, when we divide demiurgic productions into Gods and men, we attribute laughter to the generation of the Gods, but tears to the formation of men and animals; whence the poet whom we have before mentioned, in his hymn to the Sun, says,

"Mankind's laborious race thy tears excite,

But the Gods, laughing, blossom'd into light."

But when we make a division into things celestial and sublunary, again, after the same manner, we must assign laughter to the foriner and tears to the latter; and when we reason concerning the generations and corruptions of sublunary natures themselves, we must refer the former to the laughter, and the latter to the tears of the Gods. Hence in the mysteries also, those who preside over sacred institutions order both these to be celebrated at stated times. Proclus just adds, that the stupid are neither able to understand things employed by theurgists in secrecy, nor fictions of this kind. For the hearing of both these, when un

* In the original, Δάκρυα μεν σεθεν εστι πολυτλήμον γένος ανδρών,

Μηδεισαν δε θεών ιερων γενος εβλαστησεν.

accompanied with science, produces dire and absurd confusion in the lives of the multitude, with respect to the reverence pertaining to divinity.

Let us in the next place consider what is obscurely signified by the connexion of Jupiter with Juno. In order to a developement therefore of the fable, it must be observed, that sleep and wakefulness are with great propriety usurped separately in the symbols of fables; wakefulness manifesting the providence of the Gods about the world, but sleep, a life separate from all subordinate natures; though the Gods at one and the same time providentially energize about the universe, and are established in themselves. The father of all mundane natures therefore, may be said to be awake, according to his energy about the world; for wakefulness with us is an energy of sense; but according to a firm establishment in himself, to be asleep, as being separated from sensibles, and exhibiting a life defined according to a perfect intellect. It may also be said, that he consults about human affairs when awake; for according to this life he provides for all mundane concerns; but that when asleep, and led together with Juno to a separate union, he is not forgetful of the other energy, but possessing and energising conformably to it, at the same time contains both. For he does not like nature, produce secondary beings without intelligence, nor through intelligence is his providence in subordinate natures diminished, but at the same time he both governs the objects of his providence according to justice, and ascends to his intelligible place of survey. The fable therefore indicates this exempt transcendency, when it says that the connexion of Jupiter with Juno was on mount Ida; for there Juno arriving gave herself to the embraces of the mighty Jupiter. What else then shall we say mount Ida obscurely signifies, but the region of ideas, and an intelligible nature, to which Jupiter ascends and elevates Juno through love;-not converting himself to the participant, but through excess of goodness imparting this second union with himself, and with that which is intelligible? For such are the loves of superior beings,-they are conversive of things subordi nate to things primary, give completion to the good which they contain, and are perfective of subject natures. The fable, therefore, does not diminish the dignity of the mighty Jupiter, by representing him as having connexion on the ground with Juno, and refusing to enter into her bed-chamber; for by this it insinuates that the connexion was supermundane, and not mundane. The chamber, therefore, constructed by Vulcan, indicates the orderly composition of the universe, and the sensible region: for

Vulcan, as we have said before, is the artificer of every thing visible.

After this, let us concisely show what the poetry of Homer obscurely signifies by the connexion between Mars and Venus, and the bonds of Vulcan. Both these divinities then, I mean Vulcan and Mars, energise about the whole world, the latter separating the contrarieties of the universe, which he also perpetually excites, and immutably preserves, that the world may be perfect, and filled with forms of every kind; but the former artificially fabricating the whole sensible order, and filling it with physical forms and powers. He also fashions twenty tripods about the heavens, that he may adorn them with the most perfect of many-sided 'figures, and fabricates various and multiform sublunary species,

Clasps, winding bracelets, necklaces, and chains.4

Both these divinities require the assistance of Venus in their euergies; the one, that he may insert order and harmony in contraries; and the other, that he may introduce beauty and splendor as much as possible, into sensible fabrications, and render this world the most beautiful of visible natures. But, as Venus is every where, Vulcan always enjoys her according to the superior, but Mars according to the inferior, orders of things. Thus, for instance, if Vulcan is supermundane, Mars is mundane; and if the former is celestial, the latter is sublunary. Hence, the one is said to have married Venus according to the will of Jupiter, but the other is fabled to have committed adultery with her. For a communion with the cause of beauty and conciliation, is natural to the Demiurgus of sensibles; but is in a certain respect foreign to the power which presides over division, and imparts the contrariety of mundane natures; for the separating are opposed to the collective genera of Gods. Fables therefore denominate this conspiring union of dissimilar causes, adultery. But a communion of this kind is necessary to the universe, in order that contraries may be co-harmonised, and the mundane war terminate in peace. Since, however, on high among celestial natures, beauty shines forth, together with forms, elegance,

'Odyss viii. v. 266, &c.

2 Vid. Iliad, xviii. v. 370, &c.

3 Viz. The dodecahedron, which is bounded by twelve equal and equilateral pentagons, and consists of twenty solid angles, of which the tripods of Vulcan are images: for every angle of the dodecahedron is formed from the junction of three lines.

4 Iliad, xviii. v. 402. VOL. XXIV.

CI. JI.

NO. XLVII.

E

and the fabrication of Vulcan, but beneath, in the realms of generation, the opposition and war of the elements, contrariety of powers, and in short the gifts of Mars are conspicuous,―on this account, the Sun from on high beholds the connexion of Mars and Venus, and discloses it to Vulcan, in consequence of co-operating with all the productions of this divinity. But Vulcan is said to throw over them all-various bonds, invisible to the other Gods, as adorning the mundane genera with artificial forms, and producing one system from the contrarieties of Mars, and the co-harmonising benefits of Venus. This however being effected, Apollo, Hermes, and each of the Gods laugh. But their laughter gives subsistence to mundane natures, and inserts efficacious power in the bonds. Since, too, of bonds some are celestial, but others sublunary; on this account Vulcan again dissolves the bonds with which he had bound Mars and Venus, and this he particularly accomplishes in compliance with the request of Neptune; who being willing that the perpetuity of generation should be preserved, and the circle of mutation revolve into itself, thinks it proper that generated natures should be corrupted, and things corrupted be sent back again to gene ration.

And thus much for an explanation of some of the principal fables of Homer by Proclus. Those who are desirous of a more copious developement of the Homeric and other ancient fables, I refer to the Introduction to the second and third books of the Republic in Vol. i. of my translation of Plato, and to my notes on the Cratylus of Flato, and on Pausanias. I shall only add farther at present, for the sake of the few who are capable of such sublime speculations, that the precipitation of Vulcan indicates the progression of a divine nature from on high, as far as to the last fabrication in sensibles, and this so as to be moved, and perfected, and directed by the Demiurgus and father of all things: That the Saturnian bonds manifest the union of the whole fabrication of the universe, with the intellectual and paternal supremacy of Saturn: And that the castrations of Heaven obscurely signify, the separation of the Titanic series from the connective order. For whatever among us appears

Hence, according to the fable, Saturn was bound by Jupiter, who is the Demiurgus or artificer of the universe.

2 The Titans are the ultimate artificers of things.

3 Heaven, according to his first subsistence, belongs to the order of Gods, who are denominated intelligible, and at the same time intellectual, and is the source of connexion to all things.

to be of a worse condition, and to belong to the inferior coordination of things, fables assume according to a better nature and power. Thus, for instance, a bond with us impedes and restrains energy, but there it is a contact and ineffable union with causes. A precipitation here is a violent motion from that which is the cause of it; but with the Gods it indicates prolific progression, and an unrestrained and free presence with all things, without departing from its proper principle, but proceeding from it through every thing with immutable order. And castrations in things partial and material, cause a diminution of power; but in primary causes, they obscurely signify the progression of secondary natures into a subject order, from their proper principles; primary natures at the same time remaining established in themselves undiminished, neither being moved through the progression of these, nor mutilated by their separation, nor divided by their distribution in things subordinate.

What must the reader, who is an adept in the theology and mythology of which the above is an adumbration, think of that system which asserts, that the Gods of the ancients are the patriarchs and prophets of the Jews? Certainly, that it is nothing more than Ιουδαϊκη τολμα, και δεινη ασέβεια, και μανικον οναρ. THOMAS TAYLOR.

Walworth.

No. III. [Continued from No. XLVI. p. 196.]

REV. iv. 8. They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. That the holiness of God was thrice proclaimed, is very emphatical. Instances of repeating a call three times occur both in the sacred and profane writings. See Jer. xxii. 29, Ezek. xxi. 27, 2 Cor. xii. 8, Psalm lv. 17, Matt. xxvi. 44, Dan. vi. 10. The heathens, to show their sorrow for the death of their friends, called upon them thrice. (Homer, Odyss. ix. 65. Aristophan. in Ran. Virgil, En. vi.) The Delphian Oracle saluted a man thrice king.