Timaeus | Page 6

mastery over his instrument which he exhibits in the Phaedrus or
Symposium. Nothing can exceed the beauty or art of the introduction, in which he is
using words after his accustomed manner. But in the rest of the work the power of
language seems to fail him, and the dramatic form is wholly given up. He could write in
one style, but not in another, and the Greek language had not as yet been fashioned by
any poet or philosopher to describe physical phenomena. The early physiologists had
generally written in verse; the prose writers, like Democritus and Anaxagoras, as far as
we can judge from their fragments, never attained to a periodic style. And hence we find
the same sort of clumsiness in the Timaeus of Plato which characterizes the philosophical
poem of Lucretius. There is a want of flow and often a defect of rhythm; the meaning is
sometimes obscure, and there is a greater use of apposition and more of repetition than
occurs in Plato's earlier writings. The sentences are less closely connected and also more
involved; the antecedents of demonstrative and relative pronouns are in some cases
remote and perplexing. The greater frequency of participles and of absolute constructions
gives the effect of heaviness. The descriptive portion of the Timaeus retains traces of the
first Greek prose composition; for the great master of language was speaking on a theme
with which he was imperfectly acquainted, and had no words in which to express his
meaning. The rugged grandeur of the opening discourse of Timaeus may be compared
with the more harmonious beauty of a similar passage in the Phaedrus.
To the same cause we may attribute the want of plan. Plato had not the command of his
materials which would have enabled him to produce a perfect work of art. Hence there
are several new beginnings and resumptions and formal or artificial connections; we miss
the 'callida junctura' of the earlier dialogues. His speculations about the Eternal, his
theories of creation, his mathematical anticipations, are supplemented by desultory
remarks on the one immortal and the two mortal souls of man, on the functions of the
bodily organs in health and disease, on sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. He soars
into the heavens, and then, as if his wings were suddenly clipped, he walks ungracefully
and with difficulty upon the earth. The greatest things in the world, and the least things in
man, are brought within the compass of a short treatise. But the intermediate links are
missing, and we cannot be surprised that there should be a want of unity in a work which
embraces astronomy, theology, physiology, and natural philosophy in a few pages.
It is not easy to determine how Plato's cosmos may be presented to the reader in a clearer
and shorter form; or how we may supply a thread of connexion to his ideas without
giving greater consistency to them than they possessed in his mind, or adding on
consequences which would never have occurred to him. For he has glimpses of the truth,
but no comprehensive or perfect vision. There are isolated expressions about the nature of
God which have a wonderful depth and power; but we are not justified in assuming that
these had any greater significance to the mind of Plato than language of a neutral and

impersonal character . . . With a view to the illustration of the Timaeus I propose to
divide this Introduction into sections, of which the first will contain an outline of the
dialogue: (2) I shall consider the aspects of nature which presented themselves to Plato
and his age, and the elements of philosophy which entered into the conception of them: (3)
the theology and physics of the Timaeus, including the soul of the world, the conception
of time and space, and the composition of the elements: (4) in the fourth section I shall
consider the Platonic astronomy, and the position of the earth. There will remain, (5) the
psychology, (6) the physiology of Plato, and (7) his analysis of the senses to be briefly
commented upon: (8) lastly, we may examine in what points Plato approaches or
anticipates the discoveries of modern science.
Section 1.
Socrates begins the Timaeus with a summary of the Republic. He lightly touches upon a
few points,--the division of labour and distribution of the citizens into classes, the double
nature and training of the guardians, the community of property and of women and
children. But he makes no mention of the second education, or of the government of
philosophers.
And now he desires to see the ideal State set in motion; he would like to know how she
behaved in some great struggle. But he is unable to invent such a narrative himself; and
he is