Thomas
Taylor's Platonic Philosopher's Creed: points 1 to 8 deal with first principles. Points 9-10 deal with the world of Ideas. Points 11-12 deal with the universe. Points 13 to 17 deal with the world of the Gods. Points 18 to 25 cover the human world and the journey of the soul. From Miscellanies, in Prose and Verse (1805).
14. I believe that a divine nature is not indigent of any thing. But the
honours which are paid to the Gods are performed for the sake of the
advantage of those who pay them. Hence, since the providence of the Gods
is extended every where, a certain habitude or fitness is all that is
requisite for the reception of their beneficent communications. But all habitude
is produced through imitation and similitude. On this account temples imitate
the heavens, but altars the earth. Statues resemble life, and on this account
they are similar to animals. Herbs and stones resemble matter; and animals
which are sacrificed, the irrational life of our souls. From all
these, however, nothing happens to the Gods beyond what they already possess;
for what accession can be made to a divine nature? But a conjunction of
our souls with the gods is by these means effected.
15. I believe that as the world considered as one great comprehending
whole is a divine animal, so likewise every whole which it contains is a world,
possessing in the first place a self-perfect unity proceeding from the
ineffable, by which it becomes a God; in the second place, a divine intellect;
in the third place, a divine soul; and in the last place a deified body. That
each of these wholes is the producing cause of all the multitude which it
contains, and on this account is said to be a whole prior to parts;
because considered as possessing an eternal form which holds all its parts
together, and gives to the whole perpetuity of subsistence, it is not indigent
of such parts to the perfection of its being. And it follows by a geometrical
necessity, that these wholes which rank thus high in the universe must be
animated.
16. Hence I believe that after the immense principle of principles
in which all things causally subsist absorbed in superessential light,
and involved in unfathomable depths, a beautiful series of principles
proceeds, all largely partaking of the ineffable, all stamped with the occult
characters of deity, all possessing an overflowing fullness of good. From these
dazzling summits, these ineffable blossoms, these divine propagations -being,
life, intellect, soul, nature and body depend; monads suspended from unities ,
deified natures proceeding from deities. That each of these monads is the
leader of a series which extends to the last of things, and which, while it
proceeds from, at the same time abides in, and returns to its leader Thus all
beings proceed from, and are comprehended in the first being; all intellects
emanate from one first intellect; all souls from one first soul; all natures
blossom from one first nature; and all bodies proceed from the vital and luminous
body of the world. That all these great monads are comprehended in the first
one, from which both they and all their de pending series are unfolded
into light. And hence this first one is truly the unity of unities, the
monad of monads, the principle of principles, the God of gods, one and
all things, and yet one prior to all.
17. I also believe, that of the Gods some are mundane, but others
super-mundane; and that the mundane are those who fabricate the world. But
of the super-mundane, some produce essences, others intellect, and others
soul; and on this account, they are distinguished into three orders. Of
the mundane Gods also, some are the causes of the existence of the world;
others animate it; others again harmonise it, thus composed of different
natures; and lastly, others guard and preserve it when harmonically
arranged. Since these orders are four, and each consists of things first,
middle, and last, it is necessary that the governors of these should be twelve.
Hence Zeus, Poseidon, and Hephaestus, fabricate the world; Demeter , Hera,
and Artemis, animate it; Hermes, Aphrodite, and Apollo, harmonise it; and
lastly, Hestia, Athena, and Ares, preside over it with a guardian power.
But the truth of this, may be seen in statues, as in enigmas. For Apollo
harmonises the lyre; Pallas Athena is invested with arms; and Aphrodite is
naked; since harmony produces beauty, and beauty is not concealed in subjects of
sensible inspection. I likewise believe that as these Gods primarily possess
the world, it is necessary to consider the other mundane Gods as
subsisting in them; as Dionysius in Zeus, Aesculapius in Apollo, and the Graces
in Aphrodite. We may also behold the spheres with which they are connected,
viz. Hestia with the earth, Poseidon with water, Hera with air, and Hephaestus
with fire. But Apollo and Artemis are assumed for the sun and moon; the
sphere of Kronos is attributed to Demeter; Æther to Pallas; and heaven is
common to them all.
18. I also believe that man is a microcosm, comprehending in
himself partially every thing which the world contains divinely
and totally. That hence he is endued with an intellect subsisting in
energy, and a rational soul proceeding from the same causes as those from which
the intellect and soul of the universe proceed. And that he has likewise
an ethereal vehicle analogous to the heavens, and a terrestrial body composed
from the four elements, and with which also it is co-ordinate.
19. I believe that the rational part of man, in which his essence
consists, is of a self-motive nature, and that it subsists between intellect,
which is immovable both in essence and energy, and nature, which both moves and
is moved.
20. I believe that the human as well as every mundane soul, uses
periods and restitutions of its proper life. For in consequence of being
measured by time, it energizes transitively, and possesses a proper motion. But
every thing which is moved perpetually, and participates of time, revolves
periodically, and proceeds from the same to the same.
21. I also believe that as the human soul ranks among the number
of those souls that sometimes follow the mundane divinities, in
consequence of subsisting immediately after angels, dæmons and heroes the
perpetual attendants of the Gods, it possesses a power of descending
infinitely into the sublunary region, and of ascending from thence to real
5 being. That in consequence of this, the soul, while an inhabitant
of earth, is in a fallen condition, an apostate from deity, an exile from the
orb of light. That she can only be restored, while on earth, to the
divine likeness, and be able after death to re - ascend to the intelligible
world, by the exercise of the cathartic , and theoretic virtues;
the former purifying her from the defilements of a mortal nature, and the
latter elevating her to the vision of true being. And that such a
soul returns after death to her kindred star from which she fell, and
enjoys a blessed life.
22. I believe that the human soul essentially contains all
knowledge, and that whatever knowledge she acquires in the present life, is
nothing more than a recovery of what she once possessed; and which
discipline evocates from its dormant retreats.
23. I also believe that the soul is punished in a future for the
crimes she has committed in the present life; but that this punishment is
proportioned to the crimes, and is not perpetual; divinity punishing, not from
anger or revenge, but in order to purify the guilty soul, and restore her to
the proper perfection of her nature.
24. I also believe that the human soul on its departure from the present
life, will, if not properly purified, pass into other terrene bodies; and
that if it passes into a human body, it becomes the soul of that
body; but if into the body of a brute, it does not become the soul of the
brute, but is externally connected with the brutal soul in the same manner as
presiding dæmons are connected, in their beneficent operations, with mankind;
for the rational part never becomes the soul of the irrational
nature.
25. Lastly, I believe that souls that live according to virtue, shall in
other respects be happy; and when separated from the irrational nature,
and purified from all body, shall be conjoined with the Gods, and
govern the whole world, together with the deities by whom it was
produced.
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