INTRODUCTION.

For, as Proclus elsewhere observes, “where there is generation, there also time has a subsistence.” And in this way, the celebrated Theogony of Orpheus and other Greek theologians is to be understood.

As the first cause then is the one, and this is the same with the good, the universality of things must form a whole, the best and the most profoundly united in all its parts that can possibly be conceived; for the first good must be the cause of the greatest good, that is, the whole of things; and as goodness is union, the best production must be that which is most united. But as there is a difference in things—some being more excellent than others in proportion to their proximity to the first cause—a profound union can no otherwise take place than by the extremity of a superior order coalescing through intimate alliance with the summit of one proximately inferior. Hence the first of bodies, though they are essentially corporeal, yet κατα σχεσιν original: "κατα σχεσιν" — Translation: "by relation" or "by habitude." (through relation or alliance), are most vital, or lives. The highest of souls are in this manner intellects, and the first of beings are Gods. For as being is the highest—