Six Books of Proclus, the Platonic Successor, on the Theology of Plato, Translated From the Greek

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The scientific reasoning from which this dogma is deduced is the following As the principle of all things is the one, it is necessary that the progression of beings should be continued, and that no vacuum should intervene either in incorporeal or corporeal natures. It is also necessary that every thing which has a natural progression should proceed through similitude. In consequence of this, it is liltewise necessary that every producing principle should generate a number of the same order with itself, viz. Nature, a natural number; soul, one that is psychical (i. E. Belonging to and intellect, an intellectual number. For if whatever possesses a power of generating, generates simi lars prior to dissimilars, every cause must deliver its own form and characteristic peculiarity to its progeny and before it generates that which gives subsistence to progressions far distant and separate from its nature, it must constitute things proximate to itself according to essence, and con joined with it through similitude. It is therefore necessary from these premises, since there is one unity the principle of the universe, that this unity should produce from itself, prior to every thing else, a multitude of natures characterized by unity, and a number the most of all things allied to its cause; and these natures are no other than the Gods.