but was determined to prove the universe agreeable to his ethical standards. This is treachery to
truth, and the worst of philosophic sins. As a man, we may believe him admitted to the
communion of saints; but as a philosopher he needs a long residence in a scientific purgatory.
CHAPTER XVII Plato's CosmogonyP LATO'S cosmogony is set forth in the Timaeus, which was translated into Latin by Cicero, and
was, in consequence, the only one of the dialogues that was known in the West in the Middle
Ages. Both then, and earlier in Neoplatonism, it had more influence than anything else in Plato,
which is curious, as it certainly contains more that is simply silly than is to be found in his other
writings. As philosophy, it is unimportant, but historically it was so influential that it must be
considered in some detail.
The place occupied by Socrates in the earlier dialogues is taken, in the Timaeus, by a Pythagorean,
and the doctrines of that school are in the main adopted, including the view that number is the
explanation of the world. There is first a summary of the first five books of the Republic, then the
myth of Atlantis, which is said to have been an island off the Pillars of Hercules, larger than Libya
and Asia put together. Then Timaeus, who is a Pythagorean astronomer, preceeds to tell the
history of the world down to the creation of man. What he says is, in outline, as follows.
What is unchanging is apprehended by intelligence and reason; what is changing is apprehended
by opinion. The world, being sensible, cannot be eternal, and must have been created by God.
Since God is good, he made the world after the pattern of the eternal; being without jealousy, he
wanted everything as like himself as possible. "God desired that all things should be good, and
nothing bad, as far as possible." "Finding the whole visible sphere not at rest, but moving in an
irregular and disorderly fashion, out of disorder he brought