Proclus' Theology of Plato (Thomas Taylor Series Vol.8)

Volume VIII of the Thomas Taylor Series

This volume retains all of Taylor's introduction, notes, and his reconstruction of the lost seventh book. It is an essentially religious work: a near perfect attempt to express in a manner accessible to the reasoning mind, the universal order in, of, and around, all things. As such, Proclus' masterpiece is pan-cosmic in its scope, illuminating for us the Principles which produce, vivify, and perfect the whole of Being, Life, Intellect, Soul, Nature, and Body, while suspending all these from super-essential Unity, which all things abide in, proceed from, and return to. It has been called one of the Great Scriptures of the world.

Although the sublime genius of Proclus can be seen at its best in this magnum opus, Taylor's translation is, unbelievably, still the only one available in English. This is the first full republication of his original two-volume work, published here in a single volume. The Saffrey-Westerink pagination has been added.

Like other neoplatonists before him, the crux of his work was focused on commentaries of Plato. He is reputed to have travelled widely to be initiated into the various mystery cults of his day. His work is considered to be the mature culmination of Neo-Platonism.

Thomas Taylor (1758-1835), was an 18th century translator whose writings influenced the likes of William Blake, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Wordsworth, G. R. S. Mead, & Mme. Helena Blavatsky. Manly P. Hall deeply admired Taylor for the Herculean and often thankless task of translating previously untranslated Greek philosophy.