one really true beginning [first principle] of all that exists—one. For that Being in the beginning is one and alone."
"Nor is there any other except the Great King,"
says Orpheus. In accordance with whom, the comic poet Diphilus says very sententiously,[1] the
"Father of all,
To Him alone incessant reverence pay,
The inventor and the author of such blessings."
Rightly therefore Plato "accustoms the best natures to attain to that study which formerly we said was the highest, both to see the good and to accomplish that ascent. And this, as appears, is not the throwing of the potsherds;[2] but the turning round of the soul from a nocturnal day to that which is a true return to that which really is, wdiich we shall assert to be the true philosophy." Such as are partakers of this he judges[3] to belong to the golden race, when he says: "Ye are all brethren; and those who are of the golden race are most capable of judging most accurately in every respect."[4]
The Father, then, and Maker of all things is apprehended by all things, agreeably to all, by innate power and without teaching,—things inanimate, sympathizing with the animate creation; and of living beings some are already immortal, working in the light of day. But of those that are still mortal, some are in fear, and carried still in their mother's womb; and others regulate themselves by their own independent reason. And of men all are Greeks and Barbarians. But no race anywhere of tillers of the soil, or nomads, and not even of dwellers in cities, can live, without being imbued with the faith of a superior being. Wherefore every eastern nation, and every nation touching the western shores; or the north,
- ↑ γνωμικώτατα. Eusebius reads γενικώτατον, agreeing with πατέρα.
- ↑ A game in which a potsherd with a black and white side was cast on a line; and as the black or white turned up, one of the players fled and the other pursued.
- ↑ Eusebius has κρίνει, which we have adopted, for κρίνειν of the text.
- ↑ Plato, Rep. book vii.
