First then, in my judgment, we must make a distinction and
ask, What is that which always is and has no becoming; and what
is that which is always becoming and never is? That which is
apprehended by intelligence and reason is always in the same
state; but that which is conceived by opinion with the help of
sensation and without reason, is always in a process of becoming
and perishing and never really is. Now everything that becomes or
is created must of necessity be created by some cause, for
without a cause nothing can be created. The work of the creator,
whenever he looks to the unchangeable and fashions the form and
nature of his work after an unchangeable pattern, must
necessarily be made fair and perfect; but when he looks to the
created only, and uses a created pattern, it is not fair or
perfect. Was the heaven then or the world, whether called by this
or by any other more appropriate name-assuming the name, I am
asking a question which has to be asked at the beginning of an
enquiry about anything-was the world, I say, always in existence
and without beginning? or created, and had it a beginning?
Created, I reply, being visible and tangible and having a body,
and therefore sensible; and all sensible things are apprehended
by opinion and sense and are in a process of creation and created.
Now that which is created must, as we affirm, of necessity be
created by a cause. But the father and maker of all this universe
is past finding out; and even if we found him, to tell of him to
all men would be impossible. And there is still a question to be
asked about him: Which of the patterns had the artificer in view
when he made the world-the pattern of the unchangeable, or of
that which is created? If the world be indeed fair and the
artificer good, it is manifest that he must have looked to that
which is eternal; but if what cannot be said without blasphemy is
true, then to the created pattern. Every one will see that he
must have looked to, the eternal; for the world is the fairest of
creations and he is the best of causes. And having been created
in this way, the world has been framed in the likeness of that
which is apprehended by reason and mind and is unchangeable, and
must therefore of necessity, if this is admitted, be a copy of
something. Now it is all-important that the beginning of
everything should be according to nature. And in speaking of the
copy and the original we may assume that words are akin to the
matter which they describe; when they relate to the lasting and
permanent and intelligible, they ought to be lasting and
unalterable, and, as far as their nature allows, irrefutable and
immovable-nothing less. But when they express only the copy or
likeness and not the eternal things themselves, they need only be
likely and analogous to the real words. As being is to becoming,
so is truth to belief. If then, Socrates, amid the many opinions
about the gods and the generation of the universe, we are not
able to give notions which are altogether and in every respect
exact and consistent with one another, do not be surprised.
Enough, if we adduce probabilities as likely as any others; for
we must remember that I who am the speaker, and you who are the
judges, are only mortal men, and we ought to accept the tale
which is probable and enquire no further.
[Soc.] Excellent, Timaeus; and we will do precisely as you bid
us. The prelude is charming, and is already accepted by us-may we
beg of you to proceed to the strain?
[Tim.] Let me tell you then why the creator made this world of
generation. He was good, and the good can never have any jealousy
of anything. And being free from jealousy, he desired that all
things should be as like himself as they could be. This is in the
truest sense the origin of creation and of the world, as we shall
do well in believing on the testimony of wise men: God desired
that all things should be good and nothing bad, so far as this
was attainable. Wherefore also finding the whole visible sphere
not at rest, but moving in an irregular and disorderly fashion,
out of disorder he brought order, considering that this was in
every way better than the other. Now the deeds of the best could
never be or have been other than the fairest; and the creator,
reflecting on the things which are by nature visible, found that
no unintelligent creature taken as a whole was fairer than the
intelligent taken as a whole; and that intelligence could not be
present in anything which was devoid of soul. For which reason,
when he was framing the universe, he put intelligence in soul,
and soul in body, that he might be the creator of a work which
was by nature fairest and best. Wherefore, using the language of
probability, we may say that the world became a living creature
truly endowed with soul and intelligence by the providence of God.
