The only proper model which could be presented
to the Supreme Intelligence is "the eternal and unchangeable model"[646]
which his own perfection supplies, "for he is the most excellent of
causes."[647] Thus God is not simply the maker of the universe, but the
model of the universe, because he designed that it should be an IMAGE,
in the sphere of sense, of his own perfections--a revelation of his
eternal beauty, and wisdom, and goodness, and truth. "God was _good_,
and being good, he desired that the universe should, as far as possible,
_resemble_ himself.... Desiring that all things should be _good_, and,
as far as might be, nothing evil, he took the fluctuating mass of things
visible, which had been in orderless confusion, and reduced it to
_order_, considering this to be the _better_ state. Now it was and is
utterly impossible for the supremely good to form any thing except that
which is _most excellent_ (kalliston--most fair, most beautiful").[648]
The object at which the supreme mind aimed being that which is "_best_,"
we must, in tracing his operations in the universe, always look for
"_the best_" in every thing.[649] Starting out thus, upon the assumption
that the goodness of God is the final cause of the universe, Plato
evolved a system of _optimism_.

The physical system of Plato being thus intended to illustrate a
principle of optimism, the following results may be expected:

1. That it will mainly concern itself with _final causes_. The universe
being regarded chiefly, as indeed it is, an indication of the Divine
Intelligence--every phenomenon will be contemplated in that light.
Nature is the volume in which the Deity reveals his own perfections; it
is therefore to be studied solely with this motive, that we may learn
from thence the perfection of God. The _Timaeus_ is a series of ingenious
hypotheses designed to deepen and vivify our sense of the harmony, and
symmetry, and beauty of the universe, and, as a consequence, of the
wisdom, and excellence, and goodness, of its Author.[650]

[Footnote 646: "Timaeus," ch. ix.]

[Footnote 647: Ibid.]

[Footnote 648: Ibid., ch. x.]

[Footnote 649: Ibid., ch. xix.]

[Footnote 650: "Being is related to Becoming (the Absolute to the
Contingent) as Truth is to Belief; consequently we must not marvel
should we find it impossible to arrive at any certain and conclusive
results in our speculations upon the creation of the visible universe
and its authors; it should be