to citizenship. 'I see,' replied Socrates,
'that I shall be well entertained; and do you, Timaeus, offer up a
prayer and begin.'

TIMAEUS: All men who have any right feeling, at the beginning of any
enterprise, call upon the Gods; and he who is about to speak of the
origin of the universe has a special need of their aid. May my words
be acceptable to them, and may I speak in the manner which will be most
intelligible to you and will best express my own meaning!

First, I must distinguish between that which always is and never becomes
and which is apprehended by reason and reflection, and that which always
becomes and never is and is conceived by opinion with the help of sense.
All that becomes and is created is the work of a cause, and that is
fair which the artificer makes after an eternal pattern, but whatever is
fashioned after a created pattern is not fair. Is the world created or
uncreated?--that is the first question. Created, I reply, being visible
and tangible and having a body, and therefore sensible; and if sensible,
then created; and if created, made by a cause, and the cause is the
ineffable father of all things, who had before him an eternal archetype.
For to imagine that the archetype was created would be blasphemy, seeing
that the world is the noblest of creations, and God is the best of
causes. And the world being thus created according to the eternal
pattern is the copy of something; and we may assume that words are akin
to the matter of which they speak. What is spoken of the unchanging or
intelligible must be certain and true; but what is spoken of the created
image can only be probable; being is to becoming what truth is to
belief. And amid the variety of opinions which have arisen about God and
the nature of the world we must be content to take probability for
our rule, considering that I, who am the speaker, and you, who are the
judges, are only men; to probability we may attain but no further.

SOCRATES: Excellent, Timaeus, I like your manner of approaching the
subject--proceed.

TIMAEUS: Why did the Creator make the world?...He was good, and
therefore not jealous, and being free from jealousy he desired that all
things should be like himself. Wherefore he set in order the visible
world, which he found in disorder. Now he who is the best could
only create the fairest; and reflecting that of visible things the
intelligent is superior to the unintelligent, he put intelligence
in soul and soul in