Stephanus 28

28a coming to be and never is. The one is grasped by thought, with the aid of reason, being always in the same state; the other is a thing of opinion, with the aid of unreasoning sense, coming to be and perishing, but never truly being. And everything that comes to be must come to be by the agency of some cause; for nothing can find a coming-to-be apart from a cause. Now whenever the craftsman looks, always, toward that which holds to the same state, and uses some such thing as his model, working out the form and the power of his work from it, everything must of necessity 28b turn out beautiful in this way; but whenever he looks toward what has come to be, using a begotten model, it is not beautiful. And the whole heaven—or cosmos, or whatever other name would be most welcome, let that be its name for us—about this we must first inquire, as one must at the outset inquire of anything: was it always, having no beginning of coming-to-be, or did it come to be, setting out from some beginning? It came to be: for it is visible and tangible and has body; and all such things are sensible, 28c and things sensible are grasped by opinion together with sensation, and they showed themselves to be things that come to be and are begotten. And what has come to be, we say, must of necessity have come to be by the agency of some cause.

Timaeus: To discover the maker and father of this whole is a work; and having discovered him, to declare him to all men is impossible. And so we must go back and inquire about him this: after which of the models did he who fashioned it

28a always, but never is? The first is grasped by thought together with reason, and it is always in the same state. The other is grasped by opinion together with sense that is without reason. It comes to be and passes away, but it never truly is. And again, everything that comes to be must come to be by some cause. For nothing can get a birth without a cause. Whenever the craftsman looks toward what is always in the same state, and uses a model of that kind as he works out the form and the power of his work, everything made this way must of necessity 28b turn out beautiful. But whenever he works toward what has come to be, using a model that was born, the work is not beautiful. Now the whole heaven—or cosmos, or whatever other name anyone would most accept for it—let that be our name for it. About it we must first ask the question that must be asked at the start about everything: Was it always, having no beginning of coming to be? Or did it come to be, starting from some beginning? It came to be. For it is visible and touchable, and it has a body. All such things are objects of sense. And 28c things of sense, grasped by opinion together with sense, have been shown to be things that come to be and were born. And we say again that what has come to be must have come to be by some cause.

Timaeus: To find the maker and father of this whole is a task. And having found him, it is impossible to tell of him to all men. And we must ask about it again, toward which of the two models the builder made

28a and has no Becoming? And what is that which is Becoming always and never is Existent? Now the one of these is apprehensible by thought with the aid of reasoning, since it is ever uniformly existent; whereas the other is an object of opinion with the aid of unreasoning sensation, since it becomes and perishes and is never really existent. Again, everything which becomes must of necessity become owing to some Cause; for without a cause it is impossible for anything to attain becoming. But when the artificer of any object, in forming its shape and quality, keeps his gaze fixed on that which is uniform, using a model of this kind, that object, executed in this way, must of necessity 28b be beautiful; but whenever he gazes at that which has come into existence and uses a created model, the object thus executed is not beautiful. Now the whole Heaven, or Cosmos, or if there is any other name which it specially prefers, by that let us call it,—so, be its name what it may, we must first investigate concerning it that primary question which has to be investigated at the outset in every case,—namely, whether it has existed always, having no beginning of generation, or whether it has come into existence, having begun from some beginning. It has come into existence; for it is visible and tangible and possessed of a body; and all such things are sensible 28c and things sensible, being apprehensible by opinion with the aid of sensation, come into existence, as we saw, and are generated. And that which has come into existence must necessarily, as we say, have come into existence by reason of some Cause.

Timaeus: Now to discover the Maker and Father of this Universe were a task indeed; and having discovered Him, to declare Him unto all men were a thing impossible. However, let us return and inquire further concerning the Cosmos,—after which of the Models did its Architect construct it?