Opening Theoretic Arithmetic — Iamblichus in Plato Scroll…
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Iamblichus · Thomas Taylor (1816)
IF philosophy, properly so called, be, according to [°) Plato, and as I am firmly persuaded it is, the greatest good that was ever imparted by divinity to man,* he who labours to rescue it from oblivion, and transmit it to posterity, must necessarily be endeavouring to benefit his country and all mankind, in the most eminent degree. To accomplish this grand object, has been the aim of the greater part of my life; and the present work was solely written with a view to promote its accomplishment. In consequence of the oblivion indeed, into which genuine Philosophy has fallen, through the abolition of her schools, the mathematical disciplines have been rather studied with a view to the wants and conveniences of the merely animal life, than to the good of intellect in which our very being and felicity consist. Hence, the Pythagoric enigma “a figure and a step, but not a figure and three …
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