immaterial and separate essence of the gods. And as in each part of the
universe and in nature itself, the demiurgus of all which the world
contains established resemblances of the unknown essence of the gods,
that all things might be converted to divinity through their alliance
with it, in like manner I am of opinion, that the divine intellect of
Plato weaves conceptions about the gods with all its progeny, and leaves
nothing deprived of the mention of divinity, that from the whole of its
offspring a reminiscence of total natures may be obtained, and imparted
to the genuine lovers of divine concerns.

"But if it be requisite to lay before the reader those dialogues out of
many which principally unfold to us the mystic discipline about the gods,
I shall not err in ranking among this number the Phaedo and Phaedrus, the
Banquet and the Philebus, and together with these the Sophista and
Politicus, the Cratylus and the Timaeus. For all these are full through
the whole of themselves, as I may say, of the divine science of Plato.
But I should place in the second rank after these, the fable in the
Gorgias, and that in the Protagoras, likewise the assertions about the
providence of the gods in the Laws, and such things as are delivered
about the Fates, or the mother of the Fates, or the circulations of the
universe, in the tenth book of the Republic. Again you may, if you
please, place in the third rank those Epistles through which we may be
able to arrive at the science about divine natures. For in these, mention
is made of the three kings; and many other divine dogmas worthy the
Platonic theory are delivered. It is necessary therefore, regarding
these, to explore in them each order of the gods.

Thus from the Philebus, we may receive the science respecting the one
good, and the two first principles of things (bound and infinity) together
with the triad subsisting from these. For you will find all these