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But we must again resume our proper discourse.
Isis is indeed that property of Nature which is feminine
and receptive of all production; in which sense she was
called the nurse and the all-receiver by Plato, and the Goddess with ten thousand names by the common sort, because being transmuted by reason she receives all manner
of shapes and guises. But she hath a natural love to the
prime and principal of all beings (which is the good principle), and eagerly affects it and pursues after it; and she
shuns and repels her part of the evil one. And although
she be indeed both the receptacle and matter of either
nature, yet she always of herself inclines to the better of
them, and readily gives way to it to generate upon her and
to sow its effluxes and resemblances into her; and she rejoices and is very glad when she is impregnated and filled
with productions. For generation is the production of an
image of the real substance upon matter, and what is generated is an imitation of what is in truth.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 4.
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