Proclus prop 56 · creuzer page 88

Πᾶν τὸ ὑπὸ τῶν δευτέρων παραγόμενον, καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν προτέρων καὶ αἰτιωτέρων παράγεται μειζόνως, ἀφ᾽ ὧν καὶ τὰ δεύτερα παρήγετο. Εἰ γὰρ τὸ δεύτερον ὅλην ἔχει τὴν οὐσίαν ἀπὸ τοῦ πρὸ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἡ δύναμις αὐτῷ τοῦ παράγειν ἐκεῖθεν (καὶ γὰρ αἱ δυνάμεις παρακτικαὶ κατ᾽ οὐσίαν εἰσὶν ἐν τοῖς παράγουσι, καὶ συμπληροῦσιν αὐτῶν τὴν οὐσίαν)· εἰ δὲ τὴν τοῦ παράγειν δύναμιν ἀπὸ τῆς ὑπερκειμένης αἰτίας ἔλαχε, παρ᾽ ἐκείνης ἔχει τὸ εἶναι αἴτιον, ὧν ἐστιν αἴτιον, μετρηθὲν ἐκεῖθεν κατὰ τὴν ὑποστατικὴν δύναμιν. Εἰ δὲ τοῦτο, καὶ τὰ ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ προϊόντα αἰτιατά ἐστι διὰ τὸ πρὸ αὐτοῦ. Τὸ γὰρ θάτερον ἀποτελέσαι αἴτιον, καὶ θάτερον αἰτιατὸν ἀποτελεῖ· εἰ δὲ τοῦτο, καὶ τὸ αἰτιατὸν ἐκεῖθεν ἀποτελεῖται τοιοῦτον· ἀλλὰ μὴν, ὅτι καὶ μειζόνως ἐκεῖθεν, δῆλον. Εἰ γὰρ τὴν αἰτίαν τοῦ παράγειν αὐτὸ τῷ δευτέρῳ δέδωκεν, εἶχεν ἄρα πρώτως ταύτην τὴν αἰτίαν, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ τὸ δεύτερον ἐγέννα, τὴν τοῦ δευτέρου γεννᾶν δύναμιν ἐκεῖθεν λαβόν. Εἰ δὲ τὸ μὲν κατὰ μέθεξιν ἐγένετο παρακτικόν, τὸ δὲ κατὰ μετάδοσιν καὶ πρώτως, μειζόνως αἴτιον ἐκεῖνο, τὸ καὶ ἄλλῳ τῆς γεννητικῆς τῷ ἐφεξῆς δυνάμεως μεταδεδωκός.

Everything that is produced by secondary things is also produced, in greater measure, by the prior and more causal things from which the secondary things too were produced. For if the secondary has its whole essence from what is prior to it, its power of producing also comes from there (for productive powers are in producers in accordance with their essence, and fill out their essence); and if it obtained the power of producing from the cause set above it, then it has from that cause its being a cause of the things it causes, measured from there by its power of giving hypostasis. And if this is so, the things that proceed from it are caused things because of what is prior to it. For to make the one a cause is also to make the other a caused thing; and if this is so, the caused thing too is made what it is from there. That it is so from there in greater measure is plain. For if it gave the secondary the cause of producing, then it had this cause primarily, and for that reason it generated the secondary as well, the secondary having received from there its power of generating. And if the one became productive by participation, while the other is productive by imparting and primarily, then that one is the cause in greater measure — the one that imparted the generative power to another, to what comes next after it.

Creuzer's note (1) records that codex A numbers this proposition νζ΄ (57) — a one-off numbering divergence in the manuscript, not in Creuzer's text. Note (8) confirms Portus had already conjectured ἄλλῳ, which is why Creuzer's facing Latin is a reworking of Portus rather than an independent version. Phase 3 translation notes. οὐσία is rendered 'essence' throughout the Greek units, to keep 'being' for τὸ ὄν and 'substance' for Latin substantia as the glossary requires. ὑποστατικὴ δύναμις is rendered 'power of giving hypostasis', holding the glossary's 'hypostasis' for the ὑπόστασις family rather than the smoother 'constitutive power'. In the last movement of the proof, ἐκεῖθεν λαβόν may attach either to the first cause or to the secondary; the English takes it of the secondary, which is how the argument runs.

creuzer_numeral=νς΄

In the crux Liber de causis, proposition 1