Timaeus — Plato
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opposing current, and hindered it from predominating and advancing ; and they so disturbed the nature of the other or diverse, that^the three double intervals [i. e. between i, 2, 4, 8], and the three triple intervals [i. e. between 1,3, 9, 27], together with the mean terms and connecting links which are expressed by the ratios of 3 : 2, and 4 : 3, and of 9 : 8, — these, although they cannot be wholly undone except by him who united them, were twisted by them in all sorts of ways, and^he circles were broken and disordered in every possible manney so that when they moved they were tumbling to pieces, and moved irrationally, at one time in a reverse direction, and then again obliquely, and then upside down, as you might imagine a person who is upside down and has his head leaning upon the ground and his feet up against something in the air ; and when he is in such a position, both he and the spectator fancy that the right of either is his left, and the left right./ If, when powerfully experiencing these and similar effects, the revolutions of the soul come in contact 44 with some external thing, either of the class of the same or of the other, they speak of the same or of the other in a manner the very opposite of the truth ; and they become false and foolish, and there is no course or revolution in them which has a guiding or directing power ; and if again any sensations enter in violently from without and drag after them the whole vessel of the soul, then the courses of the soul, though they seem to conquer, are really conquered.
And by reason of all these affections, the soul, when encased in a mortal body, now, as in the beginning, is at first without intelligence ; but when the flood of growth and nutriment abates, and the courses of the soul, calming down, go their own way and become .steadier as time goes on, then the several circles return to their natural form, and their revolutions are corrected, and they call the same and the other by their right names, and make the possessor of them to become a rational being.
And if these combine in him with any true nurture or education, he attains the fulness and health of the perfect man, and escapes the worst disease of all ; but if he neglects education he walks lame to the end of his life, and returns imperfect and good for nothing to the world below. ' This, however, is a later stage ; at present we
Ti'maeus. TlMAEUS. .nnd the mean terms which unite the sphere of the other are disordered. Thus at first the soul does not attain to truth and wisdom.
As the stream jof nutriment libates, the (courses of the soul regain thoir proper motions, and the man becomes a rational creature.
True education renders him perfect.
p. 464
The head the divine part of us.
Timaeus. TlMAEUS.
These courses were encased in the head, which, like the universe, is in the form of a sphere. The body, with its four limbs, is the vehicle of the head ; it moves forward because the frontpart of us is the more honourable.
In the front part of the head the face was inserted, and in the face, eyes. Sight arises thus : — The light from the eyes and the light of day, which is akin to it, combine; and when they meet with the must treat more exactly the subject before us, which involves a preliminary enquiry into the generation of the body and its members, and as to how the soul was created, — for what reason and by what providence of the gods ; and holding fast to probability, we must pursue our way.
First, then, the gods, imitating the spherical shape of the universe, enclosed the two divine courses in a spherical body, that, namely, which we now term the head, being the most divine part of us and the lord of all that is in us : to this the gods, when they put together the body, gave all the other members to be servants, considering that it partook of every sort of motion.
In order then that it might not tumble about among the high and deep places of the earth, but might be able to get over the one and out of the other, they provided the body to be its vehicle and means of locomotion ; which consequently had length and was furnished with four hmbs extended and flexible ; these God contrived to be instruments of locomotion with which it might take hold and find support, and so be able to pass through all places, carrying 45 on high the dwelling-place of the most sacred and divine part of us.
Such was the origin of legs and hands, which for this reason were attached to every man ; and the gods, deeming the front part of man to be more honourable and more fit to command than the hinder part, made us to move mostly in a forward direction. Wherefore man must needs have his front part unhke and distinguished from the rest of his body.
And so in the vessel of the head, they first of all put a face in which they inserted organs to minister in all things to the providence of the soul, and they appointed this part, which has authority, to be by nature the part which is in front.
And of the organs they first contrived the eyes to give light, and the principle according to which they were inserted was as follows : So much of fire as would not burn, but gave a gentle light, they formed into a substance akin to the light of every-day life ; and the pure fire which is within us and related thereto they made to flow through the eyes in a stream smooth and dense, compressing the whole eye, and especially the centre part, so that it kept out everything of a coarser nature, and allowed to pass only this pure element. When the light of day surrounds the stream of vision, then like falls
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