Timaeus — Plato

A 71 a lysis 64- 6y. 367 transmit the motion to the mind ; but parts which are not easily Timaeus. moved have no effect upon the patient. The bones and hair are Analysis. of the latter kind, sight and hearing of the former. Ordinary affections are neither pleasant nor painful. The impressions of sight afford an example of these, and are neither violent nor 65 sudden.

But sudden replenishments of the body cause pleasure, and sudden disturbances, as for example cuttings and burnings, have the opposite effect. From sensations common to the .vhole body, we proceed to those of particular parts. The affections of the tongue appear to be caused by contraction and dilation, but they have more of roughness or smoothness than is found in other affections.

Earthy particles, entering into the small veins of the tongue which reach to the heart, when they melt into and dry up the little veins are astringent if they are rough ; or if not so rough, they are only harsh, and if excessively abstergent, like potash and soda, bitter. Purgatives of a weaker sort are called salt and, having no bitterness, are rather agreeable.

Inflammatory bodies, 66 which by their lightness are carried up into the head, cutting all that comes in their way, are termed pungent.

But when these are refined by putrefaction, and enter the narrow veins of the tongue, and meet there particles of earth and air, two kinds of globules are formed — one of earthy and impure liquid, which boils and ferments, the other of pure and transparent water, which are called bubbles ; of all these affections the cause is termed acid.

When, on the other hand, the composition of the deliquescent particles is congenial to the tongue, and disposes the parts according to their nature, this remedial power in them is called sweet. Smells are not divided into kinds ; all of them are transitional, and arise out of the decomposition of one element into another, for the simple air or water is without smell.

They are vapours or mists, thinner than water and thicker than air: and hence in drawing in the breath, when there is an obstruction, the air 67 passes, but there is no smell. They have no names, but are distinguished as pleasant and unpleasant, and their influence extends over the whole region from the head to the navel.

Hearing is the effect of a stroke which is transmitted through the ears by means of the air, brain, and blood to the soul, beginning

368 Analysis Gy, 68. Timaeus. at thc head and extending to the liver. The sound which moves Analysis. swiftly is acute ; that which moves slowly is grave ; that which is uniform is smooth, and the opposite is harsh. Loudness depends on the quantity of the sound. Of the harmony of sounds I will hereafter speak (80). Colours are flames which emanate from all bodies, having par- • tides corresponding to the sense of sight.

Some of the particles are less and some larger, and some are equal to the parts of the sight. The equal particles appear transparent; the larger contract, and the lesser dilate the sight. White is produced by the dilation, black by the contraction, of the particles of sight.

There is also a swifter motion of another sort of fire which forces a way 68 through the passages of the eyes, and elicits from them a union of fire and water which we call tears. The inner fire flashes forth, and the outer finds a way in and is extinguished in the moisture, and all sorts of colours are generated by the mixture. This affection is termed by us dazzling, and the object which produces it is called bright.

There is yet another sort of fire which mingles with the moisture of the eye without flashing, and produces a colour like blood — to this we give the name of red. A bright element mingling with red and white produces a colour which we call auburn. The law of proportion, however, according to which compound colours are formed, cannot be determined scientifically or even probably.

Red, when mingled with black and white, gives a purple hue, which becomes umber when the colours are burnt and there is a larger admixture of black. Flame-colour is a mixture of auburn and dun ; dun of white and black; yellow of white and auburn. White and bright meeting, and falling upon a full black, become dark blue; dark blue mingling with white becomes a light blue ; the union of flamecolour and black makes leek-green.

There is no difficulty in seeing how other colours are probably composed. But he who should attempt to test the truth of this by experiment, would forget the difference of the human and divine nature. God only is able to compound and resolve substances ; such experiments are impossible to man.

These are the elements of necessity which the Creator received , in the world of generation when he made the all-sufficient and I perfect creature, using the secondary causes as his ministers, but

Analysis 68-70. 369 J. himself fashioning the good in all things. For there are two sorts Timaeus. 5] of causes, the one divine, the other necessary; and we should analysis. 69 seek to discover the divine above all, and, for their sake, the ; . necessary, because without them the higher cannot be attained by us.

Having now before us the causes out of which the rest of our discourse is to be framed, let us go back to the point at which we began, and add a fair ending to our tale. As I said at first, all things were originally a chaos in which there was no order or proportion. The elements of this chaos were arranged by the Creator, and out of them he made the world.

Of the divine he himself was the author, but he committed to his offspring the creation of the mortal. From him they received the immortal !soul, but themselves made the body to be its vehicle, and constructed within another soul which was mortal, and subject to terrible affections— pleasure, the inciter of evil; pain, which deters from good; rashness and fear, foolish counsellors; anger hard to be appeased ; hope easily led astray.

These they mingled with irrational sense and all-daring love according to necessary laws and so framed man. And, fearing to pollute the divine element, they gave the mortal soul a separate habitation in ^Q the breast, parted off from the head by a narrow isthmus. And as in a house the women's apartments are divided from the men's, the cavity of the thorax was divided into two parts, a higher and a lower.

The higher of the two, which is the seat of courage and anger, lies nearer to the head, between the midriff and the neck, and assists reason in restraining the desires. The heart is the house of guard in which all the veins meet, and through them reason sends her commands to the extremity of her kingdom.

When the passions are in revolt, or danger approaches from without, then the heart beats and swells ; and the creating powers, knowing this, implanted in the body the soft and bloodless substance of the lung, having a porous and springy nature like a sponge, and being kept cool by drink and air which enters through the trachea.

The part of the soul which desires meat and drink was placed between the midriff and navel, where they made a sort of manger ; and here they bound it down, like a wild animal, away from the council-chamber, and leaving the better principle undisturbed to VOL. III. — 39