Timaeus — Plato

They are the effects of attraction. 485 body is called light and said to tend upwards. And we may nmacus. detect ourselves who are upon the earth doing precisely the timaeus. same thing. For we often separate earthy natures, and sometimes earth itself, and draw them into the uncongenial element of air by force and contrary to nature, both clinging to their kindred elements.

But that which is smaller yields to the impulse given by us towards the dissimilar element more easily than the larger ; and so we call the former light, and the place towards which it is impelled we call above, and the contrary state and place we call heavy and below respectively.

Now the relations of these must necessarily vary, because the principal masses of the different elements hold opposite positions ; for that which is light, heavy, below or above in one place will be found to be and become contrary and transverse and every way diverse in relation to that which is light, heavy, below or above in an opposite place.

And about all of them this has to be considered: — that the tendency of each towards its kindred element makes the body which is moved heavy, and the place towards which the motion tends below, but things which have an opposite tendency we call by an opposite name. Such are the causes which we assign to these phenomena. As to the smooth and the rough, any one who sees them can explain the reason of (7) Roughthem to another.

For roughness is hardness mingled with ""^' ^" 64 irregularity, and smoothness is produced by the joint effect (8)Smoothof uniformity and density.

The most important of the affections which concern the How is it that whole body remains to be considered, — that is, the cause of ^^"^^^'°"'^ ^J"*-" ^ ' ' accompanied pleasure and pain in the perceptions of which I have been by pleasure speaking, and in all other things which are perceived by ^^^^l^^^^^ sense through the parts of the body, and have both pains arise thus, and pleasures attendant on them.

Let us imagine the causes " ° ^^^)^ r o comes into of every affection, whether of sense or not, to be of the fol- contact with lowing nature, remembering that we have already distin- sense^xhl if guished between the nature which is easy and which is hard composed of to move ; for this is the direction in which we must hunt the ^JJ^ ^^^^'^ ^''' prey which we mean to take.

A body which is of a nature to <^ye or car, be easily moved, on receiving an impression however slight, spreads abroad the motion in a circle, the parts communicating with each other, until at last, reaching the principle of

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The cause of pleasure and pain.

Titnaeus. TiMAEUS. readily transmits the motion to the soul; if of larger, like the bones, less readily. The result is sensation. — As regards pleasure and pain — an organ consisting of large particles is more liable to them than an organ of the opposite kind. Pain arises when the particles are suddenly disturbed, pleasure when they are suddenly restored to their natural state.

mind, they announce the quahty of the agent. But a body of the opposite kind, being immobile, and not extending to the surrounding region, merely receives the impression, and does not stir any of the neighbouring parts ; and since the parts do not distribute the original impression to other parts, it has no effect of motion on the whole animal, and therefore produces no effect on the patient.

This is true of the bones and hair and other more earthy parts of the human body ; whereas what was said above relates mainly to sight and hearing, because they have in them the greatest amount of fire and air. Now we must conceive of pleasure and pain in this way.

An impression produced in us contrary to nature and violent, if sudden, is painful ; and, again, the sudden return to nature is pleasant ; but a gentle and gradual return is imperceptible and vice versa.

On the other hand the impression of sense which is most easily produced is most readily felt, but is not accompanied by pleasure or pain ; such, for example, are the affections of the sight, which, as we said above, is a body naturally uniting with our body in the day-time (45) ; for cuttings and burnings and other affections which happen to the sight do not giv.e pain, nor is there pleasure when the sight returns to its natural state ; but the sensations are clearest and strongest according to the manner in which the eye is affected by the object, and itself strikes and touches it ; there is no violence either in the contraction or dilation of the eye.

But bodies formed of larger particles yield to the agent only with a struggle ; and then they impart their motions to the whole and cause pleasure and pain — pain when alienated from their natural conditions, and pleasure when restored to them.

Things which ex- 65 perience gradual withdrawings and emptyings of their nature, and great and sudden replenishments, fail to perceive the emptying, but are sensible of the replenishment ; and so they occasion no pain, but the greatest pleasure, to the mortal part of the soul, as is manifest in the case of perfumes.

But things which are changed all of a sudden, and only gradually and with difficulty return to their own nature, have effects in every way opposite to the former, as is evident in the case of burnings and cuttings of the body. Thus have we discussed the general affections of the whole