Plato Timaeus: Natural philosophy.

Socrates, Timaeus, Critius, Germocrates

Socrates. One, two, three – but where is the fourth of those that were our guests yesterday, my dear Timaeus, and today we decided to have a meal?

Timaeus. Socrates, some kind of ailment happened to him, since, of his own free will, he would never refuse our conversation.

Socrates. If so, is it not on you, and now they have a duty to make up for its share?

Timaeus. Oh, of course, and we will do everything in our power! After yesterday you properly fulfilled the duty of hospitality towards us, it would simply be dishonest for us not to exert zeal to repay you the same.

Socrates. So. But do you remember how many subjects and which ones I suggested to you for consideration?

Timaeus. We remember something, and if you forgot something, you are here to remind us; and even better, if it does not bother you, repeat briefly everything from the very beginning, so that it becomes firmer in our memory.

Socrates. As you wish! If I am wrong, the main subject of my discussion yesterday was the state system – what it should be and what citizens it requires for its perfection.

Timaeus. So Socrates; and the state described by you is very to our hearts.

Socrates. Is it not true that we began by separating the art of tillers and other crafts from the estate intended to protect the state in war?

Timaeus. Yes.

Socrates. And, having determined that everyone will have, according to their nature, a type of occupation suitable only for him and only one art, we decided: those who have to fight for everyone should not be anyone else but the guards of the city against any offense that can be repaired from the outside or from the inside ; they should meekly do justice to their subordinates, their friends by nature, but be harsh in the battle against anyone who behaves like an enemy.

Timaeus. That’s right.

Socrates. Moreover, we reasoned that, by nature, the soul of these guards must be ardent, and at the same time predominantly philosophical, so that they can behave in a suitable manner both meekly and severely in relation to both.

Timaeus. Yes.

Socrates. But what about upbringing? They need to be practiced in the gymnastic, muscular and other sciences that are befitting them, but is it true?

Timaeus. Still would!

Socrates. And we said that when they go through all these exercises, they should not consider their property as gold, nor silver, or anything else. Instead, they will receive content commensurate with their modest needs from those they guard, and spend it together, feeding all together from a common table. They must continuously compete in virtues, and they must be delivered from other labors.

Timaeus. That was exactly what was said.

Socrates. We were talking about women, and we decided that their natural inclinations should be developed in approximately the same way as the natural inclinations of men, and that they should share all men’s activities both in war and in other everyday life.

Timaeus. Yes, that was decided.

Socrates. But what about the offspring? This is probably well remembered for its unusualness. But is it true that the point was that everything related to marriage and childbearing should be common, and we wanted to ensure that no one could ever know which baby was born from him, but everyone would honor each family as his own: those who was born close in time to himself — for brothers and sisters, and older and younger, respectively, either for parents and parents of parents, or for children and grandchildren?

Timaeus. Yes, it’s really easy to remember how you say it.

Socrates. Then we said, how do you possibly remember that for the sake of providing the best possible offspring, officials of both sexes have the responsibility to arrange marriages through tricks with lots, so that the best and worst are combined with peers and at the same time no one would have felt displeasure, but everyone would have believed that fate had disposed of it.

Timaeus. Yes, I remember.

Socrates. Further, the children of the best parents are to be brought up, and the children of the worst should be secretly surrendered to other classes; when they become old, the rulers should watch over those and others who are worthy to return to their former place, and unworthy to send to the place of those who are returned. Is not it?

Timaeus. Yes.

Socrates. So, my dear Timaeus, have we been able to briefly restore the course of our reasoning yesterday, or have we missed something?

Timaeus. No, Socrates, you have listed everything we talked about.

Socrates. Then listen to how I feel about our sketch of government. This feeling is similar to what you experience when you see some noble, beautiful animals depicted in the picture, or even alive, but motionless: you will certainly want to see what they are in motion and how they reveal those forces that they allows you to guess the warehouse of their bodies. I feel exactly the same thing with respect to the state depicted by us: I would be pleased to hear a description of how this state behaves in the struggle against other states, how it adequately enters the war, how during the war its citizens do what it is appropriate for them, in accordance with their training and education, whether on the battlefield or in negotiations with each of the other states.

So, Critius and Germocrates, it is clear to me that I myself will not be able to cope with the task of reading the proper laudable word to men and the state. And there is nothing strange in my inability: it seems to me that poets, whether ancient or newest, cannot do this either. It’s not that I wanted to offend the poets, but it’s clear to everyone that the tribe of imitators will be easier and best to recreate what each of them is used to from an early age, but what lies beyond the usual is even harder for them to recreate in speech, rather than in practice.

As for the kind of sophists, I, of course, always considered him very sophisticated in composing various speeches and in other wonderful things, but due to the fact that these sophists are used to wandering from city to city and do not start their own homes anywhere, I have a suspicion that they cannot afford the deeds and words that were accomplished and said in the circumstances of war, battles or negotiations, both philosophers and state people. So, it remains only the kind of people in your warehouse, by nature and by education, equally involved in philosophical and state studies. Here before us is Timaeus: being a citizen of a state with such wonderful laws as the Italians of Lokra, and not inferior to any of the natives there in riches and generosity, he achieved the highest posts and honors that the city could offer him, but at the same time he rose, it seems to me, and to the very top of philosophy. As for Critias, then everyone in Athens knows about him that he is not ignorant in any of the subjects we are discussing.

Finally, Hermocrates, according to a multitude of reliable evidence, is prepared for all these arguments both by nature and by training. That is why I yesterday, upon mature reflection, readily agreed, heeding your request, to express my thoughts on the state system, for I knew that if you agreed to continue, no one would do better than you; you are so capable of presenting your state involved in a war worthy of it and acting in accordance with its properties, like no other living people. Having said everything that was required of me, I, in turn, turned to you that demand, of which I now remind you. After conferring with each other, you agreed to give me a verbal treat today; and now, as you can see, I have prepared for him and look forward to it.

Hermocrates. Of course, Socrates, as our Timaeus said, we would not have a lack of zeal, and we would not have found any apology for ourselves if we refused. Indeed, yesterday, as soon as we entered Critias, into that rest for the guests, where we spend time now, and even on the way there, we talked about this very subject. Critius then still told us one legend he had heard in a long time. Tell him now also to Socrates, so that he helps us decide whether it corresponds to the task assigned to us or does not correspond.

Critium. So it will be necessary to do so, if Timaeus, the third participant in the conversation, agrees.

Timaeus. Of course I agree.

Critium. Listen, Socrates, the legend, though very strange, but certainly true, as Solon, the wisest of the seven sages, once testified. He was a relative and great friend of the great-grandfather of our Dropid, which he himself repeatedly refers to in his poems; and he told our grandfather Critius – and the old man, in turn, repeated this to us – that in our antiquity great and astonishing deeds were accomplished by our city, which were later forgotten due to the running of time and the loss of life; the greatest of them is the one that we will right now recall, in order to immediately give you away and honor the goddess on her holiday with a worthy and truthful laudatory anthem.

Socrates. Perfectly. However, what kind of feat is this, about which Critius, from the words of Solon, spoke of as being hushed up, but really perfect by our city?

Critium.I will tell you what I heard as an ancient legend from the lips of a man who himself was far from young. Yes, in those days, our grandfather was, in his own words, about ninety years old, and I was at most ten. At that time we celebrated Kureotis on Apaturia, and according to the established rite for us boys, our fathers offered rewards for reading poetry. Various creations of various poets were read, including many boys singing Solon’s verses, which at that time were still new. And one of the members of the phratry, either by conviction or thinking of making Kritia pleasant, said that he considered Solon not only the wisest in all other respects, but also in his poetic work the noblest of poets. And the old man — I remember this as it is now — was very happy and said, smiling, “If only, Aminander, he studied poetry not in snatches, but seriously, like others, and if he had brought to the end the legend he had brought here from Egypt, and had not been forced to abandon it because of the troubles and other troubles that met him upon his return to his homeland, I believe that then neither Hesiod, nor Homer, nor any other poet could surpass him in glory. ” “And what was this legend, Critius?” He asked. “It concerned,” our grandfather replied, “the greatest act ever committed by our city, which deserved to be the most famous of all, but because of the time and death of those who committed this act, the story about him did not reach us.” “Tell me from the very beginning,” Aminander asked, “what’s the matter, under what circumstances and from whom did Solon hear what he told as the true truth?” “Is there in Egypt,” our grandfather began, “at the top of the Delta, where the Nile diverges into separate streams, nom, called Saiss; the main city of this nome is Sais, from where, incidentally, was King Amasis. The patroness of the city is a certain goddess, who is called Nate in Egypt, and in Hellenic, according to local residents, this is Athena: they are very friendly to the Athenians and claim to be related to the latter. ”

Solon said that when he arrived there in his wanderings, he was received with great honor; when he began to inquire about the ancient times of the most knowledgeable among the priests, he had to make sure that neither he himself nor any of the Hellenes, one could say, knew almost nothing about these objects. One day, intending to transfer the conversation to old traditions, he tried to tell them our myths about the most ancient events – about Phorons, revered for the first man, about Niobo and how Deucalion and Pyrrha survived the flood; at the same time, he tried to derive the pedigree of their descendants, as well as to calculate the number of generations of the time that has elapsed since then. And then one of the priests exclaimed, a man of very advanced years: “Ah, Solon, Solon! You Greeks always remain children, and pet among the Hellenes is an old man! ”“ Why do you say that? ”Solon asked. “All of you are young with your mind, – he answered, – for your minds do not preserve in themselves any tradition that from time to time passed from generation to generation, and no teaching that turned gray from time to time. Here is the reason for this. There have already been and will be multiple and various cases of death of people, and moreover, the most terrible ones – due to fire and water, and others, less significant ones, due to thousands of other disasters. Hence the legend that you spread about Phaeton, the son of Helios, who allegedly once harnessed his father’s chariot, but couldn’t direct it along his father’s path, and therefore burned everything on Earth and died himself, incinerated by lightning. and besides, the most terrible – because of fire and water, and others, less significant, – because of thousands of other disasters. Hence the legend that you spread about Phaeton, the son of Helios, who allegedly once harnessed his father’s chariot, but couldn’t direct it along his father’s path, and therefore burned everything on Earth and died himself, incinerated by lightning. and besides, the most terrible – because of fire and water, and others, less significant, – because of thousands of other disasters. Hence the legend that you spread about Phaeton, the son of Helios, who allegedly once harnessed his father’s chariot, but couldn’t direct it along his father’s path, and therefore burned everything on Earth and died himself, incinerated by lightning.

We assume that this legend has the appearance of a myth, because it contains the truth: in fact, bodies rotating in the sky around the Earth deviate from their paths, and therefore, at known intervals, everything on Earth dies from a great fire. In such times, the inhabitants of mountains and elevated or dry places are subject to more complete extermination than those who live near rivers or the sea; therefore, our constant benefactor, the Nile, also delivers us from this misfortune by spilling.

When the gods, doing the cleansing of the Earth over the Earth, flood it with waters, canopy and cattle breeders in the mountains can survive, while the inhabitants of your cities find themselves carried away by streams into the sea, but in our country, water at no time, at any other time, falls on the fields from above, but, on the contrary, by its nature rises from below. For this reason, the traditions that we have preserved are more ancient than all, although it is true that in all lands where it is not impeded by excessive cold or heat, the human race invariably exists in more or less. Whatever glorious or great deed, or even a remarkable event, may have occurred, whether in our region or in any country that we hear of, all this has been imprinted from ancient times in the records that we keep in our temples; meanwhile you and other parodies every time as soon as writing and all the rest that is necessary for urban life have time to develop, over and over again in class time streams come down from heaven like pestilence, leaving all of you only illiterate and unlearned. And you start all over again, as if you were just born, not knowing anything about what happened in ancient times in our country or yourself.

Take at least those of your pedigrees. The solon that you just stated, because they are almost no different from children’s fairy tales. So, you keep the memory of only one flood, and there were many of them before that; moreover, you don’t even know that the most beautiful and noblest kind of people once lived in your country. You yourself and your whole city come from those few who remain of this kind, but you don’t know anything about it, because their descendants have been dying for generations, leaving no records and therefore unmotivated. Meanwhile. Solon, before the largest and most devastating flood, the state, now known as Athens, was the first in matters of military valor, and in the perfection of its laws stood above comparison; tradition ascribes to him such deeds and institutions that are most beautiful than all that we know under heaven. ”

The priest answered him: “I am not sorry, Solon; I’ll tell you everything for the sake of you and your state, but first of all, for the sake of the goddess who received the inheritance, I nurtured and raised both your and our city. However, she founded Athens a millennium earlier, taking about your seed from Gaia and Hephaestus, and this city of ours – later. Meanwhile, the antiquity of our urban establishment is determined by the sacred records of eight millennia. So, these fellow citizens lived nine thousand years ago, and whose laws and whose greatest feat I have to briefly tell you; later, in our spare time, we will find out in more detail and in order with the letters in our hands. You can imagine the laws of your ancestors here: you will now find in Egypt a great deal of the institution adopted in those days, and above all the priestly class, separate from all others, then the estate of artisans, in which everyone is engaged in his craft, without interfering in anything else, and, finally, the estate of shepherds, hunters and farmers; yes, and the military estate, as you must have noticed yourself, is separate from the rest, and its members order members to not care about anything other than war.

Add to this that our warriors are equipped with shields and spears, this kind of weaponry was revealed by the goddess, and we introduced it to us first in Asia, like you first in your lands.

As for mental activities, you yourself see how much our law took care of them from the very beginning, exploring the cosmos and deducing human sciences from the divine sciences, right up to the art of fortune telling and the art of healing that cares for health, as well as all other types of knowledge that are in connection with the mentioned. But the goddess entered this order and system with you earlier, building your state, and she began by finding a place for your birth where, under the influence of a mild climate, you would be born as intelligent people on Earth. Loving warfare and loving wisdom, the goddess chose and was the first to settle the land that promised to give birth to husbands who were more like anyone else than her. And so you began to dwell there, possessing wonderful laws, which were then even more perfect, but surpassing all people in all forms of virtue, as is natural for the offspring and pets of the gods. Of the great deeds of your state, there are many that are known from our records and are an object of admiration; however, between them there is one that surpasses the rest with greatness and valor. Indeed, according to the evidence of our records, your state has put a limit to the audacity of the myriad military forces that set off to conquer all of Europe and Asia, and who kept the path from the Atlantic Sea.

It was possible to cross over the sea in those days, for there still existed an island that lay in front of that strait, which in your language is called the Pillars of Heracles. This island was larger than Libya and Asia, instead of those taken, and it was easy for then travelers to move to other islands, and from the islands to the entire opposite mainland, which covered the sea that really deserves such a name (because the sea is on this side the said strait is just a bay with a narrow passage into it, while the sea on the other side of the strait is the sea in the proper sense of the word, just as the land surrounding it can truly and rightly be called the mainland). On this island, called Atlantis, an amazing kingdom arose in magnitude and power, whose power extended to the whole island, to many other islands and to part of the mainland, and on top of that, on this side of the strait they captured Libya right up to Egypt and Europe right up to Tirrenia. And all this united power was thrown to plunge into slavery both your and our lands and all countries in general on this side of the strait with one blow. It was then, Solon, that your state showed the whole world a brilliant proof of its prowess and strength: surpassing all with firmness of spirit and experience in military affairs, it first came to the head of the Hellenes, but because of the betrayal of the allies it turned out to be left to itself, met with loneliness extreme dangers and yet defeated the conquerors and erected victory trophies. to plunge into slavery both your and our lands and all countries in general on this side of the strait. It was then, Solon, that your state showed the whole world a brilliant proof of its prowess and strength: surpassing all with firmness of spirit and experience in military affairs, it first came to the head of the Hellenes, but because of the betrayal of the allies it turned out to be left to itself, met with loneliness extreme dangers and yet defeated the conquerors and erected victory trophies. to plunge into slavery both your and our lands and all countries in general on this side of the strait. It was then, Solon, that your state showed the whole world a brilliant proof of its prowess and strength: surpassing all with firmness of spirit and experience in military affairs, it first came to the head of the Hellenes, but because of the betrayal of the allies it turned out to be left to itself, met with loneliness extreme dangers and yet defeated the conquerors and erected victory trophies.

Those who were still enslaved, it saved from the threat of slavery; all the others, no matter how many dwells us on this side of the Heracles pillars, it generously made free. But later, when the time came for an unprecedented earthquake and flood, in one terrible day, all your military strength was swallowed up by the uncovered earth; likewise, Atlantis disappeared, plunging into the abyss. After that, the sea in those places has become up to this day non-navigable and inaccessible due to the shallowing caused by the huge amount of silt that the settled island left behind. ” Well, so I retold you, Socrates, perhaps shorter than what old Critius conveyed from Solon’s words. When you spoke about your state and its citizens yesterday, I recalled this story, and I was surprised to notice

But then I didn’t want to say anything, for after such a long time I did not remember enough of the content of the story; therefore, I decided that I should not say until I remember everything with sufficient detail. And this is why I so willingly accepted the responsibilities that you offered me yesterday: it seemed to me that if in such a matter it is most important to put an object that is in line with our plan in the basis of the speech, then we have nothing to worry about. As already mentioned by Germocrates, in my conversation with them I began to recall the essence of the matter, as soon as I left here yesterday, and then, left alone, I recalled the details in my memory all night long and remembered almost everything.

It is true the saying that hardened in childhood is so well held in memory. I am not at all sure that I would be able to completely restore in my memory what I heard yesterday; but if at least something escapes me from this story that I heard a long time ago, it will seem strange to me. After all, at one time I listened to all this with such truly boyish pleasure, and the old man so eagerly gave explanations in response to my usual interrogations that the story was indelibly sealed in my memory, like a picture burned with wax through a wax. And today early in the morning I shared a story here with them so that they, too, like me, had something to talk about. So, in order to finally get to the bottom of the matter, I agree, Socrates, to repeat my story no longer in abbreviated form, but with all the details with which I myself heard it. Citizens and the state

The correspondence will be complete, and we will not sin against the truth, claiming that in those times they lived. Well, we will divide the responsibilities among ourselves and try together to properly cope with the task that you set for us. It remains to be thought, Socrates, whether we like such an object in our hearts or if we need to search for another one instead.

Socrates. What are you, Critius, what subject could we prefer to this? After all, he is the best suited to the rites in honor of the goddess, for he is akin to herself; Moreover, it is important that we are not dealing with a fictional myth, but with a true legend. If we reject it, where and how will we find something better? It’s impossible. So good afternoon! Begin, and I will pay you back in silence for my speech yesterday.

Critium. If so, find out, Socrates, in what order we will treat you. We decided that since Timaeus is among us the deepest expert in astronomy and his main occupation was the knowledge of the nature of all things, he will speak first, starting with the advent of space and ending with human nature. After it is my turn; I’m kind of accepting from his hands the people who in his speech will undergo birth, and from you I will also receive some of them with excellent education.

Then, in accordance with Solon’s story and statute, I will submit them to our court in order to obtain citizenship rights for them, on the basis that they are the very Athenians of the past, which after long oblivion were announced to us by the sacred records, and in the future we will have to to speak of them already as our fellow citizens and genuine Athenians.

Socrates. I see that you are going to thank me in full and generously! Well, Timaeus, it seems to you that it is time to speak, having customarily made a prayer to the gods.

Timaeus. Well, Socrates! Everyone in whom there is even a small fraction of rationality, before any unimportant or important undertaking, will certainly invoke a deity to help. But we are starting to talk about the Universe, intending to find out whether it arose and in what way; it means that we simply need, if we have not fallen into complete obscurity, to appeal to the gods and goddesses and to ask them to make the speech of the pasha pleasing to them, and at the same time, to satisfy ourselves.

So let our appeal to the gods be! But we should appeal to ourselves, so that you understand me in the best way, and I perhaps develop my thoughts about the proposed subject in the most correct way. It seems to me that for a start, there are two things that must be distinguished: what is eternal, being without occurrence, and what is eternally arising, but never existing. That which is comprehended by means of reflection and reasoning is obviously an eternally identical being; and that which is subject to opinion and unreasonable sensation, arises and perishes, but never actually exists.

However, everything that arises must have some reason for its occurrence, because it is completely impossible to arise without a reason. Further, if the demiurge of any thing looks at the invariably existing and takes it as a prototype when creating the idea and properties of this thing, everything will turn out beautifully; if he looks at something that has arisen and uses it as a prototype, his work will turn out bad.

But what about a comprehensive sky? Whether we call it the cosmos or another name that will be most suitable for him, we are in any case obliged to raise a question regarding him, from which any thing should begin to be examined: whether it always existed without a beginning of its occurrence, or whether it arose, coming out of a certain beginning?

It arose, because it is visible, tangible, bodily, and all things of this kind are palpable and, perceived as a result of sensation by opinion, turn out to be arising and generated. But we say that all that has arisen needs for some reason to arise. Of course, the creator and parent of this universe is not easy to find, and if we find him, it will not be possible to tell everyone about him.

Nevertheless, we will pose one more question regarding the cosmos: looking at what kind of prototype did the one who arranged it work – identical and unchanging or having an appearance? If the cosmos is beautiful, and its demiurge is good, it is clear that he looked to the eternal; if the situation was such that it was forbidden to pronounce it, then he looked at what had arisen.

But for everyone it is obvious that the prototype was eternal: for the cosmos is the most beautiful of the things that arose, and its demiurge is the best of the reasons. Having arisen in such a way, the cosmos was created according to an identical and unchanging [pattern], comprehensible with the help of reason and reason. If so, then it is highly necessary that this cosmos be an image of something. But in each argument, it is important to choose a principle that is consistent with nature. Therefore, regarding the image and the prototype, one must make the following distinction: the word about each of them is akin to the subject that it explains. About an immutable, stable and conceivable subject, and the word should be immutable and stable; to the extent that it can be irrefutable and indisputable, none of these properties can be absent. But about which only reproduces the prototype and with is only a semblance of a real image, and one can speak no more than believable. Indeed, as being refers to birth, so truth refers to faith, and therefore do not be surprised, Socrates, that when we consider many things in many ways, such as the gods and the birth of the universe, we will not achieve complete accuracy and consistency in our reasoning.

On the contrary, we should rejoice if our reasoning turns out to be no less plausible than any other, and remember that I, the reasoner, and you, my judges, are just people, and therefore we have to be content with such a plausible myth, without requiring more.

Socrates. Great, Timaeus! We will do as you suggest. We listened to your singing with delight, and now quickly proceed to the song itself.

Timaeus. Let us consider for what reason the one who arranged them created the appearance of this Universe. He was good, and he who is good never, in any way, feels envy. Being a stranger to envy, he wished that all things become as similar as possible to himself. Following sensible husbands, to see in this, the true and most important principle of birth and cosmos, would perhaps be most certain. So, having wished that everything was good and that nothing was possible as bad as possible, God took care of all visible things that were not at rest, but in a disordered and erratic movement; he tidied them out of disorder, believing that the latter was certainly better than the former.

It is impossible now and it has been impossible since ancient times that he who is the highest good should produce something that would not be the most beautiful; meanwhile, the reflection revealed to him that of all things, by their nature visible, not a single creature devoid of mind can be more beautiful than one endowed with the mind, if one is to compare both as a whole; and the mind cannot dwell in anyone apart from the soul.

Guided by this reasoning, he built the mind in the soul, and the soul in the body and thus built the Universe, with the intention of creating the most beautiful creation and the best in nature. So, according to plausible reasoning, it should be recognized that our cosmos is a living being endowed with soul and mind, and he was truly born with the help of divine providence. Since this is so, we must immediately ask another question: what kind of living creature is this, after the model of which the organizer arranged the cosmos? We should not humiliate the cosmos, believing that the matter is about a creature of a certain particular kind, for imitation of the incomplete cannot in any way be beautiful.

But suppose that there was such a [living creature] that encompasses everything else living by individuals and genera as its parts, and that it was the model to which the cosmos is most likened, because how it contains all intelligible living beings in itself, so the cosmos gives a place in us and all other visible beings. After all, God, who wished to possibly liken the world to the most beautiful and completely perfect among conceivable objects, arranged it as a single visible living being, containing all living creatures akin to him in nature in himself.

However, are we right when speaking of one heaven, or would it be more accurate to speak of many, perhaps even innumerable many? No, it is one, as long as it is created in accordance with the prototype. After all, the fact that it embraces all intelligible living beings does not allow another to be next to it; otherwise, it would take another creature that would encompass these two and whose parts they would be, and no longer theirs, but it, which would contain it, would rather be considered a model for the cosmos. So, so that the work was like an all-perfect living being in its uniqueness, the creator did not create either two or countless cosmos, only this one-only sky, having arisen, abides and will abide.

So, bodily, and therefore visible and tangible – that’s what it was like to be that which was born. However, nothing can become visible without the participation of fire, and tangible – without something solid, but nothing can become solid without earth. For this reason, God, starting to compose the body of the Universe, created it from fire and earth. However, two members alone cannot be well conjugated without a third, for it is necessary that between one and the other a kind of bond unifying with them be born. The most beautiful of connections is one that unites itself to the greatest extent with the connected, and the task is best performed by proportion, because when out of three numbers – both cubic and square – for any average number, the first relates to the average, as the average to the latter, and accordingly the latter to the average, as the average to the first, then when moving the averages to the first and last place, and the last and first, on the contrary, to the middle places, it becomes clear that the ratio must remain the same, and if this is so, then all these numbers form a unity. Moreover, if the body of the Universe were to become a simple plane without depth, one middle term would be sufficient to conjugate it with the extreme ones. However, it was supposed to become three-dimensional, and three-dimensional objects never mate through one middle term, but always after two. it would be enough for one middle term to pair it with the extreme. However, it was supposed to become three-dimensional, and three-dimensional objects never mate through one middle term, but always after two. it would be enough one middle term to pair it with the extreme. However, it was supposed to become three-dimensional, and three-dimensional objects never mate through one middle term, but always after two.

Therefore, God placed water and air between the fire and the earth, after which he established the most accurate relationships between them so that the air would relate to water as fire to air, and water should relate to earth as air to water. So he mated them, building from them the sky, visible and tangible. On such grounds and out of such constituent parts in number four, the body of the cosmos was ordered, ordered by virtue of proportion, and thanks to this, friendship arose in it, so that no one can destroy its identity, except for the one who united it. At the same time, each of the four parts became part of the cosmos as a whole: the organizer made it of all the fire, of all the water, and air, and the earth, without leaving a single part or force outside the cosmos.

He meant, firstly, that the cosmos be an integral and perfect living being with perfect parts; further, so that the cosmos remains the only one and that there are no residues from which another, similar, could be born, and, finally, that it should be decrepit and uninhibited ailments. The organizer came up with the idea that if a body with a complex composition is surrounded by heat, cold and other powerful forces from outside, then, if it collapses at a bad time, they will undermine it, plunge it into ailments and decrepitude, and force it to die. For this reason and according to such discretion, he built the cosmos as a whole, made up of integral parts, perfect and not involved in decrepitude and ailments. He outlined the shape of the universe as it would be decent for her and akin to her.

In fact, to a living being, which must contain all living beings, are fit such outlines that contain all the others. So, by rotation he rounded the cosmos to the state of a sphere whose surface everywhere is equally distant from the center, that is, he informed the Universe the outlines of all the outlines the most perfect and similar to themselves, and he found this in myriad times more beautiful than unlike. He deduced the entire surface of the sphere completely even, and moreover for various reasons. Thus, the cosmos had no need for either eyes or hearing, for there was nothing left outside of it that could be seen or heard. Further, he was not surrounded by air that should have been inhaled.

Likewise, he did not need any organ through which he would take food or spew back already digested food: nothing went beyond it and did not enter it from anywhere, for there was nothing to enter. [The body of the cosmos] was artfully designed to receive food from its own decay, carrying out all its actions and conditions in itself and through itself. For those who built it found that being self-sufficient is much better than needing anything. As for the hands, there was no need to take something with them or to defend against someone, and therefore he considered it unnecessary to fit them to the body, as well as legs or other walking device.

For such a body of seven kinds of movement, he gave the corresponding kind, namely the one that is closest to the mind and understanding. Therefore, he made him rotate uniformly in the same place, in himself, making circle after circle, and the remaining six kinds of movement were eliminated so as not to knock down the first. Since no legs were required for such a rotation, he gave birth to [this creature] without legs and feet. This whole plan of the ever-existent god with respect to the god, which was just to be, demanded that the body [of the cosmos] be created smooth, uniform everywhere, equally distributed in all directions from the center, integral, perfect and composed of perfect bodies.

In its center, the builder gave a place to the soul, from where it spread it throughout its length and in addition, clothed its body from the outside. So he created the sky, circular and rotating, the one and only, due to its perfection, able to stay in communication with himself, not needing anyone else and content with knowing himself and companionship with himself. Giving the cosmos all these advantages, the [demiurge] gave him the life of a blessed god. If we try to move to the soul only later in this discussion, it doesn’t mean that God built it after [the body], because if you paired them, he would not have given the younger [beginning] dominance over the older.

It is only we, so subject to the power of random and approximate, and in our speeches we are guided by this, but God created the soul as the first and oldest in its birth and perfection, as the lady and the sovereign of the body, and he composed it from these parts and in this way: from that essence which is indivisible and eternally identical, and that which undergoes separation in bodies, he created by mixing a third, middle view of the essence, involved in the nature of the identical and the nature of the other, and similarly put it between that which is indivisible , and that which undergoes separation in bodies. Then, taking these three [beginnings], he merged them all into a single idea, by force forcing the nature of the other, which is not amenable to confusion, to conjugate with the identical.

Draining them in this way with the participation of the entity and making one of the three, he in turn divided this whole into the desired number of parts, each of which was a mixture of the identical, the other, and the essence. He began to divide as follows: first of all, he took one share from the whole, then the second, twice the big, the third – one and a half times the second and three times the first, the fourth – twice the second, the fifth – three times the third, the sixth – from eight times the first, and the seventh – the first twenty-seven times.

After that, he began to fill the formed double and triple gaps, cutting off all new lobes from the same mixture and placing them between the previous lobes so that in each gap there were two middle members, one of which would exceed the smaller of the extreme members by the same its part, by which part would exceed its larger, and the other would exceed the smaller extreme term and inferior to the larger by the same number. Thanks to these clips, new gaps arose, within the old gaps. Then he filled in all the gaps, leaving a particle of such a length from each gap that the numbers separated by these remaining gaps would always relate to each other as 256 to 243. At the same time, the mixture from which God took the mentioned fractions was spent to the end.

Then, having split the entire formed composition into two parts in length, he folded both parts crosswise like the letter X and bent each of them into a circle, forcing the ends to converge at the point opposite to the point of their intersection. After that, he forced them to move in a uniform and in the same place in a circle, and made one of the circles external, and the other – internal. He called the external rotation the nature of the identical, and the internal – the nature of the other. He made the circle of the identical to rotate from left to right, along the side of the [rectangle], and the circle of the other – from right to left, along the diagonal [of the same rectangle], but he gave an advantage to the movement of the identical and similar, for he left it one and indivisible, while the inner the movement was divided six times into seven unequal circles, keeping the number of double and triple gaps, and there were three of them.

When the whole composition of the soul was born in accordance with the plan of the one who composed it, this last one began to arrange everything bodily within the soul and adjusted one and the other to each other at their central points. And so the soul, stretched from the center to the limits of heaven and enveloping the sky in a circle from the outside, spinning in itself, entered the divine beginning of an enduring and intelligent life for all time. Moreover, the body of heaven was born visible, and the soul – invisible, and, as involved in reasoning and harmony, born perfect of everything that is conceivable and eternally abiding, she herself is more perfect than everything born.

It is a three-part mixture of identical and different natures with essence, which is proportionately divided and merged again and invariably revolves around itself, and therefore, when it comes into contact with a thing whose essence is divided or, on the contrary, is indivisible, it sets in motion with its whole being and expresses in a word why this thing is identical and why it is different, as well as in what mainly relation, where, how and when each is with each, both in becoming and in eternal identity, whether it is being or is suffering th state. This word, silently and soundlessly uttered in a self-propelled [cosmos], is equally true whether it relates to another or to the identical. But if it speaks of that which is tangible, and the correctly moving circle of another announces it throughout the soul of the cosmos, then true and strong opinions and beliefs arise; if, on the contrary, it speaks of an imaginable object and gives a message of an identical circle in its light run, then mind and knowledge must fulfill themselves.

If someone answers the question of what causes this and that inside, he will call some other container, except for the soul, his words will be anything but truth, And so when the Father saw that this creature, this statue of the eternal gods, was moving and lives, he rejoiced and in glee planned to liken even more [creation] to a model. Since the sample is an eternally living creature, it put the measure of the possible and here to achieve similarities, but it was such that the nature of that living creature is eternal, and this cannot be completely transmitted to anything born.

Therefore, he intended to create some moving semblance of eternity; He built the sky, he creates with him for eternity, residing in a single, eternal image, moving from number to number, which we called time. o After all, there were no days, no nights, no months, no years until the sky was born, but he prepared for them to arise only when the sky was arranged. All these are parts of time, and “was” and “will be” are the types of time that arose, and, transferring them to an eternal essence, we make a mistake unnoticed. After all, we are talking about this entity that it “was”, “is” and “will”, but, if judged correctly, it alone befits “there is”, while “was” and “will” are applicable only to occurrence, becoming in time, for both are the essence of movement. But to that which is eternally identical and motionless, it is not appropriate to become older or younger with time, or to become so once, now or in the future, or even to undergo any of what emergence endowed with rushing and data in the sensation of things. No, all these are kinds of time imitating eternity and running in a circle according to the [laws] of number. In addition, we still say that what has arisen is what has arisen and arises is what is arising, and who has arisen is what has arisen and non-being is non-being; there is no accuracy in all of this. But now we have no time to find out all this. as if the arising is the arising and arising is the arising, and the one having arising is the one having arising and non-being is non-being; there is no accuracy in all of this. But now we have no time to find out all this. as if the arising is the arising and arising is the arising, and the one having arising is the one having arising and non-being is non-being; there is no accuracy in all of this. But now we have no time to find out all this.

So, time arose with heaven, so that those born at the same time would disintegrate at the same time if disintegration would come for them; eternal nature served as the prototype for time, so that it becomes like it as much as possible. For the prototype is that which has been for ages, while the [reflection] has arisen, is and will be during the whole cumulative time. Such were God’s plan and intention regarding the birth of time; and so that time was born from the mind and thoughts of God, the Sun, the Moon, and five other luminaries, called planets, arose in order to determine and observe the numbers of time. Having created their bodies one after another, God placed them, with the number seven, in seven circles, in which the rotation of the other took place: the Moon – on the circle closest to the Earth, the Sun – on the second from the Earth, the Morning star and that star, which is dedicated to Hermes and called him – on the circle that runs uniformly with the Sun, but in the opposite direction. That is why the Sun, the Hermes star and the Morning star alternately and mutually catch up with each other.

As for the other [planets] and where exactly and for what particular reasons they were approved there, all this would force us to pay more attention to secondary things than the subject of our reasoning requires. Perhaps someday later we will deal with it properly, if leisure is presented. So, after all [these stars], appointed to participate in the arrangement of time, received a proper movement for each of them, after they, being bodies bound by animated bonds, became living beings and enlightened to the work entrusted to them, they began to rotate along the movement of another that obliquely crosses the movement of the identical and obeys him; some of them described a larger circle, others a smaller one, moreover, they went faster in smaller circles, slower in larger ones.

However, under the action of the identical motion, it seems that the stars that are moving faster are overtaken by those that are moving slower, while in reality the opposite is true, because the motion of the identical one gives all star circles a spiral bend due to the opposite tendency of the two [main movements], but because it’s just that [star] that lags most behind the fastest movement, apparently most closely approaches its speed. In order for some exact measure to be given of the correlation of slowness and speed with which they move in their eight circles, God on the second circle from Earth lit a light, which we now call the Sun, so that he illuminates as far as possible the whole sky, and all living things, with which it befits, they would become involved in the number, learning from the rotation of the identical and the like.

Thus, and for such reasons, night and day arose, this cycle of unified and most rational conversion; the month is when the moon completes its revolution and catches up with the sun, and the year when the sun goes around its circle.

As for the cycles of other bodies, people, with the exception of a few, do not notice them, do not give them names, but measure their mutual numerical relationships, so we can say that they do not realize that these vastly numerous and incredibly diverse walks are also time. However, it is possible to see that the full time of a full year ends when all eight circles, different in speed, simultaneously reach their starting point, correlating with the measure of a uniformly running identical circle. This is how and for the sake of what all the stars were born that wander around the sky and return to their paths again, so that [the cosmos] becomes as similar as possible to a perfect and intelligible living being, imitating its everlasting nature.

So, in everything up to the appearance of time [the cosmos] resembled what it displayed, except for one: it did not yet contain in itself all the living beings that should have arisen in it, and this was a discrepancy with the everlasting nature. But even this missing god decided to make up by minting it according to the nature of the original image. How many and what [basic] species the mind sees in the living as it is, as many and the same ones it considered necessary to implement in space. There are four of them: the first is the heavenly clan of the gods, the second is a feathered clan floating through the air, the third is an aquatic, the fourth is a foot and land clan. For the most part, God formed the idea of ​​the divine kind of fire, so that it would show the highest brilliance and beauty, created it perfectly round, likening the Universe, and gave it a place with a higher understanding, ordering to follow this last one;

Of the movements, he gave each [god] two: firstly, a uniform movement in one and the same place, so that they always think of the identical thing identically, and secondly, a progressive movement, so that they are subject to the circulation of the identical and the like. But he did not give them the other five movements, making this kind of motionless and resting, so that each of the gods was as perfect as possible. For this reason, all the motionless stars arose, which are voznesnoschayuschie divine beings, which always rotate identically and uniformly in the same place; and changing their places and, thus, wandering stars arose as was said before. But the Earth, our nurse, he determined to rotate around an axis passing through the Universe,

As for the round dance of these deities, their mutual rapprochement, the reverse rotation of their circles and running ahead, as well as which of them converge or oppose each other and which face each other in such a position in relation to us that at certain intervals they now hiding, then reappearing, frightening those who do not know how to calculate dates, and sending them the signs of the future, to talk about all this, without having a visual image in front of their eyes, would be futile work. Let therefore enough be said from us, and let the discussion about the nature of visible and born gods be over. To tell about other deities and find out their birth is an impossible task for us. It remains only to trust those who spoke about this before us; since the speakers themselves were, according to them, descendants of the gods, they should have known their ancestors perfectly. The children of the gods cannot be denied trust in any way, even if they speak without plausible and convincing evidence, because if they pass their story off as a family tradition, they have to believe in order to disobey the law.

So, we will accept and repeat their testimony of the genealogy of these gods: from Gaia and Uranus the Ocean and Tethius were born, from these two – Forky, Kronos with Rhea and their entire generation, from Kronos and Rhea – Zeus with Hero and all that we are we know how their brothers and sisters, and already from them – new offspring. When, however, all the gods — both those whose movement is taking place before our eyes and those that are to us only when they themselves wish it — were born, the parent of the Universe addresses them with this message: “Gods of the gods! I am your demiurge and father of things, and what has arisen from me will be indestructible, for such is my will. Of course, everything that is composed of parts can be destroyed, however, to wish to destroy perfectly harmonious and perfect would be an evil deed. And therefore, although you, once having arisen, will no longer be completely immortal and indestructible,

Now listen to what my word teaches you. Three mortal clans still remain unborn, and until they have arisen, the sky will not be fully completed: for it will not contain all the clans of living beings, and this is necessary for it in order to be sufficiently complete. However, if these creatures arise and receive life from me, they will be equal to the gods. So, so that they are mortal and the Universe truly becomes Everything, refer to the formation of living beings in accordance with your nature, imitating my power through which your own occurrence was accomplished. However, since it is appropriate that they contain something called the immortal, called the divine [beginning], and that it leads those who will always and willingly follow justice and you, I will hand you the seeds and the beginnings of creation,

So he said, and then poured into the same vessel in which he mixed the composition for the universal soul, the remains of the previous mixture and mixed them again in much the same way, but the purity of this mixture was already second or third order; he divided all this new mixture into the number of souls equal to the number of stars, and distributed them about one to each star. Raising souls to stars as chariots, he revealed to them the nature of the Universe and proclaimed the laws of rock, namely, that the first birth will be established for all souls in the same way, so that not one of them will be humiliated, and that now they have to Having dispersed, transfer to the instrument of time appropriate for every soul and become those living beings who are the most pious of all creatures; since human nature is dual, the best will be the kind that once received the name of husbands. When souls will, by necessity, be rooted in bodies, and each body will begin to take something in itself, and something to spew out, it is necessary, firstly, that a feeling arises in the souls, common to all of them and corresponding to forced impressions; secondly, that eros is born, mixed with pleasure and suffering, and besides that, fear, anger, and all the other [feelings], either related to or opposite to those named; if souls rule over these passions, their life will be fair, if they find themselves in their power, then it will be unjust. anger and all other [feelings], either associated with the named, or opposite to them; if souls rule over these passions, their life will be fair, if they find themselves in their power, then it will be unjust. anger and all other [feelings], either associated with the named, or opposite to them; if souls rule over these passions, their life will be fair, if they find themselves in their power, then it will be unjust.

Anyone who lives a properly measured period will return to the monastery of his own name star and will lead a blissful, ordinary life for him, and one who can do this will change his female nature in his second birth. If, however, even then he ceases to do evil, he will each time have to degenerate into such an animal nature that will correspond to his vicious depot, and the end of his torment will come only when he, having decided to follow the rotation of identity and likeness in himself, wins by reason manifold, having the confusion of fire and water, air and earth having to join its nature, their unreasonable rampage will prevail and will again come to the idea of ​​a previous and better state. Having settled in such a way that henceforth does not turn out to be the culprit of anyone Nost, he suffered crop [shower] kind to the Earth, in part, on the Moon,

After this seeding, he entrusted the new gods to sculpt mortal bodies and, moreover, add what the human soul lacked, and then, having prepared everything related to this, to rule and possibly lead a mortal creature better, so that it would become for itself the cause of evil . Having made all these orders, he remained in his usual state. Meanwhile, his children, having understood his father’s order, began to execute it: they took the immortal beginning of a mortal creature, and then, imitating their demiurge, took particles of fire and earth, as well as water and air from outer space, promising to return them later. They began to fasten these particles together, but not with the indestructible bonds that connected their bodies, in frequency and in their smallness inconspicuous, and thus informed each assembled body of integrity and unity; and the circulations of the immortal soul they mated with the influx and decline into the body. And these circulations involved in a powerful stream could neither completely defeat him, nor completely yield to him, at times forcibly informed him of their direction, and at times received a direction from him. Therefore, this whole creature was mobile, but rushed wherever necessary, randomly and recklessly; besides, having the possibility of all six movements: forward – backward, right – left and up – down, it moved in six directions and wandered in all ways. Therefore, this whole creature was mobile, but rushed wherever necessary, randomly and recklessly; besides, having the possibility of all six movements: forward – backward, right – left and up – down, it moved in six directions and wandered in all ways. Therefore, this whole creature was mobile, but rushed wherever necessary, randomly and recklessly; besides, having the possibility of all six movements: forward – backward, right – left and up – down, it moved in six directions and wandered in all ways.

If the food stream already overflowing the body and then leaving the sheaf was powerful enough, then external influences caused even more powerful confusion when, for example, someone’s body came across a strange fire waiting for him from the outside, or the hardness of the earth, or wet wetness of water, or was swept by the air waves of the winds. All these movements, passing through the body, overtook the soul and fell upon it, which is why they all received then and still retain the name of sensations. Immediately triggering the strongest and greatest movement and, moreover, combining with the constantly flowing whirlpool, sensations began to affect the circulation of the soul and shake them powerfully. They completely forged the movement of the identical, pouring out to meet him and interfering with both his rule and continuation, while the run of another was upset to such an extent that the three double and three triple spaces, as well as the connecting members (three second, four third and nine eighths), which cannot be completely destroyed by anyone, except the one who mated them, nevertheless went at random, breaking the circular motion in every way ; they were still struggling to rush along, but this movement was erratic: they either collided, then moved obliquely, or capsized. In the latter case, the situation was as if someone had rested his head on the ground and his legs extended upward, leaning them against something; in this position, both to himself and to all those who look at him, everything will appear upside down: the right will become left, and the left will become right. The circulations of the soul are very much subject to the same and similar states: when, on the outside, they meet with the clan of the identical or the other, each time they speak as something identical, in the same way, such a judgment, which is opposite to the truth, that proves itself to be false and unreasonable; at the same time, none of the rotations has the power to rule and rule: when the rushing sensations from outside take possession of the circles, involving in this movement and the entire reservoir of the soul, the circles only seem to dominate, but in reality they obey.

Because of all these conditions, the soul, and now, having entered the mortal body, is first deprived of the mind; when, however, the flow of growth and nutrition weakens and the circulations, having waited for a lull, return to their paths and become more and more equal over time, then each of the circles directs its run according to natural outlines and all of them utter a fair judgment of a different and identical so that their carrier finally becomes a rational being. If the correct upbringing is added to this, he will be safe, unharmed and healthy, avoiding the worst of ailments; and if he shows negligence, then, walking along his path of life, he will limp and go back to Hades imperfect and unreasonable.

But more on that later; Now we are obliged to consider in more detail the closer subject, that is, first of all, the appearance of the body in all its parts, then the appearance of the soul – for what reasons and for what purpose of the gods it was accomplished. Our research should go in such a way as to achieve the greatest degree of probability. So, the gods, imitating the outlines of the Universe, which is rounded on all sides, included both divine circulations in a spherical body, the one that we now call the head and which is our most divine part, sovereign over the other parts. To help them they gave the whole body they had arranged, making sure that it was involved in all movements no matter how many there are; so that the head does not roll on the ground, everywhere covered with mounds and pits, making it difficult to jump here, and then get out, they gave her this all-terrain chariot. Therefore, the body became oblong and, according to the plan of God, which made it mobile, grew four limbs from itself, which can be extended and bent; clinging to them and relying on them, it acquired the ability to advance everywhere, highly carrying the receptacle of what is most divine and holiest in us.

Thus, and for this reason, all people had arms and legs. Finding that our front side is more noble and more important than the back, they gave it the main place in our movement. In accordance with this, it was necessary that the front side of the human body receive a special and unusual device; that is why the gods placed a face on this side of the head sphere, mating with it all the tools of the soul’s industrial ability, and determined that it was the front part, by its nature, that was involved in leadership. there are eyes, and mated them [with the face] for this reason: they planned to have a body that would carry fire, not having the ability to burn, but pouring out a soft glow, and skillfully make it similar to ordinary daylight.

The fact is that a particularly clean fire dwells within us, akin to the light of day, they forced it to flow through our eyes in an even and dense stream; at the same time, they densified the eye tissue properly, but especially in the middle, so that it would not let through anything rougher, but only this clean fire. And when midday light envelops this visual outflow and the like rushes toward the like, they merge, forming a single and homogeneous body in the direct direction from the eyes, and moreover, in a place where the fire rushing from the inside collides with an external stream of light. And since this body, due to its homogeneity, undergoes everything that happens to it homogeneously, it is worthwhile to touch it or, on the contrary, to experience some touch, and these movements are already transmitted to him all, reaching the soul: from here that kind of feeling which we call vision. When the night conceals the fire of his kindred day, the inner fire is cut off, as it were: upon encountering something that is not like him, it suffers changes and goes out, because it cannot merge with the nearby air, which does not have fire in itself. Vision is inactive and thereby induces sleep. The fact is that when we, with the help of natural shelters for the eyes arranged by the gods, that is, the eyelid, lock the power of fire within us, the latter disperses and balances the internal movements, which brings peace. If the peace is deep enough, then the dream is almost not disturbed by dreams, but if there are still strong movements inside, then, in accordance with their nature and place, they generate images corresponding in properties and number that are reflected within us and recalled after awakening as being committed outside of us. Now it’s not difficult to understand how images are born on the surface of mirrors. and other shiny objects. After all, if the internal and external fires enter into communication and merge together near the mirror surface, changing in many ways, then reflection will necessarily arise as soon as the fire coming from the face merges near the smooth and shiny object with the fire of vision. In this case, the left will appear to be right, because each part of the visual flow does not come into contact with that part [of the oncoming light], as is usually the case, but with the opposite.

However, once the light is conjugated with another light, turn in the opposite direction, and the right will appear to be right, and the left – to the left. This is exactly what happens if the smooth surface of the concave mirror directs the light coming from the right to the left side of the eye, and vice versa. If such a mirror is turned in the direction of the length of the face, it will seem as if a person is tilted upside down, because it will again cast light from below to the top of the visual beam, and from above to the bottom. All this belongs to the category of auxiliary reasons that God uses as means, in order to the extent possible to implement the idea of ​​higher perfection. However, most people think that these are not auxiliary, but the main reasons for everything, as long as they produce cooling and heating, thickening and rarefaction, and so on.

Meanwhile, all such reasons in no way can have neither reason nor intelligence. I must admit that from everything that exists, to acquire the mind is appropriate only for the soul, but the soul is invisible, while fire, water, earth and air are visible bodies. So, the admirer of the mind and knowledge should consider first of all the reasons for which are connected with rational nature, and only secondarily those that are associated with things driven from the outside and therefore with the need to move other things. This is what we must do, and therefore we will distinguish between the causes of two genera: those gifted with the mind, who produce the beautiful and the good, and those who are deprived of the mind, which cause everything random and disordered. We have already said about the auxiliary reasons that made the eyes gain their present ability; now it remains to answer what is the highest benefit from the eyes,

In my mind, vision is the source of our greatest benefit; in our current argument, we could not say a single word about the nature of the Universe if we had never seen stars, the Sun, or the sky.

Since day and night, the cycles of months and years, the equinox and solstice are visible, our eyes opened a number, gave us an idea of ​​time and prompted us to explore the nature of the Universe, and from this arose what is called philosophy, and better than which there was and will not be a gift to mortal kind to the gods. I affirm that it is in this that the highest benefit of the eyes. Should I sing other, unimportant benefits? After all, even a person who is alien to philosophy, having become blind, will begin to mourn in vain with lamentation the loss of eyes. Be that as it may, we should consider that the reason why God invented and granted us sight is precisely this: so that we, observing the circulation of the mind in the sky, benefit from the circulation of our thinking, which is akin to that of heaven, although in unlike their equanimity, it is subject to indignation; and therefore, having understood and assimilated the natural correctness of reasoning, we must, imitating the perfect rotations of God, order the irregular rotations within us. The same should be said about voice and hearing – they are granted by the gods for the same reasons and for the same purpose. For the sake of this goal, speech is arranged, it greatly contributes to its implementation; so in music: everything that, with the help of sound, benefits hearing, is granted for the sake of harmony. Meanwhile, harmony, the paths of which are akin to the circulation of the soul. The muses gave each reasonable admirer not for senseless pleasure – although they see only sense in him today – but as a means of preventing discord in the circulation of the soul, which should lead it to order and consistency with itself. In the same way, in order to overcome the immoderation and lack of grace that appear in the behavior of most of us, we got the rhythm from the same hands and for the same purpose.

However, our reasoning should go on to that which arose by the force of necessity, for from the combination of mind and necessity came the mixed birth of our cosmos. True, the mind prevailed over necessity, convincing it to turn to the best, most of what was born. In this way and for such reasons, by the victory of a reasonable conviction over necessity, this Universe was first built; and, if we intend to present her birth in the way it happened in practice, we should also introduce the form of an erratic cause along with the mode of action, which by nature belongs to this reason.

Therefore, we must return back and, having accepted in a singing turn for the same things another, suitable beginning for them, once again, from the beginning, to talk about them, as we already did before. We need to consider what the very nature of fire, water, air and earth was before the birth of heaven and what was their then condition. For until now no one has explained their birth, but we call them beginnings and take them for the elements of the Universe, as if we knew what fire and everything else are; meanwhile, it should be clear to every more or less intelligent person that there is no reason to compare them even with any kind of syllables. Here’s what we think about this: we will not speak now about the beginning of everything, nor about the beginnings, or whatever it is called there, and, moreover, only for the reason

Therefore, neither you should demand the last word from me on this score, nor I can convince myself that I will do the right thing if I take on such a task. On the contrary, I intend here to adhere to what I promised at the very beginning, namely the limits of the probable, and I will try, going from the beginning, to say about everything individually and about everything together such a word that would be no less, but more plausible than any other. So, proceeding to the speeches, we turn once again with a prayer to the God-savior, so that he shows us a happy journey from a strange and unusual story to a plausible conclusion, and then we start again. The beginning of our new speeches about the Universe will undergo this time a more complete distinction than before, because then we have separated two species, and now we will have to distinguish another one. Before, it was enough to talk about two things: firstly,

At that time, we isolated a third species, finding that there would be two; however, I will now surrender that the very course of our reasoning compels us to try to shed light on a view that is dark and difficult to understand. What strength and nature will we ascribe to him?

First of all, this: it is a recipient and, as it were, the nurse of all births. No matter how true, however, these words, it is necessary to define the subject with greater clarity, and this is very difficult for various reasons, and especially because for this it is necessary to resolve in advance the doubt about the fire and all that stands with it.

It is not easy to say about each of them, which is actually better called water than fire, but is it more correct to attach one of the names to one than all the names taken together to each, because you need to use the words in them reliable and reliable sense. What, in fact, do we wish to say by this, what caused our perplexity and justification? But let’s take for a start at least what we now call water: when it thickens, we believe that we see stones and earth from birth, when it spreads and cuts, wind and air are born accordingly, and the latter, when ignited, becomes fire; then the return journey begins, so that the fire, thickened and extinguished, comes back to the form of air, and the air again gathers and thickens into clouds and clouds, from which water is poured out upon further compaction, in order to give rise to earth and stones in turn. So they are born, moving in a circle from one to another. If, therefore, not a single substance appears the same each time, do we dare not feeling shame before ourselves, insistently assert that any of them is precisely this, and not the other? Of course not, and it will be much safer to put it this way: when we see how something – even fire – constantly manifests itself as one, then the other, we must not talk about “this”, but about “such” fire and also do not name water “This”, but “such”, and indeed it is not necessary to ascribe to all such things stability, expressed by the words “that” and “this”, by which we denote something specific. not ashamed of ourselves, insistently assert that any of them is this, and not the other? Of course not, and it will be much safer to put it this way: when we see how something – even fire – constantly manifests itself as one, then the other, we must not talk about “this”, but about “such” fire and also do not name water “This”, but “such”, and indeed it is not necessary to ascribe to all such things stability, expressed by the words “that” and “this”, by which we denote something specific. not ashamed of ourselves, insistently assert that any of them is this, and not the other? Of course not, and it will be much safer to put it this way: when we see how something – even fire – constantly manifests itself as one, then the other, we must not talk about “this”, but about “such” fire and also do not name water “This”, but “such”, and indeed it is not necessary to ascribe to all such things stability, expressed by the words “that” and “this”, by which we denote something specific.

Without waiting until we have time to attach the words “that,” “this,” “something,” or any other utterance to them that describes them as being in the same place, the entities slip away from us. This means that we will not use such words, but will begin to describe things with the word “such”, equally applicable to all of them together and to each separately — speaking, for example, of fire as forever “such” and, accordingly, of all things that have a birth. Only the essence within which they receive birth and into which they return, dying, will we call “this” and “this”; but any qualities, whether it be warmth, whiteness or that which is opposite to them or from them, do not in any way deserve such a name. We must, however, try to say the same thing even more clearly.

Suppose, someone, casting all kinds of figures out of gold, throws them endlessly into the overflow, turning each into all the others; if you point to one of the figures and ask what it is, it will be much more circumspect and closer to the truth if he answers “gold” and does not talk about the triangle and other figures that are born as something that exists, for at that moment when they are called, they are ready to move on to something else, and one must be content if the expression “such” can be tolerated with at least some certainty. This is the case with the nature that accepts all bodies. It should always be called identical, because oma never goes beyond its capabilities; always perceiving everything, she never in any way assimilates any form that would be similar to the forms of the things that enter into it. This nature is inherently such that takes any prints, being in motion and changing forms under the influence of what enters into it, and therefore it seems as if it is different at different times; and the things that enter and leave it are imitations of the eternal, imprints of his samples, taken in an amazing and inexplicable way, to which we will return. Now we should mentally separate three genera: that which is born, that within which birth takes place, and that, on the model of which the born increases. The perceiving principle can be likened to the mother, the model to the father, and the intermediate nature to the child. At the same time, let’s think that if the imprint is to reveal a variegated variety, then what it accepts will be best prepared for its work if it is alien to all the forms that it has to perceive,

The beginning, which was to incorporate all kinds of things, itself should have been deprived of any form, as when making incense mopping, they first of all take care that the liquid in which the incense should dissolve, if possible, but has its own smell. Or it can be compared with how when drawing figures on some soft surfaces they are not allowed to see this or that figure in advance, but for a start they make everything as smooth as possible. Similarly, the beginning, the purpose of which is to perceive well the imprints of all eternally existing things in its entirety, must itself, by its nature, be alien to any form. And therefore, we will say that the mother and the perceiver of everything that was born visible and generally sensual is earth, air, fire, water or some other [kind],

On the contrary, having designated it as an invisible, formless and all-perceiving view, participating in an extremely strange way in a conceivable and extremely elusive, we will not be very mistaken. If only our previous reasoning helps us to attack the trail of this nature, it would be most fair to say the following about it: fire is its flammable part each time, water is its moistened part, and earth and air are its parts that imitate to these [elements].

However, we should define our subject even more accurately and consider whether there is such a thing as fire in itself, and is this the same with other things, each of which we are used to talking about as existing in itself? Or is it that only what we see or generally perceive with bodily sensations has such truth, and besides this, there is nothing anywhere else? Maybe we are talking in vain about the intelligible idea of ​​every thing, and this idea is nothing more than a word? It would not be good to leave such a question unexplored and unresolved, confining ourselves to the simple assertion that this is not the case; on the other hand, one should not burden our already widespread speech with a wide retreat. Therefore, if it were possible to define a lot in a few words, this would be the best way out. So, this is my sentence. If the mind and the true mind are two different kinds, then the ideas that are inaccessible to our senses and are comprehended by the mind alone, certainly exist on their own; if, as it seems to some, the true opinion is no different from the mind, then the greatest certainty should be ascribed to what is perceived by bodily sensations. But it must be recognized that these are two different [kinds]: they are both born separately and carry out themselves differently. Thus, the mind is born in pass from instruction, and true opinion is from conviction; the former is always able to give himself the correct report in everything; the latter is unaccountable; the first cannot be budged by persuasion, the second is subject to persuasion; finally, the true opinion, as one has to admit, is given to any person, but the mind is the property of the gods and only a handful of people. If the mind and the true mind are two different kinds, then the ideas that are inaccessible to our senses and comprehended by the mind alone, certainly exist on their own; if, as it seems to some, the true opinion is no different from the mind, then the greatest credibility should be ascribed to what is perceived by bodily sensations. But it must be recognized that these are two different [kinds]: they are both born separately and carry out themselves differently. Thus, the mind is born in pass from instruction, and true opinion is from conviction; the former is always able to give himself the correct report in everything; the latter is unaccountable; the first cannot be budged by persuasion, the second is subject to persuasion; finally, the true opinion, as one has to admit, is given to any person, but the mind is the property of the gods and only a handful of people. If the mind and the true mind are two different kinds, then the ideas that are inaccessible to our senses and comprehended by the mind alone, certainly exist on their own; if, as it seems to some, the true opinion is no different from the mind, then the greatest credibility should be ascribed to what is perceived by bodily sensations. But it must be recognized that these are two different [kinds]: they are both born separately and carry out themselves differently. Thus, the mind is born in pass from instruction, and true opinion is from conviction; the former is always able to give himself the correct report in everything; the latter is unaccountable; the first cannot be budged by persuasion, the second is subject to persuasion; finally, the true opinion, as one has to admit, is given to any person, but the mind is the property of the gods and only a handful of people. in this case, ideas that are inaccessible to our senses and comprehended by the mind alone, certainly exist on their own; if, as it seems to some, the true opinion is no different from the mind, then the greatest credibility should be ascribed to what is perceived by bodily sensations. But it must be recognized that these are two different [kinds]: they are both born separately and carry out themselves differently. Thus, the mind is born in pass from instruction, and true opinion is from conviction; the former is always able to give himself the correct report in everything; the latter is unaccountable; the first cannot be budged by persuasion, the second is subject to persuasion; finally, the true opinion, as one has to admit, is given to any person, but the mind is the property of the gods and only a handful of people. in this case, ideas that are inaccessible to our senses and comprehended by the mind alone, certainly exist on their own; if, as it seems to some, the true opinion is no different from the mind, then the greatest credibility should be ascribed to what is perceived by bodily sensations. But it must be recognized that these are two different [kinds]: they are both born separately and carry out themselves differently. Thus, the mind is born in pass from instruction, and true opinion is from conviction; the former is always able to give himself the correct report in everything; the latter is unaccountable; the first cannot be budged by persuasion, the second is subject to persuasion; finally, the true opinion, as one has to admit, is given to any person, but the mind is the property of the gods and only a handful of people. exist on their own; if, as it seems to some, the true opinion is no different from the mind, then the greatest credibility should be ascribed to what is perceived by bodily sensations. But it must be recognized that these are two different [kinds]: they are both born separately and carry out themselves differently. Thus, the mind is born in pass from instruction, and true opinion is from conviction; the former is always able to give himself the correct report in everything; the latter is unaccountable; the first cannot be budged by persuasion, the second is subject to persuasion; finally, the true opinion, as one has to admit, is given to any person, but the mind is the property of the gods and only a handful of people. exist on their own; if, as it seems to some, the true opinion is no different from the mind, then the greatest credibility should be ascribed to what is perceived by bodily sensations. But it must be recognized that these are two different [kinds]: they are both born separately and carry out themselves differently. Thus, the mind is born in pass from instruction, and true opinion is from conviction; the former is always able to give himself the correct report in everything; the latter is unaccountable; the first cannot be budged by persuasion, the second is subject to persuasion; finally, the true opinion, as one has to admit, is given to any person, but the mind is the property of the gods and only a handful of people. what is perceived by bodily sensations. But it must be recognized that these are two different [kinds]: they are both born separately and carry out themselves differently. Thus, the mind is born in pass from instruction, and true opinion is from conviction; the former is always able to give himself the correct report in everything; the latter is unaccountable; the first cannot be budged by persuasion, the second is subject to persuasion; finally, the true opinion, as one has to admit, is given to any person, but the mind is the property of the gods and only a handful of people. what is perceived by bodily sensations. But it should be recognized that these are two different [kinds]: they are both born separately and carry out themselves differently. Thus, the mind is born in pass from instruction, and true opinion is from conviction; the former is always able to give himself the correct report in everything; the latter is unaccountable; the first cannot be budged by persuasion, the second is subject to persuasion; finally, the true opinion, as one has to admit, is given to any person, but the mind is the property of the gods and only a handful of people. the second is subject to reassurance; finally, the true opinion, as one has to admit, is given to any person, but the mind is the property of the gods and only a handful of people. the second is subject to reassurance; finally, the true opinion, as one has to admit, is given to any person, but the mind is the property of the gods and only a handful of people.

If all this is true, one has to admit, firstly, that there is an identical idea, unborn and unbending, that does not perceive anything from anywhere and is not included in anything, invisible and not felt in any other way, but given into care thoughts. Secondly, there is something similar to this idea and bearing the same name – tangible, born, eternally moving, arising in a certain place and disappearing from it again, and it is perceived through an opinion connected with sensation. Thirdly, there is one more kind, namely space: it is eternal, does not accept destruction, gives the abode to the whole family, but is itself perceived out of sensation, by means of some illegal conclusion, and it is almost impossible to believe in it. We see him as if in a daydream and affirm that every being must necessarily be somewhere, in some place and occupy some space, and that which is neither on earth, nor in heaven, as if does not exist. We transfer these concepts and their kindred concepts in sleepy oblivion to the uninvited nature of true being, and when we awake, we find ourselves unable to make a distinction and say the truth, namely that since the image in itself carries the reason for its own birth, it invariably is the ghost of something else, and he must be born inside something else, as if clinging to the essence, or not be anything at all.

Meanwhile, that impeccably true argument comes to the aid of true being, according to which, if a thing seems to be one thing, then another, and neither one nor the other generates one another, then this thing will be both single and separate. So, according to my verdict, the brief conclusion is this: there is being, there is space and there is emergence, and these three [sorts] arose separately before the birth of heaven. And about the Nurse, we’ll say this: since it spreads with moisture, and burns with fire, and takes the form of earth and air, and undergoes a whole series of similar states, revealing a diverse face, and since the forces that filled it were neither mutually similar nor mutually balanced and she herself did not have a balance in any of her parts,

What was set in motion was crushed all the time, and the formed parts rushed in different directions exactly as it happens when sifting grain and sifting chaff: dense and heavy lies in one place, loose and light flies off to the side and finds something else for itself shelter. Here, like this, and the four mentioned kinds [elements] were then oscillated by the Receiver, who in her movement was like a sieve: that which was least similar to each other, she scattered farthest from each other, and that which was most similar, sifted closest to each other; Thus, the four genera were isolated in space even before the time came to be born of the Universe that was built from them. Previously, they had neither reason nor measure: although fire and water, earth and air showed some signs of their originality, however, they were wholly in a state in which it was common to be in everything that God had not yet touched. Therefore, the latter, starting to build the cosmos, began by ordering these four genera with the help of images and numbers.

The fact that they were brought by God to the highest beauty possible for them and to the highest perfection from a completely different state, let it remain for us the primary and unshakable statement; but now I should try to explain to you the structure and birth of each of the four genera. My story will be unusual, but since you are related to the ways of learning that my speeches can do without, you will follow me.

First, of course, it is clear to everyone that fire and earth, water and air are bodies, and every body has depth. Meanwhile, any depth, as necessary, should be limited to certain surfaces; moreover, any rectilinear surface consists of triangles. However, all triangles generally go back to two, of which each has one right angle and two sharp ones, but at the same time, equal angles equal to the same fraction of the right angle, bounded by equal sides, lie on either side of the right angle, and the other has unequal angles bounded by unequal sides. Here we are laying the foundation of fire and all other bodies, following in this probability, combined with necessity; the same principles that lie even closer to the source are known to God, and of the people, perhaps the one who is a friend of God. Now I must say, what are those four born bodies, the most beautiful of all, which are not similar to each other, but are capable, being destroyed, into each other reborn. If we manage to get to the point, we will have in our hands the truth about the birth of the earth and fire, as well as those [elements] that stand between them as middle members of the proportion. Then we would not concede to anyone that there are no visible bodies more beautiful than these, moreover, each of them is beautiful in its own way.

Therefore, efforts must be made to bring into correspondence the four different kinds of bodies of beauty and to prove that we have sufficiently enlightened their nature. Of the two triangles mentioned earlier, the isosceles received one nature, while the isosceles – their countless. Of this set, we must choose the best if we want to get down to business properly. Well, if someone chooses and calls something even more beautiful, designed to create these [four bodies], we will obey him not as an enemy, but as a friend; it seems to us that between the set of triangles there is one, the most beautiful, for the sake of which we will leave all the others, namely the one that, in combination with a similar one, forms the third triangle – equilateral.

It would have been too long to justify this (however, if someone had exposed us and proved the opposite, we would have willingly recognized him as the winner). So, we have to give preference to two triangles as such, of which the body of fire and [three] other bodies are composed: one of them is isosceles, and the other is such that in it the square of the big side is three times the square of the smaller one. But we are obliged to more clearly define one thing that was previously unclear about. In fact, it seemed to us that all four genera could consecutively degenerate into each other, but such an appearance was wrong. After all, four genera are really born from the triangles we have chosen: three genera are made up of the same isosceles triangle, and only the fourth genus is made up of the isosceles triangle, which means but all genera can be resolved into each other and be born one from another by combining a large number of small [quantities] into a small number of large ones, and vice versa. If this is possible, it is only for the above-mentioned first three [genera], since as soon as they all came from a single [basis], then when larger ones [bodies] are destroyed, from them [parts] many small ones will be formed that take on their characteristic outlines; and, on the contrary, if you divide a lot of small small [bodies] into separate triangles, they form a single amount of a homogeneous mass, from which a single large [body] of a different kind will arise. This is how things are going with each other. then, when larger ones [bodies] are destroyed, many of them [parts] will be composed of small ones that take on their characteristic outlines; and, on the contrary, if you divide a lot of small small [bodies] into separate triangles, they form a single amount of a homogeneous mass, from which a single large [body] of a different kind will arise. This is how things are going with each other. then, when larger ones [bodies] are destroyed, many of them [parts] will be composed of small ones that take on their characteristic outlines; and, on the contrary, if you divide a lot of small small [bodies] into separate triangles, they form a single amount of a homogeneous mass, from which a single large [body] of a different kind will arise. This is how things are going with each other.

Our next task will be to describe what kind of body each has and from the combination of what numbers it is born. Let’s start with the first view, consisting of the smallest parts: its origin is a triangle, in which the hypotenuse is twice as long as the smaller leg. If we fold such triangles, combining their hypotenuses, and repeat this action three times, so that the smaller legs and hypotenuses converge at the same point as in their center, then one out of the six-fold number of triangles will be born, and it will be equilateral. When four equilateral triangles turn out to be connected in three dihedral angles, they form one volumetric angle, namely one that takes place after the most obtuse of flat angles. Having completed the construction of four such angles, we get the first three-dimensional view,

The second view is built from the same initial triangles, joined into eight equilateral triangles and each time forming four flat angles in one volume; when there are six such volumetric angles, the second body is completed.

The third view is formed by adding up one hundred and twenty initial triangles and twelve volumetric angles, each of which is covered by five equilateral triangular planes, so that the whole body has twenty faces, which are equilateral triangles. On this creation the task of the first of the initials ended. But the isosceles triangle gave rise to the nature of the fourth [kind], and moreover, so that four triangles, the right angles of which met in one center, formed a square; and from the addition of six squares eight volume angles arose, each of which is harmoniously covered by three flat right angles. The body thus formed had the shape of a cube endowed with six square, flat faces. There was still the fifth multifaceted construction in reserve, its god defined for the Universe and resorted to it as a model. If now someone, carefully considering everything said, wondered whether countless cosmos should be allowed or their limited number, he would have to conclude that the conclusion about the unlimitedness of this number is possible only to be made to someone who himself is very limited, and, moreover, in matters you should know. If, however, a different question is posed – whether there is one cosmos or actually there are five, then, naturally, there would be much more reasons for the difficulty. As for us, we, according to the plausible words and instructions of God, affirm that there is one cosmos; but the other, looking at things differently, will probably make himself a different opinion. Be that as it may, let us leave this question and begin to divide the births just born in our word into fire, earth, water and air. Of course, we assign to the earth a kind of cube,

Meanwhile, not only from our original triangles isosceles, if we take it as a base, by nature is more stable than non-equilateral, but also a square formed from the addition of two isosceles triangles with necessity is more stable than an equilateral triangle, and this ratio remains valid for both parts and for the whole. This means that we will not violate the likelihood if we assign this inheritance to the land, and also if we assign the least mobile of the remaining species to water, the most mobile to fire, and the middle to air; further, the smallest body to fire, the largest to water, and the middle to air, and finally the most acute-angled body to fire, the next to it to air, and the third to water. But of all the above-mentioned bodies, the one with the least number of bases is the most mobile by nature and by necessity for on all sides it has the most cutting edges and stitching angles, and besides, it is also the lightest, as long as it includes the smallest number of initial parts. That body, which has the same properties, but of the second order, and will take the second place, and one that has the third order of these properties – the third. Let the voluminous image of the pyramid be, in accordance with fair reasoning and with credibility, the source and the seed of fire; we shall call the second body of birth air, the third – water. But at the same time, we must imagine that all these [bodies] are so small that a single [body] from each of the listed genera, because of its smallness, is invisible to us, and only the masses composed of their sets are striking to our eyes. As for their quantitative relationships, their movements and generally their strengths,

Based on all that has been said above about these four genera, the case is most likely to be described as follows. When the earth meets fire and is dispersed by its sharpness, it rushes, decaying either in the fire itself, or in the thickness of air or water, if it has to be there, until its particles, having met with each other, are connected again so that it again becomes land: after all, it cannot take a different form. On the contrary, water, crushed by fire or air, allows one body of fire and two air bodies to form, as well as fragments from one dissected part of the air can give rise to two bodies of fire. But vice versa, when a small fraction of fire, being in large strata of air, water or earth, is picked up by their movement, lamented in the struggle and crushed, two bodies of fire rally into a single air; or when the air undergoes violence and destruction, one whole kind of water is made up of two of its bodies and a half. And here is what else we need to take into account: when any other kind engulfed in fire is cut by the edges of its faces and the tips of its corners, it is enough for this kind to accept the nature of fire so that its fragmentation ceases, because no kind similar and identical to itself is can neither force the same kind of change, nor accept any changes from it. But as long as something, being weaker than something else, wages an unequal struggle against this other, it continues to collapse. it is enough for this genus to accept the nature of fire so that its fragmentation ceases, because no genus similar and identical to itself can neither force the same genus to change, nor accept any changes from it. But as long as something, being weaker than something else, wages an unequal struggle against this other, it continues to collapse. it is enough for this genus to accept the nature of fire so that its fragmentation ceases, because no genus similar and identical to itself can neither force the same genus to change, nor accept any changes from it. But as long as something, being weaker than something else, wages an unequal struggle against this other, it continues to collapse.

Therefore, if a few and smaller bodies, surrounded by many and larger, are crushed and destroyed by them and at the same time are ready to unite in the form of the prevailing [body], their destruction will cease, so that either air comes out of fire, or water comes out of air; but, if they come together and grapple with any of the other genera, they will not cease to collapse until one of the two occurs: either they are completely cramped and collapsing, fleeing to what is akin to them, or, losing in the struggle , begin to unite together, becoming like the prevailing clan, and remain with it. Having endured it, all clans will no doubt change places, because if their masses are distributed separately from each other in space, then what has lost its own likeness and perceived someone else, with every concussion it is thrown into the region of what these births are likened to. These are the reasons that determined the birth of bodies of pure and primary. But if even further generic differences appeared within these [main] species, the reason for this is the way of constructing both initial [triangles]: the fact is that the latter were not originally born with sizes that were not uniform for each genus, but smaller, then larger, and there were only as many triangles of different sizes as there are genera now differing within the [main] species. Their combination with each other and with other triangles gave an infinite variety, the contemplator of which should be anyone who pretends to say a plausible word about nature. But if even further generic differences appeared within these [main] species, the reason for this is the way of constructing both initial [triangles]: the fact is that the latter were not originally born with sizes that were not uniform for each genus, but smaller, then larger, and there were only as many triangles of different sizes as there are genera now differing within the [main] species. Their combination with each other and with other triangles gave an infinite variety, the contemplator of which should be anyone who pretends to say a plausible word about nature. But if even further generic differences appeared within these [main] species, the reason for this is the way of constructing both initial [triangles]: the fact is that the latter were not originally born with sizes that were not uniform for each genus, but smaller, then larger, and there were only as many triangles of different sizes as there are genera now differing within the [main] species. Their combination with each other and with other triangles gave an infinite variety, the contemplator of which should be anyone who pretends to say a plausible word about nature. and there were only as many triangles of different sizes as there are genera now differing within the [main] species. Their combination with each other and with other triangles gave an infinite variety, the contemplator of which should be anyone who pretends to say a plausible word about nature. and there were only as many triangles of different sizes as there are genera now differing within the [main] species. Their combination with each other and with other triangles gave an infinite variety, the contemplator of which should be anyone who pretends to say a plausible word about nature.

As for movement and rest, more precisely, how and under what conditions they arise, but, having come to an agreement here, we will encounter a lot of interference in our further discussion. Some remarks have already been made here, but now we need to add to what has been said here: inside of what is uniform, there can be no movement. After all, it is difficult, or rather, impossible to imagine the movable without the moving or, on the contrary, the moving without the movable, and movement is inconceivable without both; meanwhile, it is in no way possible for the moving and the moving to be homogeneous. So, once and for all we attribute the chambers to homogeneous, and the movement to that which is not at all homogeneous. The reason for the deviations is inequality; and how this inequality was born, we have already described. It remains unexplained why the bodies, distributed by childbirth, Do not stop the intersecting movement and movement? Let us also say about this.

The fact is that the circulation of the Universe, which includes these genera, because of its roundness and natural desire to close on itself, compresses everything and does not allow any part of the space to remain empty. Fire has the greatest ability to penetrate everything, air immediately follows it, because it takes second place in the fineness of its particles, and so on; after all, that which was formed from the largest particles has in its composition the largest amount of empty space left between the parts, and that which has arisen from the smallest particles is the least. This means that when the squeezing occurs, the smaller bodies squeeze into the gaps between the larger ones: and when they are near, so that the smaller ones tend to break the connection between the larger ones, and the larger ones bring the smaller ones together, they all move up or down to their places. c After all, each body, changing its size, changes its location. In this way and under the influence of such and such reasons, the continuous reproduction of heterogeneity is ensured, and already it in turn supports and will constantly support the eternal motion of bodies. In addition, it should be taken into account that there are many kinds of fire from which the flame can be called, then the outflow of the flame, which does not burn, but gives light to the eyes, and, finally, that after the flame has died out, it remains in smoldering coals.

This is also the case with air, the most transparent variety of which is called ether, and the more cloudy one – fog and haze, moreover, there are also nameless species born from the inequality of the [initial] triangles. As for water, it is divided primarily into two kinds: liquid and fusible. The first liquid because it contains the original bodies of water, which are small and, moreover, have different sizes; due to its heterogeneity and the shape of its outlines, it easily sets in motion, both by itself and under the influence of another. On the contrary, the second kind consists of large and homogeneous bodies; it is more stable than the first and heavy, for homogeneous particles rally tightly together.

However, from the invasion of fire and its destructive action, it loses its homogeneity, as a result of which it acquires great involvement in the movement; and once it becomes mobile, this water under the pressure of ambient air spreads over the earth. Each of these states got its name: when a solid mass collapses, they say about it that it melts, and when it then disperses along the ground – that it flows. But if the fire is again erupted outside, it goes, of course, not into the void, and therefore the surrounding air is compressed and it itself presses on a moist and still moving mass; the latter is forced to fill the gaps left by the fire, and concentrate tightly in itself. Compressed in this way, it becomes homogeneous again – after all, the fire, this culprit of heterogeneity, has left – and is returning to a self-identical state. We call the departure of fire cooling, and to indicate the compaction that has come after it, we say that the mass hardens. Among all that has just been given the name of fusible liquids, there is also that which was born from the finest and most homogeneous particles, and therefore is densest; this one of a kind variety, involved in brilliance and yellowness, is the most highly esteemed of treasures, gold that has frozen, seeping through the stone. Gold also has a derivative: because of its density, it is solid and cast in black, and it is called the adamant. By the properties of its particles, gold is closest to [genus], which, however, has more than one variety, and moreover, in some places it is denser than gold; in addition, it is also harder, for it has a small admixture from thin earth, but is lighter because of the large gaps in its depths: it is one of the constituent genera of brilliant and hard waters, namely copper. When the impurity of the earth contained in copper under the influence of decrepitation again separates and comes into the light, it is called rust. It would not be too difficult to go through all the other examples of this kind in this way, continuing to follow the idea of ​​a believable legend. Anyone who, for the sake of rest, will postpone for a while the conversation about enduring things for the sake of this harmless pleasure – to consider the origin of [things] according to the laws of plausibility, will find in this a modest and reasonable fun for life.

Since we are now indulging in just such fun, let us dwell in order on a few more probabilities. While water is mixed with fire, it is thin and fluid – and fluid it is called both for its mobility and for the fact that it seems to roll on the ground; moreover, it is also softened, because its faces are less stable than that of particles of the earth, and therefore, malleable. But when it is abandoned by the fire and separated from the air, it becomes more uniform and becomes denser under the pressure of the particles of fire coming out of it. If it undergoes a strong compaction above the ground, it becomes hail, and if on the ground – ice. If the pressure is weaker and it is only half condensed, then it forms snow above the ground, while the dew on the ground freezes in hoarfrost. But the most numerous types of water, mixing with each other, oozing in plants grown by the earth, and therefore their race received the name of the juice. Since a great variety emerged from the mixes, most genera were left without a special name; however, the four species lurking within themselves received, as especially noteworthy, their names.

The first of them has the property of heating the soul and the body with it: it is called wine. The second one is smooth and causes the dispersal of visual fire, and therefore is shown to the eye as transparent, shiny and glossy, this is a kind of oil-like oils; it includes tar, castor oil, as well as the oil itself and what has its properties. The third has the ability to expand the narrowed pores of the mouth to their natural state, thereby causing a feeling of sweetness: he received the generic name of honey. Finally, the fourth has the power to decompose the flesh by burning and foam; it differs from other juices and is called alkali. As for the types of land, the one that is saturated with water is converted into a rocky body, and moreover, in what way. The mixed water just because of mixing is crushed and takes the form of air, and becoming air, it leaves to the place allocated to it. But there is no empty space around, which means that the newly emerged air exerts pressure on the surrounding. The latter, under the influence of pressure, heavily leans everywhere from the thickness of the earth, strongly compresses it and presses it into those rooms that have just been abandoned by the newly formed air. When the earth is squeezed by air to such an extent that it can no longer be destroyed by water, it is compacted into stone, a beautiful variety of which consists of equal and homogeneous particles and is therefore transparent, and ugly differs in opposite properties. Further, that kind of earth which, by the swift action of fire, is free of moisture and therefore drier than the above, is called pottery clay; however, sometimes a little moisture still remains, and then the earth is molten by fire, which, when cooled, turns into a special stone with a black color.

There are two more varieties from which most of the mixed water is removed in exactly the same way, but the particles of the earth in their composition are finer; both have a salty taste and are only half hardened, so that water can destroy them again. The first variety is suitable to clean oil and earth stains; it’s a lye. The second variety is very well included in the taste of the mouth and is a salt; it is a kind body to the gods, as it is called according to custom. That which consists of a combination of both last species can be destroyed by fire, but not by water, and this connection is based on this: first of all, the earthly strata are not dissolvable either for fire or for air, because the particles of the latter are smaller than the voids in this thicker so that they can freely pass through without resorting to violence, and for this reason they do not decompose and destroy the earth. But the particles of water are larger, which means they make their way by violence, destroy the earth and decompose it.

Therefore, the earth, if it is not subjected to forced compression, can be destroyed only by water, and if subjected – only by fire, because then there is no access to it except for fire. Water, if it is condensed with special force, can only be destroyed by fire, but if it is less densified, then both kinds are both fire and air; while air invades voids, and fire also triangles. Finally, air, if it has been forcibly compressed, cannot be destroyed by anything, unless it can be reduced to its origin; but, if he has not undergone compression, only fire will destroy him. The same thing happens with roofing stones arising from the mixing of land and water: as long as the water fills all the voids in the earth, compacted with great force, the particles of water coming from outside do not find access inside, they wrap around this whole mass and cannot decompose it, while fire particles, on the contrary, penetrate between water particles and, acting on water just like water affects the earth, some are able to force the mixture of earth and water to melt and to spread out. Note that some of these mixtures contain less water than earth; these are all types related to glass, as well as all the so-called melting stones.

Others, on the contrary, contain more water; such are all bodies from the category of waxes and incense incense. Perhaps we have shown with sufficient completeness the diversity of species arising from combinations and mutual transitions of figures. Now let’s try to find out the causes of the effects produced by all this on us. First of all, it is necessary to attribute to the things in question, one property – to be constantly felt, but we have not yet reached the birth of the flesh and all that relates to it, as well as the birth of the mortal part of the soul. Meanwhile, it is inconceivable to discuss these objects with due thoroughness, distracting from the influence of sensations, and talk about sensations, distracting from questions about the flesh and mortal part of the soul, but it is hardly possible to speak about both of them at once. So, we will have to accept one of the two as a prerequisite, and then again return to this.

To begin with, let’s see why it is said about fire that it is hot? We must answer this question, taking into account the cutting and decomposing effects of it on our bodies. Almost everyone will agree that the sensation of fire is piercing; at the same time, we should recall the subtlety of its faces and the sharpness of its angles, then the smallness of its particles and the speed of their run, because all these properties are such that they impart pressure and agility to the fire, and therefore nothing can withstand its cutting force. It is enough to recall and take it into account its shape and how they were born to understand: this nature, like no other, is able to penetrate our bodies, subtle split them and deliver to what we respectively call heat, and its properties and his name. The opposite [impact] is quite clear, but still we will not leave it without explanation.

Since this happens against nature [our body], it, in accordance with its nature, enters into the struggle and tries to regain its former state. This struggle and these tremors were called trembling and chills, while the whole state as a whole, as well as what it causes, is called cold. Hard is called what makes the flesh move, soft – that which is fed under the influence of the latter; and in general these names are used interchangeably. But pliable is everything that has little reason; on the contrary, the appearance of [the body], resting on square bases and therefore especially stable, turns out to be the most unstable, and its high resistance to resistance is explained by the fact that it is just denser than all the others. As for the heavy and the light, these two states can be best understood only in connection with the nature of what is known by the names “top” and “bottom”. The fact is that the idea, according to which, by nature, there are two opposite areas that divide the Universe in two – the bottom, where everything endowed with bodily mass rushes, and the top, where any thing can go only under duress, turns out to be wrong.

After all, since the sky in its entirety has the form of a sphere, it means that all extreme points equally spaced from the center are equally extreme in nature, while the center, which is one and the same distance from them, should be considered to be located directly opposite each of them. But if the cosmos really has such a nature, which of these points can be called up or down without attracting fair reproach for the inappropriate use of words? For the center of the cosmos, strictly speaking, by nature does not lie at the bottom and top, but at the center, while the surface of the sphere cannot be the center and does not have a part that is somehow different from the others, let’s say closer to the center, rather than the opposite part. And since the cosmos in all directions is completely uniform in nature, what pair of opposite names can be applied to it without violating the correct usage? Suppose that in the center of the universe rests a uniformly balanced solid; it could not advance to any of the extreme points, since it is in the same relation with everyone, and if someone began to walk around this body in a circle, again and again turning out to be its own antipode, it would have to denote the same direction alternately then as the top, then as the bottom. Yes, since the whole, as has just been said, has the form of a sphere, it means that designating one place as the top and the other as the bottom does not make sense. But where did these designations come from and how did we get used to them so much that we transferred them to heaven as a whole, dividing the last in two? We can come to an agreement on this, if we make one assumption first. Imagine that someone is in that place of the Universe, which is predominantly reserved for the nature of fire, concentrated there in great numbers and rushing from everywhere; let it be possible for this person to stand there and separate the parts of the fire, laying them on the scales.

Suppose further that he lifts the scales, forcibly placing the torn fire into the air that is not akin to him; it is obvious that in this case the smaller parts will be more susceptible to violence than the larger ones. When one and the same force raises two things in height, the smaller thing, of necessity, obeys the compulsion, and the larger – less, and hence the large is called heavy and striving down, and the small – light and striving up. On the same thing, we can catch ourselves when we act in the part of the universe reserved for us. In fact, if we stand on the earth and separate parts of the earth-like bodies, or even the earth itself, so that they can be forcibly and contrary to nature introduced into an alien air environment, then both [elements] will tend to be akin to them, but smaller parts all the same, it’s easier than large ones to succumb to violence and allow them to put themselves in an alien environment; that is why we call them light themselves and the place where we force them to go is upper, and that which is the opposite of both is heavy and lower. But all this must be varied, since the main clusters of bodies of each kind occupy different places in space, lying one against the other: that which is light or heavy, high or low in one place, can be correlated with light and heavy, high and low in another place, the opposite of the first, and to be opposite, inappropriate and completely different from it, both in terms of occurrence and in terms of existence. But one thing remains true for all cases: the striving of every thing for its kind is what makes it difficult, and the direction in which it rushes is the bottom, meanwhile, as the opposite of one and the other, and the name bears the opposite. These are the causes of these conditions. As for the cause of the states of smoothness and roughness, then everyone can see it for himself and explain to the other: hardness in combination with heterogeneity gives a rough, uniformity in combination with density is smooth. After we examined the effects that apply to the whole body, we need to discuss the most important thing – the cause of pleasant and painful impressions, and indeed all that through the frequent use of the body contributes to sensations, causing suffering or pleasure. But we will understand the causes of any influences – perceived or imperceptible, if for a start we recall the differences we made earlier that are very mobile in nature or, on the contrary, inactive; it’s on this path that you should move,

So, if at least a fleeting effect is due to the fact that by its nature it is very mobile, this effect spreads in a circle from one particle to another, until it reaches a reasonable [beginning] and tells him about the properties of the acting object; on the contrary, that which is sedentary is too stable to transmit the effect in a circle, and therefore it is forced to accept it only on itself and not bring into motion what is in the neighborhood. But since the first effect does not pass from one particle to another, the living being as a whole does not perceive it and remains insensitive to it. This is true for bones, hair, and other parts of our body, which consist mainly of earth, while the first case is most characteristic of hearing and vision, because the force of fire and air is most effective in them. So, about everything, what relates to pleasure and suffering should be thought as follows. Any nasty effect on us with great force is painful, while a full return to the natural state is pleasant; that which is accomplished quietly and gradually remains imperceptible, otherwise the situation is the opposite; finally, everything that is done without labor can be very tangible, but is not accompanied by either suffering or pleasure.

An example of the latter can be a visual impression, because the visual ray, as was said before, during the day is a body that has grown together with us: neither dissection, nor burns, nor other influences of the same kind cause him pain, and returning to the previous state is pleasure but at the same time he gives the most complete and clear sensations every time he experiences the influence of [bodies] or himself goes to them and touches them. The thing is that his splitting and reunification are alien to violence. On the contrary, bodies consisting of larger particles resist the impact, but at the same time transmit the impetus to the whole living creature as a whole, experiencing pleasure and suffering: suffering – when changing, pleasure – when returning to its previous state. But those [organs] in which emptying and emptying are carried out gradually, and filling is immediately and with great force, insensitive to devastation, but, on the contrary, sensitive to filling, and therefore does not cause pain to the mortal part of the soul, but serves as a source of great pleasure; an obvious example is pleasant odors. On the contrary, when the departure from the natural state occurs quickly, and recovery is slowly and with difficulty, we have the exact opposite case: it can be observed with burns and cuts. So, as for the effects common to the whole body, and the names applied to what causes these effects, we have said almost everything about these things. when the departure from the natural state occurs quickly, and recovery is gradually and with difficulty, we have the exact opposite case: it can be observed with burns and cuts. So, as for the effects common to the whole body, and the names applied to what causes these effects, we have said almost everything about these things. when the departure from the natural state occurs quickly, and recovery is gradually and with difficulty, we have the exact opposite case: it can be observed with burns and cuts. So, as for the effects common to the whole body, and the names applied to what causes these effects, we have said almost everything about these things.

Now let’s try to the best of our ability to say something about the sensations associated with certain parts of the [body], as well as about the causes of the effects. First, we should clarify, as far as possible, the subject that we ignored during our previous discussions about juices, namely, the effects they produce on the tongue. Apparently, these influences, like many others, are generated by a special kind of contractions and extensions, but they more than others depend on the states of roughness and smoothness. For example, when particles of the earth enter those veins that serve the tongue as sensitive fibers stretched to the very heart, they come into contact with moist, soft flesh and spread on it, making the veins shrink and, as it were, dry; if these particles of the earth are rougher, they give a pungent taste, if less – tart. Next, those substances that they clean the above-mentioned veins and rinse the entire area of ​​the tongue, doing their work excessively violently and bringing the matter to the destruction of the flesh of the tongue, are called bitter, this is the property of alkali. But other substances, yielding alkali to strength and cleansing the tongue only moderately, have a salty taste, alien to the stiffness that is inherent in all bitter, and seems rather pleasant. Substances of another category, having joined the warmth of the mouth and liquefied from it, become fiery from this and in a swap they burn up what they warmed up, and in their lightness rush up to the sensory organs of the head, and cut through anything that does not fall on them ways; due to this ability they are called sharp. called bitter, such is the property of alkali. But other substances, yielding alkali to strength and cleansing the tongue only moderately, have a salty taste, alien to the stiffness that is inherent in all bitter, and seems rather pleasant. Substances of another category, having joined the warmth of the mouth and liquefied from it, become fiery from this and in a swap they burn up what they warmed up, and in their lightness rush up to the sensory organs of the head, and cut through anything that does not fall on them ways; due to this ability they are called sharp. called bitter, such is the property of alkali. But other substances, yielding alkali to strength and cleansing the tongue only moderately, have a salty taste, alien to the stiffness that is inherent in all bitter, and seems rather pleasant. Substances of another category, having joined the warmth of the mouth and liquefied from it, become fiery from this and in a swap they burn up what they warmed up, and in their lightness rush up to the sensory organs of the head, and cut through anything that does not fall on them ways; due to this ability they are called sharp. from this they become fiery and in a swap they burn what has warmed them up, and in their lightness they rush up to the sensory organs of the head, and cut through everything that comes in their way; due to this ability they are called sharp. from this they become fiery and in a swap they burn what has warmed them up, and in their lightness they rush up to the sensory organs of the head, and cut through everything that comes in their way; due to this ability they are called sharp.

But when the same substances become thinner from decay and find access to cramped veins, they find the earth particles and air particles in the right proportion there, set the latter in motion, make them mix with each other and foam, and then foam, form around the invading particles cavities. And at the same time, moisture, sometimes earthy, and sometimes clean, envelops the air, creating for it, as it were, liquid containers – water balls with voids inside; some of them are formed by pure moisture and therefore transparent, and they are called bubbles, while others arose from earthy moisture, which is mobile and tends to rise, and they give the so-called fermentation and souring. A substance that is guilty in all these states is accordingly called acidic. But the effect, which is the opposite of all just described, and for the reason it has the opposite: when the moisture composition of substances entering [into the body] is inherently related to the composition of the tongue, this moisture lubricates and softens the coarsened, tightens or, on the contrary, straightens everything unnaturally inflated or reduced and generally returns everything to the routine of nature. Each such potion that heals violent conditions is pleasant and desirable for everyone, which is why it is called sweet. So, enough of that.

As for the kind of effects that relate to the nostrils, there are no specific varieties. Every smell has a half-hearted nature, for there is no such form that in its structure could arouse a certain smell. Those veins in our body that are intended for this are too small for particles of earth and water, but too spacious for particles of fire and air, and therefore no one could ever smell their own smell of any of these [elements]; smells are born only from substances that are either liquefied, or rot, or melt, or evaporate. They are given life by the transition state that occurs when water is turned into air or, on the contrary, air is into water. All smells are either steam or fog, because fog lies halfway from air to water, and steam is halfway from water to the air.

Therefore, they are finer than water, but coarser than air; this becomes apparent if you inhale the air through an obstruction blocking the breath and observe how everything smelling is eliminated and the air comes clean of odors. It is clear that the variety of smells remains nameless, because it does not come down to a large number of simple forms. Here there is only one clear two-term division – into smells pleasant and unpleasant. The latter has a violent and coarse effect on the entire cavity, extending from the crown to the navel, while the former softens the coarsened and pleasantly returns it to its original state. The third area of ​​our sensations is hearing, and for the effects it receives, we should also find the underlying causes. In general terms, let’s say that sound is a push, produced by air through the ears to the brain and blood and reaching the soul, while the movement caused by this impulse, which starts from the head and ends in the region of the liver, is hearing. If the movement is fast, the sound is high; the slower it is, the lower the sound. Uniform movement gives an even and gentle sound, uneven – rough, with strong – loud, weak – quiet. As for the harmonies, the need forces us to postpone this subject for the last time.

Now only the fourth kind of sensations remains, but it is a great variety, requiring a dissected approach. This variety has a common color name; and color is a flame flowing from each individual body and consisting of particles commensurate with the ability of our vision to sense. We have already talked about the causes of vision before, and now it is most appropriate and most necessary to explain colors as plausibly as possible. Those particles that are carried away from other bodies and collide with an optic ray are either smaller than the particles of the latter, or larger, or of the same size. Those that have the same size are imperceptible, and we call them transparent. On the contrary, those that are larger compress the optic ray, and those that are smaller expand it, and their effect can be compared with the action of cold and hot on our flesh, as well as with the action of tart and burning (or “sharp”, as we put it) in our language. This is white and black, that is, impressions born in a different field of feelings than those just listed, and therefore seeming different, but actually identical to them. So we will call them: “white” – that which extends the optic ray, “black” – that which narrows it. When a fire of a different kind, rushing more impetuously, strikes the optic ray, penetrates it to the very eyes, forcibly opens the eye passages and dilutes their substance, it causes all that fire and water to flow out of it, which we call tears.

Since two lights meet on both sides, one with lightning speed beating from the eyes, and the other entering the eyes and dying away from moisture, all kinds of colors are born from their mixing; it is called overflows, and to what caused such a state they were given the names of brilliant and sparkling. There is also a kind of fire that stands in the middle between the two above; it reaches the eye moisture and mixes with it, but does not shine. The flickering of this fire through the liquid that dissolved it gives a bloody color, which we called red. From the mixing of sparkling fire with red and white, a yellow color arose; but the relation in which they were mixed would make no sense even if someone knew him, for here it is impossible to give not only necessary, but even probable and plausible arguments. Next, red with color, mixed with black and white, it turns purple or dark lilac if all parts of the mixture are more charred and more black is mixed. Yellow mixed with gray gives brown, gray itself is a mixture of white and black; yellow mixed with white gives an ocher color. When white, converging with a brilliant one, lays on a densely black base, then blue appears, while the combination of blue and white gives blue, and brown with black gives green.

From these examples it is clear enough to which mixtures all other colors can be reduced without violating the likelihood. But one who would try to strictly verify all this in practice would prove that he understands the differences between human and divine nature, because if God has both knowledge and power, in order to mix the multitude into unity and then again allow the unity into multitude, then notes and there will never be such a person who would be able to do both of these tasks. o All the above-mentioned waxes, born at that time under the influence of necessity, took the demiurge of the most beautiful and best of the things that arose, intending to give birth to a self-sufficient and most perfect god; the reasons that are inherent in the things themselves, he used as auxiliary, but at the same time he directed each of the things that arose for good.

Therefore, it must distinguish between two types of causes – necessary and divine – and find in everything the causes of the second kind, in order to get a blissful life through it for ourselves, as far as our nature allows it, and for the sake of them we should deal with the causes of the first kind, realizing that with oblivion of the need it is unthinkable to neither comprehend nor grab, nor even somehow bring closer to ourselves the only thing that we care about. Now the prepared causes are arranged in our families, like building supplies for carpenters, and we can only lay out from them a further part of our reasoning; However, let us return to the starting point and briefly repeat our entire way up to the place we have just reached, and only then we will try to give our legend an appropriate conclusion.

As was mentioned at the beginning, all things showed a state of complete disorder, and only God brought each of them into agreement with himself and with all other things in all respects in which they could be involved in correlation and proportionality. Indeed, hitherto there was nothing like them, except perhaps by any coincidence, and there was nothing at all to apply to those names by which we now call fire and water, as well as other things; for the first time, God ordered all this, and then made up from this our Universe – a single living being, enclosing all other living beings, both mortal and immortal. At the same time, the demiurge himself created the divine beings, and he entrusted the creation of mortals to those whom he himself gave birth to. And so, imitating him, they took from his hands the immortal beginning of the soul and enclosed them in a mortal body, giving this whole body to the soul instead of the chariot, but, in addition, they adjusted to it another, mortal, kind of soul, investing in it dangerous and conditional conditions: for starters – pleasure, this powerful bait of evil, then suffering, frightening pass for good, and in addition to two unreasonable counselors – impudence and fear – and, finally, anger that does not heed persuasion, and hope that is not excessively easy to heed seduction. They mixed all this with an unreasonable sensation and with love ready for everything, and so completed but with the laws of necessity the mortal kind of soul. and in addition to the two unreasonable counselors – impudence and fear – and, finally, anger, which does not heed persuasion, and hope, which is not excessively easy to heed seduction. They mixed all this with an unreasonable sensation and with love ready for everything, and so completed but with the laws of necessity the mortal kind of soul. and in addition to the two unreasonable counselors – impudence and fear – and, finally, anger, which does not heed persuasion, and hope, which is not excessively easy to heed seduction. They mixed all this with an unreasonable sensation and with love ready for everything, and so completed but with the laws of necessity the mortal kind of soul.

However, they undoubtedly were afraid without any need to desecrate the divine principle in this way and therefore removed the mortal soul from it, having arranged for it a cloister in another part of the body, and between their heads and chests, in order to separate them, they erected their neck as a kind of isthmus and frontier. For it was in the chest and in the so-called torso that they put a mortal soul; since one part of the soul has a more noble nature, and the other is lower, they divided the cavity of this body in two, as if separating the male half of the house from the female, and placed a chest-abdominal barrier as a mediastinum. That part of the soul that, having communed with a courageous spirit and loved victory, they placed closer to the head, between the chest-abdomen and neck, so that she would listen to orders of reason and help him to restrain his lust by force, they hardly wish to voluntarily submit to the domineering word emanating from the supreme stronghold of the acropolis. But to the heart, this center of blood vessels and the spring, violently persecuted by all the members of the blood, they took the guard’s room; every time when the spirit begins to boil with anger, having received from the mind the news of a certain injustice committed from the outside or, perhaps, from the side of its own lust, immediately, through all the close channels going from the heart to each sensory organ, exhortations and threats must strive, so that they all showed unconditional humility and ceded leadership to the best of beginnings. c However, the gods foresaw that, while waiting for dangers and excitement of the spirit, the heart would pound and that every such boiling of passions was associated with the action of fire. And to help the heart, they grew a kind of lung, which, firstly, it is soft and bloodless, and besides, like a sponge, it is endowed with pores, so that it can absorb breath and drink, cool the heart and thereby give it rest and freshness in the heat. For this purpose, they cut open the passages from the respiratory throat to the lungs and overlay the heart with lungs, like pillows, so that every time the spirit plays in it, it suppresses its blows on the supple thickness and at the same time receives cooling so that its torment decreases, and the help that the spirit gives to reason has increased. Another part of the mortal soul, which carries a lust for food, drink and everything else that it needs by the very nature of the body, they were placed between the abdominal barrier and the navel, turning this whole area into a kind of feeder for feeding the body; there they put this part of the soul on a chain, like a wild beast that cannot be tamed, but it is necessary to nourish for the sake of its connection with the whole, since the mortal race is destined to arise. They arranged so that this beast always stood at its feeding trough and lived away from the rational soul, perhaps less annoying it with its own, noise and roar, so that it could make its decisions without interference for the benefit of all parts of the body together and each of them individually.

They knew that he would not understand the reasoning, and even if some of them reached him through sensation, it would not be in his nature to take care of it; he is doomed in the night and during the day to be seduced by a game of likes and ghosts. And so, God, intending to find the council on him, built the appearance of a liver and placed it in the den of the beast, trying to make the liver come out firm, smooth, glossy and tasted sweet, but not without bitterness.

The purpose of God was to make the mental effect coming out of the mind be reflected by the liver, like a mirror that captures impressions and reveals ghosts, and thus would find fear on the beast when this effect reaches him with severe threats and resorts to the bitter part , rapidly spilling it throughout the liver, causing the appearance of a biliary tinge and causing the whole liver to wrinkle and harden; in addition, this effect removes the entire lobe of the liver from a straight position, bends and bends it, pinches its vessels and squeezes the portal vein, which leads to pain and nausea. When, on the contrary, from the thinking part of the soul, a breath of meekness will blow, which will bring to life visions of a completely different kind, this breath will not only excite the bitter part of the liver, but also will not touch this opposite nature; on the contrary it will resort to the innate liver property of sweetness in order to straighten, smooth and release all its parts. Thanks to this, the part of the soul that dwells in the region of the liver should become enlightened and joyful, at night it should behave calmly, indulging in prophetic dreams, as long as it is already not involved in reason and thinking. After all, the gods who built us remembered the commandments of their father, who commanded to create the human race as perfect as possible; in pursuance of this, they tried to attach to the truth even the low part of our being and therefore established a prophet in it. The fact that God devoted a prophetic gift to human insanity can be undeniably proved: no one, being in his mind, is involved in the inspired and true prophecy, but only when the mental ability is connected with a dream, an illness or a certain attack of obsession. On the contrary, it is the business of the person intact in the mind to recall and restore what this prophetic and inspired nature uttered in a dream or in reality, to divide all visions with the help of thought and to understand what they mean – evil or good – and whether they relate to the future, to past or present tenses. It is not for those who have gone mad and still in madness to judge their own visions and utterances! The truth is told by an old proverb that only a reasonable one can understand himself and what he does. Hence the custom arose that all tribes of interpreters would pronounce their judgment about all inspired divination; it is true that they themselves are sometimes called prophets, but only out of ignorance, for they only unravel mysterious sayings and visions, therefore, they must in all fairness be called not prophets at all, but interpreters in the presence of those who prophesy. These are the reasons why the liver received the above device and location; the goal was prophecy. And in fact, as long as the body lives, the liver gives very intelligible signs, with the departure of life it becomes blind, and then its broadcasts are too foggy to contain a clear meaning. c The organ adjacent to the liver was created and placed to the left of it for the sake of all good, in order to keep it invariably glossy and clean, serving it like a sponge that always lies ready for the base of a mirror. As soon as any impurities generated by body ailments appear near the liver, the spleen immediately eliminates them, absorbing them into their bloodless cavities. So it turns out that when it is filled with these garbage, it swells and inflates, but, when the body is cleansed, it falls and returns to its former size. This is what we think about the soul, about its mortal and divine parts, as well as about how, in what neighborhood and for what reasons each of these parts received its own separate residence. To insist that what we said is the truth, we would dare except with the direct permission of God; but we have observed believability, we can safely say it now, and all the more with our further reasoning in mind.

So let’s say it! Moving on to the next question, we will keep our previous path; the question is how the rest of the body came about. Their arrangement is most correctly explained by the following conclusions, the creators of our race knew in advance what kind of rampant food and drink would overwhelm us; they foresaw that, in our greed, we will begin to absorb both of them more than moderation and necessity dictate. Fearing, therefore, that the fierce pestilence would not break out and the mortal race not yet completed, they prudently constructed the pantry, which they call the lower cavity, to take the excess drink and food, and filled it with convolutions of the intestines so that the food would not leave the body too quickly, forcing him to demand new food and thereby inciting to gluttony, and so that the human race because of gluttony would not become a stranger to philosophy and Muses, revealing disobedience to the most divine that is in us. As for the bones, muscles, and in general all of this nature, this is how it is with it: the beginning of all this is the birth of the brain; the bonds of life that bind the soul to the body are rooted in it, the roots of the human race lie in it. But the brain itself is born from another. It was like this: among all the original triangles, God chose and isolated the most regular and even ones that were capable of representing fire and water, air and earth in the greatest purity; then, separating each from his own kind, he proportionately mixed them, preparing with a common seed for the entire mortal kind, and built a brain out of it. In it, he planted all kinds of souls, and having approved them, he corrupted the brain at the very first dissection into so many bodies that they, with their number and device, corresponded to the aforementioned births. The share that was destined as a kind of arable land, to perceive the seed of the divine principle, he made it round on all sides and called this share the brain, foreseeing that the vessel containing it at the end of every living creature will become the head. Another share was to receive the remaining, that is mortal, part of the soul; he split it into round, and moreover oblong, bodies, also naming them all as a whole by the brain, albeit not in the literal sense. From them, as from anchors, he stretched the bonds, which were supposed to hold the whole soul together, and around this base he began to build our whole body, first of all putting the brain on a solid bone cover. This is how he built the bone. Another share was to receive the remaining, that is mortal, part of the soul; he split it into round, and moreover oblong, bodies, also naming them all as a whole by the brain, albeit not in the literal sense. From them, as from anchors, he stretched the bonds, which were supposed to hold the whole soul together, and around this base he began to build our whole body, first of all putting the brain on a solid bone cover. This is how he built the bone. Another share was to receive the remaining, that is mortal, part of the soul; he split it into round, and moreover oblong, bodies, also naming them all as a whole by the brain, albeit not in the literal sense. From them, as from anchors, he stretched the bonds, which were supposed to hold the whole soul together, and around this base he began to build our whole body, first of all putting the brain on a solid bone cover. This is how he built the bone.

Having selected by sifting the clean and smooth ground, he kneaded it and moistened it with the brain; after that he puts the mixture into the fire, then dips into the water, then again into the fire and again into the water. After tempering it several times in fire and water, he made it indestructible for both the one and the other. In business, he used it primarily to carve out a bone sphere around the brain from it, leaving a narrow passage in this sphere; and to cover the occipital and spinal cord, he sculpted vertebrae from the same mixture, which they laid on top of each other, like folding door hinges, stretching this row from the head through the whole body.

So he enclosed the whole seed in a protective stone-like fence and in the last he built joints, resorting to the mediating force of another, in order to ensure mobility and flexibility. He further saw that the nature of the bone was brittle and unbending beyond its due, and that if it also had to endure heat and then cool, it would not resist the caries that would ruin the seed contained in it; therefore, he invented a kind of tendon and flesh. Tendons, having connected all the members with each other, had to make the body bend and unbend in the joints with its contractions and sprains; as for the flesh, she was assigned to serve as protection from the heat and as a shelter from the cold, as well as a kind of felt cushion that protects from bruises, because she can oppose the elasticity of the pressure of the bodies. In addition, warm moisture lurks in it,

Such was the Sculptor’s plan, and here he combined in sufficient quantities water, fire and earth, and after kneading them with a sharp and salty sourdough, it turned out to be soft and juicy flesh. As for the nature of the tendons, he formed it by mixing the bone with the unfermented flesh, and this intermediate mixture gave a yellow color. That’s why the tendons turned out to be stronger and more viscous than the flesh, but softer and wetter than the bone. So, with all this, he covered the bones with the brain lying in them, connecting them through the tendons, and wrapping them on top with a robe of flesh. Moreover, the bones in which there are the most souls, he wrapped the least thick flesh, and the most soulless – the largest and most dense; with regard to bone joints, when special considerations did not require anything else, he again nurtured only meager flesh on them, so that it does not hamper the bending of the joints and dooms the body to immobility and helplessness. But he also wished that the abundant and dense strata of muscles, leaning against each other and being rude from this, would dull the sensation, which would cause the fading of memory and the relaxation of mental abilities.

That is why the femur and tibia, pelvic, humeral and ulnar bones, as well as all bones in general, which are not articulated and contain little soul in their brains, and therefore, are deprived of thinking, were all generously covered in flesh; on the contrary, that which the mind carries in itself is much less covered by it, except in those cases when the flesh itself serves as a carrier of sensations: such is the structure of the tongue. But for the most part, the situation was as it was said above, because in nature, born and living by virtue of necessity, dense bone and abundant flesh cannot get along with a subtle and distinct sensation. If both were compatible, the structure of the head would be endowed with all of this in abundance, and then the human race, bearing on its shoulders such a fleshy, sinewy and strong head, would get twice, or even many times longer. and moreover, a healthier and more carefree life. And so, when the demiurges of our birth faced a choice whether to inform the creator of the family more durability, but less perfection or less durability, but more perfection, they unanimously decided that everyone should definitely prefer a shorter, but better life, longer but worse. In accordance with this, they covered the head with a friable bone, without putting flesh on top and not even giving her tendons, because there were no joints here anyway.

Therefore, the head is the most sensitive and the most reasonable, but also the much weakest part of every man. For the same reasons, God attached tendons only to the very bottom of the head, uniformly wrapping them around the neck and connecting with them the edges of the jaw bones under the face; he distributed the rest of the tendon supply among the other members, connecting the joints. As for our mouth, the builders supplied it with its current equipment – teeth, tongue and lips, having in mind both the necessary and the best: they created the entrance for the necessary, and the exit for the best.

In fact, everything that enters the body and nourishes it is related to the necessary, while the outward flow of speeches, serving as thoughts, is the most beautiful and the best of all streams. And yet the head could not be left with one bare bone cover, without protection against annual alternations of heat and cold, just as it was impossible to allow it to become dull and insensible from the abundance of flesh. Meanwhile, a rather thick film, which is now known as the skin, exfoliated from the still dry flesh. Thanks to brain moisture, it grew and grew further, so that it surrounded the entire head, and moisture, rising up through the seams, irrigated it and forced it to close at the crown, as it were, into a knot. As for the seams, the differences in their forms are due to the power of the rounds of thought and nutrition: if the confrontation of both is stronger, there are more seams,

The deity was pierced all this skin with a piercing force of fire, and when moisture came out through these punctures, all the pure and warm parts evaporated; but the impurity, which consisted of the same substances as the skin, although rushing in height, stretching into an extended body, was as thin as a puncture, but due to slowness it turned out to be discarded by the surrounding air, grew into the skin and took root in it. So there was a kind of hair growing from the skin; by their belt-like nature, they are close to the skin, but harder and denser, which is explained by the compressive effect of cold on each individual hair that has been separated from the skin. When the Organizer made our head so shaggy, he was guided by the named reasons, and his intention was that it should be a light cover of the brain instead of the flesh, obscuring it in the summer and warming it in the winter, but at. this would not interfere with his sensitivity. As for the interweaving of tendons, skin and bone at the ends of the fingers, then when everything was mixed and the mixture was dried, tough skin was born.

These were the auxiliary reasons involved in its creation, but the most genuine of the reasons was the concern for creatures that would arise in the future. Those who arranged us knew that once women were born from men, as well as animals, and that many creatures for many reasons would feel the need to use nails; that is why, even at the very birth of mankind, they outlined their beginnings. Such, therefore, are those considerations and designs that the gods guided when they created skin, hair and nails at the extremities of the limbs. Now all the parts and members of the mortal living creature have grown together, which, however, had to live in the midst of fire and air, and, therefore, endure decay and devastation from them, and therefore perish. But the gods came to his aid: they grew a certain nature, akin to human, but composed of other types and sensations and therefore representing a different kind of creatures; these were the very trees, herbs, and plants in general, which are now ennobled by the labor of farmers and serve our benefit, but initially existed only in the form of wild species, more ancient than well-groomed. Everything that is involved in life, in all justice and truth, can be called a living being; Thus, the subject of our reasoning is involved in the third kind of soul, which, according to what was said above, is placed between the abdominal barrier and the navel and, moreover, has no opinion, no reason, no mind, but only a feeling of pleasure and pain, as well as lust. but originally existed only in the form of wild species, more ancient than well-groomed. Everything that is involved in life, in all justice and truth, can be called a living being; Thus, the subject of our reasoning is involved in the third kind of soul, which, according to what was said above, is placed between the abdominal barrier and the navel and, moreover, has no opinion, no reason, no mind, but only a feeling of pleasure and pain, as well as lust. but originally existed only in the form of wild species, more ancient than well-groomed. Everything that is involved in life, in all justice and truth, can be called a living being; Thus, the subject of our reasoning is involved in the third kind of soul, which, according to what was said above, is placed between the abdominal barrier and the navel and, moreover, has no opinion, no reason, no mind, but only a feeling of pleasure and pain, as well as lust.

In fact, the plant passes its life path in a purely passive way, it moves only in itself and in relation to itself and resists the effects of external movement, using its own, so that it does not see and does not understand its state and nature. Therefore, of course, it lives and is nothing more than a living creature, however it is attached to its place and rooted in it, for it is not given to it by the ability to move [outside] with its power. So, all these breeds of the plant kingdom they were grown, powerful, for us, less strong, for food. Then they cut through the channels in our body, just as they cut drainage ditches in the garden so that it would be irrigated by the influx of moisture.

First of all, they conducted two hidden leaks between the skin and flesh fused with it – two dorsal veins corresponding to the division of the body into right and left sides; they directed these veins down on either side of the spinal column, enclosing a reproductive brain between them so that it was also maintained in its most flourishing state, and the other parts received a uniform flow of blood easily spreading downward. After that, they divided the veins in the region of the head and intertwined them so that the ends of the veins crossed each other in opposite directions; those that went from the right side of the body, they directed to the left, and those that went from the left, respectively, to the right. This was done so that the head received, in addition to the skin, an extra connection with the body, since it does not have tendons running in a circle to the top of the head; another goal was to make the sensations coming from both sides, clearly received the whole body as a whole. Then they began to arrange water supply in a way that would become clearer to us if we agreed in advance that all bodies made up of smaller particles are impassable for larger ones, while bodies made up of large particles are passable for smaller ones.

Since fire has the smallest particles of all genera, it means that it breaks through water, earth, air, as well as through everything that consists of these three genera, so there is nothing impassable for it. If we keep this in mind with regard to our abdominal cavity, the following will be revealed: when food and drinks enter it, they remain there, but air and fire cannot be held by it, since they have smaller particles compared to it. God resorted to these substances, intending to establish an outflow of moisture from the abdominal cavity into the veins. He wove from the air and fire a special weave, similar to a fishing top and at the entrances had two inserted funnels, one of which in its turn was divided into two branches; from these craters he stretched around in all directions the likeness of the cords, brought to the very edges of weaving; at. In this he composed the entire interior of the top of fire, and thieves and the shell of air particles. Then he took his product and supplied it with the creature that was sculpted by him, but acted as follows: he fixed the holes of the funnels in his mouth, since there were two of them, he brought one of them through the airways into the lungs and the other – past the respiratory tract into the abdominal cavity; at the same time, he cut the first into two parts, having led to both a common passage through the openings of the nose, so that if the passage through the mouth is closed, the air flow is replenished but on the other passage. and the other, past the airways into the abdominal cavity; at the same time, he cut the first into two parts, having led to both a common passage through the openings of the nose, so that if the passage through the mouth is closed, the air flow is replenished but on the other passage. and the other, past the airways into the abdominal cavity; at the same time, he cut the first into two parts, having led to both a common passage through the openings of the nose, so that if the passage through the mouth is closed, the air flow is replenished but on the other passage.

Further, he attached the entire shell of the top around the body cavity and arranged so that it all alternately flowed into the funnels – moreover, gently, because the latter consist of air – then flowed out of the funnels, while the weaving would sink into the depths of the body, which is porous, and then it came out again, while the fiery rays enclosed in the body would follow the movement of air in both directions. All this must continue unceasingly, until the mortal creature’s life ties are broken; and we undertake to assert that this is precisely what the founder of the names called by inhalation and exhalation.

Thanks to this whole series of actions and conditions, our irrigated and cooled body receives nutrition and life, because every time the breath makes its way in and out, the internal fire conjugated with it follows it, again and again passes through the abdominal cavity, covers those located there eating and drinking, destroys them, taking them apart into small fractions, and then drives them along the pores through which he passes, directing them into the veins, as the water from the spring is directed into the ducts, and thus forces it to flow through the body, as if through an aquiferous ditch, jet, t flowing through the veins. But let us consider once again the reasons why the respiratory device arose exactly as it remains today.

The situation is as follows. Since there is no void where the moving body could rush, and the air exhaled by us moves outward, for everyone it should be clear that it does not go into the void, but pushes the neighboring air from its place; he, in turn, drives the air that will be nearby, and he passes the impulse further, so that all the surrounding air is moved to the place where the breath came from, and when he entered and filled this cavity, the air follows the same path. All this happens simultaneously, like turning a wheel, because there is no void. Therefore, the space of the chest and lungs, from where the breath came out, is again filled with air surrounding the body, which plunges into the holes of the flesh and completes its cycle when this air turns back and goes out through the body, he, in turn, becomes the culprit of a circular push, driving the breath into the passages of the mouth and nostrils. It should be assumed that the beginning of all this has the following q reason: every living creature has a very large internal heat in its blood and veins, which are, as it were, a source of corporal fire; it was he who we likened to the weaving of our top when we said that its inner part was woven entirely of fire, while the outer parts of it were made of air. Meanwhile, I must admit that everything hot from nature tends to go out into a place that is naturally appropriate to it; since it has only two exits, one of which leads out through the body, and the other through the mouth and nostrils, it is worthwhile to rush hot to any one exit, as it pushes the air into the other with a circular push, and the pressed [air] enters into the fire and warms up, and the one who comes out is cooled. And when the ratio of heat changes and [air] becomes hotter at another exit, he, in turn, will rush harder to where his nature will lead, and a circular push will drive [air] to the opposite exit. An endless series of these actions and counteractions forms a cycle directed here and there, which gave rise to entry and exit. Here, one should look for an explanation of what happens when banks are placed, as well as when swallowing or when throwing objects – whether they rush high above the ground or along its surface. This also includes sounds that, depending on their speed or slowness, appear high or low, and sometimes they are inconsistent with each other, because the movement they make in us is devoid of similarity, sometimes, on the contrary, they give harmony due to the coordination of movement.

The thing is that when slower sounds overtake the movements of faster ones that have previously reached our ears, they become already exhausted, and their movements are similar to movements that make slower sounds when they arrive late; thus, the latter do not cause discord, but instead the beginning of the slow and the end of the fast movement are likened to each other, and so there is a single state in which the high and low sounds are mixed. At the same time, the unreasonable take pleasure, and the rational bright joy that the mortal movements through imitation are involved in divine harmony.

Similarly, one should also explain everything that happens when water flows and lightnings fall, as well as the notorious attraction, as if emanating from amber and Heracles stones. In fact, nothing possesses attraction, but due to the lack of emptiness, all things transmit a circular impulse to each other, sometimes separating, now rallying and constantly changing places; in the interweaving of all these states, the true explorer of nature will discover the reasons for all that is wonderful. Indeed, the breathing with which we began our speech takes place, as has already been said, in the same way and for the same reasons: the fire cuts the food, follows the breath inside the body; during this following, he fills the veins, scooping for this from the abdominal cavity substances that he has decomposed, and in this way any living creature experiences abundant irrigation with nutrient moisture.

Hence the color of the moisture flowing over the body is such as we just said, and we call this moisture blood, and from it the flesh and the whole body receive their food, and every depleted part makes up for its loss from the irrigated parts. The way this replenishment and emptying is fulfilling itself corresponds to the general movement in the Universe, where everything moves towards what is related to it. In fact, the substances surrounding our body constantly decompose it and distribute the decomposed in such a way that each particle goes to a related species; on the other hand, the constituent parts of the blood, which have undergone fragmentation in our gut and are now closed in the body of any creature as in their own sky, are forced to imitate the universal movement: each particle separated inside the body rushes to what is akin to it, and replenishes the resulting emptiness. If the outflow of particles exceeds the inflow, any creature becomes weak, otherwise it gains strength.

Accordingly, when the structure of the whole creature is still young and the triangles of its genera are new, as if only from a workshop, the connection of the members shows great strength, while the whole body as a whole is tender, because it was recently born from the brain and was fed with milk. When this body takes in the triangles that enter from the outside, which make up food and drink, then its own triangles are fresher and stronger than appeared, and therefore overcome and dissect them, so that a living creature increases from an abundance of particles like its own. But once the roots of the triangles relax from the endless and many years of struggle with innumerable opponents, the body is no longer able to dissect the food triangles, bringing them to the likeness of their own; on the contrary, the latter themselves are easily fragmented under the pressure of aliens.

Then every living creature, exhausted, falls into the state that we call old age. In the end, the bonds that bind the triangles of the brain do not cope with the pressure, open up and, in turn, allow the bonds of the soul to loose, which finds its natural freedom and flies away with joy, for everything contrary to nature is painful, and everything that happens in accordance with nature is pleasant . This means that death is painful and violent only when it comes from ailments and wounds, when, in accordance with nature, it closes the course of old age, this is the most painless of all deaths, which occurs more likely with pleasure than with torment. As for the ailments, their origin, perhaps, is clear to everyone. Because our body has rallied from four genera – earth, fire, water and air, should one of them be in excess or in shortage or move from one place to another, it’s worth some part (remembering that both fire and other genera are not one variety) to perceive in itself not what is needed, right there , as in the case of other similar violations, troubles and ailments arise; from these inconsistent with nature events and movements, the cool parts of the body become hot, the dry parts swell with moisture, the lungs become heavier and in general the whole body undergoes all kinds of changes.

Only then, we argue, can something preserve self-identity and remain unharmed when the identity approaches the identity and moves away from it identically, uniformly and in due proportion; but everything that breaks it with its inflow or outflow, becomes the cause of innumerable and diverse changes, ailments and disasters. However, there are other compounds in nature; a second category of ailments is associated with them, and for our curiosity there is another explanation for diseases. True, since the brain, bones, muscles and tendons are built from the aforementioned [childbirths] (and blood was born from them in the same way, albeit in a different way), ailments affect all this for the most part exactly as we said earlier, but the most difficult of them they become especially dangerous for this reason: it is worth the formation of these parts to take the return stroke, and they are doomed to decay, because in the natural order of things muscles and tendons arise from blood (moreover, tendons arise from blood fibers that are akin to them, and flesh – from clots of that blood that does not have fibers); further, from the tendons and flesh, in turn, an adhesive and fatty substance is separated, which glues the flesh to the bone and at the same time promotes the growth of the latter, which contains the brain, while its purest part, composed of the smoothest and slippery triangles, seeps through the dense bone thickness, drop by drop flows from the bone and irrigates the brain; when the birth of each of these substances occurs in this order, the result, as a rule, is health, but a distortion of the order gives rise to ailments. because in the natural order of things, muscles and tendons arise from blood (moreover, tendons arise from blood fibers that are akin to them, and flesh – from clots of that blood that does not have fibers); further, from the tendons and flesh, in turn, an adhesive and fatty substance is separated, which glues the flesh to the bone and at the same time promotes the growth of the latter, which contains the brain, while its purest part, composed of the smoothest and slippery triangles, seeps through the dense bone thickness, drop by drop flows from the bone and irrigates the brain; when the birth of each of these substances occurs in this order, the result, as a rule, is health, but a distortion of the order gives rise to ailments. because in the natural order of things, muscles and tendons arise from blood (moreover, tendons arise from blood fibers that are akin to them, and flesh – from clots of that blood that does not have fibers); further, from the tendons and flesh, in turn, an adhesive and fatty substance is separated, which glues the flesh to the bone and at the same time promotes the growth of the latter, which contains the brain, while its purest part, composed of the smoothest and slippery triangles, seeps through the dense bone thickness, drop by drop flows from the bone and irrigates the brain; when the birth of each of these substances occurs in this order, the result, as a rule, is health, but a distortion of the order gives rise to ailments. from the tendons and flesh, in turn, a sticky and fatty substance is separated, which glues the flesh to the bone and at the same time promotes the growth of the latter, which encloses the brain, while its purest part, composed of the most smooth and slippery triangles, seeps through the dense bone thickness, pours from the bone drop by drop and irrigates the brain; when the birth of each of these substances occurs in this order, the result, as a rule, is health, but a distortion of the order gives rise to ailments. from the tendons and flesh, in turn, a sticky and fatty substance is separated, which glues the flesh to the bone and at the same time promotes the growth of the latter, which encloses the brain, while its purest part, composed of the most smooth and slippery triangles, seeps through the dense bone thickness, pours from the bone drop by drop and irrigates the brain; when the birth of each of these substances occurs in this order, the result, as a rule, is health, but a distortion of the order gives rise to ailments.

So, it’s worth the flesh to spread again and release the slurry back into the veins, as the latter are filled with air and a wide variety of blood, various colors and degrees of bitterness, as well as sharpness and salinity, which carries many types of bile, serum and phlegm. these substances arose in the reverse order and conceal damage, they have a detrimental effect primarily on the blood itself; they do not deliver any nutrition to the body, but only rush through the veins to and fro, not conforming to the order of the natural cycle. They are in disagreement with each other, because they cannot get any benefit from each other, and for everything that remains in the body that is stable and vigilant, they are hostile and bring him destruction and decay. Moreover, that part of the decomposable flesh, which is old enough, is difficult to soften; from prolonged burnout, it blackens;

Sometimes, if the bitterness diminishes, the black color is no longer accompanied by a bitter, but a sharp taste; in other cases, bitter rot, when immersed in blood, turns red, and a mixture of red and black produces a greenish color, finally, if the inflammatory fire decomposes young flesh, yellow color is mixed with bitter rot. The common name for all these things is “bile”; perhaps it was invented by doctors or simply by someone who was able to see for many differences a clan unity, requiring one name for itself. As for the varieties of bile, they received special names according to their color. So, serum of black and acute bile, unlike harmless blood serum, is dangerous if, under the influence of heat, it perceives the property of being salty; then it is called caustic phlegm. Another variety is formed from the decay of young and tender flesh,. occurring under the influence of air; it is so swollen by air and moisture that it forms bubbles; individually invisible due to their small size, but together they create a cluster visible to the eye, which consists of foam and is therefore white in appearance; this air-permeated dilution of tender flesh we call white phlegm. The watery part of the newly formed phlegm is, in its turn, sweat, tears and no matter how many other fluids that separate during the daily cleansing of the body. All of them serve as an instrument of ailments, when blood is not replenished from food and drink, as nature requires, but compensates for its loss contrary to natural laws. However, as long as any part of the flesh, disintegrating under the influence of an ailment, retains its foundations, this is only half the trouble, you can easily restore the destroyed. 84 But it’s worth a disease to hit which binds muscles to bones, it is worth the secretions of flesh and tendons to stop feeding bones and merge them with flesh, it is worth the flesh under the influence of an insufficient, causing dryness food to change its fatness, smoothness and adhesiveness to roughness and salty taste – and all this substance, undergoing the described misfortunes , falls away from the bones, again disintegrates into flesh and tendons, while the flesh, separating from its bases, leaves the tendons bare and filled with salty moisture, and itself is again picked up by the blood stream and multiplies the ailments ie we have already referred. But no matter how heavy such suffering of the body is, it is harder than those that have an even deeper cause and are caused by excessive muscle density, which prevents the bones from breathing and causes putrid overheating in them, and because of this, caries; a diseased bone not only stops eating, but it itself also breaks up and in the reverse sequence of transitions from liquefies to the moisture that should feed it; that in its turn becomes flesh, while the flesh, returning to the blood, prepares such ailments that are even meaner than those named. But worst of all, if due to insufficient or excessive influx of any substances the nature of the brain is affected; the most serious diseases flow from this, leading in the surest way to death, because here the whole overall structure of the body is doomed to degenerate. For the third kind of ailments, there must be a three-fold origin: either from breathing, or from phlegm, or from bile. So, when a lung, which is like a distributor of breath in the body, becomes clogged with expiring sputum and therefore cannot give air free passages, breathing does not reach some places at all, but comes in excess to others;

From this arises many painful ailments, most often accompanied by profuse sweat. Quite often, air also arises inside the body from the decomposition of the flesh; finding no way out, it delivers the same torment as the air that entered from the outside with breathing. These torments are especially strong when the air, accumulating and swelling near the tendons and surrounding veins, forces the articular ligaments and adjacent tendons to bend in the opposite direction. From such a convulsive tension, these ailments got their names: “thetan” and “opistoton”. It is difficult to treat them, most often they pass under the influence of fever. As for white phlegm, the air contained in it :, the bubbles are dangerous when it is locked inside the body; finding the way out through vents, it becomes harmless, but paints the body with white lichen and other similar ailments. Sometimes it mixes up with black bile and then disturbs with its intrusions the most divine that we have – the rotations taking place in our head; if such a seizure is captured in a dream, he is not so terrible, but if he attacks the awake one, it is much harder to fight him. Since the nature of the affected part is sacred, it is rightly called a sacred disease. Caustic and salty phlegm are the source of all ailments of catarrhal property; from many different places where the outflow may rush, these ailments received many different names. On the contrary, the so-called inflammation of various parts of the body, so-called from burning and singeing, all owe their appearance to bile. If bile finds its way out through the vents of the body, it in its boil gives rise to all kinds of abscesses; enclosed inside it produces many inflammatory ailments, and the most severe of them when mixed with pure blood and violates the correct ratio of blood fibers. These fibers are scattered throughout the blood in order to maintain a balance between sparseness and density: the blood should neither dilute from the hot enough to leak through the veins, nor thicken beyond what is proper and thus interfere with your own run through the veins. In order to observe this measure, the fibers are intended by their very birth. If you extract them even from the cooling blood of a dead man, the entire remainder of the blood decomposes; on the contrary, if you leave them, they quickly clot blood, finding themselves in alliance with the cold surrounding it. This is the effect of blood fibers; they render it to bile, which by its origin is old blood, and then again becomes blood from the flesh. When warm and liquefied bile first enters the veins little by little, it suffers coagulation and forced cooling under the influence of fibers, producing chills and trembling in the bowels of the body.

But as soon as she rush abundantly, she overcomes the fibers with her heat and, boiling, leads them into complete disorder; if she gets the strength for a final victory, she penetrates to the brain and burns it, as if burning ship ropes of a soul that sets sail to the will. When, on the contrary, it turns out to be weaker, and the body sufficiently resists its decomposing effect, the defeat goes to it, and then it either spreads throughout the body, or is thrown through the veins into the upper or lower abdominal cavity and then cast out of the body , like an exile from a worried troubled city. At its removal, it produces intestinal disorders, bloody diarrhea and other ailments of this kind.

Note that if the body becomes ill mainly due to excess fire, it is subject to continuous fever; if from excess air – fever repeats every day; if from excess water – it happens three days, for water shows more inertness than air and especially fire; if from the excess of land, the fourth and the most inert kind, requiring four times more time for its exile, the body is subject to a four-day fever and recovers with great difficulty. So bodily ailments arise; as for the ailments of the soul, they arise from the bodily as follows. One cannot but agree that foolishness is a disease of the soul, but there are two types of foolishness – insanity and ignorance. So, everything that is akin to either of the two named states deserves the name of an ailment, and then among the most difficult of these illnesses of the soul will have to be reckoned violating the measure of pleasure and suffering. When a person is intoxicated with joy or, on the contrary, tormented with chagrin, he, in his irrepressible thirst, does not receive one in time and is free from the other, he cannot see and hear anything correctly; his mind is darkened, and at such a time he is least able to reason. Meanwhile, if someone, like a particularly fruitful tree, has a brain in abundant flowing seed, such a person for various reasons experiences a lot of torment, but also a lot of pleasures, then lusty, then saturating lust; Overwhelmed by intense pleasures and displeasure, he lives in a state of insanity for most of his life. So, his soul is sick and crazy due to the fault of the body, however, everyone sees in him not a sick person, but a voluntarily vicious person.

When the so-called incontinence in pleasures is blasphemed as voluntary depravity, this blasphemy is almost always unfair: no one is depraved of his own free will, but only the bad qualities of the body or failed education make a depraved person vicious, and always to his own misfortune and against his will. As for the area of ​​suffering, here too the body often turns out to be guilty of vices of the soul. So, when acute and salty phlegm, as well as bitter bile juices, wandering around the body, do not find a way out, but accumulate inside and resent the impurity in? of their vapors of soul movement, they cause all kinds of spiritual ailments of various strengths and durations. Since they can invade any of the three abodes of the soul, depending on the place in which they fall, various kinds of depression and gloom, insolence and cowardice are born, oblivion and stupidity. If, on the other hand, this predisposition is supplemented by vicious state institutions, as well as bad speeches that fill both private and public life, and if those sciences whose healing power could resist this evil are not studied already from a young age, then under the influence of these two reasons, completely beyond our control, and all of us who are depraved become vicious. Responsibility for this lies with the conceived rather than the conceived, and rather with the educators rather than those brought up; and yet everyone is obliged to exert his strength so that through education, exercise and occupation, he can avoid vice and find that which is opposite to him. and if at the same time those sciences whose healing power could resist this evil are not studied already from a young age, then under the influence of these two reasons, which are completely beyond our control, all of us who are corrupt are becoming vicious. Responsibility for this lies with the conceived rather than the conceived, and rather with the educators rather than those brought up; and yet everyone is obliged to exert his strength so that through education, exercise and occupation, he can avoid vice and find that which is opposite to him. and if at the same time those sciences whose healing power could resist this evil are not studied already from a young age, then under the influence of these two reasons, which are completely beyond our control, all of us who are corrupt are becoming vicious. Responsibility for this lies with the conceived rather than the conceived, and rather with the educators rather than those brought up; and yet everyone is obliged to exert his strength so that through education, exercise and occupation, he can avoid vice and find that which is opposite to him.

However, this applies to a different kind of reasoning. On the contrary, it is very appropriate and in time to contrast the above with a narrative about the means by which the health of the body and sanity are maintained; justice itself requires more attention to the good than the evil. Meanwhile, all that is good is, without a doubt, beautiful, and beautiful cannot be alien to measure. So, we have to admit that the living creature, which must be beautiful, is proportionate. But with regard to proportionality, here we are used to take into account trifles, and we lose sight of the most important and essential. When the question is about health and disease, about virtue and vice, there is nothing more important than the proportionality or disproportion between the soul and body as such. But we do not think about it and do not understand that,

side, the living entity as a whole is not beautiful, because he lacks proportionality precisely in the most essential; however, when it has this proportionality, it is for everyone who knows how to see, the most beautiful and gratifying of all the spectacles. After all, a body in which either the length of the legs or the size of other members violates the measure is not just ugly: when all its parts have to work together, it continually falls into fatigue or cramps, becomes unstable, falls, becoming itself the cause of endless troubles. The same should be assumed for that two-part conjunction, which we call a living being. When the soul included in its composition is too strong for the body and, moreover, violent, it loosens the body and fills it from within with ailments; selflessly indulging in research and science, it depletes it;

On the contrary, when a large, soul-superior body combines with meager and weak mental abilities, since people are naturally given two kinds of lusts – bodily lust for food and the most divine desire for reason in us – gusts of a stronger side conquer and increase our own strength, and meanwhile, they make the soul dull, dull and forgetful, attracting ignorance to the person, this worst of all ailments. From one and the other there is only one salvation – not to excite either the soul to the detriment of the body, or the body to the detriment of the soul, but to allow both sides to compete with each other so that they remain in balance and health. Say, one who is engaged in mathematics or other business, requiring a strong strain of thought, must give the body the necessary exercise, resorting to gymnastics; on the contrary who primarily works on the development of his body, it is in his turn to exercise the soul, studying music and all that relates to philosophy, if only he deserves to be rightfully called not only beautiful, but also good. In accordance with this, one must also take care of individual parts [of the body], imitating the example of the Universe. After all, if that which enters the body, heats it from the inside and cools it, and that which surrounds it from the outside, dries and moisturizes and, in addition, it has to endure the consequences of both effects, it means that the body, which is still, will become a toy of these impacts, they will be mastered and perish. imitating the example of the universe. After all, if that which enters the body, heats it from the inside and cools it, and that which surrounds it from the outside, dries and moisturizes and, in addition, it has to endure the consequences of both effects, it means that the body, which is still, will become a toy of these impacts, they will be mastered and perish. imitating the example of the universe. After all, if that which enters the body, heats it from the inside and cools it, and that which surrounds it from the outside, dries and moisturizes and, in addition, it has to endure the consequences of both effects, it means that the body, which is still, will become a toy of these impacts, they will be mastered and perish.

On the contrary, the one who, taking as the example the nurse and the cradle of the Universe, as we once called it, does not allow his body to remain idle, but without tiredness exercises it and somehow makes it stir, according to nature it maintains a balance between internal and external movements and by means of moderate jerks it forces states and particles randomly wandering around the body to be harmoniously arranged depending on mutual affinity, as we spoke about this earlier in relation to the Universe – the one who does all this will not allow joyful to unite with hostile to cause strife and ailments in the body, but combines friendly with friendly in the name of their own health.

As for the movements, the best of them is that which is performed [by the body] within itself and by itself, for it is most akin to the movement of thought, as well as of the Universe; less perfect is that which is caused by an extraneous force, but worst of all is that in which the body rests in inaction, while an extraneous force moves its individual parts. Accordingly, of all types of body cleansing and strengthening, gymnastics is most preferred; in second place is the oscillatory movement during sea or other trips, unless they bring fatigue; and the third place is occupied by this kind of impact, which, however, is beneficial in cases of emergency, but the rest of the time, of course, is unacceptable for a rational person: we are talking about the medical cleansing of the body by the power of drugs. Unless the ailment is of extreme danger, no need to tease him with drugs. The fact is that the structure of any ailment is in some way similar to the nature of a living being; meanwhile, the latter is arranged in such a way that a certain sequence of life periods must pass, and both the whole race as a whole and each individual separately has a strictly set time limit for it, which it reaches if the force of necessity does not intervene. The triangles that make up this creature, when connected, are endowed with the ability to hold only until the appointed time and cannot extend their life longer. in this way, each creature individually has a strictly set time limit for it, which it reaches, if the force of necessity does not intervene. The triangles that make up this creature, when connected, are endowed with the ability to hold only until the appointed time and cannot extend their life longer. in this way, each creature individually has a strictly set time limit for it, which it reaches, if the force of necessity does not intervene. The triangles that make up this creature, when connected, are endowed with the ability to hold only until the appointed time and cannot extend their life longer.

Ailments are arranged in the same way, and therefore only those who want serious disorders to come from mild disorders, and countless ones, can break off their course of the previously set limit by the power of drugs. Therefore, it is better to manage the ailment with the help of an orderly way of life, as circumstances allow us, rather than teasing him with drugs, making the trouble inveterate.

We will end this discussion of the living being as a whole and of the parts of his body, as well as how to live according to the mind, at the same time exercising self-guidance and obedience. But as for the [beginning], which is to be the leader, it is extremely important to provide power in advance so that it can be most beautiful and in the best way possible to exercise its leadership.

However, a thorough analysis of this subject would in itself constitute a special task; if we touch on the matter only along the way, it would make sense in connection with the previous one to note this: as we have already repeated more than once, three different kinds of souls live in us, each of which has its own movements. In accordance with this, we must now say very briefly that the kind of soul that is idle and throws in its movements, by necessity, turns out to be the weakest, and the one that indulges in exercises becomes the strongest; therefore, one must strictly monitor that their movements maintain proper proportionality. As for the most important form of our soul, it should be thought of as a demon assigned to each of us by God; this is the kind that we said dwells on top of our body and rushes us from the earth to the native sky as heavenly, not earthly creature; and our words were absolutely true, for the head, which is our root, the deity extended to where the soul was originally born, and through this it informed the whole body of a direct posture.

True, for one who is mired in lust or vanity and selflessly serves them, all thoughts can only be mortal, and he will not miss the chance to become, as far as possible, even more mortal and increase the mortal principle in himself. But if a person surrenders to the love of learning, strives for the truly rational and exercises the corresponding ability of the soul mainly in front of all the others, he, having touched the truth, acquires immortal and divine thoughts, which means that he has immortality in such fullness that human nature can contain it ; since he invariably in himself cultivates the divine principle and properly pleases the demon accompanying him, he himself cannot but be extremely blissful.

Generally speaking, there is only one way to cherish anything – you need to deliver to it exactly the food and the movement that are appropriate for him. Meanwhile, if there are movements that show affinity with the divine principle within us, then this is the mental circulation of the universe; each of us must follow it, so that, through the discretion of harmonies and cycles of the world, we can correct the cycles in our own head that were violated even at birth, in other words, to ensure that the contemplative, as its original nature requires, becomes like the contemplated, and thus acquire the perfect life that the gods offered us as a goal for these and future times.

So we, it seems, have finished with the task that we took upon ourselves at the very beginning: to bring the story of the Universe to the appearance of man. As for the question of how other living beings arose, it can be considered briefly, without going into the verbosity without any special need, in order to preserve due measure in our speeches. Here’s what we’ll say about this: among the husbands who came into the world there were those who turned out to be cowards or spent their lives in error, and we won’t deviate from credibility if we suppose that at the next birth they changed their nature to feminine, while the gods, taking advantage of this, just then created an eros that attracted to intercourse and formed one animated creature inside our and female [bodies], constructing each of them as follows. In the place where the duct for drunk moisture, bypassing the lungs, coming lower than the kidneys to the bladder, in order to elicit the perceived pressure under pressure from the air, they opened a conclusion for the spinal cord, which continuously stretches from the head through the neck along the spinal column and which we have previously called the seed. Since this brain is animated, he, having received a way out, did not fail to kindle a life-giving thirst for outpourings in the area of ​​his output, thus giving rise to child-bearing eros. That is why the nature of the shameful parts of the meal is obstinate and self-willed, like a beast, beyond the control of reason, and under the streak of intolerable lust is capable of anything. Since this brain is animated, he, having received a way out, did not fail to kindle a life-giving thirst for outpourings in the area of ​​his output, thus giving rise to child-bearing eros. That is why the nature of the shameful parts of the meal is obstinate and self-willed, like a beast, beyond the control of reason, and under the streak of intolerable lust is capable of anything. Since this brain is animated, he, having received a way out, did not fail to kindle a life-giving thirst for outpourings in the area of ​​his output, thus giving rise to child-bearing eros. That is why the nature of the shameful parts of the meal is obstinate and self-willed, like a beast, beyond the control of reason, and under the streak of intolerable lust is capable of anything.

Similarly, in women, that part of them, which is called the uterus, or womb, is nothing but a beast that has settled inside them, full of child-lust; when this beast is in time, and for a long time he has no chance to conceive, he becomes furious, scours all over his body, tightens his respiratory tract and does not allow a woman to breathe, bringing her to the last extreme and to all kinds of ailments, until finally female lust and male eros they will bring the couple together and will not take the crop from the trees, so as to sow the arable land with the sowing of living beings, which by their smallness are still invisible and shapeless, but then they take on a dissected appearance, are fed in the mother’s womb to a fair size, and after that they are born, it completes the birth of a living being.

So, that’s where the women came from and everything that belongs to the female sex. Men had to grow feathers instead of hair and give rise to a bird tribe, not malevolent, but frivolous, namely those who liked to speculate about what is above the ground, but in the simplicity of their souls believed that the highest reliability in such matters belongs to vision. But the tribe of land animals came from those who were completely alien to philosophy and did not think of heaven, because they had lost the need for circulations inherent in the head and provided guidance over those parts of the soul that dwell in the chest. Because they behaved in such a way, their forelimbs and heads reached out to their ground and rested on it, and the skull extended or distorted its appearance in any other way, depending on how much the circulatory movements in the skull are flattened by idleness. This is the reason why their kind has four legs or more: the more unreasonable the creature, the more generously God gave him support, because he was more drawn to the earth. Those that were even more unreasonable and with their whole bodies spread flat on the ground, no longer needed legs, and therefore God gave birth to them legless and reptiles. The fourth, or aquatic, genus of creatures came from the most wretched ignoramuses, whose souls were so unclean because of all kinds of misconceptions that the sculptors of bodies felt sorry for them even clean air, and therefore they were sent to the depths – to inhale muddy water, forgetting about the thin and clean air breath. From here leads the breed of fish, oysters, and generally all aquatic animals,

Accordingly, all living things are still being reborn into each other, changing their appearance as their minds or stupidity decrease or increase. Now we say that our reasoning has come to an end. For, having absorbed the mortal and immortal living beings and replenished with them, our cosmos has become a visible living being, embracing everything visible, a sensual god, the image of the God of intelligible, the greatest and best, the most beautiful and most perfect, the only begotten sky.

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Natural philosophy