Chapter XII: Section 8 (3)

Thus far and until the birth of time the created universe was
made in the likeness of the original, but inasmuch as all animals
were not yet comprehended therein, it was still unlike. What
remained, the creator then proceeded to fashion after the nature
of the pattern. Now as in the ideal animal the mind perceives
ideas or species of a certain nature and number, he thought that
this created animal ought to have species of a like nature and
number. There are four such; one of them is the heavenly race of
the gods; another, the race of birds whose way is in the air; the
third, the watery species; and the fourth, the pedestrian and
land creatures. Of the heavenly and divine, he created the
greater part out of fire, that they might be the brightest of all
things and fairest to behold, and he fashioned them after the
likeness of the universe in the figure of a circle, and made them
follow the intelligent motion of the supreme, distributing them
over the whole circumference of heaven, which was to be a true
cosmos or glorious world spangled with them all over. And he gave
to each of them two movements: the first, a movement on the same
spot after the same manner, whereby they ever continue to think
consistently the same thoughts about the same things; the second,
a forward movement, in which they are controlled by the
revolution of the same and the like; but by the other five
motions they were unaffected, in order that each of them might
attain the highest perfection. And for this reason the fixed
stars were created, to be divine and eternal animals,
ever-abiding and revolving after the same manner and on the same
spot; and the other stars which reverse their motion and are
subject to deviations of this kind, were created in the manner
already described. The earth, which is our nurse, clinging (or
‘circling’) around the pole which is extended through the
universe, he framed to be the guardian and artificer of night and
day, first and eldest of gods that are in the interior of heaven.
Vain would be the attempt to tell all the figures of them
circling as in dance, and their juxtapositions, and the return of
them in their revolutions upon themselves, and their
approximations, and to say which of these deities in their
conjunctions meet, and which of them are in opposition, and in
what order they get behind and before one another, and when they
are severally eclipsed to our sight and again reappear, sending
terrors and intimations of the future to those who cannot
calculate their movements—to attempt to tell of all this without
a visible representation of the heavenly system would be labour
in vain. Enough on this head; and now let what we have said about
the nature of the created and visible gods have an end.

To know or tell the origin of the other divinities is beyond us,
and we must accept the traditions of the men of old time who
affirm themselves to be the offspring of the gods—that is what
they say—and they must surely have known their own ancestors. How
can we doubt the word of the children of the gods? Although they
give no probable or certain proofs, still, as they declare that
they are speaking of what took place in their own family, we must
conform to custom and believe them. In this manner, then,
according to them, the genealogy of these gods is to be received
and set forth.

Oceanus and Tethys were the children of Earth and Heaven, and
from these sprang Phorcys and Cronos and Rhea, and all that
generation; and from Cronos and Rhea sprang Zeus and Here, and
all those who are said to be their brethren, and others who were
the children of these.

Now, when all of them, both those who visibly appear in their
revolutions as well as those other gods who are of a more
retiring nature, had come into being, the creator of the universe
addressed them in these words: ‘Gods, children of gods, who are
my works, and of whom I am the artificer and father, my creations
are indissoluble, if so I will. All that is bound may be undone,
but only an evil being would wish to undo that which is
harmonious and happy. Wherefore, since ye are but creatures, ye
are not altogether immortal and indissoluble, but ye shall
certainly not be dissolved, nor be liable to the fate of death,
having in my will a greater and mightier bond than those with
which ye were bound at the time of your birth. And now listen to
my instructions:—Three tribes of mortal beings remain to be
created—without them the universe will be incomplete, for it will
not contain every kind of animal which it ought to contain, if it
is to be perfect. On the other hand, if they were created by me
and received life at my hands, they would be on an equality with
the gods. In order then that they may be mortal, and that this
universe may be truly universal, do ye, according to your
natures, betake yourselves to the formation of animals, imitating
the power which was shown by me in creating you. The part of them
worthy of the name immortal, which is called divine and is the
guiding principle of those who are willing to follow justice and
you—of that divine part I will myself sow the seed, and having
made a beginning, I will hand the work over to you. And do ye
then interweave the mortal with the immortal, and make and beget
living creatures, and give them food, and make them to grow, and
receive them again in death.’

Thus he spake, and once more into the cup in which he had
previously mingled the soul of the universe he poured the remains
of the elements, and mingled them in much the same manner; they
were not, however, pure as before, but diluted to the second and
third degree. And having made it he divided the whole mixture
into souls equal in number to the stars, and assigned each soul
to a star; and having there placed them as in a chariot, he
showed them the nature of the universe, and declared to them the
laws of destiny, according to which their first birth would be
one and the same for all,—no one should suffer a disadvantage at
his hands; they were to be sown in the instruments of time
severally adapted to them, and to come forth the most religious
of animals; and as human nature was of two kinds, the superior
race would hereafter be called man. Now, when they should be
implanted in bodies by necessity, and be always gaining or losing
some part of their bodily substance, then in the first place it
would be necessary that they should all have in them one and the
same faculty of sensation, arising out of irresistible
impressions; in the second place, they must have love, in which
pleasure and pain mingle; also fear and anger, and the feelings
which are akin or opposite to them; if they conquered these they
would live righteously, and if they were conquered by them,
unrighteously. He who lived well during his appointed time was to
return and dwell in his native star, and there he would have a
blessed and congenial existence. But if he failed in attaining
this, at the second birth he would pass into a woman, and if,
when in that state of being, he did not desist from evil, he
would continually be changed into some brute who resembled him in
the evil nature which he had acquired, and would not cease from
his toils and transformations until he followed the revolution of
the same and the like within him, and overcame by the help of
reason the turbulent and irrational mob of later accretions, made
up of fire and air and water and earth, and returned to the form
of his first and better state. Having given all these laws to his
creatures, that he might be guiltless of future evil in any of
them, the creator sowed some of them in the earth, and some in
the moon, and some in the other instruments of time; and when he
had sown them he committed to the younger gods the fashioning of
their mortal bodies, and desired them to furnish what was still
lacking to the human soul, and having made all the suitable
additions, to rule over them, and to pilot the mortal animal in
the best and wisest manner which they could, and avert from him
all but self-inflicted evils.

When the creator had made all these ordinances he remained in his
own accustomed nature, and his children heard and were obedient
to their father’s word, and receiving from him the immortal
principle of a mortal creature, in imitation of their own creator
they borrowed portions of fire, and earth, and water, and air
from the world, which were hereafter to be restored—these they
took and welded them together, not with the indissoluble chains
by which they were themselves bound, but with little pegs too
small to be visible, making up out of all the four elements each
separate body, and fastening the courses of the immortal soul in
a body which was in a state of perpetual influx and efflux. Now
these courses, detained as in a vast river, neither overcame nor
were overcome; but were hurrying and hurried to and fro, so that
the whole animal was moved and progressed, irregularly however
and irrationally and anyhow, in all the six directions of motion,
wandering backwards and forwards, and right and left, and up and
down, and in all the six directions. For great as was the
advancing and retiring flood which provided nourishment, the
affections produced by external contact caused still greater
tumult—when the body of any one met and came into collision with
some external fire, or with the solid earth or the gliding
waters, or was caught in the tempest borne on the air, and the
motions produced by any of these impulses were carried through
the body to the soul. All such motions have consequently received
the general name of ‘sensations,’ which they still retain. And
they did in fact at that time create a very great and mighty
movement; uniting with the ever-flowing stream in stirring up and
violently shaking the courses of the soul, they completely
stopped the revolution of the same by their opposing current, and
hindered it from predominating and advancing; and they so
disturbed the nature of the other or diverse, that the three
double intervals (i.e. between 1, 2, 4, 8), and the three triple
intervals (i.e. between 1, 3, 9, 27), together with the mean
terms and connecting links which are expressed by the ratios of
3:2, and 4:3, and of 9:8—these, although they cannot be wholly
undone except by him who united them, were twisted by them in all
sorts of ways, and the circles were broken and disordered in
every possible manner, so that when they moved they were tumbling
to pieces, and moved irrationally, at one time in a reverse
direction, and then again obliquely, and then upside down, as you
might imagine a person who is upside down and has his head
leaning upon the ground and his feet up against something in the
air; and when he is in such a position, both he and the spectator
fancy that the right of either is his left, and the left right.
If, when powerfully experiencing these and similar effects, the
revolutions of the soul come in contact with some external thing,
either of the class of the same or of the other, they speak of
the same or of the other in a manner the very opposite of the
truth; and they become false and foolish, and there is no course
or revolution in them which has a guiding or directing power; and
if again any sensations enter in violently from without and drag
after them the whole vessel of the soul, then the courses of the
soul, though they seem to conquer, are really conquered.

And by reason of all these affections, the soul, when encased in
a mortal body, now, as in the beginning, is at first without
intelligence; but when the flood of growth and nutriment abates,
and the courses of the soul, calming down, go their own way and
become steadier as time goes on, then the several circles return
to their natural form, and their revolutions are corrected, and
they call the same and the other by their right names, and make
the possessor of them to become a rational being. And if these
combine in him with any true nurture or education, he attains the
fulness and health of the perfect man, and escapes the worst
disease of all; but if he neglects education he walks lame to the
end of his life, and returns imperfect and good for nothing to
the world below. This, however, is a later stage; at present we
must treat more exactly the subject before us, which involves a
preliminary enquiry into the generation of the body and its
members, and as to how the soul was created—for what reason and
by what providence of the gods; and holding fast to probability,
we must pursue our way.

First, then, the gods, imitating the spherical shape of the
universe, enclosed the two divine courses in a spherical body,
that, namely, which we now term the head, being the most divine
part of us and the lord of all that is in us: to this the gods,
when they put together the body, gave all the other members to be
servants, considering that it partook of every sort of motion. In
order then that it might not tumble about among the high and deep
places of the earth, but might be able to get over the one and
out of the other, they provided the body to be its vehicle and
means of locomotion; which consequently had length and was
furnished with four limbs extended and flexible; these God
contrived to be instruments of locomotion with which it might
take hold and find support, and so be able to pass through all
places, carrying on high the dwelling-place of the most sacred
and divine part of us. Such was the origin of legs and hands,
which for this reason were attached to every man; and the gods,
deeming the front part of man to be more honourable and more fit
to command than the hinder part, made us to move mostly in a
forward direction. Wherefore man must needs have his front part
unlike and distinguished from the rest of his body.

And so in the vessel of the head, they first of all put a face in
which they inserted organs to minister in all things to the
providence of the soul, and they appointed this part, which has
authority, to be by nature the part which is in front. And of the
organs they first contrived the eyes to give light, and the
principle according to which they were inserted was as follows:
So much of fire as would not burn, but gave a gentle light, they
formed into a substance akin to the light of every-day life; and
the pure fire which is within us and related thereto they made to
flow through the eyes in a stream smooth and dense, compressing
the whole eye, and especially the centre part, so that it kept
out everything of a coarser nature, and allowed to pass only this
pure element. When the light of day surrounds the stream of
vision, then like falls upon like, and they coalesce, and one
body is formed by natural affinity in the line of vision,
wherever the light that falls from within meets with an external
object. And the whole stream of vision, being similarly affected
in virtue of similarity, diffuses the motions of what it touches
or what touches it over the whole body, until they reach the
soul, causing that perception which we call sight. But when night
comes on and the external and kindred fire departs, then the
stream of vision is cut off; for going forth to an unlike element
it is changed and extinguished, being no longer of one nature
with the surrounding atmosphere which is now deprived of fire:
and so the eye no longer sees, and we feel disposed to sleep. For
when the eyelids, which the gods invented for the preservation of
sight, are closed, they keep in the internal fire; and the power
of the fire diffuses and equalizes the inward motions; when they
are equalized, there is rest, and when the rest is profound,
sleep comes over us scarce disturbed by dreams; but where the
greater motions still remain, of whatever nature and in whatever
locality, they engender corresponding visions in dreams, which
are remembered by us when we are awake and in the external world.
And now there is no longer any difficulty in understanding the
creation of images in mirrors and all smooth and bright surfaces.
For from the communion of the internal and external fires, and
again from the union of them and their numerous transformations
when they meet in the mirror, all these appearances of necessity
arise, when the fire from the face coalesces with the fire from
the eye on the bright and smooth surface. And right appears left
and left right, because the visual rays come into contact with
the rays emitted by the object in a manner contrary to the usual
mode of meeting; but the right appears right, and the left left,
when the position of one of the two concurring lights is
reversed; and this happens when the mirror is concave and its
smooth surface repels the right stream of vision to the left
side, and the left to the right (He is speaking of two kinds of
mirrors, first the plane, secondly the concave; and the latter is
supposed to be placed, first horizontally, and then vertically.).
Or if the mirror be turned vertically, then the concavity makes
the countenance appear to be all upside down, and the lower rays
are driven upwards and the upper downwards.

All these are to be reckoned among the second and co-operative
causes which God, carrying into execution the idea of the best as
far as possible, uses as his ministers. They are thought by most
men not to be the second, but the prime causes of all things,
because they freeze and heat, and contract and dilate, and the
like. But they are not so, for they are incapable of reason or
intellect; the only being which can properly have mind is the
invisible soul, whereas fire and water, and earth and air, are
all of them visible bodies. The lover of intellect and knowledge
ought to explore causes of intelligent nature first of all, and,
secondly, of those things which, being moved by others, are
compelled to move others. And this is what we too must do. Both
kinds of causes should be acknowledged by us, but a distinction
should be made between those which are endowed with mind and are
the workers of things fair and good, and those which are deprived
of intelligence and always produce chance effects without order
or design. Of the second or co-operative causes of sight, which
help to give to the eyes the power which they now possess, enough
has been said. I will therefore now proceed to speak of the
higher use and purpose for which God has given them to us. The
sight in my opinion is the source of the greatest benefit to us,
for had we never seen the stars, and the sun, and the heaven,
none of the words which we have spoken about the universe would
ever have been uttered. But now the sight of day and night, and
the months and the revolutions of the years, have created number,
and have given us a conception of time, and the power of
enquiring about the nature of the universe; and from this source
we have derived philosophy, than which no greater good ever was
or will be given by the gods to mortal man. This is the greatest
boon of sight: and of the lesser benefits why should I speak?
even the ordinary man if he were deprived of them would bewail
his loss, but in vain. Thus much let me say however: God invented
and gave us sight to the end that we might behold the courses of
intelligence in the heaven, and apply them to the courses of our
own intelligence which are akin to them, the unperturbed to the
perturbed; and that we, learning them and partaking of the
natural truth of reason, might imitate the absolutely unerring
courses of God and regulate our own vagaries. The same may be
affirmed of speech and hearing: they have been given by the gods
to the same end and for a like reason. For this is the principal
end of speech, whereto it most contributes. Moreover, so much of
music as is adapted to the sound of the voice and to the sense of
hearing is granted to us for the sake of harmony; and harmony,
which has motions akin to the revolutions of our souls, is not
regarded by the intelligent votary of the Muses as given by them
with a view to irrational pleasure, which is deemed to be the
purpose of it in our day, but as meant to correct any discord
which may have arisen in the courses of the soul, and to be our
ally in bringing her into harmony and agreement with herself; and
rhythm too was given by them for the same reason, on account of
the irregular and graceless ways which prevail among mankind
generally, and to help us against them.

Thus far in what we have been saying, with small exception, the
works of intelligence have been set forth; and now we must place
by the side of them in our discourse the things which come into
being through necessity—for the creation is mixed, being made up
of necessity and mind. Mind, the ruling power, persuaded
necessity to bring the greater part of created things to
perfection, and thus and after this manner in the beginning, when
the influence of reason got the better of necessity, the universe
was created. But if a person will truly tell of the way in which
the work was accomplished, he must include the other influence of
the variable cause as well. Wherefore, we must return again and
find another suitable beginning, as about the former matters, so
also about these. To which end we must consider the nature of
fire, and water, and air, and earth, such as they were prior to
the creation of the heaven, and what was happening to them in
this previous state; for no one has as yet explained the manner
of their generation, but we speak of fire and the rest of them,
whatever they mean, as though men knew their natures, and we
maintain them to be the first principles and letters or elements
of the whole, when they cannot reasonably be compared by a man of
any sense even to syllables or first compounds. And let me say
thus much: I will not now speak of the first principle or
principles of all things, or by whatever name they are to be
called, for this reason—because it is difficult to set forth my
opinion according to the method of discussion which we are at
present employing. Do not imagine, any more than I can bring
myself to imagine, that I should be right in undertaking so great
and difficult a task. Remembering what I said at first about
probability, I will do my best to give as probable an explanation
as any other—or rather, more probable; and I will first go back
to the beginning and try to speak of each thing and of all. Once
more, then, at the commencement of my discourse, I call upon God,
and beg him to be our saviour out of a strange and unwonted
enquiry, and to bring us to the haven of probability. So now let
us begin again.

This new beginning of our discussion of the universe requires a
fuller division than the former; for then we made two classes,
now a third must be revealed. The two sufficed for the former
discussion: one, which we assumed, was a pattern intelligible and
always the same; and the second was only the imitation of the
pattern, generated and visible. There is also a third kind which
we did not distinguish at the time, conceiving that the two would
be enough. But now the argument seems to require that we should
set forth in words another kind, which is difficult of
explanation and dimly seen. What nature are we to attribute to
this new kind of being? We reply, that it is the receptacle, and
in a manner the nurse, of all generation. I have spoken the
truth; but I must express myself in clearer language, and this
will be an arduous task for many reasons, and in particular
because I must first raise questions concerning fire and the
other elements, and determine what each of them is; for to say,
with any probability or certitude, which of them should be called
water rather than fire, and which should be called any of them
rather than all or some one of them, is a difficult matter. How,
then, shall we settle this point, and what questions about the
elements may be fairly raised?

In the first place, we see that what we just now called water, by
condensation, I suppose, becomes stone and earth; and this same
element, when melted and dispersed, passes into vapour and air.
Air, again, when inflamed, becomes fire; and again fire, when
condensed and extinguished, passes once more into the form of
air; and once more, air, when collected and condensed, produces
cloud and mist; and from these, when still more compressed, comes
flowing water, and from water comes earth and stones once more;
and thus generation appears to be transmitted from one to the
other in a circle. Thus, then, as the several elements never
present themselves in the same form, how can any one have the
assurance to assert positively that any of them, whatever it may
be, is one thing rather than another? No one can. But much the
safest plan is to speak of them as follows:—Anything which we see
to be continually changing, as, for example, fire, we must not
call ‘this’ or ‘that,’ but rather say that it is ‘of such a
nature’; nor let us speak of water as ‘this’; but always as
‘such’; nor must we imply that there is any stability in any of
those things which we indicate by the use of the words ‘this’ and
‘that,’ supposing ourselves to signify something thereby; for
they are too volatile to be detained in any such expressions as
‘this,’ or ‘that,’ or ‘relative to this,’ or any other mode of
speaking which represents them as permanent. We ought not to
apply ‘this’ to any of them, but rather the word ‘such’; which
expresses the similar principle circulating in each and all of
them; for example, that should be called ‘fire’ which is of such
a nature always, and so of everything that has generation. That
in which the elements severally grow up, and appear, and decay,
is alone to be called by the name ‘this’ or ‘that’; but that
which is of a certain nature, hot or white, or anything which
admits of opposite qualities, and all things that are compounded
of them, ought not to be so denominated. Let me make another
attempt to explain my meaning more clearly. Suppose a person to
make all kinds of figures of gold and to be always transmuting
one form into all the rest;—somebody points to one of them and
asks what it is. By far the safest and truest answer is, That is
gold; and not to call the triangle or any other figures which are
formed in the gold ‘these,’ as though they had existence, since
they are in process of change while he is making the assertion;
but if the questioner be willing to take the safe and indefinite
expression, ‘such,’ we should be satisfied. And the same argument
applies to the universal nature which receives all bodies—that
must be always called the same; for, while receiving all things,
she never departs at all from her own nature, and never in any
way, or at any time, assumes a form like that of any of the
things which enter into her; she is the natural recipient of all
impressions, and is stirred and informed by them, and appears
different from time to time by reason of them. But the forms
which enter into and go out of her are the likenesses of real
existences modelled after their patterns in a wonderful and
inexplicable manner, which we will hereafter investigate. For the
present we have only to conceive of three natures: first, that
which is in process of generation; secondly, that in which the
generation takes place; and thirdly, that of which the thing
generated is a resemblance. And we may liken the receiving
principle to a mother, and the source or spring to a father, and
the intermediate nature to a child; and may remark further, that
if the model is to take every variety of form, then the matter in
which the model is fashioned will not be duly prepared, unless it
is formless, and free from the impress of any of those shapes
which it is hereafter to receive from without. For if the matter
were like any of the supervening forms, then whenever any
opposite or entirely different nature was stamped upon its
surface, it would take the impression badly, because it would
intrude its own shape. Wherefore, that which is to receive all
forms should have no form; as in making perfumes they first
contrive that the liquid substance which is to receive the scent
shall be as inodorous as possible; or as those who wish to
impress figures on soft substances do not allow any previous
impression to remain, but begin by making the surface as even and
smooth as possible. In the same way that which is to receive
perpetually and through its whole extent the resemblances of all
eternal beings ought to be devoid of any particular form.
Wherefore, the mother and receptacle of all created and visible
and in any way sensible things, is not to be termed earth, or
air, or fire, or water, or any of their compounds or any of the
elements from which these are derived, but is an invisible and
formless being which receives all things and in some mysterious
way partakes of the intelligible, and is most incomprehensible.
In saying this we shall not be far wrong; as far, however, as we
can attain to a knowledge of her from the previous
considerations, we may truly say that fire is that part of her
nature which from time to time is inflamed, and water that which
is moistened, and that the mother substance becomes earth and
air, in so far as she receives the impressions of them.

Let us consider this question more precisely. Is there any
self-existent fire? and do all those things which we call
self-existent exist? or are only those things which we see, or in
some way perceive through the bodily organs, truly existent, and
nothing whatever besides them? And is all that which we call an
intelligible essence nothing at all, and only a name? Here is a
question which we must not leave unexamined or undetermined, nor
must we affirm too confidently that there can be no decision;
neither must we interpolate in our present long discourse a
digression equally long, but if it is possible to set forth a
great principle in a few words, that is just what we want.

Thus I state my view:—If mind and true opinion are two distinct
classes, then I say that there certainly are these self-existent
ideas unperceived by sense, and apprehended only by the mind; if,
however, as some say, true opinion differs in no respect from
mind, then everything that we perceive through the body is to be
regarded as most real and certain. But we must affirm them to be
distinct, for they have a distinct origin and are of a different
nature; the one is implanted in us by instruction, the other by
persuasion; the one is always accompanied by true reason, the
other is without reason; the one cannot be overcome by
persuasion, but the other can: and lastly, every man may be said
to share in true opinion, but mind is the attribute of the gods
and of very few men. Wherefore also we must acknowledge that
there is one kind of being which is always the same, uncreated
and indestructible, never receiving anything into itself from
without, nor itself going out to any other, but invisible and
imperceptible by any sense, and of which the contemplation is
granted to intelligence only. And there is another nature of the
same name with it, and like to it, perceived by sense, created,
always in motion, becoming in place and again vanishing out of
place, which is apprehended by opinion and sense. And there is a
third nature, which is space, and is eternal, and admits not of
destruction and provides a home for all created things, and is
apprehended without the help of sense, by a kind of spurious
reason, and is hardly real; which we beholding as in a dream, say
of all existence that it must of necessity be in some place and
occupy a space, but that what is neither in heaven nor in earth
has no existence. Of these and other things of the same kind,
relating to the true and waking reality of nature, we have only
this dreamlike sense, and we are unable to cast off sleep and
determine the truth about them. For an image, since the reality,
after which it is modelled, does not belong to it, and it exists
ever as the fleeting shadow of some other, must be inferred to be
in another (i.e. in space), grasping existence in some way or
other, or it could not be at all. But true and exact reason,
vindicating the nature of true being, maintains that while two
things (i.e. the image and space) are different they cannot exist
one of them in the other and so be one and also two at the same
time.

Thus have I concisely given the result of my thoughts; and my
verdict is that being and space and generation, these three,
existed in their three ways before the heaven; and that the nurse
of generation, moistened by water and inflamed by fire, and
receiving the forms of earth and air, and experiencing all the
affections which accompany these, presented a strange variety of
appearances; and being full of powers which were neither similar
nor equally balanced, was never in any part in a state of
equipoise, but swaying unevenly hither and thither, was shaken by
them, and by its motion again shook them; and the elements when
moved were separated and carried continually, some one way, some
another; as, when grain is shaken and winnowed by fans and other
instruments used in the threshing of corn, the close and heavy
particles are borne away and settle in one direction, and the
loose and light particles in another. In this manner, the four
kinds or elements were then shaken by the receiving vessel,
which, moving like a winnowing machine, scattered far away from
one another the elements most unlike, and forced the most similar
elements into close contact. Wherefore also the various elements
had different places before they were arranged so as to form the
universe. At first, they were all without reason and measure. But
when the world began to get into order, fire and water and earth
and air had only certain faint traces of themselves, and were
altogether such as everything might be expected to be in the
absence of God; this, I say, was their nature at that time, and
God fashioned them by form and number. Let it be consistently
maintained by us in all that we say that God made them as far as
possible the fairest and best, out of things which were not fair
and good. And now I will endeavour to show you the disposition
and generation of them by an unaccustomed argument, which I am
compelled to use; but I believe that you will be able to follow
me, for your education has made you familiar with the methods of
science.

In the first place, then, as is evident to all, fire and earth
and water and air are bodies. And every sort of body possesses
solidity, and every solid must necessarily be contained in
planes; and every plane rectilinear figure is composed of
triangles; and all triangles are originally of two kinds, both of
which are made up of one right and two acute angles; one of them
has at either end of the base the half of a divided right angle,
having equal sides, while in the other the right angle is divided
into unequal parts, having unequal sides. These, then, proceeding
by a combination of probability with demonstration, we assume to
be the original elements of fire and the other bodies; but the
principles which are prior to these God only knows, and he of men
who is the friend of God. And next we have to determine what are
the four most beautiful bodies which are unlike one another, and
of which some are capable of resolution into one another; for
having discovered thus much, we shall know the true origin of
earth and fire and of the proportionate and intermediate
elements. And then we shall not be willing to allow that there
are any distinct kinds of visible bodies fairer than these.
Wherefore we must endeavour to construct the four forms of bodies
which excel in beauty, and then we shall be able to say that we
have sufficiently apprehended their nature. Now of the two
triangles, the isosceles has one form only; the scalene or
unequal-sided has an infinite number. Of the infinite forms we
must select the most beautiful, if we are to proceed in due
order, and any one who can point out a more beautiful form than
ours for the construction of these bodies, shall carry off the
palm, not as an enemy, but as a friend. Now, the one which we
maintain to be the most beautiful of all the many triangles (and
we need not speak of the others) is that of which the double
forms a third triangle which is equilateral; the reason of this
would be long to tell; he who disproves what we are saying, and
shows that we are mistaken, may claim a friendly victory. Then
let us choose two triangles, out of which fire and the other
elements have been constructed, one isosceles, the other having
the square of the longer side equal to three times the square of
the lesser side.

Now is the time to explain what was before obscurely said: there
was an error in imagining that all the four elements might be
generated by and into one another; this, I say, was an erroneous
supposition, for there are generated from the triangles which we
have selected four kinds—three from the one which has the sides
unequal; the fourth alone is framed out of the isosceles
triangle. Hence they cannot all be resolved into one another, a
great number of small bodies being combined into a few large
ones, or the converse. But three of them can be thus resolved and
compounded, for they all spring from one, and when the greater
bodies are broken up, many small bodies will spring up out of
them and take their own proper figures; or, again, when many
small bodies are dissolved into their triangles, if they become
one, they will form one large mass of another kind. So much for
their passage into one another. I have now to speak of their
several kinds, and show out of what combinations of numbers each
of them was formed. The first will be the simplest and smallest
construction, and its element is that triangle which has its
hypotenuse twice the lesser side. When two such triangles are
joined at the diagonal, and this is repeated three times, and the
triangles rest their diagonals and shorter sides on the same
point as a centre, a single equilateral triangle is formed out of
six triangles; and four equilateral triangles, if put together,
make out of every three plane angles one solid angle, being that
which is nearest to the most obtuse of plane angles; and out of
the combination of these four angles arises the first solid form
which distributes into equal and similar parts the whole circle
in which it is inscribed. The second species of solid is formed
out of the same triangles, which unite as eight equilateral
triangles and form one solid angle out of four plane angles, and
out of six such angles the second body is completed. And the
third body is made up of 120 triangular elements, forming twelve
solid angles, each of them included in five plane equilateral
triangles, having altogether twenty bases, each of which is an
equilateral triangle. The one element (that is, the triangle
which has its hypotenuse twice the lesser side) having generated
these figures, generated no more; but the isosceles triangle
produced the fourth elementary figure, which is compounded of
four such triangles, joining their right angles in a centre, and
forming one equilateral quadrangle. Six of these united form
eight solid angles, each of which is made by the combination of
three plane right angles; the figure of the body thus composed is
a cube, having six plane quadrangular equilateral bases. There
was yet a fifth combination which God used in the delineation of
the universe.

Now, he who, duly reflecting on all this, enquires whether the
worlds are to be regarded as indefinite or definite in number,
will be of opinion that the notion of their indefiniteness is
characteristic of a sadly indefinite and ignorant mind. He,
however, who raises the question whether they are to be truly
regarded as one or five, takes up a more reasonable position.
Arguing from probabilities, I am of opinion that they are one;
another, regarding the question from another point of view, will
be of another mind. But, leaving this enquiry, let us proceed to
distribute the elementary forms, which have now been created in
idea, among the four elements.

To earth, then, let us assign the cubical form; for earth is the
most immoveable of the four and the most plastic of all bodies,
and that which has the most stable bases must of necessity be of
such a nature. Now, of the triangles which we assumed at first,
that which has two equal sides is by nature more firmly based
than that which has unequal sides; and of the compound figures
which are formed out of either, the plane equilateral quadrangle
has necessarily a more stable basis than the equilateral
triangle, both in the whole and in the parts. Wherefore, in
assigning this figure to earth, we adhere to probability; and to
water we assign that one of the remaining forms which is the
least moveable; and the most moveable of them to fire; and to air
that which is intermediate. Also we assign the smallest body to
fire, and the greatest to water, and the intermediate in size to
air; and, again, the acutest body to fire, and the next in
acuteness to air, and the third to water. Of all these elements,
that which has the fewest bases must necessarily be the most
moveable, for it must be the acutest and most penetrating in
every way, and also the lightest as being composed of the
smallest number of similar particles: and the second body has
similar properties in a second degree, and the third body in the
third degree. Let it be agreed, then, both according to strict
reason and according to probability, that the pyramid is the
solid which is the original element and seed of fire; and let us
assign the element which was next in the order of generation to
air, and the third to water. We must imagine all these to be so
small that no single particle of any of the four kinds is seen by
us on account of their smallness: but when many of them are
collected together their aggregates are seen. And the ratios of
their numbers, motions, and other properties, everywhere God, as
far as necessity allowed or gave consent, has exactly perfected,
and harmonized in due proportion.

From all that we have just been saying about the elements or
kinds, the most probable conclusion is as follows:—earth, when
meeting with fire and dissolved by its sharpness, whether the
dissolution take place in the fire itself or perhaps in some mass
of air or water, is borne hither and thither, until its parts,
meeting together and mutually harmonising, again become earth;
for they can never take any other form. But water, when divided
by fire or by air, on re-forming, may become one part fire and
two parts air; and a single volume of air divided becomes two of
fire. Again, when a small body of fire is contained in a larger
body of air or water or earth, and both are moving, and the fire
struggling is overcome and broken up, then two volumes of fire
form one volume of air; and when air is overcome and cut up into
small pieces, two and a half parts of air are condensed into one
part of water. Let us consider the matter in another way. When
one of the other elements is fastened upon by fire, and is cut by
the sharpness of its angles and sides, it coalesces with the
fire, and then ceases to be cut by them any longer. For no
element which is one and the same with itself can be changed by
or change another of the same kind and in the same state. But so
long as in the process of transition the weaker is fighting
against the stronger, the dissolution continues. Again, when a
few small particles, enclosed in many larger ones, are in process
of decomposition and extinction, they only cease from their
tendency to extinction when they consent to pass into the
conquering nature, and fire becomes air and air water. But if
bodies of another kind go and attack them (i.e. the small
particles), the latter continue to be dissolved until, being
completely forced back and dispersed, they make their escape to
their own kindred, or else, being overcome and assimilated to the
conquering power, they remain where they are and dwell with their
victors, and from being many become one. And owing to these
affections, all things are changing their place, for by the
motion of the receiving vessel the bulk of each class is
distributed into its proper place; but those things which become
unlike themselves and like other things, are hurried by the
shaking into the place of the things to which they grow like.

Now all unmixed and primary bodies are produced by such causes as
these. As to the subordinate species which are included in the
greater kinds, they are to be attributed to the varieties in the
structure of the two original triangles. For either structure did
not originally produce the triangle of one size only, but some
larger and some smaller, and there are as many sizes as there are
species of the four elements. Hence when they are mingled with
themselves and with one another there is an endless variety of
them, which those who would arrive at the probable truth of
nature ought duly to consider.

Unless a person comes to an understanding about the nature and
conditions of rest and motion, he will meet with many
difficulties in the discussion which follows. Something has been
said of this matter already, and something more remains to be
said, which is, that motion never exists in what is uniform. For
to conceive that anything can be moved without a mover is hard or
indeed impossible, and equally impossible to conceive that there
can be a mover unless there be something which can be
moved—motion cannot exist where either of these are wanting, and
for these to be uniform is impossible; wherefore we must assign
rest to uniformity and motion to the want of uniformity. Now
inequality is the cause of the nature which is wanting in
uniformity; and of this we have already described the origin. But
there still remains the further point—why things when divided
after their kinds do not cease to pass through one another and to
change their place—which we will now proceed to explain. In the
revolution of the universe are comprehended all the four
elements, and this being circular and having a tendency to come
together, compresses everything and will not allow any place to
be left void. Wherefore, also, fire above all things penetrates
everywhere, and air next, as being next in rarity of the
elements; and the two other elements in like manner penetrate
according to their degrees of rarity. For those things which are
composed of the largest particles have the largest void left in
their compositions, and those which are composed of the smallest
particles have the least. And the contraction caused by the
compression thrusts the smaller particles into the interstices of
the larger. And thus, when the small parts are placed side by
side with the larger, and the lesser divide the greater and the
greater unite the lesser, all the elements are borne up and down
and hither and thither towards their own places; for the change
in the size of each changes its position in space. And these
causes generate an inequality which is always maintained, and is
continually creating a perpetual motion of the elements in all
time.