Timaeus
depends on the quantity of the sound. Of the harmony of sounds I
will hereafter speak.
Colours are flames which emanate from all bodies, having
particles corresponding to the sense of sight. Some of the
particles are less and some larger, and some are equal to the
parts of the sight. The equal particles appear transparent; the
larger contract, and the lesser dilate the sight. White is
produced by the dilation, black by the contraction, of the
particles of sight. There is also a swifter motion of another
sort of fire which forces a way through the passages of the eyes,
and elicits from them a union of fire and water which we call
tears. The inner fire flashes forth, and the outer finds a way in
and is extinguished in the moisture, and all sorts of colours are
generated by the mixture. This affection is termed by us
dazzling, and the object which produces it is called bright.
There is yet another sort of fire which mingles with the moisture
of the eye without flashing, and produces a colour like blood—to
this we give the name of red. A bright element mingling with red
and white produces a colour which we call auburn. The law of
proportion, however, according to which compound colours are
formed, cannot be determined scientifically or even probably.
Red, when mingled with black and white, gives a purple hue, which
becomes umber when the colours are burnt and there is a larger
admixture of black. Flame-colour is a mixture of auburn and dun;
dun of white and black; yellow of white and auburn. White and
bright meeting, and falling upon a full black, become dark blue;
dark blue mingling with white becomes a light blue; the union of
flame-colour and black makes leek-green. There is no difficulty
in seeing how other colours are probably composed. But he who
should attempt to test the truth of this by experiment, would
forget the difference of the human and divine nature. God only is
able to compound and resolve substances; such experiments are
impossible to man.
These are the elements of necessity which the Creator received in
the world of generation when he made the all-sufficient and
perfect creature, using the secondary causes as his ministers,
but himself fashioning the good in all things. For there are two
sorts of causes, the one divine, the other necessary; and we
should seek to discover the divine above all, and, for their
sake, the necessary, because without them the higher cannot be
attained by us.
Having now before us the causes out of which the rest of our
discourse is to be framed, let us go back to the point at which
we began, and add a fair ending to our tale. As I said at first,
all things were originally a chaos in which there was no order or
proportion. The elements of this chaos were arranged by the
Creator, and out of them he made the world. Of the divine he
himself was the author, but he committed to his offspring the
creation of the mortal. From him they received the immortal soul,
but themselves made the body to be its vehicle, and constructed
within another soul which was mortal, and subject to terrible
affections—pleasure, the inciter of evil; pain, which deters from
good; rashness and fear, foolish counsellors; anger hard to be
appeased; hope easily led astray. These they mingled with
irrational sense and all-daring love according to necessary laws
and so framed man. And, fearing to pollute the divine element,
they gave the mortal soul a separate habitation in the breast,
parted off from the head by a narrow isthmus. And as in a house
the women’s apartments are divided from the men’s, the cavity of
the thorax was divided into two parts, a higher and a lower. The
higher of the two, which is the seat of courage and anger, lies
nearer to the head, between the midriff and the neck, and assists
reason in restraining the desires. The heart is the house of
guard in which all the veins meet, and through them reason sends
her commands to the extremity of her kingdom. When the passions
are in revolt, or danger approaches from without, then the heart
beats and swells; and the creating powers, knowing this,
implanted in the body the soft and bloodless substance of the
lung, having a porous and springy nature like a sponge, and being
kept cool by drink and air which enters through the trachea.
The part of the soul which desires meat and drink was placed
between the midriff and navel, where they made a sort of manger;
and here they bound it down, like a wild animal, away from the
council-chamber, and leaving the better principle undisturbed to
advise quietly for the good of the whole. For the Creator knew
that the belly would not listen to reason, and was under the
power of idols and fancies. Wherefore he framed the liver to
connect with the lower nature, contriving that it should be
compact, and bright, and sweet, and also bitter and smooth, in
order that the power of thought which originates in the mind
might there be reflected, terrifying the belly with the elements
of bitterness and gall, and a suffusion of bilious colours when
the liver is contracted, and causing pain and misery by twisting
out of its place the lobe and closing up the vessels and gates.
And the converse happens when some gentle inspiration coming from
intelligence mirrors the opposite fancies, giving rest and
sweetness and freedom, and at night, moderation and peace
accompanied with prophetic insight, when reason and sense are
asleep. For the authors of our being, in obedience to their
Father’s will and in order to make men as good as they could,
gave to the liver the power of divination, which is never active
when men are awake or in health; but when they are under the
influence of some disorder or enthusiasm then they receive
intimations, which have to be interpreted by others who are
called prophets, but should rather be called interpreters of
prophecy; after death these intimations become unintelligible.
The spleen which is situated in the neighbourhood, on the left
side, keeps the liver bright and clean, as a napkin does a
mirror, and the evacuations of the liver are received into it;
and being a hollow tissue it is for a time swollen with these
impurities, but when the body is purged it returns to its natural
size.
The truth concerning the soul can only be established by the word
of God. Still, we may venture to assert what is probable both
concerning soul and body.
The creative powers were aware of our tendency to excess. And so
when they made the belly to be a receptacle for food, in order
that men might not perish by insatiable gluttony, they formed the
convolutions of the intestines, in this way retarding the passage
of food through the body, lest mankind should be absorbed in
eating and drinking, and the whole race become impervious to
divine philosophy.
The creation of bones and flesh was on this wise. The foundation
of these is the marrow which binds together body and soul, and
the marrow is made out of such of the primary triangles as are
adapted by their perfection to produce all the four elements.
These God took and mingled them in due proportion, making as many
kinds of marrow as there were hereafter to be kinds of souls. The
receptacle of the divine soul he made round, and called that
portion of the marrow brain, intending that the vessel containing
this substance should be the head. The remaining part he divided
into long and round figures, and to these as to anchors,
fastening the mortal soul, he proceeded to make the rest of the
body, first forming for both parts a covering of bone. The bone
was formed by sifting pure smooth earth and wetting it with
marrow. It was then thrust alternately into fire and water, and
thus rendered insoluble by either. Of bone he made a globe which
he placed around the brain, leaving a narrow opening, and around
the marrow of the neck and spine he formed the vertebrae, like
hinges, which extended from the head through the whole of the
trunk. And as the bone was brittle and liable to mortify and
destroy the marrow by too great rigidity and susceptibility to
heat and cold, he contrived sinews and flesh—the first to give
flexibility, the second to guard against heat and cold, and to be
a protection against falls, containing a warm moisture, which in
summer exudes and cools the body, and in winter is a defence
against cold. Having this in view, the Creator mingled earth with
fire and water and mixed with them a ferment of acid and salt, so
as to form pulpy flesh. But the sinews he made of a mixture of
bone and unfermented flesh, giving them a mean nature between the
two, and a yellow colour. Hence they were more glutinous than
flesh, but softer than bone. The bones which have most of the
living soul within them he covered with the thinnest film of
flesh, those which have least of it, he lodged deeper. At the
joints he diminished the flesh in order not to impede the flexure
of the limbs, and also to avoid clogging the perceptions of the
mind. About the thighs and arms, which have no sense because
there is little soul in the marrow, and about the inner bones, he
laid the flesh thicker. For where the flesh is thicker there is
less feeling, except in certain parts which the Creator has made
solely of flesh, as for example, the tongue. Had the combination
of solid bone and thick flesh been consistent with acute
perceptions, the Creator would have given man a sinewy and fleshy
head, and then he would have lived twice as long. But our
creators were of opinion that a shorter life which was better was
preferable to a longer which was worse, and therefore they
covered the head with thin bone, and placed the sinews at the
extremity of the head round the neck, and fastened the jawbones
to them below the face. And they framed the mouth, having teeth
and tongue and lips, with a view to the necessary and the good;
for food is a necessity, and the river of speech is the best of
rivers. Still, the head could not be left a bare globe of bone on
account of the extremes of heat and cold, nor be allowed to
become dull and senseless by an overgrowth of flesh. Wherefore it
was covered by a peel or skin which met and grew by the help of
the cerebral humour. The diversity of the sutures was caused by
the struggle of the food against the courses of the soul. The
skin of the head was pierced by fire, and out of the punctures
came forth a moisture, part liquid, and part of a skinny nature,
which was hardened by the pressure of the external cold and
became hair. And God gave hair to the head of man to be a light
covering, so that it might not interfere with his perceptions.
Nails were formed by combining sinew, skin, and bone, and were
made by the creators with a view to the future when, as they
knew, women and other animals who would require them would be