TIMAEU [13]
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 here after 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
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 here after 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