TIMAEU [14]
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 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
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 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