TIMAEU [30]
of the moisture,
produces a colour like blood, to which we give the name of red. A
bright hue mingled with red and white gives the colour called
auburn. The law of proportion, however, according to which the several
colours are formed, even if a man knew he would be foolish in telling,
for he could not give any necessary reason, nor indeed any tolerable
or probable explanation of them. Again, red, when mingled with black
and white, becomes purple, but it becomes umber when the colours are
burnt as well as mingled and the black is more thoroughly mixed with
them. Flame colour is produced by a union of auburn and dun, and dun
by an admixture of black and white; pale yellow, by an admixture of
white and auburn. White and bright meeting, and falling upon a full
black, become dark blue, and when dark blue mingles with white, a
light blue colour is formed, as flame-colour with black makes leek
green. There will be no difficulty in seeing how and by what
mixtures the colours derived from these are made according to the
rules of probability. He, however, who should attempt to verify all
this by experiment, would forget the difference of the human and
divine nature. For God only has the knowledge and also the power which
are able to combine many things into one and again resolve the one
into many. But no man either is or ever will be able to accomplish
either the one or the other operation.
These are the elements, thus of necessity then subsisting, which the
creator of the fairest and best of created things associated with
himself, when he made the self-sufficing and most perfect God, using
the necessary causes as his ministers in the accomplishment of his
work, but himself contriving the good in all his creations.
Wherefore we may distinguish two sorts of causes, the one divine and
the other necessary, and may seek for the divine in all things, as far
as our nature admits, with a view to the blessed life; but the
necessary kind only for the sake of the divine, considering that
without them and when isolated from them, these higher things for
which we look cannot be apprehended or received or in any way shared
by us.
Seeing, then, that we have now prepared for our use the various
classes of causes which are the material out of which the remainder of
our discourse must be woven, just as wood is the material of the
carpenter, let us revert in a few words to the point at which we
began, and then endeavour to add on a suitable ending to the beginning
of our tale.
As I said at first, when all things were in disorder God created
in each thing in relation to itself, and in all things in relation
to each other, all the measures and harmonies which they could
possibly receive. For in those days nothing had any proportion
except by accident; nor did any of the things which now have names
deserve to be named at all-as, for example, fire, water, and the
rest of the elements. All these the creator first set in order, and
out of them he constructed the universe, which was a single animal
comprehending in itself all other animals, mortal and immortal. Now of
the divine, he himself was the creator, but the creation of the mortal
he committed to his offspring. And they, imitating him, received
from him the immortal principle of the soul; and around this they
proceeded to fashion a mortal body, and. made it to be the vehicle
of the so and constructed within the body a soul of another nature
which was mortal, subject to terrible and irresistible
affections-first of all, pleasure, the greatest incitement to evil;
then, pain, which deters from good; also rashness and fear, two
foolish counsellors, anger hard to be appeased, and hope easily led
astray-these they mingled with irrational sense and with all-daring
love according to necessary laws, and so framed man. Wherefore,
fearing to pollute the divine any more than was absolutely
unavoidable, they gave to the mortal nature a separate habitation in
another part of the body,
produces a colour like blood, to which we give the name of red. A
bright hue mingled with red and white gives the colour called
auburn. The law of proportion, however, according to which the several
colours are formed, even if a man knew he would be foolish in telling,
for he could not give any necessary reason, nor indeed any tolerable
or probable explanation of them. Again, red, when mingled with black
and white, becomes purple, but it becomes umber when the colours are
burnt as well as mingled and the black is more thoroughly mixed with
them. Flame colour is produced by a union of auburn and dun, and dun
by an admixture of black and white; pale yellow, by an admixture of
white and auburn. White and bright meeting, and falling upon a full
black, become dark blue, and when dark blue mingles with white, a
light blue colour is formed, as flame-colour with black makes leek
green. There will be no difficulty in seeing how and by what
mixtures the colours derived from these are made according to the
rules of probability. He, however, who should attempt to verify all
this by experiment, would forget the difference of the human and
divine nature. For God only has the knowledge and also the power which
are able to combine many things into one and again resolve the one
into many. But no man either is or ever will be able to accomplish
either the one or the other operation.
These are the elements, thus of necessity then subsisting, which the
creator of the fairest and best of created things associated with
himself, when he made the self-sufficing and most perfect God, using
the necessary causes as his ministers in the accomplishment of his
work, but himself contriving the good in all his creations.
Wherefore we may distinguish two sorts of causes, the one divine and
the other necessary, and may seek for the divine in all things, as far
as our nature admits, with a view to the blessed life; but the
necessary kind only for the sake of the divine, considering that
without them and when isolated from them, these higher things for
which we look cannot be apprehended or received or in any way shared
by us.
Seeing, then, that we have now prepared for our use the various
classes of causes which are the material out of which the remainder of
our discourse must be woven, just as wood is the material of the
carpenter, let us revert in a few words to the point at which we
began, and then endeavour to add on a suitable ending to the beginning
of our tale.
As I said at first, when all things were in disorder God created
in each thing in relation to itself, and in all things in relation
to each other, all the measures and harmonies which they could
possibly receive. For in those days nothing had any proportion
except by accident; nor did any of the things which now have names
deserve to be named at all-as, for example, fire, water, and the
rest of the elements. All these the creator first set in order, and
out of them he constructed the universe, which was a single animal
comprehending in itself all other animals, mortal and immortal. Now of
the divine, he himself was the creator, but the creation of the mortal
he committed to his offspring. And they, imitating him, received
from him the immortal principle of the soul; and around this they
proceeded to fashion a mortal body, and. made it to be the vehicle
of the so and constructed within the body a soul of another nature
which was mortal, subject to terrible and irresistible
affections-first of all, pleasure, the greatest incitement to evil;
then, pain, which deters from good; also rashness and fear, two
foolish counsellors, anger hard to be appeased, and hope easily led
astray-these they mingled with irrational sense and with all-daring
love according to necessary laws, and so framed man. Wherefore,
fearing to pollute the divine any more than was absolutely
unavoidable, they gave to the mortal nature a separate habitation in
another part of the body,