TIMAEU [35]
took root. Thus the hair sprang up in
the skin, being akin to it because it is like threads of leather,
but rendered harder and closer through the pressure of the cold, by
which each hair, while in process of separation from the skin, is
compressed and cooled. Wherefore the creator formed the head hairy,
making use of the causes which I have mentioned, and reflecting also
that instead of flesh the brain needed the hair to be a light covering
or guard, which would give shade in summer and shelter in winter,
and at the same time would not impede our quickness of perception.
From the combination of sinew, skin, and bone, in the structure of the
finger, there arises a triple compound, which, when dried up, takes
the form of one hard skin partaking of all three natures, and was
fabricated by these second causes, but designed by mind which is the
principal cause with an eye to the future. For our creators well
knew that women and other animals would some day be framed out of men,
and they further knew that many animals would require the use of nails
for many purposes; wherefore they fashioned in men at their first
creation the rudiments of nails. For this purpose and for these
reasons they caused skin, hair, and nails to grow at the extremities
of the limbs. And now that all the parts and members of the mortal
animal had come together, since its life of necessity consisted of
fire and breath, and it therefore wasted away by dissolution and
depletion, the gods contrived the following remedy: They mingled a
nature akin to that of man with other forms and perceptions, and
thus created another kind of animal. These are the trees and plants
and seeds which have been improved by cultivation and are now
domesticated among us; anciently there were only the will kinds, which
are older than the cultivated. For everything that partakes of life
may be truly called a living being, and the animal of which we are now
speaking partakes of the third kind of soul, which is said to be
seated between the midriff and the navel, having no part in opinion or
reason or mind, but only in feelings of pleasure and pain and the
desires which accompany them. For this nature is always in a passive
state, revolving in and about itself, repelling the motion from
without and using its own, and accordingly is not endowed by nature
with the power of observing or reflecting on its own concerns.
Wherefore it lives and does not differ from a living being, but is
fixed and rooted in the same spot, having no power of self-motion.
Now after the superior powers had created all these natures to be
food for us who are of the inferior nature, they cut various
channels through the body as through a garden, that it might be
watered as from a running stream. In the first place, they cut two
hidden channels or veins down the back where the skin and the flesh
join, which answered severally to the right and left side of the body.
These they let down along the backbone, so as to have the marrow of
generation between them, where it was most likely to flourish, and
in order that the stream coming down from above might flow freely to
the other parts, and equalise the irrigation. In the next place,
they divided the veins about the head, and interlacing them, they sent
them in opposite directions; those coming from the right side they
sent to the left of the body, and those from the left they diverted
towards the right, so that they and the skin might together form a
bond which should fasten the head to the body, since the crown of
the head was not encircled by sinews; and also in order that the
sensations from both sides might be distributed over the whole body.
And next, they ordered the water-courses of the body in a manner which
I will describe, and which will be more easily understood if we
begin by admitting that all things which have lesser parts retain
the greater, but the greater cannot retain the lesser. Now of all
natures fire has the smallest parts, and
the skin, being akin to it because it is like threads of leather,
but rendered harder and closer through the pressure of the cold, by
which each hair, while in process of separation from the skin, is
compressed and cooled. Wherefore the creator formed the head hairy,
making use of the causes which I have mentioned, and reflecting also
that instead of flesh the brain needed the hair to be a light covering
or guard, which would give shade in summer and shelter in winter,
and at the same time would not impede our quickness of perception.
From the combination of sinew, skin, and bone, in the structure of the
finger, there arises a triple compound, which, when dried up, takes
the form of one hard skin partaking of all three natures, and was
fabricated by these second causes, but designed by mind which is the
principal cause with an eye to the future. For our creators well
knew that women and other animals would some day be framed out of men,
and they further knew that many animals would require the use of nails
for many purposes; wherefore they fashioned in men at their first
creation the rudiments of nails. For this purpose and for these
reasons they caused skin, hair, and nails to grow at the extremities
of the limbs. And now that all the parts and members of the mortal
animal had come together, since its life of necessity consisted of
fire and breath, and it therefore wasted away by dissolution and
depletion, the gods contrived the following remedy: They mingled a
nature akin to that of man with other forms and perceptions, and
thus created another kind of animal. These are the trees and plants
and seeds which have been improved by cultivation and are now
domesticated among us; anciently there were only the will kinds, which
are older than the cultivated. For everything that partakes of life
may be truly called a living being, and the animal of which we are now
speaking partakes of the third kind of soul, which is said to be
seated between the midriff and the navel, having no part in opinion or
reason or mind, but only in feelings of pleasure and pain and the
desires which accompany them. For this nature is always in a passive
state, revolving in and about itself, repelling the motion from
without and using its own, and accordingly is not endowed by nature
with the power of observing or reflecting on its own concerns.
Wherefore it lives and does not differ from a living being, but is
fixed and rooted in the same spot, having no power of self-motion.
Now after the superior powers had created all these natures to be
food for us who are of the inferior nature, they cut various
channels through the body as through a garden, that it might be
watered as from a running stream. In the first place, they cut two
hidden channels or veins down the back where the skin and the flesh
join, which answered severally to the right and left side of the body.
These they let down along the backbone, so as to have the marrow of
generation between them, where it was most likely to flourish, and
in order that the stream coming down from above might flow freely to
the other parts, and equalise the irrigation. In the next place,
they divided the veins about the head, and interlacing them, they sent
them in opposite directions; those coming from the right side they
sent to the left of the body, and those from the left they diverted
towards the right, so that they and the skin might together form a
bond which should fasten the head to the body, since the crown of
the head was not encircled by sinews; and also in order that the
sensations from both sides might be distributed over the whole body.
And next, they ordered the water-courses of the body in a manner which
I will describe, and which will be more easily understood if we
begin by admitting that all things which have lesser parts retain
the greater, but the greater cannot retain the lesser. Now of all
natures fire has the smallest parts, and