TIMAEU [41]
can with difficulty be shaken off.
Such is the manner in which diseases of the body arise; the
disorders of the soul, which depend upon the body, originate as
follows. We must acknowledge disease of the mind to be a want of
intelligence; and of this there are two kinds; to wit, madness and
ignorance. In whatever state a man experiences either of them, that
state may be called disease; and excessive pains and pleasures are
justly to be regarded as the greatest diseases to which the soul is
liable. For a man who is in great joy or in great pain, in his
unseasonable eagerness to attain the one and to avoid the other, is
not able to see or to hear anything rightly; but he is mad, and is
at the time utterly incapable of any participation in reason. He who
has the seed about the spinal marrow too plentiful and overflowing,
like a tree overladen with fruit, has many throes, and also obtains
many pleasures in his desires and their offspring, and is for the most
part of his life deranged, because his pleasures and pains are so very
great; his soul is rendered foolish and disordered by his body; yet he
is regarded not as one diseased, but as one who is voluntarily bad,
which is a mistake. The truth is that the intemperance of love is a
disease of the soul due chiefly to the moisture and fluidity which
is produced in one of the elements by the loose consistency of the
bones. And in general, all that which is termed the incontinence of
pleasure and is deemed a reproach under the idea that the wicked
voluntarily do wrong is not justly a matter for reproach. For no man
is voluntarily bad; but the bad become bad by reason of an ill
disposition of the body and bad education, things which are hateful to
every man and happen to him against his will. And in the case of
pain too in like manner the soul suffers much evil from the body.
For where the acid and briny phlegm and other bitter and bilious
humours wander about in the body, and find no exit or escape, but
are pent up within and mingle their own vapours with the motions of
the soul, and are blended, with them, they produce all sorts of
diseases, more or fewer, and in every degree of intensity; and being
carried to the three places of the soul, whichever they may
severally assail, they create infinite varieties of ill-temper and
melancholy, of rashness and cowardice, and also of forgetfulness and
stupidity. Further, when to this evil constitution of body evil
forms of government are added and evil discourses are uttered in
private as well as in public, and no sort of instruction is given in
youth to cure these evils, then all of us who are bad become bad
from two causes which are entirely beyond our control. In such cases
the planters are to blame rather than the plants, the educators rather
than the educated. But however that may be, we should endeavour as far
as we can by education, and studies, and learning, to avoid vice and
attain virtue; this, however, is part of another subject.
There is a corresponding enquiry concerning the mode of treatment by
which the mind and the body are to be preserved, about which it is
meet and right that I should say a word in turn; for it is more our
duty to speak of the good than of the evil. Everything that is good is
fair, and the animal fair is not without proportion, and the animal
which is to be fair must have due proportion. Now we perceive lesser
symmetries or proportions and reason about them, but of the highest
and greatest we take no heed; for there is no proportion or
disproportion more productive of health and disease, and virtue and
vice, than that between soul and body. This however we do not
perceive, nor do we reflect that when a weak or small frame is the
vehicle of a great and mighty soul, or conversely, when a little
soul is encased in a large body, then the whole animal is not fair,
for it lacks the most important of all symmetries; but the due
proportion of mind and body is the fairest and loveliest of all sights
Such is the manner in which diseases of the body arise; the
disorders of the soul, which depend upon the body, originate as
follows. We must acknowledge disease of the mind to be a want of
intelligence; and of this there are two kinds; to wit, madness and
ignorance. In whatever state a man experiences either of them, that
state may be called disease; and excessive pains and pleasures are
justly to be regarded as the greatest diseases to which the soul is
liable. For a man who is in great joy or in great pain, in his
unseasonable eagerness to attain the one and to avoid the other, is
not able to see or to hear anything rightly; but he is mad, and is
at the time utterly incapable of any participation in reason. He who
has the seed about the spinal marrow too plentiful and overflowing,
like a tree overladen with fruit, has many throes, and also obtains
many pleasures in his desires and their offspring, and is for the most
part of his life deranged, because his pleasures and pains are so very
great; his soul is rendered foolish and disordered by his body; yet he
is regarded not as one diseased, but as one who is voluntarily bad,
which is a mistake. The truth is that the intemperance of love is a
disease of the soul due chiefly to the moisture and fluidity which
is produced in one of the elements by the loose consistency of the
bones. And in general, all that which is termed the incontinence of
pleasure and is deemed a reproach under the idea that the wicked
voluntarily do wrong is not justly a matter for reproach. For no man
is voluntarily bad; but the bad become bad by reason of an ill
disposition of the body and bad education, things which are hateful to
every man and happen to him against his will. And in the case of
pain too in like manner the soul suffers much evil from the body.
For where the acid and briny phlegm and other bitter and bilious
humours wander about in the body, and find no exit or escape, but
are pent up within and mingle their own vapours with the motions of
the soul, and are blended, with them, they produce all sorts of
diseases, more or fewer, and in every degree of intensity; and being
carried to the three places of the soul, whichever they may
severally assail, they create infinite varieties of ill-temper and
melancholy, of rashness and cowardice, and also of forgetfulness and
stupidity. Further, when to this evil constitution of body evil
forms of government are added and evil discourses are uttered in
private as well as in public, and no sort of instruction is given in
youth to cure these evils, then all of us who are bad become bad
from two causes which are entirely beyond our control. In such cases
the planters are to blame rather than the plants, the educators rather
than the educated. But however that may be, we should endeavour as far
as we can by education, and studies, and learning, to avoid vice and
attain virtue; this, however, is part of another subject.
There is a corresponding enquiry concerning the mode of treatment by
which the mind and the body are to be preserved, about which it is
meet and right that I should say a word in turn; for it is more our
duty to speak of the good than of the evil. Everything that is good is
fair, and the animal fair is not without proportion, and the animal
which is to be fair must have due proportion. Now we perceive lesser
symmetries or proportions and reason about them, but of the highest
and greatest we take no heed; for there is no proportion or
disproportion more productive of health and disease, and virtue and
vice, than that between soul and body. This however we do not
perceive, nor do we reflect that when a weak or small frame is the
vehicle of a great and mighty soul, or conversely, when a little
soul is encased in a large body, then the whole animal is not fair,
for it lacks the most important of all symmetries; but the due
proportion of mind and body is the fairest and loveliest of all sights