All people, therefore, who can appreciate the logical sequence of an
hypothesis hold that, according to the second teaching, there does not
exist any substance or faculty peculiar either to Nature or to
Soul,[73] but that these result from the way in which the primary
corpuscles,[74] which are unaffected by change, come together.
According to the first-mentioned teaching, on the other hand, Nature
is not posterior to the corpuscles, but is a long way prior to them
and older than they; and therefore in their view it is Nature which
puts together the bodies both of plants and animals; and this she does
by virtue of certain faculties which she possesses--these being, on
the one hand, attractive and assimilative of what is appropriate, and,
on the other, expulsive of what is foreign. Further, she skilfully
moulds everything during the stage of genesis; and she also provides
for the creatures after birth, employing here other faculties again,
namely, one of affection and forethought for offspring, and one of
sociability and friendship for kindred. According to the other school,
none of these things exist in the natures[75] [of living things], nor
is there in the soul any original innate idea, whether of agreement or
difference, of separation or synthesis, of justice or injustice, of
the beautiful or ugly; all such things, they say, arise in us _from
sensation and through sensation_, and animals are steered by certain
images and memories.
Some of these people have even expressly declared that the soul
possesses no reasoning faculty, but that we are led like cattle by the
impression of our senses, and are unable to refuse or dissent from
anything. In their view, obviously, courage, wisdom, temperance, and
self-control are all mere nonsense, we do not love either each other
or our offspring, nor do the gods care anything for us. This school
also despises dreams, birds, omens, and the whole of astrology,
subjects with which we have dealt at greater length in another
work,[76] in which we discuss the views of Asclepiades the
physician.[77] Those who wish to do so may familiarize themselves with
these arguments, and they may also consider at this point which of the
two roads lying before us is the better one to take. Hippocrates took
the first-mentioned. According to this teaching, substance is one and
is subject to _alteration_; there is a consensus in the movements of
air and fluid throughout the whole body;[78] Nature acts throughout in
an artistic and equitable manner, having certain faculties, by virtue
of which each part of the body draws to itself the juice which is
proper to it, and, having done so, attaches it to every portion of
itself, and completely assimilates it; while such part of the juice as
has not been mastered,[79] and is not capable of undergoing complete
alteration and being assimilated to the part which is being nourished,
is got rid of by yet another (an expulsive) faculty.
XII
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account