Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"Plutarch
Philosophy
Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"
Plutarch
Classical literature; Essays; Ethics; Philosophy
3. This exposition we applauded; and Tyndares, saying he envied him,
desired Autobulus to engage Florus and confute his discourse. That
he refused to do, but produced another opinion of his own. Geometry,
said he, considers nothing else but the accidents and properties
of the extremities or limits of bodies; neither did God make the
world any other way than by terminating matter, which was infinite
before. Not that matter was really infinite as to either magnitude
or multitude; but the ancients used to call that infinite which by
reason of its confusion and disorder is undetermined and unconfined.
Now the terms of every thing that is formed or figured are the form
and figure of that thing, without which the thing would be formless
and unfigured. Now numbers and proportions being applied to matter, it
is circumscribed and as it were bound up by lines, and through lines
by surfaces and profundities; and so were settled the first species
and differences of bodies, as foundations from which to raise the four
elements, fire, air, water, and earth. For it was impossible that,
out of an unsteady and confused matter, the equality of the sides,
the likeness of the angles, and the exact proportion of octahedrons,
icosahedrons, pyramids, and cubes should be deduced, unless by some
power that terminated and shaped every particle of matter. Therefore,
terms being fixed to that which was undetermined or infinite before,
the whole became and still continues agreeable in all parts, and
excellently terminated and mixed; the matter indeed always affecting
an indeterminate state, and flying all geometrical confinement, but
proportion terminating and circumscribing it, and dividing it into
several differences and forms, out of which all things that arise are
generated and subsist.
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account