Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 5 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"Plutarch
Philosophy
Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 5 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"
Plutarch
Classical literature; Essays; Ethics; Philosophy
29. Moreover, the tunny is so sensible of the equinoxes and solstices,
that he teaches even men themselves without the help of any
astrological table. For where the winter solstice overtakes him, there
he remains till the vernal equinox.
As for that same artifice of the cranes, that keep themselves waking
by clutching a stone in their claws, how much more cunningly done is
that of the dolphin, for whom it is not lawful to stand still or to
be out of motion. For it is the nature of the dolphins to be always
in motion; so that, when they cease to move, they also cease to live.
And therefore when sleep seizes them, they raise their bodies to the
superficies of the sea, and so sinking down again with their bellies
upward, are carried along with the tide till they touch again the
shore. Wakened in that manner, with an impetuous noise they mount
upward again, designing thus a kind of rest still intermixed with
motion. And the same thing is reported of the tunnies for the same
reason.
Having thus concluded their mathematical foreknowledge of the mutations
of the sun, of which Aristotle gives testimony, let me now relate their
skill in arithmetic; but first of all, their knowledge in optics, of
which Aeschylus seems not to have been altogether ignorant. For these
are his words:
Casting a squint-eye like the tunny.
For tunnies seem to be dim-sighted of one eye. And therefore, when they
enter the Euxine Sea, they coast along the land on the right side, and
contrariwise when they come forth; prudently committing the care of
their bodies to the best eye.
But wanting arithmetic in order to the preservation of mutual love
and society one with another, they arrive in such a manner to the
perfection of that science, that, in regard they are extremely desirous
to enjoy the society of each other, they always make up their whole
fry into the form of a cube, and make a solid of the whole number
consisting of six equal planes; and then they swim in such order as to
present an equal front in each direction. So then, if the observer of
the tunnies does but exactly take the number of the side that he sees,
he knows the whole number of the shoal; well knowing that the depth is
equal to the breadth and length.
30. The fish amiae, which are another sort of tunnies, are so called,
because they swim in shoals, as also the pelamydes or summer whitings.
As for the rest that are seen to swim in shoals and to observe a mutual
society, their number is not to be expressed. And therefore let us
proceed to those that observe a kind of private and particular society
one with another. Among which is the pinoteras of Chrysippus, upon
which he has expended so much ink, that he gives it the precedency in
all his books, both physical and ethical. For Chrysippus never knew the
spongotera, for he would not have passed it over out of negligence.
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