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
12. Nevertheless, supposing, if you please, that it is against Nature
for earthly bodies to have any motions in heaven, let us consider
leisurely and mildly—and not violently, as is done in tragedies—that
this is no proof of the moon’s not being earth, but only that earth
is in a place where by nature it should not be; for the fire of Mount
Aetna is indeed against nature under ground, nevertheless it ceases not
to be fire. And the wind contained within bottles is indeed of its own
nature light and inclined to ascend, but is yet by force constrained to
be there where naturally it should not be. And is not our very soul, I
beseech you in the name of Jupiter, which, as yourselves say, is light,
of a fiery substance, and imperceptible to sense, included within
the body, which is heavy, cold, and palpable? Yet do we therefore say
that the soul does not belong to the body; or that it is not a divine
substance under a gross and heavy mass, or that it does not in a moment
pass through heaven, earth, and sea, pierce into the flesh, nerves,
and marrow, and into the humors which are the cause of a thousand
passions? And even your Jupiter, such as you imagine him and depaint
him to be, is he not of his own nature a great and perpetual fire?
Yet now he submits, is pliable, and transformed into all things by
several mutations. Take heed therefore, good sir, lest, by transferring
and reducing every thing to the place assigned it by Nature, you so
philosophize as to bring in a dissolution of the whole world, and put
all things again into that state of enmity mentioned by Empedocles, or
(to speak more properly) lest you raise up again those ancient Titans
and Giants to put on arms against Nature, and endeavor to introduce
again that fabulous disorder and confusion, where all that is heavy
goes one way apart, and all that is light another;
Where neither sun’s bright face is seen,
Nor earth beheld, spread o’er with green,
Nor the salt sea,
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