XIII. Here, I think, I paused, and after an interval I went on: ‘What
has happened to us, Eustrophus? We have almost forgotten Homer,[66] as
if he had not been the first to divide the universe into five parts,
assigning the three in the middle to the three Gods, while he left
common and unapportioned the two extremes, Olympus and earth, one the
limit of what is below, the other of what is above. “We must cry back”,
as Euripides says.[67] Now those who exalt the number four as the basis
of the [Sidenote: D] genesis of every body, make out a fairly good case.
For every solid body possesses length, breadth, and depth; but length
presupposes a point as an unit; the line is called length without
breadth, and is length; the movement of a line in breadth produces a
plane surface, and that is three; add depth, and we get to a solid with
four factors. Any one can see that the number four carries Nature up to
this point, that is, to the formation of a complete body, which may be
touched, weighed, or struck; there it has left her, wanting in what is
greatest. [Sidenote: E] For that which has no soul is, in plain terms,
orphaned and incomplete and fit for nothing, unless it be employed by
soul. But the movement or disposition which sets soul therein—a change
introducing a fifth factor—restores to Nature her completeness, its
rational basis is as much more commanding than that of the Tetrad as the
animal is above the inanimate. Further, the symmetry and potency of the
whole five prevails, so as not to allow the animate to form classes
without limit, but gives five types for all living things. There are
Gods, we know, and [Sidenote: F] daemons, and heroes, and after these,
fourth in all, the race of men: fifth, and last, the irrational order of
brutes. Again, if you make a natural division of the soul itself, the
first and least distinct principle is that of growth; second is that of
sense, then comes appetite, then the spirited part; when it has reached
the power of reasoning and perfected its nature, it stays at rest in the
fifth stage as its upper limit.
XIV. ‘Now as this number five has powers so many and so great, its
origin is also noble: not the process already described, out of the
numbers two and three, but that given by the combination of the first
principle of number with the first square. The first principle is unity,
the first square is four; from these [Sidenote: 391] as from idea and
limited substance, comes five. Or, if it be really correct, as some
hold, to reckon unity as a square, being a power of itself and working
out to itself, then the Pempad is formed out of the first two squares,
and so has not missed noble birth and that the highest.
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