The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn YokdhanIbn Tufayl, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Malik
Islamic
The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan
Ibn Tufayl, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Malik
Islamic philosophy -- Early works to 1800
Portion of Life, because the Element it self does so.
Sec. 70. On the contrary, if there were any of these compounded Bodies, in
which the Nature of one Element did not prevail over the rest, but they
were all equally mix'd, and a match one for the other; then one of them
would not abate the Force of the other, any more than its own Force is
abated by it, but they would work upon one another with equal Power, and
the Operation of any one of them would not be more conspicuous than that
of the rest; and this Body would be far from being like to any one of
the Elements, but would be as if it had nothing _contrary_ to its
_Form,_ and consequently the more dispos'd for Life; and the greater
this Equality of Temperature was, and by how much the more perfect, and
further distant from inclining oneway or other, by so much the farther
it is distant from having any contrary to it, and its Life is the more
perfect. Now since that Animal Spirit which is seated in the Heart is of
a most exact Temperature, as being finer than _Earth_ and _Water_, and
grosser than _Fire_ and _Air_, it has the Nature of a Mean between them
all, and which has no manifest Opposition to any of the Elements, and by
this means is fitted to become that Form which constitutes an Animal.
And he saw that it follow'd from hence, that those _Animal Spirits_
which were of the most even Temperature, were the best dispos'd for the
most perfect Life in this World, of Generation and Corruption, and that
this Spirit was very near having no opposite to its Forms, and did in
this respect resemble the Heavenly Bodies which have no opposite to
their Forms; and was therefore the Spirit of the Animal, because it was
a Mean between all the Elements, and had no absolute Tendency, either
upwards or downwards; but that, if it were possible it should be plac'd
in the middle Space, between the Center and the highest Bounds of the
Region of Fire, and not be destroy'd, it would continue in the same
place, and move neither upwards nor downwards; but if it should be
locally mov'd, it would move in a round, as the Heavenly Bodies do, and
if it mov'd in its place, it would be round its own Center, and that it
was impossible for it to be of any other Figure but Spherical, and for
that reason it is very much like to the Heavenly Bodies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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