[391] We expressed an opinion above (p. 175.) that no grounds of excuse could be found for the Pathic; but we must here modify this so far as to admit that Aristotle imagines himself to have discovered such. In the _Problemata_, IV. 26., he examines the question: διὰ τί ἔνιοι ἀφροδισιαζόμενοι χαίρουσι, καὶ οἱ μὲν ἅμα δρῶντες, οἱ δ’ οὔ; (Why some men take pleasure in being loved, and of these some in performing the act also, but others not?), i.e. why some find a pleasure in suffering paederastia to be practised with them (the word ἀφροδισιάζεσθαι is found in this meaning possibly also in _Hippocrates_, edit. Kühn, Vol. III. pp. 680 and 574., where exactly such symptoms of a complaint are described as might serve for an explanation of the ῥέγχειν—snorting (mentioned above), while either they exercise coition as men concurrently, or do not. As answer we read, to follow the translation given by _Th. Gaza_: An quod excrementis singulis locus determinatus a natura est, in quem instituto secerni naturali debeat, sollicitaque natura spiritus excurrens tumorem admovet, excrementumque una extrudere solet.... His autem proxime genituram quoque in testes et penem deferri constitutum est. _Quibus itaque meatus habitu suo naturali privantur, vel quia occoecati sunt qui ad penem tendant, quod spadonibus hisque similibus evenit_ (οἷς δὲ οἱ πόροι μὴ κατὰ φύσιν ἔχουσιν, ἀλλ’ ἢ διὰ τὸ ἀποτυφλωθῆναι τοὺς εἰς τὸ αἰδοῖον, οἷον συμβαίνει τοῖς _εὐνουχίαις_), vel etiam aliis de causis, his _talis humor in sedem confluit_ ( εἰς τὴν ἕδραν συῤῥεῖ ἡ τοιαύτη ἰκμας), quippe qui hac transmeare soleat, quod eius loci contractio in coeundo et partium sedi oppositarum consumptio incidant. Qui si admodum semine genitali abundant, _excrementum illud large in eum locum se colligit; itaque_ cum excitata cupiditas est, _attritum pars ea desiderat_, in quam confluit excrementum. Cupiditas autem excitari tum a cibo tum imaginatione potest. Cum enim alterutra de causa libido commota est, spiritus eodem concurrit, et genus id excrementi confluit, quo secedere natum est.... Quorum vera natura mollis et feminea est (οἱ δὲ φύσει θηλυδρίαι) ita ii constant ut genitura vel nulla vel minima conveniat, quo illorum secernitur qui praediti natura integra sunt, sed se in partem sedis divertat; quod propterea evenit quia praeter naturae normam constiterunt. Cum enim mares crearentur, ita degenerarunt ut partem virilem mancam atque oblaesam habere cogerentur, ... ita enim mulieres non viri crearentur. Ergo perverti citarique aliorsum, quam secernendum natura voluit, necesse est. Unde fit ut insatiabiles etiam sint modo mulierum (διὸ καὶ ἄπληστοι, ὥσπερ αἱ γυναῖκες). Humor enim sollicitans ille exiguus est, nec quicquam se promere conatur, refrigeraturque celeriter. _Quibus itaque sedem humor ex toto adiit, ii pati tantummodo avent, quibus autem in utramque partem sese dispertit, ii et agere et pati concupiunt_ (καὶ ὅσοις μὲν ἐπὶ τὴν