The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher: Containing his Complete Masterpiece and Family Physician; his Experienced Midwife, his Book of Problems and his Remarks on Physiognomy
Philosophy
The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher: Containing his Complete Masterpiece and Family Physician; his Experienced Midwife, his Book of Problems and his Remarks on Physiognomy
Human beings; Mind and body; Reproduction
Q. Why do hard dens, hollow and high places, send back the likeness and
sound of the voice? A. Because that in such places also by reflection do
return back the image of a sound, for the voice doth beat the air, and
the air the place, which the more it is beaten the more it doth bear,
and therefore doth cause the more vehement sound of the voice; moist
places, and as it were, soft, yielding to the stroke, and dissolving it,
give no sound again; for according to the quantity of the stroke, the
quality and quantity of the voice is given, which is called an echo.
Some do idly fable that she is a goddess; some say that Pan was in love
with her, which without doubt is false. He was some wise man, who did
first desire to search out the cause of the voice, and as they who love,
and cannot enjoy that love, are grieved, so in like manner was he very
sorry until he found out the solution of that cause; as Endymion also,
who first found out the course of the moon, watching all night, and
observing her course, and searching her motion, did sleep in the
daytime, and that she came to him when he was asleep, because she did
give the philosopher the solution of the course herself. They say also
that he was a shepherd, because that in the desert and high places, he
did mark the course of the moon. And they gave him also the pipe because
that the high places are blown with wind, or else because he sought out
the consonancy of figures. Prometheus also, being a wise man, sought the
course of the star, which is called the eagle in the firmament, his
nature and place; and when he was, as it were, wasted with the desire of
learning, then at last he rested, when Hercules did resolve unto him all
doubts with his wisdom.
Q. Why do not swine cry when they are carried with their snouts upwards?
A. Because that of all other beasts they bend more to the earth. They
delight in filth, and that they seek, and therefore in the sudden change
of their face, they be as it were strangers, and being amazed with so
much light do keep that silence; some say the windpipe doth close
together by reason of the straitness of it.
Q. Why do swine delight in dirt? A. As physicians do say, they are
naturally delighted with it, because they have a great liver, in which
desire it, as Aristotle saith, the wideness of their snout is the case,
for he that hath smelling which doth dissolve itself, and as it were
strive with stench.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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