Moreover, the liver was made to serve another purpose. It was selected as the seat of the prophetic agency; which the Gods considered to be indispensable, as a refuge and aid for the irrational department of man. Though this portion of the soul had no concern with sense or reason, they would not shut it out altogether from some glimpse of truth. The revelations of prophecy were accordingly signified on the liver, for the instruction and within the easy view of the appetitive soul: and chiefly at periods when the functions of the rational soul are suspended--either during sleep, or disease, or fits of temporary ecstasy. For no man in his perfect senses comes under the influence of a genuine prophetic inspiration. Sense and intelligence are often required to interpret prophecies, and to determine what is meant by dreams or signs or prognostics of other kinds: but such revelations are received by men destitute of sense. To receive them, is the business of one class of men: to interpret them, that of another. It is a grave mistake, though often committed, to confound the two. It was in order to furnish prophecy to man, therefore, that the Gods devised both the structure and the place of the liver. During life, the prophetic indications are clearly marked upon it: but after death they become obscure and hard to decipher.[90] [Footnote 90: Plato, Timæus, pp. 71-72. 71 E: [Greek: i(kano\n de\ sêmei=on, ô(s mantikê\n a)phrosu/nê| theo\s a)nthrôpi/nê| de/dôken; ou)dei\s ga\r e)/nnous e)pha/ptetai mantikê=s e)nthe/ou kai\ a)lêthou=s.]] The spleen was placed near the liver, corresponding to it on the left side, in order to take off from it any impure or excessive accretions or accumulations, and thus to preserve it clean and pure.[91] [Footnote 91: Plato, Timæus, p. 72 D.] Such was the distribution of the one immortal and the two mortal souls, and such the purposes by which it was dictated. We cannot indeed (says Plato) proclaim this with full assurance as truth, unless the Gods would confirm our declarations. We must take the risk of affirming what appears to us probable--and we shall proceed with this risk yet further.[92] The following is the plan and calculation according to which it was becoming that our remaining bodily frame should be put together. [Footnote 92: Plato, Timæus, p. 72 D-E. [Greek: to\ me\n a)lêthe/s, ô(s ei)/rêtai, theou= xumphê/santos to/t' a)\n ou(/tô mo/nôs dii+schurizoi/metha; to/ ge mê\n ei)ko\s ê(mi=n ei)rêsthai kai\ nu=n kai\ e)/ti ma=llon a)naskopou=si diakinduneute/on to\ pha/nai, kai\ pepha/sthô . . . e)k dê\ logismou= toiou=de xuni/stasthai ma/list' a)\n au)to\ pa/ntôn pre/poi.]] [Side-note: Length of the intestinal canal, in order that food might not be frequently needed.]