Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd ed. Volume 4
Plato · en
[Footnote 109: Plat. Tim. p. 89 A. [Greek: tô=n d' au)=
kinê/seôn ê( e)n e(autô=| u(ph' e(autou= a)ri/stê ki/nêsis;
ma/lista ga\r tê=| dianoêtikê=| kai\ tê=| tou= panto\s
kinê/sei xuggenê/s; ê( d' u(p' a)/llou chei/rôn.]]
[Footnote 110: Plat. Tim. p. 89 A. [Greek: deute/ra de\ ê( dia\
tô=n ai)ôrê/seôn].
Foes, in the Oeconomia Hippocratica v. [Greek: Ai)ô/ra], gives
information about these _pensiles gestationes_, upon which
the ancient physicians bestowed much attention.]
[Side-note: Treatment proper for mind alone, apart from
body--supremacy of the rational soul must be cultivated.]
We must now indicate the treatment necessary for mind alone, apart
from body. It has been already stated, that there are in each of
us three souls, or three distinct varieties of soul; each having
its own separate place and special movements. Of these three, that
which is most exercised must necessarily become the strongest:
that which is left unexercised, unmoved, at rest or in
indolence,--will become the weakest. The object to be aimed at is,
that all three shall be exercised in harmony or proportion with each
other. Respecting the soul in our head, the grandest and most
commanding of the three, we must bear in mind that it is this which
the Gods have assigned to each man as his own special Dæmon or
presiding Genius. Dwelling as it does in the highest region of the
body, it marks us and links us as akin with heaven--as a celestial
and not a terrestrial plant, having root in heaven and not in earth.
It is this encephalic or head-soul, which, connected with and
suspended from the divine soul of the Kosmos, keeps our whole body
in its erect attitude. Now if a man neglects this soul, directing
all his favour and development towards the two others (the energetic
or the appetitive),--all his judgments will infallibly become
mortal and transient, and he himself will be degraded into a
mortal being, as far as it is possible for man to become so. But
if he devotes himself to study and meditation on truth, exercising
the encephalic soul more than the other two--he will assuredly, if
he seizes truth,[111] have his mind filled with immortal and
divine judgments, and will become himself immortal, as far as
human nature admits of it. Cultivating as he does systematically
the divine element within him, and having his in-dwelling Genius
decorated as perfectly as possible, he will be eminently
well-inspired or happy.[112]
[Footnote 111: Plato, Timæus, p. 90 C. [Greek: a)/n per
a)lêthei/as e)pha/ptêtai.]]
[Footnote 112: Plato, Timæus, p. 90 B-D. [Greek: e)/chonta/ te
au)to\n eu)= ma/la kekosmême/non to\n dai/mona xu/noikon e)n
au(tô=|, diaphero/ntôs eu)dai/mona ei)=nai.]
It is hardly possible to translate this play upon the word [Greek:
eu)dai/môn].]
[Side-note: We must study and understand the rotations of
the Kosmos--this is the way to amend the rotations of the rational
soul.]