Plato’s Timaeus.

Folio 10.

And a conflict tormented [the soul]: whenever the body in its tossing encountered the shock of fire, or a solid collision with earth, or the slippery flow of waters, or the violent blasts of winds. Through all these interruptions traveling through the body to the soul, the stimulated mind would seethe. Indeed, these agitations are called "senses" Latin: sensus both from the beginning and even now, stirring up the greatest and most violent motions. While the natural flow continues to stream in and out without ceasing, they shake the circuits of the soul as if with certain whirlwinds. They hinder that provident motion of its counsel—namely, the motion of the "Same" The "Circle of the Same" represents rational, constant thought in Platonic cosmology. whose revolution is circular—and they work against the direction in which it moves, rejecting its command. Furthermore, the circles of the "Different" The "Circle of the Different" represents the wandering motions of the planets and sensory opinion. are enslaved to various and uncertain motions. This is to such an extent that the limits of those double and triple quantities—and likewise the triple intervals on each side confirmed by the means of the sesquialters A ratio of 3:2, sesquitertians A ratio of 4:3, and epogdoons A ratio of 9:8; these are musical/mathematical ratios used by the Creator to build the soul—could be dissolved by no one except him who had joined them; yet they were long harassed by every kind of tossing. By contrary motions, they distracted the soul and its entire substance in different directions, so that it is carried along with the bonds of its own construction, but without reason, inasmuch as the motions are discordant and the allure of the senses depraves the right path.

Therefore, various inclinations of the soul exist, both oblique and contrary, and likewise similar to falling flat on one's back: as if someone, changing the natural position of their limbs, should fix their head on the ground instead of their feet, and lift their feet high instead of their head. Then, I think, both to the one who suffers this and to those who watch, the right parts seem left, and the left parts seem right. The circuits of the soul suffer this very same thing in turn. Therefore they err in the contemplation of the "Same" and the "Different" Same and Different: Plato's categories for eternal truths versus changing physical realities: asserting through weakness of discernment that what is different is the same, and what is the same is different. This opinion of theirs is full of error and falsehood, arising from the depravity of the senses; such a wandering path has no certain leader. And when external senses strike the soul more vehemently and possess it entirely, then that soul, subjugated and serving, is falsely thought to retain some high-priestly power. The soul is sick with these passions: both at the beginning when it was first embodied, and for as long as it is affected in this way, it will be mindless.

¶ But after the stream of growth and nutrition flows out in a thinner rivulet, and the circuits of the soul perform their way with a more tranquil motion, and the processes of time become more settled—inasmuch as they deviate very little from the competent motion of their own nature—they then easily discern the vices and goodness of the "Different" nature, and the honor of the "Same," with a desire for the one and a detestation of the other. They will protect a person so established with full † measure and unharmed prudence. But if the diligence of honest education and moderation comes to his aid in this † state, he will lead a life free from all perturbation and sickness. If he neglects it, crawling along the lame path of life, he will at last be called back to the lower regions with his familiar folly. But these things happen last, according to the merits already placed in life.

¶ Now, however, it is fitting to look at the task of divine providence regarding the rational conformation of the limbs, which celestial foresight prepared for receiving vital vigor. In the beginning, the divine powers to whom the duty of forming the body was entrusted, borrowing from the shape of the universe, fashioned the shape of the head to be smooth †painted/fashioned and spherical, and they entwined within it two circuits of venerable divinity. Moreover, the head is more honorable than the rest of the body and possesses a certain noble eminence...