ÉPINOMIS. 13

CLINIAS. Let us hold that as certain, as far as we can understand it.

THE ATHENIAN. Tell me: is it not a very true and natural thing to call by the name of animal that which results from the assembly and union of a soul and a body under a single form?

CLINIAS. Yes.

THE ATHENIAN. Is that the true definition of an animal?

CLINIAS. Without doubt.

THE ATHENIAN. Let us add that there are, in all likelihood, five solid elements, whose combination can form the most beautiful and perfect bodies. As for beings of a different nature, they all have the same form. It is not possible that a substance which has nothing corporeal, nothing visible, should not be included under the truly divine genus of the soul. Now, it belongs only to such a substance to form and to produce, just as it is the property of the body to be formed, to be produced, and to fall under the senses; whereas, let us say it again, for it is not enough to say it once, the nature of the other substance is to be invisible, to know and to be known, to remember and to reason, following various combinations of even and odd numbers Plato, following Pythagoras, represents the soul through the idea of a number resulting from even and odd combinations. See the Timaeus.. There are, therefore, five elementary bodies, namely: fire and water, the third, air, the fourth, earth, and the fifth, ether; and according to which of these elements dominates, a multitude of different animals is formed. To better understand this, let us consider each species in its unity. Let us take as the first unity the terrestrial species which includes all men, all animals with many feet and without