Aristotle's Problems

...they bear the truth: and some of them are indeed certain and known to all; others are hidden from all, admitting no solution from us. Others, however, possess a certain middle nature, about which we now intend to speak. Finally, every problem must be solved either from temperament, or from formation, or from action, or from a similarity in an affection, or from color, or from the persuasion of the senses, or through equivocation, or from actions which proceed more or less from powers, or through that which is harder or rarer, or greater or smaller, or from time and age and custom, or through "essentialized"—this newly coined word is somewhat harsh, for what the Greeks call usiodes, which is [acting] through the habit of essence, use will soften—or by accident, or from similar things, as you will find in the problems that have been stated. Following these rules, therefore, you will be able to bring every doubted matter toward demonstration. But since it must be thought insufficient to apply a universal doctrine, but it befits him who teaches to bring these things under hand point by point and member by member, let us begin the questions and solutions.

¶ Why children, and especially Quintilian: And nature is more patient of labor in children than in youths: namely, as the bodies of infants are not so heavily afflicted by the falls by which they are so often brought to the ground, nor by that crawling on hands and knees, nor after a short time by continuous play and the running about of the whole day: because weight is absent from them, nor do they burden themselves; so too, I believe, their minds are moved with less effort, nor do they insist upon their studies with their own striving, but offer themselves only to be formed, and are not similarly fatigued.

Why are glass vessels broken in winter when some intense heat is applied? Because from the surrounding air the vessel receives a great deal of cold throughout its entire body. When, therefore, we suddenly pour boiling water into those not previously warmed, there is no doubt but that the heat pursues the cold that opposes it, so that it must necessarily diffuse itself together with the spirit all at once, and consequently the shattering of the glass vessels follows; for we shall grant that glass bodies have pores, even if they do not fall under sight or sense. Moreover, as pertains to the nature of this thing and the truth, it loses almost the thinnest air. There are those who say that glass bodies are parched and dried by the immense cold, and whatever thin parts are in them—that is, moisture or air—are squeezed out, ejected, and burned away; and thus they are rendered fit to be shattered and broken like very dry wood. For so also Hippocrates used to say that the chill of the veins is breakable. Yet immoderate heat striking the glass body itself, drying it out even more intensely, renders it more disposed to breaking and shattering. But if it is first softened by being moderately warmed, it by no means gives way; for which reason wrestlers also, when about to struggle, are first doused with oil by the trainers, and singers, when about to sing, first warm their throat and jaws and render the passages of the breath softer. Thus, the cold having been drawn away, finding the pores open, will easily flee with the spirit, and whatever of the glass has been softened will yield to the heat, nor will it be immediately liable to shattering. Moreover, that glass bodies have pores we may observe even from earthen vessels; for water poured in during winter sweats out when they have been pitched. It is also possible to see smoke bursting forth and exhaling from a glass body in winter when you have poured in boiling water; likewise, a cut and pressed citron placed on the outside of an enclosed cabbage imparts its own quality.

¶ Why do children, and especially infants, not easily get hurt when they fall to the ground, as men do? Because of the softness of the body, I say, which yields to the soil of the earth; since they dissipate the firmness and hardness so that they are struck less. Men, however, since they are of a hard body, being struck by the hardness of the earth or by some stone, and intensifying the force of the blow against the stone, must necessarily be inflicted with something from the stone, as it is harder than they. The reason is the same why even a falling sponge is not broken, whereas glass or a potsherd or a hard body of this sort is broken when it falls; and so you might say these things agree by similarity. And for this reason also a violent movement of the wind casts down the oak indeed, but not the reed; since the oak, being hard and strong and of ample magnitude, meeting the wind, intensifies its force; but the reed, because it is hollow and soft and small, yielding to the blast of the wind here and there, dissipates and dissolves its force. By the same reasoning, a wrestler meeting his adversary increases and excites his force; whereas the more he yields and leads him around, shifting himself here and there, the more quickly he will exhaust the other’s strength.

Why do infants, hearing songs from their nurses, become quiet if they are weeping and wailing, and fall asleep when rocked? Because music, like all knowledge and art, is familiar to the soul; just as heat is innate to fire, so also Plato judges that sciences are recollections of the soul once learned. Therefore, the soul hearing a sound of this kind from those singing, as recollection enters the mind, infants are compelled to be calmed. Hence, being thus enticed, they are led into sleep. When the soul is in an unpolluted and purged body, it possesses its sciences whole; but when polluted in a body, it arrives as if at a moderate forgetfulness of them.

¶ Why some who are very drunk

Why do nurses rock infants who have fallen into sleep? Because the humors, diffused by the motion, move the brain; although in a mature age they would by no means tolerate suffering this.

Why do some who are very drunk see double? Because the muscles of the eyes are filled from the great moisture, more or less, and being made soft and contracted, they divert and distract the eyes: one indeed upward, the other downward. Hence it remains that the rays of the eyes do not [meet] in the same...