Works of Constantine the African, Vol. II

CONSTANT. AFRIC. COMMVN.

so that they might hold more firmly. For if the sense of touch were not tempered, it would not distinguish the hot from the cold, nor the soft from the hard, nor the smooth from the rough. For no one feels anything unless the sense of touch is altered by the quality of the thing being felt. Therefore, so that it might hold what is to be held, it was necessary for the sense of touch to be tempered. If the hand were too soft or too hard, it would not retain what needed to be retained. Yet, something holding a thing must be harder than that which is soft. Galen says concerning a tempered complexio constitution:

No body is found to be equally tempered in all its extremities sensually, but only intellectually.

For when some body consisting of four qualities is conceived in the mind, subsisting equally, one quality is understood to be there which is not assimilated to any of the others, and this is said to be tempered. But if we wish to perceive it sensually, let us take very hot water and snow in equal weight. If these are mixed and touched, they are found to be tempered between hot and cold. If we mix powder and water, we feel a temperance between hard and soft. And thus, we can judge many similar things through which a tempered state can be discerned. Truly, the tempered state, according to what is necessary, is not equally and certainly and truthfully tempered for every body from all its extremities, but according to what is necessary for the shape of the body in which it is formed. For example, the lion is hotter so that it might be irascible and rapacious. The hare is colder so that it might be timid and flighty. However, the temperance of every complexio constitution is discerned only by its own function: as a horse, because it is swift and fit for war, is said to be tempered. A dog, because it is sagacious regarding the hunt and familiar with its master, is similarly tempered. The same is understood in things growing from the earth. The vine and the fig are said to be tempered because they are both fruitful and have a good taste. Similarly, in pigments and spices that provide assistance, they are said to be better tempered in their nature. It is enough to have said these things about temperance according to what is necessary. We have called a complexio constitution intemperate—hot, cold, moist, or dry—which are understood either by quality alone outside of a subject, or as they are in a subject. In a subject, they exist actually, potentially, or accidentally. Potentially: things that, although they do not appear to the senses, can still be, such as pepper; since it is of a hot nature, it is not discerned sensually until it heats the body of the one eating it. Therefore, its heat is potential. Accidentally, we say it is in a subject, such as water being hot, yet not from itself, and similar things. Actual heats, however, are either in the highest extremity, or in the four elements, or below the highest extremity, as in animate bodies. In the body of an animal, qualities are said to exist either because one exceeds the others, or by comparison. By comparison, they are either tempered or not tempered. By temperance: as when we call an irrational animal hot in relation to a human. For man is more tempered than all other species of animals. By intemperance: as when we call an animal hot in comparison to another animal. The same must be said regarding those things that exist potentially.