Laws eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 837 pages of information about Laws.

Laws eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 837 pages of information about Laws.
increase and diminution, by generation and destruction.  ‘Granted.’ (9) That which moves and is moved by another is the ninth kind of motion; (10) that which is self-moved and moves others is the tenth.  And this tenth kind of motion is the mightiest, and is really the first, and is followed by that which was improperly called the ninth.  ‘How do you mean?’ Must not that which is moved by others finally depend upon that which is moved by itself?  Nothing can be affected by any transition prior to self-motion.  Then the first and eldest principle of motion, whether in things at rest or not at rest, will be the principle of self-motion; and that which is moved by others and can move others will be the second.  ‘True.’  Let me ask another question: 

What is the name which is given to self-motion when manifested in any material substance?  ‘Life.’  And soul too is life?  ‘Very good.’  And are there not three kinds of knowledge—­a knowledge (1) of the essence, (2) of the definition, (3) of the name?  And sometimes the name leads us to ask the definition, sometimes the definition to ask the name.  For example, number can be divided into equal parts, and when thus divided is termed even, and the definition of even and the word ‘even’ refer to the same thing.  ‘Very true.’  And what is the definition of the thing which is named ‘soul’?  Must we not reply, ‘The self-moved’?  And have we not proved that the self-moved is the source of motion in other things?  ‘Yes.’  And the motion which is not self-moved will be inferior to this?  ‘True.’  And if so, we shall be right in saying that the soul is prior and superior to the body, and the body by nature subject and inferior to the soul?  ’Quite right.’  And we agreed that if the soul was prior to the body, the things of the soul were prior to the things of the body?  ‘Certainly.’  And therefore desires, and manners, and thoughts, and true opinions, and recollections, are prior to the length and breadth and force of bodies.  ‘To be sure.’  In the next place, we acknowledge that the soul is the cause of good and evil, just and unjust, if we suppose her to be the cause of all things?  ‘Certainly.’  And the soul which orders all things must also order the heavens?  ‘Of course.’  One soul or more?  More; for less than two are inconceivable, one good, the other evil.  ‘Most true.’  The soul directs all things by her movements, which we call will, consideration, attention, deliberation, opinion true and false, joy, sorrow, courage, fear, hatred, love, and similar affections.  These are the primary movements, and they receive the secondary movements of bodies, and guide all things to increase and diminution, separation and union, and to all the qualities which accompany them—­cold, hot, heavy, light, hard, soft, white, black, sweet, bitter; these and other such qualities the soul, herself a goddess, uses, when truly receiving the divine mind she leads all things rightly to their happiness; but under the impulse of folly she works out an opposite

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Laws from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.