Greek Texts & Translations

Your suggestion, Stranger, we think excellent; so do as you suggest. 893b

Come then,—if ever we ought to invoke God's aid, now is the time it ought to be done. Let the gods be invoked with all zeal to aid in the demonstration of their own existence. And let us hold fast, so to speak, to a safe cable as we embark on the present discussion. And it is safest, as it seems to me, to adopt the following method of reply when questions such as this are put on these subjects; for instance, when a man asks me—“Do all things stand still, Stranger, and nothing move? Or is the exact opposite the truth? Or do some things move 893cand some remain at rest?” My answer will be, “Some things move, others remain at rest.” ^note “Then do not the standing things stand, and the moving things move, in a certain place?” “Of course.” “And some will do this in one location, and others in several.” “You mean,” we will say, “that those which have the quality of being at rest at the center move in one location, as when the circumference of circles that are said to stand still revolves?” “Yes. And we perceive that motion of this kind, which simultaneously turns in this revolution both the largest circle and the smallest, distributes itself 893dto small and great proportionally, altering in proportion its own quantity; whereby it functions as the source of all such marvels as result from its supplying great and small circles simultaneously with harmonizing rates of slow and fast speeds—a condition of things that one might suppose to be impossible.” “Quite true.” “And by things moving in several places you seem to me to mean all things that move by locomotion, continually passing from one spot to another, and sometimes resting 893eon one axis ^note and sometimes, by revolving, on several axes. And whenever one such object meets another, if the other is at rest, the moving object is split up; but if they collide with others moving to meet them from an opposite direction, they form a combination which is midway between the two.” “Yes, I affirm that these things are so, just as you describe.” “Further, things increase when combined and decrease when separated in all cases where the regular constitution ^note of each persists; but if this does not remain, then both these conditions cause them to perish. And what is the condition which must occur 894ain everything to bring about generation? Obviously whenever a starting-principle receiving increase comes to the second change, and from this to the next, and on coming to the third admits of perception by percipients. ^note Everything comes into being by this process of change and alteration; and a thing is really existent whenever it remains fixed, but when it changes into another constitution it is utterly destroyed.” Have we now, my friends, mentioned all the forms of motion, capable of numerical classification, ^note 894bsave only two?

What two?

Those, my good sir, for the sake of which, one may say, the whole of our present enquiry was undertaken.

Explain more clearly.

It was undertaken, was it not, for the sake of soul?

Certainly.

As one of the two let us count that motion which is always able to move other things, but unable to move itself; and that motion which always is able to move both itself and other things,—by way of combination and separation, of increase and decrease, of generation and corruption,—let us count as another separate unit 894cin the total number of motions.

Be it so.

Thus we shall reckon as ninth on the list that motion which always moves another object and is moved by another; while that motion which moves both itself and another, and which is harmoniously adapted to all forms of action and passion, and is termed the real change and motion of all that really exists,—it, I presume, we shall call the tenth. 894d

Most certainly.

Of our total of ten motions, which shall we most correctly adjudge to be the most powerful of all and excelling in effectiveness?

We are bound to affirm that the motion which is able to move itself excels infinitely, and that all the rest come after it.

Well said. Must we, then, alter one or two of the wrong statements we have now made?

Which do you mean?

Our statement about the tenth seems wrong.

How?

Logically it is first in point of origin and power; and the next one is second to it,