From the combination of
sinew, skin, and bone, in the structure of the finger, there
arises a triple compound, which, when dried up, takes the form of
one hard skin partaking of all three natures, and was fabricated
by these second causes, but designed by mind which is the
principal cause with an eye to the future. For our creators well
knew that women and other animals would some day be framed out of
men, and they further knew that many animals would require the
use of nails for many purposes; wherefore they fashioned in men
at their first creation the rudiments of nails. For this purpose
and for these reasons they caused skin, hair, and nails to grow
at the extremities of the limbs. And now that all the parts and
members of the mortal animal had come together, since its life of
necessity consisted of fire and breath, and it therefore wasted
away by dissolution and depletion, the gods contrived the
following remedy: They mingled a nature akin to that of man with
other forms and perceptions, and thus created another kind of
animal. These are the trees and plants and seeds which have been
improved by cultivation and are now domesticated among us;
anciently there were only the will kinds, which are older than
the cultivated. For everything that partakes of life may be truly
called a living being, and the animal of which we are now
speaking partakes of the third kind of soul, which is said to be
seated between the midriff and the navel, having no part in
opinion or reason or mind, but only in feelings of pleasure and
pain and the desires which accompany them. For this nature is
always in a passive state, revolving in and about itself,
repelling the motion from without and using its own, and
accordingly is not endowed by nature with the power of observing
or reflecting on its own concerns. Wherefore it lives and does
not differ from a living being, but is fixed and rooted in the
same spot, having no power of self-motion.
Now after the superior powers had created all these natures to
be food for us who are of the inferior nature, they cut various
channels through the body as through a garden, that it might be
watered as from a running stream. In the first place, they cut
two hidden channels or veins down the back where the skin and the
flesh join, which answered severally to the right and left side
of the body. These they let down along the backbone, so as to
have the marrow of generation between them, where it was most
likely to flourish, and in order that the stream coming down from
above might flow freely to the other parts, and equalise the
irrigation. In the next place, they divided the veins about the
head, and interlacing them, they sent them in opposite
directions; those coming from the right side they sent to the
left of the body, and those from the left they diverted towards
the right, so that they and the skin might together form a bond
which should fasten the head to the body, since the crown of the
head was not encircled by sinews; and also in order that the
sensations from both sides might be distributed over the whole
body. And next, they ordered the water-courses of the body in a
manner which I will describe, and which will be more easily
understood if we begin by admitting that all things which have
lesser parts retain the greater, but the greater cannot retain
the lesser. Now of all natures fire has the smallest parts, and
therefore penetrates through earth and water and air and their
compounds, nor can anything hold it. And a similar principle
applies to the human belly; for when meats and drinks enter it,
it holds them, but it cannot hold air and fire, because the
particles of which they consist are smaller than its own
structure.
These elements, therefore, God employed for the sake of
distributing moisture from the belly into the veins, weaving
together network of fire and air like a weel, having at the
entrance two lesser weels; further he constructed one of these
with two openings, and from the lesser weels he extended cords
reaching all round to the extremities of the network. All the
interior of the net he made of fire, but the lesser weels and
their cavity, of air. The network he took and spread over the
newly-formed animal in the following manner:-He let the lesser
weels pass into the mouth; there were two of them, and one he let
down by the air-pipes into the lungs, the other by the side of
the air-pipes into the belly. The former he divided into two
branches, both of which he made to meet at the channels of the
nose, so that when the way through the mouth did not act, the
streams of the mouth as well were replenished through the nose.
With the other cavity (i.e. of the greater weel) he enveloped the
hollow parts of the body, and at one time he made all this to
flow into the lesser weels, quite gently, for they are composed
of air, and at another time he caused the lesser weels to flow
back again; and the net he made to find a way in and out through
the pores of the body, and the rays of fire which are bound fast
within followed the passage of the air either way, never at any
time ceasing so long as the mortal being holds together. This
process, as we affirm, the name-giver named inspiration and
expiration. And all this movement, active as well as passive,
takes place in order that the body, being watered and cooled, may
receive nourishment and life; for when the respiration is going
in and out, and the fire, which is fast bound within, follows it,
and ever and anon moving to and fro, enters through the belly and
reaches the meat and drink, it dissolves them, and dividing them
into small portions and guiding them through the passages where
it goes, pumps them as from a fountain into the channels of the
veins, and makes the stream of the veins flow through the body as
through a conduit.
Let us once more consider the phenomena of respiration, and
enquire into the causes which have made it what it is. They are
as follows:-Seeing that there is no such thing as a vacuum into
which any of those things which are moved can enter, and the
breath is carried from us into the external air, the next point
is, as will be dear to every one, that it does not go into a
vacant space, but pushes its neighbour out of its place, and that
which is thrust out in turn drives out its neighbour; and in this
everything of necessity at last comes round to that place from
whence the breath came forth, and enters in there, and following
the breath, fills up the vacant space; and this goes on like the
rotation of a wheel, because there can be no such thing as a
vacuum.
