Atque hoc quidem pacto corporis morbi contingunt. (45) Animae vero morbi propter corporis habitum ita nascuntur.
Morbum animae demen(46)tiam esse censemus. Eius genera duo ponimus, Insaniam et imperitiam.
Quaecunque igi(47)tur passio alterutrum istorum infert, animi aegritudo est nuncupanda. Idcirco voluptates (48) doloresque admodum vehementes morborum animae omnium gravissimi iudicandi.
Quis(49)quis enim vel nimia gestit laetitia vel nimio dolore deprimitur, dum illam avidius impor(50)tuniusque asciscere, hunc vitare obnixe conatur,
neque cernere neque audire recte quicquam (51) potest, sed rabie furit et in eo habitu constitutus minime rationis est compos.
Qui vero (52) fluido stupidoque circa medullam abundat semine, utque arbor pluribus quam conveniat (53) fructibus gravida nimia ubertate luxuriat, is profecto multis passim doloribus,
multis (54) item voluptatibus in libidinibus ipsis earumque fetibus fructibusque affectus per omnem (735, 1) ferme vitam ob ingentes voluptates doloresque insanit ac furit,
cumque huius animus pro(2)pter corpus aeger sit atque insipiens, vulgo tamen non aeger, sed pro voluntate sua ut liber (3) affectus falso putatur.
Veritas autem sic habet. Nempe venereorum intemperantia ma(4)xima ex parte propter generis unius habitum per ossium raritatem in corpore lubricum (5) madidumque animi infirmitas est.
Ac ferme omnis voluptatum incontinentia, quae perin(6)de ac si sponte improbi simus vituperari solet, non recte ita vituperatur.
Nemo enim spon(7)te malus, sed propter pravum quendam corporis habitum rudemque educationem, malus (8) omnis fit malus. Omnibus autem adversa inimicaque haec sunt et mala noxiaque contin(9)gunt.
Rursus dolore afflictus animus similiter propter corpus in pravitatem plurimam (10) incidit.
Acris enim et infesta pituita, amari item felleque humores, quando oberrantes per (11) corpus non exhalant,
sed per viscera revoluti vaporem suum penetralibus animae ipsius (12) infundunt, languores animae varios et magis et minus, tum plures, tum pauciores effi(13)ciunt.
Perferuntur sane ad tres animae sedes humores vaporesque huiusmodi, ac pro loci di(14)versitate unusquisque varias species generat, difficultatis atque molestiae, audaciae rursus ti(15)miditatisque, oblivionis praeterea atque hebetudinis.
Saepe etiam ad pravum hunc corpora(16)turae et affectionis habitum accedunt mores civitatis iniqui, sermonesque et privati et pu(17)blici non parum omnino noxii,
nec ullae doctrinae ad tantorum malorum remedia a tene(18)ra aetate discuntur. Atque ita quicunque nostrum pravi sunt, duabus ex causis praeter volun(19)tatem maxime contingentibus pravi fiunt.
Huiusmodi quidem malorum causae serenti(20)bus potius quam satis, educantibus quam educatis attribuendae.
Conandum tamen pro (21) viribus educationis, studiorum, doctrinarum diligentia improbitatem reiicere, assequi (22) probitatem.
Sed horum quidem tractatio alio constat disserendi modo.
Nunc iam conver(23)so quo cultu quibusque causis corporis salutem adipiscamur, decet exponere.
Iu(24)stius enim est de bonis quam de malis facere.
Omne bonum pulchrum. Pulchrum vero sine (25) mensura et moderatione esse non potest.
Ideoque animal quod tale futurum est, convenienti (26) mensura moderatum esse oportet.
Ex eorum autem numero quae commensurata modera(27)taque dicuntur, exigua quaedam persentimus et iudicamus, praecipua vero maxima igno(28)ramus.
Porro ad bonam et malam valetudinem, ad virtutes et vitia nulla moderatio vel im(29)moderatio maioris momenti quam animae ad ipsum corpus esse videtur.
Horum nihil con(30)sideramus neque animadvertimus, quod quando robustam magnamque animam imbecillior (31) inferiorque vehit species,
vel quando contra ista iunguntur, totum ipsum animal pulchrum (32) esse non potest. Maxima enim mensura et moderationem caret.
Quod autem contra affectum (33) est, spectaculorum omnium ei qui id valeat intueri, pulcherrimum amabilissimumque ap(34)paret.
Corpus quidem quod grandioribus vel inaequalibus cruribus, aut quovis alio mo(35)dum excedente membro secum ipso dissentit et deforme est
et in ferendis laboribus con(36)torquetur, vacillat, lassatur et concidit innumerabiliumque malorum sibi causam praebet. (37)Idem quoque iudicandum de eo ex anima et corpore conposito, quod animal appellavimus.
(38) Quando enim anima corpore admodum potentior est, exultat in eo atque effertur, totum (39) ipsum intrinsecus quatiens languoribus implet.
Quando etiam ad discendum investigan(40)dumque collectis in unum viribus vehementer incumbit, liquefacit protinus corpus et la(41)befactat.
Denique cum ad docendum disserendumque privatim et publice ambitiosa quadam (42) concertatione contendit, inflammat corpus atque resolvit.
Nonnunquam etiam distillatio(43)nes fluxusque commovens medicorum plurimos decipit cogitque illos contrarias causas iu(44)dicare.
Rursus quando corpus grande et pigriori mole superexcedens pusillae exilique co(45)gitationi animi copulatur,
cum geminae sint in homine secundum naturam cupiditates, (46) una quidem per corpus alimentorum, altera vero per id quod divinissimum nobis inest, (47) prudentiae,
tunc sane potentioris illius praevalentes agitationes quod suum est adaugent, (48) quod vero animi hebes, indocile, obliviosum reddunt atque ita infirmitatem maximam vide(49)licet imperitiam generant.
Una demum est ad utrunque salus et conservatio, ut neque animam (50) sine corpore neque corpus absque anima moveamus, ut in mutua contentione ex aequatis in(51)vicem viribus insurgentia bonam totius valetudinem tueantur.
Quapropter quicunque ma(52)thematicis doctrinis operam dat aut cuivis mentis indagationi vehementius studet, debet (53) etiam motum corporis adhibere et in gymnastica exercitatione versari.
Ac rursus qui sum(54)ma corpus diligentia firmat et roborat, animae quoque vicissim motus adiungere, musica et (736, 1) omnibus philosophiae studiis usus, si modo quis iure bonus simul et pulcher sit appellan(2)dus.
Similiter quoque partes curare debemus, totius speciem imitati.
Cum enim corpus ab (3) ingredientibus incendatur intus frigidumve fiat et iterum ab extremis aridum madidumve (4) reddatur et quae deinceps haec sequuntur perpetiatur,
quando quis otium agens corpus (5) motionibus his committit, superatum ab his dissolvitur.
At siquis in curando corpore il(6)lam imitetur naturam quam altricem universi vocavimus, ita ut nunquam torpere permit(7)tat,
sed moveat semper iugique agitatione internis externisque motibus secundum naturam (8) ubique resistat et moderata quadam commotione aberrantes passiones corporis partesque (9) cognationis ratione servata vicissim in ordinem redigat et exornet,
secundum sermonem (10) illum superiorem quem de universo habuimus,
nequaquam sinet inimicum inimico ad(11)motum proelia in corpore morbosque ciere, sed efficiet potius ut amicum adhaerens amico (12) sanitatem corporis tueatur.
Omnium vero motuum optimus ille est qui in semet ex seip(13)so fit. Nam et mentis et totius ipsius motioni cognatissimus est.
Qui vero ab alio fit, dete(14)rior. Deterrimus autem motus, quando iacens et quietem agens corpus, ab aliis secun(15)dum partes movetur.
Quapropter purgationum constitutionumque omnium corporis quae (16) exercitatione gymnastica fit saluberrima est.
Proxime ad hanc accedit vectio facilis, sive (17) navi seu quovis alio vehiculo peragatur.
Tertia commotionis species tunc demum, cum (18) summa cogit necessitas, utilis, aliter vero nullo modo sanae mentis homini suscipienda. Me(19)dicorum illa purgatio est quae pharmacis, id est solutivis medelis, fieri solet.
Morbi enim (20) nisi periculosissimi sint, pharmacis irritandi non sunt.
Omnis nanque morborum constitu(21)tio animalium naturae quodammodo similis est. Sane animalium compositio ab ipso ge(22)nerationis exordio certis temporum curriculis terminatur,
idque et genus universum pa(23)titur, et animal unumquodque ab ortu fatale vivendi spatium in seipso exceptis necessa(24)riis passionibus continet.
Etenim trianguli ab ipso initio singulorum vim possidentes usque (25) ad certum tempus sufficienter ad usum vitae cohaerent, ultra id vita nemini prorogatur.
(26) Idem quoque constitutionis modus languoribus convenit.
Quos siquis citra fatalem tem(27)poris cursum pharmacis amputare contenderit, ex parvis ingentes, ex paucis multi eva(28)dere consueverunt.
Quapropter diligentia victus corrigendi et gubernandi sunt morbi, (29) prout cuique datur otium, neque difficile infestumque malum pharmacis instigandum.
Ac de (30) communi quidem animali et parte illius corporea qua diligentia regenda et gubernan(31)do sint ut ratio vivendi servetur, satis est dictum.
Ipsum vero quod gubernaturum est mul(32)to magis ac prius ita pro viribus instruendum est ut quam optime atque pulcherrime ad re(33)gendum sit praeparatum.
Exacta quidem huius rei discussio propriam sibi et integram dis(34)putationem exigeret.
Quantum vero forte ad id quo de agimus attinet siquis superio(35)rum vestigia gradiatur, non absurde sic maxime procedendo ad commodum istorum fi(36)nem perveniet.
Saepe in superioribus diximus tres esse animae species in nobis trifariam (37) distributas singulasque suos motus habere,
ita nunc paucis concludamus, quaecunque illa(38)rum torpet et a suis motibus otium agit, imbecillissimam necessario reddi, quae vero agit (39) assidue, robustissimam.
Quapropter danda est opera, ut species singulae motus suos inter (40) se moderatos convenienti tenore conservent, De praestantissima igitur animae nostrae spe(41)cie ita est sentiendum.
Nempe hanc deus ut daemonem nostrum cuique tribuit,
hanc in sum(42)ma corporis arce sedem habere dicimus atque ad coeli cognationem a terra nos tollere, tan(43)quam animalia coelesti potius quam terreno semine nata. Quod quidem recte admodum (44) dicitur.
Unde enim primus animae datus est ortus, inde divina vis caput radicemque et o(45)riginem nostram pendentem suspendens totum dirigit corpus.
In eo igitur qui concupi(46)scentiae et ambitiosae iracundiae affectibus explendis incumbit, necesse est opiniones o(47)mnes mortales fieri
atque eum quam maxime fieri potest mortalem prorsus evadere, cum (48) mortalem naturam pro viribus auxerit.
At eum qui totus discendae veritatis cupiditate fla(49)graverit atque omnem eius operam praecipue in hoc uno impenderit, necesse est omnino (50) siquidem veritatem attingat, immortalia et divina comprehendere,
et quatenus huma(51)na natura immortalitatem assequi potest, eatenus hunc penitus immortalem evadere, nul(52)la videlicet immortalitatis parte dimissa,
quin etiam cum semper divinum colat ipsumque (53) familiarem daemonem in se habeat ornatissimum, praecipue beatum fore.
Cultura autem cu(54)iusque omnino uno est proprium cuique pabulum motumque tribuere.
Ei vero quod in nobis (737, 1) divinum est, motus cognati sunt, universi ipsius cogitationes atque circuitus.
Hos itaque se(2)cutum unumquemque nostrum oportet
discursiones illas nostras in capite olim a prima ge(3)neratione corruptas, per ipsam mundanae harmoniae revolutionisque intelligentiam ita cor(4)rigere,
ut intellectae rei intelligentem vim secundum pristinam naturam similem reddat, (5) per quam similitudinem vitae a deo optime nobis propositae et in praesenti tempore et in (6) futuro finem adipiscamur.
[There are two kinds of mental disease, madness and ignorance. Vice is due to an ill-disposition of the body, and is involuntary. Bad education and bad government increase the evil.] Such is the manner in which diseases of the body arise; the disorders of the soul, which depend upon the body, originate as follows.
We must acknowledge disease of the mind to be a want of intelligence; and of this there are two kinds; to wit, madness and ignorance.
In whatever state a man experiences either of them, that state may be called disease; and excessive pains and pleasures are justly to be regarded as the greatest diseases to which the soul is liable.
For a man who is in great joy or in great pain, in his unseasonable eagerness to attain the one and to avoid the other,
is not able to see or to hear anything rightly; but he is mad, and is at the time utterly incapable of any participation in reason.
He who has the seed about the spinal marrow too plentiful and overflowing, like a tree overladen with fruit, has many throes,
and also obtains many pleasures in his desires and their offspring, and is for the most part of his life deranged, because his pleasures and pains are so very great;
his soul is rendered foolish and disordered by his body; yet he is regarded not as one diseased, but as one who is voluntarily bad, which is a mistake.
The truth is that the intemperance of love is a disease of the soul due chiefly to the moisture and fluidity which is produced in one of the elements by the loose consistency of the bones.
And in general, all that which is termed the incontinence of pleasure and is deemed a reproach under the idea that the wicked voluntarily do wrong is not justly a matter for reproach.
For no man is voluntarily bad; but the bad become bad by reason of an ill disposition of the body and bad education, things which are hateful to every man and happen to him against his will.
And in the case of pain too in like manner the soul suffers much evil from the body.
For where the acid and briny phlegm and other bitter and bilious humours wander about in the body, and find no exit or escape,
but are pent up within and mingle their own vapours with the motions of the soul, and are blended, with them, they produce all sorts of diseases, more or fewer, and in every degree of intensity;
and being carried to the three places of the soul, whichever they may severally assail, they create infinite varieties of illtemper and melancholy, of rashness and cowardice, and also of forgetfulness and stupidity.
Further, when to this evil constitution of body evil forms of government are added and evil discourses are uttered in private as well as in public,
and no sort of instruction is given in youth to cure these evils, then all of us who are bad become bad from two causes which are entirely beyond our control.
In such cases the planters are to blame rather than the plants, the educators rather than the educated.
But however that may be, we should endeavour as far as we can by education, and studies, and learning, to avoid vice and attain virtue;
this, however, is part of another subject. [The great means of preventing disease is to preserve the due proportion of mind and body. The soul should not be allowed to wear out the body; nor the body to embrute the soul. Both should be equally exercised: the mathematician should practise gymnastic, and the gymnast should study music. Motion, as in the universe, so in the body, produces order and harmony. The best exercise and purification is the spontaneous motion of the body, as in gymnastic; less good is an external motion, as in sailing; least good the external motion of a part only produced by medicine. The last should be employed only in extreme cases.] There is a corresponding enquiry concerning the mode of treatment by which the mind and the body are to be preserved, about which it is meet and right that I should say a word in turn;
for it is more our duty to speak of the good than of the evil.
Everything that is good is fair, and the fair is not without proportion,
and the animal which is to be fair must have due proportion.
Now we perceive lesser symmetries or proportions and reason about them, but of the highest and greatest we take no heed;
for there is no proportion or disproportion more productive of health and disease, and virtue and vice, than that between soul and body.
This however we do not perceive, nor do we reflect that when a weak or small frame is the vehicle of a great and mighty soul,
or conversely, when a little soul is encased in a large body, then the whole animal is not fair, for it lacks the most important of all symmetries;
but the due proportion of mind and body is the fairest and loveliest of all sights to him who has the seeing eye.
Just as a body which has a leg too long, or which is unsymmetrical in some other respect, is an unpleasant sight,
and also, when doing its share of work, is much distressed and makes convulsive efforts, and often stumbles through awkwardness, and is the cause of infinite evil to its own self—in like manner we should conceive of the double nature which we call the living being;
and when in this compound there is an impassioned soul more powerful than the body, that soul, I say, convulses and fills with disorders the whole inner nature of man;
and when eager in the pursuit of some sort of learning or study, causes wasting;
or again, when teaching or disputing in private or in public, and strifes and controversies arise, inflames and dissolves the composite frame of man and introduces rheums;
and the nature of this phenomenon is not understood by most professors of medicine, who ascribe it to the opposite of the real cause.
And once more, when a body large and too strong for the soul is united to a small and weak intelligence,
then inasmuch as there are two desires natural to man, — one of food for the sake of the body, and one of wisdom for the sake of the diviner part of us —
then, I say, the motions of the stronger, getting the better and increasing their own power, but making the soul dull, and stupid, and forgetful, engender ignorance, which is the greatest of diseases.
There is one protection against both kinds of disproportion: — that we should not move the body without the soul or the soul without the body, and thus they will be on their guard against each other, and be healthy and well balanced.
And therefore the mathematician or any one else whose thoughts are much absorbed in some intellectual pursuit, must allow his body also to have due exercise, and practise gymnastic;
and he who is careful to fashion the body, should in turn impart to the soul its proper motions, and should cultivate music and all philosophy, if he would deserve to be called truly fair and truly good.
And the separate parts should be treated in the same manner, in imitation of the pattern of the universe;
for as the body is heated and also cooled within by the elements which enter into it, and is again dried up and moistened by external things, and experiences these and the like affections from both kinds of motions,
the result is that the body if given up to motion when in a state of quiescence is overmastered and perishes;
but if any one, in imitation of that which we call the foster-mother and nurse of the universe, will not allow the body ever to be inactive,
but is always producing motions and agitations through its whole extent, which form the natural defence against other motions both internal and external, and by moderate exercise reduces to order according to their affinities the particles and affections which are wandering about the body,
as we have already said when speaking of the universe,
he will not allow enemy placed by the side of enemy to stir up wars and disorders in the body, but he will place friend by the side of friend, so as to create health.
Now of all motions that is the best which is produced in a thing by itself, for it is most akin to the motion of thought and of the universe;
but that motion which is caused by others is not so good, and worst of all is that which moves the body, when at rest, in parts only and by some external agency.
Wherefore of all modes of purifying and re-uniting the body the best is gymnastic;
the next best is a surging motion, as in sailing or any other mode of conveyance which is not fatiguing;
the third sort of motion may be of use in a case of extreme necessity, but in any other will be adopted by no man of sense: I mean the purgative treatment of physicians;
for diseases unless they are very dangerous should not be irritated by medicines,
since every form of disease is in a manner akin to the living being, whose complex frame has an appointed term of life.
For not the whole race only, but each individual—barring inevitable accidents—comes into the world having a fixed span,
and the triangles in us are originally framed with power to last for a certain time, beyond which no man can prolong his life.
And this holds also of the constitution of diseases;
if any one regardless of the appointed time tries to subdue them by medicine, he only aggravates and multiplies them.
Wherefore we ought always to manage them by regimen, as far as a man can spare the time, and not provoke a disagreeable enemy by medicines.
[Enough of the body. The soul, which trains it, must be tended with the utmost care.] Enough of the composite animal, and of the body which is a part of him, and of the manner in which a man may train and be trained by himself so as to live most according to reason:
and we must above and before all provide that the element which is to train him shall be the fairest and best adapted to that purpose.
A minute discussion of this subject would be a serious task;
but if, as before, I am to give only an outline, the subject may not unfitly be summed up as follows.
[The three parts of the soul should be duly exercised.] I have often remarked that there are three kinds of soul located within us, having each of them motions,
and I must now repeat in the fewest words possible, that one part, if remaining inactive and ceasing from its natural motion, must necessarily become very weak, but that which is trained and exercised, very strong.
Wherefore we should take care that the movements of the different parts of the soul should be in due proportion [especially the divine part].
[For if a man neglects it and is the slave of desire and ambition, he cannot attain to immortality. The motions of reason are akin to the thoughts and revolutions of the universe.] And we should consider that God gave the sovereign part of the human soul to be the divinity of each one,
being that part which, as we say, dwells at the top of the body, and inasmuch as we are a plant not of an earthly but of a heavenly growth, raises us from earth to our kindred who are in heaven. And in this we say truly;
for the divine power suspended the head and root of us from that place where the generation of the soul first began, and thus made the whole body upright.
When a man is always occupied with the cravings of desire and ambition, and is eagerly striving to satisfy them, all his thoughts must be mortal,
and, as far as it is possible altogether to become such, he must be mortal every whit, because he has cherished his mortal part.
But he who has been earnest in the love of knowledge and of true wisdom, and has exercised his intellect more than any other part of him, must have thoughts immortal and divine, if he attain truth,
and in so far as human nature is capable of sharing in immortality, he must altogether be immortal;
and since he is ever cherishing the divine power, and has the divinity within him in perfect order, he will be perfectly happy.
Now there is only one way of taking care of things, and this is to give to each the food and motion which are natural to it.
And the motions which are naturally akin to the divine principle within us are the thoughts and revolutions of the universe.
These each man should follow,
and correct the courses of the head which were corrupted at our birth, and by learning the harmonies and revolutions of the universe,
should assimilate the thinking being to the thought, renewing his original nature, and having assimilated them should attain to that perfect life which the gods have set before mankind, both for the present and the future.