[109] Plat. Tim. p. 89 A. τῶν δ’ αὖ κινήσεων ἡ ἐν ἑαυτῷ ὑφ’ ἑαυτοῦ ἀρίστη κίνησις· μάλιστα γὰρ τῇ διανοητικῇ καὶ τῇ τοῦ παντὸς κινήσει ξυγγενής· ἡ δ’ ὑπ’ ἄλλου χείρων.
[110] Plat. Tim. p. 89 A. δευτέρα δὲ ἡ διὰ τῶν αἰωρήσεων.
Foes, in the Œconomia Hippocratica v. Αἰώρα, gives information about these pensiles gestationes, upon which the ancient physicians bestowed much attention.
Treatment proper for mind alone, apart from body — supremacy of the rational soul must be cultivated.
We must now indicate the treatment necessary for mind alone, apart from body. It has been already stated, that there are in each of us three souls, or three distinct varieties of soul; each having its own separate place and special movements. Of these three, that which is most exercised must necessarily become the strongest: that which is left unexercised, unmoved, at rest or in indolence, — will become the weakest. The object to be aimed at is, that all three shall be exercised in harmony or proportion with each other. Respecting the soul in our head, the grandest and most commanding of the three, we must bear in mind that it is this which the Gods have assigned to each man as his own special Dæmon or presiding Genius. Dwelling as it does in the highest region of the body, it marks us and links us as akin with heaven — as a celestial and not a terrestrial plant, having root in heaven and not in earth. It is this encephalic or head-soul, which, connected with and suspended from the divine soul of the Kosmos, keeps our whole body in its erect attitude. Now if a man neglects this soul, directing all his favour and development towards the two others (the energetic or the appetitive), — all his judgments will infallibly become mortal and transient, and he himself will be degraded into a mortal being, as far as it is possible for man to become so. But if he devotes himself to study and meditation on truth, exercising the encephalic soul more than the other two — he will assuredly, if he seizes truth,[111] have his mind filled with immortal and divine judgments, and will become himself immortal, as far as human nature admits of it. Cultivating as he does systematically the divine element within him, and having his in-dwelling Genius decorated as perfectly as possible, he will be eminently well-inspired or happy.[112]
[111] Plato, Timæus, p. 90 C. ἄν περ ἀληθείας ἐφάπτηται.
[112] Plato, Timæus, p. 90 B-D. ἔχοντά τε αὐτὸν εὖ μάλα κεκοσμημένον τὸν δαίμονα ξύνοικον ἐν αὑτῷ, διαφερόντως εὐδαίμονα εἶναι.
It is hardly possible to translate this play upon the word εὐδαίμων.
We must study and understand the rotations of the Kosmos — this is the way to amend the rotations of the rational soul.
The mode of cultivating or developing each soul is the same — to assign to each the nourishment and the movement which is suitable to it. Now the movements which are kindred and congenial to our divine encephalic soul, are — the rotations of the Kosmos and the intellections traversing the Kosmical soul. It is these that we ought to follow and study. By learning and embracing in our minds the rotations and proportions of the Kosmos, we shall assimilate the comprehending subject to the comprehended object, and shall rectify that derangement of our own intra-cranial rotations, which was entailed upon us by our birth into a body. By such assimilation, we shall attain the perfection of the life allotted to us, both at present and for the future.[113]