8.4. To this Nestor subjoining said: But, sir, of my citizens, as of the Megarians in the proverb, you make no account; although you have often heard me say that our priests of Neptune (whom we call Hieromnemons) never eat fish. For Neptune himself is called the Generator. And the race of Hellen sacrificed to Neptune as the first father, imagining, as likewise the Syrians did, that man rose from a liquid substance. And therefore they worship a fish as of the same production and breeding with themselves, in this matter being more happy in their philosophy than Anaximander; for he says that fish and men were not produced in the same substances, but that men were first produced in fishes, and, when they were grown up and able to help themselves, were thrown out, and so lived upon the land. Therefore, as the fire devours its parents, that is, the matter out of which it was first kindled, so Anaximander, asserting that fish were our common parents, condemneth our feeding on them.
8.4. ὑπολαβὼν δʼ ὁ Νέστωρ τῶν δʼ ἐμῶν ἔφη πολιτῶν ὥσπερ Μεγαρέων οὐδεὶς λόγος· καίτοι πολλάκις ἀκήκοας ἐμοῦ λέγοντος, ὅτι ἀεὶ οἱ τοῦ Ποσειδῶνος ἱερεῖς, οὓς ἱερομνήμονας καλοῦμεν, ἰχθῦς οὐκ ἐσθίουσιν ὁ γὰρ θεὸς λέγεται φυτάλμιος. οἱ δʼ ἀφʼ Ἕλληνος τοῦ παλαιοῦ καὶ πατρογενίῳ Ποσειδῶνι θύουσιν, ἐκ τῆς ὑγρᾶς τὸν ἄνθρωπον οὐσίας φῦναι δοξάζοντες, ὡς καὶ Σύροι· διὸ καὶ σέβονται τὸν ἰχθῦν, ὡς ὁμογενῆ καὶ σύντροφον, ἐπιεικέστερον Ἀναξιμάνδρου φιλοσοφοῦντες· οὐ γὰρ ἐν τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐκεῖνος ἰχθῦς καὶ ἀνθρώπους, ἀλλʼ ἐν ἰχθύσιν ἐγγενέσθαι τὸ πρῶτον ἀνθρώπους ἀποφαίνεται, καὶ τραφέντας ὥσπερ οἱ γαλεοὶ καὶ γενομένους ἱκανοὺς ἑαυτοῖς βοηθεῖν ἐκβῆναι τηνικαῦτα καὶ γῆς λαβέσθαι. καθάπερ οὖν τὸ πῦρ τὴν ὕλην, ἐξ ἧς ἀνήφθη, μητέρα καὶ πατέρʼ οὖσαν, ἢσθιεν, ὡς ὁ τὸν Κήυκος γάμον εἰς τὰ Ἡσιόδου παρεμβαλὼν εἴρηκεν οὕτως ὁ Ἀναξίμανδρος τῶν ἀνθρώπων πατέρα καὶ μητέρα κοινὸν ἀποφήνας τὸν ἰχθῦν διέβαλεν πρὸς τὴν βρῶσιν.
9.1. PHILO the physician stoutly affirmed that the elephantiasis was a disease but lately known; since none of the ancient physicians speak one word of it, though they oftentimes enlarge upon little, frivolous, and obscure trifles. And I, to confirm it, cited Athenodorus the philosopher, who in his first book of Epidemical Diseases says, that not only that disease, but also the hydrophobia or water-dread (occasioned by the biting of a mad dog), were first discovered in the time of Asclepiades. At this the whole company were amazed, thinking it very strange that such diseases should begin then, and yet as strange that they should not be taken notice of in so long a time; yet most of them leaned to this last opinion, as being most agreeable to man, not in the least daring to imagine that Nature affected novelties, or would in the body of man, as in a city, create new disturbances and tumults.
9.1. φίλων ὁ ἰατρὸς διεβεβαιοῦτο τὴν καλουμένην ἐλεφαντίασιν οὐ πρὸ πολλοῦ πάνυ χρόνου γνώριμον γεγονέναι· μηδένα γὰρ τῶν παλαιῶν ἰατρῶν τοῦ πάθους τούτου πεποιῆσθαι λόγον, εἰς ἕτερα μικρὰ καὶ γλίσχρα καὶ δυσθεώρητα τοῖς πολλοῖς ἐνταθέντας. ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ μάρτυν αὐτῷ παρεῖχον ἐκ φιλοσοφίας Ἀθηνόδωρον, ἐν τῷ προτέρῳ τῶν Ἐπιδημιῶν ἱστοροῦντα πρῶτον ἐν τοῖς κατʼ Ἀσκληπιάδην χρόνοις οὐ μόνον τὴν ἐλεφαντίασιν ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸν ὑδροφόβαν ἐκφανῆ γενέσθαι. θαυμάζοντες οὖν οἱ παρόντες, εἰ νέα πάθη τότε πρῶτον ἔσχεν ἐν τῇ φύσει γένεσιν καὶ σύστασιν, οὐχ ἧττον ᾤοντο θαυμάσιον εἶναι τὸ λαθεῖν τηλικαῦτα συμπτώματα χρόνον τοσοῦτον· ἐρρύησαν δέ πως μᾶλλον οἱ πλείους ἐπὶ τὸ δεύτερον ὡς ἀνθρώπινον μᾶλλον· ἥκιστα τὴν φύσιν ἔν γε τούτοις φιλόκαινον εἶναι καὶ νέων πραγμάτων ὥσπερ ἐν πόλει τῷ, σώματι δημιουργὸν ἀξιοῦντες.
9.2. And Diogenianus added, that even the passions and diseases of the mind go on in the same old road that formerly they did; and yet the viciousness of our inclination is exceedingly prone to variety, and our mind is mistress of itself, and can, if it please, easily change and alter. Yet all her inordinate motions have some sort of order, and the soul hath bounds to her passions, as the sea to her overflowing. And there is no sort of vice now among us which was not practised by the ancients. There are a thousand differences of appetites and various motions of fear; the schemes of grief and pleasure are innumerable:Yet are not they of late or now produced,And none can tell from whence they first arose.How then should the body be subject to new diseases, since it hath not, like the soul, the principle of its own alteration in itself, but by common causes is joined to Nature, and receives a temperature whose infinite variety of alterations is confined to certain bounds, like a ship rolling and tossing in a circle about its anchor. Now there can be no disease without some cause, it being against the laws of Nature that any thing should be without a cause. Now it will be very hard to find a new cause, unless we fancy some strange air, water, or food never tasted by the ancients, should descend to us out of other worlds or intermundane spaces. For we contract diseases from those very things which preserve our life; since there are no peculiar seeds of diseases, but the disagreement of their juices to our bodies, or our excess in using them, disturbs nature. These disturbances have still the very same differences, though now and then called by new names. For names depend on custom, but the passions on Nature; and these being constant and those variable, this mistake has arisen. As, in the parts of a speech and the syntax of the words, it is possible for some new sort of barbarism or solecism suddenly to arise; so the temperature of the body hath certain deviations and corruptions into which it may fall, those things which are against and hurtful to Nature being in some sort contained in Nature herself. The mythographers are in this particular very ingenious, for they say that monstrous uncouth animals were produced in the time of the Giants’ war, the moon being out of its course, and not rising where it used to do. And those who think Nature produces new diseases like monsters, and yet give neither likely nor unlikely reasons of the change, err, as I imagine, my dear Philo, in taking a less or a greater degree of the same disease to be a different disease. The intension or increase of a thing makes it more or greater, but does not make the subject of another kind. Thus the elephantiasis, being an intense scabbiness, is not a new kind; nor is the water-dread distinguished from other melancholic and stomachical affections but by the degree. And I wonder we did not observe that Homer was acquainted with this disease, for it is evident that he calls a dog rabid from the very same rage with which when men are possessed they are said to be mad.
9.2. ὁ δὲ Διογενιανὸς ἔφη καὶ τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς νοσήματα καὶ πάθη κοινήν τινα καὶ πάτριον ὁδὸν βαδίζειν. καίτοι παντοδαπὸν μέν εἶπεν ἡ μοχθηρία καὶ πολύτολμον, αὐτοκρατὲς δʼ ἡ ψυχὴ καὶ κύριον ὑφʼ αὑτῆς, εἰ βούλοιτο, μεταβάλλειν καὶ τρέπεσθαι ῥᾳδίως· ἔχει δέ τινα τάξιν τὸ ἄτακτον αὐτῆς καὶ τὰ μέτρα τηρεῖ τοῖς πάθεσιν, ὥσπερ ἡ θάλαττα ταῖς ὑπερεκχύσεσι, καὶ καινὸν οὐδὲν οὐδὲ τοῖς παλαιοῖς ἀνιστόρητον ἐξήνθηκε κακίας εἶδος· ἀλλὰ πολλαὶ μὲν ἐπιθυμιῶν διαφοραί, μυρία δὲ κινήματα φόβου καὶ σχήματα· τὰς δὲ λύπης καὶ ἡδονῆς μορφὰς ἔργον ἐστὶ μὴ ἀπειπεῖν ἐξαριθμούμενον·οὐ μέν τι νῦν γε κἀχθές, ἀλλʼ ἀεί ποτεζῇ ταῦτα, κοὐδεὶς οἶδεν ἐξ ὅτου φάνη·πόθεν γε δὴ σώματι νόσημα καινὸν ἢ πάθος ὀψίγονον, ἰδίαν μὲν ὥσπερ ἡ ψυχὴ κινήσεως ἀρχὴν οἴκοθεν οὐκ ἔχοντι, συνημμένῳ δὲ κοιναῖς πρὸς τὴν φύσιν αἰτίαις καὶ κεκραμένῳ κρᾶσιν, ἧς καὶ τὸ ἀόριστον ἐντὸς ὅρων πλανᾶται, καθάπερ πλοῖον ἐν περιδρόμῳ σαλεῦον; οὔτε γὰρ ἀναίτιος νόσου σύστασὶς ἐστι, τὴν ἐκ μὴ ὄντος παρανόμως ἐπεισάγουσα γένεσιν καὶ δύναμιν τοῖς πράγμασιν αἰτίαν τε καινὴν ἔργον ἐξευρεῖν, μὴ καινὸν ἀέρα καὶ ξένον ὕδωρ καὶ τροφὰς ἀγεύστους τοῖς πρότερον ἐξ ἑτέρων τινῶν κόσμων ἢ μετακοσμίων ἀποφήναντι δεῦρο νῦν πρῶτον ἐπιρρεούσας. ἐκ τούτων γὰρ νοσοῦμεν οἷς καὶ ζῶμεν, ἴδια δὲ σπέρματα νόσων οὐκ ἔστιν· ἀλλʼ αἱ τούτων μοχθηρίαι πρὸς ἡμᾶς καὶ αἱ ἡμῶν περὶ ταῦτα πλημμέλειαι τὴν φύσιν ἐπιταράττουσιν αἱ δὲ ταραχαὶ διαφορὰς ἀιδίους ἔχουσι πολλάκις νέοις χρωμένας ὀνόμασι· τὰ γὰρ ὀνόματα τῆς συνηθείας ἐστὶ τὰ δὲ πάθη τῆς φύσεως ὅθεν ἐν ἀφωρισμένοις τούτοις ἐκεῖνα ποικιλλόμενα τὴν ἀπάτην πεποίηκεν. ὡς δὲ τοῖς τοῦ λόγου μορίοις καὶ ταῖς πρὸς ἄλληλα τούτων συντάξεσι καινὸν ἐγγενέσθαι βαρβαρισμὸν ἢ σολοικισμὸν ἐξαίφνης δυνατόν ἐστιν, οὕτως αἱ τοῦ σώματος κράσεις ὡρισμένας ἔχουσι τὰς ὀλισθήσεις καὶ παραβάσεις, τρόπον τινὰ τῇ φύσει καὶ τῶν παρὰ φύσιν ἐμπεριεχομένων. ταύτῃ γε κομψοὶ καὶ οἱ μυθογράφοι· τὰ γὰρ παντάπασιν ἔκφυλα καὶ τεράστια τῶν ζῴων γενέσθαι λέγουσιν ἐν τῇ γιγαντομαχίᾳ, τῆς σελήνης ἐκτρεπομένης καὶ τὰς ἀνατολὰς οὐχ ὅθεν εἴωθε ποιουμένης· οἱ δὲ καινὰ νοσήματα τὴν φύσιν ὥσπερ τέρατα γεννᾶν ἀξιοῦσι, μήτε πιθανὴν μήτʼ ἀπίθανον αἰτίαν τῆς ἐξαλλαγῆς πλάσσοντες, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἄγαν καὶ τὸ μᾶλλον ἐνίων παθῶν καινότητα καὶ διαφορὰν ἀποφαίνοντες· οὐκ ὀρθῶς, ὦ μακάριε Φίλων ἐπίτασις γὰρ καὶ αὔξησις μέγεθος ἢ πλῆθος προστίθησι, τοῦ δὲ γένους οὐκ ἐκβιβάζει τὸ ὑποκείμενον· ὥσπερ οὐδὲ τὴν ἐλεφαντίασιν οἴομαι σφοδρότητα τῶν ψωρικῶν τινος τούτων οὖσαν οὐδὲ τὸν ὑδροφόβαν τῶν στομαχικῶν ἢ τῶν μελαγχολικῶν. καίτοι τοῦτό γε θαυμαστόν, εἰ μηδʼ Ὅμηρος ἀγνοῶν ἐλάνθανεν ὑμᾶς· τὸν γάρ λυσσητῆρα κύνα δῆλός ἐστιν ἀπὸ τοῦ πάθους τούτου προσαγορεύων, ἀφʼ οὗ καὶ ἄνθρωποι λυσσᾶν λέγονται.
9.3. Against this discourse of Diogenianus Philo himself made some objections, and desired me to be the old physicians’ patron; who must be branded with inadvertency and ignorance, unless it appears that those diseases began since their time. First then Diogenianus, methinks, very precariously desires us to think that the intenseness or remissness of degrees is not a real difference, and does not alter the kind. For, were this true, then we should hold that downright vinegar is not different from pricked wine, nor a bitter from a rough taste, darnel from wheat, nor garden-mint from wild mint. For it is evident that these differences are only the degrees of the same qualities, in some being more intense, in some more remiss. So we should not venture to affirm that flame is different from a white spirit, daylight from flame, hoar-frost from dew, or hail from rain; but that the former have only more intense qualities than the latter. Besides, we should say that blindness is of the same kind with short-sightedness, violent vomiting (or cholera) with weakness of the stomach, and that they differ only in degree. Though what they say is nothing to the purpose; for if they admit the increase in intensity and vehemency, but declare that this came but now of late,—the novelty appearing in the quantity rather than the quality,—the same difficulties which they urged against the other opinion oppress them. Sophocles says very well concerning those things which are not believed to be now, because they were not heretofore,— “Once at the first all things their being had.” And it is probable that not all diseases, as in a race, the barrier being let down, started together; but that one rising after another, at some certain time, had its beginning and showed itself. It is rational to conclude (continued I) that all diseases that rise from want, heat, or cold bear the same date with our bodies; but afterwards over-eating, luxury, and surfeiting, encouraged by ease and plenty, raised bad and superfluous juices, and those brought various new diseases, and their perpetual complications and mixtures still create more new. Whatever is natural is determined and in order; for Nature is order, or the work of order. Disorder, like Pindar’s sand, cannot be comprised by number, and that which is beside Nature is straight called indeterminate and infinite. Thus truth is simple, and but one; but falsities innumerable. The exactness of motions and harmony are definite, but the errors either in playing upon the harp, singing, or dancing, who can comprehend? Indeed Phrynichus the tragedian says of himself,As many figures dancing doth proposeAs waves roll on the sea when tempests toss.And Chrysippus says that the various complications of ten single axioms amount to 1,000,000. But Hipparchus hath confuted that account, showing that the affirmative contains 101,049 complicated propositions, and the negative 310.952. And Xenocrates says, the number of syllables which the letters will make is 100,200,000. How then is it strange that the body, having so many different powers in itself, and getting new qualities every day from its meat and drink, and using those motions and alterations which are not always in the same time nor in the same order, should upon the various complications of all these be affected with new diseases? Such was the plague at Athens described by Thucydides, who conjectures that it was new because that birds and beasts of prey would not touch the dead carcasses. Those that fell sick about the Red Sea, if we believe Agatharcides, besides other strange and unheard diseases, had little serpents in their legs and arms, which did eat their way out, but when touched shrunk in again, and raised intolerable inflammations in the muscles; and yet this kind of plague, as likewise many others, never afflicted any beside, either before or since. One, after a long stoppage of urine, voided a knotty barley straw. And we know that Ephebus, with whom we lodged at Athens, threw out, together with a great deal of seed, a little hairy, many-footed, nimble animal. And Aristotle tells us, that Timon’s nurse in Cilicia every year for two months lay in a cave, without any vital operation besides breathing. And in the Menonian books it is delivered as a symptom of a diseased liver carefully to observe and hunt after mice and rats, which we see now nowhere practised.
9.3. ταῦτα τοῦ Διογενιανοῦ διελθόντος, ὁ Φίλων αὐτός τε μέτρια διελέχθη πρὸς τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ, κἀμὲ συνειπεῖν παρεκάλει τοῖς ἀρχαίοις ἰατροῖς, ὡς ἀμελείας ἢ ἀγνοίας τῶν μεγίστων ὀφλισκάνουσιν, εἴ γε μὴ ταῦτα τὰ πάθη νεώτερα φαίνεται τῆς ἐκείνων ἡλικίας. πρῶτον οὖν ὁ Διογενιανὸς οὐκ ὀρθῶς ἀξιοῦν ἔδοξεν ἡμῖν τὰς ἐπιτάσεις καὶ ἀνέσεις μὴ ποιεῖν διαφορὰς μηδὲ τοῦ γένους ἐκβιβάζειν· οὕτω γὰρ οὔτʼ ὄξος ὀξίνου φήσομεν διαφέρειν οὔτε πικρότητα στρυφνότητος; οὔτε πυρῶν αἴραν οὔτε μίνθον ἡδυόσμων. καίτοι περιφανῶς ἐκστάσεις αὗται καὶ μεταβολαὶ ποιοτήτων εἰσίν, αἱ μὲν ἀνέσεις μαραινομένων αἱ δʼ ἐπιτάσεις σφοδρυνομένων· ἢ μηδὲ φλόγα πνεύματος λεπτοῦ μηδὲ φλογὸς αὐγὴν μηδὲ πάχνην δρόσου μηδὲ χάλαζαν ὄμβρου διαφέρειν λέγωμεν, ἀλλʼ ἐπιτάσεις εἶναι ταῦτα πάντα καὶ σφοδρότητας· ὥρα δὲ καὶ τυφλότητα μηθὲν ἀμβλυωπίας φάναι διαφέρειν μηδὲ ναυτίας χολέραν, ἀλλὰ τῷ μᾶλλον καὶ ἧττον παραλλάττειν. καίτοι ταῦτα πρὸς λόγον οὐθέν ἐστιν· ἂν γὰρ αὐτὴν λέγωσι δεξάμενοι τὴν ἐπίτασιν καὶ τὴν σφοδρότητα νῦν γεγονέναι, πρῶτον, ἐν ποσῷ γιγνομένης τῆς καινότητος οὐκ ἐν ποιῷ, μένει τὸ παράδοξον ὁμοίως· ἔπειτα τοῦ Σοφοκλέους ἐπὶ τῶν, ὅτι μὴ πρότερον ἦν, ἀπιστουμένων, εἰ γέγονε νῦν, οὐ φαύλως εἰπόντος ἅπαντα τἀγένητα πρῶτον ἦλθʼ ἅπαξ δοκεῖ καὶ λόγον ἔχειν τὸ μὴ δρόμῳ, καθάπερ ὕσπληγος μιᾶς πεσούσης, ἐκδραμεῖν τὰ πάθη πρὸς τὴν γένεσιν, ἄλλων δʼ ἄλλοις ἀεὶ κατόπιν ἐπιγιγνομένων, ἕκαστον ἐν χρόνῳ τινὶ λαβεῖν τὴν πρώτην γένεσιν. εἰκάσαι δʼ ἄν τις ἔφην ἐγὼ τὰ μὲν ἀπʼ ἐνδείας ὅσα τε καῦμα προσπῖπτον ἢ ψῦχος ἐμποιεῖ, ταῦτα πρῶτον τοῖς σώμασι παραγενέσθαι· πλησμονὰς δὲ καὶ θρύψεις καὶ ἡδυπαθείας ὕστερον ἐπελθεῖν μετʼ ἀργίας καὶ σχολῆς διʼ ἀφθονίαν τῶν ἀναγκαίων πολὺ περίττωμα ποιούσας καὶ πονηρόν, ἐν ᾧ ποικίλα νοσημάτων εἴδη παντοδαπάς τε τούτων ἐπιπλοκὰς πρὸς ἀλλήλας καὶ μίξεις ἀεί τι νεωτερίζειν. τὸ μὲν γὰρ κατὰ φύσιν τέτακται καὶ διώρισται, τάξις γὰρ ἢ τάξεως ἔργον ἡ φύσις· ἡ δʼ ἀταξία καθάπερ ἡ Πινδαρικὴ ψάμμος ἀριθμὸν περιπέφευγε, καὶ τὸ παρὰ τὴν φύσιν εὐθὺς ἀόριστον καὶ ἄπειρόν ἐστιν. ἀληθεύειν μὲν γὰρ ἁπλῶς ψεύδεσθαι δʼ ἀπειραχῶς παρέχει τὰ πράγματα· καὶ ῥυθμοὶ καὶ ἁρμονίαι λόγους ἔχουσιν· ἃ δὲ πλημμελοῦσιν ἄνθρωποι περὶ λύραν καὶ ᾠδὴν καὶ ὄρχησιν, οὐκ ἄν τις περιλάβοι,. καίτοι καὶ Φρύνιχος ὁ τῶν τραγῳδιῶν ποιητὴς περὶ αὑτοῦ φησιν ὅτισχήματα δʼ ὄρχησις τόσα μοι πόρεν, ὅσσʼ ἐνὶ πόντῳκύματα ποιεῖται χείματι νὺξ ὀλοή.καὶ Χρύσιππος τὰς ἐκ δέκα μόνων ἀξιωμάτων συμπλοκὰς πλήθει φησὶν ἑκατὸν μυριάδας ὑπερβάλλειν. ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν ἤλεγξεν Ἵππαρχος, ἀποδείξας ὅτι τὸ μὲν καταφατικὸν περιέχει συμπεπλεγμένων μυριάδας δέκα καὶ πρὸς ταύταις χίλια τεσσαράκοντα ἐννέα· τὸ δʼ ἀποφατικὸν αὐτοῦ μυριάδας τριάκοντα μίαν καὶ πρὸς ταύταις ἐνακόσια πεντήκοντα δύο. Ξενοκράτης δὲ τὸν τῶν συλλαβῶν ἀριθμόν, ὃν τὰ στοιχεῖα μιγνύμενα πρὸς ἄλληλα παρέχει, μυριάδων ἀπέφηνεν εἰκοσάκις καὶ μυριάκις μυρίων. τί δὴ θαυμαστόν ἐστιν εἰ, τοσαύτας μὲν ἐν ἑαυτῷ τοῦ σώματος δυνάμεις ἔχοντος, τοσαύτας δὲ διὰ σίτων καὶ ποτῶν ἐπεισαγομένου ποιότητας ἑκάστοτε, χρωμένου δὲ κινήσεσι καὶ μεταβολαῖς μήτε καιρὸν ἕνα μήτε τάξιν ἀεὶ μίαν ἐχούσαις, αἱ πρὸς ἀλλήλας συμπλοκαὶ τούτων ἁπάντων ἔστιν ὅτε καινὰ καὶ ἀσυνήθη νοσήματα φέρουσιν, οἷον ὁ Θουκυδίδης ἱστορεῖ τὸν Ἀθήνησι λοιμὸν γενέσθαι, τεκμαιρόμενος αὐτοῦ τὸ μὴ σύντροφον μάλιστα τῷ τὰ σαρκοφάγα μὴ γεύεσθαι τῶν νεκρῶν; οἱ δὲ περὶ τὴν Ἐρυθρὰν θάλασσαν νοσήσαντες, ὡς Ἀγαθαρχίδας ἱστόρηκεν, ἄλλοις τε συμπτώμασιν ἐχρήσαντο καινοῖς καὶ ἀνιστορήτοις, καὶ δρακόντια μικρὰ τὰς κνήμας διεσθίοντα καὶ τοὺς βραχίονας ἐξέκυψεν, ἁψαμένων δʼ αὖθις ἀνεδύετο καὶ φλεγμονὰς ἀκαρτερήτους ἐνειλούμενα τοῖς μυώδεσι παρεῖχεν καὶ τοῦτο τὸ πάθος οὔτε πρότερον οἶδεν οὐδεὶς οὔτε ὕστερον ἄλλοις ἀλλʼ ἐκείνοις γε μόνοις γενόμενον, ὡς ἕτερα πολλά. καὶ γὰρ ἐν δυσουρίᾳ τις γενόμενος πολὺν χρόνον ἐξέδωκε κριθίνην καλάμην γόνατʼ ἔχουσαν. καὶ τὸν ἡμέτερον ξένον Ἔφηβον Ἀθήνησιν ἴσμεν ἐκβάλλοντα μετὰ πολλοῦ σπέρματος θηρίδιον δασὺ καὶ πολλοῖς ποσὶ ταχὺ βαδίζον. τὴν δὲ Τίμωνος ἐν Κιλικίᾳ τήθην Ἀριστοτέλης ἱστόρηκε φωλεύειν τοῦ ἔτους ἑκάστου δύο μῆνας, μηδενὶ πλὴν μόνῳ τῷ ἀναπνεῖν, ὅτι ζῇ, διάδηλον οὖσαν. καὶ μὴν ἔν γε τοῖς Μενωνείοις σημεῖον ἡπατικοῦ πάθους ἀναγέγραπται τὸ τοὺς κατοικιδίους μῦς ἐπιμελῶς·
Therefore let us not wonder if something happens which never was before, or if something doth not appear among us with which the ancients were acquainted; for the cause of those accidents is the nature of our body, whose temperature is subject to be changed. Therefore, if Diogenianus will not introduce a new kind of water or air, we, having no need of it, are very well content. Yet we know some of Democritus’s scholars affirm that, other worlds being dissolved, some strange effluvia fall into ours, and are the principle of new plagues and uncommon diseases. But let us not now take notice of the corruption of some parts of this world by earthquake, droughts, and floods, by which both the vapors and fountains rising out of the earth must be necessarily corrupted. Yet we must not pass by that change which must be wrought in the body by our meat, drink, and other exercises in our course of life. For many things which the ancients did not feed on are now accounted dainties; for instance mead and swine’s paunch. Heretofore too, as I have heard, they hated the brain of animals so much, that they abominated the very name of it; as when Homer says, “I value him at a brain’s worth.” And even now we know some old men, that will not taste cucumber, melon, orange, or pepper. Now by these meats and drinks it is probable that the juices of our bodies are much altered, and their temperature changed, new qualities arising from this new sort of diet. And the change of order in our feeding having a great influence on the alteration of our bodies, the cold courses, as they were called formerly, consisting of oysters, sea-urchins, salads, and the like, being (in Plato’s phrase) transferred “from tail to mouth,” now make the first course, whereas they were formerly the last. Besides, the glass which we usually take before supper is very considerable in this case; for the ancients never drank so much as water before they ate, but now we drink freely before we sit down, and fall to our meat with a full and heated body, using sharp sauces and pickles to provoke appetite, and then we fall greedily on the other meat. But nothing conduceth more to alterations and new diseases in the body than our various baths; for here the flesh, like iron in the fire, grows soft and loose, and is presently constipated and hardened by the cold. For, in my opinion, if any of the last age had looked into our baths, he might have justly said, “There burning Phlegethon meets Acheron.” For they used such mild gentle baths, that Alexander the Great being feverish slept in one. And the Gauls’ wives carry their pots of pulse to eat with their children whilst they are in the bath. But our baths now inflame, vellicate, and distress; and the air which we draw is a mixture of air and water, disturbs the whole body, tosses and displaces every atom, till we quench the fiery particles and allay their heat. Therefore, Diogenianus, you see that this account requires no new strange causes, no intermundane spaces; but the single alteration of our diet is enough to raise new diseases and abolish old.
παραφυλάττειν καὶ διώκειν· ὃ νῦν οὐδαμοῦ γιγνόμενον ὁρᾶται. διὸ μὴ θαυμάζωμεν, ἂν γένηταί τι τῶν οὐ πρότερον ὄντων, μηδʼ εἴ τι τῶν πρότερον ὄντων ὕστερον ἐκλέλοιπεν· αἰτία γὰρ ἡ τῶν σωμάτων φύσις, ἄλλην ἄλλοτε λαμβάνουσα κρᾶσιν. τὸ μὲν οὖν ἀέρα καινὸν ἐπεισάγειν ἢ ξένον ὕδωρ, εἰ μὴ βούλεται Διογενιανός, ἐάσωμεν καίτοι τούς γε Δημοκριτείους ἴσμεν καὶ λέγοντας καὶ γράφοντας, ὅτι καὶ κόσμων ἐκτὸς φθαρέντων καὶ σωμάτων ἀλλοφύλων ἐκ τῆς ἀπορροῆς ἐπιρρεόντων, ἐνταῦθα πολλάκις ἀρχαὶ παρεμπίπτουσι λοιμῶν καὶ παθῶν οὐ συνήθων. ἐάσωμεν δὲ καὶ τὰς φθορὰς τὰς κατὰ μέρος παρʼ ἡμῖν ὑπό τε σεισμῶν καὶ αὐχμῶν καὶ ὄμβρων, αἷς καὶ τὰ πνεύματα καὶ τὰ νάματα γηγενῆ φύσιν ἔχοντα συννοσεῖν ἀνάγκη καὶ συμμεταβάλλειν. ἀλλὰ περὶ τὰ· σιτία καὶ τὰ ὄψα καὶ τὰς ἄλλας διαίτας τοῦ σώματος ἐξαλλαγήν, ὅση γέγονεν, οὐ παραλειπτέον· πολλὰ γὰρ τῶν ἀγεύστων καὶ ἀβρώτων πρότερον ἥδιστα νῦν γέγονεν, ὥσπερ οἰνόμελι καὶ μήτρα· λέγουσι δὲ μηδʼ ἐγκέφαλον ἐσθίειν τοὺς παλαιούς· διὸ καὶ Ὅμηρον εἰπεῖν τίω δέ μιν ἐν καρὸς αἴσῃ, τὸν ἐγκέφαλον οὕτω, διὰ τὸ ῥίπτειν καὶ ἀποβάλλειν μυσαττομένους, προσειπόντα· σικύου δὲ πέπονος καὶ μήλου Μηδικοῦ καὶ πεπέρεως πολλοὺς ἴσμεν ἔτι τῶν πρεσβυτέρων γεύσασθαι μὴ δυναμένους. ὑπό τε δὴ τούτων εἰκός ἐστι ξενοπαθεῖν τὰ σώματα καὶ παραλλάττειν ταῖς κράσεσιν ἡσυχῆ ποιότητα καὶ περίττωμα ποιούντων ἴδιον, τήν τε τάξιν αὖ τῶν ἐδεστῶν καὶ μετακόσμησιν οὐ μικρὰν ἔχειν διαφοράν. αἱ γὰρ καλούμεναι ψυχραὶ τράπεζαι πρότερον, ὀστρέων, ἐχίνων, ὠμῶν λαχάνων, ὥσπερ ἐλαφρῶν ὁ Πλάτων, ἀπʼ οὐρᾶς ἐπὶ στόμα μεταχθεῖσαι τὴν πρώτην ἀντὶ τῆς ἐσχάτης τάξιν ἔχουσι. μέγα δὲ καὶ τὸ τῶν καλουμένων προπωμάτων· οὐδὲ γὰρ ὕδωρ οἱ παλαιοὶ πρὶν ἐντραγεῖν ἔπινον· οἱ δὲ νῦν ἄσιτοι προμεθυσθέντες ἅπτονται τῆς τροφῆς διαβρόχῳ τῷ σώματι καὶ ζέοντι, λεπτὰ καὶ τομὰ καὶ ὀξέα προσφέροντες ὑπέκκαυμα τῆς ὀρέξεως, εἶθʼ οὕτως ἐμφορούμενοι τῶν ἄλλων. οὐδενὸς δὲ πρὸς μεταβολὴν καὶ τὸ ποιῆσαι νοσημάτων καινῶν γένεσιν ἀσθενέστερόν ἐστιν ἡ περὶ τὰ λουτρὰ τῆς σαρκὸς πολυπάθεια καθάπερ σιδήρου πυρὶ μαλασσομένης καὶ ῥεούσης, εἶτα βαφὴν ὑπὸ ψυχροῦ καὶ στόμωσιν ἀναδεχομένης· ἔνθα μὲν εἰς Ἀχέροντα Πυριφλεγέθων τε ῥέουσι· τοῦτο γὰρ ἄν τις εἰπεῖν μοι δοκεῖ τῶν ὀλίγον ἡμῶν ἔμπροσθεν γεγονότων, βαλανείου θύρας ἀνοιχθείσης. ἐκεῖνοι γὰρ οὕτως ἀνειμένοις ἐχρῶντο καὶ μαλακοῖς, ὥστʼ Ἀλέξανδρος μὲν ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐν τῷ λουτρῶνι πυρέττων ἐκάθευδεν αἱ δὲ Γαλατῶν γυναῖκες εἰς τὰ βαλανεῖα πόλτου χύτρας εἰσφέρουσαι μετὰ τῶν παίδων ἤσθιον ὁμοῦ λουόμεναι. νῦν δὲ λυττῶσιν ἔοικε τὰ βαλανεῖα καὶ ὑλακτοῦσι καὶ σπαράττουσιν· ὁ δʼ ἑλκόμενος ἀὴρ ἐν αὐτοῖς, ὑγροῦ μῖγμα καὶ πυρὸς γεγονώς, οὐδὲν ἐᾷ τοῦ σώματος ἡσυχίαν ἄγειν, ἀλλὰ πᾶσαν ἄτομον κλονεῖ καὶ ταράσσει καὶ μεθίστησιν ἐξ ἕδρας, ἄχρι οὗ κατασβέσωμεν αὑτοὺς πεπυρωμένους καὶ ζέοντας. οὐδὲν οὖν ἔφην ὦ Διογενιανέ, δεῖται ὁ λόγος αἰτιῶν ἐπεισοδίων ἔξωθεν οὐδὲ μετακοσμίων, ἀλλʼ αὐτόθεν ἡ περὶ τὴν δίαιταν μεταβολὴ τὰ μὲν συγγεννᾶν τὰ δʼ ἀφανίζειν τῶν νοσημάτων οὐκ ἀδύνατὸς ἐστιν.
10.1. FLORUS reading Aristotle’s physical problems, which were brought to him to Thermopylae, was himself (as philosophical wits used to be) filled with a great many doubts, and communicated them to others; thereby confirming Aristotle’s saying, that much learning raises many doubts. Other topics made our walks every day very pleasant, but the common saying concerning dreams,— that those in autumn are the vainest,—I know not how, whilst Favorinus was engaged in other matters, was started after supper. Your friends and my sons thought Aristotle had given sufficient satisfaction in this point, and that no other cause was to be sought after or allowed but that which he mentions, the fruit. For the fruit, being new and flatulent, raises many disturbing vapors in the body; for it is not likely that only wine ferments, or new oil only makes a noise in the lamp, the heat agitating its vapor; but new corn and all sorts of fruit are plump and distended, till the unconcocted flatulent vapor is broke away. And that some sorts of food disturb dreams, they said, was evident from beans and the polypus’s head, from which those who would divine by their dreams are commanded to abstain.
10.1. προβλήμασιν Ἀριστοτέλους φυσικοῖς ἐντυγχάνων Φλῶρος εἰς Θερμοπύλας κομισθεῖσιν αὐτός τε πολλῶν ἀποριῶν, ὅπερ εἰώθασι πάσχειν ἐπιεικῶς αἱ φιλόσοφοι φύσεις, ὑπεπίμπλατο καὶ τοῖς ἑταίροις μετεδίδου, μαρτυρῶν αὐτῷ τῷ Ἀριστοτέλει λέγοντι τὴν πολυμάθειαν πολλὰς ἀποριῶν ἀρχὰς ποιεῖν. τὰ μὲν οὖν ἄλλα μεθʼ ἡμέραν οὐκ ἄχαριν ἡμῖν ἐν τοῖς περιπάτοις διατριβὴν παρέσχε· τὸ δὲ λεγόμενον περὶ τῶν ἐνυπνίων, ὡς ἐστιν ἀβέβαια καὶ ψευδῆ μάλιστα περὶ τοὺς φυλλοχόους; μῆνας, οὐκ οἶδʼ ὅπως, ἑτέροις λόγοις πραγματευσαμένου τοῦ Φαβωρίνου μετὰ τὸ δεῖπνον, ἀνέκυψε. τοῖς μὲν οὖν σοῖς ἑταίροις ἐμοῖς δʼ υἱοῖς ἐδόκει λελυκέναι τὴν ἀπορίαν Ἀριστοτέλης· καὶ οὐδὲν ᾤοντο δεῖν ζητεῖν οὐδὲ λέγειν ἀλλʼ ἢ τοὺς καρπούς, ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνος, αἰτιᾶσθαι. νέοι γὰρ ὄντες ἔτι καὶ σφριγῶντες πολὺ πνεῦμα γεννῶσιν ἐν τῷ σώματι καὶ ταραχῶδες οὐ γὰρ τὸν οἶνον εἰκός ἐστι μόνον ζεῖν καὶ ἀγανακτεῖν, οὐδὲ τοὔλαιον ἂν ᾗ νεουργὸν ἐν τοῖς λύχνοις ψόφον ἐμποιεῖν, ἀποκυματιζούσης τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς θερμότητος· ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ σιτία τὰ πρόσφατα καὶ τὴν ὀπώραν ἅπασαν ὁρῶμεν ἐντεταμένην καὶ οἰδοῦσαν, ἄχρι ἂν ἀποπνεύσῃ τὸ φυσῶδες καὶ ἄπεπτον. ὅτι δʼ ἐστὶ τῶν βρωμάτων ἔνια δυσόνειρα καὶ ταρακτικὰ τῶν καθʼ ὕπνον ὄψεων, μαρτυρίοις ἐχρῶντο τοῖς τε κυάμοις καὶ τῇ κεφαλῇ τοῦ πολύποδος, ὧν ἀπέχεσθαι κελεύουσι τοὺς δεομένους τῆς διὰ τῶν ὀνείρων μαντικῆς ὁ δὲ Φαβωρῖνος αὐτὸς τὰ μὲν ἄλλα δαιμονιώτατος Ἀριστοτέλους ἐραστής ἐστι καὶ τῷ Περιπάτῳ νέμει μερίδα τοῦ πιθανοῦ πλείστην·
10.2. But Favorinus himself, though in all other things he admires Aristotle exceedingly and thinks the Peripatetic philosophy to be most probable, yet in this case resolved to scour up an old musty opinion of Democritus. He first laid down that known principle of his, that images pass through the pores into the inmost parts of the body, and being carried upward cause dreams; and that these images fly from every thing, vessels, garments, plants, but especially from animals, because of their heat and the motion of their spirits; and that these images not only carry the outward shape and likeness of the bodies (as Epicurus thinks, following Democritus so far and no farther), but the very designs, motions, and passions of the soul; and with those entering into the bodies, as if they were living things, discover to those that receive them the thoughts and inclinations of the persons from whom they come, if so be that they preserve their frame and order entire. And that is especially preserved when the air is calm and clear, their passage then being quick and undisturbed. Now the autumnal air, when trees shed their leaves, being very uneven and disturbed, ruffles and disorders the images, and, hindering them in their passage, makes them weak and ineffectual; when, on the contrary, if they rise from warm and vigorous subjects, and are presently applied, the notices which they give and the impressions they make are clear and evident.
10.2. τότε μέντοι λόγον τινὰ τοῦ Δημοκρίτου παλαιὸν ὥσπερ ἐκ καπνοῦ καθελὼν ἠμαυρωμένον οἷος ἦν ἐκκαθαίρειν καὶ διαλαμπρύνειν· ὑποθέμενος τοῦτο δὴ τοὐπιδήμιον, ὅ φησι Δημόκριτος, ἐγκαταβυσσοῦσθαι τὰ εἴδωλα διὰ τῶν πόρων εἰς τὰ σώματα καὶ ποιεῖν τὰς κατὰ τὸν ὕπνον ὄψεις ἐπαναφερόμενα· φοιτᾶν δὲ ταῦτα πανταχόθεν ἀπιόντα καὶ σκευῶν καὶ ἱματίων καὶ φυτῶν μάλιστα δὲ ζῴων ὑπὸ σάλου πολλοῦ καὶ θερμότητος οὐ μόνον ἔχοντα μορφοειδεῖς τοῦ σώματος ἐκμεμαγμένας ὁμοιότητας ὡς Ἐπίκουρος οἴεται μέχρι τούτου Δημοκρίτῳ συνεπόμενος, ἐνταῦθα δὲ προλιπὼν τὸν λόγον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν κατὰ ψυχὴν κινημάτων καὶ βουλευμάτων ἑκάστῳ καὶ ἠθῶν καὶ παθῶν ἐμφάσεις ἀναλαμβάνοντα συνεφέλκεσθαι, καὶ προσπίπτοντα μετὰ τούτων ὥσπερ ἔμψυχα φράζειν καὶ διαγγέλλειν τοῖς ὑποδεχομένοις τὰς τῶν μεθιέντων αὐτὰ δόξας καὶ διαλογισμοὺς καὶ ὁρμάς, ὅταν ἐνάρθρους καὶ ἀσυγχύτους φυλάττοντα προσμίξῃ τὰς εἰκόνας. τοῦτο δὲ μάλιστα ποιεῖ διʼ ἀέρος λείου τῆς φορᾶς αὐτοῖς γιγνομένης ἀκωλύτου καὶ ταχείας. ὁ δὲ φθινοπωρινός, ἐν ᾧ φυλλοχοεῖ τὰ δένδρα, πολλὴν ἀνωμαλίαν ἔχων καὶ τραχύτητα, διαστρέφει καὶ παρατρέπει πολλαχῆ τὰ εἴδωλα καὶ τὸ ἐναργὲς αὐτῶν ἐξίτηλον καὶ ἀσθενὲς ποιεῖ τῇ βραδυτῆτι τῆς πορείας ἀμαυρούμενον, ὥσπερ αὖ πάλιν πρὸς ὀργώντων καὶ διακαομένων ἐκθρώσκοντα πολλὰ καὶ ταχὺ κομιζόμενα τὰς ἐμφάσεις νεαρὰς καὶ σημαντικὰς ἀποδίδωσιν.
10.3. Then with a smile looking upon Autobulus, he continued: But, sir, I perceive you design to have an airy skirmish with these images, and try the goodness of this old opinion, as you would a picture, by your touch. And Autobulus replied: Pray, sir, do not endeavor to cheat us any longer; for we know very well that you, designing to make Aristotle’s opinion appear the better, have used this of Democritus only as its shade. Therefore I shall pass by that, and impugn Aristotle’s opinion, which unjustly lays the blame on the new fruit. For both the summer and the early autumn bear testimony in its favor, when, as Antimachus says, the fruit is most fresh and juicy; for then, though we eat the new fruit, yet our dreams are less vain than at other times. And the months when the leaves fall, being next to winter, so concoct the corn and remaining fruit, that they grow shrivelled and less, and lose all their brisk agitating spirit. As for new wine, those that drink it soonest forbear till February, which is after winter; and the day on which we begin we call the day of the Good Genius, and the Athenians the day of cask-opening. For whilst wine is working, we see that even common laborers will not venture on it. Therefore no more accusing the gifts of the Gods, let us seek after another cause of vain dreams, to which the name of the season will direct us. For it is called leaf-shedding, because the leaves then fall on account of their dryness and coldness; except the leaves of hot and oily trees, as of the olive the laurel, or the palm; or of the moist, as of the myrtle and the ivy. But the temperature of these preserves them, though not others; because in others the vicious humor that holds the leaves is constipated by the cold, or being weak and little is dried up. Now moisture and heat are necessary for the growth and preservation of plants, but especially of animals; and on the contrary, coldness and dryness are very noxious to both. And therefore Homer elegantly calls men moist and juicy; to rejoice he calls to be warmed; and any thing that is grievous and frightful he calls cold and icy. Besides, the words ἀλίβας and σκελετός are applied to the dead, those names intimating their extreme dryness. But more, our blood, the principal thing in our whole body, is moist and hot. And old age hath neither of those two qualities. Now the autumn seems to be as it were the old age of the decaying year; for the moisture doth not yet fall, and the heat decays. And its inclining the body to diseases is an evident sign of its cold and dryness. Now it is necessary that the souls should be indisposed with the bodies and that, the subtile spirit being condensed, the divining faculty of the soul, like a mirror that is breathed upon, should be sullied; and therefore it cannot represent any thing plain, distinct, and clear, as long as it remains thick, dark, and condensed.
10.3. εἶτα διαβλέψας πρὸς τοὺς περὶ τὸν Αὐτόβουλον καὶ μειδιάσας ἀλλʼ ὁρῶ εἶπεν ὑμᾶς οἵους τʼ ὄντας ἤδη σκιαμαχεῖν πρὸς τὰ εἴδωλα καὶ δόξῃ παλαιᾷ καθάπερ γραφῇ προσφέροντας ἁφὴν οἴεσθαί τι ποιεῖν καὶ ὁ Αὐτόβουλος παῦε ποικίλλων ἔφη πρὸς ἡμᾶς οὐ γὰρ ἀγνοοῦμεν, ὅτι τὴν Ἀριστοτέλους δόξαν εὐδοκιμῆσαι βουλόμενος ὥσπερ σκιὰν αὐτῇ τὴν Δημοκρίτου παραβέβληκας. ἐπʼ ἐκείνην οὖν τρεψόμεθα κἀκείνῃ μαχούμεθα κατηγορούσῃ τῶν νέων καρπῶν καὶ τῆς φίλης ὀπώρας οὐ προσηκόντως. τὸ γὰρ θέρος αὐτοῖς μαρτυρεῖ καὶ τὸ μετόπωρον, ὅτε μάλιστα χλωρὰν καὶ φλύουσαν, ὡς Ἀντίμαχος ἔφη, τὴν ὀπώραν γεννωμένην ἄρτι προσφερόμενοι ἧττον ἀπατηλοῖς καὶ ψευδέσιν ἐνυπνίοις σύνεσμεν οἱ δὲ φυλλοχόοι μῆνες ἤδη τῷ χειμῶνι παρασκηνοῦντες ἐν πέψει τὰ σιτία καὶ τὰ περιόντα τῶν ἀκροδρύων ἰσχνὰ καὶ ῥυσὰ καὶ πᾶν ἀφεικότα τὸ πληκτικὸν ἐκεῖνο καὶ μανικὸν ἔχουσι. καὶ μὴν οἴνου γε τὸν νέον οἱ πρωιαίτατα πίνοντες Ἀνθεστηριῶνι πίνουσι μηνὶ μετὰ χειμῶνα· καὶ τὴν ἡμέραν ἐκείνην ἡμεῖς μὲν Ἀγαθοῦ Δαίμονος, Ἀθηναῖοι δὲ Πιθοίγια προσαγορεύουσι· γλεύκους δὲ ζέοντος ἀεὶ ἀφαιρεῖσθαι καὶ τοὺς ἐργάτας δεδιότας ὁρῶμεν. ἀφέντες οὖν τὸ συκοφαντεῖν τὰ τῶν θεῶν δῶρα μετίωμεν ἑτέραν ὁδόν, ἣν ὑφηγεῖται τοὔνομα τοῦ χρόνου καὶ τῶν ὑπηνεμίων καὶ ψευδῶν ὀνείρων. φυλλοχόος γὰρ ὀνομάζεται διὰ ψυχρότητα καὶ ξηρότητα τηνικαῦτα τῶν φύλλων ἀπορρεόντων· πλὴν εἴ τι θερμόν ἐστιν ἢ λιπαρὸν ὡς ἐλαῖαι καὶ δάφναι καὶ φοίνικες ἢ διερὸν ὡς μυρσίνη καὶ κιττός;. τούτοις γὰρ ἡ κρᾶσις βοηθεῖ τοῖς δʼ ἄλλοις οὔ· οὐ γὰρ παραμένει τὸ ἐχέκολλον καὶ συνεκτικόν, ἢ πυκνουμένης ψυχρότητι τῆς ἰκμάδος ἢ ξηραινομένης διʼ ἔνδειαν ἢ διʼ ἀσθένειαν. ἔστι μὲν οὖν καὶ φυτοῖς ὑγρότητι ἢ θερμότητι τεθηλέναι καὶ αὐξάνεσθαι, μᾶλλον δὲ τοῖς ζῴοις· καὶ τοὐναντίον ἡ ψυχρότης καὶ ἡ ξηρότης ὀλέθριον. διὸ χαριέντως Ὅμηρος εἴωθε διεροὺς βροτοὺς καλεῖν, καὶ τὸ μὲν χαίρειν ἰαίνεσθαι,ῥιγεδανόν δὲ καὶ κρυερόν τὸ λυπηρὸν καὶ τὸ φοβερόν. ὁ δʼ ἀλίβας καὶ ὁ σκελετὸς ἐπὶ τοῖς νεκροῖς λέγονται, λοιδορουμένης τῷ ὀνόματι τῆς ξηρότητος. ἔτι τὸ μὲν αἷμα κυριωτάτην τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν ἔχον δύναμιν ἅμα καὶ θερμόν ἐστι καὶ ὑγρόν, τὸ δὲ γῆρας ἀμφοῖν ἐνδεές. ἔοικε δὲ τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ περιιόντος οἷον γῆρας εἶναι τὸ φθινόπωρον· οὔπω γὰρ ἥκει τὸ ὑγρόν, οὐκέτι δὲ τὸ θερμὸν ἔρρωται· δεῖγμα δὲ γεγονὸς ἀτεχνῶς ξηρότητος ἅμα καὶ ψυχρότητος ἐπισφαλῆ ποιεῖ τὰ σώματα πρὸς τὰς νόσους. τοῖς δὴ σώμασι τὰς ψυχὰς συμπαθεῖν ἀνάγκη, καὶ μάλιστα παχνουμένου τοῦ πνεύματος ἀμαυροῦσθαι τὸ μαντικόν, ὥσπερ κάτοπτρον ὁμίχλης ἀναπιμπλάμενον. οὐδὲν οὖν τρανὸν οὐδʼ ἔναρθρον οὐδʼ εὔσημον ἐν ταῖς φαντασίαις ἀποδίδωσι, μέχρι οὗ παχὺ καὶ ἀλαμπὲς καὶ συνεσταλμένον ἐστίν.