Stephanus 43

43a portions that were to be paid back again; and they fused what they received into one, not with the indissoluble bonds by which they themselves were held, but with pegs so fine and close for their smallness as to be unseen, making out of all one body for each creature; and into this body, such as it was—open to inflow and outflow—they embedded the circuits of the immortal soul. Bound as they were within a great river, the circuits neither mastered nor were mastered, but were borne along and bore things along by force, so that the 43b whole creature moved indeed, but moved at random, advancing as chance took it and without reason, holding all six motions: forward and backward, again to right and to left, and up and down—wandering in all six directions it went on its way. For the wave that engulfed it and flowed away again, the wave that gave it its food, was great; and the impacts that beset each one stirred up still greater tumult, whenever 43c a body fell in with some alien fire striking from outside, or with the hard crust of earth, or with the slippery gliding of wet water, or was caught in the tossing of winds driven through the air; and under all these the motions, carried through the body, fell upon the soul—motions which for this reason were afterward named, and are called even now, sensations, all of them together. And at that time, then, producing the greatest and mightiest motion, they, together with the stream that flowed on without end, 43d shook and violently convulsed the circuits of the soul: against the circle of the same, flowing clean counter to it, they blocked it wholly, and stopped both its ruling and its going; and the circle of the other they shook into turmoil, so that the three distances of the double and of the triple in each, and the means and bonds of the half-again, the third-again, and the eighth-again intervals, being dissoluble in no way save by him who bound them, were twisted into every kind of 43e turning, and brought every kind of bending and ruin upon the circles, so far as was possible, so that, barely holding to one another, they were borne along indeed, but borne without reason—now in opposition, now aslant, now turned belly up—as when a man lies face up, his head propped on the ground and his feet thrown up against some support: in that state, both to the sufferer and to those who look on, right seems left and left right, each to each.

Timaeus: And when the circuits suffered this and other such things violently,

43a The portions were to be given back again later. They glued the parts they took to what was like them, not with the unbreakable bonds by which they themselves were held; instead they fused them with pegs so tiny that no one could see them, packed close together, and they made each body one thing out of all of them. Then they put the circles of the immortal soul into a body that things flow into and flow out of. When the circles were tied into this great river, they could neither master it nor be mastered by it. The river swept them along, and they swept it along. So the 43b whole animal was in motion, but it went in disorder and without reason, wherever it happened to go, with all six motions at once. It moved forward and backward, then to the right and the left, down and up, wandering through all six places. 43c The wave that flooded in and drained away, the wave that gave it food, was large. And everything that struck the circuits upset them even more. This happened when someone's body met fire from outside that belonged to something else, or hit the hard, solid earth, or the slippery streams of water, or when winds rushing through the air caught it. Through all these things, the motions passed through the body and fell upon the soul. Because of this, they were given their name then, and all of them together are still called sensations today. 43d And at that time these motions, supplying the greatest and most violent movement, moved along with the channel that flowed without stopping, and shook the circles of the soul hard. They completely blocked the circle of the Same, running against it, and stopped it from ruling and from going its own way. And they shook the circle of the Other apart. The three intervals of each kind, of the double and the triple, and the joining means and couplings of three-to-two, four-to-three, and nine-to-eight, were not completely undone, except by the one who had bound them. Yet they now made every kind of twisting 43e of all the circles, and every kind of bending and ruin of the circles, in every way that was possible, so that the circles were barely held to one another. They moved, but they moved without reason—now in opposite directions, now sideways, now upside down. It is like this: when a man lies on his back, with his head resting on the ground and his feet thrown up against something, then in that state, both for the man it happens to and for the people watching him, his right seems left and his left seems right, each for each of them.

Timaeus: So the rotations suffered this, and other things like it, violently,

43a as if meaning to pay them back, and the portions so taken they cemented together; but it was not with those indissoluble bonds wherewith they themselves were joined that they fastened together the portions but with numerous pegs, invisible for smallness; and thus they constructed out of them all each several body, and within bodies subject to inflow and outflow they bound the revolutions of the immortal Soul. The souls, then, being thus bound within a mighty river neither mastered it nor were mastered, but with violence they rolled along and were rolled along themselves, 43b so that the whole of the living creature was moved, but in such a random way that its progress was disorderly and irrational, since it partook of all the six motions: for it progressed forwards and backwards, and again to right and to left, and upwards and downwards, wandering every way in all the six directions. For while the flood which foamed in and streamed out, as it supplied the food, was immense, still greater was the tumult produced 43c within each creature as a result of the colliding bodies, when the body of a creature happened to meet and collide with alien fire from without, or with a solid lump of earth or liquid glidings of waters, or when it was overtaken by a tempest of winds driven by air, and when the motions due to all these causes rushing through the body impinged upon the Soul. And for these reasons all such motions were then termed Sensations, and are still so termed today. Moreover, since at that time they were causing, for the moment, constant and widespread motion, joining with the perpetually flowing stream 43d in moving and violently shaking the revolutions of the Soul, they totally blocked the course of the Same by flowing contrary thereto, and hindered it thereby in its ruling and its going; while, on the other hand, they so shook up the course of the Other that in the three several intervals of the double and the triple, and in the mean terms and binding links of the 3/2, 4/3 and 9/8,—these being not wholly dissoluble save by Him who had bound them together,—they produced all manner of twistings, and caused 43e in their circles fractures and disruptions of every possible kind, with the result that, as they barely held together one with another, they moved indeed but moved irrationally, being at one time reversed, at another oblique, and again upside down. Suppose, for example, that a man is in an upside down position, with his head resting on the earth and his feet touching something above, then, in this position of the man relative to that of the onlookers, his right will appear left to them, and his left right, and so will theirs to him.

Timaeus: This, and such like, are just what the revolutions of the Soul experience with intensity;