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they announce the quality of the agent. But a body of the opposite kind, being
immobile, and not extending to the surrounding region, merely receives the
impression, and does not stir any of the neighbouring parts; and since the
parts do not distribute the original impression to other parts, it has no effect of
motion on the whole animal, and therefore produces no effect on the patient.
This is true of the bones and hair and other more earthy parts of the human
body; whereas what was said above relates mainly to sight and hearing,
because they have in them the greatest amount of fire and air. Now we must
conceive of pleasure and pain in this way. An impression produced in us
contrary to nature and violent, if sudden, is painful; and, again, the sudden
return to nature is pleasant; but a gentle and gradual return is imperceptible
and vice versa. On the other hand the impression of sense which is most
easily produced is most readily felt, but is not accompanied by pleasure or
pain; such, for example, are the affections of the sight, which, as we said
above, is a body naturally uniting with our body in the day-time; for cuttings
and burnings and other affections which happen to the sight do not give pain,
nor is there pleasure when the sight returns to its natural state; but the
sensations are clearest and strongest according to the manner in which the eye
is affected by the object, and itself strikes and touches it; there is no violence
either in the contraction or dilation of the eye. But bodies formed of larger
particles yield to the agent only with a struggle; and then they impart their
motions to the whole and cause pleasure and pain—pain when alienated from
their natural conditions, and pleasure when restored to them. Things which
experience gradual withdrawings and emptyings of their nature, and great and
sudden replenishments, fail to perceive the emptying, but are sensible of the
replenishment; and so they occasion no pain, but the greatest pleasure, to the
mortal part of the soul, as is manifest in the case of perfumes. But things
which are changed all of a sudden, and only gradually and with difficulty
return to their own nature, have effects in every way opposite to the former, as
is evident in the case of burnings and cuttings of the body.
Thus have we discussed the general affections of the whole body, and the
names of the agents which produce them. And now I will endeavour to speak
of the affections of particular parts, and the causes and agents of them, as far
as I am able. In the first place let us set forth what was omitted when we were
speaking of juices, concerning the affections peculiar to the tongue. These
too, like most of the other affections, appear to be caused by certain
contractions and dilations, but they have besides more of roughness and
smoothness than is found in other affections; for whenever earthy particles
enter into the small veins which are the testing instruments of the tongue,
reaching to the heart, and fall upon the moist, delicate portions of flesh—
when, as they are dissolved, they contract and dry up the little veins, they are
974
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book The Complete Plato"
The Complete Plato
- Title
- The Complete Plato
- Author
- Plato
- Date
- ~347 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 1612
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International