eft, and the left right. If, when powerfully
experiencing these and similar effects, the revolutions of the soul come
in contact with some external thing, either of the class of the same
or of the other, they speak of the same or of the other in a manner the
very opposite of the truth; and they become false and foolish, and there
is no course or revolution in them which has a guiding or directing
power; and if again any sensations enter in violently from without and
drag after them the whole vessel of the soul, then the courses of the
soul, though they seem to conquer, are really conquered.

And by reason of all these affections, the soul, when encased in a
mortal body, now, as in the beginning, is at first without intelligence;
but when the flood of growth and nutriment abates, and the courses of
the soul, calming down, go their own way and become steadier as time
goes on, then the several circles return to their natural form, and
their revolutions are corrected, and they call the same and the other by
their right names, and make the possessor of them to become a rational
being. And if these combine in him with any true nurture or education,
he attains the fulness and health of the perfect man, and escapes the
worst disease of all; but if he neglects education he walks lame to the
end of his life, and returns imperfect and good for nothing to the world
below. This, however, is a later stage; at present we must treat more
exactly the subject before us, which involves a preliminary enquiry into
the generation of the body and its members, and as to how the soul was
created--for what reason and by what providence of the gods; and holding
fast to probability, we must pursue our way.

First, then, the gods, imitating the spherical shape of the universe,
enclosed the two divine courses in a spherical body, that, namely, which
we now term the head, being the most divine part of us and the lord of
all that is in us: to this the gods, when they put together the body,
gave all the other members to be servants, considering that it partook
of every sort of motion. In order then that it might not tumble about
among the high and deep places of the earth, but might be able to get
over the one and out of the other, they provided the body to be its
vehicle and means of locomotion; which consequently had length and was
furnished with four limbs extended and flexible; these God contrived
to be instruments of locomotion with which it might