covered the head with thin bone, but not with
flesh and sinews, since it had no joints; and thus the head was added,
having more wisdom and sensation than the rest of the body, but also
being in every man far weaker. For these reasons and after this manner
God placed the sinews at the extremity of the head, in a circle round
the neck, and glued them together by the principle of likeness and
fastened the extremities of the jawbones to them below the face, and the
other sinews he dispersed throughout the body, fastening limb to limb.
The framers of us framed the mouth, as now arranged, having teeth and
tongue and lips, with a view to the necessary and the good contriving
the way in for necessary purposes, the way out for the best purposes;
for that is necessary which enters in and gives food to the body; but
the river of speech, which flows out of a man and ministers to the
intelligence, is the fairest and noblest of all streams. Still the head
could neither be left a bare frame of bones, on account of the extremes
of heat and cold in the different seasons, nor yet be allowed to
be wholly covered, and so become dull and senseless by reason of an
overgrowth of flesh. The fleshy nature was not therefore wholly dried
up, but a large sort of peel was parted off and remained over, which
is now called the skin. This met and grew by the help of the cerebral
moisture, and became the circular envelopment of the head. And the
moisture, rising up under the sutures, watered and closed in the skin
upon the crown, forming a sort of knot. The diversity of the sutures was
caused by the power of the courses of the soul and of the food, and the
more these struggled against one another the more numerous they became,
and fewer if the struggle were less violent. This skin the divine power
pierced all round with fire, and out of the punctures which were thus
made the moisture issued forth, and the liquid and heat which was pure
came away, and a mixed part which was composed of the same material as
the skin, and had a fineness equal to the punctures, was borne up by
its own impulse and extended far outside the head, but being too slow
to escape, was thrust back by the external air, and rolled up underneath
the skin, where it took root. Thus the hair sprang up in the skin, being
akin to it because it is like threads of leather, but rendered harder
and closer through the pressure of the cold, by which each hair, while
in process of separation from