philebus   

bodies of all animals, fire, water, air, and, as the storm-tossed

sailor cries, "land" [i.e., earth], reappear in the constitution of

the world.

Pro. The proverb may be applied to us; for truly the storm gathers

over us, and we are at our wit's end.

Soc. There is something to be remarked about each of these elements.

Pro. What is it?

Soc. Only a small fraction of any one of them exists in us, and that

of a mean sort, and not in any way pure, or having any power worthy of

its nature. One instance will prove this of all of them; there is fire

within us, and in the universe.

Pro. True.

Soc. And is not our fire small and weak and mean? But the fire in

the universe is wonderful in quantity and beauty, and in every power

that fire has.

Pro. Most true.

Soc. And is the fire in the universe nourished and generated and

ruled by the fire in us, or is the fire in you and me, and in other

animals, dependent on the universal fire?

Pro. That is a question which does not deserve an answer.

Soc. Right; and you would say the same, if I am not mistaken, of the

earth which is in animals and the earth which is in the universe,

and you would give a similar reply about all the other elements?

Pro. Why, how could any man who gave any other be deemed in his

senses?

Soc. I do not think that he could-but now go on to the next step.

When we saw those elements of which we have been speaking gathered

up in one, did we not call them a body?

Pro. We did.

Soc. And the same may be said of the cosmos, which for the same

reason may be considered to be a body, because made up of the same

elements.