|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: foreknowing that the palpitation of the heart in the expectation of danger
and the swelling and excitement of passion was caused by fire, formed and
implanted as a supporter to the heart the lung, which was, in the first
place, soft and bloodless, and also had within hollows like the pores of a
sponge, in order that by receiving the breath and the drink, it might give
coolness and the power of respiration and alleviate the heat. Wherefore
they cut the air-channels leading to the lung, and placed the lung about
the heart as a soft spring, that, when passion was rife within, the heart,
beating against a yielding body, might be cooled and suffer less, and might
thus become more ready to join with passion in the service of reason.
The part of the soul which desires meats and drinks and the other things of
|
