HEIDEL. — JJepl <})il(r6w9. 125 



who is to write a proper treatise on human dietetics must first of all know 

 the constitution of man, — know and distinguish : he must know of 

 what he was constituted in the beginning and distinguish (in the in- 

 dividual case) by what constituents he is ruled. Unless he knows his 

 original composition, he will not be able to know the results that flow 

 from it ; unless he distinguish 174 the ruling constituent in the body, 

 he will not be capable of administering what is beneficial to the man. 

 This, then, the writer must know ; but he must have learned, in addi- 

 tion, the action — whether due to nature or to human constraint and 

 art — that each kind of meat and drink has which we employ by way 

 of diet." To these, or similar, words of Hippocrates Plato refers in 

 the Pkaedrus 175 with cordial approval. It thus becomes a common- 

 place that distinction and, above all, analysis of a complex whole into 

 its parts, are necessary to clear philosophical thought ; 176 and that, in 

 order to make clear the nature of anything, it is desirable by an act of 

 imaginative synthesis to reconstitute the fact thus analyzed. 



The boy who takes his watch to pieces and tries to put it together 

 again, — usually with scant success, because synthesis lags far be- 

 hind analysis, — indulges an ideal, rather than a practical, instinct. 

 He has no thought of making watches, but wants to understand his 

 time-piece. At the beginning of the Politics 177 Aristotle puts the 

 matter clearly : " As in other departments of science, so in politics, 

 the compound should always be resolved into the simple elements or 

 least parts of the whole. We must therefore look at the elements of 

 which the state is composed. ... He who thus considers things in 

 their first growth and origin, whether a state or anything else, will 



174 I read biayvuicreTai. for yv wtrerat. 



175 270 B ev dficporepais (sc. medicine and rhetoric) bel buXeaOai <pvo~t.v, ffw/Aaros 

 pievev rfj erepa, 'ftvxr/s 5e ev rfj iripa, el pieWeis, p.rj Tpifir) p.bvov teal ep.wei.pla dWd Te^PT?, 

 t£ fiev (pdpp.aKa Kal rpo<pr\v wpoo~(pepcov vyieiav /cat pw/xriv ep.won)aeiv . . . i/'i'X^s oDv 

 <pvo~iv d£t'ws Xbyov Karavorjcrat oiei bvvarbv elvai avev ttjs tov o\ov (pvaews ; Ei fiev lwwo- 

 Kpdrei ye rep tw ' AaKX-qwiabuv del tl wiQiaOai, ovoe wepl ato/xaros avev rrjs fieObbov 

 TavTTjS ... To toIvvv wepl (pvcreus cubwei tI wore \iyei 'IwwoKpdrys re Kal 6 dXrjdris 

 \6yos ' dp' ovx &5e del biavoelcrdai wepl otovovv (pvaeoos ■ wp&rov fxtv, aw\ovv r) wo\veibes 

 eari ov wept j3ov\T]0~bfieda elvai avrol TexviKol Kal &\\ov dvvarol woielv, fweira be, av fiev 

 dwXovv rj, UKOwelv ttjv 5uvap.iv avTov, rlva wpb<; tI witpvKe els to bpdv ^x ov tf T <- Va e ' s T0 

 waOeiv vwb tov, idv be wXeiio e'ior) ^xVi T&vTa dpiBp.Tjadp.evov, Swep ec/>' evbs, tovt ibelv e<f> 

 eKdffrov, rep tI woie'iv ai>To wicpVKev t) t^i tL wadeiv vwb tov ; Kivbvverjei. 



176 Cp. Plato, Tim. 57 D bib by avfip.eiyvvp.eva atrrd re 7rp6s aura /cat 7rpds &\\r}\a 

 tt]v woiKiKlav iarlv aweipa ' f)s brj Set 6eupous ylyveadai toi)s p.fX\ovTas wepl tpuaews 

 et'/cort \byip xPV cre0 '^ a i- But to study the irot/ctXta of things requires that the crazy- 

 patchwork be set in order by analysis. 



177 1252" 24 foil., transl. Jowett. Aristophanes, Thesmoph. 11 foil, affords a 

 good example of (pvais = ' constitution,' which at once suggests ' origin.' 



