POEMANDRES. II. 17 



Asclepius. Stronger indeed. 



Hermes. There is necessity that that in which it is 

 moved have a contrary nature to that which is moved ? 

 Asclepius^ And altogether so. 



2. Hermes. Great then is this the World, 1 than which 

 there is not any body greater ? 



Asclepius. It is confessed. 



Hermes. And solid, for it hath been filled with many 

 other great bodies, or rather with all as many bodies as 

 there are ? 



Asclepius. Thus it is. 



Hermes. A body then is the World ? 



Asclepius. A body. 



Hermes. And moved ? 



Asclepius. Most certainly. 



3. Hermes. Of what size (a) then must be the place 2 in 

 which it is moved, and of what kind the nature ? Is it 

 not much greater that it may be able to receive the con- 

 tinuity of the forward course (6), and that that moved may 

 not, impeded by the narrowness, retard (c) its motion ? 



(a) flnfXjJMr, (&) T *J (fiopAs. (c) tirta-ftp. 



1 K&V^o?, i.e., the order of the Universe. 



2 The question of motion is discussed by Plato in " Thesetetus," 152, 

 181 : " Motion is both change of place and revolution in itself. It 

 is motion also when change takes place from youth to age, from black 

 to white, from soft to hard. Two forms then of motion, change and 

 revolution." " All things are generated from forward course (<po/>?), 

 and movement, and mixture ; for nothing by no means ever is, but 

 always is becoming." " Motion affords that seeming to be and that 

 "becoming. Inactivity (^av-^iet} is the not being, and destruction. 

 Heat and fire producing and preserving all things is of forward course 

 and motion. Living animals are produced by the same. The health 

 of the body is injured by sloth, restored by exercise ; the health of 

 the soul is improved and preserved by learning and care being 

 motions, and acquires knowledge. By inactivity, carelessness, and v 

 want of instruction it learns nothing, and forgets what it may have / 

 learnt. Motion, then, is good both for soul and body ; and Homer 

 teaches that so long as there be the circulation in movement and the 

 sun, all things are, and are preserved with gods and men. But if 

 that stood still, all things would perish, and become, as it were, 

 upside down." 



