COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



into a perfect sphere, because the sphere is the 

 most perfect of figures, and most resembles it- 

 self. Although this universe was made an ani- 

 mal, it was made becoming and congruous. 

 Hence it had neither eyes nor ears, there being 

 nothing external for it to see and hear ; no 

 lungs, for it needed no respiration ; no diges- 

 tive organs ; no secretory organs ; no feet, for 

 its motion is peculiar, namely circular, and cir- 

 cular motion requires no feet, since it is not 

 progression. The mathematicians having dis- 

 covered the five regular solids, Plato naturally 

 made great use of them in his cosmology. Four 

 of them were represented by the four elements 

 — the Earth was a Cube, Fire a Tetrahedron, 

 Water an Octahedron, and Air an Icosahe- 

 dron. This left the fifth, the Dodecahedron, 

 without a representative ; accordingly, it was 

 assigned to the universe as a whole. ... It is 

 needless to add that Plato never thinks of of- 

 fering any better reason for these propositions 

 than that they are by him judged sufficient. If 

 one of his hearers had asked him why water 

 might not be a cube, and air an octahedron, — 

 or what proof there was of either being one or 

 the other, — he would have replied ' It is thus 

 I conceive it. This is best.' ^ Let us proceed. 



1 It is to be noted, however, that this wildest use of the 

 subjective method characterized Plato chiefly in his old age. 



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