iv. lo. 117 



in youth, and advance of years bringing increased growth above, 

 that is in the trunk, which extends from the buttocks to the head. 

 •Thus it is that colts are scarcely, if at all, below full-grown horses 

 in height ; and that while quite young they can touch their heads 

 with the hind legs, though this is no, longer possible when they 

 are older. Such then is the form of animals that have either 

 •a solid or a cloven hoof But such as are polydactylous and 

 without horns; though they too are of dwarf-like shape, are so 

 in a less degree ; nor is the original disproportion between their 

 upper and lower parts increased by aftergrowth.^'' 



Dwarf-like again is the race of birds and of fishes ; and so in 

 ■fact, as already has been said, is every animal that has blood. 

 This ig the reason that no other animal is so intelligent as man. 

 For even among men themselves if we compare children with 

 adults, or such adults as are of dwarf-like shape with such as 

 are not, we find that, whatever other superiority the former may 

 possess, they are at any rate deficient as compared with the latter 

 in intelligence. The explanation, as already stated, is that their 

 psychical principle is corporeal, and much impeded in its motions. 

 Let now a still further decrease occur in the ^^ elevating heat, 

 and a still further increase in the earthy matter, and the animals 

 become smaller in bulk, and their feet more numerous, until at 

 a later stage they become apodous, and extended full length on 

 the ground. Thus, by gradual small successions of change, they 

 come to have their principal organ below ; and at last their 

 cephalic part becomes motionless and destitute of sensation. Thus 

 the animal becomes a plant, that has its upper parts downwards 

 and its lower parts above. ^^ For in plants the roots are the 

 equivalents of mouth and head, while the seed, which is pro- 

 duced above at the extremities of the twigs, has an opposite 

 significance.'^ 



The reasons have now been stated why some animals have many 

 feet, some only two, and others none ; why, also, some living things 

 are plants and others animals ; and, lastly, why man alone of all 

 animals stands erect. Standing thus erect, man has no need of 

 legs in front, and in their stead has been endowed by nature with 

 arms and hands. Now it is the opinion of Anaxagoras, that the 

 possession of these hands is the cause of man being of all animals 

 the most intelligent. But it is rational to suppose that the 

 possession of hands is the consequence rather than the cause 

 687 a. 



