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interprets the doctrines held by the Greeks respecting the soul 
in a very similar way. For some of them taught that the soul 
is fire, like Democritus ; air, like the Stoics : some say it is 
the mind; others, motion; some, an exhalation; others, an 
influence flowing from the stars : some say number in motion, 
as Pythagoras; others , generative water, as Hippo: some say, 
an element ; others, breath : some say, harmony, as Dinarchus ; 
and others, blood, as Critias. Thus the ancients say contrary 
tilings, as Hermias truly observes, adding, “ How many sophists 
are there who carry on strife rather than seek the truth” 
28. Very amusing is the way in which he further brings out 
the contradictory teaching of the Gentile philosophers, which 
appears to resemble in more ways than one the singular dogmas 
propounded by many amongst ourselves in the present day. 
Thus, while one calls pleasure the good of the soul; another 
terms the same its evil ; while a third steps in and declares it to 
be a middle state between good and evil. Hence Hermias says 
of the variety of opinions on this subject: — “I confess I am 
harassed by the ebbing and flowing of the subject. At one time 
I am immortal, and rejoice ; at another time I become mortal, 
and Aveep. Anew, I am dissolved into atoms. I become ivater, 
and then air, and then fire ; and after a little, neither air, nor 
fire. At one time I am a beast, at another a fish. Thus, I 
have dolphins for my brothers ; but, when I look on myself, I am 
frightened at my body, and I know not how I shall call it, man 
or dog, or Avolf, or bull, or bird, or snake, or serpent, or 
chi m sera ; for I am changed by the philosophers into all the 
beasts of the land, of the sea, having Avings, of many forms, 
Avilcl or tame, dumb or vocal, brute or reasoning; I sAvim, I fly, 
I rise aloft, 1 crawl, I run, I sit. But here comes Empedocles, 
and he makes me the stump of a tree.”* 
29. Hermias, after going over much the same ground which 
AA r e have seen in J ustin^s account of the Grecian philosophv, 
playfully describes the Pythagorean doctrines in the folloAving 
lively way: “ Lo, from the old school Pythagoras and his dis- 
ciples, grave and silent men, mention amongst other doctrines 
this great and ineffable one. PIe hath said, the principle of 
all things is unity, but from its forms and numbers are pro- 
duced the elements, and the number and form and measure of 
each of these is thus somehoAv declared. Fire is completed 
out of twenty-four right-angled triangles, being contained by 
four equilateral ones. Each equilateral one is composed of six 
triangles ; whence also they liken it to a pyramid. But air is 
Hermias’s^-DemioTO of Gentile Philosophers, §§ 1,2. 
