269 
his day ; but whether it was intended for satire or otherwise, 
it is clear that some of the savans of that time believed it, just 
as much as certain amongst ourselves believe the parentage of 
mankind is to be found in an Ascidian tadpole, or as St. George 
Mivart, an acknowledged authority, describes it, as a “sea 
squirt.” 
i'l. Plato then teaches as follows on this interesting sub- 
ject: — In ancient times there was no such thing known as 
distinction of sexes. It was then one man-woman ; perfect in 
form, faculty, and in spirit. The exact shape of this being was 
a round ball of flesh with four hands, four feet, two faces, and 
one brain. They walked, as now, upright, withersoever they 
pleased. A A hen they ran, they did so in the manner of tura- 
bleis, who, after turning their legs upward in a circle, place them 
accurately in an upright position ; so they supported their legs 
on their eight limbs, and afterwards turned themselves quickly 
over in a circle* Now these beings, which may be described 
as three in number, were descended, the male from the sun, 
the female from the earth, and that which partook of both 
from the moon. The bodies thus were round, and the manner 
of their running was circular, through their being like their 
parents. f They were so terrible in force and strength, that, 
as Homer says of Epiphialtus and Otus, they attempted to 
scale the heavens and attack the gods. Upon which Jupiter 
and the other gods consulted what they had best do in their 
difficulty. At length J upiter, on reflection, said, I have thought 
upon a plan by which men on becoming weaker may be 
stopped in their present course. For now I will divide each of 
them in two; and they will, at the same time, become weaker, 
and also more useful to us, through their becoming more in 
It is a curious fact that the arms of the Isle of Man represent three 
legs of a man turning round, just after the fashion so graphically described by 
Plato in the text ! 
t This explanation seems to support the theory that Pythagoras and his 
followers had some idea of the globular shape ef the earth, about 2,000 years 
before the time of Copernicus. Hence Philolaus of Croton taught the progres- 
sive motion of the eartli through space ; and Aristarchus of Samos and 
Seleucus of Babylon are both supposed to have taught, not only that the 
earth rotated on its axis, but also moved round the sun. In truth a passage 
of Plato in the Timcevs, when read by the light of Aristotle’s comment 
thereon, would seem to show that they both taught the same. The former says 
“ God made the earth to be the nurse of mankind, and by her rotation round 
the cosmical pole, the guardian and creator of day and night.” On which the 
latter comments thus : “ All those who do not make the earth the centre of 
the system, male her rotate round the centre ; and some even of those who 
place her at the centre say she rotates round the cosmical axis, as we read in 
the Timams . — Aristotle, De Crelo, ii. § 13. 
