§1#1## ΓΑΛΗΝΟΥ ΠΕΡΙ ΟΥΣΙΑΣ ΤΩΝ ΦΥΣΙΚΩΝ ΔΥΝΑΜΕΩΝ.
Καί τις ἴσως δόξει διαφωνίας ἀξιόλογον εἶναι τῶν λεγόντων, θερμὰ μὲν εἶναι τὰ ζῶα, ψυχρὰ δὲ τὰ φυτὰ, μὴ γινώσκων, ὡς, ὅταν μὲν ἀκριβέστερόν τις ἐπεξέρχηται, πᾶν τὸ ἀκόλουθον ζητουμένῳ ἄχρι τῆς ἐσχάτης ἐπιστήμης, ὅταν δὲ περί τινος ἄλλου πράγματος σκοπούμενος ἐν παρέργῳ, περὶ τούτων τὸ πρὸς τὴν πρόχειρον αἴσθησιν θερμὸν ἢ ψυχρὸν λέγων ἀρκεῖται.
## GALEN ON THE SUBSTANCE OF NATURAL POWERS. And perhaps someone will think that there is a significant disagreement among those who say that animals are hot but plants are cold, not knowing that when someone investigates more precisely, he tracks down everything that follows upon the object of inquiry up to the limits of science, but when he is considering some other matter in passing, he is content with calling what is warm or cold in relation to immediate perception.
Πλάτων γοῦν αὐτὸς ἔμψυχα μὲν ἀεὶ λέγει τὰ ζῶα, τοὺς λίθους δὲ καὶ τὰς πόας καὶ τὰ ξύλα, καὶ καθόλου φάναι τὰ φυτὰ πάντα τῶν ἀψύχων σωμάτων εἶναί φησιν.
Plato himself, at any rate, always says that animals are animate (living), but he says that stones, plants, and wood, and to put it generally, all plants belong to inanimate bodies.
ἀλλ’ ὅταν ἐν Τιμαίῳ τὴν φυσικὴν θεωρίαν ὀλιγίστοις ἀκροαταῖς, κατακολουθεῖν ἐπιστημονικοῖς λόγοις δυναμένοις, ἀποχωρήσας τῶν τοῖς πολλοῖς δοκούντων, εἰς ὅλον τὸν κόσμον ἐκτετάσθαι λέγῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ, διαφωνίαν οὐ χρὴ τοῦτο νομίζειν εἶναι, τἀνδρὸς ἑαυτῷ τἀναντία λέγοντος, ὥσπερ οὐδ’ Ἀριστοτέλους ἢ Θεοφράστου, τὰ μὲν τοῖς πολλοῖς γεγραφότων, τὰς δὲ ἀκροάσεις τοῖς ἑταίροις.
But when in the *Timaeus*, expounding natural theory to a very small audience capable of following scientific arguments, having departed from what seems true to the many, he says that the soul of the cosmos is extended through the whole of it, we must not think this is a disagreement, as if the man were saying things contrary to himself, just as we do not think so of Aristotle or Theophrastus, who wrote some things for the many but left their lectures to their close associates.
ὅταν γάρ τι τῶν ἐκφευγόντων ἅπασαν αἴσθησιν δόγμα πολλῶν λόγων δεόμενον εἰς ἀπόδειξιν ἀκαίρως λέγηται, προσκρούει τοῖς ἀκούουσιν.
For when any doctrine that escapes all perception and requires much argument for proof is spoken out of season, it offends the hearers.
οὔκουν χρὴ περὶ τῶν τοιούτων ἀποφαίνεσθαι πρὶν τοῦ κατὰ βραχὺ διὰ μακρᾶς ἀποδείξεως ἐπὶ τὸ συμπέρασμα τοῦ λόγου παντὸς ἀφικέσθαι, οὐδὲ διὰ τῶν λίθων, καὶ τῶν ὀστράκων, καὶ τῆς ψάμμου, καὶ τῶν κατακαιομένων ἢ σηπομένων νεκρῶν ζώων τὴν τοῦ κόσμου διήκειν ψυχήν.
Therefore, one must not make declarations about such things before arriving gradually through a long proof at the conclusion of the whole argument, nor should one declare that the soul of the cosmos extends through stones, potsherds, sand, and dead animals that are being burned or rotting.
εἰ γὰρ ἀπλῶς οὕτως ἀναφανδὸν ἀκουόντων τῶν πολλῶν ὁ Πλάτων εἶπέ τι τοιοῦτον, κατεγίνωσκον ἂν οἱ παρόντες αὐτοῦ πάντες.
For if Plato had said such a thing so openly in the hearing of the many, all those present would have condemned him.
ἐγὼ δ’ οὖν, ἀφ’ ὧν μὲν κινούμενος ἐπὶ τὴν δόξαν ταύτην ἀφίκετο, δι’ ἑτέρων ὑπομνημάτων ἐδήλωσα, μὴ συναποφηνάμενος αὐτῷ ἢ διατεινόμενος.
I, for my part, have shown in other treatises the considerations by which he was moved to arrive at this opinion, without declaring myself with him or asserting it strongly.
οὐδὲ γὰρ αὐτὸς ἐκεῖνος οὕτως ἀποφαίνεται τὰ τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας, ἀλλ’ ἄχρι τοῦ πιθανοῦ καὶ εἰκότος αὐτὴν προέρχεσθαί φησιν.
For even he himself does not make declarations about natural theory in this way, but says that it proceeds as far as the plausible and likely.
ὅτι μέντοι τὰ φυτὰ κινήσεως ἀρχὴν ἐν αὑτοῖς ἔχει καὶ τὴν τῶν οἰκείων τε καὶ ἀλλοτρίων αἴσθησιν, ἀληθὲς εἶναι νομίζω, λέγειν δὲ ἀκαίρως τὰ τοιαῦτα φυλάττομαι μᾶλλον ἢ αὐτὸς ἐκεῖνος, ἀλλ’ ἐὰν ἔρηταί μέ τις, τί πλεονεκτεῖ τῶν φυτῶν τὰ ζῶα, τήν τε αἴσθησιν λέγω καὶ τὴν καθ’ ὁρμὴν κίνησιν καὶ τάς τε δυνάμεις, ἃς εἶπον ἄρτι, τήν τε ἑλκτικὴν, καὶ τὴν ἀποκριτικὴν, καὶ τὴν καθεκτικήν τε καὶ ἀλλοιωτικὴν, οὐ ψυχικὰς, ἀλλὰ φυσικὰς ὀνομάζων, μηδὲν ἐκ τούτου μήτε τὴν ἰατρικὴν τέχνην μήτε τὴν ἠθικὴν φιλοσοφίαν βλαπτομένην ὁρῶν.
However, that plants have the principle of motion in themselves and the perception of what is appropriate and foreign, I believe to be true; but I guard against speaking of such things out of season even more than he himself did. If anyone asks me in what respect animals have an advantage over plants, I say it is perception and motion according to impulse, and the powers I mentioned just now—the attractive, the eliminative, the retentive, and the alterative—I call natural, not psychic, seeing that neither the medical art nor ethical philosophy is harmed by this.
ὅταν δὲ τῆς ἠθικῆς φιλοσοφίας τὸ φυσικὸν μέρος, ὁποῖόν τι Πλάτων ἡγεῖται, λέγειν ἀναγκαῖόν μοι γένηται, τινὰ μὲν ἄντικρυς ἐπαινῶ, καὶ συναποφαίνομαι τἀνδρί· περί τινων δὲ ἄχρι τοῦ πιθανοῦ προσέρχομαι, καθάπερ ἐπ’ ἐνίων ἀπορῶ παντάπασιν, οὐδεμίαν ἔχων ῥοπὴν ἐπὶ τῶν διαφωνουμένων, ὡς εἴη τὸ ἕτερον αὐτῶν πιθανώτερον.
When, however, it becomes necessary for me to speak of the natural part of ethical philosophy, such as Plato conceives it, some things I praise outright and declare with the man, but in some things I proceed only as far as the plausible, just as in some cases I am altogether in doubt, having no inclination toward either side of the disputed points, as if one of them were more plausible.
ὥσπερ, ὅτι ψυχὴν ἔχομεν, ἐπίστανται πάντες ἄνθρωποι, θεώμενοι μὲν ἐναργῶς καὶ τὰ διὰ τοῦ σώματος ἐνεργούμενα, βαδιζόντων καὶ τρεχόντων, καὶ παλαιόντων, αἰσθανομένων τε πολυειδῶς, ἐννοοῦντες δὲ καὶ τῶν ἔργων τούτων αἰτίαν τινὰ ὑπάρχειν ἔκ τινος ἀξιώματος πιστοῦ φύσει πᾶσιν ἡμῖν, καθ’ ὃ μηδὲν ἀναιτίως γίνεσθαι νοοῦμεν, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ μὴ γινώσκειν, ἥτις ἐστὶν ἡ αἰτία τῶν ἔργων τούτων, ὄνομα θεμένων ἀπὸ τοῦ δύνασθαι ποιεῖν ἃ ποιεῖ, δύναμιν εἶναι τῶν γινομένων ἑκάστου ποιητικήν.
Just as all people know that we have a soul, beholding clearly also the actions performed through the body when men walk, run, wrestle, and perceive in manifold ways, and thinking that there is some cause of these works from a certain axiom naturally trusted by all of us, according to which we think that nothing happens without a cause; but because they do not know what the cause of these works is, having given it a name from its ability to do what it does, they say that there is a "power" productive of each of the things that happen.
οὕτω γοῦν καὶ τὴν σκαμμωνίαν ἅπαντές φασι δύναμιν ἔχειν καθαρτικὴν, ὥσπερ τὸ μέσπιλον ἐφεκτικὴν γαστρός.
In this way, at any rate, everyone says that scammony has a purgative power, just as medlar has a power of retaining the stomach.
οἱ δὲ τὴν φυσικὴν ὀνομαζομένην ἐκπονήσαντες θεωρίαν, ἄλλως ἄλλοι πείσαντες ἑαυτοὺς, οἱ μὲν ἀσωμάτους τινὰς ἀπεφήναντο δυνάμεις ἐνοικεῖν ταῖς αἰσθηταῖς οὐσίαις, οἱ δὲ αὐτὰς ἐνεργεῖν τὰς οὐσίας κατ’ ἰδίαν ἑκάστην φύσιν, ἤτοι γε ἐκ τῆς τῶν τεττάρων στοιχείων κράσεως γενομένην, ἢ ποιᾶς συνθέσεως τῶν πρώτων σωμάτων, ἅ τινες μὲν ἄτομα, τινὲς δὲ ἀμερῆ, τινὲς δὲ ὁμοιομερῆ φασιν εἶναι.
But those who have laboriously worked out the so-called natural theory, some having persuaded themselves in one way and some in another, some declared that certain incorporeal powers dwell in sensible substances, while others declared that the substances themselves act according to each one’s own nature, whether arising from the mixture of the four elements or from a certain composition of primary bodies, which some say are atoms, others indivisible parts, and others homoeomerous parts.
καὶ γάρτοι καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ἡμῶν αὐτὴν οἱ μὲν ἀσώματόν τινα νομίζουσιν οὐσίαν εἶναι, τινὲς δὲ πνεῦμα, καθάπερ ἄλλοι μηδὲ εἶναί τινα ὕπαρξιν αὐτῆς ἰδίαν, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἰδιότητα τῆς τοῦ σώματος οὐσίας, ὧν ποιεῖν πέφυκε, τούτων ἔχειν λέγεσθαι δυνάμεις, οὐκ οὐσῶν τινων ἐκείνων ἰδίαν φύσιν ἐχουσῶν, ἀλλὰ τῆς ἐνεργούσης οὐσίας κατ’ αὐτὴν πρὸς τὰ γινόμενα, δι’ αὐτῆς τε καὶ ὑπ’ αὐτῆς δυνάμεις ἔχειν λεγομένης, ὧν πέφυκε δρᾷν.
And indeed, as for our soul itself, some think it is an incorporeal substance, some a spirit (pneuma), while others say that there is no separate existence of it at all, but that it is the property of the substance of the body, and that it is said to have powers of those things which it is naturally fitted to do, these powers not being entities having their own nature, but the active substance itself being said to have powers through itself and by itself in relation to what happens, of the things it is naturally fitted to perform.
ἐγὼ τοίνυν ἐν τούτοις μέσην τινὰ τάξιν ἐμαυτὸν ἔταξα.
I, therefore, have placed myself in a certain middle rank among these.
περὶ γὰρ ἄλλων δογμάτων ἀποφαινόμενος ἁπλῶς, τῶν μὲν, ὡς εἰδείην τὴν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀλήθειαν, τῶν δὲ, ὡς οὐδὲν αὐτῆς εἰδείην, ἐν οἷς ἄρτι διῆλθον, ἄχρι τοῦ πιθανοῦ προσέρχομαι, βέλτιον μὲν εἶναι νομίζων, εἴπερ ἐγνώκειν οὕτω περὶ αὐτῶν, ὡς ἀποφαίνεσθαι, καθάπερ ἐπ’ ἄλλων, οὐ μὴν ἀναπείθων ἐμαυτὸν, ὥσπερ ἕτεροι, βεβαίαν ἔχειν γνῶσιν, ὧν οὐκ ἔσχον ἀπόδειξιν βεβαίαν.
For declaring simply about other doctrines—concerning some as if I knew the truth in them, and concerning others as if I knew nothing of it—I proceed only as far as the plausible in the matters I have just gone through, thinking it better if I had known enough about them to declare, as in other cases, yet not persuading myself, as others do, that I have secure knowledge of what I have not had secure proof.