under the form of a woman, and, if evil courses are still
persisted in, successive transmigrations through various brutes are in
reserve--the frivolous passing into birds, the unphilosophical into
beasts, the ignorant into fishes; that the world undergoes periodical
revolutions by fire and water, its destructions and reproductions
depending upon the coincidences of the stars. Of Plato's views of human
physiology I can offer no better statement than the following from
Ritter: "All in the human body is formed for the sake of the Reason,
after certain determinate ends. Accordingly, first of all, a seat must
be provided for the god-like portion of the soul, the head, viz., which
is round, and similar to the perfect shape of the whole, furnished with
the organs of cognition, slightly covered with flesh, which impedes the
senses. To the head is given the direction of the whole frame, hence its
position at the top; and, since the animal creation possesses all the
six irregular motions, and the head ought not to roll upon the ground,
the human form is long, with legs for walking and arms for serving the
body, and the anterior part is fashioned differently from the posterior.
Now, the reason being seated in the head, the spirit or irascible soul
has its seat in the breast, under the head, in order that it may be
within call and command of the Reason, but yet separated from the head
by the neck, that it might not mix with it. The concupiscible has
likewise its particular seat in the lower part of the trunk, the
abdomen, separated by the diaphragm from that of the irascible, since it
is destined, being separate from both, to be governed and held in order
both by the spirit and the Reason. For this end God has given it a
watch, the liver, which is dense, smooth, and shining, and, containing
in combination both bitter and sweet, is fitted to receive and reflect,
as a mirror, the images of thoughts. Whenever the Reason disapproves, it
checks inordinate desires by its bitterness, and, on the other hand,
when it approves, all is soothed into gentle repose by its sweetness;
moreover, in sleep, in sickness, or in inspiration it becomes prophetic,
so that even the vilest portion of the body is in a certain degree
participant of truth. In other respects the lower portion of the trunk
is fashioned with equal adaptation for the ends it has to serve. The
spleen is placed on the left side of the liver, in order to secrete and
carry off the impur