then, doubt, as we do in other cases, (though I think
here is very little room for doubt in this case, for the mathematicians
prove the facts to us,) that the earth is placed in the midst of the
world, being as it were a sort of point, which they call a {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~},
surrounded by the whole heavens; and that such is the nature of the four
principles, which are the generating causes of all things, that they have
equally divided amongst them the constituents of all bodies; moreover that
earthy and humid bodies are carried at equal angles, by their own weight
and ponderosity, into the earth and sea; that the other two parts consist
one of fire and the other of air? As the two former are carried by their
gravity and weight into the middle region of the world; so these, on the
other hand, ascend by right lines into the celestial regions; either
because, owing to their intrinsic nature, they are always endeavouring to
reach the highest place, or else because lighter bodies are naturally
repelled by heavier; and as this is notoriously the case, it must
evidently follow, that souls, when once they have departed from the body,
whether they are animal, (by which term I mean capable of breathing,) or
of the nature of fire, must mount upwards: but if the soul is some number,
as some people assert, speaking with more subtlety than clearness, or if
it is that fifth nature, for which it would be more correct to say that we
have not given a name to, than that we do not correctly understand
it--still it is too pure and perfect, not to go to a great distance from
the earth. Something of this sort, then, we must believe the soul to be,
that we may not commit the folly of thinking that so active a principle
lies immerged in the heart or brain; or, as Empedocles would have it, in
the blood.

XVIII. We will pass over Dicaearchus,(60) with his contemporary and
fellow-disciple Aristoxenus,(61) both indeed men of learning. One of them
seems never even to have been affected with grief, as he could not
perceive that he had a soul; while the other is so pleased with his
musical compositions, that he endeavours to show an analogy betwixt them
and souls. Now, we may understand harmony to arise from the intervals of
sounds, whose various compositions occasion many harm