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CH. III.] be displaced from its essence, unless its self-motion were a casual property; but self-motion is of its very essence.

Some philosophers maintain that the Vital Principle moves the body in which it is, as it is itself moving,—and this is the opinion of Democritus, who expresses himself almost in the words of the comic poet Philippus, who charges "Daedalus with having made a wooden Venus to become movable, when quicksilver was poured into it." Democritus, in fact, says much the same thing when he maintains that indivisible spheres are in motion, from their having been by nature constituted never to remain at rest, and that these spheres drag along with them and give motion to all things. But we will ask Democritus whether it is those self-same spheres which produce the state of rest, and it will be difficult or rather impossible for him to explain how they are to do so. It is not thus, besides, that the Vital Principle appears to give motion to an animal, as it acts, generally speaking, by some kind of election and thought.

It is in this same manner, however, that Timæus physiologically explains how the body is moved by the Vital Principle—that, from its being in motion, the body, with which it has been interwoven, is moved also; and having constituted it out of the elements, and divided it according to harmonic numbers, in order that it may have an innate sense of harmony,