Page:The works of Plato, A new and literal version, (vol 6) (Burges, 1854).djvu/35

c. 8.] two kinds of living beings, one (formed) of æther, and the other in due order of air, neither of them is entirely visible; and though present and near at hand, they do not become manifest to us; but let us say that, participating in a wonderful intelligence, as being docile and of a good memory, they know all our thoughts; and that in a wonderful manner they love the honourable and good man amongst us, and hate excessively the wicked, as being himself a sharer in pain; for the deity, who possesses the completion of a divine allotment, is (placed) beyond these (two), pleasure and pain, but has had a share in thinking upon and knowing, according to all things. And as the heaven is full of living beings, they interpret to each other and the highest gods all things and in all ways, through the living beings in the middle being carried to earth and through the whole of heaven with a light and rapid motion. But he, who assimilates the fifth genus of living beings, which is from water, to a demigod, will assimilate rightly; and this genus is sometimes visible, and sometimes concealed from view; but when visible, it exhibits a wonder through an obscure vision. Since then there are these five kinds of living beings really existing, in whatever manner any of us meets with them, falling in with them in a