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CHAPTER 9.

That the form of man was constructed as an instrument for the of reason

use. Since, then, the Maker has bestowed a certain godlike grace upon our created frame, putting into the image the likenesses of His own good things; for this reason He gave the rest of the good things out of generosity to human nature. But of mind and intelligence it is not proper to say that He gave, but that He imparted, imposing His own proper adornment of nature upon the image. Since, therefore, the mind is something intellectual and incorporeal, it would have possessed its grace incommunicable and unmixed, if its movement were not made manifest by some device. For this reason it needed this organic construction, so that, striking the vocal parts like a plectrum, it might interpret its inner motion by the qualitative impression of sounds. And just as someone experienced in music, if he does not have his own voice because of some malady, but wishing to make his skill manifest, might sing with others' voices, making his art public through flutes or a lyre; so also the human mind, being an inventor of all kinds of thoughts, by not being able to show the impulses of the intellect to the soul perceiving through bodily senses, like some skillful tuner, touching these living instruments, through the sound in them makes manifest its hidden thoughts. And the music about the human instrument is a certain mixture of flute and lyre, as if in some symphony they sound together with one another at the same time. For the breath, being pushed up through the windpipe from the air-receiving vessels, when the impulse of the speaker tenses the part for speech, dashing against the internal projections, which have taken hold of this flute-like passage in a circular way, somehow imitates the sound produced by the flute, being vibrated round about by the membranous protuberances. And the palate receives the sound from below in its own cavity, with twin pipes that extend to the nostrils, and splitting the voice with certain scale-like projections of the cartilages around the ethmoid bone, it makes the sound more resonant. And the cheek, and tongue, and the arrangement around the pharynx, by which the chin is relaxed when made hollow, and is tensed 152 in high-pitched sounds; all these things imitate the movement in the strings of the plectrum in various and manifold ways, opportunely and with great speed adjusting the tones for the need. And the parting and closing of the lips does the same thing as those who with their fingers control the breath of the flute, and the harmony of the melody.

CHAPTER 10.

That the mind operates through the senses. Thus, then, of the mind through the

organic of this construction fashioning speech in us, we have become rational beings, not having, as I think, the grace of speech, if we provided for the heavy and laborious service of eating with our lips for the body’s need. But now the hands, having transferred such service to themselves, have left the mouth well-suited for the ministry of speech. And the operation concerning the instrument is twofold: one for the production of sound, the other for the reception of thoughts from without, And the one is not mixed with the other, but each remains in the operation for which it was appointed by nature, not disturbing its neighbor, neither hearing speaking, nor the voice hearing. For the one is always sending something forth, but the hearing, receiving continuously, is not filled, as Solomon says somewhere; which seems to me to be especially worthy of wonder among the things in us; what is the breadth of that inner space, into which

10

ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ Θʹ.

Ὅτι ὀργανικὸν κατεσκευάσθη τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τὸ σχῆμα πρὸς τὴν τοῦ λόγου

χρείαν. Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν θεοειδῆ τινὰ χάριν τῷ πλάσματι ἡμῶν ὁ ποιήσας δεδώρηται, τῶν ἰδίων ἀγαθῶν ἐνθεὶς τῇ εἰκόνι τὰς ὁμοιότητας· διὰ τοῦτο τὰ μὲν λοιπὰ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἔδωκεν ἐκ φιλοτιμίας τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει. Νοῦ δὲ καὶ φρονήσεως οὐκ ἔστι κυρίως εἰπεῖν ὅτι δέ δωκεν, ἀλλ' ὅτι μετέδωκε, τὸν ἴδιον αὐτοῦ τῆς φύσεως κόσμον ἐπιβαλὼν τῇ εἰκόνι. Ἐπεὶ οὖν νοερόν τι χρῆμα καὶ ἀσώματόν ἐστιν ὁ νοῦς, ἀκοινώνητον ἂν ἔσχε τὴν χάριν καὶ ἄμικτον, μὴ διά τινος ἐπινοίας φανερου μένης αὐτοῦ τῆς κινήσεως. Τούτου χάριν τῆς ὀργανι κῆς ταύτης προσεδεήθη κατασκευῆς, ἵνα πλήκτρου δί κην τῶν φωνητικῶν μορίων ἁπτόμενος, διὰ τῆς ποιᾶς τῶν φθόγγων τυπώσεως ἑρμηνεύσῃ τὴν ἔνδοθεν κίνη σιν. Καὶ ὥσπερ τις μουσικῆς ἔμπειρος ὢν, ἂν ἰδίαν ἐκ πάθους μὴ ἔχοι φωνὴν, βουλόμενος δὲ φανερὰν ποιῆσαι τὴν ἐπιστήμην, ἀλλοτρίαις ἐμμελῳδοίη φω ναῖς, δι' αὐλῶν ἢ λύρας δημοσιεύων τὴν τέχνην· οὕτω καὶ ὁ ἀνθρώπινος νοῦς, παντοδαπῶν νοημάτων εὑρε τὴς ὢν, τῷ μὴ δύνασθαι διὰ σωματικῶν αἰσθήσεων ἐπαϊούσῃ τῇ ψυχῇ δεικνύειν τὰς τῆς διανοίας ὁρμὰς, καθάπερ τις ἁρμοστὴς ἔντεχνος, τῶν ἐμψύχων τού των ὀργάνων ἁπτόμενος, διὰ τῆς ἐν τούτοις ἠχῆς φανερὰ ποιεῖ τὰ κεκρυμμένα νοήματα. Σύμμικτος δέ τις ἡ μουσικὴ περὶ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον ὄργανον αὐλοῦ καὶ λύρας, ὥσπερ ἐν συνῳδίᾳ τινὶ κατὰ ταὐτὸν ἀλλή λοις συμφθεγγομένων. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ πνεῦμα διὰ τῆς ἀρτηρίας, ἀπὸ τῶν πνευματοδόχων ἀγγείων ἀνωθού μενον, ὅταν ἡ ὁρμὴ τοῦ φθεγγομένου πρὸς φωνὴν τονώσῃ τὸ μέρος, ταῖς ἔνδοθεν προσαρασσόμενον προσ βολαῖς, αἳ κυκλοτερῶς τὸν αὐλοειδῆ τοῦτον διειλήφασι πόρον, μιμεῖταί πως τὴν διὰ τοῦ αὐλοῦ γινομένην φω νὴν, ταῖς ὑμενώδεσιν ἐξοχαῖς ἐν κύκλῳ περιδονούμενον. Ὑπερῴα δὲ τὸν κάτωθεν φθόγγον ἐκδέχεται τῷ κατ' αὐτὴν κενώματι, διδύμοις αὐλοῖς τοῖς ἐπὶ τοὺς μυκτῆ ρας διήκουσι, καὶ οἷον λεπίδων τισὶν ἐξοχαῖς τοῖς περὶ τὸν ἠθμὸν χόνδροις τὴν φωνὴν περισχίζουσα, γεγωνο τέραν τὴν ἠχὴν ἀπεργάζεται. Παρειὰ δὲ, καὶ γλῶσσα, καὶ ἡ περὶ τὸν φάρυγγα διασκευὴ, καθ' ἣν ὁ ἀνθε ρεὼν ὑποχαλᾶται κοιλαινόμενος, καὶ ὀξυτονῶν ἐπιτεί 152 νεται· ταῦτα πάντα τὴν ἐν ταῖς νευραῖς τοῦ πλή κτρου κίνησιν ὑποκρίνεται ποικίλως καὶ πολυτρόπως, ἐπὶ καιροῦ σὺν πολλῷ τῷ τάχει μεθαρμόζοντα πρὸς τὴν χρείαν τοὺς τόνους. Χειλέων δὲ διαστολὴ καὶ ἐπίμυσις ταὐτὸν ποιεῖ τοῖς διὰ τῶν δακτύλων ἐπιλαμ βάνουσι τοῦ αὐλοῦ τὸ πνεῦμα, καὶ τὴν ἁρμονίαν τοῦ μέλους.

ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ Ιʹ.

Ὅτι διὰ τῶν αἰσθήσεων ὁ νοῦς ἐνεργεῖ. Οὕτω τοίνυν τοῦ νοῦ διὰ τῆς

ὀργανικῆς ταύτης κατασκευῆς ἐν ἡμῖν μουσουργοῦντος τὸν λόγον, λογι κοὶ γεγόναμεν, οὐκ ἂν, ὡς οἶμαι, ἔχοντες τὴν τοῦ λό γου χάριν, εἰ τὸ βαρύ τε καὶ ἐπίπονον τῆς κατὰ τὴν βρῶσιν λατρείας τοῖς χείλεσι πρὸς τὴν χρείαν τοῦ σώματος ἐπορίζομεν. Νυνὶ δὲ τὴν τοιαύτην λειτουρ γίαν αἱ χεῖρες εἰς ἑαυτὰς μετενέγκασαι, εὔθετον τῇ ὑπηρεσίᾳ τοῦ λόγου τὸ στόμα κατέλιπον. ∆ιπλῆ δὲ περὶ τὸ ὄργανον ἡ ἐνέργεια· ἡ μὲν πρὸς ἐργασίαν ἠχῆς, ἡ δὲ πρὸς ὑποδοχὴν τῶν ἔξωθεν νοημάτων, Καὶ οὐκ ἐπιμίγνυται πρὸς τὴν ἑτέραν ἡ ἄλλη, ἀλλὰ παρα μένει τῇ ἐνεργείᾳ, ἐφ' ᾗ ἐτάχθη παρὰ τῆς φύσεως, οὐκ ἐνοχλοῦσα τῇ γείτονι, οὔτε τῆς ἀκοῆς λαλούσης, οὔτε τῆς φωνῆς ἀκουούσης. Ἡ μὲν γὰρ ἀεί τι πάν τως προΐεται, ἡ δὲ ἀκοὴ δεχομένη διηνεκῶς οὐκ ἐμπίμ πλαται, καθώς φησί που Σολομών· ὅ μοι δοκεῖ καὶ μάλιστα τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν ἄξιον εἶναι καὶ θαυμάζεσθαι· τί τὸ πλάτος ἐκείνου τοῦ ἔνδοθεν χωρήματος, εἰς ὃ