to have received watchwords from the first father, nor that they possess the fullness of many bosoms, nor would I accept that they stand before the bodies and fall here, fainting at the sight of being. But having what they have received, they do not immediately show it in the bodies, but by their mixture with the corruptible, they have become more or less fruitful, however, they do not immediately have at hand the reasons which they first knew. But from education they do not return to recollection, since this doctrine does not please me, but being a blank tablet, it is filled with the better knowledge. Those who are sharp, quick-witted, and of good memory might acquire something more than others through learning, with reason as their guide, but left to themselves and carried towards the 88 steep places, they would slip or leap over. For what the bridle can do for a bold and spirited horse, this reason has power to do for a most fruitful and sharp nature. I, at any rate, have seen many who were noble by nature, but rather unaccomplished in learning, not becoming better through the recall of what they had learned, but rather through their sharp nature confusing these very things and, concerning matters they have not studied, using an undisciplined tongue and incurring a charge of folly. For demonstration is not easy, nor is that which is beyond demonstration, neither the simple nor the composite. For these reasons, it is necessary for learners to grasp some things by division, others by definition, others by demonstration, others by analysis, and to grasp things beyond these by simple and direct intuitions, and to receive some things from intellect, others from wisdom, and to have some things even beyond intellect, because the first cause is not intellect, but that which is beyond. Concerning how some men become wise, and others foolish You immediately laughed when I stated today's subject for our discussion, Eudokimos, how, having partaken of the same nature and temperament as we, he has appeared different in his disposition of prudence. But I, if I were not terribly ashamed of changing the subject, would perhaps have shrunk from the hypothesis, knowing how it is a certain difficult and very philosophical one, and in need of no ordinary consideration. For why has this man, contrary to the many, though sharing their nature and partaking of the same kind of soul, been altered in his disposition for prudence? The children of the Greeks, then, discoursing on the difference that appears to us in nature, and how some men are immediately free in soul, while others are servile and inclined towards things here, and some are subtle in thought, quick-witted, of good memory, and sharp, while others are the complete opposite and clumsy, dull, weak, and full of forgetfulness, and some as if effortlessly lay hold of the good nature, while others are given to vices and [through] sensibles are poured out towards things here, such as they say Osiris and Typhon were, and some are stable and firm in mind, while others are very quickly carried over to what moves them, easily 89 changed and shifting, and considering the countless other differences of our souls, did not hesitate to speak of two sources of natures, one from above, sending its streams here from the back of heaven, the other rooted somewhere below and gushing up from the clefts of the earth. The soul that comes from the channels above they say is noble and free, well-natured and magnanimous, stable and firm and adorned with other good things, but the one leaping up from the gloomy depths of the earth is unfree and ignoble, mobile and shifting, filled with foolishness and covered by the great abyss of senselessness. Not only did they stop at these things, at least the more philosophical and nobler of them, but giving a great distance to each part, both the height and the depth of the natures of souls, they bring some of the souls down from the regions beyond heaven, which they say are

συνθήματα παρὰ τοῦ πρώτου πατρὸς λαβεῖν, οὔτε δὲ πολλῶν κόλπων αὐτὰς κεκτῆσθαι πληρώματα, οὔτε τῶν σωμάτων προεστηκέναι καὶ πίπτειν ἐνταῦθα ἀτονούσας πρὸς τὴν θέαν τοῦ ὄντος δεξαίμην ἄν. ἔχουσαι δὲ ἅπερ εἰλήφασιν οὐκ ἐμφαίνουσιν εὐθὺς ἐν τοῖς σώμασιν, ἀλλὰ παρὰ μὲν τὴν πρὸς τὸ φθαρτὸν μίξιν γονιμώτεραι ἢ ἀφυέστεραι καθεστήκασιν, οὐ μέντοι καὶ τοὺς λόγους εὐθὺς προκεχειρισμένους ἔχουσιν ὧν πρώτως ἐγνώκεισαν. ἀλλ' ἀπὸ τῆς παιδεύσεως εἰς μὲν ἀνάμνησιν οὐκ ἐπανίασιν, ἐπεὶ μηδὲ τὸ δόγμα μοι τοῦτο ἀρέσκει, γραμματεῖον δὲ οὖσαι κενὸν πληροῦται τῆς κρείττονος γνώσεως. Οἱ δὲ ὀξεῖς καὶ ἀγχίνοι καὶ μνήμονες λόγου μὲν αὐτοὺς παιδαγωγοῦντος κτήσαιντ' ἄν τι πλέον τῶν ἄλλων διὰ μαθήσεως, ἀφ' ἑαυτῶν δὲ πρὸς τὰ 88 ἀνάντη φερόμενοι διολισθήσαιεν ἂν ἢ ὑπερπηδήσαιεν. ὃ γὰρ τῷ θρασεῖ ἵππῳ καὶ ὑπερήλικι ὁ χαλινὸς δύναται, τοῦτο τῇ γονιμωτάτῃ καὶ ὀξείᾳ φύσει ὁ λόγος ἰσχύει. ἐγὼ γοῦν ἑωράκειν πολλοὺς τῶν γενναίων μὲν τὴν φύσιν, ἀτελεστέρων δὲ πρὸς τὴν μάθησιν, οὐ παρὰ τὴν ἀνάληψιν τῶν ὧν μεμαθήκασι γεγονότας βελτίους, ἢ παρὰ τὴν ὀξεῖαν φύσιν αὐτά τε ταῦτα συγχέαντας καὶ περὶ ἃ μὴ ἐπραγματεύσαντο ἀταμιεύτῳ τε τῇ γλώττῃ χρωμένους καὶ ἄνοιαν ὀφλισκάνοντας. οὐ γὰρ πρόχειρον ἡ ἀπόδειξις, οὐδ' εἴ τι ὑπὲρ ἀπόδειξιν, οὔτε τὸ ἁπλοῦν οὔτε τὸ σύνθετον. διὰ ταῦτα δεῖ τὰ μὲν ἐκ διαιρέσεως ἔχειν μανθάνοντας, τὰ δὲ ἐξ ὁρικῆς ἀποδόσεως, τὰ δὲ ἐξ ἀποδείξεως, τὰ δ' ἐξ ἀναλύσεως, τὰ δ' ὑπὲρ ταῦτα ἔχειν ταῖς ἁπλαῖς καὶ ἀδιεξοδεύτοις ἐπιβολαῖς, καὶ τὰ μὲν παρὰ νοῦ, τὰ δὲ παρὰ σοφίας λαμβάνειν, τὰ δὲ καὶ ὑπὲρ τὸν νοῦν ἔχειν, ὅτι μὴ νοῦς τὸ πρῶτον αἴτιον, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἐπέκεινα. Περὶ τοῦ πῶς οἱ μὲν τῶν ἀνθρώπων γίνονται φρόνιμοι, οἱ δὲ μωροί Ὑμεῖς μὲν εὐθὺς ἐγελάσατε εἰρηκότος ἐμοῦ ὑπόθεσιν τῷ λόγῳ τὴν τήμερον τὸν Εὐδόκιμον, ὅπως τῆς αὐτῆς ἡμῖν μετεσχηκὼς φύσεώς τε καὶ κράσεως ἀλλοῖος τὴν ἕξιν τῆς φρονήσεως ἀναπέφηνεν. ἐγὼ δέ, εἰ μὴ δεινῶς ᾐσχυνάμην τὴν τοῦ λόγου μεταβολήν, τάχ' ἂν ἀπώκνησα τὴν ὑπόθεσιν, εἰδὼς ὅπως δεινή τίς ἐστι καὶ μάλα φιλόσοφος καὶ σκέψεως οὐ τῆς τυχούσης ἐπιδεής. διὰ τί γὰρ οὗτος παρὰ τοὺς πολλοὺς τῆς ἐκείνων κεκοινωνηκὼς φύσεως καὶ τῆς αὐτῆς μετέχων κατ' εἶδος ψυχῆς τὴν τοῦ φρονεῖν ἕξιν ἠλλοίωται; Ἑλλήνων μὲν οὖν παῖδες περὶ τῆς φαινομένης ἡμῖν φυσιολογοῦντες διαφορᾶς καὶ ὅπως οἱ μὲν τῶν ἀνθρώπων εὐθὺς ἐλεύθεροι τὴν ψυχὴν καθεστᾶσιν, οἱ δὲ δουλοπρεπεῖς καὶ ῥέποντες πρὸς τὰ τῇδε, καὶ οἱ μὲν λεπτοὶ τὴν νόησιν ἀγχίνοι τε καὶ μνήμονες καὶ ὀξεῖς, οἱ δὲ τοὐναντίον ἅπαν καὶ ἐπαρίστεροι ἀμβλεῖς τε καὶ μαλακοὶ καὶ λήθης γέμοντες, καὶ οἱ μὲν τῆς τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ φύσεως ἀπονητὶ ὥσπερ ἀντιλαμβανόμενοι, οἱ δὲ ταῖς κακίαις ἐγκείμενοι καὶ [διὰ] τῶν αἰσθητῶν πρὸς τὰ τῇδε χεόμενοι, ὁποίους δὴ τὸν Ὄσιριν ἱστοροῦσι καὶ τὸν Τυφῶ, καὶ οἱ μὲν βεβηκότες τὸν νοῦν καὶ εὐέδραστοι, οἱ δὲ πρὸς τὸ κινοῦν μεταφερόμενοι τάχιστα εὐαλ89 λοίωτοί τε καὶ μεταπίπτοντες, καὶ τὰς ἄλλας ὅσας μυρίας ἐννοοῦντες τῶν ἡμετέρων ψυχῶν διαφοράς, οὐκ ὤκνησαν διττὰς εἰπεῖν τῶν φύσεων τὰς πηγάς, τὴν μὲν ἄνωθεν ἀπὸ τῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ νώτων ἐνταῦθα τὰ ῥεύματα πέμπουσαν, τὴν δὲ ἐρριζωμένην κάτω που καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν τῆς γῆς χηραμῶν ἀναβλύζουσαν. τὴν μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν ἄνωθεν ὀχετῶν ἥκουσαν ψυχὴν εὐγενῆ τέ φασι καὶ ἐλευθέραν, εὐφυῆ τε καὶ μεγαλογνώμονα, σταθηράν τε καὶ βεβηκυῖαν καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις κεκοσμημένην καλοῖς, τὴν δ' ἀπὸ τῶν τῆς γῆς ἀναθοροῦσαν ζοφερῶν καταδύσεων ἀνελευθέραν τε καὶ ἀγεννῆ, μετακινητήν τε καὶ μεταπίπτουσαν, ἀνοίας ἐμπεπλησμένην καὶ πολλῷ τῷ τῆς ἀφροσύνης συγκεκαλυμμένην βυθῷ. οὐ μόνον δὲ μέχρι τούτων ἔστησαν οἵ γε φιλοσοφώτεροι τούτων καὶ γενναιότεροι, ἀλλ' ἑκατέρῳ μέρει τῷ τε ὕψει καὶ τῷ βάθει τῶν ψυχικῶν φύσεων μακρὰν δόντες διάστασιν, τὰς μὲν τῶν ψυχῶν ἀπὸ τῶν ὑπὲρ τὸν οὐρανὸν τόπων κατάγουσιν, ἃς δή φασιν εἶναι