Part 5

SECTION FIFTH

=Specification of the Animal Powers, and Mention of the Need there is for Each One of Them.=

I affirm that every animal is sentient, and hence it moves itself at will, in some sort of motion; and that every animal moves itself in some sort of motion at will, and hence it is sentient; since sensation in what does not move itself at will is wasted and useless, and the lack of it in what does move itself at will is harmful; whereas Nature, owing to that much of Divine Providence as has been joined to her, gives nothing whatever that is either wasted or harmful, nor witholds either the necessary or the useful. Perhaps some one may speak out here and object to us that shellfish are of such as feel (are sentient) and yet do not move themselves at will. This objection, however, will speedily vanish on experiment; for shellfish, although they do not move themselves from their places in a sort of organic (mechanical) locomotion at will, yet they do more or less shrink themselves up and spread out inside of their shells, as I have witnessed with mine own eyes on having tried the experiment more than once, in that I turned the shell over onto its back, so that its position for drawing nourishment became separated from the ground; whereupon it ceased not to struggle until it had again stood in a position that made it easy for it to draw in nourishment from the muddy bottom.

And now that this has become surely certain for us, we shall further say:

That whereas Divine Wisdom has decreed that an animal moving itself at will shall be composed of the four elements, and as such animal would not be secure against the evils of mishaps in its successive change of places during locomotion, it has been fitted out with the touching power (sense of touch), so as to flee through it from unfit places, and seek those that are fit. And whereas any such animal’s constitution (make-up) cannot get on without the getting of nourishment; and as its gaining its food is a sort of free will effort; and as some articles of food suit it, and others do not,--it has been fitted out with the tasting power (sense of taste). These two powers (senses) are both useful and necessary in life: the rest are useful, not necessary.

Next after the Tasting, in degree of utmost need for it, comes the Smelling Sense, since odors will point the animal towards suitable articles of nourishment, with a strong indication; nor will the animal be at all able to get on without nourishment, neither will its nourishment be got by it save through self-help. So Divine Providence has deemed fit to impart the smelling power unto most animals. The next after the smelling power in usefulness is the Seeing Power: the How and Why of its usefulness, as to the animal, which moves itself at will, is that whereas its betaking itself to certain spots, such as fire-hearths, and away from certain spots, such as mountain peaks and seashores, is such as will lead to its hurt, therefore Divine Providence has deemed fit to impart the seeing power unto most animals. The next after the seeing power in usefulness is the Hearing Power. The How and Why of its usefulness is that things harmful and things useful may often be recognized as such, through it, by the peculiarity of their sounds and voices; so Divine Providence has deemed fit to impart the hearing power unto most animals. Moreover, the use made of this power by the rational (speaking) species of the animal genus almost surpasses the three [--is of all three nearly the highest]. This then is an outline of the How and Why of the uses of the Five Outward (External) Senses.

And whereas trustworthy arrival at a knowledge of the mutually suitable and the mutually repellent will come about only through test (experiment, experience), Divine Providence has deemed fit to impart the peculiar participating property (or sense)--I mean the picturing power--unto living beings (animals), in order that they shall through it preserve the forms of things perceived by the senses; and to impart the remembering preserving power, in order that they shall through it preserve the meanings (significances) conceived out of things perceived by the senses; and to impart the imaginative power in order that they shall through it fit up (restore) what shall be wiped out from the memory by a sort of motion; and to impart the conjecturing (surmising) power in order that they shall through it fix upon the sound (true) and the weak (false) of what the imagination extracts, namely to fix upon the true and false thereof with more or less presumption of certainty, until they [the living beings] shall review it in the mind.

As for the How and Why of need for the moving power, it is that whereas the position of the animal is not the same as the position of the plant in its adaptation for attracting such foods as are useful and pushing off such as are harmful and incompatible, but on the contrary as this is brought about for the animal through a sort of earning by self-help, it needs a moving power for the purpose of drawing to itself the useful and driving away the harmful. Wherefore all the powers of the animal are either perceiving or motion-promoting. The motion-promoting is the yearning (desiderative, longing, craving) power: it is either urging on to the search after a chosen object of animal good, and then it is the lusting power; or else it is urging on to the warding off of an object of animal dislike, and then it is the hating power (angry power).

The perceiving power too is either outward (apparent), such as the five senses; or else inward (internal, hidden), such as the picturing, the imaginative, the conjecturing, and the remembering power.

Furthermore, the motion-promoting power does not cause to move save on a peremptory bidding from the conjecturing, through the agency (means) [or by the employment] of the imaginative. Also, the motion-promoting power, in animals other than the speaking (or rational) species, is the aim and end; and this is so, because the motion-causing power is not imparted unto them in order that they shall through it direct aright the workings of sensation and imagination so as to adapt these workings to the attainment of their own good, but on the contrary the power of sensation and of imagination are imparted to the non-speaking irrational animals solely in order to direct aright through them the workings of motion, and to adapt these workings to the good of the animals. Whereas, the speaking rational species of living beings is on the reverse wise; because unto it was imparted the motion-causing power wholly and solely in order that through this power it shall be fitted to set aright the speaking self, i.e., the rational intelligent soul, not the other way about.

Thus then, the motion-promoting power in the irrational animal is, as it were, the prince commander that is served; the five senses, the spies that are sent forth; the perceptive power, the post-master of the prince commander unto whom the spies return; the imagining power, the foot-messenger going to and fro between the post and the post-master; the conjecturing power, the prince’s adjutant minister; the remembering power, the closet of state papers.

As for the starry firmament and plants, the feeling power and the imagining power have not been imparted unto them, even though each one of them has a soul and though it has life: the firmament has not these powers, because of its loftiness; plants have them not, because of their abasement in comparison to it.

FOOTNOTES:

or wazir, minister.

In treating of the animal powers, he treats first of the fives senses, and then of the animal Powers. These latter he gives in this section three times, and each time varies the order somewhat, thus:--

1st. Order of mention:

a. participating, picturing b. remembering, preserving c. imaginative, restoring d. conjecturing, surmising e. moving

2nd. Order of mention:

a. picturing, participating b. imaginative c. conjecturing, surmising d. remembering

3d Order of mention, in the final Allegorical Summing Up:

a. motion-promoting b. feeling, sentient, 5 outward senses c. perceptive d. imagining e. conjecturing f. remembering.

Moreover, the Text seems in Doctor Landauer’s opinion to need an emendation, in this Allegory, which is furnished by the Latin Translation preserved in Florence. According to the text, we get a wholly superfluous intermediary notion, to wit the Post, which disturbs the parallel and similitude of the allegory. Instead of barîd, we should read wazîr = Latin, inter vicarium principis. If this is done, the whole passage becomes clearer, and hangs together better. Yet, for all this, the barîd was in those days a highly important branch of the government service: witness, the office of câheb-ul-barîd.

SECTION SIXTH

=Treating in Detail of the Five Senses, and of How they perceive.=

As to the seeing power, philosophers have differed on the question of How they perceive. Thus one set among them asserts that they perceive wholly and solely through a ray that shoots out beyond the eye, and so encounters the sensible objects that are seen. This is Plato’s way. Others assert that the perceiving power itself encounters the sensible objects that are seen, and so perceives them. Still others say that visual perception consists in this:--When the intervening transparent body becomes effectively transparent by light shining upon it, then an impression of the outspread (flattened) individual of such sensible objects as are seen is effected in the cristalline lens of the eye, just such a pictorial impression as is effected in looking-glasses (mirrors); indeed the two effects are so similar that were mirrors possessed of a seeing power they would perceive the form imprinted in them. This is Aristotle’s way; and it is the sound reliable opinion. That Plato’s view is false, is quite clear. For, were it true that a ray goes out from the seat of sight and encounters sensible objects, then sight would be in no need of light, but would on the contrary perceive in the dark, and would rather illuminate the air on its exit into the dark. Moreover such a ray will not fail of one of two modes: either it will subsist throughout the eye only, in which case Plato’s opinion that it goes forth from the eye is wrong; or else it will subsist throughout a body other than the material of which the eye is composed; for it must inevitably have a vehicle to carry it, seeing that a ray is an accidental quality or mode, and furthermore seeing that that body which is other than the eye will not fail, in its turn, of being, either, firstly, sent out from the eye, in which case it will follow as a matter of course that the eye will not see all that is beneath the clear blue of the sky, since one body will not penetrate throughout the whole of another body, unless forsooth it moves the latter away and occupies its place; and even should the disputer plead a vacuum, not only does Plato deny the existence of a vacuum utterly, but also if we accomodatingly yield this point and admit the existence of a vacuum, yet for all this the body that goes forth from the eye will penetrate throughout the body of water, for example, into such of its pores as are empty only, and not into the whole of the water’s bulk; so that even according to this opinion it will necessarily so be that the eye will see only some places of all that is under water;--or else, secondly, that body which is other than the eye will not fail of being an intervening body intermediate between the seer and the seen, in which case the light which comes forth from the eye will subsist through it; nevertheless this opinion too is unsound, for the reason that every thing whatsoever is, in proximity to its source, so much the stronger, and in this respect light has not its equal; whence it follows as regards the object seen that, however closely and nearly it approaches to the eye, our perception will then be stronger; and thus if we do away with the intermediary body, the eye will still perceive the object felt by its sense of sight, and thus the intermediary which is the vehicle and carrier of light is no longer needed, save accidentally (by chance); and then too there is no need, in order to see, for an exit of light: this too is a falsehood. Wherefore Plato’s opinion is worthless.

As for such as hold that the perceiver of the thing seen is the imaginative power itself through the imprinting of the form (image) of the sensible object upon it, these render the absent on the same footing as the present, since in the imaginative power there may exist the image of a sensible object, notwithstanding the absence afterwards of the object that had been so felt: at which time however the living being so preserving that image will not be qualified with sight but with imagination and memory. Furthermore these theorists (opiners) make a greater blunder still, seeing that they render a thing of Nature’s make and composition wholly idle, useless, and unneeded in the operation of visual perception; inasmuch as in their opinion the imaginative power itself meets immediately sensible objects, and thus spares Nature the task of adapting an instrument (organ), to wit the complex eye.

Wherefore the sound theory is that the configurations of things stand out in the transparent ambient--if it be effectively transparent on the shining of a luminant upon it--and hence they do not appear but in a polished body capable of receiving them, such as mirrors and the like; and so too there is in the eye a crystalline lens (or humor) into which the forms (pictures) of things are imprinted, just as their impression into mirrors; and in it, i.e., the lens or the eye, has been fitted up the seeing power; so that, if such forms are imprinted in it, it perceives them. Moreover, the objects of perception belonging in truth and deed to sight are the Colors.

As for the Hearing Power: it hears only sound. And sound is a motion of air that the ear feels on two hard smooth bodies coming quickly close up one to the other, the escaping of the air from between them, its striking the ear, and its moving the air that is kept ready within the instrument (organ) of hearing. Thus, if this inside air move the instrument, and if this instrument’s motion act upon the nerve of hearing, the hearing power (sense, faculty) perceives it in the measure of the strength or weakness of that motion. Indeed hardness is a conditio sine qua non; for, in the case of two soft bodies, the air will not escape from them, but will dissipate itself throughout their pores. Smoothness too is just such a condition; because, in the case of rough (unsmooth) bodies, not the whole of the air will escape from between them suddenly and violently, but will be witheld (shut up) in the passages. And rapidity of contact also is a like condition; for if it come about gently and slowly, the air would not escape violently.