So He , then , having given all these commands , was abiding in His own proper and wonted state . And as He thus abode , His children gave heed to their Father ' s command and obeyed it . They took the immortal principle of the mortal living creature , and imitating their own Maker , they borrowed from the Cosmos portions of fire and earth and water and air , as if meaning to pay them back , and the portions so taken they cemented together ; but it was not with those indissoluble bonds wherewith they themselves were joined that they fastened together the portions but with numerous pegs , invisible for smallness ; and thus they constructed out of them all each several body , and within bodies subject to inflow and outflow they bound the revolutions of the immortal Soul . The souls , then , being thus bound within a mighty river neither mastered it nor were mastered , but with violence they rolled along and were rolled along themselves , so that the whole of the living creature was moved , but in such a random way that its progress was disorderly and irrational , since it partook of all the six motions1 : for it progressed forwards and backwards , and again to right and to left , and upwards and downwards ,

καὶ ὁ μὲν δὴ ἅπαντα ταῦτα διατάξας ἔμενεν ἐν τῷ ἑαυτοῦ κατὰ τρόπον ἤθει : μένοντος δὲ νοήσαντες οἱ παῖδες τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς τάξιν ἐπείθοντο αὐτῇ , καὶ λαβόντες ἀθάνατον ἀρχὴν θνητοῦ ζῴου , μιμούμενοι τὸν σφέτερον δημιουργόν , πυρὸς καὶ γῆς ὕδατός τε καὶ ἀέρος ἀπὸ τοῦ κόσμου δανειζόμενοι μόρια ὡς ἀποδοθησόμενα πάλιν , εἰς ταὐτὸν τὰ λαμβανόμενα συνεκόλλων , οὐ τοῖς ἀλύτοις οἷς αὐτοὶ συνείχοντο δεσμοῖς , ἀλλὰ διὰ σμικρότητα ἀοράτοις πυκνοῖς γόμφοις συντήκοντες , ἓν ἐξ ἁπάντων ἀπεργαζόμενοι σῶμα ἕκαστον , τὰς τῆς ἀθανάτου ψυχῆς περιόδους ἐνέδουν εἰς ἐπίρρυτον σῶμα καὶ ἀπόρρυτον . αἱ δ᾽ εἰς ποταμὸν ἐνδεθεῖσαι πολὺν οὔτ᾽ ἐκράτουν οὔτ᾽ ἐκρατοῦντο , βίᾳ δὲ ἐφέροντο καὶ ἔφερον , ὥστε τὸ μὲν ὅλον κινεῖσθαι ζῷον , ἀτάκτως μὴν ὅπῃ τύχοι προϊέναι καὶ ἀλόγως , τὰς ἓξ ἁπάσας κινήσεις ἔχον : εἴς τε γὰρ τὸ πρόσθε καὶ ὄπισθεν καὶ πάλιν εἰς δεξιὰ καὶ ἀριστερὰ κάτω τε καὶ ἄνω καὶ πάντῃ κατὰ τοὺς ἓξ τόπους πλανώμενα προῄειν .

Atque is quidem , qui cuncta conposuit , constanter in suo manebat statu ; qui autem erant ab eo creati , cum parentis ordinem cognovissent , hunc sequebantur . Itaque cum accepissent inmortale principium mortalis animantis , imitantes genitorem et effectorem sui par- ticulas ignis et terrae et aquae et animae a mundo , quas rursus redderent , mutuabantur easque inter se copulabant haud isdem vinclis , quibus ipsi erant con- ligati , sed talibus , quae cerni non possent propter parvitatem , crebris quasi cuneolis inliquefactis unum efficiebant ex omnibus corpus atque in eo influente atque effluente animi divini ambitus inligabant . Ita- que illi in flumen inmersi neque tenebant neque tene- bantur , sed vi magna tum ferebant , tum ferebantur . Ita totum animal movebatur illud quidem , sed in- moderate et fortuito , ut sex motibus veheretur . Nam et ante et pone et ad laevam et ad dextram et sur- sum et deorsum , modo huc , modo illuc