For instance (for it is better to make our argument clear by illustration) let us suppose that we are making some inquiry into the property of tastes-what is sweet to the sense, and what is to be avoided by tasters. We find, then, by experience, both the bitterness of gall and the pleasant character of the quality of honey; but when these facts are known, the knowledge is one which is given to us (the same thing being introduced to our understanding in several ways) by taste, smell, hearing, and often by touch and sight. For when one sees honey, and hears its name, and receives it by taste, and recognizes its odour by smell, and tests it by touch, he recognizes the same thing by means of each of his senses.

On the other hand we get varied and multiform information by some one sense, for as hearing receives all sorts of sounds, and our visual perception exercises its operation by beholding things of different kinds-for it lights alike on black and white, and all things that are distinguished by contrariety of colour,-so with taste, with smell, with perception by touch; each implants in us by means of its own perceptive power the knowledge of things of every kind.

οἷον (κρεῖττον γὰρ ἐν ὑποδείγματι διασαφηνίσαι τὸν λόγον)͵ προκείσθω ζητεῖσθαί τι περὶ χυμῶν ἰδιότητος͵ τί μὲν ἡδὺ πρὸς τὴν αἴσθησιν͵ τί δὲ φευκτὸν τοῖς γευομένοις ἐστίν. Οὐκοῦν εὑρέθη διὰ τῆς πείρας ἤ τε τῆς χολῆς πικρότης καὶ τὸ προσηνὲς τῆς κατὰ τὸ μέλι ποιότητος. Διαφόρων δὲ ὄντων τούτων͵ μίαν εἰσάγει γνῶσιν τὸ αὐτὸ πρᾶγμα͵ πολυμερῶς τῇ διανοίᾳ εἰσοικιζόμενον, ἢ γεύσει ἢ ὀσφρήσει ἢ ἀκοῇ͵ πολλάκις δὲ καὶ τῇ ἀφῇ καὶ τῇ ὄψει. Καὶ γὰρ ἰδών τις τὸ μέλι͵ καὶ τοῦ ὀνόματος ἀκούσας καὶ τῇ γεύσει λαβὼν καὶ τὸν ἀτμὸν διὰ τῆς ὀσφρήσεως ἐπιγνοὺς καὶ τῇ ἀφῇ δοκιμάσας τὸ αὐτὸ πρᾶγμα δι' ἑκάστου τῶν αἰσθητηρίων ἐγνώρισε.

Ποικίλα δὲ πάλιν καὶ πολυειδῆ διὰ μιᾶς τινος αἰσθήσεως διδασκόμεθα· τῆς τε ἀκοῆς παντοίας δεχομένης φωνάς͵ τῆς τε διὰ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἀντιλήψεως ἀδιάκριτον ἐχούσης τὴν ἐνέργειαν ἐπὶ τῆς τῶν ἑτερογενῶν θεωρίας. Ὁμοίως γὰρ λευκῷ τε προσπίπτει καὶ μέλανι καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς κατὰ τὸ ἐναντίον διεστῶσι τῷ χρώματι. Οὕτως ἡ γεῦσις͵ οὕτως ἡ ὄσφρησις͵ οὕτως ἡ διὰ τῆς ἁφῆς κατανόησις͵ παντοδαπῶν πραγμάτων ἑκάστη διὰ τῆς οἰκείας ἀντιλήψεως τὴν γνῶσιν ἐντίθησιν.