Our argument, however, has wandered far from its purpose, going deep into the works of nature, and endeavouring to describe how and from what materials our particular organs are formed, those, I mean, intended for life and for good life, and any other class which we included with these in our first division. For our purpose was to show that the seminal cause of our constitution is neither a soul without body, nor a body without soul, but that, from animated and living bodies, it is generated at the first as a living and animate being, and that our humanity takes it and cherishes it like a nursling with the resources she herself possesses, and it thus grows on both sides and makes its growth manifest correspondingly in either part:-for it at once displays, by this artificial and scientific process of formation, the power of soul that is interwoven in it, appearing at first somewhat obscurely, but afterwards increasing in radiance concurrently with the perfecting of the work. And as we may see with stone-carvers-for the artist's purpose is to produce in stone the figure of some animal; and with this in his mind, he first severs the stone from its kindred matter, and then, by chipping away the superfluous parts of it, advances somehow by the intermediate step of his first outline to the imitation which he has in his purpose, so that even an unskilled observer may, by what he sees, conjecture the aim of his art; again, by working at it, he brings it more nearly to the semblance of the object he has in view; lastly, producing in the material the perfect and finished figure, he brings his art to its conclusion, and that which a little before was a shapeless stone is a lion, or a man, or whatsoever it may be that the artist has made, not by the change of the material into the figure, but by the figure being wrought upon the material. If one supposes the like in the case of the soul he is not far from probability; for we say that Nature, the all-contriving, takes from its kindred matter the part that comes from the man, and moulds her statue within herself.

 Ἀλλὰ πολὺ τῶν προκειμένων ὁ λόγος ἡμῖν ἀποπεπλάνηται͵ τοῖς ἔργοις ἐμβαθύνων τῆς φύσεως καὶ ὑπογράφειν ἐπιχειρῶν͵ ὅπως ἡμῖν καὶ ἐξ ὁποίων συνέστηκε τὰ καθέκαστον͵ τά τε πρὸς τὸ ζῇν καὶ τὰ πρὸς τὸ εὖ ζῇν καὶ εἴ τι μετὰ τούτων ἕτερον κατὰ τὴν πρώτην διαίρεσιν ἐνοήσαμεν. Τὸ γὰρ προκείμενον ἦν δεῖξαι τὴν σπερματικὴν τῆς συστάσεως ἡμῶν αἰτίαν͵ μήτε ἀσώματον εἶναι ψυχὴν͵ μήτε ἄψυχον σῶμα͵ ἀλλ' ἐξ ἐμψύχων τε καὶ ζώντων σωμάτων ζῶν καὶ ἔμψυχον παρὰ τὴν πρώτην ἀπογεννᾶσθαι ζῶον, ἐκδεξαμένην δὲ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην φύσιν͵ καθάπερ τινὰ τροφὸν ταῖς οἰκείαις δυνάμεσιν αὐτὴν τιθηνήσασθαι, τὴν δὲ τρέφεσθαι κατ' ἀμφότερα καὶ καταλλήλως ἐν ἑκατέρῳ μέρει τὴν αὔξησιν ἐπίδηλον ἔχειν. Εὐθὺς μὲν γὰρ διὰ τῆς τεχνικῆς ταύτης καὶ ἐπιστημονικῆς διαπλάσεως τὴν συμπεπλεγμένην αὐτῇ τῆς ψυχῆς ἐνδείκνυται δύναμιν͵ ἀμυδρότερον μὲν κατὰ τὴν πρώτην ἐκφαινομένην͵ καθεξῆς δὲ τῇ τοῦ ὀργάνου τελειώσει συναναλάμπουσαν. Οἷον δὲ ἐπὶ τῶν λιθογλύφων ἔστιν ἰδεῖν. Πρόκειται μὲν γὰρ τῷ τεχνίτῃ ζώου τινὸς εἶδος ἐν λίθῳ δεῖξαι, τοῦτο δὲ προθέμενος͵ πρῶτον μὲν τὸν λίθον τῆς συμφυοῦς ὕλης ἀπέῤῥηξεν, εἶτα περικόψας αὐτοῦ τὰ περιττά͵ προήγαγέ πως διὰ τοῦ πρώτου σχήματος τῇ μιμήσει τῇ κατὰ πρόθεσιν͵ ὥστε καὶ τὸν ἄπειρον διὰ τῶν φαινομένων τοῦ σκοποῦ τῆς τέχνης καταστοχάσασθαι. Πάλιν ἐπεργασάμενος͵ προσήγγισε πλέον τῇ ὁμοιότητι τοῦ σπουδαζομένου. Εἶτα τὸ τέλειον καὶ ἀκριβὲς εἶδος ἐγχειρουργήσας τῇ ὕλῃ͵ εἰς πέρας τὴν τέχνην προήγαγε· καὶ ἔστι λέων ἢ ὅ,τι ἂν τύχῃ παρὰ τοῦ τεχνίτου γενόμενον͵ ὁ πρὸ βραχέος ἄσημος λίθος, οὐ τῆς ὕλης πρὸς τὸ εἶδος ὑπαμειφθείσης͵ ἀλλὰ τοῦ εἴδους ἐπιτεχνηθέντος τῇ ὕλῃ. Τοιοῦτόν τι καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς ψυχῆς ὁ λογισάμενος͵ τοῦ εἰκότος οὐχ ἁμαρτήσεται. Τὴν γὰρ πάντα τεχνιτεύουσαν φύσιν ἐκ τῆς ὁμογενοῦς ὕλης λαβοῦσαν ἐν ἑαυτῇ τὸ ἐκ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου μέρος͵ δημιουργεῖν ἀνδριάντα φαμέν.