Pagina 562 van 1391

Neither is he capable of seeing that analogies, though specious

as arguments, may often have no foundation in fact, or of

distinguishing between what is intelligible or vividly present to

the mind, and what is true. In this respect he is far below

Aristotle, who is comparatively seldom imposed upon by false

analogies. He cannot disentangle the arts from the virtues-at

least he is always arguing from one to the other. His notion of

music is transferred from harmony of sounds to harmony of life:

in this he is assisted by the ambiguities of language as well as

by the prevalence of Pythagorean notions. And having once

assimilated the state to the individual, he imagines that he will

find the succession of states paralleled in the lives of

individuals.