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[46c] wherewith it coalesces; and this occurs whenever the smooth surface of the mirrors, being elevated on this side and on that,1 repels the right portion of the visual stream to the left and the left to the right. And when this same mirror is turned lengthwise to the face it makes the whole face appear upside down, since it repels the bottom of the ray to the top, and conversely the top to the bottom.

Now all these are among the auxiliary Causes2 which God employs as his ministers in perfecting, so far as possible,


1 i.e., concave (and hemi-cylindrical).

2 These causes are “secondary,” as contrasted with the “primary” or First Cause (which is also the “final Cause”), “the Good”; Cf. 29 E, 68 E,Phaedo99 B.

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925.

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