Cause Principle Unity

A general account of bonding
diversity, and the circumstances of such things. Then arrange in an order
and in an analogy all the particularities and the separate individuals in the
human species, then all of the individuals and all the species of the other
animals, and finally the species of all other things. You now have collected
before you in a convenient order the diversity of bonds.
15. The material diversity of things that can be bound. Although everything
that can be bound is composite in some way, still one thing can be said to
be simple and another many-sided or complex, and one thing can be more
simple while another has more parts. Consequently, some things are bound
purely and others impurely, and some bonds are pure while others are
impure. Thus some pleasures and pains are pure, some are impure, and
some are mixed. For example, Epicurus taught that the pleasures of Venus
are impure, because they are accompanied by pain and by an insatiable
desire (by which the whole body tries to transform itself into another whole
body), and this results in a sorrowful exhaustion. If there are things whose
principles never fail (perhaps the stars and the great living souls or gods of
the world, in whom there is no fatigue and in whom the influx and outflux
of substance is always exactly the same), then they would be bound by
themselves to each other in the most happy way.
Therefore, he who desires to bind in a socially effective way must take
into account the diverse composition or structure of things, and must consider,
evaluate and decide differently when dealing with heroes, or with
ordinary people, or with those who are more like brutes.
16. The degrees of things that can be bound. Children are less bound by their
natural feelings, because their nature is absorbed in growth and is disturbed
by great changes, and all their nutrition is given over to growth and
the structuring of the individual. But they clearly begin to be open to being
bound in the fourteenth year, for even though at that age they are still
involved in growth, their rate of growth is not as fast and as great as when
they were children. And in the stable period of adulthood, men have a
greater strength in their semen and, as a result, seem to be more subject to
being bound. Furthermore, adolescents and young men seem to be more
sexually excited for the reason that they are on fire for a long time because
of the novelty of this pleasure; because the passages through which the
semen passes are narrower, the wetness gushes forth with a more delightful
pleasure. And as a result of the sexual itch which arises from this pressure,
they are more delighted and liberated. But bonds are more difficult
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