the hearing of pleasing words and pleasing sounds. Together, they are more powerful than either alone: for example, hearing words that delight the listener without melodic sounds, as when someone speaks intimately in his own idiom or speaks aloud at close quarters; or hearing pleasing sounds without words, such as the delightful sounds of birds, the sounds of instruments fashioned from wood and strings, the flute, or a melody sung by a human voice without words, and the like. When the two combine, however, their effect is stronger: they exert a profound influence upon souls, like that of wine or even greater.

Section

With this established, know that pleasure and joy are sought after; indeed, they are the aim of every living being. Their being sought and intended is a necessary consequence of a living being’s existence. Among purposes and ends, they occupy the same position that sensation and self-evident knowledge occupy among principles and premises.

For a human being—indeed, every living being—has knowledge and sensation, as well as action and will. Its knowledge cannot all be theoretical and inferential, dependent upon proof. Rather, it must possess primary, self-evident knowledge, for if all knowledge depended