Another group (Critias, for example) did hold it to be blood; they
take perception to be the most characteristic attribute of soul, and
hold that perceptiveness is due to the nature of blood.
Each of the elements has thus found its partisan, except earth-earth
has found no supporter unless we count as such those who have declared
soul to be, or to be compounded of, all the elements. All, then, it
may be said, characterize the soul by three marks, Movement,
Sensation, Incorporeality, and each of these is traced back to the
first principles. That is why (with one exception) all those who
define the soul by its power of knowing make it either an element or
constructed out of the elements. The language they all use is similar;
like, they say, is known by like; as the soul knows everything, they
construct it out of all the principles. Hence all those who admit
but one cause or element, make the soul also one (e.g. fire or air),
while those who admit a multiplicity of principles make the soul
also multiple. The exception is Anaxagoras; he alone says that mind is
impassible and has nothing in common with anything else. But, if
this is so, how or in virtue of what cause can it know? That
Anaxagoras has not explained, nor can any answer be inferred from
his words. All who acknowledge pairs of opposites among their
principles, construct the soul also out of these contraries, while
those who admit as principles only one contrary of each pair, e.
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