about tlie name things; ho that the opinion of Plato derives credibility from both. To which may be added, that the phenomena are sutlicient to persuade those that hare eyes. For it is evident, that if the lived stars were moved about the poles of the zodiac with a retrograde motion, the Hear which sets in these places, and which from the times of Homer, has been so often celebrated as always splendid in the same manner as it is now, ought to have been moved more than fifteen degrees, and not about the pole of the equinoctial. The star Canobus' also, ought m longer to appear making a short period, above the horizon, to those in the thin climate ;* but as Posydonius says, ought to be seen by those in Rhodes passing bv the horizon. Th« Hear however is alvvays resplendent, and Canobus preserves the same position. The motion of the lived st irs then fore in consequentia, which is so much celebrated bv these m« u, is not true. Hut if adducing the baneful mo¬ tions of the plant ts, and the calculations of nativities, in proof of this retrograde motion of the lived stars, they fancy they shall speak conformably to the pint 110 - mena, it must lx* said to them, that those also who are not of this opinion respet t- mg the motion of the lived stars, accord in a remarkable degree with the pheno¬ mena. And aKo th it in forming i anons respecting the motions of the planets, and in studying the doctrine of nativities, they are not at all in want of this hypo¬ thesis of the motion of the lived stars in consequents. But the men I particularly allude to, arc the ('iialdfianx, who had observation's vj a hide murulam periods. Why then-fore, should we adduce as a testimony, the records of a f» w ob-i nations, and views of a juvenile nature, which are not aeeomp.mn d with such great accuracy, when the very extendi d observations of the ( halih ails hear witness to the dogma of the ancients, concerning the motion of the lived stars** For those who do
* Caiiuliui or Canopus, is a most bright fixed star of the lir>t magnitude, m llu- helm of I tit ship Argo.
1 via. In Alexandria- For accenting l» I tie aiKients there arc seven climates, the firs! of which was called Mcroe; the second. Sync; t lie tliiril, Alexandria; I tie fourth, Rhodes; the fiflli, Rome, or the Hellespont; the sixth, the F.uxire »ea ; amt the sevenlli, the mouth of the Rons!tu nes. V id. 1‘liii. Hist. Nat I. (> c. 8
* In the original, n h iai rus t^i'^i^iipiui riji rwe iViiie^oiiii' vnijseia*, wtiuli is vers corrupt, ihere
tieing HO luctl word as ^vytfipiuk. 1 read therelore. Cl fe ioi rai run r\atwfjttuji ktt ijiTfil.
* The precession of ihe equinoxes is however admitted h\ Simplicius, who in the Cud liouk of Ins Commentary on Vristotle’s I realise on the Heavens, observes respi cling the molioii of I he iiicrralic spin re as follow > ;
" If llie inerralic sphere is really inerratie, and the ohservalion of Hipparchus and Ptolemy concern¬ ing il r is not •dimtnd, that II is moved one degree in a hundred years in a contrary direction, il lias In the case, it will be moved witii oue simple ntolioii, but the stars contained in it with two motions, vir. with their own ciicuioiulaiuiy motion, and the motion of the universe. But the placets will he moved
HooK iv.]
TIM .HI'S or PLATO.
• liis. are ignorant that it is possible to collect something true from false hypotheses, ami that it is not proper to think, that a conclusion which accords with the ph «•- noinena, is a sufficient proof of the truth of the hypotheses.
“ And from tins cause, such of the stars as are iuerralic were gcne- rate*l, bring divine animals ; and on tins account they always remain' revolving in same. Hut the stars which both revolve and have such a wan¬ dering, as wc have before mentioned, were produced conformably to these.”
The cause of the generation of the stars comprehends all the most proper principles of them, viz. the paradigmatic, the d< rniurgic, and the filial. For from all these, the .stars were generated such as they are, and with the motions which they possess. The inerratic sphere however, exhibits a uniform motion, and which always proceeds after the same manner. Hut their being called divine animals, indicates that intellect arid a dome soul are present with them, and prior to these, tlie one unity, according to which each is a God. For because each is an animal, it has a soul hv whit h it is moved ; hut because also, each is a divine animal, it is suspended from a divine intellect. For it i** not intellect which
with three motion*, n; with tlinr oh n proper motion, willitii.it nf 1 lit* spherr* wliicll contain them, ami witli tin* mol ion ■>! the iiinvror. Since however, lir add*. mv prrt cptor Ai iinmiiiis pi/ tin cele¬ brated Xmmmiius Hcnn;v.i», who wa* the di-nplr of Proilii',] observing the* stars through an astrolabe while I was present, in Mexamlria, foun-l llial the star Arelnrus, according to the epoch nl Plolcmv, hail been moved >n mm ti, as it was nreess irv it dumbl have lieen moved at Ihe rate ot one degree in a hundred years; it will lie more true to sav, that the sinless sphere wbu li rmiipiehcmls all the sphere*, and which was unknown hi the tune of Aristotle, bring loosed vsilh one simple nJolion Irom the east, convolves at the saini lime all the oilier spheres. Hut that vs hit h is called liv us the iuerr.ilii sphere, is moved with two motions, s 1 /. with the motion of ihe universe Irom the east, ami with its own innlion from I lie w« si ; ami all the stars m it are moved with these two motions, and w ilh their ow n rireumro. tatory motion In like n.aimer also, vsilh respect to the successive spheres, and the start in them, the former are moved with two, hut the latti r with three of the same motions."
I am however decidedly of lilt opinion of Proelus, that t lie records of a few o|i*rrvalioiis, an I views of a juvenile nature, are not to he adduced in opposition to the veiv extended observations of tin Chal¬ deans, wlmh embraced a whole mundane period, t. c a period of .inu.Ot 0 v.ar*. Xml what Prorlu* here asserts uf the Chaldeans, is also rontirmrd hv Cicero hi Ins lust book On Divination, who savs that lliry bad records of the stars tor the space of .>70,000 vears; ami by Diodorus Siculus llilrl. lib II p. I 18 who says that then observations comprehended the space of 17 * 1,000 yrars.
* I he test of I’rochi.s Ins erroneously in this place Linpei, instead of whuh, * apjsc us from the ( omm-ntnrv of rroclus, wc should rcatl tm/itm: though all the prinlcd editions ul"the Tiura-us have instead of this/inci.
[book IV.
makes it to be divine, since ti.ere are likewise angelical and da*raoniacal intellects ; but the divine intellect of the whole of this, differs from that w hich is not divine in this, that it is susjiended from deity, which causes it to Ik* a divine intellect. But revolution aktiiys remaining in same, exhibits a |K-r|x*tuity in the heavens, according to which the stars always occupy the same place of the heavens, being moved about their own centres, and also the possession of an evolved energy and an unceasing life. Such then fore as make the stars to be inanimate, or fancy that the* souls of the celestial bodies are mutable like ours, or that Re¬ generation of them is m time, wander from the meaning of Plato. For if a cer¬ tain animal is divine, it has a divine soul, and is not alone animated by the soul of the universe. For there is also in the Karth .1 divine animal, since Fartli is the oldest and most venerable* of the (Jods; and there* are likewise certain living things in it, which have entilei luias from the soul of the univ« r>e alone; but these are not animals. And farther still, because the stars always remain ill motion, they neither possessed a soul from a certain time, nor will at a certain time, lose it. For the term uluays, manifests temporal immutability, both according to the past and the future time. And thus 111111 h concerning the fixed stars
\\ ith respect to the planets however, Plato again reminds us, that they have » | various motions, but orderly, and according to measures and boundaries. For the simplicity of them comprehends multitude, order connects tin ir variety, and measure defines their wandering. What tin 11 does Plato now mean by reminding us of this, and what indication docs it afloid us’ Some therefore sav that it manifests this, that though the planets in a certain respect transcend the fixed stars, so far as they are allotted a ruling and cosuiocratoric dignity 1 in the universe, and as theologisls say an a/.onic authority ; for in eat h of the eosmocrutors there is an azonic* order of (iods: yet at the same time, they are inferior to them, through their wandering and the all-various diversity of their motions. And we also say that tin re is 110 absurdity in admitting, that the same thing may surpass and lie surpassed by tin* same things, according to different eouct ptiuns. But we should consider, whether Plato by speaking of the planets prior to the fixed stars, and delivering the order, motion, and powers of them, and also their periods, and [ apocatastases, and again, resuming the mention of them after the fixed stars,
* tor aniar lure, il is reipusite to rc. J a„<ar.
* The Okie Gods are those that form that order of divinities which is immediately situated above the tnunduHr Gods 'these Cods w ho are called a ionic by the Chaldean, are denominated lilt ratal by the Greek theologists. According to tin former likewise, Serapis, Bacchus, and the scries of Osiris, ami ot Apollo, arc azonic Gods
TIM .BUS OF PLATO.
does not do tins, because the discussion of them is secondary to that of the fixed t stars, through the variety of their motion.’ It is common therefore, both to the fixed stars and the planets, that all of them are divine animals. For this is r clearly asserted of both. And of the fixed stars indeed it is peculiarly asserted, that tliev are moved with a proper motion in the same, anil about the same things ; but of thi‘ planets, that proceeding through the heavens, they have revolu¬ tions; just as he now says, that they have a revolving motion. Hence he is evidently of opinion, that the planets become through themselves, more remote from, and nearer to the earth, ami that their revolutions according to breadth, are made by their own progressions, and not through being carried by other things, such as evolvents, or epicycles. That this likewise arises from the one nature of them, possessing both one, and a various motion, through which they advance and recede, being transformed in their revolutions, in a spiral and all¬ various manner. Hence the lation of them is triple; one being that by which together with licing moved about their centres, they are also moved according to breadth and depth; another through which they are convolved in a circle by their proper spheres, * to the left hand; and another, by which they are moved, through the lation of the circle of the same vanquishing that of all the circle of the dillerent. And thus much ronreming these particulars, which are specula¬ tions peculiar to the philosophy of Plato.