Such was the whole plan of the eternal God about the god that
was to be, to whom for this reason he gave a body, smooth and
even, having a surface in every direction equidistant from the
centre, a body entire and perfect, and formed out of perfect
bodies. And in the centre he put the soul, which he diffused
throughout the body, making it also to be the exterior
environment of it; and he made the universe a circle moving in a
circle, one and solitary, yet by reason of its excellence able to
converse with itself, and needing no other friendship or
acquaintance. Having these purposes in view he created the world
a blessed god.
Now God did not make the soul after the body, although we are
speaking of them in this order; for having brought them together
he would never have allowed that the elder should be ruled by the
younger; but this is a random manner of speaking which we have,
because somehow we ourselves too are very much under the dominion
of chance. Whereas he made the soul in origin and excellence
prior to and older than the body, to be the ruler and mistress,
of whom the body was to be the subject. And he made her out of
the following elements and on this wise: Out of the indivisible
and unchangeable, and also out of that which is divisible and has
to do with material bodies, he compounded a third and
intermediate kind of essence, partaking of the nature of the same
and of the other, and this compound he placed accordingly in a
mean between the indivisible, and the divisible and material. He
took the three elements of the same, the other, and the essence,
and mingled them into one form, compressing by force the
reluctant and unsociable nature of the other into the same. When
he had mingled them with the essence and out of three made one,
he again divided this whole into as many portions as was fitting,
each portion being a compound of the same, the other, and the
essence. And he proceeded to divide after this manner:-First of
all, he took away one part of the whole [1], and then he
separated a second part which was double the first [2], and then
he took away a third part which was half as much again as the
second and three times as much as the first [3], and then he took
a fourth part which was twice as much as the second [4], and a
fifth part which was three times the third [9], and a sixth part
which was eight times the first [8], and a seventh part which was
twenty-seven times the first [27]. After this he filled up the
double intervals [i.e. between 1, 2, 4, 8] and the triple [i.e.
between 1, 3, 9, 27] cutting off yet other portions from the
mixture and placing them in the intervals, so that in each
interval there were two kinds of means, the one exceeding and
exceeded by equal parts of its extremes [as for example 1, 4/3, 2,
in which the mean 4/3 is one-third of 1 more than 1, and one-third
of 2 less than 2], the other being that kind of mean which
exceeds and is exceeded by an equal number. Where there were
intervals of 3/2 and of 4/3 and of 9/8, made by the connecting
terms in the former intervals, he filled up all the intervals of
4/3 with the interval of 9/8, leaving a fraction over; and the
interval which this fraction expressed was in the ratio of 256 to
243. And thus the whole mixture out of which he cut these
portions was all exhausted by him. This entire compound he
divided lengthways into two parts, which he joined to one another
at the centre like the letter X, and bent them into a circular
form, connecting them with themselves and each other at the point
opposite to their original meeting-point; and, comprehending them
in a uniform revolution upon the same axis, he made the one the
outer and the other the inner circle. Now the motion of the outer
circle he called the motion of the same, and the motion of the
inner circle the motion of the other or diverse. The motion of
the same he carried round by the side to the right, and the
motion of the diverse diagonally to the left. And he gave
dominion to the motion of the same and like, for that he left
single and undivided; but the inner motion he divided in six
places and made seven unequal circles having their intervals in
ratios of two-and three, three of each, and bade the orbits
proceed in a direction opposite to one another; and three [Sun,
Mercury, Venus] he made to move with equal swiftness, and the
remaining four [Moon, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter] to move with unequal
swiftness to the three and to one another, but in due proportion.
Now when the Creator had framed the soul according to his
will, he formed within her the corporeal universe, and brought
the two together, and united them centre to centre. The soul,
interfused everywhere from the centre to the circumference of
heaven, of which also she is the external envelopment, herself
turning in herself, began a divine beginning of never ceasing and
rational life enduring throughout all time. The body of heaven is
visible, but the soul is invisible, and partakes of reason and
harmony, and being made by the best of intellectual and
everlasting natures, is the best of things created. And because
she is composed of the same and of the other and of the essence,
these three, and is divided and united in due proportion, and in
her revolutions returns upon herself, the soul, when touching
anything which has essence, whether dispersed in parts or
undivided, is stirred through all her powers, to declare the
sameness or difference of that thing and some other; and to what
individuals are related, and by what affected, and in what way
and how and when, both in the world of generation and in the
world of immutable being. And when reason, which works with equal
truth, whether she be in the circle of the diverse or of the same-in
voiceless silence holding her onward course in the sphere of the
self-moved-when reason, I say, is hovering around the sensible
world and when the circle of the diverse also moving truly
imparts the intimations of sense to the whole soul, then arise
opinions and beliefs sure and certain. But when reason is
concerned with the rational, and the circle of the same moving
smoothly declares it, then intelligence and knowledge are
necessarily perfected. And if any one affirms that in which these
two are found to be other than the soul, he will say the very
opposite of the truth.
When the father creator saw the creature which he had made
moving and living, the created image of the eternal gods, he
rejoiced, and in his joy determined to make the copy still more
like the original; and as this was eternal, he sought to make the
universe eternal, so far as might be. Now the nature of the ideal
being was everlasting, but to bestow this attribute in its
fulness upon a creature was impossible. Wherefore he resolved to
have a moving image of eternity, and when he set in order the
heaven, he made this image eternal but moving according to
number, while eternity itself rests in unity; and this image we
call time.
