Ocellus Lucanus: On the Nature of the Universe. Taurus, the Platonic Philosoher, On the Eternity of the World. Julius Firmicus Maternus Of the Thema Mundi; in which the Positions of the Stars at the Commencement of the Several Mundane Periods is Given. Select Theorems on the Perpetuity of Time, by Proelus |
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according to nature Ægyptus ancient animals Archytas Aristotle Asclepius assert beginning celestial circle circular motion cities Commentary comprehends conformably conjoined conjunction consists contrary powers corrupted dæmons deluge Demiurgus Diogenes Laertius dissolved divine dryness in earth Egypt elements epistle of Plato essence exist facility of motion feminine sign finite Firmicus fixed stars fore gene geniture Gods governed greater apocatastasis heat heavens Hence Hermes Trismegistus human race incorruptible infinite intellectual JULIUS FIRMICUS MATERNUS Jupiter likewise Manetho masculine sign matter Mercury moist moisture in air Moon mundane period mutation naturally moved observes obtuseness OCELLUS LUCANUS opinion Osiris Petosiris philosopher planets Proclus Pythagoras quæ requisite revolutions right line Saturn says simple body simple motion sphere sublunary supervenient Synesius Syrianus take place Taurus THEOREM things moved third age Timæus of Plato tion translation treatise Typhos universe whole world is unbegotten Youg δε μεν τοις
Popular passages
Page 29 - See dying vegetables life sustain, See life dissolving vegetate again : All forms that perish other forms supply, (By turns we catch the vital breath, and die) Like bubbles on the sea of matter born, They rise, they break, and to that sea return.
Page 79 - The different periods in which these mutations happen are called by Plato, with great propriety, periods of fertility and sterility; for in these periods a fertility or sterility of men, irrational animals, and plants takes place; so that in fertile periods mankind will be both more numerous, and upon the whole superior in mental and bodily endowments, to the men of a barren period. And a similar reasoning must be extended to animals and plants. The so much celebrated heroic age was the result of...
Page 82 - They say that a conjunction of planets then took place, and their tables show this conjunction. Bailly states that Jupiter and Mercury were then in the same degree of the ecliptic, Mars at a distance of only eight, and Saturn of seven degrees ; whence it follows that at the point of time given by the Brahmins as the commencement of...
Page 79 - ... according to, and sometimes contrary to nature. Hence the celestial bodies, which are the first parts of the universe, perpetually subsist according to nature, both the whole spheres, and the multitude co-ordinate to these wholes*; and the only alteration which they experience is a mutation of figure, and variation of light at different periods : but in the sublunary region, while the spheres of...
Page 50 - Necepso (a), who deserve all possible admiration, and whose wisdom approached to the very penetralia of Deity, scientifically delivered to us the geniture of the world, that they might demonstrate and show that man was fashioned conformably to the nature and similitude of the world...
Page 75 - These events and such an old age of the world as this shall take place, such irreligion, inordination, and unreasonableness of all good. When all these things shall happen, O Asclepius, then that lord and father, the God who is first in power, and the one governor of the world, looking into the manners and voluntary deeds [of men,] and by his will, which is the benignity of God, resisting vices, and recalling the error arising from the corruption of all things; washing away likewise all malignity...
Page 72 - ... foreknow all things, it is not lawful that you should be ignorant that the time will come when it may seem that the Egyptians have in vain, with a pious mind and sedulous religion, paid attention to divinity, and all their holy veneration shall become void and of no effect. For divinity shall return back to heaven.
Page 35 - ... see, that of homogeneous natures, those which are most distant have the nature of contraries, and not those which are less distant. How likewise did nature arrange them, since they are most remote in their situation from each other ? Was it not by perceiving their contrariety, and that the third was more allied than the last to the first? How, also, did she arrange the motions of them, since fire is most light and tends upward, but earth is most heavy and tends downward ? But whence were the...
Page 39 - ... representing this beautiful distribution of the elements, by Proclus, arithmetically. Let the number 60 represent fire, and 480 earth; and the media between these, viz. 120 and 240, will correspond to air and water. For, as 60 : 120 :: 240 : 480. But 60 = 3 X 5 X 4, 120 = 3 X 10 X 4, 240 = 6 X 10 X 4, and 480 = 6 X 10 X 8. So that these numbers will correspond to the properties of the elements as follows: Fire. Air. 3X5X4 3X10X4:: Subtle, acute, moveable. Subtle, blunt, moveable. Water. Earth....
Page 37 - But this is in order that each of the elements may have two powers, each * of which is common to the element placed next to it, and one power which is different, in the same manner as it was demonstrated in mathematical numbers and figures; this different power being assumed from one of the extremes; and also in order that earth, according to all the powers, may subsist oppositely to fire; and that the extremes may have two media, and the continued quantities two; the latter having solids for the...