86 Musings by Camp-Fire and Wayside 



2,000,000. After Pythagoras and Timseus, the 

 next most distinguished name is that of Plato. 

 The crystalline spheres, each separated from but 

 inclosed by and inclosing others, are by their very 

 nature resonant. Anybody can test this fact for 

 himself by listening to the boom which sounds after 

 a crash of thunder. That is caused by the jar 

 which the thunder gives to the moon-firmament. 

 It sounds precisely as a great bell does when set to 

 vibrating. The greatest name in support of the 

 music of the celestial spheres is Aristotle, not to 

 mention Democritus, Lucretius, and others. Fol- 

 lowing Aristotle, all the theologians of the Christian 

 church taught it, and a man who should deny it 

 would be a heretic to be abhorred, as he ought to 

 be. Such a man hath no music in his soul, and a 

 priori^ according to Shakespeare, is fit for treason, 

 stratagems, and spoils. In such a case there is no 

 use in waiting for the overt act, but much harm. 

 By burning him we save, first, the damage to others 

 by the overt act, and second, we save the man him- 

 self from actual commission of deadly sin. 



The spheres, being in constant and harmonious 

 motion, give off the music. I spoke of the sirens. 

 That was the notion of Cicero. It is not orthodox. 

 Cicero was a festive sort of a philosopher, with a 

 predilection for sirens. He said they were infatu- 

 ated of their own divine voices and songs, and 

 danced to the music on the polished surfaces of the 

 spheres, waving their white arms in the ether, and 



