The Music of the Spheres 87 



weaving in and out on the starry floor. But as I 

 said, that is a pagan interpolation by Cicero of the 

 true doctrine. The celibate popes and monks would 

 have none of it. St. Thomas Aquinas improved 

 upon Cicero, without wholly rejecting his ideas, by 

 turning the music over to St. Cecilia, by whom it 

 was rendered more decorous and appropriate. St. 

 Cecilia was a decided improvement upon the sirens 

 of Cicero, though not so poetical nor so good- 

 looking. 



[Inasmuch as this treatise on the music of the 

 spheres was written in the woods, and away from 

 my books, it is proper, with the authorities of my 

 library at hand, that I should make some correc- 

 tions, and also further fortify my position. I find 

 that Cicero did not originate the siren theory. 

 Plato sets it forth (Republic, x. 14), but he quotes 

 it, with his indorsement, from some still more 

 ancient authority, some philosophic school which 

 existed before his time (450 B. C). It is greatly 

 to the credit of Plato's fidelity to ancient tradition 

 that he did not give up the sirens, even though 

 Xantippe pitched hot water on him and his master 

 as he sat at the feet of Socrates. Any less resolute 

 philosopher than Plato would have taken revenge 

 on Xantippe by taking the sirens out of the ranks 

 of her sex, and making satyrs of them. So much 

 by way of correction. Now, a word to the modern 

 astronomers and philosophers, who have abandoned 

 the old paths, and are teaching the strange doc- 



