38 ANTI EN T METAPHYSICS. Book I. 



this refped, we have a notable example in the grandeft motions 

 which we obferve in this univcrfe ; and that is the motions of the 

 planets round the fun. Now the times of the motions of thefe fc- 

 veral planets, compared with one another, are as the cubes of their 

 diftances from the fun, the center of their motions; which is a dif- 

 covery, made by our modern aftronomers, of what was unknown to 

 the antients. And there is another difcovery made likewife by a 

 modern philofopher, Galilaeo, concerning a motion univerfal in this 

 our earth ; I mean the motion of fiiliing bodies, by which they are 

 carried towards the centre of our earth, with a certain acceleration of 

 the motion by the continuance of it, (that is, by its approaching near- 

 er to the centre,) which is in the ratio of the times to the fquares of 

 the fpaces pafled through. 



Thus it appears to be true, what the Pythagoreans faid, that the 

 univerfe was formed by Numbers; and, indeed, if it had not been 

 fo formed, it could not have been a fyftem; for there can be no 

 fyftem, neither in the works of nature,, nor in the works of men,, 

 without numbers. 



There is one ufe made of numbers in an art, and a very great art, 

 and the fineft of all the fine arts, viz. mufic, which appears to be 

 very extraordinary, 1 mean the application of numbers to the tones 

 of the human voice, or of an inftrument of mufic; for it is the dif- 

 ferent ratios of notes to one another, which compofe the gamut. 



CHAP, 



