29 



certain cause and nature which perpetually adapts 

 the parts of the world to each other, and never 

 suffers them to be disorderly and without connec- 

 tion. Cities, however, and families, continue only 

 for a short time ; the progeny of which, and the 

 mortal nature of the matter of which they consist, 

 contain in themselves the cause of dissolution; for 

 they derive their subsistence from a mutable and 

 perpetually passive nature. For the destruction * 

 of things which are generated, is the salvation of 

 the matter from which they are generated. That 

 nature, however, which is perpetually moved f 

 governs, but that which is always passive J is 

 governed ; and the one is in capacity prior, but 

 the other posterior. The one also is divine, and 

 possesses reason and intellect, but the other is 

 generated, and is irrational and mutable. 



* In the original, airoytviffH ; but the true reading is doubtless 

 etfuXsiet, and Vizzanus has in his version interitus. What is here 

 said by Ocellus is in perfect conformity with the following beau- 

 tiful lines of our admirable philosophic poet, Pope, in his Essay 

 on Man: 



" All forms that perish other forms supply ; 

 By turns they catch the vital breath and die ; 

 Like bubbles on the sea of matter born, 

 They rise, they break, and to that sea return." 



f i. e. The celestial region. 

 \ i. e. The sublunary region. 



