MUNDI THEMA, 



OR 



THE GENITURE OF THE WORLD. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE THIRD BOOK OF THE MATHESIS 

 OF JULIUS FIRMICUS MATERNUS. 



" O LOLLIANUS, the glory and ornament of our 

 country, it is requisite to know, in the first place, 

 that the God, who is the fabricator of man, 

 produced his form, his condition, and his whole 

 essence, in the image and similitude of the world, 

 nature pointing out the way *. For he composed 

 the body of man, as well as of the world, from the 

 mixture of the four elements, viz. of fire, water, 

 air, and earth, in order that the conjunction of all 

 these, when they were mingled in due proportion, 



* Nature may be said to point out the way, because its fore- 

 running energy is employed by Divinity in the formation of 

 bodies. By the fabricator, in the above sentence, Firmicus means 

 Jupiter, who is called the Demiurgus by Plato, in the Timaetis. 



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