50 



might adorn an animal in the form of a divine 

 imitation. And thus the Demiurgus exhibited 

 man by the artifice of a divine fabrication, in such 

 a way, that in a small body he might bestow the 

 power and essence of all the elements, nature, for 

 this purpose, bringing them together; and also, so 

 that from the divine spirit, which descended from 

 a celestial intellect, to the support of the mortal 

 body, he might prepare an abode for man, which, 

 though fragile, might be similar to the world. On 

 this account, the five stars*, and also the sun and 

 moon, sustain man by a fiery and eternal agita- 

 tion, as if he were a minor world f ; so that the 

 animal which was made in imitation of the world 

 might be governed by an essence similarly divine. 

 Hence those divine men Petosiris and Necepso ( a ), 

 who deserve all possible admiration, and whose 

 wisdom approached to the very penetralia of Deity, 

 scientifically delivered to us the geniture of the 

 world, that they might demonstrate and show that 

 man was fashioned conformably to the nature and 

 similitude of the world, and that he is under the 

 dominion of the same principles by which the 

 world itself is governed and contained, and is 



* i.'e. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, 

 f Quid mirum noscere mundum 



Si possent homines, quibus est et mundus in ipsis ; 



Exemplumque Dei quisque est in imagine parva ? 



MANIUUS. 



