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planet the Moon was conjoined in the second 

 place, in order that pristine and squalid rusticity 

 being deserted, and the ferocity of rude association 

 being laid aside, human life might be cultivated 

 through the purification of the manners. In the 

 third place, the Moon conjoining herself with 

 Mars, delivered to him the power of periodical 

 revolution ; so that mortality having entered into 

 the right path of life, and inhumanity being sub- 

 dued by a certain moderation, all the ornaments 

 of arts and fabrications might originate from this 

 conjunction. After Mars, Venus received pre- 

 dominating power, in order that, human disci- 

 plines gradually increasing, prudence and wisdom 

 might adorn mankind. Hence they were of opi- 

 nion that this time, in which the manners of men 

 were cultivated by learning, and naturally formed 

 to rectitude by the several disciplines, was under 

 the dominion of Venus ; so that being protected by 

 the majesty of this joyful and salutary divinity, 

 they might govern their erroneous actions by the 

 ruling power of Providence. But [these divine 

 men] conceived the last period to be under the 

 dominion of Mercury, to whom the Moon in the 

 last place conjoins herself. What can be found 

 more subtle than this arrangement? For mankind 

 being purified from rude and savage pursuits, arts 

 also having been invented, and disciplines dis- 



