65 



comprehends the period of every divinely generated nature *, 

 since it is more partial, and is apocatastatic of the eight 

 periods alone. For the other perfect number comprehends 

 the peculiar motions of the fixed stars, and, in short, of all 

 the divine genera that are moved in the heavens, whether 

 visibly or invisibly, and also of the celestial genera posterior 

 to the Gods, and of the longer or shorter periods of sublu- 

 nary natures, together with the periods of fertility and 

 sterility. Hence, likewise, it is the lord of the period of the 

 human race/' 



" The year (says Macrobius) which is called mundane, 

 is truly revolving, because it is effected by a full convolution 

 of the universe, and is evolved in the most extended periods 

 of time, the reason of which is as follows : All the planets 

 and the stars which are seen fixed in the heavens, the pecu- 

 liar motion of the latter of which though the human sight 

 has never been able to perceive or apprehend, are yet moved, 

 and, besides the revolution of the heavens by which they are 

 always drawn along, have an advancing motion of their 

 own. This motion, however, is completed in such a length 

 of time, that the life of man is not sufficiently extended to 

 discover, by continual observation, their mutation to the place 

 in which they were first seen. The end, therefore, of the 

 mundane year is, when all the planets and all the fixed 

 stars have returned from a certain place to the same place, 

 so that no star in the heavens may be situated in a place 

 different from that in which it was before, since all the other 

 stars, when moved from that place to which they return, 

 give a termination to their year; so that the luminaries 



* See my explanation of this perfect, which is also called the 

 geometric number, in p. 150 of my Theoretic Arithmetic. 



