GO FABLE OF CUPID. 



less heated : that the body of the stars is more intensely 

 hot, the interstellary space less so: and, moreover, that 

 some stars are more endued with heat than others, and are 

 of a more vivid and darting kind of fire ; yet so as that the 

 contrary nature of cold, or any degree of it, never pene 

 trates thither; for that the body of the stars receive a 

 diversity, but not a contrariety of nature : and that no judg 

 ment can be formed from common fire of the heat or tire of 

 the heavenly bodies, which is pure, and in its natural state ; 

 that our tire is indeed remote from its own natural place, 

 tremulous, surrounded with contrary influences, of a low 

 nature, requiring, as it were, nourishment for its very ex 

 istence, and wandering about, but that being placed in the 

 heavens, disjoined from the impetus of any contrary force, 

 it kept its own place, was preserved out of its own power, 

 and out of that of similar influences, and preserved its own 

 proper course of action in freedom and unmolested. Also 

 that the whole heaven was full of light, though not in the 

 same proportion throughout. For since of the stars that 

 are known and can be reckoned up, some which can only 

 be seen when the heavens are unclouded, and since there 

 are in the galaxy clusters of little stars which by their 

 union give forth a white appearance but do not seem dis 

 tinct bodies of light, none can doubt that there are very 

 many stars invisible to us, and that so the whole of the 

 heaven is one body endowed with light, though not with 

 light so strong and darting, nor with rays so deep and con 

 densed as to pass beyond such vast distances, and to reach 

 our sight. And he held that the whole heaven was of a 

 thin and subtle substance, and that there was nothing in 

 it that was crowded together, nothing forcedly compact, 

 but that in this region matter was more expanded, in that 

 less. Lastly, that the motion of the heaven was such as 

 most suited a moveable body, conversive or rotatory, for 

 the circular motion is without a bound, and that for its 

 own sake, as it were, this motion is in a right line, to a 

 limit, and to some object, and as if for the purpose of at 

 taining rest. That, therefore, the whole heaven was borne 

 along by a circular motion, and that no part of it was 

 without this motion, but that, nevertheless, as in the heat, 

 light, and subtlety of the heavenly nature there exists 

 inequality, so it is also seen in the motion of the heavens, 

 and the more clearly since it admits more of human obser 

 vation, and can even be measured. 



But that orbicular motion can differ both in its speed and 



