372 FALLACIES. 



quicker or slower ; but in the incorruptible nature of the stars, 

 it is not possible that any cause can be alleged of quickness or 

 slowness." It is seeking an argument of analogy very far, to 

 suppose that the stars must observe the rules of decorum 

 in gait and carriage, prescribed for themselves by the long- 

 bearded philosophers satirized by Lucian. 



As late as the Copernican controversy it was urged as an 

 argument in favour of the true theory of the solar system, that 

 it placed the fire, the noblest element, in the centre of the 

 universe. This was a remnant of the notion that the order 

 of nature must be perfect, and that perfection consisted in 

 conformity to rules of precedency in dignity, either real or 

 conventional. Again, reverting to numbers : certain numbers 

 were perfect, therefore those numbers must obtain in the great 

 phenomena of nature. Six was a perfect number, that is, 

 equal to the sum of all its factors ; an additional reason why 

 there must be exactly six planets. The Pythagoreans, on the 

 other hand, attributed perfection to the number ten ; but 

 agreed in thinking that the perfect number must be somehow 

 realized in the heavens ; and knowing only of nine heavenly 

 bodies, to make up the enumeration, they asserted " that there 

 was an antichthon or counter-earth, on the other side of the 

 sun, invisible to us."* Even Huygens was persuaded that 

 when the number of the heavenly bodies had reached twelve, 

 it could not admit of any further increase. Creative power 

 could not go beyond that sacred number. 



Some curious instances of false analogy are to be found 

 in the arguments of the Stoics to prove the equality of all 

 crimes, and the equal wretchedness of all who had not 

 realized their idea of perfect virtue. Cicero, towards the end 

 of his Fourth Book De Finibus, states some of these as 

 follows. "Ut, inquit, in fidibus plurimis, si nulla earum 

 ita contenta numeris sit, ut concentum servare possit, omnes 

 seque incontent sunt ; sic peccata, quia discrepant, a?que dis- 

 crepant ; paria sunt igitur." To which Cicero himself aptly 

 answers, " seque contingit omnibus fidibus, ut incontent sint; 



* Hist. Ind. Sc. i. 52. 



