APPENDIX A 



Unmoved 

 Mover and 

 the ^opd of 



the First 

 Heaven. 



fixed, and also the planetary "heavens" together 

 with the planets themselves which they carry ; 

 Fire, Air, Water and Earth, whose natural movement 

 is rectilinear {e.ff.. Air moves naturally outwards 

 from the centre. Earth moves naturally towa,rds the 

 • centre ; hence they would if left to themselves <• 

 arrange themselves in concentric strata, with Fire 

 outermost, next to the innermost " heaven " ; after 

 that Air, then Water, and Earth at the centre). 

 These are the substances out of which all the Lower 

 Cosmos, the subhmary Avorld, is composed. 

 The (3) Met. A 1072 a, b. The ultimate source of all move- 

 ment is the Unmoved Mover, which is pure, self-thinking 

 thought, or God ; and since the " actuality " of thought 

 is life, we can say that ^wij Kai alutv awexv^ ko-I' oiibios 

 vndpxeiTO) dew. This " first principle " causes movement 

 without itself being in movement ; it is therein analogous 

 to objects of desire or of thought, which Kivel oi5 kivov- 

 ueva ^ ; in fact, it Kivel cos epcofievov (it causes movement 

 by being an object of love)."^ Upon this first principle 

 the Heaven and Nature depend. What it first sets in 

 movement is the irpcorov Kivovfievov, the prhnum mobile, 

 viz., the "first heaven " or outermost sphere ; and since 

 this movement is an unceasing movement, so the first 

 heaven will be at'Stoy. This movement, then, is one 

 and eternal ; it is simple <f)opd, simple uniform circular 

 movement. 

 Movement (4) All other things beside the Unmoved Mover which pro- 

 in the duce movement do so in virtue of being themselves 

 Cosmos^ in movement (/civoiJ/xeva rS-XXa Kivel). Thus the "first 



heaven " communicates movement to the inner 

 " heavens," the whole system of concentric spheres, 

 which are in contact with each other ; and the movements 

 of these, although still continuous and eternal, are no 

 longer uniform, because they are the resultants of more 

 revolutions than one."* 



« As in fact they are not (see § 12 ; cf. § 9). Nor, according to 

 Aristotle, are the elements occupying their "proper" places when 

 acting as the components of living bodies (Be caelo II. 288 b 17 ff.). 



b Cf. App. B § 1. 



' Cf. Dante, Paradiso, vers, ult., I' amor cfie move il sole e I' altre stelle. 



<i It is not necessary here to give details of the system of spheres as 

 worked out by Aristotle, based on the mathematical theories of Eudoxus 

 and Callippus. 



568 



