uld be no such thing as
Time unless there is a soul, for time being the number of motion, number
is impossible except there be one who numbers; that, perpetual motion in
a finite right line being impossible, but in a curvilinear path
possible, the world, which is limited and ever in motion, must be of a
spherical form; that the earth is its central part, the heavens the
circumferential: hence the heaven is nearest to the prime cause of
motion; that the orderly, continuous, and unceasing movement of the
celestial bodies implies an unmoved mover, for the unchangeable alone
can give birth to uniform motion; that unmoved existence is God; that
the stars are passionless beings, having attained the end of existence,
and worthy above other things of human adoration; that the fixed stars
are in the outermost heaven, and the sun, moon, and planets beneath: the
former receive their motion from the prime moving cause, but the planets
are disturbed by the stars; that there are five elements--earth, air,
fire, water, and ether; that the earth is in the centre of the world,
since earthy matter settles uniformly round a central point; that fire
seeks the circumferential region, and intermediately water floats upon
the earth, and air upon water; that the elements are transmutable into
one another, and hence many intervening substances arise; that each
sphere is in interconnection with the others; the earth is agitated and
disturbed by the sea, the sea by the winds, which are movements of the
air, the air by the sun, moon, and planets. Each inferior sphere is
controlled by its outlying or superior one, and hence it follows that
the earth, which is thus disturbed by the conspiring or conflicting
action of all above it, is liable to the most irregularities; that,
since animals are nourished by the earth, it needs must enter into their
composition, but that water is required to hold the earthy matters
together; that every element must be looked upon as living, since it is
pervaded by the soul of the world; that there is an unbroken chain from
the simple element through the plant and animal up to man, the different
groups merging by insensible shades into one another: thus zoophytes
partake partly of the vegetable and partly of the animal, and serve as
an intermedium between them; that plants are inferior to animals in
this, that they do not possess a single principle of life or soul, but
many subordinate ones, as is shown by the circumstance