ells me,' I said, as
soon as my tears allowed me to speak, 'why, O father most revered, do I
delay here on earth, rather than haste to meet you?' 'It cannot be so,'
he answered. 'Unless that God whose temple is around you everywhere
shall have liberated you from the chains of the body, you cannot come to
us. Men are begotten subject to his law, and inhabit the globe which is
called the earth; and to them is given a soul from among the stars,
perfect in their form and alive with heavenly instincts, which complete
with wondrous speed their rapid courses. Wherefore, my son, by you and
by all just men that soul must be retained within its body's confines,
nor can it be allowed to flit without command of him by whom it has been
given to you. You may not escape the duty which God has trusted to you.
Live, my Scipio, and shine with piety and justice, as your grandfather
did and I have done. It is your duty to your parents and to your
relatives, but especially your duty to your country. There lies the road
to heaven. By following that course shall you find your way to those who
crowd with disembodied spirits the realm beneath your eyes.'

"Then did I behold that splendid circle of fire which you, after the
Greeks, call the Milky-way, and looking out from thence could see that
all things were beautiful and all wonderful. There were stars which we
cannot see from hence, and others of tremendous, unsuspected size; and
then those smaller ones nearest to us, which shine with a reflected
light. But every star among them all loomed larger than our earth. That
seemed so mean, that I was sorry to belong to so small an empire.

* * * * *

"As I gazed a sound struck my ears. 'What music is that,' said I,
'swelling so loudly and yet so sweet?'

"'It is that harmony of the stars,' he said, 'which the world creates by
its own movement. Low and loud, base and treble, they clang together
with unequal intervals, but each in time and tune. They could not work
in silence, and nature demands that from one end of heaven to the other
they shall be sonorous with a deep diapason. The far off give a loud
treble twang. Those nearest to the moon sound low and base. The earth,
the ninth in order, immovable upon its lowest seat, occupies the centre
of the system. From the eight there come seven sounds, distinct among
themselves, Venus and Mercury joining in one effort. In that number is
the secret of all human affairs. Le