e poles do slide,
And how Booetes his slow wain doth guide,
And why he sets so late, and doth so early rise,
May wonder at the courses of the skies.
If when the moon is full her horns seem pale to sight,
Infested with the darkness of the night,
And stars from which all grace she with her brightness took,
Now show themselves, while she doth dimly look,
A public error straight through vulgar minds doth pass,
And they with many strokes beat upon brass.[155]
None wonders why the winds upon the waters blow.
Nor why hot Phoebus' beams dissolve the snow.
These easy are to know, the other hidden lie,
And therefore more our hearts they terrify.
All strange events which time to light more seldom brings,
And the vain people count as sudden things,
If we our clouded minds from ignorance could free,
No longer would by us admired be."

[155] See Tylor's _Primitive Culture_, pp. 296 ff. Cf "carmina uel caelo
possunt deducere lunam," Virg. _Ecl._ viii. 69, and Juvenal, _Sat._ vi. 440
sq.

VI

"Ita est," inquam; "sed cum tui muneris sit latentium rerum causas euoluere
uelatasque caligine explicare rationes, quaeso uti quae hinc decernas.
quoniam hoc me miraculum maxime perturbat, edisseras." Tum illa paulisper
arridens: "Ad rem me," inquit, "omnium quaesitu maximam uocas, cui uix
exhausti quicquam satis sit. Talis namque materia est ut una dubitatione
succisa innumerabiles aliae uelut hydrae capita succrescant, nec ullus
fuerit modus, nisi quis eas uiuacissimo mentis igne coerceat. In hac enim
de prouidentiae simplicitate, de fati serie, de repentinis casibus, de
cognitione ac praedestinatione diuina, de arbitrii libertate quaeri solet,
quae quanti oneris sint ipse perpendis. Sed quoniam haec quoque te nosse
quaedam medicinae tuae portio est, quamquam angusto limite temporis saepti
tamen aliquid delibare[156] conabimur. Quod si te musici carminis
oblectamenta delectant, hanc oportet paulisper differas uoluptatem, dum
nexas sibi ordine contexo rationes." "Vt libet," inquam. Tunc uelut ab alio
orsa principio ita disseruit: "Omnium generatio rerum cunctusque mutabilium
naturarum progressus et quidquid aliquo mouetur modo, causas, ordinem,
formas ex diuinae mentis stabilitate sortitur. Haec in suae simplicitatis
arce composita multiplicem rebus regendis modum statuit. Qui modus cum in
ipsa diuinae intellegentiae puritate conspicitur, prouidentia nominatur;
cum uero ad ea qua