disappear; sometimes they advance towards the sun, and sometimes they
retreat; sometimes they precede him, and sometimes follow him;
sometimes they move faster, sometimes slower, and sometimes they do not
stir in the least, but for a while stand still. From these unequal
motions of the planets, mathematicians have called that the "great
year"[131] in which the sun, moon, and five wandering stars, having
finished their revolutions, are found in their original situation. In
how long a time this is effected is much disputed, but it must be a
certain and definite period. For the planet Saturn (called by the
Greeks [Greek: Phainon]), which is farthest from the earth, finishes
his course in about thirty years; and in his course there is something
very singular, for sometimes he moves before the sun, sometimes he
keeps behind it; at one time lying hidden in the night, at another
again appearing in the morning; and ever performing the same motions in
the same space of time without any alteration, so as to be for infinite
ages regular in these courses. Beneath this planet, and nearer the
earth, is Jupiter, called [Greek: Phaethon], which passes the same
orbit of the twelve signs[132] in twelve years, and goes through
exactly the same variety in its course that the star of Saturn does.
Next to Jupiter is the planet Mars (in Greek, [Greek: Pyroeis]), which
finishes its revolution through the same orbit as the two previously
mentioned,[133] in twenty-four months, wanting six days, as I imagine.
Below this is Mercury (called by the Greeks [Greek: Stilbon]), which
performs the same course in little less than a year, and is never
farther distant from the sun than the space of one sign, whether it
precedes or follows it. The lowest of the five planets, and nearest the
earth, is that of Venus (called in Greek [Greek: Phosphoros]). Before
the rising of the sun, it is called the morning-star, and after the
setting, the evening-star. It has the same revolution through the
zodiac, both as to latitude and longitude, with the other planets, in a
year, and never is more than two[134] signs from the sun, whether it
precedes or follows it.

XXI. I cannot, therefore, conceive that this constant course of the
planets, this just agreement in such various motions through all
eternity, can be preserved without a mind, reason, and consideration;
and since we may perceive these qualities in the stars, we cannot but
place them in the rank of Gods. Tho