de the body within her; and
the soul interfused everywhere from the centre to the circumference of
heaven, herself turning in herself, began a divine life of rational
and everlasting motion. The body of heaven is visible, but the soul
is invisible, and partakes of reason and harmony, and is the best of
creations, being the work of the best. And being composed of the same,
the other, and the essence, these three, and also divided and bound
in harmonical proportion, and revolving within herself--the soul when
touching anything which has essence, whether divided or undivided, is
stirred to utter the sameness or diversity of that and some other thing,
and to tell how and when and where individuals are affected or related,
whether in the world of change or of essence. When reason is in the
neighbourhood of sense, and the circle of the other or diverse is moving
truly, then arise true opinions and beliefs; when reason is in the
sphere of thought, and the circle of the same runs smoothly, then
intelligence is perfected.

When the Father who begat the world saw the image which he had made
of the Eternal Gods moving and living, he rejoiced; and in his joy
resolved, since the archetype was eternal, to make the creature eternal
as far as this was possible. Wherefore he made an image of eternity
which is time, having an uniform motion according to number, parted into
months and days and years, and also having greater divisions of past,
present, and future. These all apply to becoming in time, and have no
meaning in relation to the eternal nature, which ever is and never was
or will be; for the unchangeable is never older or younger, and when
we say that he 'was' or 'will be,' we are mistaken, for these words are
applicable only to becoming, and not to true being; and equally wrong
are we in saying that what has become IS become and that what becomes
IS becoming, and that the non-existent IS non-existent...These are the
forms of time which imitate eternity and move in a circle measured by
number.

Thus was time made in the image of the eternal nature; and it was
created together with the heavens, in order that if they were dissolved,
it might perish with them. And God made the sun and moon and five other
wanderers, as they are called, seven in all, and to each of them he gave
a body moving in an orbit, being one of the seven orbits into which the
circle of the other was divided. He put the moon in the orbit which was
nearest to th