On this supposition, I, in the first place,
described this matter, and essayed to represent it in such a manner that
to my mind there can be nothing clearer and more intelligible, except what
has been recently said regarding God and the soul; for I even expressly
supposed that it possessed none of those forms or qualities which are so
debated in the schools, nor in general anything the knowledge of which is
not so natural to our minds that no one can so much as imagine himself
ignorant of it. Besides, I have pointed out what are the laws of nature;
and, with no other principle upon which to found my reasonings except the
infinite perfection of God, I endeavored to demonstrate all those about
which there could be any room for doubt, and to prove that they are such,
that even if God had created more worlds, there could have been none in
which these laws were not observed. Thereafter, I showed how the greatest
part of the matter of this chaos must, in accordance with these laws,
dispose and arrange itself in such a way as to present the appearance of
heavens; how in the meantime some of its parts must compose an earth and
some planets and comets, and others a sun and fixed stars. And, making a
digression at this stage on the subject of light, I expounded at
considerable length what the nature of that light must be which is found
in the sun and the stars, and how thence in an instant of time it
traverses the immense spaces of the heavens, and how from the planets and
comets it is reflected towards the earth.
Pages:
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53