Ascension to the stars (1)

Text
Alexander of Aphrodisias, Discourse on the Causes of the Universe:
But if you rise up on high with me in your thoughts and stand, as it were, upon the moon - which is the first of these bodies that is closest to us - and in your thought you fix the eye of your mind away from yourself and upwards on that entire region up to the sphere that is inside the outer one, namely on the star Saturn, and again look away from yourself and downwards to the center region - namely the earth - you will discover a place which is ordered in its changes and determined in its many alterations but, in comparison to the order of that regularity (of motion) yonder, is confused, troubled, and far removed from order. And likewise, if you are raised in your thoughts and once more fix your attention both above and below, you will discover that outer sphere which is the mother of all, which is very much more ordered in its motions and more firmly preserved in its activity than the other bodies that are within it and are moved on this side of it. And if, again, you are raised in your knowledge beyond the outer sphere towards the Being, you will discover (it to be) like the following simile: it will, evidently, be like the mover to the moved, or like the maker to the made, or like essence to a first beginning; or in sum, like a cause to that which exists because of it.

Source (list of abbreviations)
Alexander of Aphrodisias, Discourse on the Causes of the Universe

Bibliography

Amar Annus

URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0001083.php