Quod Deterius Potiori Insidiari Soleat

But the archetypal pattern was so devoid of all figure, that its very image was not visible, being indeed fabricated in accordance with the model, and accordingly it received not mortal but immortal conceptions. For how could a mortal nature at the same time remain where it was and also emigrate? or how could it see what was here and what was on the other side? or how could it sail round the white sea, and at the same time traverse the whole earth to its furthest boundaries, and inspect the customs and [*](This idea is the same as that which Ovid has expressed in the beginning of the Metamorphoses- Pronaque dum spectant animalia cœtera terram, Os homini sublime dedit, cœlumque tueri Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus. Which may perhaps be translated- And while all other creatures from their birth With downcast eyes gaze on their kindred earth. He bids man walk erect, and scan the heaven From which he springs, to which his hopes are given. )

Or again, how could it fly through the air from earth to heaven, and investigate the natures which exist in heaven, and see of what nature they are, how they are moved, what are the limits of their movements, of their beginning and of their end; how they are adapted to one another and to the universe according to the just principles of kindred? Is it easy to have an accurate comprehension of the different arts and of the different branches of knowledge which bring external things into shape, and which are concerned with the affairs of the body and of the soul, with a view to the improvement of the two, and to understand ten thousand other things, of which it is not easy to describe either the number or the nature in language?