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05 Aug 2008 10:28 am

Unstarry Night, Ctd.

Before Emerson and Asimov, and Auden, there was Aristotle, as recalled by Cicero: “

So Aristotle says brilliantly: If there were men who had always lived underground in fine and well-lit houses which had been adorned with statues and paintings, and equipped with all the things which those who are considered well-to-do possess in abundance, who had, however, never come forth into the upper world, but had learned by fame and hearsay of the existence of certain divine powers and natures, and had then at some time, through the jaws of the earth being opened, been able to come forth from those hidden regions,

and to pass into these parts which we inhabit,— when they had suddenly obtained a sight of the land and seas and sky, and had marked the vastness of the clouds, and the force of the winds, and had beheld the sun, and had marked not only its size and beauty, but also its power, since by diffusing light over the whole sky it caused day, —and when, again, after night had overshadowed the earth, they then perceived the whole sky studded and adorned with stars, and the change in the light of the moon as it alternately waxed and waned, and the rising and setting of all these bodies, and the fixity and unchangeableness of their courses through all eternity, —when they saw those things, they would assuredly believe both that the gods existed and that these mighty works proceeded from them.”

Yes, a Dish reader sent it in. It's from On the Nature of the Gods, 2.95.

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