bodies, moving with such rapidity, should be silent; on the contrary, the atmosphere, continually impelled by them, must yield a set of sounds, proportioned to the impulses it receives: consequently, as they do not all run the same circuit, nor with one and the same velocity, the different tones arising from a diversity of motions, all directed by the hand of the Almighty, must form an admirable symphony, or concert.
Cicero has inserted this opinion of the harmony of the spheres in that sublime and eloquent fragment, called "Somnium Scipionis," where Scipio, (being lost in astonishment at the sight of the heavenly bodies, and of the nine heavens, one above another, as exhibited to him by Africanus, during his vision), exclaims, "Quid i hic, inquam, quis est, qui complet aures meas tantus, et tam dulcis sonus? Hic est, inquit ille, qui intervallis conjuuctus imparibus, sed tameu pro rata portione, distinctis, impulsu, et motu ipsorum orbium conficitur: qui acuta cum gravibus temperans, varios æquabiliter concentus efficit, nec enim silentio tanti motus incitari possunt, et natura fert, ut extrema, ex altera parte, gravitér, ex altera autem, acuté sonent.Hic vero tantus est totius mundi incitatissima conversione sonitus, ut eum aures hoininum capere non possint: sicut intueri solem adversum nequitis, ejusque radiis, acies vestra, sensusque vincitur."—Cic. Op. om. Schrev. 1661, p. 1318.
One might almost suppose from the following lines that Shakspeare had read this passage in Cicero,
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins:
Such harmony is in immortal sounds!
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close us in, we cannot hear it.
Merch. of Ven. Act V. Scene I.
See also Milton's "Arcades," Warton's edition, p. 102.
L. 15. The verginal, or verginalls, was the ancient spinet, or harpsichord, of the misses, in the 16th and 17th centuries.
