Somnium Scipionis

Translated from Latin by Hillary Yip

F[15] …“That is not so,” he said. “For if that god, whose temple is all you see, had not freed you from the prison of your body, you cannot be allowed to enter here.  For mankind was, by these laws, created to protect that sphere which you see in the middle of the temple, that sphere which is called the Earth. And to mankind a soul was forged from those eternal fires which you call constellations and stars, which, round and spherical, are animated with divine consciousness and complete their circular orbit with miraculous speed. Thus your soul, Publius, and the souls of all other good men, must be held back in the custody of the body, nor must you depart from the lives of men without orders from him, he who has given a soul to you, lest you seem to have shirked your human duties assigned from the gods. 

[16] But Scipio, just like your grandfather here, and just as I, who bore you, cultivate righteousness and piety. When these virtues are great for parents and relatives, it is then greatest for the fatherland – such a life is the road to heaven, and to that meeting of them, they who have already lived and have been freed from their bodies, who live in that place (that sphere was also shining with most radiant light among the fires), which you, as taken from the Greeks, call the Milky Way. 

From that point, everything that I saw seemed splendid, and the rest wonderful. These were the stars that we never see from this place, and whose greatness we never suspect, and from all these stars, the smallest one, which is furthest from heaven and nearest to the earth, was shining with foreign light. The spheres of the stars easily dwarfed the magnitude of the Earth. Now the Earth itself seemed small to me, so small that I became scornful of our great empire, which now seemed to cover but a small point. 

[17] When I looked upon it more intently, Africanus said: “Why and until what time will you fix your mind upon the ground? Do you not see this holy place where you have come? Everything is connected to nine circles, or rather spheres, of which one, the furthest, is heaven, which embraces all else; the highest god himself protects and secures the rest of the spheres, which are fixed within, a perpetual rolling course of stars. Beneath it are seven of these spheres, which move in the opposite direction to heaven; one of these spheres is that which is called Saturn on Earth. Then is that light which is fortune and health to mankind, which is called Jupiter, then the red and foreboding, that which is called Mars. Below it, and almost in the middle between heaven and earth, the Sun lies, the leader, ruler, and moderator of the rest of the lights, the mind conscience of the universe, which shines with such intensity it fills everything with his light. His companions follow, one the orbit of Venus, the other the orbit of Mercury, and in the lowest sphere, the Moon turns and burns with solar rays. But below the Moon, there is now nothing but mortals, doomed to decay—except for their spirits, given to humankind as a gift of the gods. Above the moon, however, everything is eternal. For this—the central and ninth sphere, the ground—does not move; it is the lowest, and everything with weight is drawn to it by their own force. 

[18] When I was looking around, astounded to comprehend what I beheld, I asked, “What, what is this that fills my ears, such a sweet sound?”  

“This,” he said, ‘is produced by motion of those spheres, which are separated with unequal, but fixed distance, by the smooth blending of various harmonies with high and low sounds; for no such movement can be aroused in silence, and nature makes it so that one extreme produces a deep tone, and the other extreme, a high tone. From that source, he, the highest star-bringing course of the skies, which has a faster rotation, moves with sharp and excited sound. The lowest sound, however, is from here, the lunar and weakest course; for the Earth, the ninth sphere, remains fixed and always in its position in the middle of the universe. However, of the other eight courses, two have the same force, and bring about seven distinct sounds—and this number is the key to almost everything. Learned men, having copied these songs with learned instruments, reveal to themselves a return to this place, just as others who, with excellent talent, cultivate divine studies in their human life. Human ears, overwhelmed by this sound, are deafened; nor is there any sense duller in you than hearing Just as where the Nile rushes along from the highest mountains to here, which is called the Cataracts. A community lives there, and due to the magnitude of the sound, loses their sense of hearing. This truly is such a symphony of the heavens, produced from the quickest celestial rotations, that human ears cannot capture it; just as you cannot look directly at the sun and your sight is blinded by its rays.

I, admiring this, was still bringing my eyes back to the earth again and again.