temporal. It cannot be eternal in all its parts, as mar?2y parts undergo destruction;it is not altogether temporal, because, if so, the uaiverso could not be reproduced being destroyed. The continued existeuce of the urai- verse leads, therefore, to the conclusion that there is immortal force, the Primal Cause, besides the transient These arguments have this in common, that while proving the existence of a Primal Cause, they at the same tix? demonstrate the Unity, the Incorporeality, and the Eternity of that Cause. Special proofs are nevertheless superadded for each o these postulates, and on the whole they ditfer very little from those advanced by the Mahometan Theo- logians. This philosophical theory of the Primal Cause wa? adapt?i by Jewish scholars to the Biblical theory of the Creator. The universe is a living, organised being, of which the earth is the centre. Any changes on this earth are due to revolutions of the spheres; the lowest or innermost sphm, namely, the one nearest to the centre, is the sphere or-the moon; the outermost or uppermost is "the all-encompa?iug sphere." Numerous spheres are interposed; but Maimonide? divides all the spheres into four groups, corresponding to the moon, the sun, the planets, and the fixed stars. division is claimed by the author as his own discovery; believes that it stands in relation to the four causes of their motions, the four elements of the sublunary world, and the four classes of beings, viz., the mineral, the vegetable, the animal, and the rational. The spheres have souls, and am endowed with intellect; their souls enable them to move freely, and the impulse to the motion is given by the intal- lect in conceiving the idea of the Absolute Intellect? Famh sphere has an intellect peculiar to itself; the intellect attach?l to the sphere of the moon is called "the active intellect (?eehel ha-joo?l). In support of this theory numerous pas- sages are cited both from Holy Writ and from post-Biblical literature. The angels (elohim, malachire) mention?l
