Page:1888 Cicero's Tusculan Disputations.djvu/305

The Fetters^[1] at the Fishes' tails are hung.
By Nepa's^[2] head behold the Altar stand,^[3]
Which by the breath of southern winds is fann'd;

near which the Centaur^[4]

 
Hastens his mingled parts to join beneath
The Serpent,^[5] there extending his right hand,
To where you see the monstrous Scorpion stand,
Which he at the bright Altar fiercely slays.
Here on her lower parts see Hydra^[6] raise
Herself;

whose bulk is very far extended.

 
Amid the winding of her body 's placed
The shining Goblet;^[7]and the glossy Crow^[8]
Plunges his beak into her parts below.
Antecanis beneath the Twins is seen,
Call'd Procyon by the Greeks.^[9]

Can any one in his senses imagine that this disposition of the stars, and this heaven so beautifully adorned, could ever have been formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms? Or what other nature, being destitute of intellect and reason, could possibly have produced these effects, which not only required reason to bring them about, but the very character of which could not be understood and appreciated without the most strenuous exertions of well-directed reason?

XLV. But our admiration is not limited to the objects here described. What is most wonderful is that the world is so durable, and so perfectly made for lasting that it is not to be impaired by time; for all its parts tend equally to the centre, and are bound together by a sort of chain, which surrounds the elements. This chain is nature, which

1. A southern constellation.
2. This is called the Scorpion in the original of Aratus.
3. A southern constellation.
4. A southern constellation.
5. The Serpent is not mentioned in Cicero's translation; but it is in the original of Aratus.
6. A southern constellation.
7. The Goblet, or Cup, a southern constellation.
8. A southern constellation.
9. Antecanis, a southern constellation, is the Little Dog, and called Antecanis in Latin, and Προκύων in Greek, because he rises before the other Dog.