Since I was gazing on which, when I recovered myself, I say, “What? What is this sound, so sweet, which fills my ears so much?” “This is,” he says, “that which, divided in intervals, unequal but nevertheless distinct, according to a fixed part by reason, is brought about by the impulse and motion of the spheres themselves, and blending high-pitched notes with low-pitched ones, brings about various harmonies equally; for such movements are not able to be inspired by silence, and nature bears so that the extremes from one part sound gravely, while from the other part acutely. On account of which reason that highest starry course, whose turning is more rapid, is moved by a sharp and aroused sound, while this lunar and lowest one is moved by the lowest sound. For the earth, the ninth, remaining motionless, sticks always to one seat, having embraced the middle place of the world. But those eight courses, in which of two of them there is the same power, bring about seven distinct sounds in intervals, which number is generally the knot of all things; learned men, imitating which with strings and songs, have opened for themselves a return into this place, just as other men who have cultivated divine studies through outstanding talents in the human life.
“The ears of men filled with this sound have become deaf, nor is there any duller sense in you, just as where the Nile rushes from the very high mountains to that which is called the Catadupa, that tribe which dwells near that place lacks the sense of hearing because of the magnitude of the sound. Truly this sound of the whole universe, because of its very rapid revolution, is so great that the ears of men are not able to perceive it, just as you are unable to look directly at the sun, and your sense and sight is conquered by its rays.” I, wondering at these things, was nevertheless repeatedly returning my eyes to the earth.
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