CIC. This I understood in the dialogues on the infinite universe and the innumerable worlds, where it is declared that the divine wisdom is extremely mobile, as Solomon said, and also that the same is most stable, as all those declare who know. Now go on and make me understand the proposition.
TANS. It means that [D]his sun is not like this one, which is commonly believed to go round the earth with the daily movement in twenty-four hours, and with the planetary movement in twelve months, and by which he causes the four seasons of the year to be felt, according as he is found to be in the four cardinal points of the zodiac; but he is such an one, that, being the ethereal eternity itself, and consequently an entire and complete totality, he contains the winter, the spring, the summer, the autumn, together with the day and the night, for he is all and for all, in all points and places.
CIC. Now apply that which you have said to the figure.
TANS. It being impossible here to design the entire sun in every point of the circle, two circles are delineated; one which contains the sun to signify that the movement is made through him, the other which is contained by the sun to show that he is moved by it.
CIC. But this explanation is not very clear and appropriate.
TANS. Suffice it that it is the clearest and most appropriate that he was able to make. If you can make a better one, you shall have permission to remove this one and put it in its place, for this has only been put in, so that the soul should not be without a body.
CIC. What do you say about that "Circuit?"
TANS. That legend contains all the meaning of the thing in so far as it can be explained, for it means that he turns and is turned, that is to say movement present and accomplished.
CIC. Excellent! And therefore those circles which so ill explain the circumstance of movement and rest, we can say are placed there to signify the circulation only. Thus am I satisfied with the subject and with the form of the heroic device. Now read the lines.
Mild are thy rays, oh, Sol! from Taurus sent, And from the Lion thy beams mature and burn, And when thy light from pungent Scorpion darts Transcendent is the ardour of thy flames. From fierce Deucalion all is struck with cold, Stiffened the lakes and locked the running streams. With spring, with summer, autumn, and with winter, I warm, I kindle, burn and blaze for ever. So ardent my desire, The object so supreme for which I burn; Glowing and unencumbered I behold, And make my lightnings flash unto the stars. No moment can I count in all the year To change the[E] inexorable cross I bear.