3. THE WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD
PART ONE, which discusses the origin of the earth, paradise, and the abode of living creatures also the birth, infancy, and love of the first-born or Adam
Chapter I. Section First. Concerning the Origin of the Earth.
Round about the sun, the centre of this universe, our earthly globe revolves every year in an orbit, and measures the stages of its gyration by the constellations of the zodiac past which it is carried; the time of its circuit, or its return to the same point of its circle, is called its year.
(By the gyration of the earth around the sun and around its axis, there arose the four times [or seasons] of the year, and the same number in each day, together with hours.)
While it performs this its gyration or year, it is turned aside, a little obliquely towards the constellation of the seven stars, and downwards in opposition to them, from the great equinoctial circle, and thus in its every least progress, wheresoever it is, it beholds the sun under a varied aspect, whence come its four seasons of the year, namely, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. In this its circumvolution, it turns like a wheel about its axis, which runs from pole to pole through the middle equinoctial circle or equator, and by these revolutions it divides the circumference through which it runs, into parts or degrees, which are called the days of its year. The effect of each of these rotations is, that the sun rises, and from rising gains a meridian altitude, and thence declines, and at length sets and is hidden. Hence again come the four times of every day, called morning, noon, evening, and night, together with their hours, which, as it were, surround this day, and measure the divisions of the seasons of the year. The four intervals of every day represent themselves in the four intervals of the whole year, as lesser effigies in greater; thus the morning represents itself in the spring, noon in summer, autumn in evening, and winter in night, and so forth. 1
Footnotes:
1. For, as was said above in the introduction, general representations are mirrors of things particular, and vice versa; thus not only do the diversities of days represent themselves in the diversities of years, but also the least moments of days represent themselves in the same; for whatsoever relates to time has its allotted places under annual spaces, as common subjects; for, in like manner, every period of two hours of every day corresponds to its month; for there are twelve periods of two hours of the day, as there are twelve months of the year, since the periods of two hours in all the morning represent so many vernal or spring months, the periods of two hours at noon so many summer months, and the periods of two hours of night so many winter months; in like manner, the warmth of spring or summer may be likened to the sunshine of those hours, and their cold to the shade. If we proceed further, there occur still other similar correspondences in the subdivisions of these times, as of the first minutes of the hour with the [first] quarter of the day, and so forth.
(They [the diversities of years] likewise represented in themselves the vicissitudes of things.)
