[18] The substance of nearly the whole of what Ocellus here says, and also of the two following paragraphs, is given by Aristotle, in his Treatise on Generation and Corruption.
[19] In the original, επειτα δε και την αυτην τῳ ανθρωπῳ συνταξιν προς το ὁλον, ὁτι μερος ὑπαρχων οικου τε και πολεως, και το μεγιστον κοσμου, συμπληρουν οφειλει το απογενομενον τουτων ἑκαστον, κ. τ. λ. Here, for και το μεγιστον κοσμου, συμπληρουν, κ. τ. λ., it is requisite to read, conformably to the above translation, και το μεγιστον, κοσμου συμπληρουν, κ. τ. λ. Nogarola, in his version, from not perceiving the necessity of this emendation, has made Ocellus say that man is the greatest part of the universe; for his translation is as follows: “Mox eandem hominis constitutionem ad universam referendam, quippe qui non solum domûs et civitatis, verum etiam mundi maxima habetur pars,” &c.
[20] This observation applies only to well regulated cities, but in London and other large cities, where the population is not restricted to a definite number, this abundant propagation of the species is, to the greater part of the community, attended with extreme misery and want. Plato and Aristotle, who rank among the wisest men that ever lived, were decidedly of opinion, that the population of a city should be limited. Hence, the former of these philosophers says, “that in a city where the inhabitants do not know each other, there is no light, but profound darkness;” and the latter, “that as 10,000 inhabitants are too few for a city, so 100,000 are too many.”
[21] For whole, according to the philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato, has a triple subsistence; since it is either prior to parts, or consists of parts, or exists in each of the parts of a thing. But a whole, prior to parts, contains in itself parts causally. The universe is a whole of wholes, the wholes which it comprehends in itself (viz. the inerratic sphere, and the spheres of the planets and elements) being its parts. And in the whole which is in each part of a thing, every part according to participation becomes a whole, i. e. a partial whole.
[22] In the original, ὡς δει, και εξ ὡν δει, και ὁτε δει, a mode of diction which frequently occurs in Aristotle, and from him in Platonic writers.
OCELLUS LUCANUS ON LAWS.
A FRAGMENT PRESERVED BY STOBÆUS, ECLOG. PHYS. LIB. I. CAP. 16.
Life, connectedly—contains in itself bodies; but of this, soul is the cause. Harmony comprehends, connectedly, the world; but of this, God is the cause. Concord binds together families and cities; and of this, law is the cause. Hence, there is a certain cause and nature which perpetually adapts the parts of the world to each other, and never suffers them to be disorderly and without connection. Cities, however, and families, continue only for a short time; the progeny of which, and the mortal nature of the matter of which they consist, contain in themselves the cause of dissolution; for they derive their subsistence from a mutable and perpetually passive nature. For the destruction[23] of things which are generated, is the salvation of the matter from which they are generated. That nature, however, which is perpetually moved[24] governs, but that which is always passive[25] is governed; and the one is in capacity prior, but the other posterior. The one also is divine, and possesses reason and intellect, but the other is generated, and is irrational and mutable.
FOOTNOTES:
[23] In the original, απογενεσις; but the true reading is doubtless απωλεια, and Vizzanus has in his version interitus. What is here said by Ocellus is in perfect conformity with the following beautiful lines of our admirable philosophic poet, Pope, in his Essay on Man:
“All forms that perish other forms supply;