Physics 149
the fire found in bodies is life-giving and beneficial, and in everything
it preserves, nourishes, promotes growth, sustains, and provides the
power of sense-perception."
Consequently, he says that there is no doubt about which sort of fire
the sun is like, since it too causes everything to flourish and mature
according to its kind. Therefore, since the sun's fire is like those fires
which are in the bodies of animals, the sun too should be alive, and
indeed so too should the rest of the heavenly bodies which take their
origin from the celestial heat, which is called aither or heaven [sky].- So, since some animals are born on earth, some in the water, some
in the air, it seems absurd to Aristotle^29 to suppose that no animals are
born in that part [of the cosmos] which is most suited for the production
of animal life. But the stars reside in the aither, and since this is the
rarest element and is always alive and moving, it is necessary that an
animal born there should also have the most acute senses and the most
rapid motion. And since the heavenly bodies are born in the aither, it is
reasonable that they should possess the powers of sense-perception and
intelligence. From which it follows that the heavenly bodies should be
counted among the gods.
Indeed, one may observe that people who live in lands blessed with
pure and thin air have keener intellects and greater powers of understand-
ing than people who live in dense and oppressive climatic conditions. - Indeed, they also think that the food one eats makes a difference to
one's mental acuity. So, it is plausible that the stars should have excep-
tional intelligence, since they inhabit the aitherial part of the cosmos and
are nourished by moisture from the land and sea which is rarified by the
great distance it has travelled. The orderliness and regularity of the
heavenly bodies is the clearest indication of their powers of sense-percep-
tion and intelligence. For nothing can move rationally and with measure
except by the use of intelligence, which contains nothing haphazard or
random or accidental. But the orderliness and perpetual consistency of
the heavenly bodies does not indicate a merely natural process (for it is
full of rationality) nor one produced by chance, which tends to produce
haphazard change and is hostile to consistency. It follows, therefore, that
they move on their own, by their own wills, perceptions and divinity. - And Aristotle is to be praised for his opinion that everything which
moves does so either by nature or force or will; now the sun and moon
and all the heavenly bodies move; things which move by nature either
move straight down because of weight or straight up because of lightness;
but neither of these applies to the heavenly bodies, since their motion is - In the lost work On Philosophy.