f numbers which again withdraw and are
resolved into the One; so from Substance, which is one, proceed the
myriads of worlds; from the worlds proceed myriads of living creatures;
and from the union of one with the diverse is generated the Universe.
Hence the progression from ascent to descent, from spirit to that which
we call matter; from the cause to the origin, and the process of
metaphysics, which, from the finite world of sense rises to the
intelligent, passing through the intermediate numbers of infinite
substance to active being and cosmic reason.

From the absolute One, the sun of the sensible and intellectual world,
millions of stars and suns are produced or developed. Each sun is the
centre of as many worlds which are distributed in as many distinct
series in an infinite number of concentric centres and systems. Each
system is attracted, repelled, and moved by an infinite, internal
passion, or attraction; each turns round its own centre, and moves in a
spiral towards the centre of the whole, towards which centre they all
tend with infinite passional ardour. For in this centre resides the sun
of suns, the unity of unities, the temple, the altar of the universe,
the sacred fire of Vesta, the vital principle of the universe.

That which occurs in the world of stars is reflected in the telluric
world; everything has its centre, towards which it is attracted with
fervour. All is thought, passion, and aspiration.

From this unity, which governs variety, from this movement of every
world around its sun, of every sun around its centre sun--the sun of
suns--which informs all with the rays of the spirit, with the light of
thought--is generated that perfect harmony of colours, sounds, forms,
which strike the sight and captivate and enthrall the intellect. That
which in the heavens is harmony becomes, in the individual, morality,
and in companies of human beings, law. That which is light in the
spheres becomes intelligence and science in the world of the spirit and
in humanity. We must study this harmony that rules the celestial worlds
in order to deduce the laws which should govern civil bodies.

In the science of numbers dwells harmony, and therefore it behoves us to
identify ourselves with this harmony, because from it is derived the
harmonic law which draws men together into companies. Through the
revolution of the worlds through space around their suns, from their
order, their constancy and their measure, the mind