§21Sic deus ille aeternus hunc perfecte beatum deum procreavit.
Thus did that eternal god procreate this perfectly happy god.
Sed animum haud ita, ut modo locuti sumus, tum denique, cum corpus ei effecisset, inchoavit; neque enim esset rectum minori parere maiorem; sed nos multa inconsiderate ac temere dicimus.
But he did not begin the soul only then, when he had made the body for it, as we have just spoken; for it would not be right for the older to obey the younger; but we say many things thoughtlessly and rashly.
Deus autem et ortu et virtute antiquiorem genuit animum eumque ut dominum atque imperantem oboedienti praefecit corpori, idque molitus tali quodam est modo: Ex ea materia, quae individua est et quae semper unius modi suique similis, et ex ea, quae in corporibus dividua gignitur, tertium materiae genus ex duobus in medium admiscuit, quod esset eiusdem naturae et quod alterius, idque interiecit inter individuum atque id, quod dividuum esset in corpore.
For god generated the soul older both in origin and virtue, and set it as master and ruler over the obedient body, and he constructed it in some such way as this: From that material which is indivisible and always of one kind and similar to itself, and from that which is generated as divisible in bodies, he mixed in the middle a third kind of material from the two, which would have the nature of the same and that of the other, and he interposed it between the indivisible and that which was divisible in the body.
§22Ea cum tria sumpsisset, in unam speciem temperavit naturamque illam, quam alterius diximus, vi cum eadem coniunxit fugientem et eius copulationis alienam; quae permiscens cum materia cum ex tribus effecisset unum, id ipsum in ea, quae decuit, membra partitus est.
When he had taken these three, he tempered them into one form and by force conjoined with the same that nature which we called 'of the other', fleeing and averse to that coupling; and mixing these with the material, when he had made one out of the three, he partitioned this very thing into those members which were fitting.
Iam partis singulas ex eodem et ex altero et ex materia temperavit.
Now he tempered each single part from the same, the other, and the material.
Fuit autem talis illa partitio: unam principio partem detraxit ex toto, secundam autem primae partis duplam, deinde tertiam, quae esset secundae sesquialtera, primae tripla, deinde quartam, quae secundae dupla esset, quintam inde, quae tertiae tripla, tum sextam octuplam primae, postremo septimam, quae septem et viginti partibus antecederet primae.
And that partitioning was of this kind: first he took away one part from the whole, then a second double the first part, then a third which was one and a half times the second and triple the first, then a fourth which was double the second, then a fifth which was triple the third, then a sixth eight times the first, and finally a seventh which exceeded the first by twenty-seven parts.
§23Deinde instituit dupla et tripla intervalla explere partis rursus ex toto desecans; quas in intervallis ita locabat, ut in singulis essent bina media (vix enim audeo dicere medietates, quas Graeci meso/thtas appellant; sed quasi ita dixerim, intellegatur; erit enim planius), earum alteram eadem parte praestantem extremis eademque superatam, alteram pari numero praestantem extremis parique superatam.
Then he undertook to fill up the double and triple intervals, cutting off parts again from the whole; these he placed in the intervals in such a way that in each there would be two middle terms (for I scarcely dare to say 'medietates', which the Greeks call *mesotetes*; but let it be understood as if I had spoken thus; for it will be clearer), one of them exceeding and being exceeded by the extremes by the same fraction of themselves, the other exceeding and being exceeded by the extremes by an equal number.
Sesquialteris autem intervallis et sesquitertiis et sesquioctavis sumptis ex his conligationibus in primis intervallis sesquioctavo intervallo sesquitertia omnia explebat, cum particulam singulorum relinqueret.
And when intervals of one and a half, one and a third, and one and an eighth were taken from these connections, in the first intervals he filled up all the one-and-a-third intervals with the one-and-an-eighth interval, leaving a small fraction of each.
§24Eius autem particulae intervallo relicto habebat numerus ad numerum eandem proportionem conparationemque in extremis, quam habent ducenta quinquaginta sex cum ducentis quadraginta tribus, atque ita permixtum illud, ex quo haec secuit, iam omne consumpserat.
And with the interval of this fraction left over, one number had the same proportion and comparison to the other in its extremes as two hundred and fifty-six has with two hundred and forty-three; and thus he had already consumed all that mixture from which he had cut these.
Hanc igitur omnem coniunctionem duplicem in longitudinem diffidit mediaeque accommodans mediam quasi decussavit, deinde in orbem intorsit, ut et ipsae secum et inter se ex commissura, quae e regione esset, iungerentur, eoque motu, cuius orbis semper in eodem erat eodemque modo ciebatur, undique est eas circumplexus.
Therefore, he split this whole double conjunction lengthwise, and fitting middle to middle, he crossed them like the letter X; then he bent them into a circle, so that they were joined both to themselves and to each other at the junction that was directly opposite, and he embraced them on all sides with that movement whose circle was always in the same place and driven in the same manner.
§25Atque ita cum alterum esset exteriorem, alterum interiorem amplexus orbem, illum eiusdem naturae, hunc alterius notavit eamque, quae erat eiusdem, detorsit a latere in dexteram partem, hanc autem citimam a mediana linea direxit ad laevam, sed principatum dedit superiori, quam solam individuam reliquit.
And so, when he had embraced one outer and one inner circle, he designated the former as of the nature of the same, and the latter as of the other, and he turned the one that was of the same sideways to the right, but directed this nearer one from the middle line to the left, but gave supremacy to the upper one, which alone he left undivided.
Interiorem autem cum in sex partis divisisset, septem orbis dispares duplo et triplo intervallo moveri iussit contrariis inter se cursibus.
But having divided the inner one into six parts, he ordered seven unequal circles to be moved by double and triple intervals in courses contrary to one another.
Eorum autem trium fecit pares celeritates, sed quattuor et inter se dispares et dissimilis trium reliquorum.
He made the speeds of three of them equal, but the four both unequal among themselves and different from the remaining three.
§26Animum igitur cum ille procreator mundi deus ex sua mente et voluntate genuisset, tum denique omne, quod erat concretum atque corporeum, substernebat animo interiusque faciebat atque ita medio medium accommodans copulabat.
When, therefore, that creator-god of the world had generated the soul out of his own mind and will, only then did he place all that was concrete and corporeal underneath the soul, making it interior, and thus fitting middle to middle, he coupled them.
Sic animus a medio profectus extremitatem caeli a suprema regione rotundo ambitu circumiecit seseque ipse versans divinum sempiternae sapientisque vitae induxit exordium.
Thus the soul, proceeding from the middle, surrounded the extremity of heaven from the highest region with a round circuit, and turning itself, began a divine origin of everlasting and wise life.