WHENCE DID MEN OBTAIN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE EXISTENCE AND ESSENCE
OF A DEITY?

The Stoics thus define the essence of a god. It is a spirit
intellectual and fiery, which acknowledges no shape, but is
continually changed into what it pleases, and assimilates itself to
all things. The knowledge of this deity they first received from
the pulchritude of those things which so visibly appeared to us;
for they concluded that nothing beauteous could casually or
fortuitously be formed, but that it was framed from the art of a
great understanding that produced the world. That the world is
very resplendent is made perspicuous from the figure, the color,
the magnitude of it, and likewise from the wonderful variety of
those stars which adorn this world. The world is spherical;
the orbicular hath the pre-eminence above all other figures, for
being round itself it hath its parts like itself. (On this account,
according to Plato, the understanding, which is the most sacred
part of man, is in the head.) The color of it is most beauteous;
for it is painted with blue; which, though little blacker than
purple, yet hath such a shining quality, that by reason of the
vehement efficacy of its color it cuts through such a space of air;
whence it is that at so great a distance the heavens are to be
contemplated. And in this very greatness of the world the beauty
of it appears. View all things: that which contains the rest
carries a beauty with it, as an animal or a tree. Also things
which are visible to us accomplish the beauty of the world.
The oblique circle called the Zodiac in heaven is with different
images painted and distinguished:--