Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 6.djvu/125

Rh frequently, though not having struck root, are yet covered with a profusion of leaves, and afford indications to spectators that they will be productive, and that they appear full of life, [though in reality] not having vitality in themselves from the root. But when the rising of Canis takes place, the living are separated from the dead by Canis; for whatsoever plants have not taken root, really undergo putrefaction. This Canis, therefore, he says, as being a certain divine Logos, has been appointed judge of quick and dead. And as [the influence of] Canis is observable in the vegetable productions of this world, so in plants of celestial growth—in men—is beheld the [power of the] Logos. From some such cause, then, Cynosura, the second creation, is set in the firmament as an imaire of a creation bv the Loiios. The Dragon, however, in the centre reclines between the two creations, preventing a transition of whatever things are from the great creation to the small creation; and in guarding those that are fixed in the [great] creation, as for instance Engonasis, observing [at the same time] how and in what manner each is constituted in the small creation. And [the Dragon] himself is watched at the head, he says, by Anguitenens. This image, he affirms, is fixed in heaven, being a certain wisdom to those capable of discerning it. If, however, this is obscure, by means of some other image, he says the creation teaches [men] to philosophize, in regard to which Aratus has expressed himself thus:

But Aratus says, near this [constellation] is Cepheus, and Cassiepea, and Andromeda, and Perseus, great lineaments of the creation to those who are able to discern them. For he asserts that Cepheus is Adam, Cassiepea Eve, Andromeda the soul of both of these, Perseus the Logos, winged off-