Page:Sir Walter Raleigh by Thoreau, Henry David,.djvu/88

 may be called his reserved and unwritten laws But it was well said of Plotinus, that the stars were significant, but not efficient, giving them yet something less than their due: and therefore as I do not consent with them, who would make those glorious creatures of God virtueless: so I think that we derogate from his eternal and absolute power and providence, to ascribe to them the same dominion over our immortal souls, which they have over all bodily substances, and perishable natures: for the souls of men loving and fearing God, receive influence from that divine light it self, whereof the sun's clarity, and that of the stars, is by Plato called but a shadow, Lumen est umbra Dei, et Deus est lumen luminis; 'Light is the shadow of God's brightness, who is the light of light.

We are reminded by this of Du Bartas's poem on the Probability of the Celestial Orbs being inhabited, translated by Sylvester:

I'll ne'er believe that the arch-Architect

With all these fires the heavenly arches deck'd

Only for shew, and with their glistering shields

T' amaze poor shepherds, watching in the fields;