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being administered by a superior power according to its will, or he supposes the power of fate to be a minister of some other super-eminent energy, so that it too, in a way, lies under another fate, being co-arranged with the superior cause. For if this is believed to have dominion over all things, the consequence of the argument leads one to think that nothing is set over it; but if he maintains that fate, following the motion of the stars, rules over all things by some violent necessity, it would have been safer to attribute this omnipotent authority to the 37 antecedent rather than to the consequent, and to say the stars are the causes of these things—either the revolution of the fixed stars, or the circles observed within it, or the circle inscribed obliquely to the pole. For if one should grant, for the sake of argument, that these things do not move, nor come to be either in relation to each other or apart from each other through their eternal circular motion, but always remain in the same configuration just as they are, fate would not exist. If, then, the motion of the stars begets fate, then it is thought in vain that it rules over other things, serving as it does a superior cause, and not even existing, unless the motion existed. But not this, says that philosopher, our reasoning does not think so, that fate exists in and of itself, considered in some hypostasis; but since there is a certain single sympathy among existing things, and the universe is continuous with itself, and the individual things considered in the universe are apprehended as if in one body with one breath, all the parts assenting to one another, for this reason, since the upper realm is more primary, all terrestrial things are co-arranged with the antecedent and incline toward it, the things here below being necessarily moved along with the motion above, but, as has been said, in the different power 38 in which each of the stars is considered. Just as in medicinal pharmacy the qualities of the ingredients, being mixed together according to some technical principle, produce something else blended from the combination and not what each was before their mixture with one another, so also, since the powers of the stars are considered in different properties, the varied combination of the different properties which occurs according to their approaches and departures produces the varied differences of what is accomplished in life, as if some effluence were reaching us from there without interruption. For this very reason, predictions of future events by those who philosophize more carefully about such matters are not mistaken. For just as one skilled in medicine, if a hot or numbing drug should be mixed with a salty or astringent one, foretells the property that will result from the mixture of the heterogeneous substances, and what it accomplishes, and for how long it has its strength, and for whom it becomes deadly and for whom a remedy, so also the one who has attended to the things above through careful study and has understood the nature of each of the beings will know what the power from their particular combination will effect. But this effluence is not in the least consistent with itself, but because the motion of the stars interweaving with one another is always unstable, it too is necessarily always altered by the continuity of the otherness in the motion, being mixed together with the variety of the motion and changing its own energies along with the motion of the stars; of which each of those being brought into life, 39 drawing the portion that falls to him in an indivisible moment of time, becomes that which the property of that part both foretold and accomplished; for it is absolutely necessary, just as in the impression of a seal the form according to the carving is imprinted upon the wax placed in it, so also for the life of a man, by whatever particle of the effluential power from the motion of the stars he may encounter, to be shaped according to the property of that part, and to become that which the portion of the effluence that he drew at the very beginning of his life held within itself; by which having once been stamped according to the power defined from there, he is necessarily conformed in the property of his life, doing or suffering those things whose beginnings or causes the first encounter

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ὑπερέχοντι τῆς δυνάμεως πρὸς τὸ δοκοῦν διοικούμενος, ἢ ἄλλης τινὸς ὑπερκειμένης ἐνεργείας ὑπουργὸν εἶναι τὴν τῆς εἱμαρμένης ὑποτίθεται δύναμιν, ὥστε καὶ αὐτὴν τρόπον τινὰ ὑπὸ ἑτέραν εἱμαρμένην κεῖσθαι τῇ ὑπερεχούσῃ συνδιατιθεμένην αἰτίᾳ. εἰ μὲν γὰρ αὕτη τὸ κατὰ πάντων κράτος ἔχειν πεπίστευται, τὸ μηδὲν ὑπερκεῖσθαι ταύτης ἡ ἀκολουθία τοῦ λόγου δίδωσιν οἴεσθαι· εἰ δὲ τῇ κινήσει τῶν ἄστρων ἀκολουθοῦσαν τὴν εἱμαρμένην κρατεῖν αὐτὴν βιαίᾳ τινὶ ἀνάγκῃ τῶν πάντων διισχυρίζεται, ἀσφαλέστερον ἦν τῷ 37 προηγουμένῳ μᾶλλον ἢ τῷ ἑπομένῳ τὴν παντοδύναμον ταύτην προσμαρτυρεῖν ἐξουσίαν καὶ τὰ ἄστρα τούτων αἴτια λέγειν ἢ τὴν ἀπλανῆ περιφορὰν ἢ τοὺς ἐντὸς ταύτης ἐνθεωρουμένους κύκλους ἢ τὸν λοξῶς ἐγκεχαραγμένον τῷ πόλῳ κύκλον. εἰ γάρ τις δοίη καθ' ὑπόθεσιν μὴ κινεῖσθαι ταῦτα μηδὲ διὰ τῆς ἀϊδίου κυκλοφορίας ἢ ἐν ἀλλήλοις ἢ ἀπ' ἀλλήλων γίνεσθαι, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ σχήματος ὡσαύτως ἔχειν ἀεί, οὐκ ἂν ἡ εἱμαρμένη συσταίη. εἰ οὖν ἡ κίνησις τῶν ἄστρων τίκτει τὴν εἱμαρμένην, ἄρα μάτην ἐπικρατεῖν αὕτη τῶν ἄλλων νομίζεται ἡ τῇ ὑπερκειμένῃ αἰτίᾳ δουλεύουσα, καὶ μὴ ἂν οὖσα, εἰ μὴ ἡ κίνησις εἴη. Ἀλλ' οὐ τοῦτο, φησὶν ὁ φιλόσοφος ἐκεῖνος, οὐχ οὕτως ὁ ἡμέτερος νομίζει λόγος, τὸ εἶναι αὐτὴν ἐφ' ἑαυτῆς τὴν εἱμαρμένην ἐν ὑποστάσει τινὶ θεωρουμένην· ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ μία τίς ἐστιν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι συμπάθεια καὶ συνεχές ἐστι τὸ πᾶν ἑαυτῷ καὶ τὰ καθ' ἕκαστον ἐν τῷ παντὶ θεωρούμενα οἷον ἐπὶ σώματος ἑνὸς ἐν μιᾷ συμπνοίᾳ καταλαμβάνεται πάντων πρὸς ἄλληλα τῶν μερῶν συννευόντων, τούτου χάριν ἀρχηγικωτέρας οὔσης τῆς ἄνω λήξεως τὰ περίγεια πάντα τῷ προηγουμένῳ συνδιατίθεται καὶ πρὸς ἐκεῖνο νεύει, κατὰ τὴν ἄνω κίνησιν καὶ τῶν τῇδε πραγμάτων ἐξ ἀνάγκης συγκινουμένων, ἐν διαφόρῳ δέ, καθὼς εἴρηται, τῇ δυνάμει 38 ἑκάστου τῶν ἄστρων θεωρουμένου. ὥσπερ ἐπὶ τῆς ἰατρικῆς φαρμακείας αἱ τῶν εἰδῶν ποιότητες λόγῳ τινὶ τεχνικῷ συμ μιχθεῖσαι ἄλλο τι τὸ ἐκ τοῦ κοινοῦ συγκραθὲν ἀπειργάσαντο καὶ οὐχ ὅπερ ἕκαστον ἦν πρὸ τῆς πρὸς ἄλληλα μίξεως, οὕτω καὶ τῶν ἀστρῴων δυνάμεων ἐν διαφόροις ἰδιότησι θεω ρουμένων, ἡ ποικίλη κατὰ τοὺς προσεγγισμοὺς αὐτῶν καὶ τὰς ἀποστάσεις γινομένη τῶν διαφόρων ἰδιωμάτων συμπλοκὴ τὰς ποικίλας τῶν κατὰ τὸν βίον ἀποτελουμένων διαφορὰς ἐξεργάζεται οἷόν τινος ἀπορροῆς ἀδιασπάστως ἐκεῖθεν ἐφ' ἡμᾶς διηκούσης. διά τοι τοῦτο καὶ παρὰ τῶν ἐπιμελέστε ρον τὰ τοιαῦτα φιλοσοφούντων αἱ προρρήσεις τῶν ἐσομένων οὐχ ἁμαρτάνονται. ὡς γὰρ ὁ τῆς ἰατρικῆς ἐπιστήμων, εἰ τὸ θερμὸν ἢ ναρκῶδες φάρμακον ἀνακραθείη τῷ ἁλμῶντι ἢ παραστύφοντι, προλέγει τὴν συστησομένην ἐκ τῆς τῶν ἑτεροφυῶν μίξεως ἰδιότητα καὶ τί κατεργάζεται καὶ μέχρι τίνος τὴν ἰσχὺν ἔχει καὶ τίνι μὲν ὀλέθριον τίνι δὲ ἀλεξητήριον γίνεται, οὕτως καὶ ὁ τοῖς ἄνω δι' ἐπιμελείας προσεσχηκὼς καὶ τὴν ἑκάστου τῶν ὄντων φύσιν κατανοήσας εἴσεται τὴν ἐκ τῆς ποιᾶς αὐτῶν συμπλοκῆς δύναμιν τί ἀποτελέσει. αὕτη δὲ ἡ ἀπορροὴ οὐδὲ ἐν ὀλίγῳ πρὸς ἑαυτὴν ὁμοίως ἔχει, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ ἀστατεῖν ἀεὶ τῶν ἐπιπλεκομένων ἀλλήλοις ἄστρων τὴν κίνησιν ἀναγκαίως κἀκείνη τῇ συνεχείᾳ τῆς κατὰ τὴν κίνησιν ἑτερότητος συναλλοιοῦται ἀεὶ συμμετακιρναμένη τῇ ποικιλίᾳ τῆς κινήσεως καὶ τὰς ἐνεργείας ἑαυτῆς τῇ κινήσει τῶν ἄστρων συνεξαλλάσσουσα· ἧς τῶν ἐπὶ τὸν βίον παραγομένων ἕκαστος 39 κατὰ τὴν ἐν τῷ ἀκαρεῖ τοῦ διαστήματος ἐπιτυχοῦσαν αὐτῷ μοῖραν σπάσας ἐκεῖνο γίνεται ὅπερ ἡ ἰδιότης τοῦ μέρους ἐκείνου προεμήνυσέ τε καὶ ἀπετέλεσεν· ἀνάγκη γὰρ πᾶσα, καθάπερ ἐν ἐκμαγείῳ σφραγῖδος τῷ ἐντεθέντι κηρῷ τὸ κατὰ τὴν γλυφὴν εἶδος περιτυποῦται, οὕτως καὶ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τὸν βίον, ᾧ ἂν συνενεχθῇ μορίῳ τῆς ἀπορρεούσης δυνάμεως ἐκ τῆς τῶν ἄστρων κινήσεως, κατὰ τὴν ἐκείνου τοῦ μέρους ἰδιότητα τυποῦσθαι κἀκεῖνο γίνεσθαι ὅπερ εἶχεν ἐν ἑαυτῇ τῆς ἀπορροίας ἡ μοῖρα ἣν ἔσπασεν εὐθὺς τοῦ βίου ἀρχόμενος· ᾗ ἅπαξ ἐνσφραγισθεὶς κατὰ τὴν ἐκεῖθεν ὁρισθεῖσαν δύναμιν ἀναγκαίως ἐν τῇ κατὰ τὸν βίον ἰδιότητι συμμορφοῦται ταῦτα ποιῶν ἢ πάσχων ὧν τὰς ἀρχὰς ἢ τὰς αἰτίας ἡ πρώτη ἔντευξις