• The music of the spheres. Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice , V 1:⁠— “Look, how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold; There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st, But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins: Such harmony is in immortal souls; But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.” And Milton, Hymn on Christ’s Nativity :⁠— “Ring out, ye crystal spheres, Once bless our human ears, If ye have power to touch our senses so; And let your silver chime Move in melodious time; And let the bass of Heaven’s deep organ blow; And, with your ninefold harmony, Make up full consort to the angelic symphony.” Rixner, Handbuch der Geschichte der Philosophie , I 100, speaking of the ten heavens, or the Lyre of Pythagoras, says:⁠— “These ten celestial spheres are arranged among themselves in an order so mathematical and musical, that is so harmonious, that the sphere of the fixed stars, which is above the sphere of Saturn, gives forth the deepest tone in the music of the universe (the World-Lyre strung with ten strings), and that of the Moon the highest.” Cicero, in his Vision of Scipio , inverts the tones. He says, Edmonds’s Tr.