Ocellus Lucanus: On the Nature of the Universe

...and the matter, which was unknown to very few of the ancients (ibid. summary 2, ch. 1 & 2); and moreover the elements themselves, which were most well-known to Pythagoras (ibid. summary n. 2, ch. 3); at the same time, having most diligently reviewed their qualities and mutations, he contemplates them with skillful zeal, so that from there an easy method of philosophizing might be prepared for the Academics and Peripatetics. In order that it may appear how successfully this has happened, and that the utility of these dogmas (which were able to obtain such great imitators) may shine forth more brightly, The sayings of Ocellus are to be confirmed by the authority of Plato and Aristotle. I have thought it not useless nor unpleasant for the reader to weave in everywhere whatever opinions of Plato and Aristotle I had seen to be in harmony with these, for I have always wished to fortify the truth of the dogma with such a weighty consensus of wise men. To the aforesaid things, which the mind of Ocellus, as a contemplator of nature, had dictated, that part is attached Why the second part of the book is called political. which I thought should be entitled "Political," either because those things which are prescribed there concerning human origin—both piously and eruditely—contribute as much as possible to civil life; or because, although someone might think those things should be transferred to ethical contemplations, since the author there demands piety, temperance, and other ethical virtues with a strict purpose, nevertheless it is unknown to no one that he also treats of these things as "a certain political method" (μέθοδός πολιτική τις οὖσα), as it is said in the Ethics, book 1, ch. 1. And in it, the author contemplates human nature, yet in such a way that the name "nature" has been accustomed to express certain progresses toward the origin of man (Aristotle, Physics 1.4); which certainly had to be provided with skillful zeal by him who desired to describe the nature of the universe exactly; for if you look at man, Seneca, De beneficiis, book 6, ch. 23. "among the greatest of her works, nature has nothing of which she may boast more, or certainly for whom she may boast."

The utility of the work. Cicero, De natura deorum, book 2. From this, indeed, the greatest utility of this work appears, if we observe the matter which the book encompasses; for what part more worthy of a philosopher might a wise man choose, than that which contemplates the universe, its parts, and their duties with a most elegant method? For they are from the ear-