Very popular also, both in classical and mediæval times, was his _Dream of Scipio_, which was an imitation of Plato’s fable of the vision of Er, in the _Republic_. The moral is that earthly fame is valueless, since Earth itself is insignificant compared with the starry heavens, but that those who practice virtue for its own sake shall return to the stars whence their souls originally came. The youthful Scipio is transported to the skies in a dream, and meets the souls of his father and of the elder Scipio Africanus in “a radiant circle of dazzling whiteness, which you have learned from the Greeks to call the Milky Way.” There he sees “stars which we never saw from this place, and their magnitudes were such as we never imagined, the smallest of which was that which, placed upon the extremity of the heavens, but nearest to the earth, shone with borrowed light.” But the shining globes of the stars are so great that Earth seems to have contracted to a point, and Scipio gazes at it, grieved. “How long will your gaze be fixed on Earth?” cries Africanus. “Do you not see into what temples you have entered?” and he points out nine spheres which compose the whole universe. The outermost, in which the stars are fixed, is most divine, and within this are seven, one of which contains the planet called Saturn upon earth, the next the glorious Jupiter, friendly and helpful to mankind, then Mars, ruddy and terrible, and the next place in the middle region is held by the sun, the leader, prince, and governor of all other luminaries, the soul of the world, filling all things with his light. Venus and Mercury follow him in their courses, like attendants, and in the lowest sphere rolls the moon, kindled by his rays. Below this, all is mortal and transitory, except the souls given to the human race by the grace of the gods; above the moon all is eternal. Earth, which is at the centre and forms the ninth sphere, is immoveable and below all the rest; and all weights, by their natural gravitation, fall towards her. Scipio then asks what is the sound which fills his ears, so loud and yet so sweet? and he is told that he hears the music of the spheres, which is too great for mortal ears, just as the sun is too bright for human eyes to look upon. Yet those who make music upon Earth, with strings or voice, like all others who follow heavenly pursuits, are opening for themselves a path by which to return to the stars, the true home of the soul. [Sidenote: Strabo born _c._ B.C. 63.] [Sidenote: Seneca B.C. 3-A.D. 65.] [Sidenote: Pliny _c._ A.D. 23-79.] [Sidenote: Proclus died _c._ 480 A.D.] [Sidenote: Martianus Capella, 5th century A.D.] [Sidenote: Simplicius 5th century A.D.]