Of this, in order to produce something which should express his own goodness,[31] the Creator formed the four elements,—earth, water, air, and fire,—and of them he made a world, which became a fair and intelligent being, animated by a living soul. He made it in the most perfect form, that of a sphere, polished and smooth on the outside, “as if from a lathe.” The soul was placed in the centre, and hence diffused throughout the whole bodily frame. It is the cause of the harmonious motions of the stars, and of these there are two kinds: the motion of the Same (the diurnal revolution of the whole heavens) is in the noblest direction, simple and uniform; the motion of the Diverse is in the opposite direction and diagonal to the first, and it is divided into seven parts (the seven orbits of the planets), which bear certain definite ratios to one another. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [31] Compare _Par._ vii. 64-66. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Timaeus does not name the planets, but in the _Republic_ Socrates names some, and indicates the rest by their colour or other characteristic,[32] so we know that the order which he assigns to them, counting outwards from the central earth, is: Moon, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [32] See his famous description of the eight spheres, on each of which stands a siren, singing, while the whole system turns upon a diamond spindle, the end of which rests upon the knees of Necessity. This book was not known in the Middle Ages. ------------------------------------------------------------------------