I have already specified the sense in which I understand the Platonic Timæus to affirm, or rather to imply, the rotation of the earth; and that sense is not open to the objections raised in M. Cousin's fourth and fifth arguments. The rotation of the earth, as it appears in the Platonic Timæus, explains nothing, and is not intended to explain anything. It is a consequence, not a cause: it is a consequence arising from the position of the earth, as packed or fastened round the centre of the cosmical axis, whereby the earth participates, of necessity and as a matter of course, in the movements of that axis. The _function_ of the earth, thus planted in the centre of the kosmos, is to uphold and regulate the revolutions of the cosmical axis; and this function explains, in the scheme of the Platonic Timæus, why the axis revolves uniformly and constantly without change or displacement. Now upon these revolutions of the cosmical axis all the revolutions of the exterior sphere depend. This is admitted by M. Cousin himself in argument 3. There is therefore every reason why Plato should assign such regulating function to the earth, the "first and oldest of intra-kosmic deities." The movement of the earth (as I before observed) is only an incidental consequence of the position necessary for the earth to occupy in performing such function. 5. "Enfin Platon assigne un mouvement aux étoiles fixes, et deux mouvemens aux planètes; puisqu'il ne range la terre ni avec les unes ni avec les autres, il y a lieu de croire qu'elle ne participe à aucun de leurs mouvemens." In so far as this argument is well-founded, it strengthens my case more than that of M. Cousin. The earth does not participate in the movements either of the fixed stars or of the planets; but it does participate in the revolutions of the cosmical axis, upon which these movements depend--the movements of the outer sphere, wholly and exclusively--the movements of the planets, to a very great degree, but not exclusively. The earth is not ranked either among the fixed stars or among the planets; it is a body or deity _sui generis_, having a special central function of its own, to regulate that cosmical axis which impels the whole system. The earth has a motion of its own, round and along with the cosmical axis to which it is attached; but this motion of the earth (I will again repeat, to prevent misapprehension) is a fact not important by itself, nor explaining anything. The grand and capital fact is the central position and regulating function of the earth, whereby all the cosmical motions, first those of the axis, next those of the exterior kosmos, are upheld and kept uniform. M. Cousin adds, as a sixth argument:-- "On peut ajouter à ces raisons que Platon aurait nécessairement insisté sur le mouvement de la terre, s'il l'avait admis; et que ce point étoit trop controversé de son temps et trop important en lui-même, pour qu'il ne fît que l'indiquer en se servant d'une expression équivoque."