Oh God, maker of heaven and earth, Who govern the world with eternal reason, at your command time passes from the beginning. You place all things in motion, though You are yourself without change. No external cause impelled You to make thos work from chaotic matter. Rather it was the form of the Highest Good, existing within You without envy, which caused You to fashion all things according to the eternal exemplar. You who are most Beautiful produce the beautiful world from your divine mind and, forming it in your image, You order the perfect parts in a perfect whole.
“You bind the elements in Harmony so that cold and heat, dry and wet are joined, and the pure fire does not fly up through the air, nor the earth sink beneath the Weight of water.
“You release the world-soul throughout the Harmonious parts of the Universe as your surrogate, threefold in its operations, to give Motion to all things. The Souls, thus divided, pursues its revolving course in two circles, and, returning to itself, Embraces the profound mind and transforms heaven to it’s own image.
“In like manner You create souls and lesser living forms and, adapting them to their high flight in swift chariots, You scatter them through the Earth and Sky. And when they have turned again toward You, by your gracious law, You call them back like leaping flames.
“Grant, Oh Father, that my Mind may rise to Thy sacred throne. Let it see the fountain of Good; let it find light, so that the clear light of my soul may fix itself in Thee. Burn off the dogs and clouds of earth and shine through in Thy splendor. For Thou art the serenity, the tranquil peace of virtuous men. The sight of Thee is beginning and end; one guide, leader, path and goal.
—Boethius.
Timaeus; Plato