Hence it cometh that whereas there are
many things in Nature as it were monodica, sui juris, yet the
cogitations of man do feign unto them relatives, parallels, and
conjugates, whereas no such thing is; as they have feigned an
element of fire to keep square with earth, water, and air, and the
like. Nay, it is not credible, till it be opened, what a number of
fictions and fantasies the similitude of human actions and arts,
together with the making of man communis mensura, have brought into
natural philosophy; not much better than the heresy of the
Anthropomorphites, bred in the cells of gross and solitary monks,
and the opinion of Epicurus, answerable to the same in heathenism,
who supposed the gods to be of human shape. And, therefore,
Velleius the Epicurean needed not to have asked why God should have
adorned the heavens with stars, as if He had been an aedilis, one
that should have set forth some magnificent shows or plays. For if
that great Work-master had been of a human disposition, He would
have cast the stars into some pleasant and beautiful works and
orders like the frets in the roofs of houses; whereas one can scarce
find a posture in square, or triangle, or straight line, amongst
such an infinite number, so differing a harmony there is between the
spirit of man and the spirit of Nature.
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