The distances
of the various heavenly bodies from one another were conceived to
correspond to the proportions of the musical scale. The heavenly
bodies, with the gods who inhabited them, were supposed to perform
a choral dance round the central fire, "not without song." It is
this doctrine which Shakspeare alludes to when he makes Lorenzo
teach astronomy to Jessica in this fashion:
"Look, Jessica, see how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold!
There's not the smallest orb that thou behold'st
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim;
Such harmony is in immortal souls!
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in we cannot hear it."
--Merchant of Venice.
The spheres were conceived to be crystalline or glassy fabrics
arranged over one another like a nest of bowls reversed. In the
substance of each sphere one or more of the heavenly bodies was
supposed to be fixed, so as to move with it. As the spheres are
transparent we look through them and see the heavenly bodies which
they contain and carry round with them. But as these spheres
cannot move on one another without friction, a sound is thereby
produced which is of exquisite harmony, too fine for mortal ears
to recognize.
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