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sages is stated that, as the motions of the heavens are
circular, certainly the compasses return to the same
point from which the circumference began to be
drawn, and when at a second revolution the com-
passes run over the same line upon which the former
circumference was drawn, undoubtedly, whatsoever
has been granted in the former circumference, shall
be granted again; as there is no disparity between
two circumferences, there will be no disparity be-
tween their traces; because the phenomena, having
returned to that order in which they were found in
the beginning, the stars and heavens, having made
their revolution about the former centre, the dis-
tances, contiguities, appearances, and relations hav-
ing in no aspect been contrary to the former aspects,
certainly the influences which manifested themselves
from yonder origin shall in no manner be different.

This is called in Persian mahin cherkh, " the great
" circle;" and in Arabic dawrah-4 kabra.

Farabi * says : the vulgar form to their own sight

Abu Nas'r Muhammed Ebn Turkhan al Farabi, a native of Farab,
a town situated on the occidental confines of Turkestan, afterwards
called Otrar. He is esteemed as the greatest philosopher among the
Muselmans, and at the same time the most detached from the world. To
him is attributed the translation of Aristotle's Analytics, under the title
of Anoluthica. Avisenna confessed to have derived all his science from
him. Ghazali counts Farabi and Avisenna among the philosophers who
believed the eternity of the world, but not without a first mover, which
doctrine is believed by the Muselmans to be atheistical. Farabi died in