The Sleepwalkers (11 page)

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3.
"Soft Stillness and the Night"

Extended
to
the
stars,
the
doctrine
took
the
form
of
the
"Harmony
of
the
Spheres".
The
Ionian
philosophers
had
begun
to
prise
open
the
cosmic
oyster,
and
to
set
the
earth
adrift;
in
Anaximander's
universe
the
earth-disc
no
longer
floats
in
water,
but
stands
in
the
centre,
supported
by
nothing
and
surrounded
by
air.
In
the
Pythagorean
universe
the
disc
changes
into
a
spherical
ball.
³
Around
it,
the
sun,
moon
and
planets
revolve
in
concentric
circles,
each
fastened
to
a
sphere
or
wheel.
The
swift
revolution
of
each
of
these
bodies
causes
a
swish,
or
musical
hum,
in
the
air.
Evidently
each
planet
will
hum
on
a
different
pitch,
depending
on
the
ratios
of
their
respective
orbits
–
just
as
the
tone
of
a
string
depends
on
its
length.
Thus
the
orbits
in
which
the
planets
move
form
a
kind
of
huge
lyre
whose
strings
are
curved
into
circles.
It
seemed
equally
evident
that
the
intervals
between
the
orbital
cords
must
be
governed
by
the
laws
of
harmony.
According
to
Pliny,
⁴
Pythagoras
thought
that
the
musical
interval
formed
by
earth
and
moon
was
that
of
a
tone;
moon
to
Mercury,
a
semi-tone;
Mercury
to
Venus,
a
semi-tone;
Venus
to
Sun,
a
minor
third;
Sun
to
Mars,
a
tone;
Mars
to
Jupiter,
a
semi-tone;
Jupiter
to
Saturn,
a
semi-tone;
Saturn
to
the
sphere
of
the
fixed
stars,
a
minor
third.
The
resulting
"Pythagorean
Scale"
is
si,
do,
re
bemol,
fa,
sol,
la
bemol,
do
–
though
the
accounts
of
the
scale
given
by
different
writers
vary
slightly.

According
to
tradition,
the
Master
alone
had
the
gift
of
actually
hearing
the
music
of
the
spheres.
Ordinary
mortals
lack
this
gift,
either
because
they
are
from
the
moment
of
birth,
unknowingly
but
constantly
bathed
in
the
celestial
humming;
or
because
–
as
Lorenzo
explains
to
Jessica
–
they
are
too
grossly
constituted:

...
soft
stillness
and
the
night
Become
the
touches
of
sweet
harmony
...
Look
how
the
floor
of
heaven
Is
thick
inlaid
with
patines
of
bright
gold;
There's
not
the
smallest
orb
which
thou
behold'st
But
in
his
motion
like
an
angel
sings
...
Such
harmony
is
in
immortal
souls;
But,
whilst
this
muddy
vesture
of
decay
Doth
grossly
close
it
in,
we
cannot
hear
it.
⁵

The
Pythagorean
dream
of
musical
harmony
governing
the
motion
of
the
stars
never
lost
its
mysterious
impact,
its
power
to
call
forth
responses
from
the
depth
of
the
unconscious
mind.
It
reverberates
through
the
centuries,
from
Kroton
to
Elizabethan
England;
I
shall
quote
two
more
versions
of
it
–
with
a
purpose
that
will
become
apparent
later.
The
first
is
Dryden's
well-known:

From
harmony,
from
heavenly
harmony,
This
universal
frame
began:
When
nature
underneath
a
heap
Of
jarring
atoms
lay
And
could
not
heave
her
head,
The
tuneful
voice
we
heard
from
high:
Arise,
ye
more
than
dead.

The
second
is
from
Milton's
Arcades
:

But
els
in
deep
of
night
when
drowsiness
Hath
lockt
up
mortal
sense,
then
listen
I
To
the
celestial
Sirens
harmony
...
Such
sweet
compulsion
doth
in
music
ly,
To
lull
the
daughters
of
Necessity,

And
keep
unsteddy
Nature
to
her
law,
And
the
low
world
in
measur'd
motion
draw
After
the
heavenly
tune,
which
none
can
hear
Of
human
mould
with
grosse
unpurged
ear.

But,
one
might
ask,
was
the
"Harmony
of
the
Spheres"
a
poetic
conceit
or
a
scientific
concept?
A
working
hypothesis
or
a
dream
dreamt
through
a
mystic's
ear?
In
the
light
of
the
data
which
astronomers
collected
in
the
centuries
that
followed,
it
certainly
appeared
as
a
dream;
and
even
Aristotle
laughed
"harmony,
heavenly
harmony"
out
of
the
courts
of
earnest,
exact
science.
Yet
we
shall
see
how,
after
an
immense
detour,
at
the
turn
of
the
sixteenth
century,
one
Johannes
Kepler
became
enamoured
with
the
Pythagorean
dream,
and
on
this
foundation
of
fantasy,
by
methods
of
reasoning
equally
unsound,
built
the
solid
edifice
of
modern
astronomy.
It
is
one
of
the
most
astonishing
episodes
in
the
history
of
thought,
and
an
antidote
to
the
pious
belief
that
the
Progress
of
Science
is
governed
by
logic.