On the Heavens (Book)
On the Heavens
350 BC
Aristotle presents a cosmology with the Earth, at the center. He also believes there are four primary elements each with a Natural Place according to its density: Fire, Air, Water, Earth. .An essential point is that things furthest from the center exhibit "superior glory". The dense Earth at the center is inherently defective in that it is not eternal, but ages and dies.
"On all these grounds, therefore, we may infer with confidence that there is something beyond the bodies that are about us on this earth, different and separate from them; and that the superior glory of its nature is proportionate to its distance from this world of ours." - On the Heavens, Chapter II
The aether is an unchanging fifth element which contains the 4-55 concentric spheres beyond Earth. Each is moved by its own god—a divine unmoved mover, and who moves its sphere simply by virtue of being loved by it.
