41. When Goethe had made the ascent of the Brocken, in 1784, during
splendid weather, he expressed his admiration by writing the following
verses from memory, (II, 115): "Quis caelum possit, nisi caeli munere,
nosse | Et reperire deum, nisi qui pars ipse deorum est?"; cf. _Brief an
Frau von Stein_, No. 518, (Schöll) 1885, quoted by Ellis in _Noctes
Manilianae_, p. viii.
42. This idea in the verse of Manilius (n. 41, cf. IV, 910), and which may
be found earlier in _Somnium Scipionis_ (III, 4; see Macrobius, _Comment._
I, 14, § 16; "Animi societatem cum caelo et sideribus habere communem";
Pseudo-Apul., _Asclepius_, c. 6, c. 9. Firmicus Maternus, _Astrol._, I, 5,
§ 10). dates back to Posidonius who made the contemplation of the sky one
of the sources of the belief in God (Capelle, _Jahrb._ {275} _für das
klass. Altertum_, VIII, 1905, p. 534, n. 4), and it is even older than
that, for Hipparchus had already admitted a "cognationem cum homine
siderum, animasque, nostras partem esse caeli" (Pliny, _Hist. nat._, II,
26, § 95).
43. Vettius Valens, IX, 8 (_Cat. codd. astr._, V, 2, p. 123 = p. 346, 20,
Kroll ed.), VI, prooem. (_Cat._, ibid. p. 34, p. 35, 14 = p. 242, 16, 29,
Kroll ed.); cf. the passages of Philo collected by Cohn, _De opificio
mundi_, c. 23, p. 24, and Capelle, _loc. cit._