[253] "Nec fratris radiis obnoxia surgere Luna" (Virg. _Georg._ i. 396) (F. W. S.).
[254] _Influence_, much used as an astrological term. Cf. Milton:
"Taught the fix'd their _influence_ malignant when to shower."
"Bending one way their precious _influence_."
[255] _Plato_ never pretends that the "music of the spheres" can be heard. He adopts the theory to some extent from the Pythagoreans. Aristotle (_de Coelo_, ii. 9), that the noise caused by the movements of the heavenly bodies is so prodigious and continuous, that, being accustomed to it from our birth, we do not notice it. The only notice in Plato that can be construed into a statement about audible music of the spheres is in _Rep._ x., where he speaks of a siren standing upon each of the circles of the planetary system uttering one note in one tone; and from all the eight notes there results a single harmony (F. W. S.).
[257] It is quite possible that Motteux, who published the third book of Rabelais after Urquhart's death, is responsible for some of the interpolations.
[258] Book iii. chap 13. _Fontenay le Comte_ in Lower Poitou and _Niort_ were noted for their busy yearly fairs. There can be doubt that the above passage was suggested to Rabelais by what St Jerome records of the experience of St Hilarion in the desert. "Sic attentuatus," he says, "[jejunio et vigiliis], et in tantum exeto corpore, ut ossibus vix haereret, quadam nocte cœpit infantum audire vagitus, balatus pecorum, mugitus boum, planctum quasi mulierum, leonum rugitus, murmur exercitus, et prorsus variarum portenta vocum," etc. (_Vita Sancti Hilarionis_). In Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_ (iii. 4. 1. 2) there is the following reference to the same passage: "Monks, Anachorites, and the like, after much emptiness become melancholy, vertiginous, they think they hear strange noises, confer with Hob-goblins, Devils.... _Hilarion_, as _Hierome_ reports in his life, and _Athanasius of Antonius_, was so bare with fasting, _that the skin did scarce stick to the bones_; for want of vapours (_sic_) he could not sleep, and for want of sleep became idle-headed, _heard every night infants cry, Oxen low, Wolves howl, Lions roar (as he thought), clattering of chains, strange voices, and the like illusions of Devils_." It is probable also that Rabelais had read the following passage in the _Life of Geta_, by Ælius Spartianus (c. A.D. 317): "Familiare illi fuit has quæstiones grammaticis proponere, ut dicerent, singula animalia quomodo vocem emitterent, velut, Agni balant, porcelli grumniunt, palumbes minurriunt, ursi saeviunt, leones rugiunt, leopardi rictant, elephanti barriunt, ranæ coaxant, equi hinniunt, asini rudunt, tauri mugiunt, easque de veteribus approbare." Nor is it likely that Rabelais was unacquainted with the verses in Teofilo Folengo's (1491-1544) _Merlini Cocaii Macaronicon_, which run thus: