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of Paradise and compare or measure it against the size or
greatness of the earth, or indeed who can comprehend [the distance]
from the earth to the firmament, much less the unmeasurable
greatness above the firmament, for that greatness is unmeasurable,
without end or measure. Certainly the firmament on high is so
spacious, noble, and large in every sense that man can scarcely
think or estimate the number of similarly massive objects, like
the whole earth, that would be needed to fill it if it were all
in one mass. Who is the person who would know how to
comprehend its greatness, when so many objects have been
gathered together, each so large that it contains the whole
earth? Nevertheless we will tell you what we can most
usefully think and image about them. [rubric:] Of the greatness
of the firmament and of the sky that is above it. [/rubric]
If the earth were larger and more spacious than it is, big enough
to have a hundred thousand times more people than there has ever
been in the world, and if each of them was so virile that
he could engender another every day for a hundred thousand
years, and if each of these was as big as a