This marked an irrevocable shift in Western thinking. The old celestial spheres and hierarchies left over from the Middle Ages had already been done in by Newton’s infinite universe with its mathematical laws. As the eighteenth century wore on and Locke’s influence grew, the rest of the traditional Neoplatonist frame fell away as well. The World Soul and its divine emanations dissipated into thin air. So did the Great Chain of Being. What was left was a world of “real time” and absolute spatial dimensions. It was a world without angels or demons or ideal Forms; a world with no unseen forces
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