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Crystalʹline (3 syl.)

.

The Crystalline sphere. According to Ptolemy, between the “primum mobile” and the firmament or sphere of the fixed stars comes the crystalʹline sphere, which oscillates or has a shimmering motion that interferes with the regular motion of the stars.

“They pass the planets seven, and pass the ‘fixedʹ

And that crystalʹline sphere, whose balance weighs

The trepidation talked (of).”

Milton: Paradise Lost, iii.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.