'Heracleitus: in consequence of the turning of the boat-like PLUTARCH figure, so that the concavity is above, and the convexity below

facing our eyes.

'Xenophanes by extinction, and then again there rises another Sun in the east. But he has incidentally mentioned an P. 848 eclipse of the Sun lasting over the whole month, and again a total eclipse, so that the day seemed like night.

'Some say that it is a condensation of the invisible clouds coming over the Sun's disk.

'Aristarchus sets the Sun among the fixed stars, and makes the Moon move round the Sun's orbit, and the Sun's disk to be overshadowed in consequence of these inclinations.

Xenophanes there are many suns and moons, corresponding to the climes, and sections, and zones of the Earth: and at a certain season the Sun's disk falls into some section of the Earth which is not inhabited by us, and thus, as if stepping into a hole, b suffers eclipse. But the same author says that the Sun goes forward into infinity, but seems to revolve because of its distance.'

'ANAXIMANDER: from the closing of the orifice of its circum

ference.

'Berossus : because of the turning of the dark side towards us. C 'Heracleitus: because of the turning of the boat-like figure. 'Of the Pythagoreans some say that it is an outshining and obstruction by our Earth or the counter-earth: but the more recent say that it is in consequence of the spreading of a flame which is gradually kindled in an orderly manner, until it produces the complete full moon, and decreases again in like manner until the conjunction, at which it is entirely extinguished.

'Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and the Mathematicians agree that it effects its monthly obscurations by travelling round with the Sun and sharing its illumination; but the eclipses by falling d into the shadow of the Earth when that comes between the two luminaries, or rather when it obstructs the light from the Moon.'

CHAPTER LII

PLUTARCH

OF THE MOON'S ASPECT, AND WHY IT HAS AN EARTHLIKE
APPEARANCE.

'THE Pythagoreans say that the Moon has an earthlike appearance, because it is inhabited like our Earth, but by larger p. 849 animals and more beautiful plants. For the animals upon it are fifteen times as large, and emit no bodily secretion; and that the day is longer in the same proportion.

'Anaxagoras: on account of an unevenness in the mixture, because of its being both cold and earthy: for the misty part is mingled with the fiery, whence the Moon is also said to shine Iwith false light.

The Stoics: because of the admixture of air in its substance its composition is not pure.'

CHAPTER LIII

OF THE MOON'S DISTANCES.

'EMPEDOCLES: the Moon is distant from the Sun twice as far as from the Earth.

"The Mathematical School: eighteen times as far.

'Eratosthenes: the Sun's distance from the Earth is four millions and eighty thousand stades: but the Moon's distance from the Earth seven hundred and eighty thousand stades.'

CHAPTER LIV

OF YEARS.

'A YEAR of Saturn is a period of thirty years: of Jupiter twelve; of Mars two; of the Sun twelve months; and the same for Mercury and Venus, for they run an equal course. But the Moon's is thirty days: for this is the complete month from first appearance to conjunction.

'The Great Year some suppose to consist in a period of eight years, but others in nineteen years, and others in fifty-nine. Heracleitus makes it consist of eighteen thousand solar years: Diogenes of three hundred and sixty-five years, as many as the

year has days according to Heracleitus: but others of seven PLUTARCH thousand, seven hundred, and seventy-seven years.'

So widely do the aforesaid persons differ from each other in regard to things in the heavens above. now look also at their opinions about the Earth.

CHAPTER LV

OF THE EARTH.

'THALES and his followers say that the Earth is one.

But

'Hicetas the Pythagorean says that there are two, this and the antipodal earth.

The Stoics: the Earth is one, and finite.

'Xenophanes from the lower part its roots reach into infinity,

and it is composed of air and fire.

'Metrodorus: the Earth is the deposit and sediment of the water, and the Sun of the air.'

CHAPTER LVI

OF THE FIGURE OF THE EARTH,

THALES and the Stoics: the Earth is spherical.

'Anaximander: it is like a stone pillar supporting the

surfaces.

'Anaximenes like a table.

'Leucippus: like a kettle-drum.

'Democritus: like a disk in its extension, but hollow in the

middle.'

CHAPTER LVII

OF THE POSITION OF THE EARTH.

'THE followers of Thales say the Earth is the centre. 'Xenophanes the Earth first, for its roots reach into infinity. 'Philolaus the Pythagorean: first, fire in the centre; for this is the hearth of the universe: second, the antipodal Earth, and third, the Earth which we inhabit, opposite to the antipodal both in situation and revolution; in consequence of which the inhabitants of the antipodal Earth are not seen by those in this Earth.

d

p. 850

'Parmenides was the first to mark off the inhabited parts of c the Earth under the two tropical zones.' rf

*.* (2)

913

PLUTARCH

CHAPTER LVIII

OF THE EARTH'S MOTION.

'ALL the others say that the Earth is at rest.

'But Philolaus the Pythagorean says that it revolves round the d fire in an oblique circle, in like manner as the Sun and Moon.

'Heracleides of Pontus, and Ecphantus the Pythagorean make the Earth move, not however by change of place, but by rotation, turning like a wheel on an axle, from west to east, about its own centre.

'Democritus: at first the Earth used to change its place, owing to its smallness and lightness; but as in the course of time it grew dense and heavy, it became stationary.'

After the utterance of these different opinions by the noble philosophers concerning the Earth, hear now what they say of the Sea.

CHAPTER LIX

p. 851 OF THE SEA, HOW IT WAS COMPOSED, AND WHY IT IS SALT.

'ANAXIMANDER says that the Sea is the remnant of the original moisture, the greater part of which was dried up by the fire, and the remainder changed through its burning heat.

'Anaxagoras: when the water, which in the beginning was b a stagnant lake, was burnt up by the Sun's revolution, and the greasy part evaporated, the remainder subsided into saltness and bitterness.

'Empedocles: the Sea is the sweat of the Earth when scorched by the Sun, because of the increased condensation.

'Antiphon: the sweat of the hot part, from which the included moisture was separated, turned salt by being boiled down, which happens always in the case of sweat.

'Metrodorus: from being drained through the earth it has parC taken of its density, just as liquids which are strained through ashes. 'Plato and his followers of the elementary water the part formed out of air, being condensed by cooling, became sweet; but the part formed from earth, being evaporated by heat and burning, became salt.'

850 0 4 Plutarch, De Placitis Philosophorum, 896 A

8511 ibid. 896 F

So much, then, concerning the Sea. But as to those who professed to give physiological explanations about the whole world, and things celestial and ethereal, and the conception of the universe, how little they knew even of their own nature, you may learn from their discordant utterances on these points also, as follows.

CHAPTER LX

OF THE PARTS OF THE SOUL.

'PYTHAGORAS, Plato: in the first analysis the Soul has two PLUTARCH parts; for it has one part rational and another irrational. But in close and exact consideration, its parts are three: for they · distinguish the irrational into the irascible and the appetitive.

The Stoics: it is composed of eight parts; five senses, sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch; and a sixth, speech; a seventh, generation; and an eighth, the actual ruling principle, from which proceeds the extension of all these through their proper p. 852 organs, in a similar manner to the tentacles of the polypus.

'Democritus, Epicurus: the Soul consists of two parts, its rational faculty being settled in the breast, and the irrational diffused over the whole complexity of the body.

'But Democritus thought that all things, even dead bodies, naturally partake of a certain kind of soul, because in an obscure way they have some warmth and sensation, though the greater part is dissipated.'

CHAPTER LXI

OF THE RULING FACULTY.

'PLATO, Democritus: it is in the head as a whole.

'Straton: between the eyebrows.

'Erasistratus: about the membrane of the brain, which he

calls the epicranis.

'Herophilus: in the cavity of the brain, which is also its base.

Parmenides: in the breast as a whole.

'Epicurus, and all the Stoics: in the heart as a whole.

b

'Diogenes: in the arterial cavity of the heart, which is full of C breath.

d a Plutarch, ibid. 898 E