Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/52

18 plikt's NATTJEAL HISTOET. [Book II. were, witloi the stars, as Yarro suggests ^ In confirmation of this idea we may adduce the Zodiac^, in which are twelve figures of animals ; through them it is that the sun has con- tinued its course for so many ages. CHAP. 4. (5.) — or THE ELEMENTS^ AlfD THE PLAISTETS^. I do not find that any one has doubted that there are four elements. The highest of these is supposed to be fire, and hence proceed the eyes of so many glittering stars. The next is that spirit, which both the Greeks and ourselves call by the same name, air^. It is by the force of this vital prin- cijDle, pervading all things and mingling with all, that the earth, together with the fourth element, water, is balanced in ^ De Ling. Lat. lib. iv. p. 7, 8. See also the remarks on the derivation of the word in Gresner, Thes., in loco. 2 "Signifer." The EngHsh term is taken from the Greek word Zw^iaKos, derived from Zwov ; see Aristotle, De Mundo, cap. 2. p. 602. The word Zodiacus does not occur in PHny, nor is it employed by Ptolemy ; he names it Xo^os kvkXos, obliquus circidus ; Magn. Const, i. 7, 13, et alibi. It is used by Cicero, but professedly as a Greek term ; Divm. ii. 89, and Arati Phsenom. 1. 317. It occurs in Hyginus, p. 57 et alibi, and in A. GeUius, 13. 9. Neither signifer taken substantively, nor zodiacus occur in Lucretius or in Manihus. 3 The accoxmt of the elements, of their nature, difference, and, more especially, the necessity of their being four, are folly discussed by Aristotle in various parts of his works, more particularly in his treatise De Coelo, hb. iii. cap. 3, 4 and 5, lib. iv. cap. 5, and De Gener. et Cor. hb. ii. cap. 2, 3, 4 and 5. For a judicious summary of the opinions of Aristotle on this subject, I may refer to Stanley's History of Philosophy; Aristotle, doctrines of, p. 2. 1. 7, and to Enfield, i. 764 et seq. For the Epicm'ean doctrine, see Lucretius, i. 764 et seq. ^ Although the word planeta, as taken from the Greek TrXavfjrrjs, is inserted in the title of this chapter, it does not occur in any part of the text. It is not found either in Lucretius, Manihus, or Seneca, nor, I beheve, was it used by any of their contemporaries, except Hyginus, p. 76. The planets were generally styled stellcs erraticce, errantes, or vagce^ sidera palantia, as in Lucretius, ii. 1030, or simply the five stars, as in Cicero, De Nat. Deor. ii. 51, and in Seneca, Nat. Qusest. vii. 24. PHny, by including the sun and moon, makes the number seven. Ai-atus calls them TrevT dffrepes, 1. 454. ^ " Aer." " Circumfasa undique est (terra) hac animabili spirabilique natura, cui nomen est aer ; Grsecmn illud quidem, sed perceptum jam tamen usu a nobis ;" Cicero, De Nat. Deor. ii. 91.