do they perish in connexion with particular persons, nor does a falling star indicate that any one is dead. We are not so closely connected with the heavens as that the shining of the stars is affected by our death[1]. When they are supposed to shoot or fall[2], they throw out, by the force of their fire, as if from an excess of nutriment, the superabundance of the humour which they have absorbed, as we observe to take place from the oil in our lamps, when they are burning[3]. The nature of the celestial bodies is eternal, beg interwoven, as it were, with the world, and, by this union, rendering it solid; but they exert their most powerful influence on the earth. This, notwithstanding its subtilty, may be known by the clearness and the magnitude of the effect, as we shall point out in the proper place[4]. The account of the circles of the heavens will be better understood when we come to speak of the earth, since they have all a reference to it; except what has been discovered respecting the Zodiac, which I shall now detail.
Anaximander the Milesian, in the 58th olympiad[5], is said to have been the first who understood its obliquity, and thus opened the road to a correct knowledge of the subject[6].
- ↑ There are certain metaphorical expressions, which have originated from this opinion, adopted by the moderns; "his star is set;" "the star of his fortune," &c.
- ↑ Ovid, when he compares Phaëton to a falling star, remarks, concerning this meteor,—
"Etsi non cecidit, potuit cecidisse videri." Metam. ii. 322.
- ↑ Manilius supposes that comets are produced and rendered luminous by an operation very similar to the one described in the text; i. 815 et seq. Seneca, in the commencement of his Nat. Quæst., and in other parts of the same treatise, refers to this subject. His remarks may be worth perusing by those who are curious to learn the hypotheses of the ancients on subjects of natural science. We may remark, that Seneca's opinions are, On many points, more correct than our author's.
- ↑ The author probably refers to that part of his work in which he treats on agriculture, particularly to the 17th and 18th books.
- ↑ The æra of the Olympiads commenced in the year 776 before Christ; each olympiad consists of 4 years; the 58th olympiad will therefore include the interval 548 to 544 b.c. The 21st vol. of the "Universal History" consists entirely of a "chronological table," and we have aj useful table of the same kind in Brewster's Encycl., article "Chronology."
- ↑ "rerum fores aperuisse. . . . traditur." An account of the astronomy of Anaximander is contained in Brewster's Encycl., article "Astronomy," p. 587, and in the article "Anaximander" in the supplement to
