Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/64

30 PLIKT's TfATUEAL HISTOET. [Book II. Juno others of Isis, and others of the Mother of the Gods. By its influence everything in the earth is generated. For, as it rises in either direction, it sprinkles everything with its genial dew, and not only matures the productions of the earth, but stimulates all living things^. It completes the circuit of the zodiac in 348 days, never receding from the sun more than 46 degrees, according to Timseus^. Similarly circumstanced, but by no means equal in size and in power, next to it, is the star Mercury, by some called Apollo^ ; it is carried in a lower orbit, and moves in a course which is quicker by nine days, shining sometimes before the rising of the sun, and at other times after its setting, but never going farther from it than 23 degrees^, as we learn from Timseus and Sosigenes^. The natiu-e of these two stars is peculiar, and is not the same with those mentioned above, for those are seen to recede from the sun through one-third or one-fourth part of the heavens, and are often seen opposite to it. They have also other larger circuits, in which they ^ Aristotle informs us, that it was called either Phosphorus, Juno, or Venus ; De Mundo, cap. 2. t. i. p. 602. See also Hyginus, Poet. Astr. lib. iii. p. 76, 7 ; and Apuleius, De Mundo, § 710. 2 It will be scarcely necessary to refer the reader to the weU-known commencement of Lucretius' s poem for the illustration of this passage ; it is remarkable that Pliny does not refer to this writer. 3 The periodical revolution of Venus is 224*7 days, see note ^, p. 27. Its greatest elongation is 47° 1' ; SomerviUe, § 641. p. 391. ^ Accorduig to Ai'istotle, tliis planet had the three appellations of Stilbon, Mercury, and Apollo ; De Mundo, cap. 2. p. 602 ; see also Apu- leius, De Mimdo, § 710. Cicero inverts the order of the planets ; he places Mercury next to Mars, and says of Venus, that it is " infima quinque eri'antium, terrseque proxima;" De Nat. Deor. ii. 53. Aristotle places the stars in the same order, ubi supra, and he is followed in this by Apuleius, ubi supra ; this appears to have been the case with the Stoics generally ; see Enfield's Phil. i. 339. ^ For the periodical revolution of Mercury see note ^, p. 27. Its greatest elongation, according to Playfau*, p. 160, is 28°. Mrs. SomerviUe, p. 386, states it to be 28° 8'. Ptolemy supposed it to be 26*5 degrees ; ; Almagest, ix. 7. We learn from Hardouin, Lemaire, i. 246, that there is considerable variation in the MSS. with respect to the greatest elonga- tion of Mercury. ^ Sosigenes was an Egyptian mathematician and astronomer, who is said to have assisted Csesar in the formation of his Kalendar, as our author informs us in a subsequent part of his work, xviii. 25 ; see abo Aikin, G-en. Biog., in loco ; Enfield's Plnl. ii. 96 ; WheweU, p. 210 ; and Hardouin's " Index Auctorimi," in Lemaire, i. 213.