Part X

from the Earth^and from the Sea, fome whereof are bright and pure, others dark: the Fire is augmented by the bright, the Water by the reft; but wHat that is which includes all, he declares Hitherto Laertius.
not.
fa Lie.- cit.
if
c Strom.
ptac. 2 2 2. 1 Lacrt. m Stob.^
d Pittt. fUc. 4 3. e Plut. plac. i. 28.
f Laert.
g Plac. I. ^3-
(h) Plutarch delivers it thus: That all things itre made by extindion of this Fire ; firft the grofter part of it being contraded, becometh Earth, then the Earth being loofned by the na¬ ture of the Fire, becomes Water ; the Water exhaled, becomes Air. Again, the World and all Bodies fiiall be diflblved in a Conflagration: Fire therefore is the Principle, for all things were made of it ; and the End , becaufe all things are refolved into it.
This is further explain’d by (c) Clemens Alex- anilrmss, out of the words of Heraclitus. That he held, (faith Clemens') the Univerfe to be eternal, is manifeft, for that he faith, the Uni- 'verje tvas not made by anjy either God or Man, but 'ii’as, is, and Jliall be an e'ver-livir.g Fire, kindling meajures, and cyuenching meafures.
That he held this World was generated, and fhall perilTi, is manifeft alfo from his faying. The converfons of Fire, firfi Sea, then the half of Sea, Earth, the Half-prefer, meaning, that by the pav¬ er of that Fire, the IVord and God, who governeth all things, turnetb by Air into moifiure, the feed as it were of the difpojer of the World, which he cal- letb Sea. Of this again is generated Heaven a^d Earth, and all things that are in them.
Laftly, how it returns to its firft: condition, and becomes Fire again, he fhews thus. The Sea is diffufed , and meajured according to the fame pro¬ portion as it was firft, before it was Earth, the like happens to the other Elements. Thus Clemens.
Moreover he held, (d) that the foul of the World is an exhalation of the humid parts there¬ of, and that (t) the ellence of Fate is a rea- fon ( or proportion ) permeating through the Univerfe, which Fate is an ethereal body, the feed of the generation of all things j for (/j all things are done by Fate.
This opinion ( that Fire is tl:ie Principle of all things ) was alferted alfo by Hippafm the Py¬ thagorean ; whom Plutarch, in the account which he gives of it, joins with Heraclitm ; and it is probable, that Heraclitus, being his Difciple, re¬ ceived it from him.
( ^ ) Plutarch adds , that he introduced 4” j'* vvo! , certain parings , the leaft of
things, and not divifible.
ft) The Sun is juft as big as it feems to be, 5 i.aon. (k) his Figure like that of a Boat, the hollow part turned downwards. ( / ) He is in a tranf- parent and unmixt place, ( m) ( that is, in the purer Air) and keeps a proportionable diftance from us, by which means he heatethand lhilne;h more than the Moon, f n) Fie happens to be n r-ht. Eclipfed by reafon of his Boat-like figure, when 2 :4 the hollow thereof is turned upwaids, and the convex part downwards towards us.
( 0) The Moon is a kind of Earth encom- paffed with a Mift, (p) in form like a Boat ;
(^) ftie is nigheft the Earth, and moved in a place that is not pure, the groffer Air. (r) She is Eclipfed, when the hollow part is tprned up- waTds ; and the variety of appearances, which
O Plttt. plac. 2 25, p Plut. p'ac. 2.27. q Lacrt. r Plut. p.
me bath in a Month, are caufed by the turning of her hollow part upwards by degrees.
(s) Day, Night, Months, Hours, Years, Showers, Winds, and the like, are caufed by different Exhalations : for a fplendid Exhalati¬ on, flaming in the circle of the Sun, makes it Day ; the contrary, being predominant, makes it Night; the heat of the fplendid increafing, roaketh Summer ; the moifture of the dark a- bounding,maketh Winter. Suitably to thefe he explained the Caufesof other things; but of the Earth he faid nothing, nor of the Scapbse.
SECT. ‘2.
of the Stars, Sun, Moon, TSiy, Night, &c.
h Laert,
'N the World (h) there are certain Schapba, things in the faftiion of Boats, the hollow i5^s whereof are turned towards us, in which certain fhiniog Exhalations are crowded, which caufe flames. Thefe Flames arc the Scars, nou- riftied by Exhalations, arifing out of the Earth. Of thefe, the Flame of the Sun is the brightelt and hotteft, by reafon that the other Stars are nmre diftant from the Earth, and therefore ftiinc and heat Jsfs.
S Lacrt.
• )
SECT. 3.
Of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea.
THe Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea is cau- Plut.plaa fed by the Sun, whichftirrech, raifethand 3* ‘7* carrieth about with him the moft part of the Winds, which coming to blow upon the Ocean, caufe the Atlantkk Sea to fwell, and fb make the Flux or High-Water ; but when the faqie are alily’d, the Sea falleth low, and fo caufeth a Reflux and Ebb.
SECT.
Of living Creatures.
the Nature (a) of the Soul, he faid. It a Laert.
is fo profound, as that it cannot by any means be found out : He only alferted, (b ) That ^ it is, as all other things are, an Exhalation ; that which is without, and that which is within, be- ing all of one Nature : it is incorporeal and al¬ ways in fluxion. That it is moved, is evident from it’s being moved ; (cj Of Souls, the dry ^ is the wifeft and beft. ^7-
(d) Man beginneth to be perfect about his d Pkt. fecond feventh year, at what time the genera- tive vigour beginneth to move : for then Trees begin to be perfedr, when they begin to bring forth ; for as long as they bear no Fruit, they are immature, and imperfed:. Moreover, at that time a Man comes to the knowledge of good and ill, and is capable of being infttuded therein. •
T H 2