BOOK VII

After a brief introduction, marked by no little elegance and literary skill, the author introduces the subject of the heavenly bodies, and more especially of Comets which he is to discuss in this Book. He proposes at the outset to endeavour to ascertain whether the earth stands still while the universe revolves round it, or if it is the universe that remains at rest while the earth revolves. But he is led on from one topic to another, without having arrived at a definite solution of this problem when the volume comes to an end. From various expressions, however, it may be inferred that he adhered to the primitive belief that it is the universe which goes round the earth. Thus in Chapter IX. he speaks of the movement that drags the universe along and asks what is swifter than that revolution (281). The heavenly bodies may not stand or turn aside, they all move onward with the irrevocable movement of this eternal creation (299).

The opinions of various philosophers on comets are quoted and criticised. He is especially severe in his comments on Epigenes, who thought that comets are produced somewhat as fires are excited by whirlwinds. The Greek threefold classification of comets is cited, and then Artemidorus comes in for his share of vituperation; to disprove his theory of the firmament being a solid roof to the world would be, in the author’s opinion, nothing but beating the air. Ephorus fares no better, being briefly dismissed as often deceiving and often deceived. Apollonius of Myndus held that many comets are distinct planetary bodies, which wax and wane like the planets, being brightest when they are nearest us and growing dimmer as they recede to a greater distance. But Seneca refuses to admit that they have the character of true planets; in his view they are insubstantial irregular fire (291). But he does not agree with his Stoic brethren in regarding them as generated in dense air and pursuing their course according to where they can find fuel to sustain them (292–4). He conceives that they are not mere sudden and transient fires, but belong to the eternal works of nature. They steadily traverse their course, and he can understand that they may have such wide orbits as to carry them far beyond the limits of the Zodiac (296). He can see no reason why the five planets then known should be the only stars that move across the sky, though others had not yet been discovered. Astronomy, he remarks, is in its infancy, many mysteries of nature remain still to be discovered, and the day will come when posterity will marvel at our ignorance of things which will then appear to be so evident. Some future observer will demonstrate the paths of the comets, why they wander so far from the other stars, and what is their size and constitution. We may be content with what we have found out, and leave something for posterity to discover.

In a tone of sad pessimism he brings his volume to a close. From a contemplation of the glories that might be achieved by mankind in searching out the marvels of creation he turns to his own age and his own country, only to see on every side proofs of decadence. No one now cared for the pursuit of wisdom. Philosophy and every liberal study were neglected. The schools of philosophy were dying. If his countrymen even now would set themselves with all their energy to the task, if the young would give their sober attention and the elders would teach them, they would scarcely succeed in reaching the bottom of the well in which truth lies. Meanwhile they were searching merely on the surface of the ground and with but a slack hand.

NOTES BY TRANSLATOR

“AIR”

The word “air” occurs in the text over 200 times, but not always as a translation of the same Latin word. With a term so elastic and so ambiguous it would have been mere pedantry to attempt a uniform rendering; and indeed such uniform rendering would have been more misleading than the course adopted of rendering according to the context, which the idiom of our language seemed to demand.

Seneca has two main terms for air--_aër_ and _spiritus_. _Aër_ means, generally speaking, either air generically, or the atmosphere specifically. _Spiritus_, on the other hand, denotes air under certain conditions of tension, or strain, or pressure, when it is capable of exerting force or violence; to its influence are attributed many effects due in reality to gases, or other causes. On p. 52, l. 1, we have the definition “air (_spiritus_) is the atmosphere (_aër_) in violent motion”; and on p. 205 the concluding words of V. xiii. are “air differs from wind in degree alone. A more violent air is a wind; air in turn is gently flowing atmosphere,” where again _spiritus_ is “air” and _aër_ “atmosphere.”

Again, in the _Aetna_, l. 212, we read, “The winds when inflated are called _spirit_; when in subsidence, _air_” (Professor Ellis’s translation), where the same terms _spiritus_ and _aër_ are employed.[123]

[123] For a discussion of the meaning of the term _spiritus_ and the parallelisms in its use by Seneca and the author of the _Aetna_, see Professor Ellis’s edition of that poem, Prolegomena, pp. xl-xliii.

Now if our author had been consistent in the use of the words, there would have been a strong case for a uniform adoption of “air” and “atmosphere,” whenever they occurred. But numerous passages might be cited to show that he interchanges the words without apparent motive, just as we do “air” and “atmosphere.” For example, on p. 69, l. 2, “So fire will pass into air (_spiritus_),” while on p. 71, l. 9, “the air (_aër_), which is interchangeable with fire.” Again, on p. 75, l. 6, “When the clouds have enclosed air” (_spiritus_); l. 26, “atmosphere (_aër_) shut up in a hollow cloud.” A still more conclusive case, though the passage is probably in other respects corrupt, occurs in the last sentence of c. xxix. p. 77, where the first “air” is _spiritus_, the second, a mere synonym or variant, is _aër_. Cf. p. 187, l. 27, and the passages cited below from pp. 245, 249, 251, 259, 260.

The translator has little choice. He must follow his author, and, where the latter makes a distinction, must endeavour to reproduce it; otherwise he must, as the author did, observe the idiom of his own language.

In accordance with this principle _aër_ is usually translated “atmosphere,” and _spiritus_ “air”; but circumstances have rendered unavoidable a considerable number of exceptions.

The discussion of phenomena in which air plays a part is contained chiefly in Books II. and VI., and here the distinction of terms in English has been, so far as practicable, maintained. In Book II. “air” is a translation of _aër_ about a dozen of times out of a total of over fifty times that “air” occurs, and in Book VI. about half a dozen out of a total of nearly seventy.

The following is a list of the places in which “air” translates _aër_:--

l. 18; 66, l. 12; 71, l. 9; 72, l. 22; 77, 1. 17; 98, l. 26; 101, l. 28.

123, l. 28; 129, l. 3; 134, ll. 26, 28; 135, l. 1; 140, l. 29.

205, l. 11; 206, l. 3; 211, ll. 14, 20.

26, 29.