Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/136

 102 plint's natural histoet. [Book II, CHAP. 69. (69.) THAT THE EABTH IS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WORLD. It is evident from undoubted arguments, that the earth is in the middle of the universe but it is the most clearly proved by the equality of the days and the nights at the equi- nox^. It is demonstrated by the quadrant^, which affords the most decisive confirmation of the fact, that unless the earth was in the middle, the days and nights could not be equal ; for, at the time of the equinox, the rising and setting of the sun are seen on the same line, and the rising of the sun, at the summer solstice, is on the same line with its. setting at the winter solstice ; but this could not happen if the earth was not situated in the centre CHAP. 70. (70.) or THE OBLIQUITY OE THE ZONES^ The three circles^, which are connected with the above- mentioned zones, distinguish the inequalities of the seasons ; these are, the solstitial circle, which proceeds from the part of the Zodiac the highest to us and approaching the nearest to the district of the north ; on the other side, the brumal, which is towards the south pole ; and the equinoctial, which traverses the middle of the Zodiac. CHAP. 71. or THE INEQUALITY OF CLIMATES. The cause of the other things which are worthy of our admiration depends on the figure of the earth itself, which, together with all its waters, is proved, by the same argu- ments, to be a globe. This certainly is the cause why the stars of the northern portion of the heavens never set to us, and why, on the other hand, those in the south never rise, and again, why the latter can never be seen by the former, the globe of the earth rising up and concealing them. The ^ " Mundi totius." ' " iEquinoctii paribus horis." 3 Dioptra. " Grraece SioTrrpa, instrumentum est geometricum, un quart de cercle, quo apparentes rerum inter se distantise anguli apertura dijudicantur." Alexandre, in Lemaire, i. 384. 884.
 * This title does not correspond with the contents of the chapter.
 * " Tropici duo, cum sequinoctiali circulo ;" Hardouin, in Lemaire, i.