Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/146

 112 pliny's natukal history. [Book II. most admirable and immortal spirit, as it were of a divine nature, should be ascribed to Anaximander the Milesian, who, they say, warned the Lacedaemonians to beware of their city and their houses For he predicted that an earthquake was at hand, when both the whole of their city was destroyed and a large portion of Mount Taygetus, which projected in the form of a ship, was broken off, and added farther ruin to the previous destruction. Another prediction is ascribed to Pherecydes, the master of Pythagoras, and this was divine ; by a draught of water from a well, he foresaw and predicted that there would be an earthquake in that place ^. And if these things be true, how nearly do these individuals ap- proach to the Deity, even during their lifetime ! But I leave every one to judge of these matters as he pleases. I certainly conceive the winds to be the cause of earthquakes ; for the earth never trembles except when the sea is quite calm, and when the heavens are so tranquil that the birds cannot maintain their flight, all the air which should support them being withdrawn^ ; nor does it ever happen until after great winds, the gust l3eing pent up, as it were, in the fissures and concealed hollows, Por the trembling of the earth resembles thunder in the clouds ; nor does the yaAvning of the earth differ from the bursting of the lightning ; the enclosed air struggling and striving to escape"*. CHAP. 82. (80.) — or clefts or the eaeth. The earth is shaken in various ways, and wonderful effects are produced^ ; in one place the walls of cities being thrown ^ " Ut urbem et tecta custodirent." Tliis anecdote is referred to by Cicero, who employs the words " ut urbem et tecta hnquerent." De Divia. i. 112. 2 This anecdote is also referred to by Cicero, de Div. ii. 3 It has been observed that earthquakes, as well as other great con- vulsions of nature, are preceded by calms ; it has also been observed that birds and animals generally exliibit certain presentiments of the event, by something peculiar in their motions or proceeduigs ; this cir- cumstance is mentioned by Aristotle, Meteor, ii. 8, and by Seneca, Nat. Quffist. vi. 12. or analogy is entirely without foundation. The phsenomena of earth- quakes are described by Aristotle, De Mundo, cap. 4, and Meteor, ii. 7 and 8 ; also by Seneca in various parts of the 6th book of his Qusest. Nat. Treatise de Mundo, cap. 4.
 * It is scarcely necessary to remark, that this supposed resemblance
 * On this subject we shall find much curious matter in Aristotle'a