Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/54

 20 pliny's natueal histout, [Book II. ing, althougli, in reality, none are less so^ The sun is carried along in the midst of these, a body of great size and power, the ruler, not only of the seasons and of the different climates, hut also of the stars themselves and of the heavens^'. When we consider his operations, we must regard him as the life, or rather the mind of the universe, the chief regulator and the Grod of nature ; he also lends his light to the other stars ^. He is most illustrious and excellent, beholding all things and hearing all things, which, I perceive, is ascribed to him exclusively by the prince of poets, Homer^. CHAP. 5. (7.) — OF GOD^ 1 consider it, therefore, an indication of human weakness to inquire into the figure and form of Grod. For whatever Grod be, if there be any other God^, and wherever he ex- ists, he is all sense, all sight, all hearing, all life, all mind^, and all within himself. To believe that there are a number of Gods, derived from the virtues and vices of man^, as Chastity, Concord, Understanding, Hope, Honour, Clemency, ^ Cicero remarks concerning them; "quae (stellse) falso vocantur errantes ; " De Nat. Deor. ii. 51. 2 "... . vices dierum alternat et noctium, qutan sidera praesens occultat, Ulustrat absens ; " Hard, in Lem. i. 230. 3 " ceteris sideribiis." According to Hardouin, uhi supra, " niTniuTn stellis errantibus." There is, however, nothing in the expression of our author which sanctions this limitation. 4 See Ihad, ui. 2V7, and Od. xii. 323. 5 It is remarked by Enfield, Hist, of Phil. ii. 131, that " with respect to philosophical opinions, Phny did not rigidly adhere to any sect. . . . He reprobates the Epicurean tenet of an infinity of worlds ; favours the Pythagorean notion of the harmony of the spheres ; speaks of the universe as God, after the manner of the Stoics, and sometimes seems to pass over into the field of the Sceptics. Eor the most part, however, he leans to the doctrme of Epicm-us." ^ " Siahus est Deus quam sol," Alexandre in Lem. i. 230. Or rather, if there be any Grod distinct from the world ; for the latter part of the sentence can scarcely apply to the sun. Poinsinet and Ajasson, however, adopt the same opinion with M. Alexandre ; they translate the passage, " s'il en est autre que le soleil," i. 17 and ii. 11. " " totus animae, totus animi ; " " Anima est qua vivimus, animus quo sapimus." Hard, in Lem. i. 230, 231. The distinction between these two words is accurately pointed out by Lucretius, iii. 137 et seq. 8 " fecerunt (Athenienses) Contumehae fanum et Impudentiae." Cicero, De Leg. ii. 28. See also Bossuet, Discours sur I'Histoire univ. i. 250.