Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/80

 46 pliny's NATTJEAL HISTOET. [Book II. is evident, that the latitudes are increased from the time of their morning risings, since the motions afterwards appear to receive less addition ; hut they gain their altitude in the first station, since the rate of their motion then hegins to diminish and the stars to recede. And the reason of this must he particularly set forth. When the planets are struck hy the rays of the sun, in the situation which I have described, i. e. in their quadrature, they are prevented from holding on their straight forward course, and are raised on high hy the force of the fire^ This cannot he immediately perceived hy the eye, and therefore they seem to he stationary, and hence the term station is derived. Afterwards the violence of the rays increases, and the vapour being beaten back forces them to recede. This exists in a greater degree in their evening risings, the sun being then turned entirely from them, when they are drawn into the highest apsides ; and they are then the least visible, since they are at their greatest altitude ^ and are carried along with the least motion, as much less indeed as this takes place in the highest signs of the apsides. At the time of the evening rising the latitude decreases and becomes less as the motion is diminished, and it does not increase again until they arrive at the second station, when the alti- tude is also diminished ; the sun's rays then coming from the other side, the same force now therefore propels them towards the earth which before raised them into the heavens, from their former triangular aspect^ So different is the effect whether the rays strike the planets from below or come to them from above. And all these circumstances produce much more effect when they occur in the evening setting. This is the doctrine of the superior planets ; that 1 " incipit detraM numerus." According to the explanation of Alex- andre, " numerus nempe partium quas certo temporis intervallo emeti- xmtiir'." Lemaire, ii. 275. Marcus remarks in this place, "Dans tout ce chapitre et dans le suivant, Pline a place dans une correlation de cau- site, tout ce qu'il croit arriver en meme temps ; mais il n'a pas prouve par-Ik que les phenomenes celestes qm sont contemporains sont engendres les uns par les autres." Ajasson, ii. 349. 2 The hypothesis of Phny appears to be, that the planets are affected by the rays of the sun, and that according to the angle at which they receive the impulse, they are either accelerated or retarded in their course. ^ " ex priore triquetro."