The history of philosophy, in eight parts by Thomas Stanley.

CHAP. XII.

Of Water and Earth.

THat part of the world (saitha 1.1 Chrysippus) which is the most solid support of nature, as bones are in a living creature, is called the earth: About this the water is evenly diffused. The earth hath some uneven parts arising out of the water, called Islands, or, if of large extent, Continents, from the ignorance of man, who knowes not, that even those are Islands, in respect of the great Ocean.

The earth is in the midst, being in the nature of a Center, b 1.2 one and finite,c 1.3 sphericall in figure. The water is likewise sphericall, having the same center with the earth.

The earth hath five Zones, one northern, beyond the Artick Circle, uninhabitable through extremity of cold: another tempe∣rate; a third not habitable by reason of extream heat, whence

it is called Torrid; a fourth temperate, a fift southern, not habi∣table by reason of cold.* 1.4 But Possidonius conceiveth the Climate under the Equinoctiall to be temperate; for, saith he, under the Tropicks where the Sun dwells longest, the places are habitable, and why not then under the Aequator? Again, the night being equall to the day, affordeth leisure enough for refrigeration, which is assisted likewise by showers and winds.

* 1.5 The generation of the world began from the earth, as from the Center; for the Center is the beginning of a sphear.

d 1.6 Plants have not any soul at all, but spring up of themselves, as it were by chance.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Stob.
• b 1.2

  Plu••. plac. Phil. 3. 9. Laert
• c 1.3

  Plut. plac. ••hil: ••. 10.
• * 1.4

  Cleomed.
• * 1.5

  Stob.
• d 1.6

  Plut. plac. Phil. 5. 26.