by Aristotle
To sum up, some of the phenomena which occur in the air are merely appearances, while others have actual substance. Rainbows and rods and the like [30] are only appearances, while flashes and shooting-stars and comets and the like have real substance. A rainbow is the reflection of a segment of the sun or of the moon, seen, as in a mirror, in a cloud which is moist, hollow, and continuous in appearance, and taking a circular form. A rod is a rainbow appearing in the form of a straight [395b1] line. A halo is an appearance of brightness shining round a star; it differs from a rainbow, because the latter appears opposite the sun and moon, while the halo is formed all round a star. A light in the sky is caused by the kindling of a mass of fire [5] in the air; some lights shoot along, other are fixed. The shooting is the generation of fire by friction, when the fire moves quickly through the air and by its quickness produces an impression of length; the fixture is a prolonged extension without movement, an elongated star as it were. A light which broadens out towards one end [10] is called a comet. Some lights often last a considerable time, others are extinguished immediately. There are numerous other kinds of appearances seen in the sky, the so-called torches, beams, barrels, and pits, which derive their names from their similarity to these objects. Some of them appear in the west, others in the east, [15] others in both these quarters, but rarely in the north or south. None of them are stable; for none of them have been discovered to be always visible in a fixed position. Such are the phenomena of the air.
As the earth contains many sources of water, so also it contains many sources [20] of wind and fire. Of these some are subterranean and invisible, but many have vents and blow-holes, as Lipara, Etna, and those in the Aeolian islands—and they frequently flow like rivers and cast up red-hot lumps. Some, which are under the [25] earth near springs of water, warm them and cause some streams to flow tepid, others very hot, others tempered to a pleasant heat. Similarly, many vent-holes for wind open in every part of the earth; some of them cause those who draw near to them to become frenzied, others cause them to waste away, others inspire them to utter oracles, as at Delphi and Lebadia, others utterly destroy them, as the one in [30] Phrygia. Often, too, a moderate wind engendered in the earth, being driven aside into deep crannies of the earth and displaced from its proper locality, causes shocks in many parts. Often, too, a strong current from without becomes caught in the hollows of the earth, and, being cut off, it shakes the earth violently, seeking an exit, and sets up the condition which we commonly call an earthquake. Earthquakes of [396a1] which the shock is oblique, at a sharp angle, are known as horizontal earthquakes; those which lift the earth up and down at right angles are known as heaving earthquakes; those which cause the earth to settle down into hollows are called sinking earthquakes; those which open up chasms and break up the earth’s surface [5] are called rending earthquakes. Some of them also emit winds, others stones or mud, while others cause springs to appear which did not exist before. Some earthquakes cause a disturbance by means of a single shock and are known as thrusting earthquakes. Others which swing to and fro and by inclinations and waves [10] in each direction remedy the effect of their shock, are called vibrating earthquakes, setting up a condition which resembles trembling. There are also bellowing earthquakes, which shake the earth with a roar. Underground bellowing, however, is often heard unaccompanied by earthquakes, when the wind, though insufficient to cause a shock, is compressed together in the earth and beats with the force of its impetus. Blasts which penetrate into the earth are materialized also from moisture [15] concealed underground.
We find analogous phenomena occurring in the sea. Chasms form in it and its waters often retire or the waves rush in; this is sometimes followed by a recoil and sometimes there is merely a forward surge of water, as is said to have occurred at [20] Helice and Bura. Often, too, there are exhalations of fire from the sea, and springs gush out and river-mouths are formed and trees suddenly grow up, and currents and eddies appear, like those caused in the air by blasts of wind, sometimes in the middle of the sea, sometimes in straits and channels. Many tides and tidal waves are said [25] always to accompany the periods of the moon at fixed intervals. In short, owing to the mingling of the elements together, it is reasonable that similar conditions are produced in the air and in the earth and in the sea, causing decay and generation in [30] parts, but preserving the whole free from destruction and generation.
5 · Yet some have wondered how it is that the Universe, if it be composed of contrary principles—namely, dry and moist, hot and cold—has not long ago perished and been destroyed. It is just as though one should wonder how a city [396b1] continues to exist, being, as it is, composed of the most opposite classes—rich and poor, young and old, weak and strong, good and bad. They fail to notice that this has always been the most striking characteristic of civic concord, that it evolves unity [5] out of plurality, and similarity out of dissimilarity, admitting every kind of nature and chance. It may perhaps be that nature has a liking for contraries and evolves harmony out of them and not out of similarities (just as she joins the male and female together and not members of the same sex), and has devised the original [10] harmony by means of contraries and not similarities. The arts, too, apparently imitate nature in this respect. The art of painting, by mingling in the picture the elements of white and black, yellow and red, achieves representations which correspond to the original object. Music, too, mingling together notes, high and low, [15] short and prolonged, attains to a single harmony amid different voices; while writing, mingling vowels and consonants, composes of them all its art. The saying of Heracleitus the obscure was to the same effect: ‘Graspings: wholes and not wholes, [20] that which agrees and that which differs, that which produces harmony and that which produces discord; from all one and from one all.’2
Thus then a single harmony orders the composition of the whole—heaven and [25] earth and the whole Universe—by the mingling of the most contrary principles. The dry mingling with the moist, the hot with the cold, the light with the heavy, the straight with the curved, all the earth, the sea, the ether, the sun, the moon, and the whole heaven are ordered by a single power extending through all, which has created the whole universe out of separate and different elements—air, earth, fire, [30] and water—embracing them all in one spherical surface and forcing the most contrary natures in it to live in agreement with one another and thus contriving the permanence of the whole. The cause of this permanence is the agreement of the [397a1] elements, and the reason of this agreement is their equal proportion and the fact that no one of them is more powerful than any other; for the heavy is equally balanced with the light and the hot with the cold. Thus nature teaches us in the greater principles of the world that equality somehow tends to preserve harmony, whilst harmony preserves the universe which is the parent of all things and itself the [5] fairest thing of all. For what natural thing is more excellent? Any that one can name is but a part of the Universe. All that is beauteous bears its name, and all that which is arranged well; for it is said to be well ordered, being thus called after the ordered Universe.3 And what particular phenomenon could be likened to the ordered system of the heavens and the march of the stars and the sun and the moon, [10] which move on in most accurate measure through age after age? Where else could be found such regularity as is observed by the goodly seasons, which produce all things and bring in due order summer and winter, day and night, to the accomplishment of the month and the year? Moreover, in greatness the universe is [15] pre-eminent, in motion swiftest, in radiance most bright, and in might it knows not old age or corruption. It has divided the various creatures that live in the sea, on the earth, and in the air, and regulated their lives by its movements. Of it all living [20] things breathe and have their life. Even all the unexpected changes which occur in it are really accomplished in an ordered sequence—diverse winds conflicting together, thunderbolts falling from heaven, and violent storms bursting forth. The expulsion of moisture and the exhalation of fire by these means rest
ores the whole to harmony and stability. The earth, too, clothed with diverse vegetation, gushing [25] forth with streams and trodden by the feet of living creatures, in due season bringing forth, nurturing, and receiving back all things, producing countless varieties and changes, none the less always preserves its nature untouched by age, though shaken by earthquakes, washed by floods, and in parts burnt up by fires. All [30] these things seem to work its welfare and to ensure its eternal permanence. For when it is shaken by earthquakes and winds which have been diverted into it escape forth, finding vents through the clefts, as we have already said; when it is washed by rain, it is cleansed of all that is unhealthy; and when the breezes blow about it, it is [397b1] purified above and beneath. Again, the fires soften that which is frost-bound, while the frosts abate the fires. Of particular things some are coming into being, others are at their prime, others are decaying; and birth checks decay and decay lightens [5] birth. Thus an unbroken permanence, which all things conspire to secure, counteracting one another—at one time dominating, at another being dominated— preserves the whole unimpaired through all eternity.
[10] 6 · There still remains for us to treat briefly, as we have discussed the other subjects, of the cause which holds all things together. For in dealing with the universe, not perhaps in exact detail, yet at any rate so as to give a general idea of the subject, it would be wrong to omit that which is the most important thing in the universe. The old explanation which we have all inherited from our fathers, is that all things are from God and were framed by God, and that no natural thing is of [15] itself sufficient for itself, deprived of the permanence which it derives from him. Therefore some of the ancients went so far as to say that all those things are full of gods which are presented to us through the eyes and the hearing and all the other senses, thus propounding a theory which, though it accords with the divine power, does not accord with the divine nature. For God is in very truth the preserver and [20] creator of all that is in any way being brought to perfection in this universe; yet he endures not all the weariness of a being that administers and labours, but exerts a power which never wearies; whereby he prevails even other things which seem far distant from him. He has himself obtained the first and highest place and is [25] therefore called Supreme, dwelling, in the words of the poet,4 ‘on the topmost crest’ of the whole heaven; and the body which is nearest to him most enjoys his power, and afterwards the next nearest, and so on successively until the regions wherein we dwell are reached. That is why the earth and the things upon the earth, being [30] farthest removed from the benefit which proceeds from God, seem feeble and incoherent and full of much confusion; nevertheless, inasmuch as it is the nature of the divine to penetrate to all things, the things also of our earth receive their share of it in the same way as the things above us, according to their nearness to or distance from God receiving more or less of divine benefit. It is therefore better, even as it is [398a1] more seemly and befitting God, to suppose that the power which is established in the heavens is the cause of permanence even in those things which are furthest removed from it, as we might say, and indeed in everything, rather than to hold that [5] it passes forth and travels to and fro to places which becomes and befit it not, and personally administers the affairs of this earth. For indeed, to superintend any and every operation does not become even the rulers among mankind—the chief, for example, of an army or a city, or the head of a household, if it were necessary to bind up a sack of bedding or perform any other somewhat menial task, such as could be performed by any ordinary slave—but rather they should act as it is recorded was [10] done in the time of the Great King. For the pomp of Cambyses and Xerxes and Darius was magnificently ordered with the utmost state and splendour. The king himself, so the story goes established himself at Susa or Ecbatana, invisible to all, dwelling in a wondrous palace within a fence gleaming with gold and amber and [15] ivory. And it had many gateways one after another, and porches many furlongs apart from one another, secured by bronze doors and mighty walls. Outside these the chief and most distinguished men had their appointed place, some being the [20] king’s bodyguard and attendants, others the guardians of each of the enclosing walls, the so-called janitors and ‘listeners’, that the king himself, who was called their master and deity, might thus see and hear all things. Besides these, others were appointed as stewards of his revenues and leaders in war and hunting, and receivers [25] of gifts, and others charged with all the other necessary functions. All the Empire of Asia, bounded on the west by the Hellespont and on the east by the Indus, was apportioned according to races among generals and satraps and Kings, slaves of the [30] Great King; and there were couriers and watchmen and messengers and superintendents of signal-fires. So effective was the organization, in particular the system of signal-fires, which formed a chain of beacons from the furthest bounds of the empire to Susa and Ecbatana, that the king received the same day the news of all [398b1] that was happening in Asia. Now we must suppose that the majesty of the Great King falls as far short of that of the God who possesses the universe, as that of the feeblest and weakest creature is inferior to that of the king of Persia. Thus, if it was [5] beneath the dignity of Xerxes to appear himself to administer all things and to carry out his own wishes and superintend the government of his kingdom, such functions would be still less becoming for a god. It is more worthy of his dignity and more befitting that he should be enthroned in the highest region, and that his power, extending through the whole universe, should move the sun and moon and make the [10] whole heaven revolve and be the cause of permanence to all that is on this earth. For he needs no contrivance or the service of others, as our earthly rulers, owing to their feebleness, need many hands to do their work; but it is most characteristic of the divine to be able to accomplish diverse kinds of work with ease and by simple [15] movement, even as machine-operators by one turn on a machine accomplish many different operations. And just as puppet-showmen by pulling a single string make the neck and hand and shoulder and eye and sometimes all the parts of the figure [20] move with a certain harmony; so too the divine nature, by simple movement of that which is nearest to it, imparts its power to that which next succeeds, and thence further and further until it extends over all things. For one thing, moved by another, itself in due order moves something else, each acting according to its own [25] constitution, and not all following the same course but different and various and sometimes even contrary courses; although the first prelude, as it were, to the movement is single. It is just as though one should cast from one vessel at the same time a sphere, a cube, a cone, and a cylinder; each of them will move according to its [30] particular shape. Or if one should hold in the folds of a garment a water-animal, a land-animal, and a bird, and let them go; clearly the animal that swims will leap into its own element and swim away, the land-animal will creep away to its own haunts and pastures, the bird of the air will raise itself aloft from the earth and fly away, though one original cause gave each its aptitude for movement. So is it with [399a1] the universe; by a single revolution of the whole within the bounds of day and night, the different orbits of all the heavenly bodies are produced, though all are enclosed in a single sphere, some moving more quickly, others more slowly, according to the [5] distances between them and the individual composition of each. For the moon accomplishes her circuit in a month, waxing and waning and disappearing; the sun and the heavenly bodies whose course is of equal length, namely those called the ‘Lightbearer’ and Mercury, perform their revolution in a year; the Fiery star in [10] double that period; the star of Jupiter in six years; and lastly the so-called star of Saturn in a period two and a half times as long as the heavenly body next below it. The single harmony produced by all the heavenly bodies singing and dancing together springs from one source and ends by achieving one purpose, and has rightly bestowed the name not of ‘disordered’ but of ‘ordered universe’ upon the whole. And [15] just as in a chorus, when the leader gives the signal to begin, the whole chorus of men,
or it may be of women, joins in the song, mingling a single studied harmony among different voices, some high and some low; so too is it with the God that rules the whole world. For at the signal given from on high by him who may well be called their chorus-leader, the stars and the whole heaven always move, and the sun that [20] illumines all things travels forth on its double course, whereby it both divides day and night by its rising and setting, and also brings the four seasons of the year, as it moves forwards towards the north and backwards towards the south. And in their own due season the rain, the winds, and the dews, and all the other phenomena [25] which occur in the region which surrounds the Earth, are produced by the first, primaeval cause. These are followed by the flowing of rivers, the swelling of the sea, the growth of trees, the ripening of fruits, the birth of animals, the nurturing and the prime and decay of all things, to which, as I have said, their individual composition also contributes. When, therefore, the ruler and parent of all, invisible save to the [30] power of reason, gives the word to all nature that moves between heaven and earth, the whole revolves unceasingly in its own circuits and within its own bounds, sometimes unseen and sometimes appearing, revealing and again hiding diverse manners of things, from one and the same cause. Very like is it to that which [399b1] happens in times of war, when the trumpet sounds to the army; then each soldier hears its note, and one takes up his shield, another dons his breast-plate; another puts on his greaves or his helmet or his swordbelt; one puts the bit in his horse’s [5] mouth, another mounts his chariot, another passes along the watchword; the captain betakes himself straightway to his company, the commander to his division, the horseman to his squadron, the light-armed warrior hastens to his appointed place, all is hurry and movement in obedience to one word of command, to carry out the orders of the leader who is supreme over all. Even so must we suppose [10] concerning the universe; by one impelling force, unseen and hidden from our eyes, all things are stirred and perform their individual functions. That this force is unseen stands in the way neither of its action nor of our belief in it. For the soul whereby we live and dwell in houses and communities, though invisible, is yet seen [15] in its operations; for by it the whole ordering of life has been discovered and organized and is held together—the ploughing and planting of the earth, the discovery of the arts, the use of law, the ordering of constitutions, the administration of home affairs and war outside our borders and peace. Thus, too, must we think of God, who in might is most powerful, in beauty most fair, in life immortal, in virtue [20] supreme; for, though he is invisible to all mortal nature, yet is he seen in his very works. For all that happens in the air, on the earth, and in the water, may truly be said to be the work of God, who possesses the universe; from whom, in the words of Empedocles, the natural philosopher, [25]