next comes the earth, on which alone of all parts of nature we have bestowed the name that implies maternal veneration. it is appropriated to man as the heavens are to god. she receives us at our birth, nourishes us when born, and ever afterwards supports us; lastly, embracing us in her bosom when we are rejected by the rest of nature, she then covers us with especial tenderness; rendered sacred to us, inasmuch as she renders us sacred, bearing our monuments and titles, continuing our names, and extending our memory, in opposition to the shortness of life. in our anger we imprecate her on those who are now no more, as if we were ignorant that she is the only being who can never be angry with man. the water passes into showers, is concreted into hail, swells into rivers, is precipitated in torrents; the air is condensed into clouds, rages in squalls; but kind, mild, and indulgent earth, always ministering to the wants of mortals, how many things do we compel her to produce spontaneously! what odors and flowers, nutritive juices, forms and colors! with what good faith does she render back all that has been entrusted to her! it is the vital spirit which must bear the blame of producing noxious animals; for the earth is constrained to receive the seeds of them, and to support them when they are produced. the fault lies in the evil nature which generates 21 them. the earth will no longer harbor a serpent after it has attacked any one, and thus she even demands punishment in the name of those who are indifferent about it themselves. she pours forth a profusion of medicinal plants, and is always producing something for the use of man.
but it must be acknowledged, that everything which the earth has produced, as a remedy for our evils, we have converted into the poison of our lives. for do we not use iron, which we cannot do without, for this purpose? but although this cause of mischief has been produced, we ought not to complain; we ought not to be ungrateful to this one part of nature. how many luxuries and how many insults does she not bear for us! she is cast into the sea, and, in order that we may introduce seas into her bosom, she is washed away by the waves. she is continually tortured for her iron, her timber, stone, fire, corn, and is even much more subservient to our luxuries than to our mere support. what indeed she endures on her surface might be tolerated, but we penetrate also into her bowels, digging out the veins of gold and silver, and the ores of copper and lead; we also search for gems and certain small pebbles, driving our trenches to a great depth. we tear out her entrails in order to extract the gems with which we may load our fingers. how many hands are worn down that one little joint may be ornamented! if the infernal regions really existed, certainly these burrows of avarice and luxury would have penetrated into them. and truly we wonder that this same earth should have produced anything noxious! but, i suppose, the savage beasts protect her and keep off our sacrilegious hands. for do we not dig among serpents and handle poisonous plants along with those veins of gold? but the goddess shows herself more propitious to us, inasmuch as all this wealth ends in crimes, slaughter, and war, and that, while we drench her with our blood, we cover her with unburied bones; and being covered with these and her anger being thus appeased, she conceals the crimes of 22 mortals. i consider the ignorance of her nature as one of the evil effects of an ungrateful mind.
every one agrees that it has the most perfect figure. we always speak of the ball of the earth, and we admit it to be a globe bounded by the poles. it has not indeed the form of an absolute sphere, from the number of lofty mountains and flat plains; but if the termination of the lines be bounded by a curve, this would compose a perfect sphere. and this we learn from arguments drawn from the nature of things, although not from the same considerations which we made use of with respect to the heavens. for in these the hollow convexity everywhere bends on itself, and leans upon the earth as its centre. whereas the earth rises up solid and dense, like something that swells up and is protruded outwards. the heavens bend towards the centre, while the earth goes from the centre, the continual rolling of the heavens about it forcing its immense globe into the form of a sphere.
on the question whether there be antipodes there is a great contest between the learned and the vulgar. we maintain, that there are men dispersed over every part of the earth, that they stand with their feet turned towards each other, that the vault of the heavens appears alike to all of them, and that they, all of them, appear to tread equally on the middle of the earth. if any one should ask, why those situated opposite to us do not fall, we directly ask in return, whether those on the opposite side do not wonder that we do not fall. but i may make a remark, that will appear plausible even to the most unlearned, that if the earth were of the figure of an unequal globe, like the seed of a pine, still it may be inhabited in every part.
but of how little moment is this, when we have another miracle rising up to our notice! the earth itself is pendent and does not fall with us; it is doubtful whether this be from the force of the spirit which is contained in the universe, or whether it would fall did not nature resist, by allowing of no 23 place where it might fall. for as the seat of fire is nowhere but in fire, nor of water except in water, nor of air except in air, so there is no situation for the earth except in itself, everything else repelling it. it is indeed wonderful that it should form a globe, when there is so much flat surface of the sea and of the plains. and this was the opinion of dic?archus, a peculiarly learned man, who measured the heights of mountains, under the direction of the kings, and estimated pelion, which was the highest, at one thousand two hundred and fifty paces perpendicular, and considered this as not affecting the round figure of the globe. but this appears to me to be doubtful, as i well know that the summits of some of the alps rise up by a long space of not less than fifty thousand paces. but what the vulgar most strenuously contend against is, to be compelled to believe that the water is forced into a rounded figure; yet there is nothing more obvious to the sight among the phenomena of nature. for we see everywhere, that drops, when they hang down, assume the form of small globes, and when they are covered with dust, or have the down of leaves spread over them, they are observed to be completely round; and when a cup is filled, the liquid swells up in the middle. but on account of the subtile nature of the fluid and its inherent softness, the fact is more easily ascertained by our reason than by our sight. and it is even more wonderful, that if a very little fluid only be added to a cup when it is full, the superfluous quantity runs over, whereas the contrary happens if we add a solid body, even as much as would weigh twenty denarii. the reason of this is, that what is dropt in raises up the fluid at the top, while what is poured on it slides off from the projecting surface. it is from the same cause that the land is not visible from the body of a ship when it may be seen from the mast; and that when a vessel is receding, if any bright object be fixed to the mast, it seems gradually to descend and finally to become invisible. and the ocean, which we admit to be without 24 limits, if it had any other figure, could it cohere and exist without falling, there being no external margin to contain it?
we must believe, that the great artist, nature, has so arranged it, that as the arid and dry earth cannot subsist by itself and without moisture, nor, on the other hand, can the water subsist unless it be supported by the earth, they are connected by a mutual union. the earth opens her harbors, while the water pervades the whole earth, within, without, and above; its veins running in all directions, like connecting links, and bursting out on even the highest ridges; where, forced up by the air, and pressed out by the weight of the earth, it shoots forth as from a pipe, and is so far from being in danger of falling, that it bounds up to the highest and most lofty places. hence the reason is obvious, why the seas are not increased by the daily accession of so many rivers.
the earth has, therefore, the whole of its globe girt, on every side, by the sea flowing round it. and this is not a point to be investigated by arguments, but what has been ascertained by experience.
the globe is divided into five parts, termed zones, and all that portion is subject to severe cold and perpetual frost, which is under the two extremities, about each of the poles, the nearer of which is called the north, and the opposite the south, pole. the middle of the earth, over which is the orbit of the sun, is parched and burned by the flame, and is consumed by being so near the heat. there are only two of the zones which are temperate, those which lie between the torrid and the frigid zones, and these are separated from each other, in consequence of the scorching heat of the heavenly bodies. it appears, therefore, that the heavens take from us three parts of the earth; how much the ocean steals is uncertain. the curve of the globe both reveals and conceals different objects from the inhabitants of its different parts. if the earth had been flat, everything would have been seen 25 at the same time, from every part of it, and the nights would not have been unequal; while the equal intervals of twelve hours, which are now observed only in the middle of the earth, would in that case have been the same everywhere.
hence it is that there is not any one night and day the same, in all parts of the earth, at the same time; the intervention of the globe producing night, and its turning round producing day.
