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Physical Science in the Time of Nero: Naturales Quaestiones (1910) - Page 24 - Source Library

Physical Science in the Time of Nero: Naturales Quaestiones

Seneca; John Clarke · 1910

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English

CHAP.		PAGE
XXX.	The action of air accounts for all the detailed phenomena: the splitting of walls, houses, towers, and statues; it also explains why shocks may last for several days.	263
XXXI.	Further proof that air is the agent is found in the gradually diminishing violence of successive shocks. Observations on a pavement by a philosopher while he was in his bath.	264
XXXII.	The moral: Life hangs by a thread; why should one dread losing it? The scale of the cause of death is no reason for terror. The hereafter is better and safer than this earth. There is no fear of earthquakes, thunderstorms, fire, or flood. Fear of death magnifies all human risks. Do not dread death; long for it, and, if necessary, meet it halfway.	265

BOOK VII

TREATING OF COMETS


I.	Phenomena, however wonderful, are not noted or admired unless they are uncommon. The sun, the moon, and the starry heavens have no observers, but a comet immediately sets the whole world in a stir. The nature of the stars is a sublime and likewise a profitable study.	271
II.	The nature of comets has not been fully investigated until now. They are so rare that one needs a record of the movements of every one ever observed.	273
III.	Democritus, Eudoxus, Conon, Epigenes, and Apollonius of Myndus all fail to provide a satisfactory account of the matter. Neither the Egyptians nor the Chaldaeans had investigated them.	274
IV.	Epigenes explains the comet as being due to a conjunction of Saturn with Mars or the Sun; he considers it akin to whirlwinds and “beam” meteors.	275
V.	But there are essential differences between a whirlwind, which is terrestrial, and beams and torches, which appear above the clouds. There is also a difference in duration. It is true that beams and comets have been mistaken for one another. According to Aristotle, it was a comet that appeared before the destruction of Buris and Helice. The character of the flame differs between the two forms.	276
VI.	According to Epigenes, there are two kinds of comets. They are produced by air driven upward, igniting suitable material above; this process occurs every day at the same hour.	277
VII.	But comets do not accompany winds; there is no parallel in the phenomena. Epigenes attributes the higher comets—those which have an orbit—to the north wind, but the facts do not support this either.	278
VIII.	The path and altitude of comets make the whirlwind explanation impossible.	279
IX.	The force and duration of whirlwinds are similarly inadequate to explain them.	280

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