Dialogue

  1 Intro|         to generalities, from the earth to the stars. He lifts up
  2 Intro|          with difficulty upon the earth. The greatest things in
  3 Intro|           and the position of the earth. There will remain, (5)
  4 Intro|           and having burnt up the earth was himself burnt up by
  5 Intro|     heavenly bodies, and then the earth is destroyed by fire. At
  6 Intro|           use of man. The spot of earth which the goddess chose
  7 Intro|         won renown over the whole earth. For at the peril of her
  8 Intro|    warrior race all sank into the earth; and the great island of
  9 Intro|       therefore solid and made of earth. But two terms must be united
 10 Intro|         between them; and had the earth been a surface only, one
 11 Intro|          the elements of fire and earth God placed two other elements
 12 Intro|       water, and air:water::water:earth,~and so put together a visible
 13 Intro|          which was nearest to the earth, the sun in that next, the
 14 Intro|         the second orbit from the earth which is called the sun,
 15 Intro|     manner already described. The earth, which is our nurse, clinging
 16 Intro|       Tethys were the children of Earth and Heaven; that Phoreys,
 17 Intro|        the elements of fire, air, earth, water, which had engrossed
 18 Intro|           sowed them, some in the earth, some in the moon, and some
 19 Intro|        from the world portions of earth, air, fire, water, hereafter
 20 Intro|        flaming fire, or the solid earth, or gliding waters, or the
 21 Intro|         existed fire, air, water, earth, which we suppose men to
 22 Intro|        space or matter is neither earth nor fire nor air nor water,
 23 Intro|       taking the forms of air and earth, assumed various shapes.
 24 Intro|          you familiar. Fire, air, earth, and water are bodies and
 25 Intro|       isosceles triangles. To the earth then, which is the most
 26 Intro|         conclusion is as follows:—Earth, when dissolved by the more
 27 Intro|         and then spreads upon the earth. When the substance cools,
 28 Intro|         fine and small portion of earth which comes out in the form
 29 Intro|         because it rolls upon the earth, and soft because its bases
 30 Intro|        the flesh. Of the kinds of earth, that which is filtered
 31 Intro|         water is broken up by the earth and escapes in the form
 32 Intro|          presses upon the mass of earth, and the earth, compressed
 33 Intro|        the mass of earth, and the earth, compressed into an indissoluble
 34 Intro|          reverse when of unequal. Earth is converted into pottery
 35 Intro|          if moisture remains, the earth, when fused by fire, becomes,
 36 Intro|          a black colour. When the earth is finer and of a briny
 37 Intro|           The strong compounds of earth and water are not soluble
 38 Intro|          water, but only by fire. Earth itself, when not consolidated,
 39 Intro|    resolved by fire. Compounds of earth and water are unaffected
 40 Intro|           like glass, having more earth, others, like wax, having
 41 Intro|        lightness. If you draw the earth into the dissimilar air,
 42 Intro|  dissimilar air, the particles of earth cling to their native element,
 43 Intro|           meet there particles of earth and air, two kinds of globules
 44 Intro|     formed by sifting pure smooth earth and wetting it with marrow.
 45 Intro|         view, the Creator mingled earth with fire and water and
 46 Intro|       fever intermits a day; when earth, which is the most sluggish
 47 Intro|           turned to their kindred earth, and put their forelegs
 48 Intro|         behold the heavens or the earth as they appeared to the
 49 Intro|         most trivial analogies of earth. The experiments which nature
 50 Intro|          of fire and water on the earth’s surface. To the ancient
 51 Intro|         of the seasons, the solid earth and the impalpable aether,
 52 Intro|         person. He knows that the earth is revolving round the sun,
 53 Intro|        and not the sun around the earth. He does not imagine the
 54 Intro|           He does not imagine the earth to be the centre of the
 55 Intro|          He would have beheld the earth a surface only, not mirrored,
 56 Intro|        fall rather heavily to the earth. There are no intermediate
 57 Intro|      permanence in man and on the earth. It is the rational principle,
 58 Intro|   consisting at first of fire and earth, and afterwards receiving
 59 Intro|        surfaces. Between fire and earth, the two extremes, he remarks
 60 Intro|         four in number—fire, air, earth, and water. They were at
 61 Intro|     universe.’ According to Plato earth was composed of cubes, fire
 62 Intro|   triangles, are interchangeable; earth, however, which has triangles
 63 Intro|         fire upon air, water, and earth, and the effect of water
 64 Intro|          the effect of water upon earth. The particles are supposed
 65 Intro|           to air, water to water, earth to earth. Plato’s doctrine
 66 Intro|          water to water, earth to earth. Plato’s doctrine of attraction
 67 Intro|   tendency towards both water and earth. So easily did the most
 68 Intro|          one another; the fourth, earth, cannot be similarly transformed: (
 69 Intro|        together moving around the earth, which is their centre.
 70 Intro|          within the circle of the earth’s orbit, was unknown to
 71 Intro|         in different parts of the earth. The fixed stars have also
 72 Intro|    revolution of the world around earth, which is accomplished in
 73 Intro|     rotation or immobility of the earth. Plato’s doctrine on this
 74 Intro|         the following words:—‘The earth, which is our nurse, compacted (
 75 Intro|          by the immobility of the earth in the midst of the circling
 76 Intro|   doctrine of the rotation of the earth on its axis. On the other
 77 Intro|        has been urged that if the earth goes round with the outer
 78 Intro|           the equal motion of the earth and sun would have the effect
 79 Intro|         Plato never says that the earth goes round with the outer
 80 Intro|        depends on the relation of earth and sun, their movements
 81 Intro|           diurnal rotation of the earth on its axis and the revolution
 82 Intro|          that the rotation of the earth is necessarily implied in
 83 Intro|          that the rotation of the earth on its axis and of the sun
 84 Intro|          outer heavens around the earth in equal times was inconsistent
 85 Intro|        seen the immobility of the earth to be inconsistent with
 86 Intro|           on ‘The Rotation of the Earth’) from Aristotle De Coelo,
 87 Intro|          4) The immobility of the earth is more in accordance with
 88 Intro| hypothesis. For in the Phaedo the earth is described as the centre
 89 Intro|           be looking out from the earth upon the motions of the
 90 Intro|        probably the symbol of the earth. The silence of Plato in
 91 Intro|      speak of the rotation of the earth, is more favourable to the
 92 Intro|         had meant to say that the earth revolves on its axis, he
 93 Intro|          by the immobility of the earth alone, but by both together;
 94 Intro|            Plato thought that the earth was at rest in the centre
 95 Intro|       axis. Whether we assume the earth to be stationary in the
 96 Intro|        year. The relations of the earth and heavens are so indistinct
 97 Intro|          was formed out of smooth earth; liquids of various kinds
 98 Intro|           early Pythagoreans, the earth was held to be a body like
 99 Intro|         many things in heaven and earth which are as well expressed
100 Intro|     gravitation. He observed that earth, water, and air had settled
101 Intro|        through air—when water and earth fell downward, they were
102 Intro|          beings and not masses of earth or metal. The Pythagoreans
103 Intro|         who, like Plato, made the earth their centre. Whether he
104 Intro|          between the moon and the earth, approximates to Plato’s
105 Intro|   including the sun and moon, the earth and the counter-earth (Greek),
106 Intro|           this is hidden from the earth by the counter-earth. Of
107 Intro|           in Plato, who makes the earth the centre of his system.
108 Timae|          up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed
109 Timae|         in the heavens around the earth, and a great conflagration
110 Timae|  conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long
111 Timae|          hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water,
112 Timae|                receiving from the Earth and Hephaestus the seed
113 Timae|         and she chose the spot of earth in which you were born,
114 Timae|           in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis
115 Timae|          nothing is solid without earth. Wherefore also God in the
116 Timae|   universe to consist of fire and earth. But two things cannot be
117 Timae|         the mean between fire and earth, and made them to have the
118 Timae|           to water so is water to earth); and thus he bound and
119 Timae|           all the air and all the earth, leaving no part of any
120 Timae|          in the orbit nearest the earth, and next the sun, in the
121 Timae|        the second orbit above the earth; then came the morning star
122 Timae|            in the second from the earth of these orbits, that it
123 Timae|     manner already described. The earth, which is our nurse, clinging (
124 Timae|       Tethys were the children of Earth and Heaven, and from these
125 Timae|        fire and air and water and earth, and returned to the form
126 Timae|         sowed some of them in the earth, and some in the moon, and
127 Timae|    borrowed portions of fire, and earth, and water, and air from
128 Timae|           fire, or with the solid earth or the gliding waters, or
129 Timae|       high and deep places of the earth, but might be able to get
130 Timae|       whereas fire and water, and earth and air, are all of them
131 Timae|           and water, and air, and earth, such as they were prior
132 Timae|        suppose, becomes stone and earth; and this same element,
133 Timae|       water, and from water comes earth and stones once more; and
134 Timae|       things, is not to be termed earth, or air, or fire, or water,
135 Timae|          mother substance becomes earth and air, in so far as she
136 Timae|          neither in heaven nor in earth has no existence. Of these
137 Timae|        and receiving the forms of earth and air, and experiencing
138 Timae|         order, fire and water and earth and air had only certain
139 Timae|          evident to all, fire and earth and water and air are bodies.
140 Timae|           know the true origin of earth and fire and of the proportionate
141 Timae|       among the four elements.~To earth, then, let us assign the
142 Timae|      assign the cubical form; for earth is the most immoveable of
143 Timae|          assigning this figure to earth, we adhere to probability;
144 Timae|         conclusion is as follows:—earth, when meeting with fire
145 Timae|         harmonising, again become earth; for they can never take
146 Timae|           body of air or water or earth, and both are moving, and
147 Timae|          air and spreads upon the earth; and this dissolution of
148 Timae|      their spreading out upon the earth flowing. Again, when the
149 Timae|         small and fine portion of earth, and is therefore harder,
150 Timae|      copper. There is an alloy of earth mingled with it, which,
151 Timae|         less stable than those of earth, when separated from fire
152 Timae|        great, the water above the earth becomes hail, but on the
153 Timae|          becomes hail, but on the earth, ice; and that which is
154 Timae|        half solid, when above the earth is called snow, and when
155 Timae|           snow, and when upon the earth, and condensed from dew,
156 Timae|          plants which grow in the earth; and this whole class is
157 Timae|         acid).~As to the kinds of earth, that which is filtered
158 Timae|        water which mixes with the earth and is broken up in the
159 Timae|         poured around the mass of earth, forcibly compresses it
160 Timae|          air had come up; and the earth when compressed by the air
161 Timae|      moisture may remain, and the earth which has been fused by
162 Timae|    composed of finer particles of earth and of a briny nature; out
163 Timae|          for purging away oil and earth, the other, salt, which
164 Timae|        the gods. The compounds of earth and water are not soluble
165 Timae|       fire nor air melt masses of earth; for their particles, being
166 Timae|        way, and so they leave the earth unmelted and undissolved;
167 Timae|         and dissolve and melt the earth. Wherefore earth when not
168 Timae|         melt the earth. Wherefore earth when not consolidated by
169 Timae|          As to bodies composed of earth and water, while the water
170 Timae|         vacant interstices of the earth in them which are compressed
171 Timae|          water what water does to earth and fire to air (The text
172 Timae|           of the compound body of earth and water liquefying and
173 Timae|         less water than they have earth; on the other hand, substances
174 Timae|        ourselves who are upon the earth doing precisely the same
175 Timae|     earthy natures, and sometimes earth itself, and draw them into
176 Timae|  proportioned to the particles of earth and air which are there,
177 Timae|           are too narrow to admit earth and water, and too wide
178 Timae|       fire and water, and air and earth—these, I say, he separated
179 Timae|     Having sifted pure and smooth earth he kneaded it and wetted
180 Timae|   considering these things, mixed earth with fire and water and
181 Timae|      therefore penetrates through earth and water and air and their
182 Timae|         whether the fruits of the earth or herb of the field, which
183 Timae|      which the body is compacted, earth and fire and water and air,
184 Timae|       fever is a tertian; when of earth, which is the most sluggish
185 Timae|   heavenly growth, raises us from earth to our kindred who are in
186 Timae|      their heads resting upon the earth to which they were drawn
187 Timae|          be more attracted to the earth. And the most foolish of
188 Timae|    without feet to crawl upon the earth. The fourth class were the