自然研究 — セネカ
You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : Physical science in the time of Nero being a translation of the Quaestiones naturales of Seneca Author : Lucius Annaeus Seneca Contributor : Archibald Geikie Translator : John Clarke Release date : June 26, 2025 [eBook #76392] Language : English Original publication : London: Macmillan and Co. Limited, 1910 Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76392 Credits : Thiers Halliwell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) *** START OF However, some minor flaws have been corrected silently, such as missing or inconsistent punctuation. The book has a somewhat complex structure comprising seven ‘books’ covering different aspects of science, followed by extensive explanatory notes and a comprehensive index. Numbers in the left margin identify lines of text that are referred to in the notes (e.g. p. 187 , l. 27 ) or the index. The latter are enclosed in parentheses to differentiate them from page references, e.g. Pompey, 166 (3) . To help readers navigate the index, an alphabetic jump-table has been inserted at the beginning. Footnotes have been numbered sequentially and moved to the end of the book. New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain. PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN THE TIME OF NERO MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN THE TIME OF NERO BEING A TRANSLATION OF THE QUAESTIONES NATURALES OF SENECA BY JOHN CLARKE, M.A. LECTURER ON EDUCATION IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN WITH NOTES ON THE TREATISE BY Sir ARCHIBALD GEIKIE K.C.B., D.C.L., Sc.D., LL.D. PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON 1910 Plurimum ad inveniendum contulit qui speravit posse reperiri. Seneca , Q.N. VI. V. 2. PREFACE This book is intended primarily for English readers, to most of whom it will probably be at least new. Thomas Lodge, the well-known dramatist, published in 1614 a translation of the whole of Seneca’s prose works (except the Apocolocyntosis ), but no English editor or commentator seems to have turned his attention to the Quaestiones Naturales , either before or since. Lodge’s translation, a folio volume of nearly a thousand pages, was probably very good for its day, but is now out of date. The Introduction is designed to give a setting to the translation, and to answer a few of the questions that would naturally occur to the mind of an intelligent reader who was not a classical scholar. In the Index also some details are included that may be helpful to those who have neither time nor opportunity for hunting up historical and other allusions in books of reference. The object has been to make the volume self-interpreting, though it may be that the course has not always been judiciously steered between too little and too much. The Quaestiones Naturales must be regarded as occupying historically an important position. It was the latest deliverance of the classical world upon the subject of physical speculation. Its currency during the Middle Ages rendered it for many centuries the chief authority in science in Western Europe. Its cosmology represented not only popular but also educated opinion, and became the source of many of the accepted ideas concerning the universe that passed into early modern literature in our own and other countries. Indebtedness to editors of Seneca and to others, which has been very great, is acknowledged as fully as possible in the Introduction and elsewhere where help has been availed of. The interest taken in the book by various friends is also gratefully acknowledged. Professor Sir Joseph Larmor and Professor J. Arthur Thomson have made several useful suggestions. Professor Herbert J. C. Grierson has very kindly read the proofs and given valuable assistance in other respects. But my chief acknowledgments are due to Sir Archibald Geikie. To him the translation owed its inception: his constant aid and encouragement have enabled me to complete a task from which I should probably have otherwise shrunk. I am indebted to him also for the Commentary appended to the translation, in which the questions treated by Seneca are considered from the point of view of modern Science. It has been to him a labour of love: may our readers enjoy something of the same satisfaction! J. C. Old Aberdeen , September 27, 1909 . CONTENTS Preface v Introduction xxi BOOK I [METEORS, HALO, RAINBOW, MOCK SUN, ETC.] PREFACE PAGE Contrast between human (moral) philosophy and divine (natural, physical). The sublime character of the latter which lifts us above the contemplation of the littlenesses of the earth and earthly life to the knowledge of God and His nature. Compared with astronomical conceptions and dimensions the world of man is but as a threshing-floor, the haunt of ants. The mind of man attains its true height in contemplation and investigation of these sublime facts. Some of the problems thus raised 3 CHAP. I. Meteoric fires— she-goat , kid , etc. Occasions of their appearance; connection of portent with event. Explanation of the phenomena. They may be due to pressure of the atmosphere. Aristotle attributes them to the effect of terrestrial evaporation: difference of density causes various outbursts of this kind. They are analogous to lightning, but less violent 8 II. Halos. Produced by the light of a heavenly body striking the surrounding air and forming a circle as a stone does when thrown into a pond. Formed far away from the heavenly body and comparativel