236 SEE— TEMPERATURE, SECULAR COOLING [April 20, 



that these books were pubhshed, philosophized, and propounded the doc- 

 trines of Aristotle more successfully than their predecessors, but were under 

 the necessity of advancing a great deal as probable only, on account of the 

 multitude of errors contained in the copies. 



" Even Rome contributed to this increase of errors ; for immediately on 

 the death of Apellicon, Sylla, who captured Athens, seized the library of 

 Apellicon. When it was brought to Rome, Tyrannion, the grammarian, who 

 was an admirer of Aristotle, courted the superintendent of the library and 

 obtained the use of it. Some venders of books, also, employed bad scribes 

 and neglected to compare the copies with the original. This happens in the 

 case of other books which are copied for sale both here and at Alexandreia." 

 (Strabo's "Geography," XIIL, Cap. i, §54; Bohn's TransL, Vol. IL, pp. 

 378-380.) 



There are naturally many points in regard to the writings of 

 Aristotle on which scholars are not agreed, but since according to 

 this account the entire works of Aristotle from his own manuscripts 

 were first published at Rome during Strabo's lifetime, the substan- 

 tial accuracy of the above statement can hardly be questioned. It is 

 gratifying to find that, so far as one can now judge, Aristotle's 

 views on earthquakes do not seem to have suffered any material cor- 

 ruption during the many centuries through which they have been 

 transmitted to us. We may safely infer this from the theory as 

 given by Strabo, soon after the publication of Aristotle's works, and 

 from the theory given by Pliny, who had access to the writings of 

 both Aristotle and Strabo, compared to the original Aristotelian doc- 

 trines set forth in the book on " Meteorology," the authenticity of 

 which is unquestioned. 



§ 18. The Theory of Plato. (42/-J4/ B. C.) 



As Plato was the teacher of Aristotle, but is not quoted in the 

 account given in the " Meteorology," it seems likely that the expres- 

 sions in Plato's works may be worthy of notice. The following 

 citations are from Jowett's Translations of Plato's Dialogues. 



In the Phaedo Plato gives the following discussion between 

 Socrates and Simmias : 



" ' That,' said Simmias, ' will be enough.' 



" * Well, then,' he said, ' my conviction is that the earth is a round body 

 in the center of the heavens, and therefore has no need of air or any similar 

 force as a support, but is kept there and hindered from falling or inclining 

 any way by the equability of the surrounding heaven and by her own equi- 

 poise. For that which, being in equipoise, is in the center of that which is 



