Book II.] ACCOUNT OF THE WOELD. 13 



EOOK II. 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD AND THE ELEMENTS. 



[I have adopted the dirision of the chapters fi-om Hardouin, as given 

 in the editions of Yalpy, Lemaire, Ajasson, and Sillig. ; the Roman figures, 

 enclosed between brackets, are the numbers of the chapters in Dalechamps, 

 De Laet, Gronovius, Holland, and Poinshiet. The titles of the chapters 

 are nearly the same with those in Yalpy, Lemau'e, and Ajasson.] 



CHAP. 1. (1.) — WHETHER THE WOELD BE EIIS'ITE, AlfD 

 WHETHEE THEEE BE MOEE THAIS' ONE WOELD. 



The world \ and whatever that be which we otherwise 



^ " Mundus," In translating from one language into another, it is 

 proper, as a general principle, always to render the same word in the 

 original by the same word in the translation. But to this rule there are 

 two exceptions ; where the languages do not possess words which pre- 

 cisely correspond, and where the original author does not always use the 

 same word in the same sense. Both these circumstances, I apprehend, 

 apply to the case in question. The term Mimdus is used by Pliny, 

 sometimes to mean the earth and its immediate appendages, the visible 

 Bolar system ; and at other tunes the universe ; wlule I think we may 

 venture to assert, that m some instances it is used in rather a vague 

 manner, without any distinct reference to either one or other of the above 

 designations. I have, in almost all cases, translated it by the term world j 

 as approaching nearest to the sense of the original. The word miindus 

 is frequently employed by Lucretius, especially in his fifth book, and 

 seems to be ahnost always used in the more extended sense of universe. 

 There are, indeed, a few passages where either meaning would be equally 

 appropriate, and in one line it would appear to be equivalent to firma- 

 ment or heavens ; " et mmidi spcciem violare serenam," iv. 138. Cicero, 

 in his treatise I)e Natura Deorimi, generally uses the term mundus in the 

 sense of universe, as in ii. 22, 37, 58 and 154 ; while in one passage, ii. 

 132, it would appear to be employed in the more hmited sense of the 

 earth. It occasionally occurs in the Fasti of Ovid, but it is not easy to 

 ascertain its precise import ; as in the line *' Post chaos, ut primum data 

 sunt tria corpora mundo," v. 41, where from the connexion it may be 

 taken either m the more confined or in the more general sense. ManUius 

 employs the word very frequently, and his commentators remark, that ho 

 uses it in two distinct senses, the visible firmament and ihc universe; and 

 I am induced to tliink that he attaches still more meaning to the term. 

 It occui's three times in the first eleven hnes of liis poem. In the tliird 

 line, " deducere mundo aggredior," mundus may be considered as equiva- 



