98 plint's natural history. [Book XVIIT. 



as the Milky Way. It is the emanations from this, flowing as 

 it were from the breast, that supply their milky^' nutriment to 

 all branches of the vegetable world. Two constellations more 

 particularly mark this circular tract, the Eagle in the north, 

 and Canicula in the south ; of this last, we have already made 

 mention"^ in its appropriate place. This circle traverses also 

 Sagittarius and Gemini, and passing through the centre of the 

 sun, cuts the equinoctial line below, the constellation of the 

 Eagle making its appearance at the point of intersection on 

 the one side, and Canicula on the other. Hence it is that the 

 influences, of both these constellations develope themselves' 

 upon all cultivated lands ; it being at these points only that the 

 centre of the sun is brought to correspond with that of the 

 earth. If, then, at the moments of the rising and the setting 

 of these constellations, tlie air, soft and pure, transmits these 

 genial and milky emanations to the earth, the crops will thrive 

 and ripen apace ; but if, on the other hand, the moon, as al- 

 ready^^ mentioned, sheds her chilling dews, the bitterness there- 

 of infuses itself into these milky secretions, and so kills the 

 vegetation in its birth. The measure of the injury so inflicted 

 on the earth depends, in each climate, upon the combination of 

 the one or other of these causes; and hence it is that it is not 

 felt in equal intensity throughout the whole earth, nor even pre- 

 cisely at the same moment of time. We have already*^ said 

 that the Eagle rises in Italy on the thirteenth day°^ before the 

 calends of January, and the ordinary course of !N"ature does 

 not permit us ])efore that period to reckon with any degree of: 

 certainty upon the fruits of the earth ; for if the moon should 

 happen to be in conjunction at that time, it will be a necessary 

 consequence, that all the winter fruits, as well as the early 

 ones, will receive injury more or less. 



The life led by the ancients was rude and illiterate ; still, 

 as will be readily seen, the observations they made were not 

 less remarkable for ingenuity than are the theories of the pre- 

 sent day. With them there were three set periods for gather- 

 ing in the produce of the earth, and it was in honour of these 

 periods that they instituted the festive days, known as the 



•" An onomatic prejudice, as Fee says, solely founded on the peculiarity 

 of the name. 



^« in the preceding Chapter. 59 jn (.j^g preceding Cliapter. 



«> In li. xvi. 0. 42. 61 Twentieth of JUecembcr. 



