SEC. FAB. CUPIDINIS ET CCELI. 301 



eta et torpens et minime activa, sed coeli et ignis et 

 reliquorum patiens, ne id cuipiam in mentem veniret 

 asserere. 1 Attamen prisca sapientia Terram proximam 

 a Chao ponit, Coelique primo parentem, deinde nup- 

 tam ; ex quo conjugio omnia. 2 Neque propterea hoc 

 accipiendum, ac si veteres unquani statuissent terrain 

 principium essentiae ; sed principium vel originem po- 

 tius schematismi sive systematis. Itaque hanc rem ad 

 parabolam sequentem de Coelo rejicimus, ubi de Origin- 

 ibus inquiremus ; qua? est iuquisitio, ad illam de Prin- 

 cipiis, posterior. 



At Thales Aquam principium rerum posuit. 3 Vi- 

 debat enim materiam praecipue dispensari in humido, 

 humidum in aqua. Consentaneum autem esse illud 

 rerum principium ponere, in quo virtutes entium et 

 vigores, praesertim elementa generationum et instau- 

 rationum, potissimum invenirentur. Genituram ani- 

 malium humidam ; etiam plantarum semina et nuclea, 

 quamdiu vegetarent nee efFoeta essent, tenera et mol- 

 lia. Metalla quoque liquescere et fluere, et esse tan- 

 quam terras succos concretos, vel potius aquas quas- 

 dam minerales. Terram ipsam imbribus aut irriga- 

 tione fluviorum foecundari et instaurari, nihilque aliud 

 videri terrain et limum, quam faeces et sedimenta 

 aquae. Et aerem planissime esse aquae exspirationem 

 atque expansionem. Quin et ignem ipsum non con- 



1 This remark Bacon may have derived from Aristotle, Metaph. i. 7. 

 However, Hippo of Rhegium, or rather Hippo the atheist who is probably 

 the same person, made earth the principle of all things, at least according 

 to the scholiast on Hesiod s Theogony. (See Heinsius s Hesiod, p. 237.) 

 Others, however, give a different account of Hippo s opinions, and it is 

 possible that the scholiast s story was suggested to him merely by what 

 Aristotle says of him in the third chapter of the same book. 



2 As I have remarked in the preface, reference is here made to Hesiod. 



3 Plutarch, De Plac. Philosoph. i. 3. 



