xxxvi PHYSICAL SCIENCE 



Book II. he goes on immediately to deal with meteorology, 

 his second and not his first topic. 



Bernhardt (Die Anschauung des Seneca vom Universum, 

 p. 7) frankly accepts the traditional order of the Books, 

 and finds its explanation in the distinction between 

 phenomena and elements. The first three Books deal 

 with the phenomena of heaven, air, earth, respectively ; 

 the last four respectively with the elements water, 

 air, earth, fire. This is ingenious, if not altogether 

 convincing. 



The most recent editor, Professor Gercke, divides Book 

 IV. into its two constituents, IV. (a) = IV. Pref.-ii., IV. 

 (#) = IV. iii.-xiii., and arranges the Books in ascending 

 scale thus: Earth III. IV. (a); Air IV. (b\ II. V. VI.; 

 Heaven VII. I. There seems great probability, almost 

 amounting to certainty, that there were originally eight 

 Books, as he supposes. But a consistent and fairly 

 natural order might perhaps be restored with less violence 

 to the accepted form than his scheme involves. Books 

 III. and IV. (a) seem to have been misplaced or transposed, 

 being placed after Book II. instead of after Book VI., where 

 they originally stood ; Book IV. (a) had somehow got muti 

 lated, which the more easily led to the confusion. Book IV. 

 (&) also suffered somewhat in the process. Thus the original 

 order may have been I. II. IV. (b\ V. VI. ; III. IV. (a) ; 

 VII. ; the first five Books deal with Meteorology, including 

 Seismology (air), the next two with Physical Geography 

 (earth), the last Book with Astronomy (heaven). A single 

 change of the order is thus all that is required ; but, of 

 course, the regrettable gap after IV. (a) remains. 



Even with this rearrangement the sequence leaves 

 something to be desired. But it must be borne in mind 

 that the author makes a claim to philosophic liberty (178), 

 and that in no case can the rules of modern requirement 

 be applied to him. 



Of course, if the assumption of methodical arrangement 

 be unfounded, and the author composed just as the humour 

 took him, the existing order may be all right : it is as 

 good as any other fortuitous collocation. Some have 



