xlvi PHYSICAL SCIENCE 



refer to individual works. There are numerous instances 

 in which Aristotle is his authority, though no specific 

 mention of him occurs. 



Theophrastus, the pupil of Aristotle, and his successor 

 as head of the Academy, is also frequently referred to 

 in the Q.N. His master bequeathed to him his library 

 and original manuscripts, and Theophrastus was himself 

 also a voluminous writer. 



Among his extant works on Science, we have treatises 

 or tracts dealing with Fire ; Winds ; Stones ; Signs of 

 Rain, Wind, Storm, and Fine Weather ; not to mention 

 Colours, Odours, etc., and an extensive work on Plants 

 and their History. His work on Perception and Per 

 cepts is said to be a chapter of a larger work on the 

 history of philosophy. At any rate, it records and dis 

 cusses the opinions of earlier writers on the subjects to 

 which the title refers. For his further views on Physics, 

 and the lost treatise on the subject, see Diels, Dox. Graec. 

 1 19 et sqq., and 473 et sqq. 



Aratus, who flourished about 280-270 B.C., wrote two 

 poems (in Greek) entitled respectively Phaenomena^ an 

 introduction to the knowledge of the constellations ; and 

 Prognostics, a method of forecasting the weather from 

 astronomical phenomena. Aratus scarcely ranks as a 

 scientific writer, but Seneca refers to his opinions on one 

 occasion in the Q.N. He was apparently held in high 

 esteem by the Romans, for he found a translator (in 

 part) in Cicero, and an imitator in Virgil (Georgics). 



Plutarch stands in a somewhat different relation to 

 Seneca. He was a little subsequent in date, but there is 

 a sort of parallelism between the two, both in their 

 scientific and their more general interests. Besides the 

 Physical Causes, already referred to, Plutarch made a 

 compilation in five Books at least it goes under his 

 name of the Tenets of the Philosophers (Placita Philo- 

 sophormri) regarding a vast number of physical, especially 



1 It is from this poem (1. 5) that Paul quotes (Acts xvii. 28), &quot; For we 

 are also his offspring.&quot; Aratus was a native of Soli in Cilicia, and therefore 

 a compatriot of Paul. 



