xxi SOMNOLENCE INTOXICATION POISON 135 



at all surprised that place and air infect water and 

 render it similar in character to the tract through 

 which and from which it proceeds. Similarly, milk 

 shows the taste of the cow s fodder, the quality 

 of the wine comes out even in the vinegar it yields. 

 There is, in fact, nothing that does not bear marks 

 of its origin in the same way. 



XXII 



THERE is another species of water which we Stoics 

 are satisfied must be coeval with the world. If the 

 latter has existed from all eternity, so must it too. 

 If the world has had some beginning, then the 

 water was assigned its place at the creation. You 

 want to know what kind of water I mean ? I mean 

 the Ocean and all its seas that wash the continents 

 of the earth. Some philosophers are convinced 

 that the rivers likewise whose nature is inexplicable, 

 date from the creation of the world ; such are the 

 mighty rivers Danube and Nile, too remarkable to 

 be supposed by any possibility to have the same 

 origin as other rivers. 



XXIII 



SUCH is the division of various kinds of water, 

 as it presents itself to some minds. After that come 

 waters of the sky, which the clouds pour down from 

 the upper regions. Of terrestrial waters, they say, 

 there are some that overflow, so to speak, and 

 creep along the surface ; others are concealed under 

 ground. I have already explained all these. 



