2o8 PHYSICAL SCIENCE BK. v 



stars, to stoop below, burying him in mines and 

 plunging him in the very bowels of innermost earth 

 to root up gold ? The quest for the precious bane 

 4 is no less perilous than its possession. For this he 

 drove shafts and crawled round his dirty, uncertain 

 booty, forgetful of day, forgetful of his better 

 nature, which he abjured. On no dead man does 

 earth lie so heavily as it lies on those on whom 

 insistent avarice has cast earth s weight, from whom 

 it has withdrawn the light of day, whom it has 

 buried in the depths where that noxious poison 

 lurks. They had the hardihood to descend to a 

 region where they found a new order of nature, 

 forms of overhanging earth and winds raving 

 through the blind void, where are dread fountains 

 of waters whose streams none drink, and night 

 reigns deep and unbroken. And then, after all that 

 has come and gone, they dread the gods of the 

 nether world ! 



XVI 



1 BUT to return to the matter in hand ; there are 

 four winds, divided, according to the cardinal points, 

 into east, west, south, and north. The rest of the 

 winds, which are called by different names, are 

 attached to these : 



Eurus has gone toward the dawn and the realms of Nebaioth 

 And Persia and the peaks that lie beneath the rays of morn. 

 Evening and the coasts that are warmed by the setting sun 

 Are close to Zephyrus. Scythia and the Great Bear 

 Are under the sway of dread Boreas. The land that faces these 

 Is bathed in unbroken cloud and rainy Auster. 



2 Or, if you prefer a briefer enumeration, you may 

 gather them in one great storm a physical im 

 possibility, by the way : 



