3 2o PHYSICAL SCIENCE 



everything that it is destined to experience from its 

 beginning to its end. As a human embryo contains the 

 germ of the future man, so at the first creation of the 

 universe, sun and moon, the changes of the stars, and the 

 birth of living things were all embraced. And there were 

 likewise included the forces whereby the earth is affected, 

 and which will ultimately lead to the final destruction of 

 the globe (15 i). 1 



With regard to the earth itself, whether it is to be 

 regarded as a soul or as an organised body, Seneca 

 announced his conviction that it has been constructed 

 much after the plan of our human bodies. As in these 

 bodies, veins and arteries are provided for the reception 

 of blood and breath, so in the earth there are passages, 

 some for the transport of water, others for the flow of 

 air (126). He was sure, also, that everything on the 

 surface of the earth has its counterpart beneath caves, 

 mountains, lakes, and rivers. 



1 Lucretius, too, had his views on evolution, which are well expressed in 

 four lines of verse : 



mutat enim mundi naturam totius aetas, 

 ex alioque alius status excipere omnia debet, 

 nee manet ulla sui similis res : omnia migrant, 

 omnia commutat natura et vertere cogit. 



-De Rer. Nat. v. 828. 



