NOTES 341 



as to set fire to beds of sulphur or other combustible materials, 

 and thus that rocks are melted and are forced up to the surface 

 by the vast energy of the escaping air. 1 It is to be regretted that 

 Seneca has not left an account of his own opinions on this subject, 

 but from the allusions in the present treatise he may be inferred 

 to have held the prevalent opinion. He alludes in various 

 passages to volcanic eruptions that had taken place in his own 

 time, or not long before, in the Mediterranean basin. An eruption 

 of Etna is briefly noticed, when the mountain was in violent 

 eruption, ejecting such a quantity of fine burning sand and dust 

 as to turn day into night, accompanied with much thunder and 

 lightning (77). This may have been the eruption alluded to in 

 similar language by Cicero, who adds that for two days nobody 

 could see his neighbour. 2 Seneca further cites two eruptions in 

 the Aegean Sea, one of which had taken place in his own time, 

 when a new island was upraised &quot;by the force of air.&quot; He 

 alludes to Thera and Therasia, and the interesting account 

 given by Posidonius of the uprise of an island in the same sea, 

 with attendant circumstances closely resembling those of the 

 eruptions at Santorin in modern times (73, 252). According to 

 Asclepiodotus, the fire, after overcoming the resistance of the 

 thick mass of sea, shot up above sea-level to a height of two 

 hundred paces. 



From a consideration of the causes of earthquakes the author 

 is led by his accustomed train of thought to draw the ethical 

 lessons which the subject suggested to him. He repeats his 

 belief that against the perils of earthquakes, as against all the 

 other dangers and fears of life, the only assurance is to be 

 obtained from elevating studies and a contemplation of nature 

 (265). It matters not when or in what form we shall quit life, 

 whether from some trifle or from a world-wide catastrophe. To 

 be happy without fear of anything that may befall us, we must 

 carry our life in our hands, steeling ourselves against fear, and 

 prepared even to welcome death as the advent of a friend. 



BOOK VII 



After a brief introduction, marked by no little elegance and 

 literary skill, the author introduces the subject of the heavenly 



1 This view of the nature of volcanic energy is graphically expressed by 

 Lucretius (op. cit. vi. 639-702). 



2 De Nat. Dear. ii. 38. See also Lucretius (ib. vi. 641), who describes 

 the more conspicuous features of an eruption, and concludes with the line 

 ne dubites quin haec animal turbida sit vis (693). 



