138 NATURAL HISTORY 



sil, to believe men mistaken when they talk of 

 splitting fishes from solid rock or to doubt that 

 coal is of vegetable origin, if he has never visited a 

 coal mine. But when he walks among the rocks 

 his skepticism vanishes. And, on the other hand, 

 things always seen cease to have their proper effect. 

 If we admire the striking objects of a foreign land, 

 we shall find those who dwell among them as un- 

 moved as we are by the common objects of our 

 daily life. 



The effect that common things might have, if 

 presented for the first time, is beautifully illustrated 

 in the fragment of Aristotle preserved by Cicero 

 in his JDe Natura Deorum. "If," said he, "there 

 were beings who lived in the depths of the earth, 

 in dwellings adorned with statues, and paintings, 

 and every thing which is possessed in rich abun- 

 dance by those whom we esteem fortunate ; and if 

 these beings could receive tidings of the power and 

 might of the gods, and could then emerge from their 

 hidden dwellings through the open fissures of the 

 earth to the places which we inhabit if they could 

 suddenly behold the earth, and the sea, and the 



