91 



earth in its circuit. And Sextus Empiricus also cites 

 him as one of the principal supporters of this opinion. 

 There is also a passage in Plutarch, whereby it ap. 

 pears, that Cleanthes accused Aristarchus of impiety, 

 in troubling the repose of Vesta, and all the Larian 

 gods ; when, in giving an account of the phenomena 

 of the planets in their courses, he taught that heaven, 

 or the firmament of the fixed stars, was immoyeable : 

 and that the earth moved in an oblique circle, revolv- 

 ing at the same time around its own axis* 



6. Theophrastus, as quoted by Plutarch, says, in 

 his history of astronomy, which hath not reached our 

 times, that Plato, when advanced in years, gave up 

 theerror he had been in, of making the sun turn round 

 the earth ; and lamented, that he had not placed it 

 in the centre ; but put the earth there, contrary to 

 the order of nature, Nor is it at all strange, that 

 Plato should re-assume an opinion which he had early 

 imbibed in the schools of the two celebrated Pytha^o. 

 goreans, Archytas of Tarentum, and Timeus the Lo. 

 rian ; as we see in St. Jerom's Christian apology 

 again&t Rufimis ; and in Cicero we see, that Ileraclidis 

 of Pontus, who was a Pythagorean, taught the sume 

 doctrine. 



7. That the earth is round, and inhabited on all 

 sides, and of course that there are antipodes, or those 

 whose feet are directly opposite to ours, is one of the 

 most ancient doctrines inculcated by philosophy, Dio- 

 genes Laertius says, that Plato was the first who called 

 the inhabitants of the earth opposite to us, Antipodes, 

 He does not mean, that Plato was the first who taught 

 this opinion, but only the first who made use of the term 

 Antipodes ; for, in another place, he mentions Py- 

 thagoras as the first who taught it. There is also a 

 passage in Plutarch, whereby it appears, that it was a 

 point of controversy in his time : and Lucretius and 

 Pliny who oppose this notion, as well as St. Angus- 



