NOTES BY TRANSLATOR 



"AIR" 



THE word "air" occurs in the text over 200 times, but not 

 always as a translation of the same Latin word. With a term so 

 elastic and so ambiguous it would have been mere pedantry to 

 attempt a uniform rendering ; and indeed such uniform rendering 

 would have been more misleading than the course adopted of 

 rendering according to the context, which the idiom of our language 

 seemed to demand. 



Seneca has two main terms for air aer and spiritus. 

 Aer means, generally speaking, either air generically, or the 

 atmosphere specifically. Spiritus, on the other hand, denotes 

 air under certain conditions of tension, or strain, or pressure, 

 when it is capable of exerting force or violence ; to its influence 

 are attributed many effects due in reality to gases, or other causes. 

 On p. 52, 1. i, we have the definition "air (spiritus) is the atmo- 

 sphere (aer) in violent motion"; and on p. 205 the concluding 

 words of V. xiii. are "air differs from wind in degree alone. A more 

 violent air is a wind ; air in turn is gently flowing atmosphere," 

 where again spiritus is " air " and aer " atmosphere." 



Again, in the Aetna, 1. 212, we read, "The winds when 

 inflated are called spirit ; when in subsidence, air " (Professor 

 Ellis's translation), where the same terms spiritus and aer are 

 employed. 1 



Now if our author had been consistent in the use of the 

 words, there would have been a strong case for a uniform adop- 

 tion of " air " and " atmosphere," whenever they occurred. But 

 numerous passages might be cited to show that he interchanges 

 the words without apparent motive, just as we do " air " and 

 "atmosphere." For example, on p. 69, 1. 2, "So fire will pass 



1 For a discussion of the meaning of the term spiritus and the parallelisms 

 in its use by Seneca and the author of the Aetna, see Professor Ellis's edition 

 of that poem, Prolegomena, pp. xl-xliii. 



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