300 DESCRIPTIO GLOBI INTELLECTUALS. 



receptum fuisset, nihil officiebat quin ilia pars materiaa 

 quas deputata est huic ipsi mundo, qui nostro generi 

 est conspicuus, obtinuerit figuram globosam. Necesse 

 enim fuit ut singuli ex illis mundis figuram aliquatn ao 

 cepissent. Etsi enim in infinite medium aliquod esse 

 nequeat, tamen in partibus infiniti rotunda figura sub- 

 sistere potest, non minus in mundo aliquo quam in pila. 

 Verum Democritus sector mundi bonus fuit, in integral- 

 ibus autem mundi etiam infra mediocres philosophos. 

 At opinio ilia de qua nunc loquimur, quse destruebat et 

 confundebat systema, fuit Heraclidis Pontici, et Ec- 

 phanti, et Nicetaa Syracusani, et praecipue Philolai, at- 

 que etiam nostra setate Gilbert], et omnium (prseter Co- 

 pernicum) eorum qui terram planetam et mobilem, et 

 tanquam unum ex astris, crediderunt. 1 Atque ilia opin- 

 io hanc vim habet, ut planetse et stellae singular, atque 



1 All the persons here mentioned affirmed that the earth moved, but 

 their opinions are not accurately represented. Thus Ecphantus and Hera- 

 elides denied that the earth changes its place. According to them it 

 moves, but ov pjv ye j uera/3<m/iwf (Plutarch, De Placit. Philos. iii. 13.): 

 and with respect to Ecphantus we are expressly told by the pseudo-Origen, 

 Philos. c. 15., that he affirmed TTJV yfjv (jaov noapov KivEia&ai Ttept TO av- 

 TTj$ Ksvrpov, wf ?rp6f uvaroT^v : so far was he from rejecting the notion of 

 a KOGfios or system. Philolaus undoubtedly admitted the motion of the 

 earth through space, and so probably did Nicetas, or rather Hicetas ; but 

 neither of them rejected the notion of a system. For Philolaus, see Boeckh's 

 Philolaus and the second dissertation De Platonico Systemate. The Philo- 

 laic system (although Martin appears to doubt it) was probably the same 

 as that of the Pythagoreans in general. According to it, neither the earth 

 nor the sun are at rest, but, with the planets, revolve about a central fire, 

 the light from which is reflected to us from the sun. It never reaches us 

 directly, because between us and it revolves the Antichthon, which is either 

 a separate planet, or simply the other side of the earth, for the point does 

 not seem quite settled. The passage in the text is apparently taken from 

 Gilbert, De Magnete, vi. 3. Heraclides, though he did not believe in the 

 earth's moving through space, yet affirmed, as did also the Pythagoreans, 

 that each of the heavenly bodies constitutes a Koofj.og in itself. See Sto- 

 baeus, EC. Phys. i. 25. On the other hand, Philolaus and Ecphantus dis- 

 tinctly asserted the unity of the universe. See Stobseus, ubi supra, i. 16. 

 and 23. 



