COSMICAL ETHER. 37 



In the dogmas of the Ionic philosophy of Anaxagoras and 

 Empedocles, this ether (at&yp) differed wholly from the actual 

 (denser) vapour-charged air (typ) which surrounds the earth, 

 and " probably extends as far as the moon." It was of " a fiery 

 nature, a brightly-beaming, pure fire-air, 16 of great subtlety 

 and eternal serenity." This definition perfectly coincides 

 with its etymological derivation from aWciv to burn, for which 

 Plato and Aristotle, from a predilection for mechanical views, 

 singularly enough substituted another (deitfeu'), on account of 

 the constancy of the revolving and rotatory movement. 17 The 



16 Empedocles, v. 216, calls the ether 7ra/i$ai/o'o>j/, brightly- 

 beaming, and therefore self-luminous. 



17 Plato, Cratyl. 410 B., where we meet with the expression 

 tittup. Aristot. de Coelo, 1, 3, p. 270, Bekk. says in oppo- 

 sition to Anaxagoras : aldepa Trpoo-uvopao-av TOV aixoraro) TOTTOV, 

 OTTO TOV Qflv del TOV dto'iov xpovov 6ep.evoi rrjv cTrcawfjiiav avrco. 

 'Avaayopas Se KO.TaKexP 7 l Tai TO> ovd/zan TOUTO) ov /caXaiy 6vop.d(i 

 yap alflepa O.VT\ -rrvpos. We find this more circumstantially re- 

 ferred to in Aristot. Meteor., 1, 3, p. 339, lines 21-34, Bekk.: 

 "The so-called ether has an ancient designation, which 

 Anaxagoras seems to identify with fire; for, according to 

 him, the upper region is full of fire, and to be considered 

 as ether ; in which, indeed, he is correct. For the ancients 

 appear to have regarded the body which is in a constant state 

 of movement, as possessing a divine nature, and therefore 

 called it ether, a substance with which we have nothing 

 analogous. Those, however, who hold the space surrounding 

 bodies to be fire no less than the bodies themselves, and who 

 look upon that which lies between the earth and the stars as 

 air, would probably relinquish such childish fancies if they 

 properly investigated the results of the latest researches of 

 mathematicians." (The same etymology of this word, im- 

 plying rapid revolution, is referred to by the Aristotelian, 

 or Stoic, author of the work De Mundo, cap. 2, p. 392, Bekk.) 

 Professor Franz has correctly remarked, " that the play of 

 words in the designation of bodies in eternal motion (tr&fta del 

 6fov] and of the divine (0eioi>) alluded to in the Meteorologica, 

 is strikingly characteristic of the Greek type of imagination, 



