BOOK II. Lxxx. 190-LXXX1. 192 



gentle, senses elear, intellects fertile and able to 

 grasp the whole of nature ; and they also have 

 governments, which the outer races never have 

 possessed, any more than they have ever been subject 

 to the central races, being quite detached and soHtary 

 on account of the savagery of the nature that broods 

 over those regions. 



LXXXI. The theory of the Babylonians deems Earihquaka 

 that even earthquakes and fissures in the ground are 

 eaused by the force of the stars that is the cause of 

 all other phenomena, but only by that of those three 

 stars " to v/hich they assign thunderbolts ; and that 

 they occur when these are travelhng with the 

 sun or are in agreement with him, and particularly 

 about the quadratures of the world.* On this subject 

 a remarkable and immortal inspiration is attributed (if 

 we can believe it) to the natural philosopher Anaxi- 

 mander of Miletus, who is said to have warned the 

 Spartans to be careful of their city and buildings, 

 because an earthquake was impending ; and subse- 

 quently the whole of their city coUapsed, and also a 

 hirge part of Mount Taygetus projecting in the 

 shape of a ship's stern broke offand crashing down on 

 it added to the catastrophe. Also another conjecture 

 is attributed to Pherecydes the teacher of P}i;hagoras, 

 this also inspired : he is said to have foretold to his 

 fellow-citizens an earthquake, of which he had 

 obtained a premonition in drawing water from a well. 

 Assuming the truth of these stories, how far pray 

 can such men even in their lifetime be thought to 

 differ from a god ? And though these matters may 

 be left to the estimation of individual judgment; 

 I think it indubitable that their cause is to be attri- 

 buted to the winds ; for trcmors of the earth never 



323 



