INTRODUCTION. 71 



of nature, Parmenides and Empedocles, and from thence inta 

 the woiks of prose writers. We will not here enter into a 

 discussion of the manner in which, according to the Pythago 

 rean views, Philolaiis distinguishes between Olympus, Uranus, 

 or the heavens, and Cosmos, or how the same word, used in 

 a plural sense, could be applied to certain heavenly bodies 

 (the planets) revolving round one central focus of the world, 

 or to groups of stars. In this work I use the word Cosmos in 

 conformity with the Hellenic usage of the term subsequently 

 to the time of Pythagoras, and in accordance with the precise 

 definition given of it in the treatise entitled De MuTzdo, which 

 was long erroneously attributed to Aristotle. It is the assem- 

 blage of all things in heaven and earth, the universality of 

 created things constituting the perceptible world. If scientific 

 terms had not long been diverted from their true verbal sig- 

 nification, the present work ought rather to have borne the 

 title of Cosmography, divided into Uranogrdphy and Geog- 

 raphy. The Romans, in their feeble essays on philosophy, 

 imitated the Greeks by applying to the universe the term 

 mundus, which, in its primary meaning, indicated nothing 

 more than ornament, and did not even imply order or regu- 

 larity in the disposition of parts. It is probable that the in- 

 troduction into the language of Latium of this technical term 

 as an equivalent for Cosmos, in its double signification, is due 

 to Ennius,* who was a follower of the Italian school, and the 

 translator of the writings of Epicharmus and some of his pu 

 pils on the Pythagorean philosophy. 



We would first distinguish between the physical history and 

 the physical description of the world. The former, conceived 

 in the most general sense of the word, ought, if materials Ibi 

 writing it existed, to trace the variations experienced by the 

 universe in the course of ages from the new stars which have 

 suddenly appeared and disappeared in the vault of heaven, 

 from nebula) dissolving or condensing — to the first stratum of 

 cryptogamic vegetation on the still imperfectly cooled surface 

 of the earth, or on a reef of coral uplifted from the depths of 

 ocean. The physical description of the world presents a pic- 

 ture of all that exists in space — of the simultaneous action of 



* See, on Ennius, the ingenious researches of Leopold Krahner, in 

 his Qrundlinien zur Geschickte des Verfalls der Romischen Staats-Reii 



frion, 1837, s. 41-45 (Outlines of the History of the Decay of the Estab 

 ished Religion among the Romans). In all probability, Ennius did no' 

 quote from writings of Epicharmus himself, but from poems compose 

 in the name of that philosopher, and in accordance with his views 



