120 History of Nature. [BOOK IF. 



sioned by the Influence of the Planets : bat of those three 

 only to which they attribute Lightnings. And it is effected 

 by the Means of their keeping their Course with the Sun, or 

 meeting with him : and especially when this Concurrence is 

 about the Quadratures of the Heaven. And if it be true, as 

 it is reported, of Anaximander, the Milesian Natural Philo- 

 sopher, his Foreknowledge of Things was excellent and wor- 

 thy of Immortality : for they say he forewarned the Lacede- 

 monians to look well to their City and Dwelling-houses, for 

 that an Earthquake approached ; which fell out accord- 

 ingly : when not only their whole City was shaken, but also 

 a great Part of the Mountain Taygetus, which projected like 



one ; and which may be attended with tidal and sound waves, dependent 

 upon the former, and upon circumstances of position as to sea and land. 

 MALLET : Transactions of Royal Irish Academy, vol. xix. 



The causes, and many of the attending phenomena, are as much a 

 matter of conjecture now as when Pliny wrote ; but he does not even 

 deem worthy of notice the popular supposition, that the giants who had 

 rebelled against the gods were buried beneath these mountains, where 

 by their struggles they gave occasion to those commotions : nor that the 

 shop of Vulcan was beneath Etna, of which the crater was the chimney. 

 It is more remarkable that he makes no reference to the idea of Pytha- 

 goras (Ovid's " Metamorphoses," b. xv.), that the phenomena of volcanic 

 eruption was a vital action of the earth, regarded as an animal ; for that 

 the earth was such we find Pliny expressing a decided opinion. But the 

 concluding explanation of the poet, however, was that which best suited 

 his inquiries. 



Ceremonies concerning Earthquakes. Whilst it was a maxim of the 

 state religion, that earthquakes were caused by the displeasure of some 

 divinity, it was still necessary that each occurrence of such phenomenon 

 should be fully announced by the proper officers, before the religious 

 observances appropriate to the case could be required ; and thus was se- 

 cured a guard against such alarms as might agitate the public mind, if 

 any neglect might seem to arise. The ceremonies were by public an- 

 nouncement ; and they were so imperative upon all, that any one engaging 

 in ordinary work at the time of these feriae would be judged to have 

 violated them. The salutation to the divine power that may have caused 

 the shock was, " Si Deo, si Dea," &c., to obviate the danger of an error 

 regarding which god, or which sex of these deities, had caused the calamity. 

 And this was of importance, because if a wrong name were called, so far 

 from being pacified, the real author might become still more offended. 

 From Aulus Gellius. Wern. Club. 



