Book n.] ACCOUNT OP THE WOELD. 13 



BOOK II. 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD AND THE ELEMENTS. 



[I have adopted the division of the chapters firom Hardouin, as given 

 in the editions of Valpy, Lemaire, Ajasson, and Sillig. ; the Roman figures, 

 enclosed between brackets, are the numbers of the chapters in Dalechamps, 

 De Laet, Gronovius, Holland, and Poinsinet. The titles of the chapters 

 are nearly the same with those in Valpy, Lemaire, and Ajasson.] 



CHAP. 1. (1.) — ^WHETHER THE WOELD BE EnTETE, AND 

 WHETHEE THEEE BE MOEE THAN ONE WOELD. 



The world ^, and whatever that be which we otherwise 



* " Mundus." La translating from one language into another, it is 

 proper, as a, general principle, always to render the same word in the 

 original by the same word in the translation. But to this rule there are 

 two exceptions ; where the languages do not possess words which pre- 

 cisely correspond, and where the original author does not always use the 

 same word in the same sense. Both these circumstances, I apprehend, 

 apply to the case in question. The term Mundus is used by PUny, 

 sometimes to mean the earth and its immediate appendages, the visible 

 solar system ; and at other times the universe ; while I think we may 

 venture to assert, that in some instances it is used in rather a vague 

 manner, without any distinct reference to cither one or other of the above 

 designations. I have, in almost all cases, translated it by the term worldy 

 as approaching nearest to the sense of the original. The word mundus 

 is frequently employed by Lucretius, especially* in his fifth book, and 

 seems to be almost always used in the more extended sense of universe. 

 There are, indeed, a few passages where either meaning would be equally 

 appropriate, and in one line it would appear to be equivalent to firma- 

 ment or heavens ; " et mmidi speciem violare serenam," iv. 138. Cicero, 

 in his treatise De Natura Deoinim, generally uses the term mundus in the 

 sense of universe, as in ii. 22, 37, 58 and 154 ; while in one passage, ii. 

 132, it would appear to be employed in the more limited sense of the 

 earth. It occasionaUy occurs in the Fasti of Ovid, but it is not easy to 

 ascertain its precise import ; as in the Hne " Post chaos, ut primum data 

 sunt tria corpora mundo," v. 41, where from the connexion it may be 

 taken either m the more confined or in the more general sense. ManOius 

 employs the word very frequently, and his commentators remark, that he 

 uses it in two distinct senses, the visible firmament and the universe-, and 

 I am induced to think that he attaches still more meaning to the term. 

 It occurs three times in the first eleven lines of his poem. In the third 

 line, " deducere mundo aggredior," mundus may be considered as equiva- 



