14 PLINT's IfATUEAL HISTOET. [Book II. 



call tlie heavens \ by the vault of which all things are en- 

 lent to tlie celestial regions as opposed to the earth. In the ninth line, 

 *' coneessumque patri mundo," we may consider it as signifying the 

 celestial regions generally ; and in the eleventh, " Jamque favet mundus," 

 the whole of the earth, or rather its inhabitants. We meet with it again 

 in the sixty-eighth line, " Imnina mvindi," where it seems more properly 

 to signify the visible firmament ; again in the 139th, " Et mundi struxere 

 globum," it seems to refer especially to the earth, synonymous with the 

 general sense of the EngHsh term world ; while in the 153rd line, " per 

 inania mundi," it must be supposed to mean the universe. Hyginus, 

 in his Poeticon Astronomicon, Ub. i. p. 55, defines the term as follows : 

 *' Mimdus appeUatur is qui constat in sole et luna et terra et omnibus 

 steUis ; " and again, p. 57, "Terra mundi media regione collocata." We may 

 observe the different designations of the term mundns in Seneca ; among 

 other passages I may refer to his Nat. Qusest. vii. 27 & iii. 30 ; to his 

 treatise De Consol, § 18 and De Benef. iv. 23, where I conceive the precise 

 meanings are, respectively, the universe, the terrestrial globe, the firma- 

 ment, and the heavenly bodies. The Grreek term Koafios, which corresponds 

 to the Latin word mundus, was likewise employed to signify, either the 

 visible firmament or the universe. In illustration of this, it will be suf- 

 ficient to refer to the treatise of Aristotle Ilepi Koo-juov, cap. 2. p. 601. See 

 also Stephens's Thesaurus, in loco. In Apuleius's treatise De Mimdo, 

 which is a free translation of Aristotle's Xlepi Kocrjuou, the term may be 

 considered as synonymous with universe. It is used in the same sense 

 in various parts of Apideius's writings : see Metam. ii. 23 ; De Deo 

 Socratis, 665, 667 ; De Dogmate Platonis, 574, 575, et alibi. 



^ Cicero, in his Timseus, uses the same phraseology ; " Omne igitur 

 eoelum, sive mundus, sive quovis aho vocabulo gaudet, hoc a nobis 

 nuncupatum est," § 2. Pomponius Mela's work commences with a 

 similar expression ; " Omne igitur hoc, quidquid est, cui mtmdi cochque 

 nomen indideris, unum id est." They were probably taken from a 

 passage in Plato's Timseus, "Universimi igitur hoc. Caelum, sive Mundum, 

 sive quo aho vocabulo gaudet, cognominemus," according to the trans- 

 lation of Ficinus ; Platonis Op. ix. p. 302. The word eoelum, wliich is 

 employed in the original, in its ordinary acceptation, signifies the heavens, 

 the visible firmament ; as in Ovid, Met. i. 5, " quod tegit omnia, eoelum." 

 It is, in most cases, employed in this sense by Lucretius and by ManihuS, 

 as in i. 2. of the former and in i. 14. of the latter. Occasionally, how- 

 ever, it is employed by both of these writers in the more general sense 

 of celestial regions, in opposition to the earth, as by Lucretius, i. 65, and 

 by ManHius, i. 352. In the line quoted by Cicero from Pacuvius, it 

 would seem to mean the place in which the planets are situated ; De 

 Nat. Deor. ii. 91. The Greek word ovpavbs may be regarded as exactly 

 corresponding to the Latin word caelum, and employed with the same 

 modifications ; see Aristotle, De Mvmdo and De Coelo, and Ptolemy, 

 Mag. Const, hb. i. passim ; see also Stephens's Thesaurus, in loco. Aratus 

 generally uses it to designate the visible firmament, as in 1. 10, while in 

 1. 32 it means the heavenly regions. Gesner defines coehtm^ " Mundua 



