20 plint's fatfeal histoet. [Book n. 



ing, altliough, in reality, none are less so \ The sun is carried 

 along in the midst of these, a body of great size and power, 

 the ruler, not only of the seasons and of the different climates, 

 but also of the stars themselves and of the heavens^. When 

 we consider his operations, we must regard him as the life, 

 or rather the mind of the universe, the chief regulator and 

 the Grod of nature ; he also lends his light to the other stars ^. 

 He is most illustrious and excellent, beholding all things 

 and hearing all things, which, I perceive, is ascribed to him 

 exclusively by the prince of poets. Homer*. 



CHAP. 5. (7.) — OF GOD^. 



I consider it, therefore, an indication of human weakness 

 to inquire into the figure and form of Grod. For whatever 

 Grod be, if there be any other God^ and wherever he ex- 

 ists, he is all sense, all sight, all hearing, all life, aU mind^, 

 and all within himself. To believe that there are a number 

 of Gods, derived from the virtues and vices of man^ as 

 Chastity, Concord, Understanding, Hope, Honour, Clemency, 



1 Cicero remarks concerning them; "quae (stellse) falso vocantur 

 errantes ; " De Nat. Deor, ii. 51. 



2 "... . vices diermn altemat at noctium, qumn sidera prsesens 

 occultat, niustrat absens ; " Hard, in Lem, i. 230. 



3 " ceteris sideribiis." According to Hardouin, ubi siq>ra, " nimium 

 stellis errantibus." There is, however, nothing in the expression of our 

 author wliich sanctions tliis limitation. 



4 See Iliad, iii. 277, and Od. xii. 323. 



fi It is remarked by Enfield, Hist, of Phil. ii. 131, that "with respect 

 to philosophical opinions, Pliny did not rigidly adhere to any sect. . . . 

 He reprobates the Epicurean tenet of an infinity of worlds ; favours the 

 Pythagorean notion of the harmony of the spheres ; speaks of the universe 

 as God, after the manner of the Stoics, and sometimes seems to pass over 

 into the field of the Sceptics. For the most part, however, he leans to 

 the doctrine of Epicurus." 



6 " Si alius est Deus quam sol," Alexandre in Lem. i, 230. Or rather, 

 if there be any God distinct from the world ; for the latter part of the 

 sentence can scarcely apply to the sun. Poinsinet and Ajasson, however, 

 adopt the same opinion with M. Alexandre ; they translate the passage, 

 *' s'il en est autre que le soleil," i. 17 and ii. 11. 



7 " totus animse, totus animi ; " " Anima est qua vivimus, animus quo 

 sapimus." Hard, in Lem. i. 230, 231. The distinction between these two 

 words is accurately pointed out by Lucretius, iii. 137 et seq. 



* " fecerunt (Athenienses) Contumelise fanum et Impudentise." Cicero, 

 De Leg. ii. 28. S'^ also Bossuet, Discours but I'Histoire univ. i. 250. 



