112 
pliky's natukal history. 
[Book II. 
most admirable and immortal spirit, as it were of a divine 
nature, should be ascribed to Anaximander the Milesian, 
wbo, they say, warned the Lacedaemonians to beware of their 
city and their houses \ For he predicted that an earthquake 
was at hand, when both the whole of their city was destroyed 
and a large portion of Mount Taygetus, which projected in 
the form of a ship, was broken off, and added farther ruin to 
the previous destruction. Another prediction is ascribed to 
Pherecydes, the master of Pythagoras, and this was divine ; 
by a draught of water from a well, he foresaw and predicted 
that there would be an earthquake in that place^. And if 
these things be true, how nearly do these individuals ap- 
proach to the Deity, even during their lifetime ! But I 
leave every one to judge of these matters as he pleases. I 
certainly conceive the winds to be the cause of earthquakes ; 
for the earth never trembles except when the sea is quite 
calm, and when the heavens are so tranquil that the birds 
cannot maintain their flight, all the air which should support 
them being withdrawn^ ; nor does it ever happen until after 
great winds, the gust being pent up, as it were, in the 
fissures and concealed hollows. For the trembling of the 
earth resembles thunder in the clouds ; nor does the yawning 
of the earth differ from the bursting of the lightning ; the 
enclosed air struggling and striving to escape^. 
CHAP. 82. (80.) — or clepts op the eaeth. 
The earth is shaken in various ways, and wonderful effects 
are produced^ ; in one place the walls of cities being thrown 
1 " Ut urbem et tecta custodirent." This anecdote is referred to by- 
Cicero, who employs the words " ut urbem et tecta hnquerent." De Divin. 
i. 112. 2 This anecdote is also referred to by Cicero, de Div. ii. 
3 It has been observed that earthquakes, as well as other great con- 
vulsions of nature, are preceded by calms ; it has also been observed 
that birds and animals generally exhibit certain presentiments of the 
event, by something pecuhar in their motions or proceedings ; this cir- 
cumstance is mentioned by Aristotle, Meteor, ii. 8, and by Seneca, Nat, 
Qusest. vi. 12. 
'* It is scarcely necessary to remark, that this supposed resemblance 
or analogy is entirely without foundation. The phsenomena of earth- 
quakes are described by Aristotle, De Mundo, cap. 4, and Meteor, ii. 
7 and 8 ; also by Seneca in various parts of the 6th book of his Qusest. Nat. 
* On this subject we shall find much curious matter in Aristotle's 
Treatise de Mundo, cap. 4. ^ 
