Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Natural Questions, Book V, Chapter VI

Translated by Tho. Lodge (1614)

THERE IS SOMEWHAT therefore vitall in the water. Speake I it onely of the water? The fire that consumeth all things, createth likewise some things, and (that which cannot seeme to be true, and yet is very true) there are certaine living creatures that are engendered in the fire. The Ayre likewise hath some such like Vertue, and therefore sometimes it thickeneth, sometimes it spreadeth and purgeth it selfe, sometimes it closeth, it openeth, and restrayneth it selfe. There is therefore such difference betwixt the Aire and the Winde, as there is betwixt a Lake and a River. Sometimes the Sunne it selfe is the cause of Winde, either by melting the cold Ayre, which he findeth thicke and closed in it selfe, or by purifying and dilating it.


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