Page:The Works of Aristotle - Vol. 6 - Opuscula (1913).djvu/103

2 We have set forth the causes which produce springs and rivers in the book on Meteorology.^[1] An earthquake frequently discloses springs and rivers which had not before been visible, when the earth is rent by vapour. We also often find that springs and rivers are submerged when an earthquake takes place. But this does not happen in the case of plants, because air is present in the rarity823^a of their parts. This can be illustrated by the fact that an earthquake never takes place in sandy localities, but only where the ground is hard, that is in districts of water and mountains. Earthquakes occur similarly in these districts, because water and stone have no rarity in them,^[2] and it is the nature of warm, dry air to ascend. When, therefore, the particles of air become massed together, they gain force and thrust up the ground and the vapour makes its way out; whereas, if the ground were rare,^[3] the vapour would make its way out gradually from the first. But the ground being solid, it does not make its way out gradually, but its parts collect, and it is then strong enough to rend the earth. This, then, is the cause of earthquakes in solid bodies; there will, therefore, be nothing to correspond to an earthquake in the parts of plants and animals, though it will occur in other things—often, for example, in pottery and glass, and in some cases in minerals. Any body which has considerable rarity tends to rise upwards, for the air supports it. This we often see when we throw a gold coin or some other heavy substance into the water and it immediately sinks; whereas if we throw in a piece of wood, which has rarity in it, it does not sink. A gold coin sinks not because of its leaf-like form^[4] nor on account of its weight, but because it is solid. That which has rarity can never altogether sink. Ebony^[5] and similar substances sink because there is very little rarity in them, and therefore there will not be air present to support them; and so they

1. Cf. Meteor. 349^a 12 ff., 365^b 1.
2. Solidus here = συνεχής: water is 'solid' or 'continuous' in the sense that no rarity is present in it.
3. As in the case of a sandy locality.
4. Propter folia 'i. e. propter formam foliaceam' (Meyer); the sense, however, is not particularly good and the words are probably corrupt.
5. Cf. Meteor. 384^b 17.