All this special pleading must be encountered lest any of the less proficient should yield to its authority. And the refutation must begin with that with which the sophistical speakers also opened their delusive argument. “The unevennesses of the earth would no longer exist if the world was from everlasting.” Why so, my dear sirs? For others will come forward to say that trees and mountains differ not in nature. The trees shed their leaves at some seasons and then bloom again at others. And so there is truth in the poet’s lines which tell us that Driven by the wind the leaves pour down to earth, But others come when spring returns and brings Fresh life into the forest. In the same way the mountains, too, have parts broken off but others come as accretions. But the accretions take long periods of time to become recognizable, because as the process of growth in trees is more rapid their advance is apprehended more quickly, while in mountains that process is slower, and, therefore, their after-growths become just perceptible only after a long time. These people seem to have no knowledge of the way in which mountains come to be, otherwise they would probably have held their tongues for shame. But we shall not grudge giving them instruction, for the tale is nothing new, nor are the words ours, but old-time sayings of wise men, who left nothing uninvestigated that was necessary for knowledge. When the fiery element enclosed in the earth is driven upward by the natural force of fire, it travels towards its proper place, and if it gets a little breathing space, it pulls up with it a large quantity of earthy stuff, as much as it can, but with this outside and on it it moves more slowly. This earthy substance forced to travel with it for a long distance, rises to a great height and contracts and tapers, and passes finally into a pointed peak with the shape of fire for its pattern. For there is necessarily then a conflict when the natural antagonists, the heaviest and the lightest, clash. Each presses on to its proper location and resists the force applied by the other. The fire which is dragging the earth with it is necessarily weighted by the counter-pull which the earth exerts upon it, while the earth though gravitating ever downwards lightened by the upward tendency of the fire rises aloft, and, compelled at last to yield to the stronger power which buoys it up, is pushed up into the seat of fire and takes its stand there. Why should we wonder then that the mountains are not destroyed by the onrush of the rain, since the power which holds them together, which also makes them rise as they do, embraces them so firmly and stoutly? For if the bond which held them together were loosened, they might naturally be dissolved and dispersed by the water. As it is, kept tight by the force of fire they hold their own and show themselves weather-proof in face of the onrush of the rains.
On the Eternity of the World 25
Tap any verse to see what it echoes — and start a chain or echo from it.