XXIX.
WHAT IS THE REASON THAT WE ADMIRE HOT WATERS ( i. e. BATHS) AND NOT COLD; SINCE IT IS PLAIN THAT COLD IS AS MUCH THE CAUSE OF ONE SORT AS HEAT IS OF THE OTHER?

IT is not (as some are of opinion) that heat is a quality, and cold only a privation of that quality, and so that an entity is even less a cause than a non-entity. But we do it because Nature has attributed admiration to what is rare, and she puts men upon enquiry how any thing comes to pass that seldom happens. As Euripides saith,

Behold the boundless Heaven on high,

Bearing the earth in his moist arms,—

what wonders he brings out by night, and what beauty he shows forth by day!... The rainbow and the varied beauty of the clouds by day, and the lights which burst forth by night...

Quaestiones Naturales. Plutarch. ed. William W. Goodwin. Boston. 1874.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Plutarch's Natural Questions (English) (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. III. Goodwin, William W., editor; Brown, R., translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.)

Editions (1)

Αἴτια φυσικά Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol. V. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1893.) — 29 focus

[29] τίς ἡ αἰτία, διʼ ἣν τὰ ψυχρὰ τῶν ὑδάτων οὐ θαυμάζομεν ἀλλὰ τὰ θερμά, καίτοι δῆλον ὅτι θερμότης αἰτία τούτων ὡς ψυχρότης ἐκείνων;

οὐ γὰρ, ὡς ἔνιοι νομίζουσιν, ἡ μὲν θερμότης δύναμίς ἐστιν ἡ δὲ ψυχρότης στέρησις θερμότητος· 20 ἐπεὶ πλειόνων αἴτιον ἐφαίνετο τὸ μὴ ὂν τοῦ ὄντος. 919b ἀλλʼ ἔοικε τῷ σπανίῳ τὸ θαυμάσιον ἡ φύσις νέμουσα πῶς; γίγνεται ζητεῖν τὸ μὴ πολλάκις γιγνόμενον.

ὁρᾷς τὸν ὑψοῦ τόνδʼ ἄπειρον αἰθέρα

καὶ γῆν πέριξ ἔχονθʼ ὑγραῖς ἐν ἀγκάλαις

ὅσα μὲν ἔρχεται φέρων θεάματα νυκτός, ὅσον δὲ μεθʼ ἡμέραν κάλλος ἀναδείκνυσιν; οἱ δὲ πολλοὶ τὴν τούτων φύσιν οὐ θαυμάζουσιν, ἴριδας δὲ καὶ ποικίλματα νεφῶν ἡμέρας καὶ σέλα ῥηγνύμενα 5 πομφόλυγος δίκην νυκτὸς κεκόσμηται.

Plutarch Quaestiones Naturales 29

ed. William W. Goodwin

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

XXIX.
WHAT IS THE REASON THAT WE ADMIRE HOT WATERS ( i. e. BATHS) AND NOT COLD; SINCE IT IS PLAIN THAT COLD IS AS MUCH THE CAUSE OF ONE SORT AS HEAT IS OF THE OTHER?

Current edition Perseus

Stable identifiers

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

XXIX. WHAT IS THE REASON THAT WE ADMIRE HOT WATERS ( i. e. BATHS) AND NOT COLD; SINCE IT IS PLAIN THAT COLD IS AS MUCH THE CAUSE OF ONE SORT AS HEAT IS OF THE OTHER?

Current edition Perseus

Stable identifiers

XXIX.
WHAT IS THE REASON THAT WE ADMIRE HOT WATERS ( i. e. BATHS) AND NOT COLD; SINCE IT IS PLAIN THAT COLD IS AS MUCH THE CAUSE OF ONE SORT AS HEAT IS OF THE OTHER?