XXXIV.
WHY IS THE WEST WIND HELD COMMONLY TO BE THE SWIFTEST, ACCORDING TO THIS VERSE OF HOMER:
Is it not because this wind is wont to blow when the sky is very well cleansed, and the air is exceeding clear and without all clouds?—for the thickness and impurity of the air doth not a little impeach and interrupt the course of the winds. Or is it rather because the sun, striking through a cold wind with his beams, is the cause that it passeth the faster away?—for whatsoever of cold is drawn in by the force of the winds, when the same is overcome by heat, as it were its enemy, we must think, is driven and set forward further and with greater celerity.
Quaestiones Naturales. Plutarch. ed. William W. Goodwin. Boston. 1874.
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