Note 277 — Chapter I

Aristotle, Meteorol., ii. 1, § 10; ii. 5, § 15; De caelo, ii. 14 ad fin. Letronne, finding the latter passage inconvenient, reversed the meaning by the arbitrary insertion of a negative (Discussion de l’opinion d’Hipparque sur le prolongement de l’Afrique au sud de l’Equator in Journal des Savans, 1831, pp. 476, 545). The theory which he built upon this reconstructed foundation so impressed Humboldt that he changed his opinion as to the views of Aristotle on this point (Examen critique, ii. 373). Such an emendation is only justifiable by the sternest necessity, and it has been shown by Ruge (Der Chaldäer Seleukos, Dresden, 1865), and Prantl (Werke des Aristoteles uebersetzt und erläutert, Bd. ii.; Die Himmelsgebäude, note 61), that neither sense nor consistency requires the change.