Note 2 — PLATO — ON THE EARTH’S ROTATION.

“We are only required to show, that the Earth produces a work or an effect, — or contributes to an effect which would not exist without such help: the Earth is then, through such operation, an Artificer of what is produced, even without any positive activity, by its simply passive resistance, which indeed is in itself a powerful exercise of force. The Earth is Artificer of night and day, according to the striking expression of Martin, ‘par son énergique existence, c’est-à-dire, par son immobilité même:’ for the Earth opposes, to the diurnal movement of the Heavens, a constant and equal force in the opposite direction. This explanation must be the true one required by the context: this is Plato’s meaning, plainly and without disguise: for he has said, a few lines before, that Night and Day (that is, a sidereal day, or day of time) is a diurnal revolution of the Heaven from East to West, whereby accordingly the Earth is assumed as at rest: And this diurnal movement of the Heaven he has taught over and over again in the preceding part of his discourse.” — “Since therefore Plato calls the Earth εἱλομένην, not περὶ τὸν ἑαυτῆς πόλον, but περὶ τὸν διὰ παντὸς πόλον τεταμένον, he implies thereby the diurnal movement of the Heaven.”