Note 86 — BOOK II. AN ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD AND THE ELEMENTS.

“Mundus.” In translating from one language into another, it is proper, as a general principle, always to render the same word in the original by the same word in the translation. But to this rule there are two exceptions; where the languages do not possess words which precisely correspond, and where the original author does not always use the same word in the same sense. Both these circumstances, I apprehend, apply to the case in question. The term Mundus is used by Pliny, sometimes to mean the earth and its immediate appendages, the visible solar system; and at other times the universe; while I think we may venture to assert, that in some instances it is used in rather a vague manner, without any distinct reference to either one or other of the above designations. I have, in almost all cases, translated it by the term world, as approaching nearest to the sense of the original. The word mundus is frequently employed by Lucretius, especially in his fifth book, and seems to be almost always used in the more extended sense of universe. There are, indeed, a few passages where either meaning would be equally appropriate, and in one line it would appear to be equivalent to firmament or heavens; “et mundi speciem violare serenam,” iv. 138. Cicero, in his treatise De Natura Deorum, generally uses the term mundus in the sense of universe, as in ii. 22, 37, 58 and 154; while in one passage, ii. 132, it would appear to be employed in the more limited sense of the earth. It occasionally occurs in the Fasti of Ovid, but it is not easy to ascertain its precise import; as in the line “Post chaos, ut primum data sunt tria corpora mundo,” v. 41, where from the connexion it may be taken either in the more confined or in the more general sense. Manilius employs the word very frequently, and his commentators remark, that he uses it in two distinct senses, the visible firmament and the universe; and I am induced to think that he attaches still more meaning to the term. It occurs three times in the first eleven lines of his poem. In the third line, “deducere mundo aggredior,” mundus may be considered as equivalent to the celestial regions as opposed to the earth. In the ninth line, “concessumque patri mundo,” we may consider it as signifying the celestial regions generally; and in the eleventh, “Jamque favet mundus,” the whole of the earth, or rather its inhabitants. We meet with it again in the sixty-eighth line, “lumina mundi,” where it seems more properly to signify the visible firmament; again in the 139th, “Et mundi struxere globum,” it seems to refer especially to the earth, synonymous with the general sense of the English term world; while in the 153rd line, “per inania mundi,” it must be supposed to mean the universe. Hyginus, in his Poeticon Astronomicon, lib. i. p. 55, defines the term as follows: “Mundus appellatur is qui constat in sole et luna et terra et omnibus stellis;” and again, p. 57, “Terra mundi media regione collocata.” We may observe the different designations of the term mundus in Seneca; among other passages I may refer to his Nat. Quæst. vii. 27 & iii. 30; to his treatise De Consol. § 18 and De Benef. iv. 23, where I conceive the precise meanings are, respectively, the universe, the terrestrial globe, the firmament, and the heavenly bodies. The Greek term κόσμος, which corresponds to the Latin word mundus, was likewise employed to signify, either the visible firmament or the universe. In illustration of this, it will be sufficient to refer to the treatise of Aristotle Περὶ Κόσμου, cap. 2. p. 601. See also Stephens’s Thesaurus, in loco. In Apuleius’s treatise De Mundo, which is a free translation of Aristotle’s Περὶ Κόσμου, the term may be considered as synonymous with universe. It is used in the same sense in various parts of Apuleius’s writings: see Metam. ii. 23; De Deo Socratis, 665, 667; De Dogmate Platonis, 574, 575, et alibi.