Note 43 — Chapter VI · THE STUDY OF NATURE. FUNDAMENTAL POSITIONS.

(1) Stars. The stars are spherical masses,43 consisting of fire; but the fire is not in all cases equally pure,44 and is sustained, as Heraclitus taught, by evaporations from the earth and from water.45 With this process of sustentation the motion of the stars is brought into connection, their orbit extending over the space in which they obtain their nutriment.46 Not only the sun, but the moon also, was believed to be larger than the earth.47 Plato and Aristotle had already held that the stars are living rational divine beings; and the same view was entertained by the Stoics, not only because of the wonderful regularity of their motion and orbits, but also from the very nature of the material of which they consist.48 The earth, likewise, is filled by an animating soul; or else how could it supply plants with animation, and afford nutriment to the stars?49 Upon the oneness of the soul, which permeates all its parts, depends, in the opinion of the Stoics, the oneness of the universe.