NH 2.3
Chiara Palladino / Pliny, Naturalis Historia
- Created on 2022-03-11 11:27:34
- Translated by John Bostock, 1855
- Aligned by Chiara Palladino
Latin
English
furor est mensuram eius animo quosdam agitasse atque prodere ausos , alios rursus occasione hinc consumpta aut his data innumerabiles tradidisse mundos , ut totidem rerum naturas credi oporteret aut , si una omnes incubaret , totidem tamen soles totidemque lunas et cetera etiam in uno et inmensa et innumerabilia sidera , quasi non eaedem quaestiones semper in termino cogitationi sint occursurae desiderio finis alicuius aut , si haec infinitas naturae omnium artifici possit adsignari , non idem illud in uno facilius sit intellegi , tanto praesertim opere .
It
is
madness
to
harass
the
mind
,
as
some
have
done
,
with
attempts
to
measure
the
world
,
and
to
publish
these
attempts
;
or
,
like
others
,
to
argue
from
what
they
have
made
out
,
that
there
are
innumerable
other
worlds
,
and
that
we
must
believe
there
to
be
so
many
other
natures
,
or
that
,
if
only
one
nature
produced
the
whole
,
there
will
be
so
many
suns
and
so
many
moons
,
and
that
each
of
them
will
have
immense
trains
of
other
heavenly
bodies
.
As
if
the
same
question
would
not
recur
at
every
step
of
our
inquiry
,
anxious
as
we
must
be
to
arrive
at
some
termination
;
or
,
as
if
this
infinity
,
which
we
ascribe
to
nature
,
the
former
of
all
things
,
cannot
be
more
easily
comprehended
by
one
single
formation
,
especially
when
that
is
so
extensive
.