METEOROLOGY
by Aristotle
translated by E. W. Webster
Book I
1
WE have already discussed the first causes of nature, and all
natural motion, also the stars ordered in the motion of the heavens,
and the physical element-enumerating and specifying them and showing
how they change into one another-and becoming and perishing in
general. There remains for consideration a part of this inquiry
which all our predecessors called meteorology. It is concerned with
events that are natural, though their order is less perfect than
that of the first of the elements of bodies. They take place in the
region nearest to the motion of the stars. Such are the milky way, and
comets, and the movements of meteors. It studies also all the
affections we may call common to air and water, and the kinds and
parts of the earth and the affections of its parts. These throw
light on the causes of winds and earthquakes and all the
consequences the motions of these kinds and parts involve. Of these
things some puzzle us, while others admit of explanation in some
degree. Further, the inquiry is concerned with the falling of
thunderbolts and with whirlwinds and fire-winds, and further, the
recurrent affections produced in these same bodies by concretion. When
the inquiry into these matters is concluded let us consider what
account we can give, in accordance with the method we have followed,
of animals and plants, both generally and in detail. When that has
been done we may say that the whole of our original undertaking will
have been carried out.
After this introduction let us begin by discussing our immediate
subject.
Szórakoztató és szépirodalom