he
earth bends towards those parts where the earth is laden with fruits and
its own increase.

CHAPTER XIII. OF THE MOTION OF THE EARTH.

Most of the philosophers say that the earth remains fixed in the same
place. Philolaus the Pythagorean, that it is moved about the element of
fire, in an oblique circle, after the same manner of motion that the sun
and moon have. Heraclides of Pontus and Ecphantus the Pythagorean assign
a motion to the earth, but not progressive, but after the manner of a
wheel being carried on its own axis; thus the earth (they say) turns
itself upon its own centre from west to east. Democritus, that when the
earth was first formed it had a motion, the parts of it being small and
light; but in process of time the parts of it were condensed, so that by
its own weight it was poised and fixed.

CHAPTER XIV. INTO HOW MANY ZONES IS THE EARTH DIVIDED?

Pythagoras says that, as the celestial sphere is distributed into five
zones, into the same number is the terrestrial; which zones are the
arctic and antarctic, the summer and winter tropics (or temperate
zones), and the equinoctial; the middle of which zones equally divides
the earth and constitutes the torrid zone; but that portion which is in
between the summer and winter tropics is habitable, by reason the air is
there temperate.

CHAPTER XV. OF EARTHQUAKES.

Thales and Democritus assign the cause of earthquakes to water. The
Stoics say that it is a moist vapor contained in the earth, making an
irruption into the air, that causes the earthquake. Anaximenes, that the
dryness and rarity of the earth are the cause of earthquakes, the one of
which is produced by extreme drought, the other by immoderate showers.
Anaxagoras, that the air endeavoring to make a passage out of the earth,
meeting with a thick superficies, is not able to force its way, and so
shakes the circumambient earth with a trembling. Aristotle, that a cold
vapor encompassing every part of the earth prohibits the evacuation of
vapors; for those which are hot, being in themselves light, endeavor to
force a passage upwards, by which means the dry exhalations, being left
in the earth, use their utmost endeavor to make a passage out, and being
wedged in, they suffer various circumvolutions and shake the earth.
Metrodorus, that whatsoever is in its own place is incapable of motion,
except it be pressed upon or drawn by the operation of another body; the
earth being so seated can