Physics 137
which exist, or a rational principle according to which the cosmos is
managed. Moreover, they say that all of prophecy is real, if providence
too exists; and they even declare that it is a craft, on the grounds that
sometimes it turns out [true], as Zeno says, and Chrysippus in book two
of his On Prophecy and Athenodorus and Posidonius in book twelve of
his Account of Physics and in book five of his On Prophecy. Panaetius,
though, denies the reality of prophecy.- They say that primary matter is the substance of all things which
exist, as Chrysippus says in book one of his Physics and [so too does]
Zeno. Matter is that from which anything at all can come into being.
And it has two names, 'substance' and 'matter', both as the matter of all
things [as a whole], and as the matter of individual things. The matter
of all things [as a whole] does not become greater or smaller, but the
matter of the individual things does. Substance is, according to the Stoics,
body, and it is limited, according to Anti pater in book two of On Substance
and Apollodorus in his Physics. And it is capable of being affected, as
the same man says; for if it were immune to change, the things generated
from it would not be generated. From this it follows that [matter] can
be divided to infinity. Chrysippus says that this division is infinite, <but
not to infinity>; for there is no infinity for the division to reach; rather,
the division is unceasing. - As Chrysippus says in book three of the Physics, mixtures are
total and not a matter of being surrounded or being juxtaposed. For a
bit of wine thrown into the sea is for a certain time extended through it
reciprocally; but then it is destroyed into it.
And they say that there also exist daimons who have a sympathy with
men and are overseers of human affairs; and the surviving souls of virtuous
men are heroes.
Of things which occur in the [region of the] air, they say that winter
is the air above the earth cooled by the withdrawal of the sun; and spring
is the temperate blend of the air which is a result of the [sun's] journey
towards us; 152. summer is the air above the earth warmed by the jour-
ney of the sun towards the north; and fall is caused by the return journey
of the sun away from us. <The winds are flows of the air; they have
different names> in accordance with the regions from which they flow.
The cause of the generation of [the winds] is the sun's evaporation of
the clouds. The rainbow is a refraction of the rays [of light] from moist
clouds, or as Posidonius says in his Meteorological Phenomena, a reflection
(which appears rounded in a circle) of a portion of the sun or moon in
a moist and hollow cloud, continuous in its presentation. Comets and
'bearded' stars and 'torch' stars are fires which come into existence when
thick air is borne up to the region of aither. 153. A meteor is a kindled