156 l/-23
and, as I think I said before, things which have this shape are least
susceptible to harm. 118. The stars, moreover, are by nature fiery and
so are nourished by vapours which rise from the earth, sea and bodies
of water, having been produced by the sun's warming of the fields and
waters. The stars, and the entire aitherial region, are nourished and
renewed by these vapours; and then they pour them forth again, and in
turn draw them back from the same source, with virtually no loss [to
the vapours] except for a very little bit which is consumed by the fire
of the heavenly bodies and the flames of the aither. And for this reason
our school [the Stoics] thinks that there will someday occur the event
which they say Panaetius had his doubts about, i.e., the final conflagration
of the entire cosmos. This will happen when all the moisture is used up
and the earth cannot be nourished [any longer] and the air cannot return-
for air cannot arise if all the water is consumed; so there will be nothing
left except fire. This, though, is an animal and a god and so in turn it
produces the renewal of the cosmos and the emergence of the same
beautiful order ....
127 .... A great deal of care was taken by divine providence to assure
the eternity of the adornment of the cosmos, by working to assure the
constant existence of the races of beasts, of trees and of all the plants
whose roots are bound in the earth. All of these possess a seminal power
which enables one [living thing] to produce many offspring, and this
seed is is closed up in the inmost core of the fruits produced by each
kind of plant; these same seeds give a good supply of food to men, as
well as filling the earth with new stock of the same type. 128. Why should
I even mention the high degree of reason displayed in the efforts of
beasts to assure the perpetual preservation of their species? First, some
are male and others female-a plan devised by nature to promote their
perpetuity; and their organs are very well suited for the tasks of procre-
ation and conception; and then there is the astounding desire that both
feel for copulation. When the seed [i.e., the semen] has settled in place,
it draws virtually all the [mother's] nutrition to itself and protected within
it it produces a [new] animal. And when the offspring is born, then in
mammalian species virtually all of the mother's food begins to turn to
milk and the offspring which are newly born seek [their mother's] breasts
under the sole guidance of nature, being taught by no one, and are
satisfied by their rich abundance. And to prove that none of this is a
matter of chance but rather that all of these arrangements are the work
of provident and intelligent nature, [note that] those animals who bear
many offspring at once (such as pigs and dogs) have been given a large
number of teats; those animals who bear fewer offspring have fewer teats.
- What should I say about the love there is in beasts for rearing and