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ner composed of other colours, and those more in number and more beautiful than any we have ever belield. And those very hollow parts of the earth, though filled with water and air, ex- hibit a certain species of colour, shining among the variety of other colours, so that one continually variegated aspect pre- sents itself to the view.

In this earth, being such, all things that grow, grow in a manner proportioned to its nature, trees, flowers, and fruits; and again, in like manner, its mountains and stones possess, in the same proportion, smoothness and transparency, and more beautiful colours; of which the well- known stones here that are so highly prized are but fragments, such as sardin-stones, jaspers, and emeralds, and all of that kind.

But there, there is nothing subsists that is not of this character, and even more beautiful than these. 137. But the reason of this is, because the stones there are pure, and not eaten up and decayed, like those here, by rottenness and salt- ness, which flow down hither together, and which produce deformity and disease in the stones and the earth, and in other things, even animals and plants.

But that earth is adorned 120 PHEDO. with all these, and moreover with gold and silver, and other things of the kind: for they are naturally conspicuous, being numerous and large, and in all parts of the earth; so that to behold it is a sight for the blessed.

There are also many other animals and men upon it, some dwelling in mid-earth, others about the air, as we do about the sea, and others in islands which the air flows round, and which are near the continent: and in one word, what water and the sea are to us, for our necessities, the air is to them; and what air is to us, that ether is tothem. 138.

But their seasons are of such a temperament that they are free from disease, and live for a much longer time than those here, and surpass us in sight, hearing, and smelling, and every thing of this kind, as much as air excels water, and ether air, in purity.

Moreover, they have abodes and temples of the gods, in which gods really dwell, and voices and oracles, and sensible visions of the gods, and such-like in- tercourse with them; the sun too, and moon, and stars, are seen by them such as they really-are, and their felicity in other respects is correspondent with these things. ‘** And such indeed is the nature of the whole earth, and the parts about the carth; but there are many places all round it throughout its cavities, some deeper and more open than that in which we dwell: but others that are deeper, have a less chasm than our region, and others are shallower in depth than it is here and broader. 139.

But all these are in many places perforated one into another under the earth, some with narrower and some with wider channels, and have passages through, by which a great quantity of water flows from one into another, as into basins, and there are immense bulks of ever-flowing rivers under the earth, both of hot and cold water, and a great quantity of fire, and mighty rivers of fire, and many of liquid mire, some purer, and some more miry, as in Sicily there are rivers of mud that flow before the lava, and the lava itself, and from these the several places are filled, ac- cording as the overflow from time to time happens to come to each of them.

But all these move up and down as it were by a certain oscillation existing in the earth. And this oscillation proceeds from such natural cause as this: one of the chasms of the earth is exceedingly large, and perforated through the entire earth, and is that which Homer speaks of, ‘very far * Thiad, lib, viii. v. 14.

PHZDO. 121 off, where is the most profound abyss beneath the earth,’ which elsewhere both he and many other poets have called Tartarus. For into this chasm all rivers flow together, aud from it flow out again: but they severally derive their charac ter from the earth through which they flow. 140.