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LINGUISTIC. 323
general sense Pliny says : nee qucerenda in ulla parte natures
ratio, sed voluntas. 1
Nor do we find Greek less fertile in
instances. Aristotle, when explaining gravity, says :
/uiKpbv
pev (j.6piov riJQ y?iic> eav ptrewpiadiv atytOrj, fyeptTcii, Kcti pivtiv
OVK cdA.ec (parva quo&da/m terras, pars, si elevata dimittitur,
neque vult manere). 2
And: Ael fie Itaaarov Xeyfti/ TOIOVTOV
ft vac, o (j>vaet(3ov\rai elrai, KO.I o vVa(0)(ft, aXXa prj o /3/p KCU
irapa tyvaiv (unumquodque autem tale dicere oportet, quale
naturd sud esse vult, et quod est ; sed non id quod violentid
et
3
prceter naturam est). Of great and more than merely
linguistic importance is what Aristotle "
says in his Ethica
4
magna," where not only animals, but inanimate beings (fire
striving upwards and earth downwards) are explicitly in
question, and he asserts that they may be obliged to do
something contrary to their nature or their will : irapa
fyvaiv rt, 17 Trap a /3 ovXovrai TTUIEIV, and therefore rightly
places Trap a /3ouAovrcu as a paraphrase of irapa. tyvaiv.
Ba 0/XXov, in ordering the
Anacreon, in his 29th Ode, <e
portrait of his lady-love, says of her hair : "EXt/cac & e\evde-
povg pot TrXoKra^Ltwv, araicra ffvvdetQ, a^)fe, ug Xwo-i, Kflvdai
(capillorum cirros incomposite jungens, sine utut volunt
5
In Grerman, Burger says :
"
hinab will der Bach,
jacere) .
niclit hinan" (the brook will go downwards not upwards).
In daily life we constantly hear :
"
the water boils, it will
run over,"
"
the glass will break,"
"
the ladder will not
stand;"
"
le feu ne veuipas bruler."
"
la corde, unefois
tordue,VQuttoujours se retordre" In Enghsh, the verb to
1
Plin. Hist, nat." 37, 15.
2 "
Aristot. De Ccelo." ii. c. 13,
and let loose, it is carried away and will not rest." [Tr. s add.]
3 "
Ibid. c. 14, But each thing ought to be named as it wills to be and
"
If a small particle of earth is lifted
really is according to its nature, not as it is by force and contrary to its
nature." [Tr. s add.]
4 Arist.
"
Eth. i. c. 14.
Mag."
5 " Let the freely curling locks fall unarranged as they will
[UJce\."
[Tr. s add]