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Preparation for the Gospel
Eusebius of Caesarea, tr. Gifford, 1903
Book 15, 38. On the Order of the World
‘PARMENIDES: there are wreaths twisted round one upon the other, one of the rare matter, and the other of the dense; and between them others of light and darkness mixed; and that which surrounds them all like a wall is solid.
‘Leucippus and Democritus extend a tunic and a membrane in a circle round the world.
‘Epicurus: the boundary of some worlds is thin, and of others dense: and of these part are in motion, and part immovable.
‘Plato: fire first, then ether, after that air, next water, and earth last: but sometimes he combines the ether with the fire.
‘Aristotle: first impassible ether, that is a fifth body; after that passibles, fire, air, water, and earth last. Of these the celestial portions have the circular motion assigned to them: and of the portions ranged beneath them the light have the upward, and the heavy the downward motion.
‘Empedocles: the places of the elements are not entirely fixed and limited, but they all in a certain way partake one of another.’