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Is there then, Favorinus, any first or principal power
or existence of cold, as fire is the principle of heat, by the
presence and imparting of which all other things of the
same nature become cold? Or rather is not cold the privation of heat, as they say darkness is the privation of light,
and rest the privation of motion? In regard that cold
seems to be firm and stable, and heat always in motion;
and for that the refrigeration of hot things is not caused
by the presence of any active power, but by the departure
of the heat. For we find the heat go off in great quantity, and then that which remains grows cold. Thus the
vapor which boiling water sends forth ceases also when
the heat is gone. Therefore refrigeration, expelling the
heat, diminishes the quantity, while nothing supplies the
place of it.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 5.
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