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But this is nothing to the question. For we have
shown that there are many cold things which are bright
and transparent, and many hot things which are obscure
and dark. But ponderosity, stability, density, and immutability are qualities more properly belonging to cold, of
none of which the air partakes, but of all of which the
earth has a far greater share than the water. And yet in
all these things cold, by the judgment of sense itself,
appears to be hard, to cause hardness, and to make resistance. For Theophrastus tells us of fish that have been
frozen by extremity of cold, when they have chanced to
bounce ashore, that their bodies have been broken and
crumbled to pieces like a vessel of glass or potter's clay.
You yourself have heard at Delphi, how that certain persons ascending to the top of Parnassus to succor the Thyades that were overtaken with a violent storm of wind and
hail, their coats were frozen so hard and into a substance
so like wood, that being spread upon the ground they
broke and crumbled to pieces. It also stiffens the nerves
and deprives the tongue of motion, congealing the moist
and softer parts of the body.
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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