Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"Plutarch
Philosophy
Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"
Plutarch
Classical literature; Essays; Ethics; Philosophy
Anaximander affirms that the circle of the moon is nineteen times
bigger than the earth, and resembles the sun, its orb being full of
fire; and it suffers an eclipse when the wheel turneth,—which he
describes by the divers turnings of a chariot-wheel, in the midst of it
there being a hollow replenished with fire, which hath but one way of
expiration. Xenophanes, that it is a condensed cloud. The Stoics, that
it is mixed of fire and air. Plato, that it is a body of the greatest
part earthy. Anaxagoras and Democritus, that it is a solid, condensed,
and fiery body, in which there are champaign countries, mountains,
and valleys. Heraclitus, that it is an earth covered with a cloud.
Pythagoras, that the body of the moon was of a nature like a mirror.
CHAPTER XXVI.
OF THE MAGNITUDE OF THE MOON.
The Stoics declare, that in magnitude it exceeds the earth, as the sun
itself doth. Parmenides, that it is equal to the sun, from whom it
receives its light.
CHAPTER XXVII.
OF THE FIGURE OF THE MOON.
The Stoics believe that it is of the same figure with the sun,
spherical. Empedocles, that the figure of it resembles a quoit.
Heraclitus, a boat. Others, a cylinder.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
FROM WHENCE IS IT THAT THE MOON RECEIVES HER LIGHT?
Anaximander thinks that she gives light to herself, but it is very
slender and faint. Antiphon, that the moon shines by its own proper
light; but when it absconds itself, the solar beams darting on it
obscure it. Thus it naturally happens, that a more vehement light
puts out a weaker; the same is seen in other stars. Thales and his
followers, that the moon borrows all her light of the sun. Heraclitus,
that the sun and moon are after the same manner affected; in their
configurations both are shaped like boats, and are made conspicuous to
us, receiving their light from moist exhalations. The sun appears to us
more refulgent, by reason it is moved in a clearer and purer air; the
moon appears more duskish, it being carried in an air more troubled and
gross.
CHAPTER XXIX.
OF THE ECLIPSE OF THE MOON.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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