So those would seem to speak the truth who hold That every morning a new sun is born. It may be the moon shines because she is struck By the sun’s rays, and turns towards our eyes A larger portion of this light each day, The further she recedes from the sun’s orb, Until over against him with full light She has shone forth, and as she rises up Has looked upon his setting from on high. Thereafter in her gradual backward course In the same manner she must hide her light, The nearer she now glides to the sun’s fire Travelling through the circle of the signs From an opposite direction: as those hold Who fancy that the moon is like a ball, And moves along a course below the sun. It is also possible that she revolves With her own light, and yet shows varying Phases of brightness: for there may well be Another body which glides on beside her, Obstructing and occulting her continually, And yet cannot be seen, because it moves Without light. Or perhaps she may turn round Like a ball, let us say, whose sphere is tinged With glowing light over one-half its surface; And as she turns her sphere, she may present Varying phases, till she has turned that side Which glows with fire towards our gazing eyes; Then she twists gradually back once more And hides the luminous half of her round ball: As the Chaldean sages seek to prove, Refuting with their Babylonian doctrine The opposing science of the astronomers; Just as though what each sect is fighting for Might not be true, or there were any reason Why you should risk embracing the one creed Less than the other. Again why every time There should not be created a fresh moon, With fixed succession of phases and fixed shapes, So that each day this new-created moon Would perish, and another in its stead Be reproduced, this were no easy task To prove by argument convincingly, Since there can be so many things created In fixed succession. Thus Spring goes its way, And Venus, and the wingèd harbinger Of Venus leads them on; while treading close On Zephyr’s footsteps, mother Flora strews The path before them, covering it all over With every loveliest colour and rich scent. Next in procession follows parching heat, With dusty Ceres in its company, And the Etesian blasts of the North winds. After these Autumn comes, and by its side Advances Euhius Euan,[G] following whom The other Seasons with their winds appear, Volturnus thundering on high, and Auster Terrible with its lightnings. Then at length December brings snow and renews numb frost. Winter follows with teeth chattering for cold. Wherefore it seems less wonderful that the moon Should be begotten and destroyed again At fixed times, seeing that so many things Can come to pass at times so surely fixed.