i THEIR PROGNOSTICATIONS n 



is sheer folly. If this had been so, they would 9 

 ere this have disappeared. For there is not a 

 single night on which there is not a very large 

 number of stars that seem to break up as they 

 pass across the sky. Yet they are all found again 

 in their wonted places : each one maintains its size 

 unimpaired. It follows, therefore, that the fires 

 referred to have their origin below the stars, and 

 that, being without solid foundation on fixed abode, 

 they quickly perish. Why, then, you ask, do they 

 not cross the sky by day as well as by night ? 10 

 The next thing you will say will be that there are 

 no stars by day because they are not visible ! 

 The stars are, of course, there, but obscured by 

 the sun s brightness. Similarly, meteor fires like 

 torches cross the sky by day too, but they are 

 hidden by the brightness of the daylight. If, 

 as sometimes happens, a burst of light shoots out 

 strong enough to assert its brilliance even in the 

 face of day, then they do become visible. In fact, n 

 our own age has more than once seen torches by 

 day, some rushing from east to west, others from 

 west to east. 



Sailors consider it a sign of storm when there 

 are many shooting stars. If their appearance 

 really is a sign of wind, they must occur in the 

 quarter where wind is found, in other words, 

 in the atmosphere which lies between the earth 

 and the moon. In violent storms at sea there 

 sometimes appear, as it were, stars settling on 

 the sails. The sailors who are in jeopardy then 

 suppose that they are being aided by the power of 12 

 Castor and Pollux. They have really ground for 

 better hope in this appearance, because it makes 

 plain that the storm is breaking, and the wind 



