330 DESCRIPTIO GLOBI INTELLECTUALIS. 



realis non est ; cum perpetuum et continuum sit cor- 

 pus aetheris, quemadmodum et aeris ; et tamen quia 

 rnagna reperiatur in utroque corpore diversitas, quate- 

 nus ad raritatem et alia, regiones ipsorum docendi gra- 

 tia rectissime distinguantur. Itaque recipiatur sexta 1 

 quaestio secundum hanc nostram explicationem. Se- 

 quitur quaestio altera nee ea simplex ; de substantia 

 ipsorum astrorum. Primo enim quaaritur, An sint alii 

 globi sive massce ex materia solida et compacta, prceter 

 ipsam terramf Sana enim mente proponitur ea con- 

 templatio in libro de facie in orbe lunae, non esse veri- 

 simile, in dispersione materiae naturam quicquid com- 

 pacti corporis erat in unicum terrae globum conclusisse, 

 cum tantus sit exercitus globorum ex materia rara et 

 explicata. 2 Huic vero cogitationi tarn immoderate 

 indulsit Gilbertus (in quo tamen habuit praecursores 

 vel duces potius nonnullos ex antiquis), ut non solum 

 terrain et lunam, sed complures alios globos, solidos et 

 opacos, per expansionem coeli inter globos lucentes 

 sparsos asserat. 3 Neque opinio ejus hie stetit, sed et 



1 This is apparently a wrong reading for ista. The phrase " ista quaestio 

 recipiatur" occurs with variations several times in the course of the tract. 

 That the text is wrong appears not only from the circumstance that the 

 question Bacon is speaking of is the seventh and not the sixth, but from 

 this also, that he clearly does not intend to say " Let a sixth question be 

 admitted," but " Let the question of which I have been speaking be ad- 

 mitted;" a reference which requires the demonstrative pronoun. 



2 Plutarch, De Facie in Orbe Limae, p. 924. 



3 "Duo sunt globorum genera, lucentia et non lucentia; lucentia Sol, 

 fixse splendidiores; non lucentia. ut tellus, Luna, stella? nebulosaj." Gil- 

 bert, Physiol. Nov. ii. 10. 



Thales is said to have been the first person who asserted that the moon 

 is illuminated by the sun. Ocellus, and perhaps Heraclides, said that she 

 consists of earth surrounded by a mist. Diogenes Apolloniates, probably 

 following Anaxagoras, affirmed that along with the visible stars revolve 

 in the heavens a<j>avet "ki-doL, which occasionally fall to the earth. Sto- 

 baeus, Eclog. Phys. i. 25. 



