BOOK II.] History of Nature. 49 



by the Shadow of the Earth, at one Time this Eclipse hap- 

 peneth in the West, and at another in the East : as also, by 

 what Reason it happeneth, that seeing after the Sun is up, 

 that Shadow which hideth the Light of the Moon must 

 needs be under the Earth : it fell out once, that the Moon 

 was eclipsed in the West, and both Planets were seen at once 

 above the Ground. For that in twelve Days both these 

 Lights were missing, and neither Sun nor Moon were seen : it 

 happened in our Time, when both the Vespasians (Emperors) 

 were Consuls, the Father the third Time, and the Son the 

 second. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

 Of the Moons Motion. 



IT is clear that the Moon, always in her increasing, hath 

 her Horns turned from the Sun toward the East : but in her 

 decrease, contrariwise westward ; and also that she shineth 

 (the first Day of her Appearance) three quarters and the 

 twenty-fourth Part of one Hour, and so riseth in Proportion 

 the second Day forward unto the full : likewise decreasing in 

 the same Manner to the Change. She is also always hidden 

 in the Change within fourteen Degrees of the Sun. By 

 which Argument we collect, that the Magnitude of the other 

 Planets is greater than that of the Moon, because they ap- 

 pear when they be but seven Degrees off. But the Cause 

 why they shew less, is their Altitude : like the fixed Stars, 

 which by Reason of the Sun's Brightness are not seen in 

 the Daytime : whereas, indeed, they shine as well by Day as 

 Night: and that is manifestly proved by Eclipses of the Sun, 

 and by exceeding deep Pits 1 , for so they are to be seen by 

 Daylight. 



1 In the absence or imperfection of optical instruments, this expedient 

 was necessarily resorted to, for the purpose here stated ; but the improve- 

 ment of the telescope has superseded this contrivance. There was for- 

 merly, at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, a well of this kind, a 

 hundred feet in depth, with a winding staircase of stone leading to the 

 bottom ; it is now arched over. Wern. Club. 



D 



