Cliap. 6.] 
ACCOUNT or THE WOELD. 
31 
make tlieir complete revolutions, as will be described in the 
account of the great year\ 
(9.) But the Moon^, which is the last of the stars, and the 
one the most connected with the earth, the remedy provided 
hj nature for darkness, excels all the others in its admirable 
qualities. Bj the variety of appearances which it assumes, it 
puzzles the observers, mortified that they should be the most 
ignorant concerning that star which is the nearest to them. 
She is always either waxing or waning ; sometimes her disc 
is curved into horns, sometimes it is divided into two equal 
portions, and at other times it is swelled out into a full orb ; 
sometimes she appears spotted^ and suddenly becomes very 
bright ; she appears very large with her full orb and sud- 
denly becomes invisible ; now continuing during all the night, 
/ now rising late, and now aiding the light of the sun during 
a part of the day ; becoming eclipsed and yet being visible 
while she is eclipsed ; concealing herself at the end of the 
month and yet not supposed to be eclipsed^. Sometimes 
she is low down, sometimes she is high up, and that not ac- 
cording to one uniform course, being at one time raised up 
^ Concerning the " magnus annus " Cicero remarks, " efficitur cum 
solis et lunse et qninque errantium ad eandem inter se comparationem, 
confectis omnibus spatiis, est facta conversio." De Nat. Deor. ii. 51. 
See the remarks of Marcus in Ajasson, ii. 281-3. 
2 For the various appellations which the moon has received in the 
ancient and modern languages, and their relation to each other, the reader 
is referred to the learned remarks of Marcus in Ajasson, ii. 283-5. 
2 Marcus conceives that the epithet maculosa does not refer to what 
are caUed the spots on the moon, but to the circumstance of the edge of 
the disc being not illuminated when it is near the fall ; Ajasson, ii. 286. 
But, from the way in which the word is employed at the end of the 
chapter, and from the explanation which is given of the cause of the 
"maculse," I think it ought to be referred to the spotted appearance of 
the face of the moon. 
* " Quum laborare non creditur." It was a vulgar notion among the 
ancients, that when the moon is ecHpsed, she is suffering from the influ- 
ence of magicians and enchanters, who are endeavouring to draw her 
down to the earth, in order to aid them in their superstitious ceremonies. 
It was conceived that she might be relieved from her suiferiags by loud 
noises of various kinds which should drown the songs of the magicians. 
Allusion is frequently made to this custom by the ancient poets, as Yirgil, 
-^n. i. 742, Manihus, i. 227, and Juvenal, vi. 444 ; and the language has 
been transferred to the modems, as in Seattle's Minstrel, ii. 47, " To 
ease of fancied pangs the labouring moon." 
