GbAp. 6.] 
ACCOUNT or THE WOKLD. 
33 
sume^ On this account slie appears with an unequal light, 
because being full only when she is in opposition, on all the 
remaining days she shows only so much of herself to the 
earth as she receives light from the sun^. She is not seen 
in conjunction, because, at that time, she sends back the 
whole stream of light to the source whence she has derived 
it. That the stars generally are nourished by the terrestrial 
moisture is evident, because, when the moon is only half vi- 
sible she is sometimes seen spotted, her power of absorbing 
moisture not having been powerful enough ; for the spots 
are nothing else than the dregs of the earth drawn up along 
with the moisture^. (10.) But her eclipses and those of the 
sun, the most wonderful of all the phaenomena of nature, and 
which are like prodigies, serve to indicate the magnitude of 
these bodies and the shadow^ which they cast. 
^ It was a general opinion among the ancients, and one whicli was en- 
tertained until lately by many of the moderns, that the moon possessed 
the power of evaporating the water of the ocean. This opinion appears 
to have been derived, at least in part, from the ejffect which the moon 
produces on the tides. 
2 "quantum ex sole ipsa concipiat fi'om this passage, taken singly, 
it might be concluded, that the author supposed the quantity of light 
received by the moon to differ at different times ; but the suceeedirig 
sentence seems to prove that this is not the case ; see the remarks of Alex- 
andre in Lemaire, ii. 249. Marcus, however, takes a different view of the 
subject ; Ajasson, ii. 291, 292. He had previously pointed out Pliny's 
opinion respecting the phases of the moon, as one of the circumstances 
which indicate his ignorance of astronomy, ut supra, ii. 245, 246. 
3 This doctrine is maintained by Seneca, Quaest. Nat. hb. ii. § 5. p. 701, 
702. From the allusion which is made to it by Anacreon, in his 19th 
ode, we may presume that it was the current opinion among the ancients. 
* I may remark, that Poinsinet, in this passage, substitutes *' umbra " 
for " umbrseque," contrary to the authority of aU the MSS., merely be- 
cause it accords better with his ideas of correct reasoning. Although it 
may be of httle consequence in this particular sentence, yet, as such liber- 
ties are not unfirequently taken, I think it necessary to state my opinion, 
that this mode of proceeding is never to be admitted, and that it has 
proved a source of serious injury to classical hterature. In this account 
of the astronomical phaenomena, as weU as in all the other scientific dis- 
sertations that occur in our author, my aim has been to transfer into our 
language the exact sense of the original, without addition or correction. 
Our object in reading Phny is not to acquire a knowledge of natural phi- 
losophy, which might be better learned from the commonest elementary 
, work of the present day, but to ascertain what were the opinions of the 
learned on such subjects when Pliny wrote, I make this remark, because 
YOL. I. D 
