34 
PLI15"T's natueal histoet. 
[Book It. 
CHAP. 7. — OE THE ECLIPSES OF THE MOOK AND THE SUK. 
Tor it is evident that the sun is hid by the intervention^ 
of the moon, and the moon hj the opposition^ of the earth, 
and that these changes are mutual, the moon, hj her inter- 
position^ taking the rays of the sun from the earth, and the 
earth from the moon. As she advances darkness is suddenly 
produced, and again the sun is obscured by her shade ; for 
night is nothing more than the shade of the earth. The 
figure of this shade is like that of a pyramid or an inverted 
top^ ; and the moon enters it only near its point, and it does 
not exceed the height of the moon, for there is no other star 
which is obscured in the same manner, while a figure of this 
kind always terminates in a point. The flight of birds, when 
very lofty, shows that shadows do not extend beyond a certain 
distance ; their limit appears to be the termination of the 
air and the commencement of the aether. Above the moon 
everything is pure and full of an eternal light. The stars 
are visible to us in the night, in the same way that other 
luminous bodies are seen in the dark. It is from these causes 
that the moon is eclipsed during the night^. The two kinds 
of eclipses are not, however, at the stated monthly periods, 
on account of the obliquity of the zodiac, and the irregularly 
wandering course of the moon, as stated above ; besides that 
the motions of these stars do not always occur exactly at the 
same points^. 
I have seldom if ever perused a translation of any classical author, where, 
on scientific topics, the translator has not endeavoured, more or less, to 
correct the mistakes of the original, and to adapt his translation to the 
state of modem science. 
1 The terms here employed are respectively interventus, ohJecfiOf and 
interjpositus ; it may be doubted whether the author intended to employ 
them in the precise sense which is indicated by their etymology. 
2 « metee et turbini iuverso." The metcR were small pyramids placed 
at the two extremities of the spina, or central division of the circus : see 
Montfaucon, v. iii. p. 176 ; Adam, p. 341. 
3 The echpses of the moon are only visible when the spectator is so 
situated as to be able to observe the shadow of the earth, or is on that 
side of the earth which is turned from the sun. 
^ " non semper in scrupuhs partium congruent e siderum motu." On 
the term scrupulus Hardouin remarks, " ScrupuH, nodi sunt, in quibus 
circuh, quos in suo cursu Sol et Luna efficiunt, se mutuo secant." 
Lemaire, h. 251. Ptolemy, Magn. Const, vi. 6-11, gives a full and ge- 
nerally correct account of the principal phsenomena of echpses. 
