C 189 ] 
appearanee. It would be unpardonable not to* men- 
tion, that fo great an authority as that of Theophrastus 
is againft the lide of the queftion to which I incline; 
The doctrine of the influence of lunar afpedt is ex-- 
prefsly afTeited in his Treatife on the Signs of Rain and, 
Wind. He fays, that the new Moon is generally a time 
of bad weather, becaufe the llglit of the Moon is want- 
ing and that the changes of weather generally fall 
upon the fyzygies or quadratures. But this feems to 
have been merely an opinion founded upon an imaginary 
analogy between the epochs of fyzygy and quadratuie 
in the months, and the equinoxial and tropical epochs . 
in the year. For the Mooiij he fays, is, as it were, the- 
Sun of the night. Theophrastus, though a diligent ob- 
ferver of nature, was deep in the theory of that fchool', 
of which he was himfelf one of the brightefl ornaments : 
and his teflimony, with refpedt to the matter of fadl,^ 
hath not, like aratus’s, a credibility founded on the me- 
diocrity of his genius. 
In the table, p. 177. the changes which fell on the 
fyzygies and quadratures, or on any one of pliny’s criti- 
cal days of the Moon’s age (which are the 3d, 7th, i ith, . 
1 5th, 1 9th, 23d, 27th,), are diftinguiflied from the reft 
by a larger char a.6ler And out of 6 9 changes regifter*- 
(l) Aio Ki irvvocoi ■p.Jii'wi/ sltriv* ori diroXstTiu to (pa; Tr^c orE?.r'i/)}Cy 
^cc. THEOPHRAST. de fignis Pluv. p. 417. Edit. Heirtf. 
(m) Sunt et ipfius Lunae o<Ro arllculi quoties In angulos foils incidit, pk- 
rifque inter eos tantum obfervantibns prasfagia ejus, lioc eft tertia, feptima, undc- 
cima, declma quinta, decima nona, vigcfiina tertia, vigcfiina feptima, er inter? 
•Junium. pun. Nat. Hift. lib. XVIIl. c. 35. 
cd 
