The Lantern

The Preparation of the Gospel · BOOK 1552

CCEL

CHAPTER LII ---- OF THE MOON'S ASPECT, AND WHY IT HAS AN EARTHLIKE APPEARANCE.

'THE Pythagoreans say that the Moon has an earthlike appearance, because it is inhabited like our Earth, but by larger animals and more beautiful plants. For the animals upon it are fifteen times as large, and emit no bodily secretion; and that the day is longer in the same proportion.

'Anaxagoras: on account of an unevenness in the mixture, because of its being both cold and earthy: for the misty part is mingled with the fiery, whence the Moon is also said to shine with false light.

'The Stoics: because of the admixture of air in its substance its composition is not pure.'