Thales was the first who affirmed that the eclipse of the sun was caused
by the moon's running in a perpendicular line between it and the world;
for the moon in its own nature is terrestrial. And by mirrors it is made
perspicuous that, when the sun is eclipsed, the moon is in a direct line
below it. Anaximander, that the sun is eclipsed when the fiery mouth
of it is stopped and hindered from respiration. Heraclitus, that it
is after the manner of the turning of a boat, when the concave seems
uppermost to our sight, and the convex nethermost. Xenophanes, that the
sun is eclipsed when it is extinguished; and that a new sun is created
and rises in the east. He gives a farther account of an eclipse of the
sun which remained for a whole month, and again of an eclipse which
changed the day into night. Some declare that the cause of an eclipse is
the invisible concourse of condensed clouds which cover the orb of the
sun. Aristarchus placeth the sun amongst the fixed stars, and believeth
that the earth [the moon?] is moved about the sun, and that by its
inclination and vergency it intercepts its light and shadows its orb.
Xenophanes, that there are many suns and many moons, according as the
earth is distinguished by climates, circles, and zones. At some certain
times the orb of the sun, falling upon some part of the world which is
untenanted, wanders in a vacuum and becomes eclipsed. The same person
affirms that the sun proceeding in its motion in the infinite space,
appears to us to move orbicularly, taking that representation from its
infinite distance from us.