OF THE ECLIPSES OF THE SUN.
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 earth; 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 expiration.
Heraclitus, that it is after the manner of the turning of a boat, when
the concave appears 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 to rise in the east. He gives a farther account
of an eclipse of the sun which remained for a whole month, and again
of a total eclipse which changed the day into night. Some say 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 uninhabited, 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,
receiving that representation from its infinite distance from us.