of the essence of the moon.

anaximander affirms that the circle of the moon is nineteen times bigger than the earth, and resembles the sun, its orb being full of fire; and it suffers an eclipse when the wheel makes a revolution, — which he describes by the divers turnings of a chariot-wheel, in the midst of it there being a hollow nave replenished with fire, which hath but one way of expiration. xenophanes, that it is a condensed cloud. the stoics, that it is mixed of fire and air. plato, that it is a body of the greatest part fiery. anaxagoras and democritus, that it is a solid, condensed, and fiery body, in which there are flat countries, mountains, and valleys. heraclitus, that it is an earth covered with a bright cloud. pythagoras, that the body of the moon was of a nature resembling a mirror.