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8
67.
THE METHOD OF PROVING THAT THE EARTH IS A STAR.
First describe the eye; then show how the twinkling of a star is
really in the eye and why one star should twinkle more than another,
and how the rays from the stars originate in the eye; and add, that
if the twinkling of the stars were really in the stars --as it seems
to be--that this twinkling appears to be an extension as great as
the diameter of the body of the star; therefore, the star being
larger than the earth, this motion effected in an instant would be a
rapid doubling of the size of the star. Then prove that the surface
of the air where it lies contiguous to fire, and the surface of the
fire where it ends are those into which the solar rays penetrate,
and transmit the images of the heavenly bodies, large when they
rise, and small, when they are on the meridian. Let a be the earth
and n d m the surface of the air in contact with the sphere of
fire; h f g is the orbit of the moon or, if you please, of the
sun; then I say that when the sun appears on the horizon g, its
rays are seen passing through the surface of the air at a slanting
angle, that is o m; this is not the case at d k. And so it
passes through a greater mass of air; all of e m is a denser
atmosphere.
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68.
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