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assimilate the character of light after the manner of a mirror, or
of water, or of any other reflecting body; and it grows larger in
the East and in the West, like the sun and the other planets. And
the reason is that every luminous body looks larger in proportion as
it is remote. It is easy to understand that every planet and star is
farther from us when in the West than when it is overhead, by about
3500 miles, as is proved on the margin [Footnote 7: refers to the
first diagram.--A = sole (the sun), B = terra (the earth), C =
luna (the moon).], and if you see the sun or moon mirrored in the
water near to you, it looks to you of the same size in the water as
in the sky. But if you recede to the distance of a mile, it will
look 100 times larger; and if you see the sun reflected in the sea
at sunset, its image would look to you more than 10 miles long;
because that reflected image extends over more than 10 miles of sea.
And if you could stand where the moon is, the sun would look to you,
as if it were reflected from all the sea that it illuminates by day;
and the land amid the water would appear just like the dark spots
that are on the moon, which, when looked at from our earth, appears
to men the same as our earth would appear to any men who might dwell
in the moon.
[Footnote: This text has already been published by LIBRI: Histoire
des Sciences, III, pp. 224, 225.]
OF THE NATURE OF THE MOON.
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