Stoics, that earthly exhalations are those
by which the stars are nourished. Aristotle, that the heavenly bodies
require no nutriment, for they being eternal cannot be obnoxious to
corruption. Plato and the Stoics, that the whole world and the stars are
fed by the same things.

CHAPTER XVIII. WHAT ARE THOSE STARS WHICH ARE CALLED THE DIOSCURI, THE
TWINS, OR CASTOR AND POLLUX?

Xenophanes says that those which appear as stars in the tops of ships
are little clouds brilliant by their peculiar motion. Metrodorus, that
the eyes of frighted and astonished people emit those lights which are
called the Twins.

CHAPTER XIX. HOW STARS PROGNOSTICATE, AND WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF WINTER
AND SUMMER.

Plato says that the summer and winter indications proceed from the
rising and setting of the stars, that is, from the rising and setting
of the sun, the moon, and the fixed stars. Anaximenes, that the rest in
this are not at all concerned, but that it is wholly performed by the
sun. Eudoxus and Aratus assign it in common to all the stars, for thus
Aratus says:--

Thund'ring Jove stars in heaven hath fixed,
And them in such beauteous order mixed,
Which yearly future things predict.

CHAPTER XX. OF THE ESSENCE OF THE SUN.

Anaximander says, that the sun is a circle eight and twenty times
bigger than the earth, and has a circumference very much like that of
a chariot-wheel, which is hollow and full of fire; the fire of which
appears to us through its mouth, as by an aperture in a pipe; and this
is the sun. Xenophanes, that the sun is constituted of small bodies
of fire compacted together and raised from a moist exhalation, which
condensed make the body of the sun; or that it is a cloud enfired. The
Stoics, that it is an intelligent flame proceeding from the sea. Plato,
that it is composed of abundance of fire. Anaxagoras, Democritus, and
Metrodorus, that it is an enfired stone, or a burning body. Aristotle,
that it is a sphere formed out of the fifth body. Philolaus the
Pythagorean, that the sun shines as crystal, which receives its splendor
from the fire of the world and so reflecteth its light upon us; so that
first, the body of fire which is celestial is in the sun; and secondly,
the fiery reflection that comes from it, in the form of a mirror; and
lastly, the rays spread upon us by way of reflection from that mirror;
and this last we call the sun, which is (as it were) an image of an
image. Empedocles