, dry the flesh; and that from these considerations an answer
to the question might be easily deduced. For the moon gently warming
makes the body moist; but the sun by his violent beams dries rather, and
draws all moisture from them. Thus Archilochus spoke like a naturalist,

I hope hot Sirius's beams will many drain,

And Homer more plainly concerning Hector, over whose body Apollo spread
a thick cloud,

Lest the hot sun should scorch his naked limbs.
(Iliad, xxiii, 190.)

Now the moon's rays are weaker; for, as Ion says,

They do not ripen well the clustered grapes.

When he had done, I said: The rest of the discourse I like very well,
but I cannot consent when you ascribe this effect to the strength and
degree of heat, and chiefly in the hot seasons; for in winter every one
knows that the sun warms little, yet in summer it putrefies most. Now
the contrary should happen, if the gentleness of the heat were the cause
of putrefaction. And besides, the hotter the season is, so much the
sooner meat stinks; and therefore this effect is not to be ascribed to
the want of heat in the moon, but to some particular proper quality in
her beams. For heat is not different only by degrees; but in fires there
are some proper qualities very much unlike one another, as a thousand
obvious instances will prove. Goldsmiths heat their gold in chaff fires;
physicians use fires of vine-twigs in their distillations; and tamarisk
is the best fuel for a glass-house. Olive-boughs in a chimney warm very
well, but hurt other baths: they spoil the plastering, and weaken the
foundation; and therefore the most skilful of the public officers forbid
those that rent the baths to burn olive-tree wood, or throw darnel seed
into the fire, because the fumes of it dizzy and bring the headache to
those that bathe. Therefore it is no wonder that the moon differs in her
qualities from the sun; and that the sun should shed some drying, and
the moon some dissolving, influence upon flesh. And upon this account it
is that nurses are very cautious of exposing their infants to the beams
of the moon; for they being full of moisture, as green plants, are
easily wrested and distorted. And everybody knows that those that sleep
abroad under the beams of the moon are not easily waked, but seem stupid
and senseless; for the moisture that the moon sheds upon them oppresses
their faculty and disables their bodies. Besides, it is commonly said,
that wo