hom stands Anaxagoras, maintained that it was nothing but
a huge ignited mass of iron or stone--indeed he declared the heavens to be
merely a vault of stone--and that the stars were stones whirled upward
from the earth, and set on fire by the velocity of its revolutions.[7] But
I give little attention to the doctrines of this philosopher, the people
of Athens having fully refuted them by banishing him from their city; a
concise mode of answering unwelcome doctrines, much resorted to in former
days. Another sect of philosophers do declare, that certain fiery
particles exhale constantly from the earth, which, concentrating in a
single point of the firmament by day, constitute the sun, but being
scattered and rambling about in the dark at night, collect in various
points, and form stars. These are regularly burnt out and extinguished,
not unlike to the lamps in our streets, and require a fresh supply of
exhalations for the next occasion.[8]

It is even recorded that at certain remote and obscure periods, in
consequence of a great scarcity of fuel, the sun has been completely burnt
out, and sometimes not rekindled for a month at a time. A most melancholy
circumstance, the very idea of which gave vast concern to Heraclitus, that
worthy weeping philosopher of antiquity. In addition to these various
speculations, it was the opinion of Herschel that the sun is a
magnificent, habitable abode; the light it furnishes arising from certain
empyreal, luminous or phosphoric clouds, swimming in its transparent
atmosphere.[9]

But we will not enter further at present into the nature of the sun, that
being an inquiry not immediately necessary to the development of this
history; neither will we embroil ourselves in any more of the endless
disputes of philosophers touching the form of this globe, but content
ourselves with the theory advanced in the beginning of this chapter, and
will proceed to illustrate by experiment the complexity of motion therein
described to this our rotatory planet.

Professor Von Poddingcoft (or Puddinghead, as the name may be rendered
into English) was long celebrated in the University of Leyden for profound
gravity of deportment and a talent at going to sleep in the midst of
examinations, to the infinite relief of his hopeful students, who thereby
worked their way through college with great ease and little study. In the
course of one of his lectures, the learned professor seizing a bucket of
water swung it aro