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Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 38, 3 February 1864, Page 3

The Axciexts' Idzx of the size op TES Sux. —Many persons 6poko of the tail of line great comet of 1858 as being several yards long, -without at all seeming aware of the absurdity of such a Tvay of talking. -The sun or moon may be covered by a , threepenny-, piooelwld at arm's length; but it takes.a house, or a church, or a great tree to cover it ou a near horizon, and a lull or a mountain on a distant one; so that it must be at least as iargo as any of these objects. Among the ancient Greek philosophers there "was a lively dispute as to the real size of the sun. One maintained that ifc was " precisely as .large as, it looks to be" —a' thoroughly Greek way o# getting out of a difficulty, ■ All the best thinkers among them, however, clearly saw that it'must bo a,very large body, One of thorn (Aaiaxagoras) went; the length of saying that it might be as largo as aU Greece, for which ho got laughed at. But ho was outbid by Auaximander, who said it va£ t\veft{y« eight times ,as large as the 'earth, What > would Anasimander or the scoffer of Amxifc gor'as have said, could ho luwo kn'o-vnji -tflJiat jyq j\ow know, Ui*U, seen from tho same'dist&ncti' us tlic 9U», Ulo territory of ftreeco would lw,vo boon absolutely invisible} and that cvfenttui whole earth', if laid upon it," would aot't'btoi* more.tfiah one tiHrteon*fcUottsimtb. %{; $ ,i»