5. Besides these, there are large and ponderous bodies, wandering around our sun, the common fountain of light, within this its universe, which are called wandering stars, popularly planets.
(Similarly of the planets around the sun, the centre of our universe, with their moons or satellites.)
These in like manner perform their gyrations, and, according to their distances from the centre, roll and describe circumferences, which are so many annual times or spaces which they accomplish. These immense masses, in like manner as our terraqueous globe, carry each its axis erect to the poles of the universe, and are urgent in their course according to the flexure of their zodiac, whence they also have springs, summers, autumns, and winters.
[2] They have a rotation also like orbits around an axis, by virtue whereof they behold their sun, within each turn of rotation, rising in the morning and setting in the evening, whence they also have moons and nights, with intermediate lights and shades. Moreover also around these globes, which emulate the globe of our earth, there are moving moons, called satellites, which in like manner illuminate the surfaces of those orbs with light borrowed and reflected from the sun. The globe which is rejected to the most remote circumference, and is farthest distant from the sun, lest he wander in a fainter and more doubtful light than the rest enjoy, is encompassed by a large satellite, like a continuous lunar mirror, called his belt.
(The belt of saturn.)
This gathers up the rays of the sun, wearied with their journey, and diffuses them at large, when collected, over the faces of that globe which are turned towards them.
