Quod autem solem nunc in aethere, nunc in mundo inferiore, versari praediximus, sciendum est siderea corpora (quantum ad universitatem pertinet) nec occidere nec oriri, sed ita videri nostris obtutibus, constitutis in terra, spiritus cuiusdam interni motu suspensa: rerumque magnitudini instar exigui subditum puncti, nunc caelo infixas suspicere stellas, quarum ordo est sempiternus, aliquotiens humana visione languente, discedere suis sedibus arbitrari.
But when we said that the sun had its course now in the ether and now in the world below, it must be understood that the heavenly bodies (so far as the universe is concerned) neither set nor rise, but that they seem to do so to an eyesight whose fixed situation is on the earth; this is kept hanging in space by some inner force and in its relation to the universe is like a tiny point; and that now we seem to see the stars, whose order is eternal, fixed in the sky, and often through the imperfection of human vision we think that they leave their places.
final_alignments\Ammianus_Marcellinus_Book20.json