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 yield up the ghost without the sun's being darkened, and the earth quaking, and the rocks being rent!

The philosophy of eclipses, as affecting Princes, is more fully explained by Miedes.

"Eclipses and defects of the sun and moon, which are seen from time to time in the heavens, do not announce the death of princes, but really cause it, and that by the great impression which they make upon inferior things; as may be understood of the sun, by perceiving how his strength and vigor influence the elements and their compounds, not only occasioning the production and generation thereof, but also their preservation and support. It may therefore well follow, that when the moon interposes and deprives them of the action and virtue of the sun's influence, and of the sustenance which they derive from it, they may sooner decay and die, that virtue failing them which gave them life; and