Proctor's Astronomical Lectures. 



37 



bis Ktno tlrfs particular region on tho chart bora lu 

 India, where tho beginning and end of tlio transit will 

 bo SOOD, wua overlookutl. It happened that the name of 

 the map, foil craotly ou that region aud obscured it, so 

 that the mistake arose. I recognized that region, 

 and after u shorter s:rugglo of about two yeara that 

 region bus been selected for a new statiou, so that the 

 transit will also be observed from that point. 



If I mention this.it is because some reason must be 

 given In excuse for the opposition of a comparative be- 

 ginner against one not merely standing burn, but de- 

 servedly standing high, as does tho Astronomer Royal. 

 No man living baa done so much for the cause of astron- 

 omy, given ao many years of his life to the work, and has 

 labored so energetically in it, as the Astronomer Royal. 

 But the time was approaching when it would be too late 

 to speak, and many years must pass before a similar oc- 

 casion would return. This induced me to come forward, 

 and nothiug would have led me otherwiaa to take ao 

 energetic a part as I have done iu tins matter. Now I 

 leave this matter of the trausita of Venus to pass to the 

 Btudy of the moon. 



THE MOON AS A GIVER OF LIGHT. 



"When I dealt with the subject of the sun, I spoke of 

 the worshipers of the Sun, who knelt down to him aud 

 regarded him as the ruler of their destinies, but there 

 were nations who worshiped tho moon, aud if we in- 

 quire into the reason of such worship we very readily 

 find it. We notice that Job speaks of tbe moon as walk- 

 ing in brightness, and be speaks, too, of the subject of 

 the moon's worship. It was natural that men should 

 worship the moon. The anciouts worshiped any body 

 that seemed to move upon tbe heavens, aud, therefore, 

 they worshiped the sun, the moon, aud tho planets. 



Now this orb that moves around the earth seems to be 

 there in order to give light during the nighttime. Lat 

 us see what astronomy has taught us. It teaches that 

 the moon is very much smaller than tho earth, with a 

 diameter of 2,100 milea. She is distant from the earth 

 238,828 miles. The surface of the moon is less than the 

 earth's iu the proportion of 1 to 13J. In other words, the 

 surface of the moon is about 14,600,000 square miles, equal 

 almost exactly to the surface of North and South Amer- 

 ica. It is also equal approximately to the surface ot 

 Europe and Africa taken together. If the moon is the 

 abode of lire there is plenty of room for life there, and 1C 

 is an interesting question whether she now cau maintain 

 life. We know that the volume of the moou is to lhat of 

 the earth as 1 to 49J, while her density is rather lesa than 

 that of the earth, so that her muss is to the earth aa 

 about 1 to 81. \ " 



First of all, as to the offices of the moon. If it ia ahown 

 that she discharges important offices to the earth, you 

 will tee that we are no longer bound by the argument of 

 design to recognize her aa the abode of life. First, we 

 know she serves for the division of time. She elves light 

 by night. God set His lights in the expanse of heaven, 

 the greater to rule by day aud the lesser by night alter- 

 nately. There ia a service performed by the moon which 

 ia so regular as to euggeat that perhaps the Almighty 

 intended the moon for that special purpose. 



he would have made it much morn useful to man. Ht 

 would have put it four times Its present distance away 

 from the earth, when it would be far enough away to bo 

 a full moon aud ive a regular light continuously by 

 night. The first objection to this la an astronomical one t 

 for of all uuisancea the moou'a lisrht is oue whu-u the 

 astronomer dislikes moat, especially at a time when he 

 wants to study eoina nebulae, or some barely visible 

 comet; at those timea the moon's brightness seri- 

 ously interferes with hia observations; and I am 

 Burpriaed, indeed, that Laplace, himself an astronomer 

 should have suggested so inconvenient an arrangement 

 as that. But there are other difficulties. If the moon is 

 in that condition ahe would always have to be opposite 

 to the aun. The sun would go around once a year and 

 the moon also. The moon would no longer he a measure 

 of time, ahe would no longer rule the tides in the same 

 way. She now raises a great wave called the tide-wave, 

 represented in bight by 5. You have another caused 

 by the sun, represented by 2. Those two waves ara 

 sometimes combined in a siugle wave, aud act 

 together, sometimes opposing, sometimes coalescing. Ac- 

 cording to these changes, the tide varies ia hight from 

 the difference of 5 and 2 to the bum ot 5 and 2. That is to 

 say, 3 the least night aud 7 the greatest. Tuat ia a very 

 important matter. It is of great service, as 

 any oue who lives by tho seashore knows; 

 it is of great interest to the shipbuilder and 

 merchant that thero should be variable titles, 

 that there should not always be high tides, nor alwaytj 

 low. That important service would not have been sub- 

 served by the moon if the consideration suggested by 

 Laplace had prevailed. There ia another very im- 

 portant service. The moon 

 mer or seaman in long 

 tain the longitude, which, 

 or lesa than the true time at the 

 elie moved 12 times more slowly she would be lesa fit to 

 indicate the time in exactly the same degree as tho hour 

 hand of a watch is less fit than the minute baud. There 

 are other very great and important advan- 

 tages of the real moon over that suggested 

 by Laplace, which I wonder did not occur 

 to a mathematician such as he, the only inau who ever 

 lived of whom it can be said "He was the rival of 

 Newton." He himself said Nawton was fortunate in 

 having lived before him. In auother mau it would have 

 been rank conceit, but in Laplaoo iD was considered as a 

 just statement. Yet ho failed to notice, when he sug- 

 gested this moon's being four times further'from us, that 

 under his conditions if spread so aa to give the same 

 light, the material of which the moon would be made 

 would be lighter than any aolid eleineut known to us. I 

 think it was well that the Almighty did not take counsel 

 from Laplace in creating the moon. 



TELESCOPE VIEWS THE MOON HOAX. 



I pass from these considerations to the telescopic study 

 of the moon. When we think how near the moon is, the 

 planet that cornea nearest to us being 130 times further 

 away than the moon, certainly the hope would seen 

 natural when Galileo first turned his telescope to the 



enables the astrono- 

 voyages to ascer- 

 is nothing more 



observer's station. If 



Laplace went eo far as to Bay If he had made the moon moon that he would discover signs of its fitness to be 



