512 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



incrustcd witli glittering silver. Within, on the southern wall, was a 

 painting in white, presenting the moon as a beautiful woman ; on 

 either side along the eastern and western walls, on massive thrones of 

 silver, were seated the dead queens of Peru, embalmed and arrayed in 

 regal splendor. 



In an elegant pavilion, covered with plates of the precious metal, 

 adjoining the mansion, were apartments for the accommodation of her 

 waiting-maids, the stars. 



There was also an elaborate circular Temple of the Moon on a lofty 

 hill near Quito, so arranged that the moonlight, falling through certain 

 openings, shone directly on a silver image suspended from a blue roof 

 emblazoned with stars. 



Priesthoods and orders of priestesses existed in ancient Greece, 

 Italy, India, Egypt, Britain, and America, fearful penalties attaching 

 to broken vows or neglect of offices. 



Many astronomers, whose quoted works are lost, flourished before 

 Christ ; their curious theories have been preserved in ancient writings 

 of a later period. It is exceedingly interesting to trace, step by step, 

 the changes of opinion wrought by gradual discovery in regard to the 

 physical condition of the moon. This orb variously supposed to be a 

 brilliant disk-shaped body formed from mist congealed by fire ; a mass 

 of fiery and opaqae elements ; a circle of porous substance like pumice- 

 stone, receiving light from a luminous ether ; and a sphere, one half of 

 which was burning was finally pronounced by Anaxagoras, the Greek 

 philosopher, in the year 500 b. c, to be an earth with mountains and 

 valleys like our own. 



For this opinion, and his belief that the moon was as large as the 

 Peloponnesus, Anaxagoras was ridiculed by the learned men of his 

 time. Six hundred years later, Plutarch supported the views of his 

 ancient predecessor ; but it was not until the application of the first 

 telescope that any certain knowledge of the planet was gained. This 

 instrument caused a complete revolution of ideas in astronomy. Gali- 

 leo's plains, mountains, and valleys, were facts, whereas those of An- 

 axagoras had been matters of conjecture. Imagination soon peopled 

 the moon with a peculiar race of beings, covered it with grand forests 

 and cities, and all that pertains to a habitable world. Fortifications 

 were discovered ; consequently, the Lunarians were a warlike people. 

 Certain bright points on the dark portion of the moon's disk were 

 proclaimed to be conflagrations, or volcanic eruptions, or perhaps fire- 

 works in honor of some lunar event. 



A German astronomer proposed the building of an immense tri- 

 angle on the plains of Siberia as a means of mathematical correspond- 

 ence with the moon's inhabitants, believing they would build one in 

 reply. A brother scientist, commenting on this novel signal-service, 

 naively declared that " many more foolish projects had been carried 

 out successfully." 



