S90 Geology of the Moon. 



actual ruptures took place principally upon the point of least resistance, 

 that is to say in the centre of the annular mountains, and in that spot they 

 elevated a mountain, or formed a new crater, sometimes uplifting also the 

 whole interior, in the form of a protuberance or a bladder. 



These eruptions, without doubt, present, in their general effects, some 

 analogy with terrestrial volcanoes ; but this does not authorize us to give 

 them this designation, and thereby tacitly or expressly to assign them the 

 same particular constitution. We can form no distinct conception of an 

 igneous eruption where an atmosphere and water are wanting. The moon 

 really exhibits herself as a very peaceable companion of the earth, and to 

 say the least, there is no observation which obliges us to admit the con- 

 trary. Igneous eruptions properly so called, which can escape the obser- 

 vation of our glasses, directed to the obscure side of the moon, must be ex- 

 tremely small, and such as leave no durable traces such as we can discover. 

 Shooting stars and meteoric stones, which Benzenberg attributes to the moon, 

 are much more likely to proceed from celestial spaces than from the interior 

 of our satellite, if they be not ratlier a product of our own atmosphere, 

 which is at least probable regarding a certain number of shooting stars ; and 

 new facts which bear on the point, seem expressly to give this indication.* 

 The different celestial bodies are not mere copies of each other, but are to 

 be considered as distinct and individual ; and we cannot arbitrarily trans- 

 port, from the one to the other, by simple analogies, and without positive 

 experimental proof, any relation which is not a necessary consequence of 

 the law of attraction, or of their first common origin, and especially with 

 regard to bodies of different orders, such as the earth and the moon. It 

 seems much more natural to assign the origin of annular mountains to the 

 action of simple elastic forces, without any very high temperature ; these 

 forces being capable, since the formation of the lunar globe, of acting with 

 great activity, and without its being repeated at a later period in any thing 

 like the same proportion. 



When the existence of inhabitants is admitted, in natural philosophy, 

 not only in the moon, but also in all other celestial bodies, this supposition 

 is grounded essentially upon the conviction which a reflecting being must 

 make, that there will be the greatest possible conformity throughout crea- 

 tion for the most exalted purpose. It is this conviction that urges us to 

 admit the existence of sentient beings whenever we conceive it is possible, 

 since that which is living fulfils a more exalted destiny than that which is 

 not. 



If observations demonstrate that the general conditions of habitubUitj/ are 

 satisfied, and that many of them are of the same nature as with ourselves 

 (as the relations of rotation and of density which are common to the earth 

 and the inferior planets might induce us to believe), the probability that 



" We here particularly allude to the periodical return of a great number of 

 remarkable shooting stars, which takes place on the nights from the 12th to the 

 14th of November ; this fact indicating that the region of space which the earth 

 traverses at this epoch, forms a part of a great zone (perhaps annular), in which 

 these masses are accumulated ; at all events, the position of the moon relative 

 to the earth, has no concern in the appearance of these meteors. [Note by the 

 Authors. J 



