iV^PF LIGHT ON- A LUNAR MYSTIJRY. i6i 



server's eye. Reflection at a particular angle from vast sheets of 

 ice, as smooth as glass, might be suggested as the cause of such a 

 display, but how could ice be there without water or atmosphere ? 

 The suggestion that has been offered to account for the bright- 

 ness of Aristarchus and the " ray " systems, namely, that they 

 are composed of metallic dikes and masses which, for various 

 reasons, have escaped oxidation, is recalled by the phenomenon in 

 question. Upon that view we might have to assume that these 

 luminous points indicated the existence of tremendous crystallized 

 masses, with polished surfaces, throwing back the glare of the 

 sunshine like mirrors. But then we should not be far from the 

 view set forth in Richard Adams Locke's celebrated " Moon 

 Hoax," that some of the glittering eminences on the moon are 

 nothing less than enormous quartz-crystals, whose dimensions are 

 measured by miles instead of inches ! 



The fact that the apparitions of extraordinary luminosity are 

 confined to comparatively very small areas, and are visible only 

 for a short time and at long intervals, must be taken as an indi- 

 cation that the reflecting surfaces to which they are due must be 

 of such a nature, and so disposed, that they can reflect the sun's 

 light to us only when presented at a particular angle to our lino 

 of sight ; just as a piece of looking-glass, exposed to the sun at a 

 distance, suddenly darts a piercing ray when the eye comes within 

 the plane of reflection. That these surfaces are the flanks of 

 mountains is in the highest degree probable, and this but serves 

 .to heighten the impression of their extraordinary nature. 



The rapid appearances and disappearances, and the long periods 

 of invisibility, are readily accounted for by the various librations 

 of the moon, whereby it presents its disk to us at a continually 

 varying angle, as it swims along in its " squirming orbit," under 

 the conflicting attractions of the sun and the earth. 



The place of drawing in the formative system of education is defined by Mr, 

 W. Cave Thomas as that of the gymnastics of the sense of sight. It doubtless held 

 a similar place among the Greeks, who, taking a lesson from the success of the 

 formative training in their athletic games, perceived that the gymnastical system 

 might be applied not only to the proportionate development of the body, but also 

 to the joint development of all the faculties, and to that of the sense of sight, by 

 the practice of drawing. Instead, however, of applying so good tn example, our 

 systems of education tend to destroy the true proportions of the faculties by cram- 

 ming all sorts of knowledge into the brain. Educationists seem to forget that 

 their object should be to promote the power of using knowledge rather than the 

 aocmnulation of great stores of information. The acquisition of every new ele- 

 ment of knowledge is equivalent to the expenditure of a certain amount of vital 

 force, and every addition of new studies leads toward the verge of nervous power. 

 The true object of education should be, while giving the student power to utilize 

 any kind of knowledge, still to leave him with a working margin of vital energy. 



VOL. XXXIV. — 11 



