~ 
s24% 
have waxed old; she may be in astate of 
renovation and of return, to be a fit ha-. 
bitation for animals of a constitution 
similar to those upon our globe; and to 
the former, and the future, more useful 
states of the satellite, her motions and 
external relations, though not so neces- 
sary in her present situation, may be more 
peculiarly adapted. 
March 8th, 1811. 
: i — 
Lo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, ine 
LBEIT unused to abstract specu- 
lations, my musings on * Coper- 
nicus’s” guery, (which met my eye in 
your last Number) have led me to some 
observations, which may perhaps find a 
-place in your next Number, if unoceu- 
pied by a worthier claimant. The be- 
nefits which accrue to the satellites, from 
their always presenting the same hemis- 
phere to their primaries, can, f imagine, 
be duly appreciated by their inhabitants 
alone, as they only perceive the utility 
ef the appointed lengtn of their days, 
which, in reasoning from analogy, we 
must conclude are adapted to their pe- 
euliar circumstances. ‘lhe cause of the 
same hemisphere being thus presented, 
arises it seems from these Satellites 
turning once only on their axis during the 
period of revolution round their prima- 
ries, and, as thefength of the natural day 
in any planet depends on the length of 
time it requires to turn on its own axis, 
this day must vary in these secondary ~ 
planets according to the different por- 
tions of time in which they revolve round 
their primaries. If an inferior planet, 
te enable both its hemispheres to enjoy 
the light of its primary, were not to turn 
on its axis at the same time that it re. 
volved round the primary, the length of 
the day would be regulated by the period 
of the primary’s revolution round the sun, 
which might put the inhabitants to great 
inconvenience. Now, as throughout na- 
ture, we find a constant adaptation of the 
creatures to the circumstances in which 
they are placed, or vice versa, we must 
Suppose that the creatures of the moon 
find their advantage in the length of their 
day, (viz, twenty-seven of our days and 
five hours,) and, to all the rest of the 
satellites, the privation of the light of 
their primary to our hemisphere is in all 
probability more than compensated Ly 
the convenient length of their days. 
Ignorance is indeed prone to think fur- 
ther investigations useless in a subject 
that it cannot comprehend, and I am 
Maid of Baldock. 
(April 1, 
aware of my liability to incur this cen= 
sure, when I profess to consider all con- 
jectures vain as to the immediate utility 
of these arrangements, of which the in- 
habitants of the satellites can alone 
judge, and which ‘while this muddy 
vesture of decay doth hem us in,” we 
cannot comprehend, though we may 
hope the time will arrive when we shall 
see all doubtful things made clear. 
If I have not transgressed my proper 
limits, I beg to add a few remarks on 
some astronomical terms, which £ thiok 
ought to keep pace with the improve- 
ments of the science itself; those of the 
rising and setting of the sun, the sun’s 
path in the heavens, and-several others 
equally figurative, are still in use, while 
the errors which gave rise to them have 
been long exploded: the young mind is fa- 
miliarized to the ideas they excite,and can- 
not easily divest itselfofthem, Anobstacle 
is thus laid to the reception of truth; and 
I have known young persons go through 
the common routine of astronomical lec- 
tures, without obtaining any clear concep- 
tions of the relative situations of the hea~ 
venly bodies, from early but strong im- 
pressions of an erroneous theory. , Why 
then not abandon these figurative e&pres- 
sions to poets, and familiarize the. young 
mind to the trath, by clothiiig it in i 
own native simplicity ? k 
Siete inseam 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE writer who, in your last Num- 
ber, page 156, has given us an ac- 
count of the latter part of the life of the 
Maid of Baldock, has not favoured us 
with any account of her youth, nor the 
event which gave rise to the celebrated 
song; therefore, the following informa- 
tiun may not be unacceptable to the 
lovers of rural manners. 
The maid of Baldock’s mill, had at one 
time four lovers; ‘the grave and the 
gay, the clown and the beau.” The first 
of these was a young clergyman; the 
second a gentleman, young and gay; and 
the other two were weil described by the 
* clown and the beau.” 
Love inspired the Muse of this, young 
divine, and it was he who wrote the song, 
which was at that time, and for many 
years afterwards, universally admired. 
This maid of the mill’ was extremely 
beautiful, and it was said, that this 
young divine was deeply in love with her ; 
and indeed it appears so from the four 
last lines of the song. This maid was as 
modest 
