400 Original Articles. | July, 
vivid and glaring sunlight, with which we have nothing to compare in 
our subdued solar illumination, made more striking by the contrast of 
an intensely black sky; if, we say, we would picture to ourselves the 
wild and unearthly scene that would thus be presented to our gaze, 
we must search for it in the recollection of some fearful dream. 
That such a state of things does exist in the Moon we have no 
reason whatever to doubt, if we may be permitted to judge from in- 
ferences reasonably and legitimately deduced from the phenomena on 
its surface revealed by the telescope; neither can there be a question 
as to the presence there of the same brilliant tints and hues which 
accompany volcanic phenomena in terrestrial craters, and which 
must lend additional effect to the aspect of Iumar scenery. Nor 
must we omit, whilst touching upon the scene that would meet the 
eye of one placed on the Moon’s surface, the wonderful appearance 
that would be presented by our globe, viewed from the side of the 
Moon which faces earthward. Possessing sixteen times the super- 
ficial area, or four times the diameter, which the Moon exhibits to us, 
situated high up in the lunar heavens, passing through all the phases 
of a mighty moon, its external aspect ever changing rapidly as it re- 
volves upon its axis in the brief space of four-and-twenty hours, what 
a glorious orb it would appear! Whilst its atmospheric phenomena, 
due to its alternating seasons, and the varying states of weather, 
would afford a constant source of interest. But, alas! there can be 
none to witness all these glories, for if ever man was justified in 
forming a conclusion which possesses the elements of certainty, it is 
that there can be no organized form of life, animal or vegetable, of 
which we have any cognizance, that would be able to exist upon the 
Moon. 
Every condition essential to vitality, with which we are con- 
versant, appears to be wanting. No air, no water, but a glaring sun, 
which pours its fierce burning rays without any modifying influence 
for fourteen days unceasingly upon the surface, until the resulting 
temperature may be estimated to have reached fully 212°; and no 
sooner has that set on any portion of the lunar periphery than a wither- 
ing cold supervenes ; the “ cold of space” itself, which must cause the 
temperature to sink, in all probability, to 250° below zero. What 
plant, what animal could possibly survive such alternations of heat 
and cold recurring every fourteen days, or the accompanying climatic 
conditions ? 
But let us not suppose, because the Moon is thus unfitted for 
animal or vegetable existence as known to us, that it is necessarily a 
useless waste of extinct volcanoes. Apart from its value as “a lamp 
to the earth,” it has a noble task to perform in preventing the stagna- 
tion that would otherwise take place in our ocean, which would, 
without its influence, be one vast stagnant pool, but is now maintained 
in constant, healthy activity, through the agency of the tides that 
sweep our shores every four-and-twenty hours, bearing away with 
them to sea, all that decaying refuse which would otherwise accumu- 
late at the mouths of rivers, there to corrupt, and spread death and 
pestilence around. This evil, then, the Moon arrests effectively, and 
