Lesson xi.] THE MOON. 47 



Then shine the vales ; the rocks in prospect rise; 

 A flood of glory bursts from all the skies; 

 The conscious swains, rejoicing in the sight, 

 Eye the blue vault, and bless the useful light. 



POPE'S HOMER. 



. Mr. Pope observes that these lines exhibit, in 

 the original, the finest night-piece in poetry: the 

 reader may judge that in the translation they do 

 not appear disadvantageously. 



This beautiful luminary, whose gentle beams 

 render the summer evenings more agreeable, and 

 the winter nights less unpleasant, is a secondary 

 planet ; being a satellite to the Earth we inhabit, 

 about which she revolves in an elliptical orbit from 

 one new Moon to another in twenty-nine days 

 twelve hours forty-four minutes very nearly. Her 

 mean distance from the earth is 240,000 miles, 

 and she moves in her orbit at the rate of about 

 229O miles in an hour: her diameter is about 

 2180 miles; and her rotation on her axis is per- 

 formed in the same time as her revolution through 

 her orbit ; hence it appears that her day and 

 night taken together are just as long as our lunar 

 month. 



You have without doubt, very frequently taken 

 notice of the various changes the Moon undergoes, 

 and you very probably are anxious to see them 

 accounted for : I shall here endeavour to satisfy 

 your curiosity. The Moon is a dark, or opake 

 body, shining principally with the light she re- 

 ceives from the Sun ; hence, only that half which 

 is turned towards him at any time can be illumi- 

 nated; 



