82 SCENERY OF THE HEAVENS. 



of mighty thunderings the voice of the passionate storm, or the melancholy wailing 

 of the autumnal gales. No clouds are there, analogous to those which in ten thousand 

 fantastic shapes are present with us, dropping fatness upon the fields, and casting shadows 

 upon the landscape a covert in the daytime from the heat. No rain, hail, or snow 

 descends upon the lunar soil. It is difficult to imagine water at all, or any liquid, upon the 

 surface ; for if the atmospheric pressure were removed in relation to the earth, its liquids 

 would be dissipated by the heat of the sun ; and how much more might this result be expected 

 at the surface of the moon, where the heat accumulated by its fifteen days' continuous 

 exposure to the solar rays must be intense ? There can be, therefore, no seas or lakes, or 

 else evaporation would take place, and clouds be formed, perceptible through a telescope. 



But though apart from the majestic features of the ocean, the tracts of cloud that float 

 in our atmosphere, and the commotions that agitate it, the lunar surface exhibits several 

 points of accordance with the terrestrial superficies. There are mountains answering in 

 their contour to those which diversify our own globe, intermingled with plains, glens, and 

 extensive depressions. To the naked eye, the face of the moon appears chequered, 

 exhibiting dusky patches and bright parts, which, in former times, the fancies of men 

 converted into images of terrestrial things. Thus, Agesianax, as reported by Plutarch, 

 supposed the moon's disk to reflect back to us, as in a mirror, the forms and outlines of 

 our continents, islands, and seas. Nor is the idea so fanciful as not to have occurred to 

 more than one mind. Observers have been impressed with it under widely different 

 circumstances. It has continued to be a popular belief in Western Asia to the present 

 day. Humboldt remarks : " I was once very much astonished to hear a very accomplished 

 Persian of Ispahan, who had certainly never read a Greek book, to whom I was showing, 

 in Paris, the spots on the moon's face through a large telescope, propound the same 

 hypothesis of reflection as that of Agesianax as prevalent in his own country. ' It is our 

 selves we see in the moon,' said the Persian ; ' that is the map of our earth.' " With 

 the aid of a telescope, the lunar superficies presents an aspect that is excessively 

 torn, ragged, and disturbed ; and we are able to define peculiar physical features. There is, 

 however, no foundation for some reports respecting the probable discovery of minute lunar 

 objects ; and but little reason to suppose that any instrumental power will be obtained 

 sufficient to disclose them. Schroeter conjectured the existence of a great city on the 

 east side of the orb, north of her equator, an extensive canal in another place, and fields 

 of vegetation in another. Fraunhofer also announced the discovery of an edifice, 

 resembling a fortification, together with several lines of road. The hope has likewise been 

 entertained of discerning the dwellings and persons of the lunarians, should there be any ; 

 but these are visions, sanguine and baseless. Assuming, says M. Miidler of Berlin, that 

 a German mile is the utmost limit of distance at which the keenest unassisted eye can 

 distinguish human beings, to bring the moon to that distance, a magnifying power of 

 51,000 would be necessary; but, up to the present time, 300 is the highest power which 

 has been applied to that object with advantage. Alone therefore, upon this ground, those 

 who indulge the imagination of studying any lunar samples of social and domestic economy, 

 are clinging to a forlorn hope. 



The time when the moon's unevenness of surface may be most favourably seen, is when 

 she is horned or gibbous. The boundary of the light and dark parts of the disk would 

 obviously be an unindented line if the disk were perfectly plane, and had no surfaces higher 

 than the rest. But look at the lunar crescent. The bounding line appears notched and 

 broken, which is precisely the aspect which elevations and depressions will produce. 

 Close by the edge of the illuminated portion, yet within the dark part, wholly surrounded 

 with shade, there are small shining points, like islands of light in a sea of darkness. These 

 are gradually joined to the luminous space, and become part and parcel of it, as the moon 



