86 SCENERY OF THE HEAVENS. 



solitudes of the earth, and visit some of its proudest heights. Man, his foot-marks, home, 

 and handiwork, are to be met with upon the slopes of the burning Vesuvius. And is 

 there fellowship, in this respect, between our world and its companion? Is the latter 

 with the former the abode of vegetable creations, animal existence, and intelligent 

 natures ] It can only be said in reply, that beyond a certain rarefaction of the atmosphere 

 with us, no life of man, beast, bird, or plant, does or can exist that we are quite unable 

 to conceive of anything kindred to terrestrial life existing under what appear to be lunar 

 circumstances, though it would be great folly and presumption to suppose that we arc 

 acquainted with all the forms of organic being, and familiar with all the modes by which 

 organised beings may be sustained. Yet there is nothing startling in the contemplation 

 of the lunar globe as at present a desolation, a land not inhabited, considering the decisive 

 testimony of geology to the past condition of our now populous world. It may be making 

 ready to share a similar destiny, to receive and support at some future epoch the varieties 

 of Living Existence, a consummation towards which, according to terrestrial analogy, 

 progressive formation is the preparatory process. 



Occupations, repeatedly referred to in this chapter, are the apparent temporary extinc 

 tion of planets and fixed stars by the moon in her monthly circuit, and phenomena parallel 

 to eclipses of the sun. The lunar globe, in revolving round the earth, interposes in a direct 

 line between us and the celestial bodies that lie in her path, and for a time appears to 

 expunge them from the vault of heaven. Any of the planets may thus suffer an 

 occupation by the moon, because they all move in nearly the same plane as the terrestrial 

 and lunar orbit ; but, obviously, only those fixed stars can ever be hid by the interposition 

 of the lunar disk, which are situated at no greater distance from the ecliptic than the 

 moon's extreme latitude. When the moon is crescent-shaped, and occults a star with the 

 dark part of her body, it is apparently extinguished without visible cause ; and if a bright 

 object, the occurrence is striking and impressive. The rapidity with which our satellite 

 changes her place in the heavens is of vast service to mankind, as it supplies the mariner 

 with one of the best and most available methods for finding his longitude, a problem of 

 vital importance to the safety of navigation. The longitude of any station, or its distance 

 east or west of another station, is at once solved, if the difference of time between the two 

 stations can be ascertained, four minutes of time being equal to one degree of space, an 

 hour to fifteen degrees, and so on earlier time denoting an eastward, and later time a 

 westward position. Now the distance of the moon from the sun, and from some of the 

 more conspicuous stars or planets, is computed for every three hours through the year, for 

 three years in advance, and registered in the Nautical Almanac, with the corresponding 

 Greenwich times. Hence, when out on the broad ocean, if the mariner wishes to know 

 his longitude, or distance from the meridian of Greenwich, he marks when such a lunar 

 distance, tabulated in the Almanac, occurs as seen from his own vessel; and deduces thereby 

 his whereabouts on the watery waste, as far as the longitude is concerned. The principles 

 of the problem are stated, omitting the details. Thus, to borrow from the representation 

 of an eloquent astronomer, the surface of the celestial vault may be compared to a vast 

 dial-plate; the stars are as fixed marks distributed upon it; the moon is a hand in motion 

 among them ; the whole, with the Almanac, answering the purpose of a clock in the heavens, 

 marking Greenwich time to our sailors, and enabling the skilled commander to estimate 

 the position of his ship, though no landmark may have been seen for weeks, and no 

 object have been visible, but the billowy deep, the stormy petrel, and the changeful sky. 



Upon the subject of lunar influence, we have no conclusion established by 

 careful observation, beyond that of the moon being the chief agent in the rise and 

 recession of the tides. The old persuasion, still prevalent, that the changes of the 

 moon influence the weather is completely groundless. This is the conclusion of Arago, 



