274 LEAVES FROM THE BOOK OF NATURE. 



now stand in rigid pallor and reflect light with an intensity 

 unknown to us on earth 1 ? 



As yet we have met with no trace of life on the moon. 

 Are there no inhabitants on our strange satellite ? In our 

 day, when the plurality of worlds threatens to become 

 the war-cry of sects and schools, the question is but na- 

 tural, and many an eager inquirer has no doubt asked 

 himself : what may life be on the moon ? Have they 

 built cities and founded empires there like the men of 

 the earth 1 Does a blue sky smile upon them, and do 

 merry springs leap down the green slopes of their moun- 

 tains ? 



Nor is the question altogether of recent date. While 

 Sir John Herschel explored the wonders of the southern 

 heaven on the Cape of Good Hope, there appeared unex- 

 pectedly a little pamphlet, which created no small sensa- 

 tion even among the learned. It purported to be his first 

 account of new discoveries in the moon, and contained 

 marvellous reports of sheep of strange shape, of men 

 with the wings of bats, of cities and fortified towns. The 

 world, however, soon found that this was an ingenious 

 hoax from the pen of an American, who had thus prac- 

 tically tested the credulity of his contemporaries. The 

 credit which the clever imposture found, even among the 

 well-informed, is an ample apology for the sanguine ex- 

 pectations of those who still hope, by the aid of improved 

 instruments, to discover the man in the moon ; or, like 

 good old Bishop Wilkins, to pay him a neighborly visit, 

 for which, in sober earnest, most ingenious plans have 

 been devised. Distinguished astronomers insist upon hav- 



