A TRIP TO THE MOON. 275 



ing seen large buildings in the moon ; Gruithuisen tells 

 us of an edifice near the equator, in its most fertile re- 

 gions, of twenty-five miles diameter and surrounded with 

 large walls, which face, with astounding accuracy, the four 

 quarters of the compass. As it is only le premier pas 

 qui coute, Schwabe, in Germany, soon discovered on the 

 outside some smaller buildings, and even earth-works! 



One point, above all, is apparently altogether lost sight 

 of, by those who cherish such sanguine hopes. If we 

 could distinguish a man, or any other object at the dis- 

 tance of five miles, it would still require an instrument, 

 which would magnify objects fifty thousand times, to see 

 anything of that size on the moon. But if the far-distant 

 future should ever produce such an improvement in tele- 

 scopes, that would only increase, and in alarming pro- 

 portion, the difficulties arising from the density of our 

 atmosphere and the daily movement of the earth. Even 

 with our present instruments, far as they are yet from 

 the desired power, these impediments are so great as se- 

 riously to impair their usefulness. All that has as yet 

 been accomplished is to see objects of the extent of one 

 hundred yards; perhaps we may, ere long, succeed in dis- 

 tinguishing works of the size of our pyramids and largest 

 cathedrals; but at best they will only appear as minute 

 points, far too small to exhibit form or shape. 



The eye, then, is utterly incapable of discovering life- 

 endowed beings in the moon. This would, of course, in 

 itself not preclude the existence of inhabitants in that 

 globe. Every argument, on the contrary, leads rather to 

 the conclusion, that the life of other worlds is, on the 



