276 LEAVES FROM THE BOOK OF NATURE. 



whole, governed by the same laws as that of our earth. 

 The same infinite variety which astounds the eye and the 

 mind of man, when he studies our animal creation here 

 below, and the exquisite adaptation of these countless forms 

 to their precise purpose, must needs continue throughout 

 creation. God is not only great, but also consistent in 

 his greatness, and the eternal laws of nature, which are, 

 after all, but an expression of His will, must apply to 

 other worlds also. The inquiring mind will, therefore, not 

 without benefit try to derive additional knowledge even 

 from the scanty facts with which we are as yet only 

 acquainted. 



We know tolerably well the soil, the climate and the 

 surface of the moon. What, then, do they teach us as 

 to life on that globe? The first circumstance that strikes 

 the traveller on the moon, is the wonderful facility of 

 motion. Gravity is in the moon six times less than on 

 the earth, so that the same power with which we here 

 lift eighteen pounds would there raise a hundred weight. 

 The arm that can throw a stone on earth ten feet high, 

 would on the moon throw it up to sixty feet. The in- 

 equalities of the soil there would, to an earth-born man, 

 be no difficulties; he would glide over hills and moun- 

 tains, which here below require gigantic structures, with 

 the ease of the winged birds of heaven. This must at 

 once produce a radical difference between life on earth 

 and life on the moon. 



If we look next for the two great elements of earthly 

 life, air and water, we find that the moon is but ill pro- 

 vided for in that respect. With all sympathy for great 



