28 The Universes 



a welcome object ; affording much for 

 speculation to the contemplative mind, 

 and of real use to the navigator, the 

 traveller, and the husbandman. The 

 Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans, and in 

 general, all the ancients, used to assem- 

 ble at the time of the new moon, to dis- 

 charge the duties of piety and gratitude 

 for its manifold uses. 



When we view this attendant on our 

 earth in its nightly course, we seldom 

 form an adequate idea either of its mag- 

 nitude, or its motion. While it seems to 

 take some hours in getting half a yard 

 from a star which it touched, we never 

 reflect that this is an immense mass of 

 matter, of 218O miles in diameter, dri- 

 ving through the heavens at the rate of 

 considerably more than two thousand 

 miles an hour, which is more than double 

 of that with which a ball is shot off from 

 the mouth of a cannon. 



The face of the moon is greatly diver- 

 sified with inequalities, and parts of dif- 

 ferent colours, some brighter, and some 

 darker than the other parts of her disk. 

 When viewed through a telescope, her 

 face is evidently diversified with hills and 

 valleys : and the same is also shewn by 



