THE MOON. 



over the surrounding enclosure upwards of a hundred mountains 

 of less considerable elevation have been counted. 



It is easy to see how little analogy to a terrestrial volcanic crater 

 is presented by these characters. 



26. In the work of Beer and Madler a table of the heights of 

 above 1000 mountains is given, several of which attain to an eleva- 

 tion of 23000 feet, equal to that of the highest summits of terres- 

 trial mountains, while the diameter of the moon is little more than 

 a fourth of that of the earth. 



27. By means of the great reflecting telescope of Lord Eosse, 

 the flat bottom of the crater called Albategnius is distinctly seen 

 to be strewed with blocks, not visible with less powerful instru- 

 ments ; while the exterior of another ( Aristillus) is intersected with 

 deep gullies radiating from its centre. 



28. In fine, the entire geographical character of the moon, thus 

 ascertained by long-continued and exact telescopic surveys, leads 

 to the conclusion that no analogy exists between it and the 

 earth which would confer any probability on the conjecture 

 that it fulfils the same purposes in the economy of the Universe, 

 and we must infer that whatever be its uses in the solar system, 

 or in the general purposes of creation, it is not a world inhabited 

 by organised races, such as those to which the earth is appro- 

 priated. 



48 



