173 



CHAPTER V. 

 The Satellites. 



1. A PERSON of ordinary feelings, who, on a fine 

 moonlight night, sees our satellite pouring her 

 mild radiance on field and town, path and moor, 

 will probably not only be disposed to " bless the 

 useful light/' but also to believe that it was 

 " ordained" for that purpose; that the lesser 

 light was made to rule the night as certainly as 

 the greater light was made to rule the day. 



Laplace, however, does not assent to this be- 

 lief. He observes, that " some partisans of final 

 causes have imagined that the moon was given 

 to the earth to afford light during the night :" 

 but he remarks that this cannot be so, for that 

 we are often deprived at the same time of the 

 light of the sun and the moon ; and he points 

 out how the moon might have been placed so as 

 to be always " full." 



That the light of the moon affords, to a certain 

 extent, a supplement to the light of the sun, will 

 hardly be denied. If we take man in a condition 

 in which he uses artificial light scantily only, or 

 not at all, there can be no doubt that the moon- 

 light nights are for him a very important addition 



