174 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 



to the time of daylight. And as a small propor- 

 tion only of the whole number of nights are without 

 some portion of moonlight, the fact that sometimes 

 both luminaries are invisible very little diminishes 

 the value of this advantage. Why we have not 

 more moonlight, either in duration or in quantity, 

 is an inquiry which a philosopher could hardly 

 be tempted to enter upon, by any success which 

 has attended previous speculations of a similar 

 nature. Why should not the moon be ten times 

 as large as she is ? Why should not the pupil of 

 man's eye be ten times as large as it is, so as to 

 receive more of the light which does arrive ? We 

 do not conceive that our inability to answer the 

 latter question prevents our knowing that the eye 

 was made for seeing : nor does our inability to 

 answer the former, disturb our persuasion that the 

 moon was made to give light upon the earth. 



Laplace suggests that if the moon had been 

 placed at a certain distance beyond the earth, it 

 would have revolved about the sun in the same 

 time as the earth does, and would have always 

 presented to us a full moon. For this purpose 

 it must have been about four times as far from us 

 as it really is ; and would therefore, other things 

 remaining unchanged, have only been one six- 

 teenth as large to the eye as our present full 

 moon. We shall not dwell on the discussion of 

 this suggestion, for the reason just intimated. 

 But we may observe that in such a system as 



