136 THE HARVEST MOON. 



In consequence of that obliquity in the earth's 

 path round the sun, which gives summer and win- 

 ter alternately to the two hemispheres, and a 

 regular succession of the four seasons to all the 

 temperate latitudes, and in consequence of an 

 additional obliquity in the moon's path round the 

 earth, the full moon rises just at sunset for about 

 a week together. That takes place during the 

 harvest ; its mean season being about the twenty- 

 second of September, and the middle of it never 

 more than fifteen days sooner or later than that. 

 That is called the harvest moon, and though in 

 the early districts, where there is plenty of solar 

 action to ripen the crops, it be not much heeded, 

 it is very beneficial in the cold districts ; and as 

 the obliquity to which it is owing, increases as the 

 latitude increases, the harvest moon continues 

 for the greatest number of nights in the cold cli- 

 mates. Thus we see how far the influence of 

 what we would deem a simple cause extends in 

 the operations of nature, and how well that which 

 our ignorance is apt to regard as a disadvantage, 

 works for our good. Indeed, there is not an ob- 

 ject or an occurrence in nature which has not 

 its use, if we would but look for it; and it is 

 just because we are ignorant of the uses of little 

 things, that we fail in the execution of great 

 ones. 



It is in the perceiving of these connexions which 

 appear remote and unexpected, that men who 

 combine science and observation together have so 

 much the advantage of mere men of science or 

 mere surface observers. One would not at first 

 suppose that the study of the mere motions of the 

 earth and moon, and the fact that the light of the 

 moon is a secondary or reflected light, had any 



