THE MOON. 



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THE MOON. 



ALTHOUGH it be in mere magnitude, physically considered, one of the most 

 insignificant bodies of the solar system, yet for various reasor s the MOON has 

 always been regarded by mankind with feelings of profound interest, and has 

 been invested by the popular mind with various influences, affecting not only 

 the physical condition of the globe, but also connected with the phenomena of 

 the organized world. It has been as much an object of popular superstition as 

 of scientific observation. These circumstances doubtless are in some degree 

 owing to its striking appearance in the firmament, to the various changes of 

 form to which it is subject, and above all to its proximity to the earth, and to 

 the close alliance existing between it and our planet. It will not be uninter- 

 esting on the present occasion to collect and present in an intelligible form, the 

 results of scientific research concerning this body. 



THE DISTANCE OF THE MOON. 



The distances of all objects in the heavens are ascertained by the same 

 general principles as that by which the common surveyor determines the dis- 

 tance of inaccessible objects upon the earth. It need scarcely be said that 

 a very small proportion of the terrestrial distances with which we are con- 

 versant are ascertained by the actual admeasurement of the space intervening 

 between their extreme points. Other more easy and accurate methods are avail- 

 able, by which we can accurately measure the distance of objects inaccessible 

 to us, by ascertaining the proportion between these distances and other spaces 

 which are accessible and measurable by us. In this way it has been ascer- 

 tained that the distance of the MOON is equal to about thirty times the diameter 

 of our globe, or in round numbers a quarter of a million of miles. 



