326 The Earth as seen from the Moon. 



same manner, serve as an almanack, and we may believe they 

 form its chief foundation. These phases are complementary to 

 those which the moon presents to us : when it is full moon 

 for us, it is new earth for the Selenites ; and when they give 

 us a new moon, we offer them a full earth. No reciprocity can 

 be more perfect and constant. 



" But the phases of the earth differ essentially from those 

 of the moon, inasmuch as their intensity, not their magnitude, 

 changes perpetually. This phenomenon is very terrestrial, 

 and we may be sure the Selenites have judged us by it long 

 ago. Whilst with them all is calm, identical, constant, with 

 us everything changes. Besides the different lustre of- dif- 

 ferent parts of the terrestrial sphere, green continents, blue 

 seas, yellow deserts, white poles, and grey lands, our atmo- 

 sphere is in perpetual commotion. One day it is covered with 

 clouds, and transmits to the moon a uniform white light, the 

 3ay after it is of limpid transparency, and allows the solar 

 ight to fall upon absorbent green surfaces. All of a sudden 

 it will be varied with flocculent mountains, and varied mosaics. 

 Thus the light the Selenites receive from the earth, the light 

 which we call ' ashy/ and which we only perceive in the moon's 

 early days, varies continually in intensity. 



" This mobility, this perpetual variation in the aspect of 

 the earth, will have made the Selenites believe that the earth is 

 uninhabited. But on what grounds would they form opinions 

 unfavourable to its habitability ? They live on a solid and stable 

 sphere, and can see nothing like it on the earth. Can any 

 rational creature live upon that permanent atmospheric layer 

 which covers all the earth ? A Selenito who fell into it would 

 be drowned. Can it be on iliat sheet of green that washes the 

 greater portion of the earth? Can it be on those clouds that 

 appear and disappear a hundred times a day? And then the 

 earth turns with such velocity ; it is subject to so much ele- 

 mental instability ! Moreover, can we believe that its in- 

 habitants are people wit limit ■ weight ., preserving, no one knows 



how, a mead posil ion bel ween t he fixed and mobile elements ? 



How can BOOh existences be believed V 



Saving thus sketched out the probable effect of the earth 



upon the Selenites who see it rolling over them, M . J (1 laui- 



marion considers the position of those who live on that lunar 

 hemisphere which we never see, and which never sees us. He 

 distinguishes the Selenites as Subvolvians and Privohsiams,* and 

 points out the totally different kind of beings that may inhabit 



* The«o not very judicious names designate the inhabitants of the two lunar 

 hemifpberes, one srcing our globe over their heads, and I lie other not seeing us 

 at all. In reality it is not a whole hemisfthere ; but ijths of the moon that is per- 

 manently hid from us. 



