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render themselves visible, by sending rays of light to the eye, not 

 by reflection but by direct emanations from themselves. 



This is what I call phosphoric or phosphorescent^ as a property 

 eminently possessed by the moon ; perhaps strictly considered, it 

 may be more properly called a property of each particle of matter 

 in those rays which proceeded from the moon, and formed what 

 has been called the glory that surrounded her. 



On such subjects it is impossible to avoid theory, because the 

 requisites, demanded by the rules of philosophizing, are not at- 

 tainable here, that is, to admit nothing, as the premises of a syllo- 

 gism, but facts proved by experiment, or in order to arrive at a 

 moral certainty, facts deduced from undoubted analogy. For the 

 manner in which I shall further treat this subject, I may then 

 plead an illustrious example, to wit, Herschel, who has stratified 



speck in that which compose the milky way. By reasoning from 

 analogy. Dr. Franklin arrived at the conclusion that lightning and 



ly as if his subsequent experiments to prove it had never been 

 made, although the conviction of it, on the minds of others, might 

 not have been so complete. With these preliminary remarks for 

 an apology, I shall now give my theory on the subject under con- 

 sideration, with such reasons in support of it as its nature will 



own properties to others lor ttieir benent, or m some way to sub- 

 serve their purposes. It is true our limited knowledge does not 

 permit us to perceive all this in every subject submitted to our 

 view, but the further our knowledge extends the further do we 



nipotent, allwise and inimitably beneficient Author of all that fills 

 the universe, by which every thing without exemption is governed. 

 It is further to be observed that nothing as a cause is limited in 

 its production to a single effect, but that every thing which is 



it is qualified to produce. In order to illustrate this let us take 

 the sun as an example. What may be the extent of his services 

 to the worlds that compose the solar system, and others beyond it, 

 we cannot tell. But this we do know, that it is the sun which makes 



