Page:A discovery that the moon has a vast population of human beings.djvu/50

 close beside them, without the least manifestation of fear on its part or notice on theirs. The universal state of amity among all classes of lunar creatures, and the apparent absence of every carnivorous or ferocious species, gave us the most refined pleasure, and doubly endeared to us this lovely nocturnal companion of our larger, but less favored world. Ever again when I' eye the blue vault and bless the useful light,' shall I recall the scenes of beauty, grandeur, and felicity, I have beheld upon her surface, not 'as through a glass darkly, bat face to face;' and never shall I think of that line of our thrice noble poet,

without exulting in my knowledge of its truth."

With the careful inspection of this instructive valley, and a scientific classification of its animal, vegetable, and mineral productions, the astronomers closed their labors for the night; labors rather mental than physical, and oppressive, from the extreme excitement which they naturally induced. A singular circumstance occnrred the next day, which threw the telescope quite out of use for nearly a week, by which time the moon could be no longer observed that month. The great lens, which was usually lowered during the day, and placed horizontally, had, it is true, been lowered as usual, but had been inconsiderately left in a perpendicular position. Accordingly, shortly after sunrise the next morning, Dr. Herschel and his assistants, Dr. Grant and Messrs. Drummond and Home, who slept in & bungalow erected a short distance from the observatory circle, were awakened by the loud bhonts of some Dutch farmers and domesticated Hottentots (who were passing with their oxen to agricultural labor), that the "big house." was on fire! Dr. Herschel leaped out of bed from his brief Blumbers, and, sure enough, saw his observatory enveloped in a cloud of smoke. Luckily it had been thickly covered, within and without, with a coat of Roman plaster, or it would inevitably have been destroyed with all its invaluable contents; but, as it was, a hole fifteen feet in circumference had been burnt completely through the "reflecting chamber," which was attached to the