Page:Gods Glory in the Heavens.djvu/96

78 nest of her helpless young. She is the first round in the ladder that leads up to the throne of God — the first link in the chain that binds us to the universe of worlds. The moon is thus specially fitted to be useful in bringing home to us the presence and the providence of God.

It was undoubtedly the feeling that the moon was our nearest neighbour, that led man to ascribe fanciful functions to the moon. While the sun was supposed to preside over the heart, the moon was believed to have supreme power in controlling the brain—the characteristic part of man's organisation. Hence, any crisis in mental phenomena was always connected with the phases of the moon, and paroxysms of insanity were long believed to be regulated by the maxima and minima of the moon's illuminated disc. It is strange that such a delusion should have so long clung to the human mind although contradicted by innumerable facts. This is explained by the principle of an anterior bias, and the love of coincidences. The passion of tracing coincidence has its use in prompting to scientific inquiry, but we often find it indulged in for its own sake. How many examine their barometer daily to see whether it is rising or falling, simply for the pleasure of marking the coincidence between the weather and the indications of the barometer. They may be neither mariners nor sailors, and have no immediate interests at stake. They may have no pretensions to scientific inquiry. And whether their