Page:The Great Moon Hoax of 1835 (IA TheGreatMoonHoaxOf18351859).pdf/60

Rh plainly as a distant shore on our own planet. But visits thither must ever remain as impossible as they are at present. The story of Hang Pfall will remain a brilliant imagination to the end of time.

"In consequence of the moon having no atmosphere, or but a very thin one, all celestial objects must be seen with very great distinctness. The earth, when full, appears to an inhabitant of the moon thirteen times as large as the moon appears to us; that is, its diameter is about times as large as our apparent lunar diameter. It is always on the same part of the heaven, when seen from the same part of the moon. M. Quetelet, in his Astronomie Elémentaire, Paris, 1826, a very good work, which ought to be translated, has the following remarks on the appearance of the earth at the moon, which we would rather quote than vouch for, though they may possibly be well founded.

"Our vast continents, our seas, even our forests are visible to them; they perceive the enormous piles of ice collected at the poles, and the girdle of vegetation which extends on both sides of the equator; as well as the clouds which float over our heads, and sometimes bide us from them. The burning of a town or forest could not escape them, and if they had good optical instruments, they could even see the building of a new town, or the sailing of a fleet."

The lunar day, as we shall afterwards see, is equivalent to our actnal month of 29½ days: though the rotation of the moon on her axis is performed in the sidereal month of 27 days 8 hours Dearly. Hence the inhabitant of the moon sees the sun for 14¾ of our days together, which time is followed by a night of the same duration. Of course the existence of any animal like man is impossible there, as well on this ac count as on that of the want of an atmosphere.

The phases which the earth presents to the moon are similar in appearance to those which the moon presents to the earth, but in a different order. Thus, when it is new moon at the earth, it is full earth at the moon: and the contrary. When the moon is in her first quarter, the earth is in its third quarter, and so on; while half-moon at the earth is accompanied by half-earth at the moon.

There is no branch of science better fitted to be made the leading subject of general instruction than that which relates to the planetary and sidereal universe. The truths which it reveals are so startling in their nature, and apparently so far beyond the reach of human intelligence, that men of high literary name have confessed their incapacity to understand them, and their inability to believe them. There are few, indeed, we fear, who really believe that they sojourn on a revolving