THE PROBABLE APPEARANCE OF THE EARTH TO THE MOON.

surface, which are contracted when we compare the Earth with the universe, become enlarged by referring it to ourselves. Hence, by instituting an arithmetical comparison between the Earth and a globe of eighteen inches diameter, if we wished to form at its proper place on the latter, and in its proper proportion, the very highest mountain in the world, which is the Chumularee, belonging to the Himalayah range, in Asia, and 29,000 feet in height, the elevation on the artificial globe would be about the one-eightieth of an inch.

It is probable that the Earth serves, only in a more efficient manner, the same purpose to the Moon that the Moon serves to the Earth, undergoing all the changes which we see in the Moon, and appearing nearly thirteen times larger, and consequently much more brilliant. Its appearance to the Moon is represented in the accompanying figure. This representation is, of course, fanciful; and to estimate it fairly we must indulge ourselves in the supposition that the lunar inhabitants, if there be any, are, for the most part, in similar circumstances with ourselves.

We have before stated that the diameter of the Sun is 111 times as great as that of the Earth. Now this proportion makes the solar globe to be, as a whole, 1,384,472 times as large as the globe of the Earth; though the density of the latter is about four times as great as that of the former. The average density of the Earth is 4 times that of water: so that it would seem that the Sun is composed of matter somewhat more dense or consistent than water.

THE MOON.

Meanwhile the Moon

Full orbed, and breaking through the scattered clouds,
Shows her broad visage in the crimsoned East.
Turned to the Sun direct, her spotted disk,
Where mountains rise, umbrageous dales descend,
And caverns deep, as optic tube descries,
A smaller Earth, gives us his blaze again,
Void of its flame, and sheds a softer day.

Now through the passing cloud she seems to stoop,
Now up the pure cerulean rides sublime.-THOMSON.

When the poet wrote these beautiful lines, we can imagine, from the context, that he was under the influence of those feelings, which are produced in men by the aspect of the quiet, moon-lit scene of nature; when the tumults, excited by day, and the passions roused by intercourse with fellow-mortals, are becalmed by the clear, cold, silence, which pervades the open country; such as makes melancholy have something of a pleasing turn, when we love to walk forth

To behold the wand'ring Moon,
Riding near her highest noon,

Like one that had been led astray

Through the heaven's wide pathless way,

And oft, as if her head she bowed,

Stooping through a fleecy cloud.

MILTON'S Il Penseroso.

We will consider chiefly the circumstances which relate to the Moon as a celestial body, independent of the Earth.

The Moon is about 2060 miles in diameter; that is, her diameter is rather more than a quarter of that of

the Earth, which is about fifty times the size of the Moon. Her mean distance from the Earth, as calculated from her horizontal parallax, is almost 240,000 miles; and she moves in her course round the Earth at the rate of about 2290 miles per hour.

The Moon shines by reflecting the Sun's light, as first supposed by Thales, the Grecian astronomer. Plato supposed that it was composed of fire; and Aristotle, that it shone by its own native light. The Moon's light has been found, as far as our means of observation extend, to be quite devoid of heat. This fact has been proved by concentrating 306 times the rays of the full Moon, when on the meridian, by a powerful burningglass of three feet in diameter; the focus of which rays has not affected the most delicate thermometer. It has been shown by experiment that the light of the Sun is 300,000 times greater than that of the Moon. Now we will suppose that the heating power of the Sun, compared with that of the Moon, is in the same proportion. The direct rays of the Sun are capable of elevating the thermometer 237°. The Moon's beams would therefore raise the thermometer, according to this calculation, only 12th of a degree; and, if these Moon-beams were concentrated 306 times, the elevation of the thermometer might be of a degree. But, even this calculation is considered to be too favourable to the heating power of the Moon-beams, and cannot be borne out by experience.

The Moon, then, not possessing any heating rays, that are cognizable by man, does not seem likely to possess or exert any influence over the herbs, flowers, and other productions of the Earth, as was imagined by the old botanists. We read in the 33rd chapter of

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