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Moon Hoax - Richard Adams Locke · Great Expectations

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Speaker 1: Section zero of The Moon Hoax. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The
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Speaker 1: Moonhoax by Richard Adams Locke, Section zero advertisement. It appears
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Speaker 1: to be as natural for the human mind to be
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Speaker 1: craving after the wonderful, the mysterious, the marvelous, and the
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Speaker 1: new discoveries, as it is for the physical appetite to
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Speaker 1: desire food, drink, and sleep, and thereby, as it were,
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Speaker 1: constantly attempting to lift up the veil that hides incomprehensibilities
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Speaker 1: from our vision. This interposition was no doubt wisely ordained,
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Speaker 1: for the gazing upon such mysteries might strike us blind
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Speaker 1: and rob us of the little stock of happiness allotted
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Speaker 1: to us. While probationers here, may this longing not be
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Speaker 1: the germ of the proof of our immortality. The history
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Speaker 1: of the human race is not only filled with instances
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Speaker 1: of this kind of craving, but it is universal, from
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Speaker 1: the loftiest minds as approached nearest the deity, such as Newton,
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Speaker 1: la Place and Missus Somerville, down to the most untutored
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Speaker 1: savage that roams the forest wilds. Hence the key to
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Speaker 1: the popularity of these charming productions, which fascinate our youth
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Speaker 1: and continue to delight our manhood by letting us into
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Speaker 1: the supposed mysteries of an enchanting fairyland with a grace
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Speaker 1: of narrative that quite takes us captive, while our curiosities
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Speaker 1: and wonder is raised to the highest pitch in watching
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Speaker 1: the developments unfolded in the narratives of these authors, and
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Speaker 1: quite impatient till we learn the result of the plot
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Speaker 1: or discovery. I allude to such productions as The Arabian Knights,
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Speaker 1: Sir Thomas Moore's Utopia, Bishop Berkeley's Adventures of Signor Gauadancio
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Speaker 1: de Lucca, Swift's gulliversh Travels, Defoes, Robinson Crusoe, Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress,
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Speaker 1: and Lord Erskine's Armada, besides numerous others of a similar
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Speaker 1: character but of a less celebrated reputation. Among this class
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Speaker 1: of extraordinary fictitious narratives and supposed discovery may be placed
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Speaker 1: the renowned Moon Hoax by Richard Adams Locke. When it
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Speaker 1: first made its appearance from day to day in one
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Speaker 1: of the morning papers. The interest in the discovery was intense,
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Speaker 1: and so much so that the circulation of the paper
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Speaker 1: augmented fivefold, and in fact was the means of giving
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Speaker 1: the journal a permanent footing as a daily newspaper. Nor
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Speaker 1: did this multiplied circulation of the paper satisfy the public appetite.
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Speaker 1: The proprietors of the journal had an edition of sixty
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Speaker 1: thousand published in pamphlet form, which were sold off in
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Speaker 1: less than one month, and of late this pamphlet edition
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Speaker 1: has become so scarce that a single copy was lately
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Speaker 1: sold at the sale of Minsis mister Haswell's Library for
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Speaker 1: three dollars and seventy five cents. The book is still
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Speaker 1: in demand. As an instance of this, the following will
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Speaker 1: give some idea at what pains and costs some will
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Speaker 1: go to procure it. I lately had a letter from
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Speaker 1: a gentleman residing in Wisconsin, making inquiry if I had
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Speaker 1: such a book. He further informed me that his attention
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Speaker 1: had been called to my book establishment in consequence of
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Speaker 1: having sent to the Sunday Times published in this city.
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Speaker 1: The following query, can you inform me if such a
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Speaker 1: book can be procured, and if so rare as the
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Speaker 1: celebrated Moon Hoax, the answer was that if it could
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Speaker 1: be procured at all, it would be at eighty five
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Speaker 1: Center Street, New York. By this circuituitous method, this diligent
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Speaker 1: Far West book collector procured his copy of The Moon Hoax,
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Speaker 1: to his great satisfaction. August one, eighteen fifty nine. Publisher,
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Speaker 1: end of section zero.
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Speaker 2: Section one of the Moonhwaks. This is a LibriVox recording
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Speaker 2: or libervox recordings are in the public domain. For more
4:13
Speaker 2: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The
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Speaker 2: Moonhaax by Richard Adams Locke. Great Astronomical Discoveries Lately made
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Speaker 2: by Sir John Hershall, l l DFRS, etc. At the
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Speaker 2: Cape of Good Hope, first published in the New York
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Speaker 2: Sun in August and September eighteen thirty five. From this
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Speaker 2: supplement to the end the Broad Journal of Science. In
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Speaker 2: this unusual addition to our journal, we have the happiness
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Speaker 2: of making known to the British public ends to the
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Speaker 2: whole civilized world, recent discoveries in astronomy which will build
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Speaker 2: an imperishable monument to the a in which we live
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Speaker 2: and confer upon the present generation of the human race
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Speaker 2: a proud distinction through all future time. It has been
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Speaker 2: poetically said that the stars of heaven are the hereditary
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Speaker 2: regalia of man. As the intellectual sovereign of the animal creation.
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Speaker 2: He may now fold the zodiac around him with a
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Speaker 2: loftier consciousness of his mental supremacy. It is impossible to
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Speaker 2: contemplate any great astronomical discovery without feelings cloasily alite to
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Speaker 2: a sensation of awe, and nearly akin to those with
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Speaker 2: which a departed spirit may be supposed to discover the
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Speaker 2: realities of a future state bound by the revocable laws
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Speaker 2: of nature to the globe on which we live creatures
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Speaker 2: close shut up in infinite expanse. It seems like acquiring
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Speaker 2: a fearful supernatural power when any remote, mysterious works of
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Speaker 2: the Creator yield tribute to our curiosity, its beings, almost
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Speaker 2: a presumptious usurpation of powers denied us by the divine will.
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Speaker 2: When man, in the pride and confidence of his skill,
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Speaker 2: steps forth far beyond the apparently natural boundary of his
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Speaker 2: privileges and demands the secrets and familiar fellowship of other worlds,
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Speaker 2: we are assured that when the immortal philosopher to hum
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Speaker 2: mankind is indebted for the thrilling wonders now first made known,
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Speaker 2: had at length adjusted his new and supenden apparatus with
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Speaker 2: a certainty of success, he solemnly paused several hours before
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Speaker 2: he commenced his observations, that he might prepare his own
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Speaker 2: mind for discoveries which he knew would fill the minds
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Speaker 2: of myriads of his fellow men with astonishment, and secure
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Speaker 2: his name abright, if not transcended conjunction with that of
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Speaker 2: his venerable father to all posterity. And well might he
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Speaker 2: pause from the hour the first human pair open their
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Speaker 2: rise to the glories of the blue furmament above them.
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Speaker 2: There has been no accession to human knowledge at all
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Speaker 2: comparable in sublime interest to that which he has been
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Speaker 2: the honored agent in supplying. And we are taught to
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Speaker 2: believe that when a work already preparing for the press,
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Speaker 2: in which his discoveries are embodied in detail, shall be
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Speaker 2: laid before the public, they will be found of incomparable
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Speaker 2: importance to some of the grandest operations of civilized life.
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Speaker 2: Well might he pause he was about to become the
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Speaker 2: sole depository of wondrous secrets which had been hit from
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Speaker 2: the eyes of all men that had lived since the
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Speaker 2: birth of time. He was about to crown himself with
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Speaker 2: a diadem of knowledge, which would give him a conscious
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Speaker 2: pre eminence above every individual of his species who then lived,
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Speaker 2: or who had lived in the generations that are passed away.
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Speaker 2: He paused there he broke the seal of the gasket
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Speaker 2: which contained it. To render our enthusiasm intelligible, we will
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Speaker 2: state at once that, by means of a telescope of
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Speaker 2: vast dimensions and an entirely new principle, the Younger Herschel,
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Speaker 2: at his observatory in the Southern Hemisphere, has already made
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Speaker 2: the most extraordinary discoveries in every planet of our Solar system,
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Speaker 2: has discovered planets in other Solar systems, has obtained a
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Speaker 2: distinct view of objects in the Moon, fully equal to
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Speaker 2: that which the uneated eye commands of terrestrial objects at
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Speaker 2: the distance of one hundred yards, has affirmatively settled the
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Speaker 2: question whether this satellite be inhabited and by what's order
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Speaker 2: of beings, has firmly established a new theory of cometary phenomena,
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Speaker 2: and has solved or corrected nearly every leading problem of
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Speaker 2: mathematical astronomy. For our early and almost exclusive information concerning
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Speaker 2: these facts, we are indebted to the devoted friendship of
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Speaker 2: doctor Andrew Grant, the pupil of the elder, and for
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Speaker 2: several years past, the inseparable coadjutor of the younger Herschel,
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Speaker 2: the amanences of the latter at the Cape of Good Hope,
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Speaker 2: and the indefatigable superintendent of his telescope. During the whole
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Speaker 2: period of its construction and operation, Doctor Grant has been
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Speaker 2: enabled to supply us with intelligence equal in general interest,
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Speaker 2: at least to that which doctor Hershel himself has transmitted
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Speaker 2: to the Royal Society. Indeed, our correspondent assures us that
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Speaker 2: the voluminous documents now before a committee of that institution
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Speaker 2: contain little more than details and mathematical illustrations of the
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Speaker 2: facts communicated to us in his own amble correspondence for
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Speaker 2: permission to indulge his friendship in communicating this invaluable information
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Speaker 2: to us, Doctor Grant and ourselves are intended to the
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Speaker 2: magnanimity of doctor Herschel, who, far above all mercenary considerations,
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Speaker 2: has thus signally honored and rewarded his fellow laborer in
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Speaker 2: the field of science. The engravings of lunar animals and
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Speaker 2: other objects, and of the phases of the several planets,
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Speaker 2: are accurate copies of drawings taken in the observatory by
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Speaker 2: Herbert Holmer Squire, who accompanied the last powerful series of
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Speaker 2: reflectors from London to the Cape and superintendent their erection,
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Speaker 2: and he has thus recorded the proofs of their triumphant success.
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Speaker 2: The engravings of the Bells of Jupiter is a reduced
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Speaker 2: copy of an Imperial folio drawing by doctor Herschel himself,
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Speaker 2: and contains the results of his latest observation of that planet.
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Speaker 2: The segment of the dinner Ring of Saturn is from
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Speaker 2: a large drawing by Grant. We first avail ourselves of
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Speaker 2: the documents which campaign a description and history of the
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Speaker 2: instrument by which these stupendus discoveries have been made. Our
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Speaker 2: knowledge of the one is essential to the credibility of
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Speaker 2: the other. End of section one right by.
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Speaker 1: Claudeti Section two of the Moon Hoax. This is a
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
11:36
Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
11:43
Speaker 1: The Moonhoax by Richard Adams Lock the younger Herschel's telescope.
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Speaker 1: It is well known that the great reflecting telescope of
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Speaker 1: the late elder Herschel, with an object glass four feet
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Speaker 1: in diameter and two tube forty feet in length, possesses
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Speaker 1: a magnifying power of more than six thousand times. But
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Speaker 1: a small portion of this power was ever advantageously applied
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Speaker 1: to the nearer astronomical objects, for the deficiency of light
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Speaker 1: from objects so highly magnified rendered them less distinct than
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Speaker 1: when viewed with the power of a third or a
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Speaker 1: fourth of this extent. Accordingly, the powers which he generally
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Speaker 1: applied when observing the moon or planets, and with which
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Speaker 1: he made his most interesting discoveries, ranged from two hundred,
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Speaker 1: twenty four, sixty seven fifty and nine hundred times, although
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Speaker 1: when inspecting the double and treble fixed stars and the
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Speaker 1: more distant nebula, he frequently applied the full capacity of
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Speaker 1: his instrument. The law of optics that an object becomes
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Speaker 1: dim in proportion as it is magnified, seemed from its
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Speaker 1: exemplification in this powerful telescope to form an ensuperable boundary
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Speaker 1: to further discoveries in our solar system. Several years, however,
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Speaker 1: prior to the death of this venerable astronomer, he conceived
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Speaker 1: it practicable to construct an improved series of parabolic and
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Speaker 1: spherical reflectors, which, by uniting all the meritorious points in
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Speaker 1: the Gregorian and Newtonian instruments with the highly interesting achromatic
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Speaker 1: discovery of Dolland, would to a great degree remove the
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Speaker 1: formidable obstruction. His plan evinced the most profound research in
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Speaker 1: optical science and the most dexterous ingenuity in mechanical contrivance,
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Speaker 1: but accumulating infirmities and eventually death prevented its experimental application.
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Speaker 1: His son, the present Sir John Herschel, who had been
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Speaker 1: nursed and cradled in the observatory and a practical astronomer
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Speaker 1: from his boyhood, was so fully convinced of the value
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Speaker 1: of the theory that he determ determined upon testing it
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Speaker 1: at whatever cost. Within two years of his father's death,
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Speaker 1: he completed his new apparatus and adapted it to the
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Speaker 1: old telescope with nearly perfect success. He found that the
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Speaker 1: magnifying power of six thousand times when applied to the moon,
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Speaker 1: which was the severest criterion that could be selected produced
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Speaker 1: under these new reflectors a focal object of exquisite distinctness,
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Speaker 1: free from every achromatic obscurity, and containing the highest degree
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Speaker 1: of light which the great speculum could collect from that luminary.
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Speaker 1: The enlargement of the angle of vision which was thus
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Speaker 1: acquired is ascertained by dividing the Moon's distance from the
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Speaker 1: observatory by the magnifying power of the instrument, and the
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Speaker 1: former being two hundred and forty thousand miles, and the
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Speaker 1: latter six thousand times, leaves a quotient of forty miles
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Speaker 1: as the apparent distance of that planet from the eye
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Speaker 1: of the ark observer. Now it is well known that
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Speaker 1: no terrestrial objects can be seen at a greater distance
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Speaker 1: than this with the naked eye, even from the most
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Speaker 1: favorable elevations. The rotundanity of the Earth prevents a more
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Speaker 1: distant view than this with the most acute natural vision
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Speaker 1: and from the highest eminences, and generally objects seen at
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Speaker 1: this distance are themselves elevated on the mountainous ridges. It
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Speaker 1: is not pretended, moreover, that this forty miles telescopic view
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Speaker 1: of the Moon presented its objects with equal distinctness, though
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Speaker 1: it did in equal size to those of this Earth,
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Speaker 1: so remotely stationed. The elder Herschel had nevertheless demonstrated that
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Speaker 1: with a power of one thousand times he could discern
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Speaker 1: objects in this satellite of not more than one hundred
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Speaker 1: and twenty two yards in diameter. If therefore, the full
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Speaker 1: capability of the instrument had been elicited by the new
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Speaker 1: apparatus of reflectors constructed by his son, it would follow
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Speaker 1: in mathematical ratio that objects could be discerned of not
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Speaker 1: more than twenty two yards in diameter. Yet in either
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Speaker 1: case they would be seen as mere feeble, shapeless points,
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Speaker 1: with no greater conspicuity than if they would exhibit upon
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Speaker 1: the Earth to the unaided eye at the distance of
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Speaker 1: forty miles. But although the rotundity of the Earth presented
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Speaker 1: no obstruction to a view of these astronomical objects, we
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Speaker 1: believe Sir John Herschel never insisted that he had carried
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Speaker 1: out these extreme powers of the telescope in so full
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Speaker 1: a ratio. The deficiency of light, though greatly economized and concentrated,
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Speaker 1: still maintained some inverse proportion to the magnitude of the
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Speaker 1: focal image. The advance he had made in the knowledge
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Speaker 1: of this planet, though magnificent and sublime, was thus but
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Speaker 1: partial and unsatisfactory. He was, it is true, enabled to
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Speaker 1: confirm some discoveries of former observers, and to confute those
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Speaker 1: of others. The existence of volcanoes discovered by his father
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Speaker 1: and by Schretter of Berlin, and the changes observed by
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Speaker 1: the latter in the volcano in the mere Chrissium or
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Speaker 1: Lucid Lake, were corroborated and illustrated, as was also the
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Speaker 1: prevalence of far more extensive volcanic phenomenon. The disproportionate height
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Speaker 1: attributed to the lunar mountains was corrected from careful admeasurement,
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Speaker 1: whilst the celebrated conical hills encircling valleys of vast diameter
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Speaker 1: and surrounding the lofty central hills were distinctly perceived. The formation,
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Speaker 1: which Professor Fraunhoffer uncharitably conjectured to be a lunar fortification,
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Speaker 1: he ascertained to be a tabular buttress of a remarkable
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Speaker 1: Pyramidical mountain lines, which had been whimsically pronounce pounced roads
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Speaker 1: and canals he found to be keen ridges of singularly
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Speaker 1: regular rows of hills and that which Shruttter imagined to
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Speaker 1: be a great city in the neighborhood of Marius, he
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Speaker 1: determined to be a valley of disjointed rocks scattered in fragments,
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Speaker 1: which averaged at least a thousand yards in diameter. Thus,
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Speaker 1: the general geography of the planet, in its grand outlines
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Speaker 1: of cape, continent, mountain, ocean and island, was surveyed with
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Speaker 1: greater particularity and accuracy than by any previous observer, and
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Speaker 1: the striking dissimilarity of many of its local features to
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Speaker 1: any existing on our globe was clearly demonstrated. The best
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Speaker 1: enlarged maps of that luminary which have been published were
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Speaker 1: constructed from this survey, and neither the astronomer nor the
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Speaker 1: public ventured to hope for any greater accession to their developments.
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Speaker 1: The utmost power of the largest telescope in the world
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Speaker 1: had been exerted in a new and felicious manner to
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Speaker 1: obtain them, and there was no reasonable expectation that a
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Speaker 1: larger one would ever be constructed, or that it could
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Speaker 1: be advantageously used. If it were a law of nature,
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Speaker 1: and the finitude of human skill seemed united in inflexible
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Speaker 1: opposition to any further improvement in telescopic science as applicable
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Speaker 1: to the known planets and satellites of the Solar System.
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Speaker 1: For unless the Sun could be prevailed upon to extend
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Speaker 1: a more liberal allowance of light to these bodies, and
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Speaker 1: they could be induced to transfer it for the generous
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Speaker 1: gratification of our curiosity, what adequate substitute could be obtained.
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Speaker 1: Telescopes do not create light. They cannot even transmit unimpaired
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Speaker 1: that which they receive. That anything farther could be derived
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Speaker 1: from human skill in the construction of instruments. The labors
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Speaker 1: of his illustrious predecessors and his own left the son
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Speaker 1: of Herschel no reason to hope. Koigen's Fontana, Gregory Newton,
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Speaker 1: Hadley Byrd Short dolland Herschel, and many others, all practical opticians,
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Speaker 1: had resorted to every material in every wise adapted to
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Speaker 1: the composition of either lenses or reflectors, and had exhausted
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Speaker 1: every law of vision which study had developed and demonstrated.
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Speaker 1: In the construction of his last amazing specula, Sir John
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Speaker 1: Herschel had selected the most approved amalgams that the advanced
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Speaker 1: stage of metallic chemistry had combined, and had watched their
20:41
Speaker 1: growing brightness under the hands of the artificer with more
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Speaker 1: anxious hope than ever lover watched the eye of his mistress.
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Speaker 1: And he had nothing further to expect than they had accomplished.
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Speaker 1: He had the satisfaction to know that if he could
20:57
Speaker 1: leap astride at Cannonball, and travel upon its wings of
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Speaker 1: fury for the respectable period of several millions of years,
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Speaker 1: he would not obtain a more enlarged view of the
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Speaker 1: distant stars than he could now possess in a few
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Speaker 1: minutes of time, and that it would require an ultra
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Speaker 1: railroad speed of fifty miles an hour for nearly the
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Speaker 1: livelong year to secure him a more favorable inspection of
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Speaker 1: the gentle luminary of night. The interesting question, however, whether
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Speaker 1: this light of the solemn forest, of the treeless desert,
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Speaker 1: and of the deep blue ocean as it rolls, Whether
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Speaker 1: this object of the lonely turret, of the uplifted eye
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Speaker 1: on the deserted battlefield, and of all the pilgrims of
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Speaker 1: love and hope, of misery and despair that have journeyed
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Speaker 1: over the hills and valleys of this earth, through all
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Speaker 1: the eras of its unwritten history to those of its
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Speaker 1: present voluminous record. The exciting question whether this observed of
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Speaker 1: all the sons of men from the days of Eden
22:03
Speaker 1: to those of Edinburgh be inhabited by beings like ourselves
22:08
Speaker 1: of consciousness and curiosity, was left for solution to the
22:14
Speaker 1: benevolent index of natural analogy, or to the severe tradition
22:19
Speaker 1: it is tenanted only by the hoary solitaire, whom the
22:23
Speaker 1: criminal code of the Nursery had banished thither for collecting
22:27
Speaker 1: fuel on the Sabbath day. The limits of discovery in
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Speaker 1: the planetary bodies, and in this one especially, thus seemed
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Speaker 1: to be immutably fixed, and no expectation was elevated for
22:40
Speaker 1: a period of several years. But about three years ago,
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Speaker 1: in the course of a conversational discussion with Sir David
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Speaker 1: Brewster upon the merits of some ingenious suggestions by the
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Speaker 1: latter in his article on Optics in the Edinburgh Encyclopedia,
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Speaker 1: page six forty four, or Improvements in the Newtonian Reflectors,
23:02
Speaker 1: Sir John Herschel adverted to the convenient simplicity of the
23:06
Speaker 1: old astronomical telescopes that were without tubes and the object
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Speaker 1: glass of which, placed upon a high pole, threw its
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Speaker 1: focal image to a distance of one hundred and fifty
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Speaker 1: and even two hundred feet. Doctor Brewster readily admitted that
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Speaker 1: a tube was not necessary, provided the focal image were
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Speaker 1: conveyed into a dark apartment and there properly received by reflectors.
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Speaker 1: Sir John then said that if his father's great telescope,
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Speaker 1: the tube alone, of which though formed of the lightest
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Speaker 1: suitable materials, weighed three thousand pounds, possessed an easy and
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Speaker 1: steady mobility with its heavy observatory attached, an observatory movable
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Speaker 1: without the encumbrance of such a tube, was obviously practical.
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Speaker 1: This also was admitted, and the conversation became directed to
23:58
Speaker 1: that all invincible enemy, the paucity of light in powerful magnifiers.
24:04
Speaker 1: After a few moments of silent thought, Sir John diffinitely
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Speaker 1: inquired whether it would not be possible to effect a
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Speaker 1: transfusion of artificial light through the focal object of vision.
24:16
Speaker 1: Sir David, somewhat startled at the originality of the idea,
24:21
Speaker 1: paused awhile, and then hesitatingly referred to the refrangibility of
24:26
Speaker 1: rays and the angle of incidents. Sir John grown more confident,
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Speaker 1: adduced the example of the Newtonian reflector, in which refrangibility
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Speaker 1: was corrected by the second speculum and the angle of
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Speaker 1: incidence was restored by the third, and continued, he why
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Speaker 1: cannot the illuminated microscope, say, the hydrogen oxygen be applied
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Speaker 1: to render distinct and, if necessary, even to magnify the
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Speaker 1: focal object. Sir David sprung from his chair in an
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Speaker 1: ecstasy of conviction, and leaping halfway to the s the ceiling, exclaimed,
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Speaker 1: Thou art the man. Each philosopher anticipated the other in
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Speaker 1: presenting the prompt illustration that if the rays of hydrogen
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Speaker 1: oxygen microscope passed through a drop of water containing the
25:14
Speaker 1: larva of a gnat and other objects invisible to the
25:17
Speaker 1: naked eye, rendered them not only keenly but firmly magnified
25:22
Speaker 1: to dimensions of many feet. So could the same artificial
25:26
Speaker 1: light pass through the faintest focal object of a telescope
25:30
Speaker 1: both distinctify, to coin a new word for an extraordinary occasion,
25:35
Speaker 1: and magnify its feeblest component members. The only apparent desideratum
25:41
Speaker 1: was a recipient for the focal image, which should transfer
25:44
Speaker 1: it without refrainging it to the surface on which it
25:48
Speaker 1: was to be viewed under revivifying light of the microscopic reflectors.
25:54
Speaker 1: In the various experiments made during the few following weeks,
25:58
Speaker 1: the Cooperativeclosophers decided that a medium of the purest plate glass,
26:04
Speaker 1: which it is said they obtained by consent, be it
26:07
Speaker 1: observed from the shop window of Mons Design, the jeweler,
26:12
Speaker 1: to his ex Majesty Charles the tenth in High Street,
26:16
Speaker 1: was the most eligible they could discover. It answered perfectly
26:20
Speaker 1: with a telescope which magnified a hundred times and a
26:23
Speaker 1: microscope of about thrice that power. Sir John Herschel then
26:28
Speaker 1: conceived the stupendous fabric of his present telescope. The power
26:33
Speaker 1: of his father's instrument would still leave him distant from
26:36
Speaker 1: his favorite planet nearly forty miles, and he resolved to
26:40
Speaker 1: attempt a greater magnifier. Money the wings of science, as
26:45
Speaker 1: the sinews of war, seemed the only requisite, and even
26:49
Speaker 1: the acquisition of this, which is often more difficult than
26:52
Speaker 1: the task of Sissius, he determined to achieve. Fully sanctioned
26:58
Speaker 1: by the high optical authority of Sir David Brewster, he
27:02
Speaker 1: laid his plan before the Royal Society, and particularly directed
27:07
Speaker 1: to it the attention of His Royal Highness, the Duke
27:10
Speaker 1: of Sussex, the ever muniicient patron of science and the arts.
27:15
Speaker 1: It was immediately and enthusiastically approved by the committee chosen
27:20
Speaker 1: to investigate it, and the chairman, who was the Royal President,
27:24
Speaker 1: subscribed his name for a contribution of ten thousand pounds,
27:29
Speaker 1: with a promise that he would zealously submit the proposed
27:33
Speaker 1: instrument as a fit object for the patronage of the
27:36
Speaker 1: Privy Purse. He did so without delay, and his Majesty,
27:41
Speaker 1: on being informed that the estimated expense was seventy thousand pounds,
27:46
Speaker 1: naively inquired if the costly instrument would conduce to any
27:50
Speaker 1: improvement in navigation. On being informed that it undoubtedly would,
27:56
Speaker 1: the sailor King promised a carte blanche for the amount
28:00
Speaker 1: which might be required. Sir John Herschel had submitted his
28:04
Speaker 1: plan and calculations in adaptation to an object glass of
28:08
Speaker 1: twenty four feet in diameter, just six times the size
28:11
Speaker 1: of his venerable fathers. For casting this ponderous mass, he
28:16
Speaker 1: selected the large glass house of Messrs Hartley and Grant,
28:21
Speaker 1: the brother of our invaluable friend, doctor Grant, at Dumbarton.
28:26
Speaker 1: The material chosen was an amalgamation of two parts of
28:30
Speaker 1: the best crown with one of flint glass, the use
28:34
Speaker 1: of which in separate lenses, constituted the great achromatic discovery
28:38
Speaker 1: of Dolland. It had been found, however, by accurate experiments,
28:43
Speaker 1: that the amalgam would as completely triumph over every impediment,
28:48
Speaker 1: both from refrangibility and discolouration as the separate lenses. Five
28:54
Speaker 1: furnaces of the metal, carefully collected from productions of the
28:58
Speaker 1: manufactory in Bold, the kinds of glass and known to
29:02
Speaker 1: be respectively of nearly perfect homogeneous quality, were united by
29:07
Speaker 1: one grand conductor to the mold, and on the third
29:11
Speaker 1: day of January eighteen thirty three, the first cast was affected.
29:16
Speaker 1: After cooling eight days, the mold was opened and the
29:19
Speaker 1: glass found to be greatly flawed within eighteen inches of
29:22
Speaker 1: the center. Notwithstanding this failure, a new glass was more
29:26
Speaker 1: carefully cast on the twenty seventh of the same month, which,
29:30
Speaker 1: on being opened during the first week of February, was
29:34
Speaker 1: found to be immaculately perfect, with the exception of two
29:38
Speaker 1: slight flaws so near the line of its circumference that
29:41
Speaker 1: they would be covered by the copper ring in which
29:44
Speaker 1: it was destined to be enclosed. The weight of this
29:47
Speaker 1: prodigious lens was fourteen thousand, eight hundred and twenty six
29:51
Speaker 1: pounds or nearly seven tons after being polished, and its
29:56
Speaker 1: estimated magnifying power forty two thousand times. It was therefore
30:01
Speaker 1: presumed to be capable of representing objects in our lunar
30:05
Speaker 1: satellite of little more than eighteen inches in diameter, provided
30:10
Speaker 1: its focal image of them could be rendered distinct by
30:13
Speaker 1: the transfusions of artificial light. It was, not, however, upon
30:18
Speaker 1: the mere illuminating power of the hydrogen oxygen microscope as
30:22
Speaker 1: applied to focal pictures of this lens, that the younger
30:26
Speaker 1: Herschel depended for the realization of his ambitious theories and hopes.
30:30
Speaker 1: He calculated largely upon the almost illimitable applicability of this
30:35
Speaker 1: instrument as a second magnifier, which would supersede the use
30:40
Speaker 1: and infinitely transcend the powers of the highest magnifiers in
30:44
Speaker 1: reflecting telescopes. So sanguinely indeed did he calculate upon the
30:49
Speaker 1: advantages of this splendid alliance that he expressed confidence in
30:54
Speaker 1: this ultimate ability to study even the entomology of the Moon,
30:58
Speaker 1: in case she contained insect upon her surface. Having witnessed
31:02
Speaker 1: the completion of this great lens and its safe transportation
31:06
Speaker 1: to the metropolis, his next care was the construction of
31:10
Speaker 1: a suitable microscope and of the mechanical framework for the
31:13
Speaker 1: horizontal and vertical action of the whole. His plans in
31:18
Speaker 1: every branch of his undertaking, having been intensely studied even
31:23
Speaker 1: to their minutest details, were easily and rapidly executed. He
31:28
Speaker 1: awaited only the appointed period at which he was to
31:31
Speaker 1: convey his magnificent apparatus to its destination. A correspondence had
31:36
Speaker 1: for some time passed between the Boards of England, France
31:39
Speaker 1: and Austria with a view to improvements in the tables
31:43
Speaker 1: of longitude in the Southern Hemisphere, which are found to
31:47
Speaker 1: be much less accurate than those of the northern. The
31:50
Speaker 1: high opinion entertained by the British Board of Longitude of
31:53
Speaker 1: the principles of the new telescope and of the profound
31:57
Speaker 1: skill of its inventor, determined the govern government to solicit
32:01
Speaker 1: his services in observing the transit of mercury over the
32:04
Speaker 1: Sun's disc, which will take place on the seventh of
32:08
Speaker 1: November in the present year, and which, as it will
32:11
Speaker 1: occur at seven hours forty seven minutes fifty five seconds
32:15
Speaker 1: night conjunction meantime and at eight hours twelve minutes twenty
32:21
Speaker 1: two seconds middle true time, will be invisible to nearly
32:25
Speaker 1: all the northern Hemisphere. The place at which the transits
32:28
Speaker 1: of Mercury and Venus will have generally been observed by
32:31
Speaker 1: the astronomers of Europe when occurring under these circumstances is
32:36
Speaker 1: the Cape of Good Hope, And no transit of Venus
32:39
Speaker 1: having occurred since the year seventeen sixty nine, and none
32:44
Speaker 1: being to occur before eighteen seventy four, the accurate observation
32:49
Speaker 1: of the transit of Mercury, which occur more frequently, has
32:53
Speaker 1: been found of great importance both to astronomy and navigation.
32:57
Speaker 1: To the latter useful art. Indeed, the transits of Mercury
33:01
Speaker 1: are nearly as important as those of Venus, for all
33:05
Speaker 1: those of the latter planet have all the peculiar advantage
33:08
Speaker 1: of determining exactly the great solar parallax, and thence the
33:14
Speaker 1: distance of all the planets from the Sun. Yet the
33:17
Speaker 1: transits of Mercury, by exactly determining the place of its
33:21
Speaker 1: own node independently of the parallax of the great orb
33:25
Speaker 1: determine the parallax of the Earth and Moon, and are
33:29
Speaker 1: therefore especially valuable in lunar observations of longitude. The Cape
33:34
Speaker 1: of Good Hope has been found preferable in these observations
33:37
Speaker 1: to any other station in the hemisphere. The expedition which
33:41
Speaker 1: went to Peru about the middle of the last century
33:45
Speaker 1: to ascertain, in conjunction with another enlapland the true figure
33:50
Speaker 1: of the Earth, found the attraction of the mountainous regions
33:53
Speaker 1: so strong as to cause the plume line of one
33:57
Speaker 1: of their large instruments to deflect seven or eight seconds
34:01
Speaker 1: from the true perpendicular, whilst the elevated planes at the
34:05
Speaker 1: cape unite all the advantages of a lucid atmosphere with
34:10
Speaker 1: an entire freedom from mountainous obstructions. Sir John Herschel therefore
34:15
Speaker 1: not only accepted the appointment with high satisfaction, but requested
34:20
Speaker 1: that it might commence at least a year before the
34:22
Speaker 1: period of the transit, to afford him time to bring
34:26
Speaker 1: his ponderous and complicated machinery into perfect adjustment. And to
34:31
Speaker 1: extend his knowledge of the southern constellations. His wish was
34:36
Speaker 1: immediately assented to, and his arrangements being completed, he sailed
34:40
Speaker 1: from London on the fourth of September eighteen thirty four,
34:44
Speaker 1: in company with Doctor Andrew Grant, Lieutenant Drummond of the
34:48
Speaker 1: Royal Engineers FRAS, and a large party of the best
34:53
Speaker 1: English mechanics. They arrived after an expeditious and agreeable passage,
34:59
Speaker 1: and immediately proceeded to transport the lens and the frame
35:02
Speaker 1: of the large observatory to its destined site, which was
35:06
Speaker 1: a piece of tableland of great extent and elevation about
35:11
Speaker 1: thirty five miles to the northeast of Cape Town, and
35:14
Speaker 1: is said to be the very spot on which de
35:18
Speaker 1: la Calle in seventeen fifty constructed his invaluable solar tables,
35:24
Speaker 1: when he measured a degree of the meridian, and made
35:27
Speaker 1: a great advance to exactitude in computing the solar parallax
35:32
Speaker 1: from that of Mars and the moon. Sir John accomplished
35:36
Speaker 1: the ascent to the plains by means of two relief
35:39
Speaker 1: teams of oxen, eighteen each in about four days, and
35:43
Speaker 1: aided by several companies of Dutch bores proceeded at once
35:48
Speaker 1: to the erection of his gigantic fabric. The ground plane
35:52
Speaker 1: of the structure is in some respects similar to that
35:55
Speaker 1: of Herschel's telescope in England, except that instead of recular
36:00
Speaker 1: foundations of brickwork, it consists of parallel circles of railroad
36:05
Speaker 1: iron upon wood and framework, so constructed that the turnouts,
36:10
Speaker 1: or rather the turn ends, from the largest circle, will
36:14
Speaker 1: conduct the observatory, which moves upon them, to the innermost circle,
36:19
Speaker 1: which is the basis of the lensworks, and to each
36:23
Speaker 1: of the circles that intervene. The diameter of the smallest
36:27
Speaker 1: circle is twenty eight feet that of the largest of
36:30
Speaker 1: Our correspondent has singularly forgotten to state, though it may
36:34
Speaker 1: be in some measure computed from the angle of incidents
36:37
Speaker 1: projected by the lens and the space occupied by the observatory.
36:43
Speaker 1: The latter is a wooden building fifty feet square and
36:46
Speaker 1: is many high, with a flat roof and gutters of
36:49
Speaker 1: thin copper through the side. Proximate to the lens is
36:53
Speaker 1: an aperture of four feet in diameter to receive its rays,
36:57
Speaker 1: and through the roof another for the same purpose in
37:01
Speaker 1: maridonial observations. The lens, which is enclosed in a frame
37:05
Speaker 1: of wood and braced to its corners by bars of copper,
37:09
Speaker 1: is suspended upon an axis between two pillars which are
37:13
Speaker 1: nearly as high as those which supported the celebrated quadrant
37:17
Speaker 1: of ulag Beg, being one hundred and fifty feet. These
37:21
Speaker 1: are united at the top and bottom by cross pieces
37:25
Speaker 1: and strengthened by a number of diagonal braces, and between
37:30
Speaker 1: them is a double capstan for hoisting the lens from
37:33
Speaker 1: its horizontal line with the observatory to the height required
37:37
Speaker 1: by its focal distance when turned to the meridian, and
37:42
Speaker 1: for elevating it to any intermediate degree of altitude that
37:46
Speaker 1: may be needed. This last operation is beautifully regulated by
37:51
Speaker 1: an immense double sextant, which is connected and moved with
37:56
Speaker 1: the axis of the lens, and is regularly divided into
37:59
Speaker 1: the minutes and seconds, and the horizontal circles of the
38:03
Speaker 1: observatory being also divided into three hundred and sixty degrees
38:08
Speaker 1: and minutely subdivided. The whole instrument has the powers and
38:13
Speaker 1: regularity of the most improved theodolite. Having no tube, it
38:18
Speaker 1: is connected with the observatory by two horizontal levers which
38:22
Speaker 1: pass underneath the floor of that building from the circular
38:26
Speaker 1: basis of the pillars, thus keeping the lens always square
38:30
Speaker 1: with the observatory, and securing to both a uniform and
38:34
Speaker 1: simple movement. By means of these levers to a rack
38:38
Speaker 1: and windlass, the observatory is brought to any degree of
38:42
Speaker 1: approximation to the pillars that the altitude of an observation
38:46
Speaker 1: may require. And although when at its nearest station it
38:51
Speaker 1: cannot command an observation with the great lens within about
38:55
Speaker 1: fifteen degrees of the meridian, it is supplied with an
38:59
Speaker 1: excellent telescope of vast power constructed by the Elder Herschel,
39:03
Speaker 1: by which every high degree can be surveyed. The field
39:07
Speaker 1: of view, therefore, whether exhibited on the floor or on
39:11
Speaker 1: the wall of the apartment, has a diameter of nearly
39:14
Speaker 1: fifty feet, and being circular, it has therefore an area
39:19
Speaker 1: of nearly one thousand, eight hundred and seventy five feet.
39:22
Speaker 1: The place of all horizontal movements having been accurately leveled
39:26
Speaker 1: by Lieutenant Drummond with the improved level of his invention
39:31
Speaker 1: which bears his name, and the wheels both of the
39:34
Speaker 1: observatory and the lensworks being facilitated by friction rollers in
39:38
Speaker 1: patent axle boxes filled with oil. The strength of one
39:42
Speaker 1: man applied to the extremity of the levers is sufficient
39:46
Speaker 1: to propel the whole structure upon either of the railroad circles,
39:50
Speaker 1: and that of two men applied to the windlass is
39:54
Speaker 1: fully adequate to bring the observatory to the basis of
39:57
Speaker 1: the pillars. Both of these move movements, however, are now
40:01
Speaker 1: affected by a locomotive apparatus commanded within the apartment by
40:06
Speaker 1: a single person, and showing by means of an ingenious
40:10
Speaker 1: index every inch of progression or retrogression. We have not
40:15
Speaker 1: thus particularly described the telescope of the Younger Herschel because
40:19
Speaker 1: we consider it the most magnificent specimen of philosophical mechanism
40:24
Speaker 1: of the present or any previous age, but because we
40:28
Speaker 1: deemed an explicit description of its principles and powers an
40:32
Speaker 1: almost indispensable introduction to a statement of the sublime expansion
40:37
Speaker 1: of human knowledge which it has achieved. It was not
40:40
Speaker 1: fully completed until the latter part of December, when the
40:44
Speaker 1: series of large reflectors for the microscope arrived from England
40:49
Speaker 1: and it was brought into operation during the first week
40:52
Speaker 1: of the ensuing month and year. But the secrecy which
40:56
Speaker 1: had been maintained with regard to its novelty, its manufacture,
41:00
Speaker 1: and its destination, was not less rigidly preserved for several months,
41:04
Speaker 1: respecting the grandeur of its success. Whether the British government
41:09
Speaker 1: were skeptical concerning the promised splendor of its discoveries or
41:13
Speaker 1: wished them to be scrupulously veiled until they had accumulated
41:16
Speaker 1: a full orbed glory for the nation and reigned in
41:19
Speaker 1: which they originated, is a question which we can only
41:24
Speaker 1: conjecturally solve, But certain it is that the astronomer's royal
41:28
Speaker 1: patrons enjoined a Masonic texternity upon him and his friends
41:34
Speaker 1: until he should have officially communicated the results of his
41:37
Speaker 1: great experiment. Accordingly, the world heard nothing of him or
41:42
Speaker 1: his expedition until it was announced a few months since
41:45
Speaker 1: in the scientific Journals of Germany that Sir John Herschel
41:49
Speaker 1: at the Cape of Good Hope had written to the
41:52
Speaker 1: Astronomer Royal of Vienna to inform him that the portentous
41:57
Speaker 1: comet predicted for the year eighteen thirty, which was to
42:01
Speaker 1: approach so near this trembling globe, that we might hear
42:05
Speaker 1: the roaring of its fires, had turned upon another scent,
42:09
Speaker 1: and would not even shake a hair of its tail
42:11
Speaker 1: upon our hunting grounds. At a loss to conceive by
42:15
Speaker 1: what extra authority he had made so bold a declaration,
42:19
Speaker 1: the men of science in Europe, who were not acquainted
42:23
Speaker 1: with his secret, regarded his postponement as his discovery was
42:27
Speaker 1: termed with incredulous countumli, and continued to terrorize upon the
42:33
Speaker 1: strength of former predictions. End of section two Section three
42:45
Speaker 1: of The Moon Hoax. This is a LibriVox recording. All
42:50
Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
42:55
Speaker 1: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The Moon
43:00
Speaker 1: Hoax by Richard Adams Lock. New lunar discoveries are one
43:07
Speaker 1: until the tenth of January. The observations were chiefly directed
43:11
Speaker 1: to the stars in the Southern signs, in which, without
43:15
Speaker 1: the aid of hydro oxygen reflectors, a countless number of
43:19
Speaker 1: new stars and nebula were discovered. But we shall defer
43:23
Speaker 1: our correspondents account of these to future pages, for the
43:26
Speaker 1: purpose of no longer withholding from our readers. The more
43:30
Speaker 1: generally and highly interesting discoveries which were made in the
43:34
Speaker 1: lunar world, And for this purpose too, we shall defer
43:38
Speaker 1: doctor Grant's elaborate mathematical details of the corrections which Sir
43:43
Speaker 1: John Herschel has made in the best tables of the
43:47
Speaker 1: Moon's tropical side, real and sonotic revolutions, and of those
43:52
Speaker 1: phenomenon of scydigies on which a great part of the
43:56
Speaker 1: established lunar theory depends. It was about half past nine
44:02
Speaker 1: o'clock on the night of the tenth, the moon, having
44:05
Speaker 1: then advanced within four days of her mean libration, that
44:09
Speaker 1: the astronomer adjusted his instrument for the inspection of her
44:13
Speaker 1: eastern limb. The whole immense power of his telescope was applied,
44:18
Speaker 1: and to its focal image about one half of the
44:22
Speaker 1: power of his microscope. On removing the screen of the latter,
44:26
Speaker 1: the field of view was covered throughout its entire area
44:30
Speaker 1: with a beautifully distinct and even vivid representation of basaltic rock.
44:35
Speaker 1: Its color was greenish brown, and the width of their columns,
44:40
Speaker 1: as defined by their instretes on the canvas, was invariably
44:44
Speaker 1: twenty eight inches. No fracture whatever appeared in the mass
44:48
Speaker 1: first presented, but in a few seconds, a shelving pile
44:53
Speaker 1: appeared of five or six columns width, which showed their
44:56
Speaker 1: figure to be hexagonal, and their articulation similar to those
45:01
Speaker 1: of the basaltic formations at Stapfha. This precipitous shelf was
45:06
Speaker 1: profusely covered with a dark red flower, precisely similar, says
45:11
Speaker 1: doctor Grant, to the pepavir proesis or rose poppy of
45:17
Speaker 1: our sublunary cornfields. And this was the first organic production
45:22
Speaker 1: of nature in a foreign world ever revealed to the
45:26
Speaker 1: eyes of men. The rapidity of the moon's ascension, or
45:30
Speaker 1: rather of the Earth's diurnal rotation, being nearly equal to
45:35
Speaker 1: five hundred yards in a second, would have effectually prevented
45:39
Speaker 1: the inspection or even the discovery of objects so minute
45:43
Speaker 1: as these, but for the admirable mechanism which constantly regulates
45:48
Speaker 1: under the guidance of the sextant the required altitude of
45:52
Speaker 1: the lens. But its operation was found to be so
45:55
Speaker 1: consummately perfect that the observers could detain the object of
46:00
Speaker 1: upon the field of view for any period they might desire.
46:04
Speaker 1: The specimen of lunar vegetation, however, which they had already seen,
46:09
Speaker 1: had decided a question of too exciting an interest to
46:13
Speaker 1: induce them to retard its exit. It had demonstrated that
46:17
Speaker 1: the moon has an atmosphere constituted similarly to our own,
46:21
Speaker 1: and capable of sustaining organized, and therefore most probably animal life.
46:27
Speaker 1: The basaltic rock continued to pass over the inclined canvas
46:31
Speaker 1: plain through three successive diameters, when a verdant declivity of
46:37
Speaker 1: great beauty appeared, which occupied two more. This was preceded
46:42
Speaker 1: by another mass of nearly the former height, at the
46:45
Speaker 1: base of which they were at length delighted to perceive
46:49
Speaker 1: that novelty, a lunar forest. The trees, said doctor Grant,
46:54
Speaker 1: for a period of ten minutes, were of one unvaried kind,
46:59
Speaker 1: and unlike any I have seen, except the largest kind
47:02
Speaker 1: of use in the English churchyards, which they in some
47:06
Speaker 1: respects resemble. These were followed by a level green plain, which,
47:11
Speaker 1: as measured by the painted circle on our canvas of
47:14
Speaker 1: forty nine feet, must have been more than a half
47:17
Speaker 1: a mile in breadth, and then appeared as fine a
47:21
Speaker 1: forest of firs, unequivocable furs as I have ever seen,
47:25
Speaker 1: cherished in the bosom of my native mountains. Wearied with
47:30
Speaker 1: the long continuance of these, we greatly reduced the magnifying
47:33
Speaker 1: power of the microscope without eclipsing either of the reflectors,
47:38
Speaker 1: and immediately perceived that we had been insensibly descending, as
47:43
Speaker 1: it were, a mountainous district of highly diversified and romantic character,
47:49
Speaker 1: and that we were on the verge of a lake
47:52
Speaker 1: or inland sea. But of what relative locality or extent
47:56
Speaker 1: we were not yet too greatly magnified to determine. On
48:00
Speaker 1: introducing the feeblest achromatic lens we possessed, we found that
48:05
Speaker 1: the water whose boundary we had just discovered answered in
48:09
Speaker 1: general outline to the Marenubium of Riccoli, by which we
48:15
Speaker 1: detected that, instead of commencing as we supposed, on the
48:19
Speaker 1: eastern longitude of the planet, some delay in the elevation
48:23
Speaker 1: of the great lens had thrown us nearly upon the
48:27
Speaker 1: axis of her equator. However, as she was a free
48:31
Speaker 1: country and we not as yet attached to any particular province,
48:36
Speaker 1: or moreover, since we could at any moment occupy our
48:39
Speaker 1: intended position, we again slid in our magic lenses to
48:44
Speaker 1: survey the shores of the Marinubium. Why Racoli so termed
48:48
Speaker 1: it unless in ridicule of pleiotomies, I know not for
48:53
Speaker 1: Farr shores, never angels coasted on a tour of pleasure.
48:57
Speaker 1: A beach of brilliant white sand, girt will of wild
49:00
Speaker 1: castellated rocks, apparently of green marble, varied at chasms, occurring
49:06
Speaker 1: every two or three hundred feet, with grotesque blocks of
49:10
Speaker 1: chalk or gypsum, and feathered and festooned at the summit
49:14
Speaker 1: with the clustering foliage of unknown trees, moved along the
49:18
Speaker 1: bright wall of our apartment until we were speechless with admiration.
49:23
Speaker 1: The water, wherever we obtained a view of it, was
49:27
Speaker 1: nearly as blue as that of the deep oceans, and
49:30
Speaker 1: broke in large white billows upon the strand. The action
49:34
Speaker 1: of very high tides was quite manifest upon the face
49:38
Speaker 1: of the cliffs for more than one hundred miles, Yet
49:41
Speaker 1: diversified as the scenery was, during this and much greater distance,
49:46
Speaker 1: we perceived no trace of animal existence, notwithstanding we could
49:50
Speaker 1: command at will a perspective or a foreground view of
49:54
Speaker 1: the whole. Mister Holmes indeed pronounced some white objects of
49:58
Speaker 1: circular form, which we saw at some distance in the
50:01
Speaker 1: interior of a cavern to be bonafide specimens of a
50:05
Speaker 1: large cornu ammonas, but to me they appeared merely large
50:09
Speaker 1: pebbles which had been chafed and rolled there by the tides.
50:14
Speaker 1: Our chase of animal life was not yet to be rewarded.
50:18
Speaker 1: Having continued this close inspection nearly two hours, during which
50:22
Speaker 1: we passed over a wide tract of country, chiefly of
50:25
Speaker 1: a rugged and apparently volcanic character, and having seen a
50:29
Speaker 1: few additional varieties of vegetation, except some specimens of lichen,
50:34
Speaker 1: which grew everywhere in great abundance, Doctor Herschel proposed that
50:39
Speaker 1: we should take out all our lenses, give a rapid
50:42
Speaker 1: speed to the panorama, and search for some of the
50:45
Speaker 1: principal valleys known to astronomers, as the most likely method
50:49
Speaker 1: to reward our first night's observation with the discovery of
50:53
Speaker 1: animated beings. The lenses being removed and the effulgence of
50:59
Speaker 1: our unutterably goloe glorious reflectors left undiminished, we found, in
51:03
Speaker 1: accordance with our calculations, that our field of view comprehended
51:07
Speaker 1: about twenty five miles of the lunar surface, with the
51:10
Speaker 1: distinctness both of outline and detail which could be procured
51:15
Speaker 1: of a terrestrial object at the distance of two and
51:17
Speaker 1: a half miles, an optical phenomenon which you will find
51:22
Speaker 1: demonstrated in Note five. This afforded us with the best
51:26
Speaker 1: landscape views we have hitherto obtained, and although the accelerated
51:31
Speaker 1: motion was rather too great, we enjoyed them with rapture.
51:35
Speaker 1: Several of those famous valleys, which are bounded by lofty
51:39
Speaker 1: hills of so perfectly conical form as to render them
51:42
Speaker 1: less like works of nature than art, passed the canvas
51:46
Speaker 1: before we had time to check their flight. But presently
51:50
Speaker 1: a train of scenery met our eye of features so
51:54
Speaker 1: entirely novel that Doctor Herschel signaled for the lowest convenient
51:58
Speaker 1: gradation of movement. It was a lofty chain of obelisk
52:02
Speaker 1: shaped or very slender pyramids, standing in irregular groups, each
52:07
Speaker 1: composed of about thirty or forty spires, every one of
52:11
Speaker 1: which was perfectly square and as accurately truncated as the
52:15
Speaker 1: finest specimens of cornish crystal. They were of a faint
52:19
Speaker 1: lilac hue and very resplendent. I now thought that we
52:23
Speaker 1: had assuredly fallen on productions of art. But doctor Herschel
52:27
Speaker 1: shrewdly remarked that if the Lunarians could build thirty or
52:31
Speaker 1: forty miles of such monuments as these, we should, ever
52:35
Speaker 1: now have been discovered others of a less equivocable nature.
52:39
Speaker 1: He pronounced them quartz formations of probably the wine colored
52:43
Speaker 1: amys species, and promised us from these and other proofs
52:47
Speaker 1: which he had obtained of the powerful action of the
52:50
Speaker 1: laws of crystallization in this planet, a rich field of
52:54
Speaker 1: mineralogical study. On introducing a lens, his conjecture was fully confirmed.
53:00
Speaker 1: They were monstrous amethysts of a diluted claret color, glowing
53:05
Speaker 1: in the intensest light of the sun. They varied in
53:08
Speaker 1: height from sixty to ninety feet, though we saw several
53:12
Speaker 1: of a still more incredible altitude. They were observed in
53:17
Speaker 1: a succession of valleys divided by longitudinal lines of round
53:21
Speaker 1: breasted hills, covered with verdure and nobly undulated. But what
53:27
Speaker 1: is most remarkable, the valleys which contained these stupendous crystals
53:32
Speaker 1: were invariably barren and covered with stones of a ferignous hue,
53:38
Speaker 1: which were probably iron pyrites. We found that some of
53:43
Speaker 1: these curiosities were situated in a district elevated half a
53:48
Speaker 1: mile above the valley of the mere Ficundicatis of Mayor
53:52
Speaker 1: and Riccoli, the shores of which soon hove into view,
53:57
Speaker 1: but never was a name more inappropriately besulrewed. From Dan
54:01
Speaker 1: to Bersheba, all was barren. The seaboard was entirely composed
54:06
Speaker 1: of chalk and flint, and not a vestige of vegetation
54:10
Speaker 1: could be discovered with our strongest glasses the whole breadth
54:14
Speaker 1: of the northern extremity of this sea, which was about
54:17
Speaker 1: three hundred miles. Having crossed our plain, we entered upon
54:22
Speaker 1: a wild mountainous region, abounding with more extensive forests of
54:26
Speaker 1: larger trees than we had before seen, the species of
54:30
Speaker 1: which I have no good analogy to describe. In general contour,
54:35
Speaker 1: they resembled our forest oak, but they were much more
54:38
Speaker 1: superb in foliage, having broad glossy leaves like that of
54:42
Speaker 1: the laurel, and the tresses of yellow flowers which hung
54:46
Speaker 1: in the open glades from the branches to the ground.
54:49
Speaker 1: These mountains passed, we arrived at a region which filled
54:53
Speaker 1: us with utter astonishment. It was an oval valley surrounded
54:58
Speaker 1: except at a narrow opening to towards the south by
55:01
Speaker 1: hills red as the purest vermilion, and evidently crystallized or
55:07
Speaker 1: wherever a precipitous chasm appeared, and these chasms were very
55:11
Speaker 1: frequent and of immense depth. The perpendicular sections presented conglomerated
55:16
Speaker 1: masses of polygon crystals, evenly fitted to each other, and
55:21
Speaker 1: arranged in deep strata, which grew darker in color as
55:24
Speaker 1: they descended to the foundation of the precipices. Innumerable cascades
55:30
Speaker 1: were bursting forth from the breasts of every one of
55:32
Speaker 1: these cliffs, and some so near their summits, and with
55:36
Speaker 1: such great force as to form arches many yards in diameter.
55:41
Speaker 1: I never was so vividly reminded of Byron Simile the
55:45
Speaker 1: tail of the White Horse in the Revolution. At the
55:48
Speaker 1: foot of this boundary of hills was a perfect zone
55:51
Speaker 1: of woods, surrounding the whole valley, which was about eighteen
55:55
Speaker 1: or twenty miles wide at its greatest breath, and about
55:59
Speaker 1: thirty in length. Small collections of trees of every imaginable
56:04
Speaker 1: kind were scattered about the whole of the luxuriant area.
56:08
Speaker 1: And here our magnifiers blessed our panting hopes with specimens
56:12
Speaker 1: of conscious existence. In the shade of the woods on
56:16
Speaker 1: the southeastern side, we beheld continuous herds of brown quadrupeds,
56:22
Speaker 1: having all the external characteristics of the bison, but more
56:26
Speaker 1: diminutive than any species of the boss genus in our
56:30
Speaker 1: natural history. Its tail like that of our boss grunnions,
56:34
Speaker 1: but its semicircular horns, the hump on its shoulders, and
56:39
Speaker 1: the depth of its dulap, and the length of its
56:41
Speaker 1: shaggy hair. It closely resembled the species to which I
56:44
Speaker 1: first compared it. It had, however, one widely distinctive feature
56:49
Speaker 1: which we afterwards found common to nearly every lunar quadruped
56:53
Speaker 1: we have discovered, namely, a remarkable fleshly appendage over the eyes,
56:59
Speaker 1: crossing the whole breadth of the forehead and united to
57:03
Speaker 1: the ears. We could most distinctly perceive this hairy veil,
57:07
Speaker 1: which was shaped like the upper front outline of a
57:10
Speaker 1: cap known to the ladies as Mary, Queen of Scot's cap,
57:15
Speaker 1: lifted and lowered by means of the ears. It immediately
57:18
Speaker 1: occurred to the acute mind of doctor Herschel that this
57:22
Speaker 1: was a providential contrivance to protect the eyes of the
57:25
Speaker 1: animal from the great extremes of light and darkness, to
57:29
Speaker 1: which all the inhabitants of our side of the moon
57:32
Speaker 1: are periodically subjected. The next animal perceived would be classed
57:37
Speaker 1: on earth as a monster. It was of bluish lead color,
57:41
Speaker 1: about the size of a goat, with a head and
57:44
Speaker 1: beard like him, and a single horn slightly inclined forward
57:48
Speaker 1: from the perpendicular. The female was destitute of the horn
57:52
Speaker 1: and beard, but had a much longer tail. It was
57:56
Speaker 1: gregarious and chiefly abounded on the acclivitous glades of the woods.
58:02
Speaker 1: In elegance of symmetry, it rivaled the antelope, and like him,
58:07
Speaker 1: it seemed an agile, sprightly creature, running with great speed
58:11
Speaker 1: and springing from the green turf with all the unaccountable
58:14
Speaker 1: antics of a young lamb or kitten. This beautiful creature
58:19
Speaker 1: afforded us the most exquisite amusement. The mimicry of its
58:23
Speaker 1: movements upon our white painted canvas was faithful and luminous,
58:27
Speaker 1: as that of animals within a few yards of the
58:30
Speaker 1: camera obscura. When seen pictured upon its tempon. Frequently, when
58:36
Speaker 1: attempting to put our fingers upon its beard, it would
58:39
Speaker 1: suddenly bound away into oblivion, as if conscious of our
58:42
Speaker 1: earthly impertinence. But then others would appear whom we could
58:47
Speaker 1: not prevent, nibbling the herbage, say or do what.
58:50
Speaker 3: We would to them.
58:52
Speaker 1: On examining the center of this delightful valley, we found
58:55
Speaker 1: a large, branching river, abounding with lovely islands and water
58:59
Speaker 1: brisk words of numerous kinds. The species of gray pelican
59:04
Speaker 1: was the most numerous, but a black and white crane
59:07
Speaker 1: with unreasonably long legs and bill were also quite common.
59:12
Speaker 1: We watched their pcivorous experiments a long time, in hopes
59:17
Speaker 1: of catching sight of a lunar fish. But although we
59:20
Speaker 1: were not gratified in this respect, we could easily guess
59:24
Speaker 1: the purpose with which they plunged their long necks so
59:27
Speaker 1: deeply beneath the water. Near the upper extremity of one
59:31
Speaker 1: of these islands, we obtained a glimpse of a strange,
59:34
Speaker 1: amphibious creature of a spherical form, which rolled with great
59:39
Speaker 1: velocity across the pebble beach, and was lost sight of
59:43
Speaker 1: in the strong current which sets off from this angle
59:45
Speaker 1: of the island. We were compelled, however, to leave this
59:49
Speaker 1: prolific valley unexplored on account of clouds which were evidently
59:53
Speaker 1: accumulating in the lunar atmosphere, our own being perfectly translucent.
59:59
Speaker 1: But this was a self an interesting discovery, for more
1:00:03
Speaker 1: distant observers had questioned or denied the existence of any
1:00:06
Speaker 1: humid atmosphere in this planet. The Moon being now low
1:00:11
Speaker 1: on her descent, Doctor Herschel inferred that the increasing refrangibility
1:00:15
Speaker 1: of her rays would prevent any satisfactory protraction of our labors,
1:00:21
Speaker 1: and our minds, being actually fatigued with the excitement of
1:00:24
Speaker 1: the high enjoyments we had partaken, we mutually agreed to
1:00:28
Speaker 1: call in the assistance at the lens and reward their
1:00:31
Speaker 1: vigilant attention with congratulatory bumpers of the best East India particular.
1:00:38
Speaker 1: It was not, however, without regret, that we left the
1:00:41
Speaker 1: splendid valley of the Red Mountains, which, in complement to
1:00:45
Speaker 1: the terms of our royal patron we denominated the Valley
1:00:49
Speaker 1: of the Unicorn, and it may be found in Blunt's
1:00:52
Speaker 1: map about midway between the Marifa Condatatus and the mare
1:00:56
Speaker 1: Nectaris of section three Section four of the Moon Hoax.
1:01:09
Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in
1:01:14
Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
1:01:19
Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. The Moonhoax by Richard Adams Locke,
1:01:26
Speaker 1: New Lunar Discoveries, Part two. The nights of the eleventh
1:01:30
Speaker 1: and twelfth, being cloudy, were unfavorable to observation, but on
1:01:35
Speaker 1: those of the thirteenth and fourteenth, further animal discoveries were
1:01:39
Speaker 1: made of the most exciting interest to every human being.
1:01:43
Speaker 1: We give them in the graphic language of our accomplished correspondent.
1:01:47
Speaker 1: The astonishing and beautiful discoveries which we had made during
1:01:51
Speaker 1: our first night's observation, and the brilliant promise which they
1:01:55
Speaker 1: gave of the future, rendered every moonlight hour too precious
1:01:59
Speaker 1: to reconcile us to the deprivation occasioned by these two
1:02:02
Speaker 1: cloudy evenings, And they were born with strictly philosophical patients,
1:02:08
Speaker 1: notwithstanding that our attention was closely occupied in superintending the
1:02:12
Speaker 1: erection of additional props and braces to the twenty four
1:02:16
Speaker 1: feet lens which we had found had somewhat vibrated in
1:02:19
Speaker 1: a high wind that arose on the morning of the eleventh.
1:02:22
Speaker 1: The night of the thirteenth January was one of pearly
1:02:26
Speaker 1: purity and loveliness. The moon ascended the firmament in gorgeous splendor,
1:02:32
Speaker 1: and the stars retiring around her left her the unrivaled
1:02:36
Speaker 1: queen of the hemisphere, this being the last night but
1:02:40
Speaker 1: one in the present month, during which we should have
1:02:43
Speaker 1: an opportunity of inspecting her western limb. On account of
1:02:47
Speaker 1: the libration in longitude, which would thence immediately ensue, Doctor
1:02:52
Speaker 1: Herschel informed us that he should direct our researches to
1:02:56
Speaker 1: the parts number two eleven, twenty six and two twenty
1:03:00
Speaker 1: in Blunt's map, and which are respectively known in the
1:03:03
Speaker 1: modern catalog by the names of Endimion, Cleomides, Langrenes, and Patavius.
1:03:11
Speaker 1: To the careful inspection of these and the regions between
1:03:15
Speaker 1: them and the extreme western rim. He proposed to devote
1:03:19
Speaker 1: the whole of this highly favorable night, taking then our
1:03:23
Speaker 1: twenty five miles breadth of her surface upon the field
1:03:26
Speaker 1: of view, and reducing it to a slow movement. We
1:03:30
Speaker 1: soon found the first very singularly shaped object of our inquiry.
1:03:35
Speaker 1: It is a highly mountainous district, the loftier chains of
1:03:38
Speaker 1: which form three narrow ovals, two of which approach each
1:03:42
Speaker 1: other in slender points, and are united by one mass
1:03:46
Speaker 1: of hills of great length and elevation, thus presenting a
1:03:50
Speaker 1: figure similar to that of a long skein of thread,
1:03:54
Speaker 1: the bows of which have been gradually spread open from
1:03:57
Speaker 1: their connecting knot. The third oval looks also like a skin,
1:04:02
Speaker 1: and lies as if carelessly dropped from Nature's hand in
1:04:05
Speaker 1: connection with the other. But that which might fancifully be
1:04:09
Speaker 1: supposed as having formed the second bow of this second
1:04:12
Speaker 1: skin is cut open and lies in scattered threads of
1:04:16
Speaker 1: smaller hills, which cover a great extent of level territory.
1:04:21
Speaker 1: The ground plan of these mountains is so remarkable that
1:04:25
Speaker 1: it has been accurately represented in almost every lineal map
1:04:29
Speaker 1: of the Moon that has been drawn, and in blunts,
1:04:32
Speaker 1: which is the best. It agrees exactly with my description.
1:04:36
Speaker 1: Within the grasp, as it were, of the broken bow
1:04:39
Speaker 1: of hills last mentioned, stands on oval shaped mountain, enclosing
1:04:43
Speaker 1: a valley of immense area, and having on its western
1:04:47
Speaker 1: ridge a volcano in a state of terrific eruption. To
1:04:51
Speaker 1: the northeast of this, across the broken or what mister
1:04:54
Speaker 1: Holmes calls the Vagabond Mountains, are three other detached oblong formations,
1:05:00
Speaker 1: the largest and last of which is marked F in
1:05:03
Speaker 1: the catalog and fancifully denominated the mere Mortem, or more
1:05:08
Speaker 1: commonly the Lake of Death. Induced by a curiosity to
1:05:12
Speaker 1: divine the reason of so somber a title, rather than
1:05:16
Speaker 1: by any more philosophical motive, we here first applied our
1:05:20
Speaker 1: hydro oxygen magnifiers to the focal image of the great Lens.
1:05:25
Speaker 1: Our twenty five miles portion of this great mountain. Circus
1:05:28
Speaker 1: had comprehended the whole of its area, and of course
1:05:31
Speaker 1: the two conical hills which rise in it about five
1:05:34
Speaker 1: miles from each other. But although this breath of view
1:05:38
Speaker 1: had heretofore generally presented its objects as if seen within
1:05:41
Speaker 1: a terrestrial distance of two and a half miles, we
1:05:45
Speaker 1: were in this instance unable to discern these central hills
1:05:48
Speaker 1: with any such degree of distinctness. There did not appear
1:05:52
Speaker 1: to be any mist or smoke around them, as in
1:05:54
Speaker 1: the case of the volcano which we had left in
1:05:56
Speaker 1: the southwest, and yet they were comparatively indistinct upon the canvas.
1:06:02
Speaker 1: On sliding in the gaslight lens. The mystery was immediately solved.
1:06:06
Speaker 1: They were old craters of extinct volcanoes, from which still
1:06:10
Speaker 1: issued a heated, though transparent exhalation that kept them in
1:06:15
Speaker 1: an apparently oscillatory or trembling motion most unfavorable to examination.
1:06:21
Speaker 1: The craters of both these hills, as nearly as we
1:06:24
Speaker 1: could judge under the substruction, were about fifteen fathoms deep,
1:06:28
Speaker 1: devoid of any appearance of fire, and of nearly a
1:06:31
Speaker 1: yellowish white color throughout. The diameter of each was about
1:06:36
Speaker 1: nine diameters of our painted circle, or nearly four hundred
1:06:39
Speaker 1: and fifty feet, and the width of the rim surrounding
1:06:42
Speaker 1: them about one thousand feet. Yet, notwithstanding their narrow mouths,
1:06:47
Speaker 1: these two chimneys of the subterranean deep had evidently filled
1:06:50
Speaker 1: the whole area of the valley in which they stood
1:06:53
Speaker 1: with the lava and ashes with which it was encumbered,
1:06:57
Speaker 1: and even added to the height, if not in indeed
1:07:00
Speaker 1: caused the existence of the oval chain of mountains which
1:07:02
Speaker 1: surrounded it. These mountains, as subsequently measured from the level
1:07:07
Speaker 1: of some large lakes around them, averaged the height of
1:07:10
Speaker 1: twenty eight hundred feet, and doctor Herschel conjectured from this
1:07:14
Speaker 1: and the vast extent of their abutments, which ran for
1:07:17
Speaker 1: many miles into the country around them, that these volcanoes
1:07:21
Speaker 1: must have been in full activity for a million of years.
1:07:24
Speaker 3: Lieutenant Drummond, however.
1:07:26
Speaker 1: Rather supposed that the whole area of this oval valley
1:07:29
Speaker 1: was but the exhausted crater of one vast volcano, which,
1:07:33
Speaker 1: in expiring, had left only these two imbecile representations of
1:07:38
Speaker 1: its power. I believe Doctor Herschel himself afterwards adopted this
1:07:42
Speaker 1: probable theory, which is indeed confirmed by the universal geology
1:07:46
Speaker 1: of the planet. There is scarcely one hundred miles of
1:07:49
Speaker 1: her surface, not even accepting her largest seas and lakes,
1:07:54
Speaker 1: in which circular or oval mountainous ridges may not be
1:07:57
Speaker 1: easily found, and many, very much many of these having
1:08:01
Speaker 1: numerous enclosed hills in full volcanic operation, which are now
1:08:05
Speaker 1: much lower than the surrounding circles. It admits of no
1:08:09
Speaker 1: doubt that each of these great formations is the remains
1:08:12
Speaker 1: of one vast mountain which has burnt itself out and
1:08:16
Speaker 1: left only these wide foundations of its ancient grandeur. A
1:08:21
Speaker 1: direct proof of this is afforded in a tremendous volcano
1:08:25
Speaker 1: now in its prime, which I shall hereafter notice what
1:08:29
Speaker 1: gave the name of the Lake of Death to the
1:08:31
Speaker 1: annular mountain I have just described was I suppose the
1:08:35
Speaker 1: dark appearance of the valley which it encloses, and which,
1:08:39
Speaker 1: to a more distant view than we obtained, certainly exhibits
1:08:42
Speaker 1: the general aspect of the waters of this planet. The
1:08:46
Speaker 1: surrounding country is fertile to excess. Between this circle and
1:08:50
Speaker 1: number two edumon which we proposed first to examine, we
1:08:54
Speaker 1: counted not less than twelve luxuriant forests, divided by open plains,
1:09:00
Speaker 1: which waved in an ocean of verdure, and were probably
1:09:04
Speaker 1: prairies like those of North America. In three of these
1:09:07
Speaker 1: we discovered numerous herds of quadrupeds, similar to our friends
1:09:11
Speaker 1: the bison in the Valley of the Unicorn, but of
1:09:14
Speaker 1: much larger size, and scarcely a piece of woodland occurred
1:09:17
Speaker 1: in our panorama, which did not dazzle our vision with
1:09:21
Speaker 1: flocks of white or red birds upon the wing. At length,
1:09:24
Speaker 1: we carefully explored the Enduman. We found each of the
1:09:28
Speaker 1: three ovals volcanic and sterile within, but without most rich
1:09:33
Speaker 1: throughout the level of regions around them. In every imaginable
1:09:36
Speaker 1: production of a bounteous soil, Doctor Herschel has classified not
1:09:41
Speaker 1: less than thirty eight species of forest trees, and nearly
1:09:45
Speaker 1: twice this number of plants found in this tract alone,
1:09:48
Speaker 1: which are widely different from those found in more equatorial latitudes.
1:09:53
Speaker 1: Of animals, he classified nine species of mammalia and five
1:09:58
Speaker 1: of apara. Among the the former is a small kind
1:10:01
Speaker 1: of reindeer, the elk, the moose, the horned bear, and
1:10:04
Speaker 1: the biped beaver. The last resembles the beaver of the
1:10:08
Speaker 1: earth in every other respect than in its destitution of
1:10:11
Speaker 1: a tail and its invariable habit of walking upon only
1:10:15
Speaker 1: two feet. It carries its young in its arms like
1:10:18
Speaker 1: a human being, and moves with an easy gliding motion.
1:10:22
Speaker 1: Its huts are constructed better and higher than those of
1:10:25
Speaker 1: many tribes of human savages, and from the appearance of
1:10:29
Speaker 1: smoke in nearly all of them, there is no doubt
1:10:31
Speaker 1: of its being acquainted with the use of fire. Still,
1:10:34
Speaker 1: its head and body differ only in the points stated
1:10:38
Speaker 1: from that of the beaver, and it was never seen
1:10:41
Speaker 1: except on the borders of lakes and rivers, in which
1:10:44
Speaker 1: it has been observed to immerse for a period of
1:10:46
Speaker 1: several seconds. Thirty degrees farther south in number eleven or
1:10:51
Speaker 1: cleomides an immense annular mountain containing three distinct craters which
1:10:56
Speaker 1: have been so long extinguished that the whole valley around
1:10:59
Speaker 1: them them, which is eleven miles in extent, is densely
1:11:03
Speaker 1: crowded with woods nearly to the summits of the hills.
1:11:06
Speaker 1: Not a rod of vacant land except the tops of
1:11:09
Speaker 1: these craters could be described, and no living creature except
1:11:14
Speaker 1: a large white bird resembling the stork. At the southern
1:11:17
Speaker 1: extremity of this valley is a natural archway or cavern
1:11:21
Speaker 1: two hundred feet high and one hundred feet wide, through
1:11:26
Speaker 1: which runs a river which discharges itself over a precipice
1:11:29
Speaker 1: of gray rock eighty feet in depth, and then forms
1:11:33
Speaker 1: a branching stream through a beautiful campaign district for many miles.
1:11:38
Speaker 1: Within twenty miles of this cataract is the largest lake,
1:11:42
Speaker 1: or rather inland sea, that has been found throughout the
1:11:45
Speaker 1: seven and a half millions of square miles which this
1:11:48
Speaker 1: illuminated side of the moon contains. Its width from east
1:11:53
Speaker 1: to west is one hundred and ninety eight miles and
1:11:55
Speaker 1: from north to south two hundred and sixty six miles.
1:11:59
Speaker 1: Its shape to the northward is not unlike that of
1:12:01
Speaker 1: the Bay of Bengal, and it is studded with small islands,
1:12:05
Speaker 1: most of which are volcanic. Two of these, on the
1:12:08
Speaker 1: eastern side, are now violently eruptive, but our lowest magnifying
1:12:13
Speaker 1: power was too great to examine them with convenience on
1:12:16
Speaker 1: account of the cloud of smoke and ashes which beclouded
1:12:20
Speaker 1: our field of view. As seen by Lieutenant Drummond through
1:12:23
Speaker 1: our reflecting telescope of two thousand times, they exhibited great
1:12:27
Speaker 1: brilliancy in a bay. On the western side of this
1:12:30
Speaker 1: sea is an island fifty five miles long, of a
1:12:34
Speaker 1: crescent form, crowded through its entire sweep with the most
1:12:38
Speaker 1: superb and wonderful natural beauties, both of vegetation and geology.
1:12:44
Speaker 1: Its hills are pinnacled with tall quartz crystals of so
1:12:48
Speaker 1: rich a yellow and orange hue that we at first
1:12:51
Speaker 1: suppose them to be pointed flames of fire. And they
1:12:54
Speaker 1: spring up thus from smooth, round brows of hills, which
1:12:57
Speaker 1: are covered as with a velvet mantle. Even in the
1:13:01
Speaker 1: enchanting little valleys of this winding island we could often
1:13:05
Speaker 1: see these splendid natural spires mounting in the midst of
1:13:08
Speaker 1: deep green woods like church steeples in the vales of Westmoreland.
1:13:13
Speaker 1: We here first noticed the lunar palm tree, which differs
1:13:16
Speaker 1: from that of our tropical latitudes only in the peculiarity
1:13:20
Speaker 1: of very large crimson flowers instead of the spadex produced
1:13:23
Speaker 1: from the common calyx. We however, perceived no fruit on
1:13:28
Speaker 1: any specimens. We saw a circumstance which we attempted to
1:13:31
Speaker 1: account for from the great theoretical extremes in the lunar climate.
1:13:36
Speaker 1: On a curious kind of tree melon, we nevertheless saw
1:13:40
Speaker 1: fruit in great abundance, and in every stage of inception
1:13:43
Speaker 1: and maturity. The general color of these woods was a
1:13:46
Speaker 1: dark green, though not without occasional admixtures of every tint
1:13:50
Speaker 1: of our forest seasons. The hectic flush of autumn was
1:13:54
Speaker 1: often seen, kindled upon the cheek of earliest spring, and
1:13:58
Speaker 1: the gay drapery of sun in some places surrounded trees
1:14:02
Speaker 1: leafless as the victims of winter. It seemed as if
1:14:06
Speaker 1: all the seasons here united hands in a circle of
1:14:10
Speaker 1: perpetual harmony of animals. We saw only an elegant striped
1:14:14
Speaker 1: quadruped about three feet high, like a miniature zebra, which
1:14:18
Speaker 1: was always in small herds on the green sward of
1:14:21
Speaker 1: the hills, and two or three kinds of long tailed birds,
1:14:25
Speaker 1: which we judged to be golden and blue pheasants. On
1:14:28
Speaker 1: the shores, however, we saw countless multitudes of univalve shellfish,
1:14:33
Speaker 1: and among them some huge flat ones, which all three
1:14:37
Speaker 1: of my associates declared to be corneu emine, And I
1:14:41
Speaker 1: confess I was here compelled to abandon my skeptical substitution
1:14:45
Speaker 1: of pebbles. The cliffs all along these shores were deeply
1:14:49
Speaker 1: undermined by tides. They were very cavernous, and yellow crystal
1:14:54
Speaker 1: stalagtites larger than a man's thigh were shooting forth on
1:14:57
Speaker 1: all sides. Indeed, every rude of this island appeared to
1:15:01
Speaker 1: be crystallized. Masses of fallen crystals were found on every
1:15:05
Speaker 1: beach we explored, and beamed from every fractured headland. It
1:15:10
Speaker 1: was more like a creation of an oriental fancy than
1:15:13
Speaker 1: a distant variety of nature, brought by the powers of
1:15:16
Speaker 1: science to ocular demonstration. The striking dissimilitude of this island
1:15:21
Speaker 1: to every other we had found on these waters, and
1:15:24
Speaker 1: its near proximity to the mainland led us to suppose
1:15:28
Speaker 1: that it must at some time have been part of it,
1:15:31
Speaker 1: more especially as its crescent bay embraced the first of
1:15:34
Speaker 1: a chain of smaller ones which ran directly thither. The
1:15:38
Speaker 1: first one was a pure quartz rock about three miles
1:15:41
Speaker 1: in circumference, towering in naked majesty from the blue deep,
1:15:46
Speaker 1: without either shore or shelter. But it glowed in the sun,
1:15:50
Speaker 1: almost like a sapphire, as did all the lesser ones,
1:15:53
Speaker 1: of whom it seemed the king. Our theory was speedily confirmed,
1:15:57
Speaker 1: for all the shore of the mainland was battlemented inspired
1:16:00
Speaker 1: with these unobtainable jewels of nature, And as we brought
1:16:04
Speaker 1: our field of view to include the utmost rim of
1:16:07
Speaker 1: the illuminated boundary of the planet, we could still see them,
1:16:10
Speaker 1: blazing in crowded battalions, as it were, through a region
1:16:14
Speaker 1: of hundreds of miles. In fact, we could not conjecture
1:16:18
Speaker 1: where this gorgeous land of enchantment terminated, For as the
1:16:21
Speaker 1: rotary motion of the planet bore these mountain summits from
1:16:24
Speaker 1: our view, we became further remote from their western boundary.
1:16:29
Speaker 1: We were admonished by this to lose no time in
1:16:32
Speaker 1: seeking the next proposed object for our search the langdrenis
1:16:36
Speaker 1: or number twenty six, which is almost within the verge
1:16:40
Speaker 1: of the libration of longitude, and of which for this
1:16:43
Speaker 1: reason doctor Herschel entertained some singular expectations. After a short
1:16:48
Speaker 1: delay in advancing the observatory upon the levers and in
1:16:51
Speaker 1: regulating the lens, we found our object and surveyed it.
1:16:55
Speaker 1: It was a dark, narrow lake seventy miles long, bounded
1:16:59
Speaker 1: on the east, north, and west by red mountains of
1:17:02
Speaker 1: the same character as those surrounding the Valley of the Unicorn,
1:17:05
Speaker 1: from which it is distant to the southwest about one
1:17:08
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty miles. This lake, like that valley, opens
1:17:13
Speaker 1: to the south upon a plain not more than ten
1:17:16
Speaker 1: miles wide, which is here encircled by a truly magnificent
1:17:20
Speaker 1: amphitheater of the loftiest order of lunar hills, for a
1:17:24
Speaker 1: semicircle of six miles. These hills are riven from their
1:17:28
Speaker 1: brow to their base as perpendicularly as the outer walls
1:17:32
Speaker 1: of the Colosseum at Rome, but here exhibiting the sublime
1:17:36
Speaker 1: altitude of at least two thousand feet in one smooth,
1:17:41
Speaker 1: unbroken surface. How Nature disposed of the huge mass which
1:17:46
Speaker 1: she thus prodigally carved out, I know not, but certain
1:17:50
Speaker 1: it is that there are no fragments of it left
1:17:53
Speaker 1: upon the plain, which is a declivity without a single prominence,
1:17:57
Speaker 1: except a billowy tract of woodland that runs in many
1:18:01
Speaker 1: a wild vagary of breadth and course to the margin
1:18:04
Speaker 1: of the lake. The tremendous height and expansion of this
1:18:08
Speaker 1: perpendicular mountain, with its bright crimson front, contrasted with the
1:18:12
Speaker 1: fringe of forest on its brow, and the verdure of
1:18:15
Speaker 1: the open plain beneath, filled our canvas with a landscape
1:18:19
Speaker 1: unsurpassed in unique grandeur by any we had beheld. Our
1:18:23
Speaker 1: twenty five miles perspective included this remarkable mountain, the plain,
1:18:29
Speaker 1: a part of the lake, and the last graduated summits
1:18:32
Speaker 1: of the range of hills by which the latter is
1:18:34
Speaker 1: nearly surrounded. We ardently wish that all the world could
1:18:38
Speaker 1: view a scene so strangely grand as Our pulse beat high,
1:18:41
Speaker 1: with the hope of one day exhibiting it to our
1:18:44
Speaker 1: countrymen in some part of our native land. But we
1:18:47
Speaker 1: were at length compelled to destroy our picture as a whole,
1:18:50
Speaker 1: for the purpose of magnifying its parts for scientific inspection.
1:18:55
Speaker 1: Our plain was of course immediately covered with the ruby
1:18:58
Speaker 1: front of this mighty amphithet, its tall figures, leaping cascades
1:19:03
Speaker 1: and rugged caverns. As its almost indeterminable sweep was measured
1:19:08
Speaker 1: off upon the canvas, we frequently saw long lines of
1:19:11
Speaker 1: some yellow metal hanging from the crevices of the horizontal
1:19:15
Speaker 1: strata in wild network or straight pendent branches. We of
1:19:19
Speaker 1: course concluded that this was virgin gold, and we had
1:19:22
Speaker 1: no essay master to prove to the contrary. On searching
1:19:26
Speaker 1: the plane over which we had observed the woods roving
1:19:29
Speaker 1: in all shapes of clouds in the sky, we were
1:19:32
Speaker 1: again delighted with the discovery of animals. The first observed
1:19:36
Speaker 1: was a quadruped with an amazingly long neck, head like
1:19:40
Speaker 1: a sheep, bearing two long spiral horns, white as polished ivory,
1:19:46
Speaker 1: and standing in perpendicular parallel to each other. Its body
1:19:51
Speaker 1: was like that of a deer, but its forelegs were
1:19:54
Speaker 1: most disproportionately long, and its tail, which was very bushy
1:19:59
Speaker 1: and of a snowy whiteness, curled high over its rump
1:20:03
Speaker 1: and hung two or three feet by its side. Its
1:20:07
Speaker 1: colors were bright bay and white in brindled patches, clearly defined,
1:20:13
Speaker 1: but of no regular form. It was found only in
1:20:16
Speaker 1: pairs in spaces between the woods, and we had no
1:20:20
Speaker 1: opportunity of witnessing its speed or habits. But a few
1:20:24
Speaker 1: minutes only elapsed before three specimens of another animal appeared,
1:20:30
Speaker 1: so well known to us all that we fairly laughed
1:20:33
Speaker 1: at the recognition of so familiar an acquaintance in so
1:20:37
Speaker 1: distant a land. They were neither more nor less than
1:20:40
Speaker 1: three good large sheep, which would not have disgraced the
1:20:44
Speaker 1: farms of Leicestershire or the shambles of Lenhall Market. With
1:20:48
Speaker 1: the utmost scrutiny, we could find no mark of distinction
1:20:52
Speaker 1: between these and those of our native soil. They had
1:20:55
Speaker 1: not even the appendage over the eyes, which I have
1:20:58
Speaker 1: described as common to lunar quadrupeds. Presently they appeared in
1:21:03
Speaker 1: great numbers, and on reducing the lenses, we found them
1:21:07
Speaker 1: in flocks over a great part of the valley. I
1:21:10
Speaker 1: need not say how desirous we were of finding shepherds
1:21:13
Speaker 1: to these flocks, and even a man with blue apron
1:21:17
Speaker 1: and rolled up sleeves would have been a welcome sight.
1:21:19
Speaker 1: To us, if not to the sheep, but they fed
1:21:23
Speaker 1: in peace, lords of their own pastures, without either protector
1:21:27
Speaker 1: or destroyer in human shape and of section four Section
1:21:38
Speaker 1: five of The Moon Hoax. This is a LibriVox recording.
1:21:43
Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
1:21:47
Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The
1:21:54
Speaker 1: Moon Hoax by Richard Adam Locke, New Lunar Discoveries, Part three.
1:22:01
Speaker 1: We at length approached the level opening to the lake,
1:22:03
Speaker 1: where the valley narrows to a mile in width, and
1:22:07
Speaker 1: display scenery on both sides picturesque and romantic, beyond the
1:22:11
Speaker 1: powers of a prose description. Imagination borne on the wings
1:22:16
Speaker 1: of poetry could alone gather similes to portray the wild
1:22:20
Speaker 1: sublimity of this landscape, where dark bahamouth crags stood over
1:22:25
Speaker 1: the brows of lofty precipices as if a rampart in
1:22:29
Speaker 1: the sky, and forests seemed suspended in mid air. On
1:22:34
Speaker 1: the eastern side there was one soaring crag crested with trees,
1:22:39
Speaker 1: which hung over in a curve like three fourths of
1:22:42
Speaker 1: a Gothic arch, and being of a rich crimson color,
1:22:46
Speaker 1: its effect was most strange upon mines, unaccustomed to the
1:22:49
Speaker 1: association of such grandeur with such beauty. But whilst gazing
1:22:55
Speaker 1: upon them in a perspective of about half a mile,
1:22:58
Speaker 1: we were thrilled with astonishment to perceive four successive flocks
1:23:02
Speaker 1: of large winged creatures, wholly unlike any kind of birds,
1:23:07
Speaker 1: descend with a slow even motion from the cliffs on
1:23:10
Speaker 1: the western side, and a light upon the plane. They
1:23:14
Speaker 1: were first noticed by doctor Herschel, who exclaimed, now, gentlemen,
1:23:19
Speaker 1: my theories against your proofs which you have often found
1:23:22
Speaker 1: a pretty even bet, we have here something worth looking at.
1:23:26
Speaker 1: I was confident that if we ever found beings in
1:23:29
Speaker 1: human shape, it would be in this longitude, and that
1:23:33
Speaker 1: they would be provided by their creator with some extraordinary
1:23:36
Speaker 1: powers of locomotion.
1:23:38
Speaker 3: First exchange for my number D.
1:23:41
Speaker 1: This lens, being soon introduced, gave us a fine half
1:23:45
Speaker 1: a mile distance, and we counted three parties of these creatures,
1:23:49
Speaker 1: of twelve, nine and fifteen in each, walking erect towards
1:23:54
Speaker 1: a small wood near the base of the eastern precipices.
1:23:58
Speaker 1: Certainly they were like human beings, for their wings had
1:24:02
Speaker 1: now disappeared, and their attitude in walking was both erect
1:24:05
Speaker 1: and dignified. Having observed them at this distance for some minutes,
1:24:10
Speaker 1: we introduced lens h, which brought them to the apparent
1:24:13
Speaker 1: proximity of eighty yards, the highest clear magnitude we possessed
1:24:18
Speaker 1: until the latter end of March, when we effected an
1:24:21
Speaker 1: improvement in the gas burners. About half of the first
1:24:25
Speaker 1: party had passed beyond our canvas, but of all the
1:24:28
Speaker 1: others we had a perfectly distinct and deliberate view. They
1:24:32
Speaker 1: averaged four feet in height, were covered except on the face,
1:24:35
Speaker 1: with short and glossy copper colored hair, and had wings
1:24:39
Speaker 1: composed of a thin membrane without hair, lying snugly upon
1:24:43
Speaker 1: their backs from the top of the shoulders to the
1:24:46
Speaker 1: calves of the legs. The face, which was of a
1:24:50
Speaker 1: yellowish flesh color, was a slight improvement upon that of
1:24:53
Speaker 1: the large orangutang, being more open and intelligent in its expression,
1:24:59
Speaker 1: and having a much greater expansion of forehead. The mouth, however,
1:25:03
Speaker 1: was very prominent, though somewhat relieved by a thick beard
1:25:07
Speaker 1: upon the lower jaw, and by lips far more human
1:25:10
Speaker 1: than those of any species of the Semia genus. In general,
1:25:14
Speaker 1: symmetry of body and limbs. They were infinitely superior to
1:25:18
Speaker 1: the orangutang, so much so that but for their long wings,
1:25:22
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Drummonds said, they would look as well on a
1:25:24
Speaker 1: parade ground as some of the old Cockney militia. The
1:25:28
Speaker 1: hair on the head was a darker color than that
1:25:30
Speaker 1: of the body, closely curled but apparently not wooly, and
1:25:34
Speaker 1: arranged in two curious semicircles over the temples of the forehead.
1:25:38
Speaker 1: Their feet could only be seen as they were alternately
1:25:41
Speaker 1: lifted and walking, But from what we could see of
1:25:44
Speaker 1: them in so transient a view, they appeared thin and
1:25:48
Speaker 1: very protuberant at the heel whilst passing across the canvas,
1:25:53
Speaker 1: and whenever we afterwards saw them, these creatures were evidently
1:25:57
Speaker 1: engaged in conversation. Their gesticulate, more particularly the varied action
1:26:02
Speaker 1: of their hands and arms, appeared impassioned and emphatic. We
1:26:07
Speaker 1: hence inferred that they were rational beings, and, although not
1:26:10
Speaker 1: perhaps of so high an order as others which we
1:26:13
Speaker 1: discovered the next month on the shores of the Bay
1:26:15
Speaker 1: of Rainbow, that they were capable of producing works of
1:26:19
Speaker 1: art and contrivance. The next view we obtained of them
1:26:22
Speaker 1: was still more favorable. It was on the borders of
1:26:26
Speaker 1: a little lake or expanded stream, which we then for
1:26:29
Speaker 1: the first time perceived running down the valley to a
1:26:32
Speaker 1: large lake, and having on its eastern margin a small wood.
1:26:37
Speaker 1: Some of these creatures had crossed this water and were
1:26:39
Speaker 1: lying like spread eagles on the skirts of the wood.
1:26:43
Speaker 1: We could then perceive that they possessed wings of great expansion,
1:26:47
Speaker 1: and were similar in structure to those of the back,
1:26:49
Speaker 1: being a semi transparent membrane expanded in curvellinneal dimensions by
1:26:55
Speaker 1: means of straight radii, united at the back by the
1:26:58
Speaker 1: dorsal intigiment. But what astonished us very much was the
1:27:03
Speaker 1: circumstance of this membrane being continued from the shoulder to
1:27:06
Speaker 1: the legs, united all the way down, though gradually decreasing
1:27:10
Speaker 1: in wit. The wings seemed completely under the command of volition.
1:27:15
Speaker 1: For those of the creatures whom we saw bathing in
1:27:18
Speaker 1: the water spread them instantly to their full wit, waved
1:27:21
Speaker 1: them as ducks do theirs, to shake off the water,
1:27:24
Speaker 1: and then instantly close them again in a compact form.
1:27:28
Speaker 1: Our further observation of the habits of these creatures, who
1:27:32
Speaker 1: were of both sexes, led to results so very remarkable
1:27:36
Speaker 1: that I prefer they should first be laid before the
1:27:38
Speaker 1: public in doctor Herschel's own work, where I have reason
1:27:42
Speaker 1: to know they are fully and faithfully stated, however incredulously
1:27:47
Speaker 1: they may be received. The three families then almost simultaneously
1:27:52
Speaker 1: spread their wings and were lost in the dark confines
1:27:55
Speaker 1: of the canvas. Before we had time to breathe from
1:27:57
Speaker 1: our paralyzing astonishment, scientifically denominated them the vespertilio homo or manbat,
1:28:05
Speaker 1: and they are doubtless innocent and happy creatures, notwithstanding that
1:28:09
Speaker 1: some of their amusements would but ill comport with our
1:28:12
Speaker 1: terrestrial notions of decorum. The valley itself we called the
1:28:16
Speaker 1: Ruby Colosseum, in complement to its stupendous southern boundary, the
1:28:21
Speaker 1: six mile sweep of precipices two thousand feet high, and
1:28:25
Speaker 1: the night or rather morning, being far advanced, we postponed
1:28:29
Speaker 1: our tour to Patavius number twenty until another opportunity. We have,
1:28:35
Speaker 1: of course, faithfully obeyed doctor Grant's private injunction to omit
1:28:39
Speaker 1: those highly curious passages in his correspondence which he wished
1:28:44
Speaker 1: us to suppress. Although we do not perceive the force
1:28:47
Speaker 1: of the reason assigned for it. It is true the
1:28:51
Speaker 1: omitted paragraphs contain facts which would be wholly incredible to
1:28:54
Speaker 1: readers who do not carefully examine the principles and capacity
1:28:58
Speaker 1: of the instrument with which these marvelous discoveries have been made.
1:29:03
Speaker 1: But so will nearly all of those which He has
1:29:06
Speaker 1: kindly permitted us to publish. And it was for this
1:29:09
Speaker 1: reason that we considered the explicit description which we have
1:29:12
Speaker 1: given of the telescope so important. A preliminary from these, however,
1:29:17
Speaker 1: and other prohibited passages which will be published by Doctor Herschel,
1:29:21
Speaker 1: with the certificates of the civil and military authorities of
1:29:24
Speaker 1: the colony, and of several episcopal and Wesley and other ministers, who,
1:29:29
Speaker 1: in the month of March last were permitted, under stipulation
1:29:32
Speaker 1: of temporary secrecy, to visit the observatory and become eye
1:29:37
Speaker 1: witnesses of the wonders which they were requested to attest.
1:29:41
Speaker 1: We are confident his forthcoming volumes will be at once
1:29:45
Speaker 1: the most sublime in science and the most intense in
1:29:48
Speaker 1: general interest that ever issued from the press. The night
1:29:52
Speaker 1: of the fourteenth displayed the moon in her mean libration
1:29:55
Speaker 1: or full, but the somewhat humid state of the atmosphere,
1:29:59
Speaker 1: being for several hours hours less favorable to a minute
1:30:01
Speaker 1: inspection than to a general survey of her surface. They
1:30:05
Speaker 1: were chiefly devoted to the latter purpose. But shortly after
1:30:09
Speaker 1: midnight the last veil of mist was dissipated, and the sky,
1:30:13
Speaker 1: being as lucid as on the former evenings, the attention
1:30:16
Speaker 1: of the astronomers was arrested by the remarkable outlines of
1:30:20
Speaker 1: the spot marked Tycho number eighteen influence lunar chart, and
1:30:25
Speaker 1: in this region they were added treasures to human knowledge,
1:30:28
Speaker 1: which angels might well desire to win. Many parts of
1:30:32
Speaker 1: the following extract will remain forever in the chronicles of time.
1:30:37
Speaker 1: The surface of the Moon, when viewed in her mean libration,
1:30:40
Speaker 1: even with telescopes of very limited power, exhibits three oceans
1:30:44
Speaker 1: of vast breadth and circumference, independently of seven large collections
1:30:49
Speaker 1: of water, which may be denominated seas of inferior watchers,
1:30:54
Speaker 1: discoverable by the higher classes of instruments, and usually called lakes.
1:31:00
Speaker 1: The number is so great that no attempt has yet
1:31:02
Speaker 1: been made to count them.
1:31:04
Speaker 3: Indeed, such a.
1:31:05
Speaker 1: Task would be almost equal to that of enumerating the
1:31:08
Speaker 1: annular mountains which are found upon every part of her surface,
1:31:12
Speaker 1: whether composed of land or water. The largest of the
1:31:15
Speaker 1: three oceans occupies a considerable portion of the hemisphere between
1:31:20
Speaker 1: the line of her northern axis and that of her
1:31:22
Speaker 1: eastern equator, and even extends many degrees south of the latter.
1:31:27
Speaker 1: Throughout its eastern boundary, it so closely approaches that of
1:31:31
Speaker 1: the lunar sphere as to leave in many places merely
1:31:34
Speaker 1: a fringe of illuminated mountains, which are here therefore strongly
1:31:39
Speaker 1: contradistinguished from the dark and shadowy aspect of the great Deep.
1:31:44
Speaker 1: But peninsulas, promontories, capes and islands, and a thousand other
1:31:49
Speaker 1: terrestrial figures for which we can find no names in
1:31:53
Speaker 1: the poverty of our geographical nomenclature, are found expanding, sallying forth,
1:31:59
Speaker 1: or glowing in insular independence through all the billowy boundlessness
1:32:04
Speaker 1: of this magnificent ocean. One of the most remarkable of
1:32:08
Speaker 1: these is a promontory without a name, I believe in
1:32:12
Speaker 1: the lunar charts, which starts from an island district denominated
1:32:16
Speaker 1: Copernicus by the old astronomers, and abounding, as we eventually
1:32:21
Speaker 1: discovered with great natural curiosities. This promontory is indeed most singular.
1:32:28
Speaker 1: Its northern extremity is shaped much like an imperial crown,
1:32:32
Speaker 1: having a swelling bow, divided and tied down in its
1:32:36
Speaker 1: center by a band of hills, which is united with
1:32:39
Speaker 1: its forehead band or base. The two open spaces formed
1:32:43
Speaker 1: by this division are two lakes, each eighty miles wide,
1:32:47
Speaker 1: and at the foot of these, divided from them by
1:32:50
Speaker 1: the band of hills. Last mentioned is another lake, larger
1:32:54
Speaker 1: than the two put together and nearly perfectly square. This
1:32:58
Speaker 1: one is followed after another hilly division, by a lake
1:33:02
Speaker 1: of an irregular form, and this one yet again by
1:33:06
Speaker 1: two narrow ones divided longitudinally, which are attenuated northward to
1:33:11
Speaker 1: the mainland. This skeleton promontory of mountain ridges runs three
1:33:16
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety six miles into the ocean, with six
1:33:19
Speaker 1: capacious lakes enclosed within its stony ribs. Blunt's excellent lunar
1:33:24
Speaker 1: chart gives this great work of nature with wonderful fidelity,
1:33:28
Speaker 1: and I think you might accompany my description with an
1:33:31
Speaker 1: engraving from it, much to.
1:33:32
Speaker 3: Your reader's satisfaction. Seaplate four.
1:33:36
Speaker 1: Next to this, the most remarkable formation in this ocean
1:33:39
Speaker 1: is a strikingly brilliant annular mountain of immense altitude and circumference,
1:33:44
Speaker 1: standing three hundred and thirty miles east southeast, commonly known
1:33:48
Speaker 1: as Aristarchus number twelve, and marked in the chart as
1:33:53
Speaker 1: a large mountain with a great cavity in its center.
1:33:57
Speaker 1: That cavity is now as it was probably want to
1:34:00
Speaker 1: be in ancient ages, a volcanic crater, awfully rivaling our
1:34:05
Speaker 1: mounts Etna and Vesuvius in the most terrible epics of
1:34:08
Speaker 1: their ragin unfavorable as the state of the atmosphere was
1:34:12
Speaker 1: to close examination, we could easily mark its illumination of
1:34:17
Speaker 1: the water over a circuit of sixty miles. If we
1:34:20
Speaker 1: had before retained any doubt of the power of lunar
1:34:23
Speaker 1: volcanoes to throw fragments of their craters or beyond the
1:34:27
Speaker 1: Moon's attraction, that they would necessarily gravitate to this Earth,
1:34:31
Speaker 1: and thus account for the multitude of massive area lights
1:34:34
Speaker 1: which have fallen and been found upon our surface, the
1:34:38
Speaker 1: view that we had of Aristarchus would have set our
1:34:41
Speaker 1: skepticism forever at rest. This mountain, however, though standing three
1:34:46
Speaker 1: hundred miles in the ocean, is not absolutely insular, for
1:34:50
Speaker 1: it is connected with the mainland by four chains of
1:34:53
Speaker 1: mountains which branch from it as a common center. The
1:34:58
Speaker 1: next Great Ocean is situated on the western side of
1:35:01
Speaker 1: the Merdian Line, divided nearly in the midst by the
1:35:04
Speaker 1: line of the equator, and is about nine hundred miles
1:35:07
Speaker 1: in north and south extent. It is marked C in
1:35:11
Speaker 1: the catalog, and was fancively called the Mare Tranquilitatis. It
1:35:15
Speaker 1: is rather two large seas than one ocean, for it
1:35:18
Speaker 1: is narrowed just under the equator by a strait not
1:35:21
Speaker 1: more than one hundred miles wide. Only three annular islands
1:35:25
Speaker 1: of a large size and quite detached from its shores
1:35:29
Speaker 1: are to be found within it, though several sublime volcanoes
1:35:32
Speaker 1: exist on its northern boundary, one of the most stupendous
1:35:36
Speaker 1: of which is within one hundred and twenty miles of
1:35:39
Speaker 1: the Mayre Nectaris before mentioned. Immediately contiguous to this second
1:35:44
Speaker 1: Great Ocean and separated from it only by a concatenation
1:35:48
Speaker 1: of dislocated continents and islands, is the third, marked D
1:35:53
Speaker 1: and known as the Mare Serentatus. It is nearly square,
1:35:58
Speaker 1: being about three hundred and thirty miles in length and width.
1:36:01
Speaker 1: But it has one most extraordinary peculiarity, which is a
1:36:05
Speaker 1: perfectly straight ridge of hills, certainly not more than five
1:36:09
Speaker 1: miles wide, which starts in a direct line from its
1:36:12
Speaker 1: southern to its northern shore, dividing it exactly in the
1:36:16
Speaker 1: midst This singular ridge is perfectly suy generous, being altogether
1:36:22
Speaker 1: unlike any mountain chain, either on this Earth or on
1:36:25
Speaker 1: the Moon itself. It is so very keen that its
1:36:28
Speaker 1: great concentration of the solar light renders it visible to
1:36:32
Speaker 1: small telescopes. But its character is so strikingly peculiar that
1:36:37
Speaker 1: we could not resist the temptation to depart from our
1:36:40
Speaker 1: predetermined adherents to a general survey and examine it.
1:36:44
Speaker 3: Particularly.
1:36:45
Speaker 1: Our lens g brought it within the small distance of
1:36:49
Speaker 1: eight hundred yards, and its whole width of four or
1:36:52
Speaker 1: five miles snugly within that of our canvas. Nothing that
1:36:56
Speaker 1: we had hitherto seen more highly excited our astonished. Believe
1:37:01
Speaker 1: it or believe it not, it was one entire crystallization.
1:37:06
Speaker 1: Its edge throughout its whole length of three hundred and
1:37:08
Speaker 1: forty miles, is an acute angle of solid quartz crystal
1:37:13
Speaker 1: brilliant as a piece of Derbyshire spar, just brought from
1:37:16
Speaker 1: a mine, and containing scarcely a fracture or chasm from
1:37:20
Speaker 1: end to end. What a prodigious influence must our thirteen
1:37:23
Speaker 1: times larger globe have exercised upon this satellite, when an
1:37:28
Speaker 1: embryo in the womb of time the passive subject of
1:37:31
Speaker 1: chemical affinity, We found that wonder and astonishment, as excited
1:37:36
Speaker 1: by objects in this distant world, were but modes and
1:37:39
Speaker 1: attributes of ignorance, which should give place to elevated expectations
1:37:45
Speaker 1: and to reverential confidence in the illimitable power of the Creator.
1:37:50
Speaker 1: The dark expanse of waters to the south of the
1:37:52
Speaker 1: first grade Ocean has often been considered a fourth but
1:37:56
Speaker 1: we found it to be merely a sea of the
1:37:58
Speaker 1: first class, entirely surrounded by land, and much more encumbered
1:38:03
Speaker 1: with promontories and islands than it has been exhibited in any.
1:38:07
Speaker 3: Other lunar chart.
1:38:09
Speaker 1: One of its promontories runs from the vicinity of Potatus
1:38:12
Speaker 1: number nineteen in a slightly curved and very narrow line
1:38:17
Speaker 1: to Bollaldis number twenty two, which is merely a circular
1:38:21
Speaker 1: head to it two hundred and sixty four miles from
1:38:25
Speaker 1: its starting place. This is another mountainous ring, a marine volcano,
1:38:30
Speaker 1: nearly burnt out and slumbering upon its cinders. But Petatus,
1:38:34
Speaker 1: standing upon a bold cape of the southern shore, is
1:38:37
Speaker 1: apparently exulting in the might and majesty of its fires,
1:38:41
Speaker 1: the atmosphere being now quite free from vapor. We introduce
1:38:45
Speaker 1: the magnifiers to examine a large, bright circle of hills
1:38:49
Speaker 1: which sweep close beside the western abutments of this flaming mountain.
1:38:53
Speaker 1: The hills were either of snow white marble or semi
1:38:57
Speaker 1: transparent crystal. We could not distinguish which, and they bounded
1:39:02
Speaker 1: another of those lovely green valleys, which, however monotonous in
1:39:06
Speaker 1: my descriptions, are of paradisical beauty and fertility, and like
1:39:12
Speaker 1: primitive Eden, in the bliss of their inhabitants. Doctor Herschel
1:39:16
Speaker 1: here again predicated another of his sagacious theories. He said,
1:39:20
Speaker 1: the proximity of the flaming mountain Bulolatus must be so
1:39:25
Speaker 1: great a local convenience to dwellers in this valley during
1:39:28
Speaker 1: the long periodical absence of solar light as to render
1:39:32
Speaker 1: it a place of populous resort for the inhabitants of
1:39:35
Speaker 1: all the adjacent regions, more especially, as its bulwark of
1:39:39
Speaker 1: hills afforded an infallible security against any volcanic eruption that
1:39:44
Speaker 1: could occur. We therefore applied our full power to explore
1:39:48
Speaker 1: it and rich indeed was our reward. End of Section
1:39:53
Speaker 1: five Section six of The Moon Hoax. This is a
1:40:03
Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
1:40:09
Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
1:40:16
Speaker 1: The Moon Hoax by Richard Adams Locke, New Lunar Discoveries,
1:40:21
Speaker 1: Part four. The very first object in this valley that
1:40:26
Speaker 1: appeared upon our canvas was a magnificent work of art.
1:40:30
Speaker 1: It was a temple, a fane of devotion or of science,
1:40:35
Speaker 1: which when consecrated to the Creator, is devotion of the
1:40:38
Speaker 1: loftiest order, for it exhibits his attributes purely free from masquerade,
1:40:43
Speaker 1: attire and blasphemous caricature of controversial creeds, and has the
1:40:49
Speaker 1: seal and signature of his own hand to sanction its aspirations.
1:40:54
Speaker 1: It was an equatriangular temple built of polished sapphire or
1:40:58
Speaker 1: of some resplendent blue sat stone, which like it displayed
1:41:02
Speaker 1: a myriad points of golden light, twinkling and scintillating in
1:41:06
Speaker 1: the sunbeams. Our canvas, though fifty feet in diameter, was
1:41:10
Speaker 1: too limited to receive more than a sixth part of
1:41:13
Speaker 1: it at one view, and the first part that appeared
1:41:17
Speaker 1: was near the center of one of its sides, being
1:41:20
Speaker 1: three square columns six feet in diameter at its base
1:41:24
Speaker 1: and gently tapering to a height of seventy feet. The
1:41:27
Speaker 1: intercolumnations were each twelve feet. We instantly reduced our magnitude
1:41:34
Speaker 1: so as to embrace the whole structure in one view,
1:41:37
Speaker 1: and then, indeed it was most beautiful. The roof was
1:41:40
Speaker 1: composed of some yellow metal and divided into three compartments,
1:41:44
Speaker 1: which were not triangular planes inclining to the center, but subdivided, curbed,
1:41:50
Speaker 1: and separated so as to present a mass of violently
1:41:54
Speaker 1: agitated flames, rising from a common source of conflagration and
1:41:59
Speaker 1: terminating in wildly waving points. This design was too manifest
1:42:04
Speaker 1: and too skillfully executed to be mistaken for a single moment.
1:42:09
Speaker 1: Through a few openings in these metallic flames, we perceived
1:42:13
Speaker 1: a large sphere of a darker kind of metal, nearly
1:42:16
Speaker 1: of a clouded copper color, which they enclosed and seemingly
1:42:20
Speaker 1: raged around, as if hieroglyphically consuming it. This was the roof,
1:42:25
Speaker 1: but upon each of the three corners there was a
1:42:28
Speaker 1: small sphere of apparently the same metal as the large
1:42:31
Speaker 1: center one, and these rested upon a kind of cornice,
1:42:35
Speaker 1: quite new in any order of architecture with which we
1:42:37
Speaker 1: are acquainted, but nevertheless exceedingly graceful and impressive. It was
1:42:43
Speaker 1: like a half open scroll, swelling off boldly from the
1:42:46
Speaker 1: roof and hanging far over the walls in several convolutions.
1:42:51
Speaker 1: It was of the same metal as the flames, and
1:42:54
Speaker 1: on each side of the building.
1:42:55
Speaker 3: It was open on both ends.
1:42:57
Speaker 1: The columns, six on each side, were seen on police
1:43:00
Speaker 1: plane shafts, without capitals or pedestals or any description of ornament,
1:43:05
Speaker 1: nor was any perceived in other parts of the edifice.
1:43:09
Speaker 1: It was open on each side and seemed to contain
1:43:12
Speaker 1: neither seats, altars, nor offerings. But it was a light
1:43:16
Speaker 1: and airy structure, nearly one hundred feet high from its white,
1:43:19
Speaker 1: glistening floor to its glowing roof, and it stood upon
1:43:22
Speaker 1: a round green eminence on the eastern side of the valley.
1:43:26
Speaker 1: We Afterwards, however, discovered two others, which were in every
1:43:30
Speaker 1: respect facsimiles of this one. But in neither did we
1:43:34
Speaker 1: perceive any visitants besides flocks of wild doves which alighted
1:43:38
Speaker 1: upon its lustrous pinnacles. Had the devotees of these temples
1:43:42
Speaker 1: gone the way of all living? Or were the latter
1:43:45
Speaker 1: merely historical monuments? What did the ingenious builders mean by
1:43:49
Speaker 1: the globe surrounded by flames? Did they by this record
1:43:53
Speaker 1: any past calamity of their world, or predict any future
1:43:57
Speaker 1: one of ours? I by no means despair of ultimately
1:44:00
Speaker 1: solving not only these, but a thousand other questions which
1:44:03
Speaker 1: present themselves respecting the objects in this planet, For not
1:44:07
Speaker 1: the millionth part of her surface has yet been explored,
1:44:11
Speaker 1: and we have been more desirous of collecting the greatest
1:44:14
Speaker 1: possible number of new facts than of indulging in speculative theories,
1:44:18
Speaker 1: however seductive to the imagination. But we had not far
1:44:22
Speaker 1: to seek for inhabitants of this veil of the Triads.
1:44:26
Speaker 1: Immediately on the outer border of the wood, which surrounded,
1:44:29
Speaker 1: at the distance of half a mile the eminence on
1:44:32
Speaker 1: which the first of these temples stood, we saw several
1:44:36
Speaker 1: detached assemblies of beings, whom we instantly recognized to be
1:44:40
Speaker 1: of the same species as our winged friends of the
1:44:42
Speaker 1: Ruby colosseum near the Lake Langrenis. Having adjusted the instrument
1:44:48
Speaker 1: for a minute examination, we found that nearly all the
1:44:51
Speaker 1: individuals in these groups were of a larger stature than
1:44:54
Speaker 1: the former specimens, less dark in color, and in every
1:44:58
Speaker 1: respect that improved variety of the race. They were chiefly
1:45:02
Speaker 1: engaged in eating a large yellow fruit like a gourd,
1:45:06
Speaker 1: sections of which they divided with their fingers and ate
1:45:09
Speaker 1: with rather uncouth voracity, throwing away the rind. A smaller
1:45:14
Speaker 1: red fruit, shaped like a cucumber, which we had often
1:45:17
Speaker 1: seen pendent from trees, having a broad, dark leaf, was
1:45:21
Speaker 1: also lying in heaps in the center of several of
1:45:24
Speaker 1: the festive groups, but the only use they appeared to
1:45:27
Speaker 1: make of it was sucking its juice, after rolling it
1:45:30
Speaker 1: between the palms of their hands and nibbling off an end.
1:45:34
Speaker 1: They seemed eminently happy and even polite, for we saw
1:45:38
Speaker 1: in many instances individuals sitting nearest these piles of fruit
1:45:42
Speaker 1: select the largest and brightest specimens and throw them archwise
1:45:46
Speaker 1: across the circle to some opposite friend or associate who
1:45:50
Speaker 1: had extracted the nutrient from those scattered around him, and
1:45:54
Speaker 1: which were frequently not a few. While thus engaged in
1:45:57
Speaker 1: their rural banquets or in social cod they were always
1:46:01
Speaker 1: seated with their knees flat upon the turf and their
1:46:04
Speaker 1: feet brought evenly together in the form of a triangle.
1:46:07
Speaker 1: And for some mysterious reason or other, this figure seemed
1:46:11
Speaker 1: to be an especial favorite among them. Where we found
1:46:14
Speaker 1: that every group or social circle arranged itself in this
1:46:18
Speaker 1: shape before it dispersed, which was generally done at the
1:46:22
Speaker 1: signal of an individual who stepped into the center and
1:46:25
Speaker 1: brought his hands over his head in an acute angle.
1:46:29
Speaker 1: At this signal, each member of the company extended his
1:46:32
Speaker 1: arms forward so as to form an acute horizontal angle
1:46:36
Speaker 1: with the extremity of his fingers. But this was not
1:46:40
Speaker 1: the only proof we had that there were creatures of
1:46:42
Speaker 1: order and subordination. We had no opportunity of seeing them
1:46:46
Speaker 1: actually engaged in any work of industry or art, and
1:46:50
Speaker 1: so far as we could judge, they spent their happy
1:46:52
Speaker 1: hours in collecting various fruits in the woods, in eating, lying, bathing,
1:46:57
Speaker 1: and loitering about upon the summits precipices. But although evidently
1:47:02
Speaker 1: the highest order of animals in this rich valley, they
1:47:05
Speaker 1: were not its only occupants. Most of the other animals
1:47:09
Speaker 1: which we had discovered elsewhere in very distant regions were
1:47:13
Speaker 1: collected here, and also at least eight or nine new
1:47:16
Speaker 1: species of quadrupeds. The most attractive of these was a
1:47:20
Speaker 1: tall white stag with lofty, spreading antlers black as ebony.
1:47:25
Speaker 1: We several times saw this elegant creature trot up to
1:47:28
Speaker 1: the seated parties of the semi human beings I have described,
1:47:32
Speaker 1: and brows the herbage close beside them, without the least
1:47:36
Speaker 1: manifestation of fear on its part or notice on theirs.
1:47:40
Speaker 1: The universal state of amity among all classes of lunar creatures,
1:47:43
Speaker 1: and the apparent absence of every carnivous or ferocious species,
1:47:48
Speaker 1: gave us the most refined pleasure, and doubly endeared to
1:47:51
Speaker 1: us this lovely nocturnal companion of our larger but less
1:47:55
Speaker 1: favored world. Ever, again, when I eye the blue vault
1:47:59
Speaker 1: and blessed the use full light, shall I recall the
1:48:01
Speaker 1: scenes of beauty, grandeur, and felicity I have beheld upon
1:48:05
Speaker 1: her surface, Not as through a glass darkly, but face
1:48:09
Speaker 1: to face. And never shall I think of that line
1:48:13
Speaker 1: of our thrice noble poet meek Diana's crest sails through
1:48:18
Speaker 1: the aus or air an island of the blessed, without
1:48:22
Speaker 1: exulting in my knowledge of its truth. With the careful
1:48:26
Speaker 1: inspection of this instructive valley and a scientific classification of
1:48:30
Speaker 1: its animal, vegetable and mineral productions, the astronomers close their
1:48:35
Speaker 1: labors for the night, labors rather mental than physical, and
1:48:39
Speaker 1: oppressive from the extreme excitement which they naturally induced. A
1:48:43
Speaker 1: singular circumstance occurred the next day, which through the telescope
1:48:47
Speaker 1: quite out of use for nearly a week, by which
1:48:50
Speaker 1: time the moon could be no longer observed. That month,
1:48:53
Speaker 1: the great lens, which was usually lowered during the day
1:48:56
Speaker 1: and placed horizontally, had, it is true, been lowered as
1:49:00
Speaker 1: as usual, but had been inconsiderately left in a perpendicular position. Accordingly,
1:49:06
Speaker 1: shortly after sunrise the next morning, doctor Herschel and his
1:49:09
Speaker 1: assistants Doctor Grant and Messrs Drummond and Home, who slept
1:49:13
Speaker 1: in a bungalow erected a short distance from the observatory circle,
1:49:18
Speaker 1: were awakened by the loud shouts of some Dutch farmers
1:49:21
Speaker 1: and domesticated hottentots who were passing with their oxen to
1:49:25
Speaker 1: agricultural labor, that the big house was on fire. Doctor
1:49:29
Speaker 1: Herschel leaped out of bed from his brief slumbers, and
1:49:32
Speaker 1: sure enough saw his observatory enveloped in a cloud of smoke.
1:49:37
Speaker 1: Luckily it had been thickly covered within and without with
1:49:40
Speaker 1: a coat of Roman plaster, or it would inevitably have
1:49:44
Speaker 1: been destroyed with all its valuable contents. But as it was,
1:49:48
Speaker 1: a hole fifteen feet in circumference had been burnt completely
1:49:51
Speaker 1: through the reflecting chamber, which was attached to the side
1:49:54
Speaker 1: of the observatory nearest the lens, through the canvas field
1:49:58
Speaker 1: on which had been exhibited so many wonders that will
1:50:01
Speaker 1: ever live in the history of mankind, and through the
1:50:04
Speaker 1: outer wall. So fierce was the concentration of the solar
1:50:08
Speaker 1: rays through the gigantic lens that a clump of trees
1:50:11
Speaker 1: standing in a line with them was set on fire,
1:50:14
Speaker 1: and the plaster of the observatory walls all around the
1:50:17
Speaker 1: orifice was vitrified to blue glass, the lens being almost
1:50:22
Speaker 1: immediately turned, and a brook of water being within a
1:50:25
Speaker 1: few hundred yards. The fire was soon extinguished, but the
1:50:29
Speaker 1: damage already done was not inconsiderable. The microscope lenses had
1:50:35
Speaker 1: fortunately been removed for the purpose of being cleaned, but
1:50:38
Speaker 1: several of the metallic reflectors were so fused as to
1:50:41
Speaker 1: be rendered useless. Masons and carpenters were procured from Cape
1:50:45
Speaker 1: Town with all possible dispatch, and in about a week
1:50:49
Speaker 1: the whole apparatus was again prepared for operation.
1:50:52
Speaker 3: The Moon being.
1:50:53
Speaker 1: Now invisible, Doctor Herschel directed his inquiries to the primary
1:50:57
Speaker 1: planets of the system, and first to the planet Saturn.
1:51:01
Speaker 1: We need not say that this remarkable globe has for
1:51:04
Speaker 1: many ages been an object of the most ardent astronomical curiosity.
1:51:09
Speaker 1: The stupendous phenomenon of its double ring, having baffled the
1:51:12
Speaker 1: scrutiny and conjecture of many generations of astronomers, was finally
1:51:17
Speaker 1: abandoned as inexplicable. It is well known that this planet
1:51:21
Speaker 1: stationed in the system nine hundred millions of miles distant
1:51:25
Speaker 1: from the Sun, and that, having the immense diameter of
1:51:28
Speaker 1: seventy nine thousand miles, it is more than nine hundred
1:51:32
Speaker 1: times larger than the Earth. Its annual motion round the
1:51:36
Speaker 1: Sun is not accomplished in less than twenty nine and
1:51:39
Speaker 1: a half of our years, whilst its diurnal rotation upon
1:51:43
Speaker 1: its axis is accomplished in ten hours sixteen minutes, or
1:51:47
Speaker 1: considerably less than half a terrestrial day.
1:51:50
Speaker 3: It has not less than.
1:51:52
Speaker 1: Seven moons, the sixth and the seventh of which were
1:51:54
Speaker 1: discovered by the elder Herschel in seventeen eighty nine. It
1:51:58
Speaker 1: is thwarted by mischief various belts or bands of a
1:52:01
Speaker 1: yellowish tinge, and is surrounded by a double ring, the
1:52:04
Speaker 1: outer one of which is two hundred and four thousand
1:52:07
Speaker 1: miles in diameter. The outside diameter of the inner ring
1:52:11
Speaker 1: is one hundred and eighty four thousand miles, and the
1:52:14
Speaker 1: breadth of the outer one being seven thousand, two hundred miles.
1:52:17
Speaker 1: The space between them is twenty eight thousand miles. The
1:52:21
Speaker 1: breadth of the inner ring is much greater than that
1:52:23
Speaker 1: of the other, being twenty thousand miles, and its distance
1:52:27
Speaker 1: from the body of Saturn is more than thirty thousand.
1:52:31
Speaker 1: These rings are opaque, but so thin that their edge
1:52:34
Speaker 1: has not until now been discovered. Sir John Herschel's most
1:52:38
Speaker 1: interesting discovery with regard to this planet is the demonstrated
1:52:42
Speaker 1: fact that these two rings are composed of the fragments
1:52:45
Speaker 1: of two destroyed worlds formerly belonging to our Solar System,
1:52:49
Speaker 1: and which, on being exploded, were gathered around the immense
1:52:54
Speaker 1: body of Saturn by the attractive gravity, and yet kept
1:52:58
Speaker 1: from falling to its surface by the great centrifugal force
1:53:01
Speaker 1: created by its extraordinary rapidity on its axis. The Inner
1:53:06
Speaker 1: Ring was therefore the first of these destroyed worlds, the
1:53:10
Speaker 1: former station of which in the system is demonstrated in
1:53:13
Speaker 1: the argument which we subjoin, which was accordingly carried around
1:53:17
Speaker 1: by the rotary force and spread forth in the manner
1:53:20
Speaker 1: we see. The Outer Ring is another world exploded in fragments,
1:53:26
Speaker 1: attracted by the law of gravity, as in the former case,
1:53:29
Speaker 1: and kept from uniting with the Inner Ring by the
1:53:32
Speaker 1: centrifugal force of the latter, but the latter having a
1:53:36
Speaker 1: slower rotation than the planet as an inferior centrifugal force,
1:53:41
Speaker 1: and accordingly the space between the Outer and Inner Ring
1:53:45
Speaker 1: is nearly ten times less than between the Inner Ring
1:53:48
Speaker 1: and the body of Saturn. Having ascertained the mean density
1:53:52
Speaker 1: of the rings as compared with the density of the planet,
1:53:55
Speaker 1: Sir John Herschel has been enabled to effect the following
1:53:59
Speaker 1: beautiful demonstration, which we omit as too mathematical for popular comprehension,
1:54:05
Speaker 1: Editor Sun. Doctor Herschel clearly ascertained that these rings are
1:54:10
Speaker 1: composed of rocky strata, the skeletons of former globes, lying
1:54:14
Speaker 1: in a state of wild and ghastly confusion, but not
1:54:17
Speaker 1: devoid of mountains and seas. The belts across the body
1:54:21
Speaker 1: of Saturn he has discovered to be the smoke of
1:54:24
Speaker 1: a number of immense volcanoes, carried in these straight lines
1:54:28
Speaker 1: by the extreme velocity of the rotary motion, and these
1:54:32
Speaker 1: also he ascertained to be the belt of Jupiter. But
1:54:35
Speaker 1: the portion of the work which is devoted to this
1:54:38
Speaker 1: subject and to the other planets, as also that which
1:54:41
Speaker 1: describes the astronomer's discoveries among the stars, is comparatively uninteresting
1:54:47
Speaker 1: to the general readers, however highly it might interest others
1:54:51
Speaker 1: of scientific taste and mathematical acquirements, Editor Sun. It was
1:54:57
Speaker 1: not until the new moon of the month of March
1:54:59
Speaker 1: that the weather proof favorable to any continued series of
1:55:02
Speaker 1: lunar observations, and doctor Herschel had been too enthusiastically absorbed
1:55:08
Speaker 1: in demonstrating his brilliant discoveries in the southern constellations, and
1:55:12
Speaker 1: in constructing tables and catalogs of his new stars, to
1:55:16
Speaker 1: avail himself of the few clear nights which intervened one
1:55:20
Speaker 1: of these. However, mister Drummond, myself and mister Holmes made
1:55:24
Speaker 1: those discoveries near the Bay of Rainbows to which I
1:55:27
Speaker 1: have somewhere briefly alluded. The bay, thus fancifully denominated, is
1:55:32
Speaker 1: a part of the northern boundary of the first Great Ocean,
1:55:36
Speaker 1: which I have lately described, and is marked in the
1:55:38
Speaker 1: chart with the letter O. The tract of country which
1:55:42
Speaker 1: we explored on this occasion is numbered six, five, eight
1:55:46
Speaker 1: seven in the catalog, and the chief mountains to which
1:55:50
Speaker 1: these numbers are attached are severally named Atlas Hercules, Rick
1:55:55
Speaker 1: Clyde's Veris, and Harriclyde's Falsis. Still farther to the north
1:56:00
Speaker 1: of these is the island circle called Pythagoras and numbered one.
1:56:05
Speaker 1: And yet nearer the meridian line is the mountainous district
1:56:09
Speaker 1: marked R and called the Land of Draft, and Q
1:56:13
Speaker 1: the land of hoar Frost, and certainly the name of
1:56:17
Speaker 1: the latter. However, theoretically bestowed was not altogether inapplicable, for
1:56:23
Speaker 1: the tops of its very lofty mountains were evidently covered
1:56:26
Speaker 1: with snow, though the valleys surrounding them were teeming with
1:56:29
Speaker 1: the luxuriant fertility of midsummer. But the region which we
1:56:33
Speaker 1: first particularly inspected was that of Heraclyde's falsest number seven,
1:56:38
Speaker 1: in which we found several new specimens of animals, all
1:56:42
Speaker 1: of which were horned and of a white or gray color,
1:56:45
Speaker 1: and the remains of three ancient triangular temples which had
1:56:49
Speaker 1: long been in ruins. We thence traversed the country southeastward
1:56:53
Speaker 1: until we arrived at Atlas number six, and it was
1:56:57
Speaker 1: in one of the noble valleys at the foot of
1:56:59
Speaker 1: this mountain that we found the very superior species of
1:57:03
Speaker 1: the vespertilio homo. In stature, they did not exceed those
1:57:08
Speaker 1: last described, but they were of infinitely greater personal beauty,
1:57:12
Speaker 1: and appeared, in our eyes scarcely less lovely than the
1:57:15
Speaker 1: general representation of angels by the more imaginative school of painters.
1:57:21
Speaker 1: Their social economy seemed to be regulated by laws or
1:57:24
Speaker 1: ceremonies exactly like those prevailing in the vow of triads,
1:57:28
Speaker 1: but their works of art were more numerous and displayed
1:57:31
Speaker 1: a proficiency of skill quite incredible to all except actual observers.
1:57:36
Speaker 1: I shall therefore let the first detailed account of them
1:57:39
Speaker 1: appear in Doctor Herschel's Authenticated Natural History of this planet.
1:57:45
Speaker 1: This concludes the supplement, with the exception of forty pages
1:57:48
Speaker 1: of illustritive and mathematical notes, which would greatly enhance the
1:57:53
Speaker 1: size and price of this work, without commeasurably adding to
1:57:57
Speaker 1: its general interest. Editor and of Section sex.
1:58:09
Speaker 4: Section seven of the Moon Hoax. This is a LibriVox recording.
1:58:13
Speaker 4: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
1:58:16
Speaker 4: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read
1:58:21
Speaker 4: by Beeswax Scandal The Moonhooks by Richard Adams Locke, Appendix
1:58:27
Speaker 4: Part one. The Moon is known at the present time,
1:58:32
Speaker 4: Ye sacred newses, with whose beauty fired, my soul is ravished,
1:58:37
Speaker 4: and my brain inspired? Whose priest I am? Whose holy
1:58:41
Speaker 4: filets were? Would you your poet's first petition? Here, give
1:58:46
Speaker 4: me the ways of wandering stars, to know the depths
1:58:50
Speaker 4: of heaven above and earth below. Teach me the various
1:58:53
Speaker 4: labors of the moon, and whence precede the eclipses of
1:58:57
Speaker 4: the Sun. My flowing tides prevail upon the man, And
1:59:00
Speaker 4: in what dark recess they shrink again? What shakes the
1:59:03
Speaker 4: solid earth? What cause delays the summer nights and shortens
1:59:07
Speaker 4: winter days? Vergil? The picture on the title page is
1:59:13
Speaker 4: probably the best and minutest view of the Moon that
1:59:15
Speaker 4: hath ever been laid before the public. Most of our
1:59:19
Speaker 4: readers are aware that the mountains and hollows of the
1:59:21
Speaker 4: Moon have been accurately and thoroughly mapped by astronomers, and
1:59:25
Speaker 4: baptized by appropriate names. For the benefit of meritorious students
1:59:30
Speaker 4: of astronomical geography, we subjoin the names of all those
1:59:34
Speaker 4: which have been christened at the present season. Will amply
1:59:37
Speaker 4: repay the possessor of a small telescope to identify the
1:59:41
Speaker 4: several localities with the aid of the map. In olden time,
1:59:46
Speaker 4: the moon was a goddess. Whatever the ignorant mind of
1:59:49
Speaker 4: the time was incapable of grasping, was supernatural. Thus arose
1:59:54
Speaker 4: the pale, chaste deity of the night, robed and Vergin white,
2:00:00
Speaker 4: roaming dreamily under the partial shade of trees, loving to
2:00:04
Speaker 4: see her fair image reflected in streams and shedding a
2:00:07
Speaker 4: complacent light on tender meetings. We are not heathens, far
2:00:13
Speaker 4: from it. But who among us has not, at some
2:00:17
Speaker 4: time or other paid homage to the Queen of Night
2:00:20
Speaker 4: and thanked her for the gentle light in which she
2:00:23
Speaker 4: has shown the way to some fair hand footnote as
2:00:28
Speaker 4: when the moon refulgent lamp of light o'er heavens clear
2:00:32
Speaker 4: azure spreads her sacred light. When not a breath disturbs
2:00:36
Speaker 4: the deep serene, and not a cloud or casts the
2:00:39
Speaker 4: solemn scene around her throne, The vivid planets roll, and
2:00:44
Speaker 4: stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole. Oh the dark trees
2:00:49
Speaker 4: are yellow, a verdure shed and tipped with silver. Every
2:00:52
Speaker 4: mountain's head then shine the veils, the rocks, and prospect
2:00:57
Speaker 4: rise A flood of glory bursts from all the skies. Homer.
2:01:04
Speaker 4: The Earth is accompanied by a moon or satellite whose
2:01:06
Speaker 4: distance is two hundred thirty seven thousand miles and diameter
2:01:10
Speaker 4: two thousand, one hundred and sixty. Her surface is composed
2:01:14
Speaker 4: of hill and dale, of rocks and mountains nearly two
2:01:17
Speaker 4: miles high, and of circular cavities, sometimes five miles in
2:01:21
Speaker 4: depth and forty in diameter. She possesses neither rivers, nor lakes,
2:01:26
Speaker 4: nor seas, and we cannot discover with the telescope any
2:01:29
Speaker 4: traces of living beings or any monuments of their hands.
2:01:34
Speaker 4: Viewing the Earth as we now do, as the third
2:01:37
Speaker 4: planet in order from the Sun, can we doubt that
2:01:40
Speaker 4: it is a globe like the rest, poised in ether,
2:01:43
Speaker 4: like them, and like them, moving around the central luminary
2:01:49
Speaker 4: end of footnote. We say, in blunt scientific terms that
2:01:53
Speaker 4: she or it is a satellite of the Earth, suspended
2:01:57
Speaker 4: in her or its present position by the contrasted attraction
2:02:01
Speaker 4: of the Sun and the Earth. This is the unromantic
2:02:05
Speaker 4: version of the naked fact. There was a time when
2:02:08
Speaker 4: the Earth was an uncomfortable semi incandescent mass in the
2:02:12
Speaker 4: act of cooling off for practical purposes. The atmosphere was tropical.
2:02:17
Speaker 4: Throughout the globe, all things would intensely impregnate it, or,
2:02:21
Speaker 4: as the philosophers say, supersaturated with carbon. Between the dry
2:02:27
Speaker 4: land and the waters, there was no division. There was
2:02:30
Speaker 4: no ocean, and consequently no continance. All was hot mud,
2:02:36
Speaker 4: with here and there a lake or a short river,
2:02:39
Speaker 4: and here and there a dry, parched, torrid eminence. In
2:02:43
Speaker 4: those days there were animals and plants, but no human beings.
2:02:48
Speaker 4: Both animals and plants like the aged in which they flourished.
2:02:52
Speaker 4: To our notions, monstrous monsters were the rule, both in
2:02:57
Speaker 4: the vegetable and the animated world. Creatures were borne in
2:03:01
Speaker 4: grut sizes which dwarfed the elephant plants thrust their head
2:03:05
Speaker 4: above the mud, and in the carboniferous atmosphere, attained heights
2:03:09
Speaker 4: which would have towered above the tallest trees of our forests.
2:03:13
Speaker 4: But in proportion to the rapidity of their growth was
2:03:16
Speaker 4: the brevity of their life. For these were the days
2:03:19
Speaker 4: of earthquakes and terrestrial convulsions. Probably no day elapsed without
2:03:24
Speaker 4: some earthquake or volcanic eruption. The light of day was
2:03:29
Speaker 4: dull and obscured. Masses of opaque matter floated through the
2:03:33
Speaker 4: atmosphere as thickly as dust specks float through a ray
2:03:36
Speaker 4: of sunlight in a darkened room. The hot air, thick
2:03:40
Speaker 4: and dull, hung a listless mist over the face of
2:03:43
Speaker 4: the earth, which was even then almost without form and void.
2:03:48
Speaker 4: When the sun went down, dense darkness covered the earth.
2:03:52
Speaker 4: There was no lesser light to rule the night. Dim
2:03:55
Speaker 4: twinklings in the var distance hardly piercing the pole which
2:03:58
Speaker 4: wrapped our planet were the only contrasts to the Egyptian
2:04:02
Speaker 4: blackness of the dark hours. But the internal fires which
2:04:07
Speaker 4: sprung from the vitals of the earth almost supplied the
2:04:10
Speaker 4: want of a nocturnal luminary. It is probable that there
2:04:13
Speaker 4: were but few spots on the globe which were out
2:04:16
Speaker 4: of view of some flaming volcano. We count the act
2:04:19
Speaker 4: of volcanoes by integers. When we have enumerated Etna, Vesuvius, Heckler,
2:04:24
Speaker 4: Jorulo Colima, and one or two others, we have reached
2:04:28
Speaker 4: the end of our list. In the days of Homer,
2:04:31
Speaker 4: the volcanoes were counted by scores. The carboniferous age they
2:04:36
Speaker 4: may have must have flourished by hundreds and thousands. That
2:04:43
Speaker 4: vast incandescent mass, of which the crust only had cooled,
2:04:47
Speaker 4: kept boiling up every few hours and furiously pouring out
2:04:51
Speaker 4: the vials of its wrath upon an earth inhabited by
2:04:54
Speaker 4: transitory creatures. Go with a traveler, may he will still
2:04:59
Speaker 4: find traces of this terrible age that telltale rock. The
2:05:04
Speaker 4: trap is peculiar to known Meridian, and from the Hudson's
2:05:09
Speaker 4: Bay territories nearly to Cape Magellan from Spitzbergen to Borneo,
2:05:14
Speaker 4: either this or some mountain range of volcanic origin. Here
2:05:17
Speaker 4: was scurrie disseminated through the more regular formations. There with
2:05:22
Speaker 4: copper or gold held in a native state in half
2:05:24
Speaker 4: decayed courts tell a very legible story of the time
2:05:29
Speaker 4: when all the component parts of the Earth were in
2:05:31
Speaker 4: a fluid state and were thrown off by the boiling
2:05:34
Speaker 4: mass beneath, as a kettle throws off froth and scum.
2:05:39
Speaker 4: There came a day when the under crust could no
2:05:41
Speaker 4: longer bear the weight of the mass, which, after being
2:05:44
Speaker 4: thrown off, daily returned by the force of gravitation to
2:05:46
Speaker 4: the surface of its parent. A time came when the
2:05:50
Speaker 4: incandescent and incoate planet, if so daring a figure may
2:05:54
Speaker 4: be ventured, felt the necessity of unusually strenuous measures. It
2:06:00
Speaker 4: gathered all its fiery energies and mustered all its fearful strength.
2:06:06
Speaker 4: The effect was universal, not local. With such bodies, distances
2:06:11
Speaker 4: of twenty five thousand miles must be trifling, and the
2:06:15
Speaker 4: Earth's meridian a paltry eight thousand miles not worth mentioning.
2:06:21
Speaker 4: One can imagine the purpose an effort being common to
2:06:23
Speaker 4: the entire molten and raging mass. It came at last,
2:06:29
Speaker 4: after throes of inconceivable agony, with a roar and a
2:06:33
Speaker 4: convulsion which must have destroyed every living thing then existent
2:06:36
Speaker 4: upon the face of the planet. In the midst of
2:06:39
Speaker 4: general chaos, confusion, and desolation, the Earth relieved itself. It
2:06:45
Speaker 4: tore from its half cold surface immense masses and projected
2:06:49
Speaker 4: them with monstrous force into space, not on one side alone,
2:06:54
Speaker 4: but on all. Lumps of Earth. Four and five miles
2:06:58
Speaker 4: in thickness and thousands of miles long and wide, were
2:07:01
Speaker 4: in an instant forced upwards with such force as to
2:07:05
Speaker 4: pass beyond the circle of the Earth's attraction. These various masses,
2:07:09
Speaker 4: thus launched into space, soon felt the attraction of each other,
2:07:12
Speaker 4: and assembled together. They met, and, agreeably to the sublime
2:07:16
Speaker 4: law of celestial bodies, remained it suspended in space at
2:07:20
Speaker 4: the point where the attraction of the Earth meets that
2:07:22
Speaker 4: of the Sun. That other celestial law, which forbids the
2:07:26
Speaker 4: torpidity of any atom of matter, compelled the aggregated mass
2:07:30
Speaker 4: to revolve, and the revolution forced the mass into a
2:07:34
Speaker 4: spherical shape. Thus the Moon came into being an offshoot
2:07:40
Speaker 4: from the Earth. It pays homage to its parent by
2:07:43
Speaker 4: revolving round it and reflecting back to it a part
2:07:46
Speaker 4: of the Sun's light during the period when that luminary
2:07:49
Speaker 4: is obscured to us. At the force with which its
2:07:53
Speaker 4: substance was expelled from the body of the Earth being less,
2:07:56
Speaker 4: it would have returned to our surface, as those fragments
2:08:00
Speaker 4: of matter called aer lights do at regular intervals. Had
2:08:04
Speaker 4: their force been greater, it would have entered upon the
2:08:06
Speaker 4: vast area which is the domain of the Sun, would
2:08:09
Speaker 4: have been attracted to that great cosmical body and been
2:08:12
Speaker 4: fused by its intense heat. It was sent abroad with
2:08:17
Speaker 4: precisely the force necessary to his sustain it and equilibrio
2:08:20
Speaker 4: between the Earth and the Sun, and hence it is
2:08:24
Speaker 4: the lesser light which rules the night. This is not
2:08:28
Speaker 4: the only surface which it renders us. By its creation,
2:08:32
Speaker 4: it caused great hollows in the surface of the Earth.
2:08:35
Speaker 4: Into these hollows, the waters which lay on the face
2:08:38
Speaker 4: of the deep naturally gathered and became oceans, lakes, seas,
2:08:42
Speaker 4: and rivers. The cavities drained the earth of the moisture
2:08:46
Speaker 4: which had rendered it unfit for the habitation of the
2:08:48
Speaker 4: higher order of vertebrated creatures. Thus, by degrees were formed
2:08:52
Speaker 4: the Great Atlantic and Pacific, the Northern and the Southern oceans,
2:08:57
Speaker 4: leaving here and there tracts of cool dry land for
2:09:00
Speaker 4: a man to inhabit. At the word of his creator,
2:09:03
Speaker 4: Lord of the office of the Moon, stop here while
2:09:06
Speaker 4: it was upheld in space by the attraction of the Earth.
2:09:09
Speaker 4: To return the compliment by exercising the reciprocal attraction upon
2:09:12
Speaker 4: the waters for which it had created beds with the
2:09:16
Speaker 4: beautiful regularity which is the characteristic of heavenly bodies, it
2:09:19
Speaker 4: affected them at uniform intervals, causing the tides to flow
2:09:23
Speaker 4: into ebb and to vibrate between the spring and the
2:09:26
Speaker 4: neap flow. Lastly, to relieve the Earth of the vast
2:09:30
Speaker 4: quantity of superincumbent matter, equal in fact to over one
2:09:34
Speaker 4: fiftieth of the whole bulk of the planet. One must
2:09:38
Speaker 4: imagine the Earth and the condition of a gentleman who
2:09:41
Speaker 4: has dined copiously, and whose interior is troubled by an
2:09:44
Speaker 4: unusual burden. The convulsion which led to the creation of
2:09:49
Speaker 4: the Moon is similar to the effect of the dose
2:09:51
Speaker 4: which the gentleman, if he be wise, will instantly take,
2:09:56
Speaker 4: departing from us, and setting up for herself, the moon
2:10:00
Speaker 4: Moon forgot some articles of baggage which were essential to
2:10:03
Speaker 4: her future comfort and prosperity. Among these were air and water.
2:10:08
Speaker 4: How we came by these two useful commodities, it were
2:10:11
Speaker 4: hard to say. This is made quite certain by the
2:10:15
Speaker 4: discoveries of astronomers. Rains, dews, ocean's lakes, hail, snow clouds
2:10:20
Speaker 4: are all unknown to the Moon. Nothing shields its surface
2:10:25
Speaker 4: from the burning rays of the Sun. Wherever the light
2:10:28
Speaker 4: of that fierce luminary penetrates, the Moon's surface is incessantly hot,
2:10:35
Speaker 4: of volcanic origin. The Moon is true to its descent.
2:10:39
Speaker 4: It is full of volcanoes, most of which, however, perhaps
2:10:42
Speaker 4: from a conviction of the uselessness of further action, there
2:10:45
Speaker 4: being nothing to destroy, and no one even to see
2:10:48
Speaker 4: their explosions, and now silent and torpid. But they wrought
2:10:53
Speaker 4: out their destiny so long and so faithfully, that the
2:10:56
Speaker 4: surface of the Moon is frightfully disfigured and uneven. Switzerland
2:11:01
Speaker 4: is a prairie compared to the smoothest part of the
2:11:04
Speaker 4: Moon's surface. It is nothing but incessant mountain and hollow
2:11:09
Speaker 4: lunar alps and rocky mountains intersect every few miles of
2:11:13
Speaker 4: the surface. The Himalayas would be unnoticed among the gigantic
2:11:17
Speaker 4: ranges which ornament the lunar superfices, and the projections, mighty
2:11:23
Speaker 4: as they are, are but trifling in comparison with the hollows.
2:11:27
Speaker 4: It would seem as though the Moon, with apish weakness,
2:11:31
Speaker 4: had tried to imitate the Earth in throwing off space
2:11:33
Speaker 4: for rivers and oceans, forgetting that it contained no water
2:11:37
Speaker 4: to fill the cavities. Astronomers have made the most extraordinary
2:11:42
Speaker 4: discoveries in reference to these lunar hollows. Some of them
2:11:45
Speaker 4: appear to be fifty miles deep and a hundred miles
2:11:48
Speaker 4: or so wide, with precipitous sides. Mitchell has vividly described
2:11:53
Speaker 4: these terrible places. Those who have looked over a precipice
2:11:57
Speaker 4: a few hundred feet in depth may perhaps form some
2:12:00
Speaker 4: rude idea of what it must be to gaze down
2:12:02
Speaker 4: into a hole fifty miles deep, so deep that the
2:12:07
Speaker 4: bottom would almost escape the eye, were there an intervening atmosphere,
2:12:12
Speaker 4: A great monstrous cave with no vegetation either on the
2:12:17
Speaker 4: borders or on the top, or on the sides or
2:12:20
Speaker 4: on the bottom. No life of any kind, not even
2:12:25
Speaker 4: the least sound to break the endless monotony of silence everywhere, dull,
2:12:32
Speaker 4: warm scorrie lava and stones of volcanic origin. But even
2:12:38
Speaker 4: these are the smallest of the lunar cavities. Latterly acute
2:12:43
Speaker 4: astronomers with improved instruments have gazed into holes in the
2:12:47
Speaker 4: Moon's surface and estimated them to be no less than
2:12:50
Speaker 4: two hundred and fifty and three hundred miles deep, with
2:12:54
Speaker 4: fishes in them through which the sunlight penetrated. Fancy the scene, well,
2:13:01
Speaker 4: may it have been termed the abomination of desolation? Surely
2:13:05
Speaker 4: this fair Earth, with all its gloomy places and all
2:13:08
Speaker 4: its dreary scenes, contains nothing so overwhelming in its terrible
2:13:12
Speaker 4: despair as the Moon, And who gazing at its mild
2:13:17
Speaker 4: white face as it emerges from the cover of a cloud,
2:13:20
Speaker 4: would deem it so sad and desolate a sphere. There
2:13:25
Speaker 4: are no men in the Moon. There cannot be that
2:13:29
Speaker 4: they could not exist without air and water. Tis a
2:13:32
Speaker 4: pity for the sight of this planet of ours, thirteen
2:13:36
Speaker 4: times the size which the Moon appears to us, as
2:13:39
Speaker 4: fair and bright and shining as our night luminary would
2:13:43
Speaker 4: be a sight worth seeing. Science has made such progress,
2:13:48
Speaker 4: and common sense has so far kept pace with it
2:13:51
Speaker 4: that the old idea that this was the only inhabited
2:13:53
Speaker 4: sphere in the universe is now completely exploded. There is
2:13:57
Speaker 4: no reason to believe that our planet is the only
2:14:00
Speaker 4: one in our solar system which is devoted to a
2:14:02
Speaker 4: useful career. Nor is there any ground for imagining that
2:14:06
Speaker 4: our sun is the only one of the myriad of
2:14:09
Speaker 4: suns which see every night, which gives light and heat
2:14:12
Speaker 4: and happiness to human creatures. On the contrary, the supreme
2:14:17
Speaker 4: wisdom of the Deity affords a fair presumption that this
2:14:20
Speaker 4: little planet of ours is but as a grain of
2:14:23
Speaker 4: sand among the worlds which being created for the glory
2:14:26
Speaker 4: of God, and that each planet, after its kind, is
2:14:30
Speaker 4: fitted for the habitation of creatures, as offers and purpose.
2:14:33
Speaker 4: It is to thank and bless them for their existence.
2:14:36
Speaker 4: Moons may be an exception for a time of this
2:14:41
Speaker 4: we know, but little can only conjecture vaguely. As science advances,
2:14:47
Speaker 4: we may have telescopic instruments so superior to those now
2:14:50
Speaker 4: in use that we shall be able to decipher the
2:14:52
Speaker 4: Moon's surface as plainly as a distant shore on our
2:14:54
Speaker 4: own planet. The visits thither must ever, remain as impossible
2:14:59
Speaker 4: as they are present. The story of Haunt's pal will
2:15:03
Speaker 4: remain a brilliant imagination to the end of time. In
2:15:08
Speaker 4: consequence of the Moon having no atmosphere, or but a
2:15:11
Speaker 4: very thin one, all celestial objects must be seen with
2:15:14
Speaker 4: very great distinctness. The Earth, when full, appears to an
2:15:19
Speaker 4: inhabitant of the Moon thirteen times as large as the
2:15:21
Speaker 4: Moon appears to us. That is, its diameter is about
2:15:25
Speaker 4: three to six tenths times as large as our apparent
2:15:29
Speaker 4: lunar diameter. It was always on the same part of
2:15:32
Speaker 4: the heaven when seen from the same part of the Moon.
2:15:36
Speaker 4: Monsieur Couetellas in his Astronomy Elementaire, Paris, eighteen twenty six,
2:15:41
Speaker 4: a very good work, which ought to be translated as
2:15:44
Speaker 4: the following remarks on the appearance of the Earth at
2:15:47
Speaker 4: the Moon, which we would rather quote than vouch for
2:15:50
Speaker 4: that they may possibly be well founded. Our vust continents
2:15:54
Speaker 4: as seas even our forests, are visible to them. Zepperceives
2:15:59
Speaker 4: the enormous pilots of ice collected at zip Bodes as
2:16:03
Speaker 4: a girdle of vegetation which extends on both sides of
2:16:05
Speaker 4: the equeta, as well as the clouds which float over
2:16:08
Speaker 4: our heads and sometimes hide us from ze. The burning
2:16:12
Speaker 4: of a town or forest could not escape them if
2:16:15
Speaker 4: they had good optical instruments that could even seize. The
2:16:18
Speaker 4: building of a new town was a sailing of a fleet.
2:16:23
Speaker 4: End of section seven Section eight of The Moon Hoax.
2:16:31
Speaker 4: This is LibriVox recording, though all LibriVox recordings are in
2:16:35
Speaker 4: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
2:16:39
Speaker 4: visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Beeswax Candle The Moon
2:16:44
Speaker 4: Hoax by Richard Adams Locke, Appendix Part two. The moonar day,
2:16:51
Speaker 4: as we shall afterwards see, is equivalent to our actual
2:16:53
Speaker 4: month of twenty nine and a half days, but the
2:16:56
Speaker 4: rotation of the Moon on her axes is performed in
2:16:59
Speaker 4: the side an aerial month of twenty seven days eight
2:17:02
Speaker 4: hours nearly. Hence, the inhabitant of the moon sees the
2:17:06
Speaker 4: Sun for fourteen and three quarters of our days together,
2:17:09
Speaker 4: which time is followed by a night of the sat duration.
2:17:13
Speaker 4: Of course, the existence of any animal like man is
2:17:16
Speaker 4: impossible there as well on this account, as on the
2:17:19
Speaker 4: want of an atmosphere The phases which the Earth presents
2:17:23
Speaker 4: to the Moon are similar in appearance to those which
2:17:26
Speaker 4: the Moon presents to the Earth, but in a different order. Thus,
2:17:30
Speaker 4: when it is new moon at the Earth, it is
2:17:33
Speaker 4: full Earth at the Moon, and the contrary, when the
2:17:37
Speaker 4: Moon is in her first quarter, the Earth is in
2:17:39
Speaker 4: its third quarter, and so on, while half moon at
2:17:43
Speaker 4: the Earth is accompanied by half Earth at the Moon.
2:17:47
Speaker 4: There is no branch of science better fitted to be
2:17:49
Speaker 4: made the leading subject of general instruction than that which
2:17:53
Speaker 4: relates to the planetary and sidereal universe. The truths which
2:17:58
Speaker 4: it reveals are so startling in the nature, and apparently
2:18:01
Speaker 4: so far beyond the reach of human intelligence, that men
2:18:05
Speaker 4: of high literary name have confessed their incapacity to understand them,
2:18:09
Speaker 4: and their inability to believe them. There are few, indeed,
2:18:14
Speaker 4: we fear, who really believe that they sojourn on a
2:18:17
Speaker 4: revolving globe, and that every day and year of life
2:18:20
Speaker 4: is measured by its revolutions. There are few who believes
2:18:24
Speaker 4: that the great luminary of the firmament, whose restless activity
2:18:27
Speaker 4: they daily witness, is an immovable star, controlling by a
2:18:32
Speaker 4: solid mass the primary planets of our system, and forming
2:18:36
Speaker 4: as it were the gnomon of the great dial, which
2:18:39
Speaker 4: measures the thread of life and the tenure of empires.
2:18:45
Speaker 4: Fewer still believe that each of the million stars, those
2:18:48
Speaker 4: atoms of light which the telescope can scarcely descry, are
2:18:53
Speaker 4: the centers of planetary systems that may equal also pass
2:18:56
Speaker 4: our own. And still smaller as the number who believes
2:19:00
Speaker 4: that the solid pavement of the globe upon which we
2:19:03
Speaker 4: nightly slumber is an elastic crust, imprisoning fires and forces
2:19:09
Speaker 4: which had often burst forth in tremendous energy, and are
2:19:13
Speaker 4: at this very instant struggling to escape, now finding an
2:19:17
Speaker 4: outlet of volcanic fires, now heaving and shaking the earth,
2:19:22
Speaker 4: now upraising islands and continents, and gathering strength, perhaps of
2:19:26
Speaker 4: some final outbursts, which may shatter our earth in pieces,
2:19:30
Speaker 4: or change its form, or scatter its waters over the land.
2:19:34
Speaker 4: Yet these are true, that which nothing is truer, and
2:19:37
Speaker 4: nothing more worthy of our study. In order to learn, then,
2:19:42
Speaker 4: what is the constitution and what has been or may
2:19:46
Speaker 4: be the probable history of the various worlds in our firmament,
2:19:49
Speaker 4: we must study the constitution and physical history of our own.
2:19:53
Speaker 4: The men of limited reason who believed that the Earth
2:19:56
Speaker 4: was created and launched into its ethereal course, when man
2:19:59
Speaker 4: was so to its occupation, must have either denied altogether
2:20:03
Speaker 4: the existence of our solar system, or have regarded all
2:20:06
Speaker 4: its planets as coeval with their own, and as but
2:20:10
Speaker 4: the ministers to its convenience. Science, however, has now corrected
2:20:15
Speaker 4: this error and liberated the pious mind from its embarrassments.
2:20:20
Speaker 4: The palaeontologist, the student of ancient life, has demonstrated by
2:20:25
Speaker 4: evidence not to be disputed, that the Earth had been
2:20:29
Speaker 4: inhabited by animals and adorned with plants during immeasurable cycles
2:20:33
Speaker 4: of time, antecedent to the creation of man. But when
2:20:38
Speaker 4: the volcano, the earthquake, and the flood had destroyed and
2:20:41
Speaker 4: buried them, nobler forms of life were created to undergo
2:20:45
Speaker 4: the same fiery ordeal, and that by a series of
2:20:50
Speaker 4: successive creations and catastrophes, the Earth was prepared for the
2:20:54
Speaker 4: residence of man, and the rich materials in its bosom
2:20:58
Speaker 4: elaborated for his use and thrown within his grasp. In
2:21:02
Speaker 4: the age of our globe, then we see the age
2:21:04
Speaker 4: of its brother planets, and in the antiquity of our
2:21:08
Speaker 4: own system we see the antiquity of the other systems
2:21:10
Speaker 4: of the universe. In our catastrophes two we recognize theirs,
2:21:16
Speaker 4: and in our advancing knowledge and progressive civilization, we witness
2:21:20
Speaker 4: the development of the universal mind, the march of the
2:21:24
Speaker 4: immortal spirit to its final destiny of glory or of shame.
2:21:30
Speaker 4: The following are the names which have been given to
2:21:32
Speaker 4: the mountains and valleys or hollows in the moon, and
2:21:36
Speaker 4: which are referred to in the accompanying picture. The sea
2:21:39
Speaker 4: title page Mountains one, the Apennines two, the Caucasas three,
2:21:47
Speaker 4: the Alps four, Taurus five, Taurus six, the Altai Mountains seven,
2:21:55
Speaker 4: the Cordilleras eight, the Riffi Mountains nine, the Karpathians turn,
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Speaker 4: the Hercinian mountains, hollows or valleys. A the Christian Sea,
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Speaker 4: B the Sea of Fertility, C the Sea of Nectar,
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Speaker 4: D the tranquil c E the serene se F the
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Speaker 4: Sea of Dreams, G the Sea of Death, H the
2:22:23
Speaker 4: dreamy Marsh, I the cold c K the Sea of vapors,
2:22:29
Speaker 4: L the Middle Bay, M the sea of clouds in
2:22:34
Speaker 4: the Sea of mist O, the Bay of epidemics, P
2:22:38
Speaker 4: the stormy Ocean, Q the showery se R the sea
2:22:43
Speaker 4: of rainbows, s the sea of dews, t humboldts, c.
2:22:50
Speaker 4: As will be seen. Astronomers have done what they could
2:22:53
Speaker 4: to relieve the dreariness of nature by a free indulgence
2:22:57
Speaker 4: in fanciful names. Doctor Chalmers, speaking of the advantages derived
2:23:02
Speaker 4: from the discovery the telescope and microscope, says, the one
2:23:06
Speaker 4: led me to see a system in every star. The
2:23:09
Speaker 4: other leads me to see a world in every atom.
2:23:12
Speaker 4: The one taught me that this mighty globe, with the
2:23:14
Speaker 4: whole burden of its people and its countries, is but
2:23:17
Speaker 4: a grain of sand on this high field of immense city.
2:23:21
Speaker 4: The other teaches me that every grain of sand may
2:23:24
Speaker 4: harbor within it the tribes and families of a busy population.
2:23:28
Speaker 4: The one told me of the insignificance of the world
2:23:30
Speaker 4: I tread upon. The other redeems it from all its insignificance.
2:23:35
Speaker 4: For it tells me that in the leaves of every forest,
2:23:38
Speaker 4: and in the flowers of every garden, and in the
2:23:40
Speaker 4: waters of every rivulet, there are worlds teeming with life,
2:23:44
Speaker 4: and numberless as are the glories of the firmament. The
2:23:47
Speaker 4: one has suggested to me that beyond and above all
2:23:49
Speaker 4: that is visible to man, they may lie fields a
2:23:52
Speaker 4: creation which sweep immeasurably along and carry the impress of
2:23:56
Speaker 4: the Almighty's hand to the remoldest scenes of the universe.
2:24:00
Speaker 4: The other suggests to me that within and beneath all
2:24:03
Speaker 4: that minuteness which the aided eye of man has been
2:24:05
Speaker 4: able to explore, we may lie a region of invisibles,
2:24:09
Speaker 4: and that could we draw aside the mysterious curtain which
2:24:12
Speaker 4: surrounds it from our senses, we might there see a
2:24:14
Speaker 4: theater as of many wonders, as astronomy is unfolded, a
2:24:19
Speaker 4: universe within the compass of a point so small as
2:24:23
Speaker 4: to elude all the powers of the microscope, but where
2:24:25
Speaker 4: the wonder working Guard finds room for the exercise of
2:24:28
Speaker 4: all his attributes, where he can raise another mechanism of worlds,
2:24:32
Speaker 4: and fill and animate them all with the evidences of
2:24:34
Speaker 4: his glory. End of section eight. End of the Moon
2:24:39
Speaker 4: Hoax by Richard Adam's Locke