{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_27228/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_27228","id":"gutenberg_27228","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27228","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Moon -- Folklore"],"text":"Produced by Ruth Hart\n\n\n\n\n[Note:  the original text had two footnotes 160 and two\nfootnotes 396.  I have indicated these by naming them 160a and b,\nand 396a and b.  In the Index, I changed the spelling of\n\"Aglonquins\" to \"Algonquins\".  All other spelling remains the same.]\n\n\n[Illustration: moon01]\n\nVOYAGING TO THE MOON\n_From Domingo Gonsales [A.D. 1638]_\n_See page_ 46.\n\n\n\nMOON LORE\n\nBY THE\n\nREV. TIMOTHY HARLEY, F.R.A.S.\n\n\"And when the clear moon, with its soothing influences, rises full\nin my view,--from the wall-like rocks, out of the damp underwood,\nthe silvery forms of past ages hover up to me, and soften the\naustere pleasure of contemplation.\"\n\n_Goethe's \"Faust.\" Hayward's Translation, London_, 1855,\n_p_. 100.\n\n\nLONDON:\nSWAN SONNENSCHEIN, LE BAS & LOWREY,\nPATERNOSTER SQUARE\n1885\n\nBUTLER & TAYLOR\nTHE SELWOOD PRINTING WORKS\nFROME, AND LONDON\n\n\n\n\"I beheld the moon walking in brightness.\"--_Job_ xxxi. 26.\n\n\"The moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained.\"--_Psalm_\nviii. 3.\n\n\"Who is she that looketh forth, fair as the moon?\"--_Solomon's\nSong_ vi. 10.\n\n\"The precious things put forth by the moon.\"--_Deuteronomy_\nxxxiii. 14.\n\n\"Soon as the evening shades prevail,\nThe moon takes up the wondrous tale.\"--Addison's _Ode_.\n\n\"In fall-orbed glory, yonder moon Divine\nRolls through the dark-blue depths.\"--Southey's _Thalaba_.\n\n\"Queen of the silver bow! by thy pale beam,\n     Alone and pensive, I delight to stray,\nAnd watch thy shadow trembling in the stream,\n     Or mark the floating clouds that cross thy way;\nAnd while I gaze, thy mild and placid light\n     Sheds a soft calm upon my troubled breast:\nAnd oft I think-fair planet of the night--\n     That in thy orb the wretched may have rest;\nThe sufferers of the earth perhaps may go--\n     Released by death-to thy benignant sphere;\nAnd the sad children of despair and woe\n     Forget in thee their cup of sorrow here.\nOh that I soon may reach thy world serene,\n     Poor wearied pilgrim in this toiling scene!\"\n          --_Charlotte Smith_.\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\nThis work is a contribution to light literature, and to the literature\nof light. Though a monograph, it is also a medley.\n\nThe first part is mythological and mirthsome. It is the original\nnucleus around which the other parts have gathered. Some years\nsince, the writer was led to investigate the world-wide myth of the\nMan in the Moon, in its legendary and ludicrous aspects; and one\nstudy being a stepping-stone to another, the ball was enlarged as it\nrolled.\n\nThe second part, dealing with moon-worship, is designed to show\nthat anthropomorphism and sexuality have been the principal factors\nin that idolatry which in all ages has paid homage to the hosts of\nheaven, as _heaved_ above the aspiring worshipper. Man adores\nwhat he regards as higher than he. And if the moon is supposed to\naffect his tides, that body becomes his water-god.\n\nThe third part treats of lunar superstitions, many of which yet live in\nthe vagaries which sour and shade our modern sweetness and light.\n\nThe fourth and final part is a literary essay on lunar inhabitation,\npresenting _in nuce_ the present state of the enigma of \"the plurality\nof worlds.\"\n\nOf the imperfections of his production the author is partly\nconscious. Not _wholly_ so; for others see us often more\nadvantageously than we see ourselves. But a hope is cherished that\nthis work--a compendium of lunar literature in its least scientific\nbranches--may win a welcome which shall constitute the worker's\nrichest reward. To the innumerable writers who are quoted, the\nindebtedness felt is inexpressible.\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\nI     _MOON SPOTS_\n1     Introduction                                               1\n2     The Man in the Moon                                        5\n3     The Woman in the Moon                                     53\n4     The Hare in the Moon                                      60\n5     The Toad in the Moon                                      69\n6     Other Moon Myths                                          71\n\nII    _MOON WORSHIP_\n1     Introduction                                              77\n2     The Moon Mostly a Male Deity                              82\n3     The Moon a World-Wide Deity                               87\n4     The Moon a Water Deity                                   132\n\nIII   _MOON SUPERSTITIONS_\n1     Introduction                                             145\n2     Lunar Fancies                                            152\n3     Lunar Influences                                         175\n\nIV    _MOON INHABITATION_\n\n_APPENDIX_                                                     259\n_NOTES_                                                        263\n_INDEX_                                                        285\n\n\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.\n\n1     Voyaging to the Moon                          _Frontispiece_\n      From Domingo Gonsales, 1638\n2     The Man in the Moon                                        9\n      From Hone's _Facetiae and Miscellanies_, 1821.\n      Drawn by George Cruikshank.\n3     \"The Man in the Moon Drinks Claret\"                       12\n      (From the _Bagford Ballads_, ii, 119, Brit. Mus.)\n4     \"Who'll Smoak with the Man in the Moon?\"                  13\n      (Banks Collection in Brit. Mus.)\n5     The Man in the Moon                                       22\n      From Ludwig Richter's _Der Familienshatz_, Leipzig, p. 25\n6     Seal                                                      28\n      In the _Archaeological Journal_ for March, 1848, p. 68\n7     Representation of the Sabbath-Breaker in Gyffyn Church,\n      Near Conway                                               32\n      From Baring-Gould's _Curious Myths_\n8     The Hare in the Moon                                      63\n      From Colin de Plancy's _Dictionnaire Infernal_\n\n\n\nMOON SPOTS.\n\nI.    INTRODUCTION.\n\nWith the invention of the telescope came an epoch in human\nhistory. To Hans Lippershey, a Dutch optician, is accorded the\nhonour of having constructed the first astronomical telescope, which\nhe made so early as the 2nd of October, 1608. Galileo, hearing of\nthis new wonder, set to work, and produced and improved\ninstrument, which he carried in triumph to Venice, where it\noccasioned the intensest delight. Sir David Brewster tells us that\n\"the interest which the exhibition of the telescope excited at Venice\ndid not soon subside: Sirturi describes it as amounting to frenzy.\nWhen he himself had succeeded in making one of these instruments,\nhe ascended the tower of St. Mark, where he might use it without\nmolestation. He was recognised, however, by a crowd in the street,\nand such was the eagerness of their curiosity, that they took\npossession of the wondrous tube, and detained the impatient\nphilosopher for several hours till they had successively witnessed its\neffects.\" [1] it was in May, 1609, that Galileo turned his telescope\non the moon. \"The first observations of Galileo,\" says Flammarion,\n\"did not make less noise than the discovery of America; many saw\nin them another discovery of a new world much more interesting\nthan America, as it was beyond the earth. It is one of the most\ncurious episodes of history, that of the prodigious excitement which\nwas caused by the unveiling of the world of the moon.\" [2] Nor are\nwe astonished at their astonishment when they beheld mountains\nwhich have since been found to be from 15,000 to 26,000 feet in\nheight--highlands of the moon indeed--far higher in proportion to\nthe moon's diameter than any elevations on the earth; when they saw\nthe surface of the satellite scooped out into deep valleys, or spread\nover with vast walled plains from 130 to 140 miles across. No\nwonder that the followers of Aristotle resented the explosion of their\npreconceived beliefs; for their master had taught that the moon was\nperfectly spherical and smooth, and that the spots were merely\nreflections of our own mountains. Other ancient philosophers had\nsaid that these patches were shadows of opaque bodies floating\nbetween the sun and the moon. But to the credit of Democritus be it\nremembered that he propounded the opinion that the spots were\ndiversities or inequalities upon the lunar surface; and thus\nanticipated by twenty centuries the disclosures of the telescope. The\ninvention of this invaluable appliance we have regarded as marking\na great modern epoch; and what is usually written on the moon is\nmainly a summary of results obtained through telescopic\nobservation, aided by other apparatus, and conducted by learned\nmen. We now purpose to go back to the ages when there were\nneither reflectors nor refractors in existence; and to travel beyond\nthe bounds of ascertained fact into the regions of fiction, where\nabide the shades of superstition and the dreamy forms of myth.\nHaving promised a contribution to light literature, we shall give to\nfancy a free rein, and levy taxes upon poets and story-tellers, wits\nand humorists wherever they may be of service. Much will have to\nbe said, in the first place, of the man in the moon, whom we must\nview as he has been manifested in the mask of mirth, and also in the\nmirror of mythology. Then we shall present the woman in the moon,\nwho is less known than the immortal man. Next a hare will be\nstarted; afterwards a frog, and other objects; and when we reach the\nend of our excursion, if we mistake not, it will be confessed that the\nmoon has created more merriment, more marvel, and more mystery,\nthan all of the other orbs taken together.\n\nBut before we forget the fair moon in the society of its famous man,\nlet us soothe our spirits in sweet oblivion of discussions and\ndissertations, while we survey its argentine glories with poetic\nrapture. Like Shelley, we are all in love with\n\n     \"That orbed maiden, with white fire laden,\n     Whom mortals call the moon.\" (_The Cloud_.)\n\nOur little loves, who take the lowest seats in the domestic\nsynagogue, if they cannot have the moon by crying for it, will rush\nout, when they ought to be in bed, and chant,\n\n     \"Boys and girls come out to play,\n     The moon doth shine as bright as day.\"\n\nThe young ladies of the family, without a tincture of affectation,\nwill languish as they gaze on the lovely Luna. Not, as a grumpy,\ngrisly old bear of a bachelor once said, \"Because there's a man in\nit!\" No; the precious pets are fond of moonlight rather because they\nare the daughters of Eve. They are in sympathy with all that is\nbright and beautiful in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath;\nand it has even been suspected that the only reason why they ever\nassume that invisible round-about called crinoline is that, like the\nmoon, they may move in a circle. Our greatest men, likewise, are\nsusceptible to Luna's blandishments. In proof of this we may\nproduce a story told by Mark Lemon, at one time the able editor of\nPunch. By the way, an irrepressible propensity to play upon words\nhas reminded some one that punch is always improved by the\nessence of lemon. But this we leave to the bibulous, and go on with\nthe story. Lord Brougham, speaking of the salary attached to a new\njudgeship, said it was all moonshine. Lord Lyndhurst, in his dry and\nwaggish way, remarked, \"May be so, my Lord Harry; but I have a\nstrong notion that, moonshine though it be, you would like to see\nthe _first quarter_ of it.\" [3] That Hibernian was a discriminating\nadmirer of the moon who said that the sun was a coward, because he\nalways went away as soon as it began to grow dark, and never came\nback till it was light again; while the blessed moon stayed with us\nthrough the forsaken night. And now, feeling refreshed with these\nexhilarating meditations, we, for awhile, leave this lovable orb to\nthose astronomical stars who have studied the heavens from their\nearliest history; and hasten to make ourselves acquainted with the\nproper study of mankind, the ludicrous and legendary lunar man.\n\n\n\nII. THE MAN IN THE MOON.\n\nWe must not be misunderstood. By the man in the moon we do not\nmean any public tavern, or gin-palace, displaying that singular sign.\nThe last inn of that name known to us in London stands in a narrow\npassage of that fashionable promenade called Regent Street, close to\nPiccadilly. Nor do we intend by the man in the moon the silvery\nindividual who pays the election expenses, so long as the elector\nvotes his ticket. Neither do we mean the mooney, or mad fellow\nwho is too fond of the cup which cheers and then inebriates; nor\neven one who goes mooning round the world without a plan or\npurpose. No; if we are not too scientific, we are too straightforward\nto be allured by any such false lights as these. By the man in the\nmoon we mean none other than that illustrious personage, whose\nshining countenance may be beheld many a night, clouds and fogs\npermitting, beaming good-naturedly on the dark earth, and singing,\nin the language of a lyric bard,\n\n     \"The moon is out to-night, love,\n          Meet me with a smile.\"\n\nBut some sceptic may assail us with a note of interrogation, saying,\n\"Is there a man in the moon?\" \"Why, of course, there is!\" Those\nwho have misgivings should ask a sailor; he knows, for the punsters\nassure us that he has been to _sea_. Or let them ask any _lunatic_;\nhe should know, for he has been so _struck_ with his acquaintance,\nthat he has adopted the man's name. Or ask any little girl in the\nnursery, and she will recite, with sweet simplicity, how\n\n          \"The man in the moon\n          Came down too soon,\n     And asked the way to Norwich.\"\n\nThe darling may not understand why he sought that venerable city,\nnor whether he ever arrived there, but she knows very well that\n\n          \"He went by the south,\n          And burnt his mouth\n     With eating hot pease porridge.\"\n\nBut it is useless to inquire of any stupid joker, for he will idly say\nthat there is no such man there, because, forsooth, a certain single\nwoman who was sent to the moon came back again, which she\nwould never have done if a man had been there with whom she\ncould have married and remained, Nor should any one be misled by\nthose blind guides who darkly hint that it is all moonshine. There is\nnot an Indian moonshee, nor a citizen of the Celestial Empire, some\nof whose ancestors came from the nocturnal orb, who does not\nknow better than that. Perhaps the wisest course is to inquire within.\nHave not we all frequently affirmed that we knew no more about\ncertain inscrutable matters than the man in the moon? Now we\nwould never have committed ourselves to such a comparison had\nwe not been sure that the said man was a veritable and creditable,\nthough somewhat uninstructed person. But our feelings ought not to\nbe wrought upon in this way. We \"had rather be a dog, and bay the\nmoon, than such a Roman\" as is not at least distantly acquainted\nwith that brilliant character in high life who careers so\nconspicuously amid the constellations which constitute the upper\nten thousand of super-mundane society. And now some inquisitive\nindividual may be impatient to interrupt our eloquence with the\nquestion, \"What are you going to make of the man in the moon?\"\nWell, we are not going to make anything of him. For, first, he is a\nman; therefore incapable of improvement. Secondly, he is in the\nmoon, and that is out of our reach. [*] All that we can promise just\nnow is, to furnish a few particulars of the man himself; some\naccount of calls which he is reported to have made to his friends\nhere below; and also some account of visits which his friends on\nearth have paid him in return.\n\n[*] Besides, as old John Lilly says in the prologue to his _Endymion_\n(1591), \"There liveth none under the sunne, that knows what to\nmake of the man in the moone.\"\n\nWe know something of his residence, whenever he is at home: what\ndo we know of the man? We have been annoyed at finding his lofty\nname desecrated to base uses. If \"imagination may trace the noble\ndust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole,\" literature\ntraces the man in the moon, and discovers him pressed into the\nmeanest services. Our readers need not be disquieted with details;\nthough our own equanimity has been sorely disturbed as we have\nseen scribblers dragging from the skies a \"name at which the world\ngrows pale, to point a moral, or adorn a tale.\" Political squibs, paltry\nchapbooks, puny satires, and penny imbecilities, too numerous for\nmention here, with an occasional publication of merit, have been\nprinted and sold at the expense of the man in the moon. For the sake\nof the curious we place the titles and dates of some of these in an\nappendix and pass on. We have not learned very many particulars\nrelating to the domestic habits or personal character of the man in\nthe moon, consequently our smallest biographical contributions will\nbe thankfully received. We must not be pressed for his photograph,\nat present. We certainly wish it could have been procured; but\nthough photography has taken some splendid views of the\n\n[Illustration: moon02]\n\n_Geo. Cruikshank_.    Hone's \"_Facetiae_,\" 1821.\nTHE MAN IN THE MOON\n\n     \"If Caesar can hide the sun with a blanket, or put the moon\n     in his pocket, we will pay him tribute for light\" (_Cymbeline_).\n\nface of the moon, it has not yet produced any perfect picture of the\nphysiognomy of the man. It should always be borne in mind that, as\nStilpo says in the old play of _Timon_, written about 1600, \"The\nman in the moone is not in the moone superficially, although he bee\nin the moone (as the Greekes will have it) catapodially,\nspecificatively, and quidditatively.\" [4] This beautiful language, let\nus explain for the behoof of any foreign reader, simply means that\nhe is not always where we can get at him; and therefore his\nvenerable visage is missing from our celestial portrait gallery. One\nfact we have found out, which we fear will ripple the pure water\nplacidity of some of our best friends; but the truth must be told.\n\n     \"Our man in the moon drinks clarret,\n     With powder-beef, turnep, and carret.\n     If he doth so, why should not you\n     Drink until the sky looks blew?\" [5]\n\nAnother old ballad runs:\n\n     \"The man in the moon drinks claret,\n          But he is a dull Jack-a-Dandy;\n     Would he know a sheep's head from a carrot,\n          He should learn to drink cyder and brandy.\"\n\nIn a _Jest Book of the Seventeenth Century_ we came across the\nfollowing story: \"A company of gentlemen coming into a tavern,\nwhose signe was the Moone, called for a quart of sacke. The drawer\ntold them they had none; whereat the gentlemen wondring were told\nby the drawer that the man in the moon always drunke claret.\" [6]\nSeveral astronomers assert the absence of water in the moon; if this\nbe the case, what is the poor man to drink? Still, it is an\nunsatisfactory announcement to us all; for we are afraid that it is the\nclaret which makes him look so red in the face sometimes when he\nis full, and gets a little fogged. We have ourselves seen\n\n[Illustration: moon03]\n\n\"THE MAN IN THE MOON DRINKS CLARET.\"\n\"_Bagford Ballads_,\" ii. 119.\n\nhim actually what sailors call \"half-seas over,\" when we have been\nin mid-Atlantic. We only hope that he imbibes nothing stronger,\nthough it is said that moonlight is but another name for smuggled\nspirits. The lord of Cynthia must not be too hastily suspected, for, at\nmost, the moon fills her horn but once a month. Still, the earth itself\nbeing so invariably sober, its satellite, like Caesar's wife, should be\nabove suspicion. We therefore hope that our lunar hero may yet take\na ribbon of sky-blue from the milky way, and become a staunch\nabstainer; if only for example's sake.\n\nSome old authors and artists have represented the\n\n[Illustration: moon04]\n\nBANKS' COLLECTION OF SHOP BILLS.\n\nman in the moon as an inveterate smoker, which habit surprises us,\nwho supposed him to be\n\n     \"Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot\n     Which men call Earth,\"\n\nas the magnificent Milton has it. His tobacco must be bird's-eye, as\nhe takes a bird's-eye view of things; and his pipe is presumably a\nmeer-sham, whence his \"sable clouds turn forth their silver lining on\nthe night.\" Smoking, without doubt, is a bad practice, especially\nwhen the clay is choked or the weed is worthless; but fuming\nagainst smokers we take to be infinitely worse.\n\nWe are better pleased to learn that the man in the moon is a poet.\nPossibly some uninspired groveller, who has never climbed\nParnassus, nor drunk of the Castalian spring, may murmur that this\nis very likely, for that all poetry is \"moonstruck madness.\" Alas if\nsuch an antediluvian barbarian be permitted to \"revisit thus the\nglimpses of the moon, making night hideous\" as he mutters his\nhorrid blasphemy! We, however, take a nobler view of the matter.\nTo us the music of the spheres is exalting as it is exalted; and the\nmusic of earth is a \"sphere-descended maid, friend of pleasure,\nwisdom's aid.\" We are therefore disposed to hear the following\nlines, which have been handed down for publication. Their title is\nautobiographical, and, for that reason, they are slightly egotistical.\n\n     \"A SHREWD OLD FELLOW'S THE MAN IN THE MOON.\"\n\n     \"From my palace of light I look down upon earth,\n     When the tiny stars are twinkling round me;\n     Though centuries old, I am now as bright\n     As when at my birth Old Adam found me.\n     Oh! the strange sights that I have seen,\n     Since earth first wore her garment of green!\n     King after king has been toppled down,\n     And red-handed anarchy's worn the crown!\n     From the world that's beneath me I crave not a boon,\n     For a shrewd old fellow's the Man in the Moon.\n     And I looked on 'mid the watery strife,\n     When the world was deluged and all was lost\n     Save one blessed vessel, preserver of life,\n     Which rode on through safety, though tempest tost.\n     I have seen crime clothed in ermine and gold,\n     And virtue shuddering in winter's cold.\n     I have seen the hypocrite blandly smile,\n     While straightforward honesty starved the while.\n     Oh! the strange sights that I have seen,\n     Since earth first wore her garment of green!\n     I have gazed on the coronet decking the brow\n     Of the villain who, breathing affection's vow,\n     Hath poisoned the ear of the credulous maiden,\n     Then left her to pine with heart grief laden.\n     Oh! oh! if this, then, be the world, say I,\n     I'll keep to my home in the clear blue sky;\n     Still to dwell in my planet I crave as a boon,\n     For the earth ne'er will do for the Man in the Moon.\" [7]\n\nThis effusion is not excessively flattering to our \"great globe,\" and\n\"all which it inherit\"; and we surmise that the author was in a\nmisanthropic mood when it was written. Yet it is serviceable\nsometimes to see ourselves as others see us. On the other hand, we\nhave but little liking for those who \"hope to merit heaven by making\nearth a hell,\" in any sense. We prefer to believe that the tide is\nrising though the waves recede, and that our dark world is waxing\ntowards the full-orbed glory \"to which the whole creation moves.\"\n\nHere for the present we part company with the man in the moon as\nmaterial for amusement, that we may track him through the mythic\nmaze, where, in well-nigh every language, he has left some traces of\nhis existence. As there is a side of the moon which we have never\nseen, and according to Laplace never shall see, there is also an\naspect of the matter in hand that remains to be traversed, if we\nwould circumambulate its entire extent. Our subject must now be\nviewed in the magic mirror of mythology. The antiquarian Ritson\nshall state the question to be brought before our honourable house of\ninquiry. He denominates the man in the moon \"an imaginary being,\nthe subject of perhaps one of the most ancient, as well as one of the\nmost popular, superstitions of the world.\" [8] And as we must\nexplore the vestiges of antiquity, Asiatic and European, African and\nAmerican, and even Polynesian, we bespeak patient forbearance and\nattention. One little particular we may partly clear up at once,\nthough it will meet us again in another connection. It will serve as a\nsidelight to our legendary scenes. In English, French, Italian, Latin,\nand Greek, the moon is feminine; but in all the Teutonic tongues the\nmoon is masculine. Which of the twain is its true gender? We go\nback to the Sanskrit for an answer. Professor Max Mueller rightly\nsays, \"It is no longer denied that for throwing light on some of the\ndarkest problems that have to be solved by the student of language,\nnothing is so useful as a critical study of Sanskrit.\" [9] Here the\nword for the moon is _mas_, which is masculine. Mark how even\nwhat Hamlet calls \"words, words, words\" lend their weight and\nvalue to the adjustment of this great argument. The very moon is\nmasculine, and, like Wordsworth's child, is \"father of the man.\"\n\nIf a bisexous moon seem an anomaly, perhaps the suggestion of\nJamieson will account for the hermaphrodism: \"The moon, it has\nbeen said, was viewed as of the masculine gender in respect of the\nearth, whose husband he was supposed to be; but as a female in\nrelation to the sun, as being his spouse.\" [10] Here, also, we find a\nclue to the origin of this myth. If modern science, discovering the\nmoon's inferiority to the sun, call the former feminine, ancient\nnescience, supposing the sun to be inferior to the moon, called the\nlatter masculine. The sun, incomparable in splendour, invariable in\naspect and motion, to the unaided eye immaculate in surface, too\ndazzling to permit prolonged observation, and shining in the\ndaytime, when the mind was occupied with the duties of pastoral,\nagricultural, or commercial life, was to the ancient simply an object\nof wonder as a glory, and of worship as a god. The moon, on the\ncontrary, whose mildness of lustre enticed attention, whose phases\nwere an embodiment of change, whose strange spots seemed\nshadowy pictures of things and beings terrestrial, whose appearance\namid the darkness of night was so welcome, and who came to men\nsusceptible, from the influences of quiet and gloom, of superstitious\nimaginings, from the very beginning grew into a familiar spirit of\nkindred form with their own, and though regarded as the\nsubordinate and wife of the sun, was reverenced as the superior and\nhusband of the earth. With the transmission of this myth began its\ntransmutation. From the moon being a man, it became a man's\nabode: with some it was the world whence human spirits came; with\nothers it was the final home whither human spirits returned. Then it\ngrew into a penal colony, to which egregious offenders were\ntransported; or prison cage, in which, behind bars of light, miserable\nsinners were to be exposed to all eternity, as a warning to the\nexcellent of the earth. One thing is certain, namely, that, during\nsome phases, the moon's surface strikingly resembles a man's\ncountenance. We usually represent the sun and the moon with the\nfaces of men; and in the latter case the task is not difficult. Some\nwould say that the moon is so drawn to reproduce some lunar deity:\nit would be more correct to say that the lunar deity was created\nthrough this human likeness. Sir Thomas Browne remarks, \"The sun\nand moon are usually described with human faces: whether herein\nthere be not a pagan imitation, and those visages at first implied\nApollo and Diana, we may make some doubt.\" [11] Brand, in\nquoting Browne, adds, \"Butler asks a shrewd question on this head,\nwhich I do not remember to have seen solved:--\n\n     \"Tell me but what's the natural cause,\n     Why on a Sign no Painter draws\n     The _Full Moon_ ever, but the _Half_?\"\n     (Hudibras, B. II., c. iii.) [12]\n\nAnother factor in the formation of our moon-myth was the\nanthropomorphism which sees something manlike in everything, not\nonly in the anthropoid apes, where we may find a resemblance more\nfaithful than flattering, but also in the mountains and hills, rivers\nand seas of earth, and in the planets and constellations of heaven.\nAnthropomorphism was but a species of personification, which also\nmetamorphosed the firmament into a menagerie of lions and bears,\nwith a variety of birds, beasts, and fishes. Dr. Wagner writes: \"The\nsun, moon, and stars, clouds and mists, storms and tempests,\nappeared to be higher powers, and took distinct forms in the\nimagination of man. As the phenomena of nature seemed to\nresemble animals either in outward form or in action, they were\nrepresented under the figure of animals.\" [13] Sir George W. Cox\npoints out how phrases ascribing to things so named the actions or\nfeelings of living beings, \"would grow into stories which might\nafterwards be woven together, and so furnish the groundwork of\nwhat we call a legend or a romance. This will become plain, if we\ntake the Greek sayings or myths about Endymion and Selene. Here,\nbesides these two names, we have the names Protogenia and\nAsterodia. But every Greek knew that Selene was a name for the\nmoon, which was also described as Asterodia because she has her\npath among the stars, and that Protogenia denoted the first or early\nborn morning. Now Protogenia was the mother of Endymion, while\nAsterodia was his wife; and so far the names were transparent. Had\nall the names remained so, no myth, in the strict sense of the word,\ncould have sprung up; but as it so happened, the meaning of the\nname Endymion, as denoting the sun, when he is about to plunge or\ndive into the sea, had been forgotten, and thus Endymion became a\nbeautiful youth with whom the moon fell in love, and whom she\ncame to look upon as he lay in profound sleep in the cave of\nLatmos.\" [14] To this growth and transformation of myths we may\nreturn after awhile; meanwhile we will follow closely our man in\nthe moon, who, among the Greeks, was the young Endymion, the\nbeloved of Diana, who held the shepherd passionately in her\nembrace. This fable probably arose from Endymion's love of\nastronomy, a predilection common in ancient pastors. He was, no\ndoubt, an ardent admirer of the moon; and soon it was reported that\nSelene courted and caressed him in return. May such chaste\nenjoyment be ours also! We may remark, in passing, that classic\ntales are pure or impure, very much according to the taste of the\nreader. \"To the jaundiced all things seem yellow,\" say the French;\nand Paul said, \"To the pure all things are pure: but unto them that\nare defiled is nothing pure.\" According to Serapion, as quoted by\nClemens Alexandrinus, the tradition was that the face which appears\nin the moon is the soul of a Sibyl. Plutarch, in his treatise, _Of the\nFace appearing in the roundle of the Moone_, cites the poet\nAgesinax as saying of that orb,\n\n     \"All roundabout environed\n     With fire she is illumined:\n     And in the middes there doth appeere,\n     Like to some boy, a visage cleere;\n     Whose eies to us doe seem in view,\n     Of colour grayish more than blew:\n     The browes and forehead tender seeme,\n     The cheeks all reddish one would deeme.\" [15]\n\nThe story of the man in the moon as told in our British nurseries is\nsupposed to be founded on Biblical fact. But though the Jews have a\nTalmudic tradition that Jacob is in the moon, and though they\nbelieve that his face is plainly visible, the Hebrew Scriptures make\nno mention of the myth. Yet to our fireside auditors it is related that\na man was found by Moses gathering sticks on the Sabbath, and that\nfor this crime he was transferred to the moon, there to remain till the\nend of all things. The passage cited in support of this tale is\n_Numbers_ xv. 32-36. Upon referring to the sacred text, we\ncertainly find a man gathering sticks upon the Sabbath day, and the\ncongregation gathering stones for his merciless punishment, but we\nlook in vain for any mention of the moon. _Non est inventus_. Of\nmany an ancient story-teller we may say, as Sheridan said of\nDundas, \"the right honourable gentleman is indebted to his memory\nfor his jests and to his imagination for his facts.\"\n\nMr. Proctor reminds us that \"according to German nurses, the day\nwas not the Sabbath, but Sunday. Their tale runs as follows: Ages\nago there went one Sunday an old man into the woods to hew sticks.\nHe cut a faggot and slung it on a stout staff, cast it over his shoulder,\nand began to trudge home with his burthen. On his way he met a\nhandsome man in Sunday suit, walking towards the church. The\nman stopped, and asked the faggot-bearer, 'Do you know that this is\nSunday on earth, when all must rest from their labours?' 'Sunday on\nearth, or Monday in heaven, it's all one to me!' laughed the\nwoodcutter. 'Then bear your bundle for ever!' answered the stranger.\n'And as you value not Sunday on earth, yours shall\n\n[Illustration: moon05]\n\nbe a perpetual moon-day in heaven; you shall stand for eternity in\nthe moon, a warning to all Sabbath-breakers.' Thereupon the\nstranger vanished, and the man was caught up with his staff and\nfaggot into the moon, where he stands yet.\" [16]\n\nIn Tobler's account the man was given the choice of burning in the\nsun, or of freezing in the moon; and preferring a lunar frost to a\nsolar furnace, he is to be seen at full moon seated with his bundle of\nsticks on his back. If \"the cold in clime are cold in blood,\" we may\nbe thankful that we do not hibernate eternally in the moon and in the\nnights of winter, when the cold north winds blow, \"we may look up\nthrough the casement and \"pity the sorrows of this poor old man.\"\n\nMr. Baring-Gould finds that \"in Schaumberg-lippe, the story goes,\nthat a man and a woman stand in the moon: the man because he\nstrewed brambles and thorns on the church path, so as to hinder\npeople from attending mass on Sunday morning; the woman\nbecause she made butter on that day. The man carries his bundle of\nthorns, the woman her butter tub. A similar tale is told in Swabia\nand in Marken. Fischart says that there 'is to be seen in the moon a\nmannikin who stole wood'; and Praetorius, in his description of the\nworld, that 'superstitious people assert that the black flecks in the\nmoon are a man who gathered wood on a Sabbath, and is therefore\nturned into stone.'\" [17]\n\nThe North Frisians, among the most ancient and pure of all the\nGerman tribes, tell the tale differently. \"At the time when wishing\nwas of avail, a man, one Christmas Eve, stole cabbages from his\nneighbour's garden. When just in the act of walking off with his\nload, he was perceived by the people, who conjured (wished) him\nup in the moon. There he stands in the full moon, to be seen by\neverybody, bearing his load of cabbages to all eternity. Every\nChristmas Eve he is said to turn round once. Others say that he stole\nwillow-boughs, which he must bear for ever. In Sylt the story goes\nthat he was a sheep-stealer, that enticed sheep to him with a bundle\nof cabbages, until, as an everlasting warning to others, he was\nplaced in the moon, where he constantly holds in his hand a bundle\nof cabbages. The people of Rantum say that he is a giant, who at the\ntime of the flow stands in a stooping posture, because he is then\ntaking up water, which he pours out on the earth, and thereby causes\nthe flow; but at the time of the ebb he stands erect and rests from his\nlabour, when the water can subside again.\" [18]\n\nCrossing the sea into Scandinavia, we obtain some valuable\ninformation. First, we find that in the old Norse, or language of the\nancient Scandinavians, the sun is always feminine, and the moon\nmasculine. In the _Voelu-Spa_, a grand, prophetic poem, it is\nwritten--\n\n     \"But the sun had not yet learned to trace\n     The path that conducts to her dwelling-place\n     To the moon arrived was not the hour\n     When he should exert his mystic power\n     Nor to the stars was the knowledge given,\n     To marshal their ranks o'er the fields of heaven.\" [19]\n\nWe also learn that \"the moon and the sun are brother and sister; they\nare the children of Mundilfoeri, who, on account of their beauty,\ncalled his son Mani, and his daughter Sol.\" Here again we observe\nthat the moon is masculine. \"Mani directs the course of the moon,\nand regulates Nyi (the new moon) and Nithi (the waning moon). He\nonce took up two children from the earth, Bil and Hiuki, as they\nwere going from the well of Byrgir, bearing on their shoulders the\nbucket Soeg, and the pole Simul.\" [20] These two children, with\ntheir pole and bucket, were placed in the moon, \"where they could\nbe seen from earth\"; which phrase must refer to the lunar spots.\nThorpe, speaking of the allusion in the _Edda_ to these spots, says\nthat they \"require but little illustration. Here they are children\ncarrying water in a bucket, a superstition still preserved in the\npopular belief of the Swedes.\" [21] We are all reminded at once of\nthe nursery rhyme--\n\n     \"Jack and Jill went up the hill,\n          To fetch a pail of water;\n     Jack fell down and broke his crown,\n          And Jill came tumbling after.\"\n\nLittle have we thought, when rehearsing this jingle in our juvenile\nhours, that we should some day discover its roots in one of the\noldest mythologies of the world. But such is the case. Mr.\nBaring-Gould has evolved the argument in a manner which, if not\nabsolutely conclusive in each point, is extremely cogent and clear.\n\"This verse, which to us seems at first sight nonsense, I have no\nhesitation in saying has a high antiquity, and refers to the Eddaic\nHjuki and Bil. The names indicate as much. Hjuki, in Norse, would\nbe pronounced Juki, which would readily become Jack; and Bil, for\nthe sake of euphony and in order to give a female name to one of the\nchildren, would become Jill. The fall of Jack, and the subsequent\nfall of Jill, simply represent the vanishing of one moon spot after\nanother, as the moon wanes. But the old Norse myth had a deeper\nsignification than merely an explanation of the moon spots. Hjuki is\nderived from the verb jakka, to heap or pile together, to assemble\nand increase; and Bil, from bila, to break up or dissolve. Hjuki and\nBil, therefore, signify nothing more than the waxing and waning of\nthe moon, and the water they are represented as bearing signifies the\nfact that the rainfall depends on the phases of the moon. Waxing and\nwaning were individualized, and the meteorological fact of the\nconnection of the rain with the moon was represented by the\nchildren as water-bearers. But though Jack and Jill became by\ndegrees dissevered in the popular mind from the moon, the original\nmyth went through a fresh phase, and exists still under a new form.\nThe Norse superstition attributed _theft_ to the moon, and the\nvulgar soon began to believe that the figure they saw in the moon\nwas the thief. The lunar specks certainly may be made to resemble\none figure, but only a lively imagination can discern two. The girl\nsoon dropped out of popular mythology, the boy oldened into a\nvenerable man, he retained his pole, and the bucket was transformed\ninto the thing he had stolen--sticks or vegetables. The theft was in\nsome places exchanged for Sabbath-breaking, especially among\nthose in Protestant countries who were acquainted with the Bible\nstory of the stick-gatherer.\" [22]\n\nThe German Grimm, who was by no means a grim German, but a\nvery genial story-teller, also maintains this transformation of the\noriginal myth. \"Plainly enough the water-pole of the heathen story\nhas been transformed into the axe's shaft, and the carried pail into\nthe thornbush; the general idea of theft was retained, but special\nstress laid on the keeping of the Christian holiday, the man suffers\npunishment not so much for cutting firewood, as because he did it\non a Sunday.\" [23] Manifestly \"Jack and Jill went up the hill\" is\nmore than a Runic rhyme, and like many more of our popular strains\nmight supply us with a most interesting and instructive\nentertainment; but we must hasten on with the moon-man.\n\nWe come next to Britain. Alexander Neckam, a learned English\nabbot, poet, and scholar, born in St. Albans, in 1157, in commenting\non the dispersed shadow in the moon, thus alluded to the vulgar\nbelief: \"Nonne novisti quid vulgus vocet rusticum in luna portantem\nspinas? Unde quidam vulgariter loquens ait,\n\n     Rusticus in Luna\n     Quem sarcina deprimit una\n     Monstrat per spinas\n     Nulli prodesse rapinas.\" [24]\n\nThis may be rendered, \"Do you not know what the people call the\nrustic in the moon who carries the thorns? Whence one vulgarly\nspeaking says,\n\n     The Rustic in the moon,\n     Whose burden weighs him down,\n     This changeless truth reveals,\n     He profits not who steals.\"\n\nThomas Wright considers Neckam's Latin version of this popular\ndistich \"very curious, as being the earliest allusion we have to the\npopular legend of the man in the moon.\" We are specially struck\nwith the reference to theft; while no less noteworthy is the absence\nof that sabbatarianism, which is the \"moral\" of the nursery tale.\n\nIn the British Museum there is a manuscript of English poetry of the\nthirteenth century, containing an old song composed probably about\nthe middle of that century. It was first printed by Ritson in his\n_Ancient Songs_, the earliest edition of which was published in\nLondon, in 1790. The first lines are as follows:\n\n     \"Mon in the mone stond ant strit,\n     On is bot-forke is burthen he bereth\n     Hit is muche wonder that he na down slyt,\n     For doute leste he valle he shoddreth and shereth.\" [25]\n\n[Illustration: moon06]\n\nIn the _Archaeological Journal_ we are presented with a relic from\nthe fourteenth century. \"Mr. Hudson Taylor submitted to the\nCommittee a drawing of an impression of a very remarkable\npersonal seal, here represented of the full size. It is appended to a\ndeed (preserved in the Public Record Office) dated in the ninth year\nof Edward the Third, whereby Walter de Grendene, clerk, sold to\nMargaret, his mother, one messuage, a barn and four acres of\nground in the parish of Kingston-on-Thames. The device appears to\nbe founded on the ancient popular legend that a husbandman who\nhad stolen a bundle of thorns from a hedge was, in punishment of\nhis theft, carried up to the moon. The legend reading _Te Waltere\ndocebo cur spinas phebo gero_, 'I will teach you, Walter, why I\ncarry thorns in the moon,' seems to be an enigmatical mode of\nexpressing the maxim that honesty is the best policy.\" [26]\n\nAbout fifty years later, in the same century, Geoffrey Chaucer, in\nhis _Troylus and Creseide_ adverts to the subject in these lines:\n\n     \"(Quod Pandarus) Thou hast a full great care\n     Lest the chorl may fall out of the moone.\"\n     (Book i. Stanza 147.)\n\nAnd in another place he says of Lady Cynthia, or the moon:\n\n     \"Her gite was gray, and full of spottis blake,\n     And on her brest a chorl painted ful even,\n     Bering a bush of thornis on his backe,\n     Whiche for his theft might clime so ner the heaven.\"\n\nWhether Chaucer wrote the _Testament and Complaint of\nCreseide_, in which these latter lines occur, is doubted, though it is\nfrequently ascribed to him. [27]\n\nDr. Reginald Peacock, Bishop of Chichester, in his _Repressor_,\nwritten about 1449, combats \"this opinioun, that a man which stale\nsumtyme a birthan of thornis was sett in to the moone, there for to\nabide for euere.\"\n\nThomas Dekker, a British dramatist, wrote in 1630: \"A starre? Nay,\nthou art more than the moone, for thou hast neither changing\nquarters, nor a man standing in thy circle with a bush of thornes.\"\n[28]\n\nAnd last, but not least, amid the tuneful train, William Shakespeare,\nwithout whom no review of English literature or of poetic lore could\nbe complete, twice mentions the man in the moon. First, in the\n_Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act iii. Scene 1, Quince the carpenter\ngives directions for the performance of Pyramus and Thisby, who\n\"meet by moonlight,\" and says, \"One must come in with a bush of\nthorns and a lanthorn, and say he comes to disfigure, or to present,\nthe person of Moonshine.\" Then in Act v. the player of that part\nsays, \"All that I have to say is, to tell you that the lanthorn is the\nmoon; I, the man in the moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and\nthis dog, my dog.\" And, secondly, in the _Tempest_, Act ii., Scene\n2, Caliban and Stephano in dialogue:\n\n     \"_Cal_. Hast thou not dropp'd from heaven?\n     _Ste_. Out o' the moon, I do assure thee. I was the man i' the\n          moon, when time was.\n     _Cal_. I have seen thee in her, and I do adore thee: my mistress\n          show'd me thee, thy dog, and bush.\"\n\nRobert Chambers refers the following singular lines to the man in\nthe moon: adding, \"The allusion to Jerusalem pipes is curious;\nJerusalem is often applied, in Scottish popular fiction, to things of a\nnature above this world\":\n\n     \"I sat upon my houtie croutie (hams),\n     I lookit owre my rumple routie (haunch),\n     And saw John Heezlum Peezlum\n     Playing on Jerusalem pipes.\" [29]\n\nHere is an old-fashioned couplet belonging probably to our northern\nborders:\n\n     \"The man in the moon\n     Sups his sowins with a cutty spoon.\"\n\nHalliwell explains _sowins_ to be a Northumberland dish of coarse\noatmeal and milk, and a _cutty_ spoon to be a very _small_ spoon.\n[30]\n\nWales is not without a memorial of this myth, for Mr. Baring-Gould\ntells us that \"there is an ancient pictorial representation of our friend\nthe Sabbath-breaker in Gyffyn Church, near Conway. The roof of\nthe chancel is divided into compartments, in four of which are the\nevangelistic symbols, rudely, yet effectively painted. Besides these\nsymbols is delineated in each compartment an orb of heaven. The\nsun, the moon, and two stars, are placed at the feet of the Angel, the\nBull, the Lion, and the Eagle. The representation of the moon is as\nfollows: in the disk is the conventional man with his bundle of\nsticks, but without the dog.\" [31] Mr. Gould says, \"our friend the\nSabbath-breaker\" perhaps the artist would have said \"the thief,\" for\nstealing appears to be more antique.\n\n[Illustration: moon07]\n\nREPRESENTATION IN GYFFYN CHURCH, NEAR CONWAY.\n\nA French superstition, lingering to the present day, regards the man\nin the moon as Judas Iscariot, transported to the moon for his\ntreason. This plainly is a Christian invention. Some say the figure is\nIsaac bearing a burthen of wood for the sacrifice of himself on\nMount Moriah. Others that it is Cain carrying a bundle of thorns on\nhis shoulder, and offering to the Lord the cheapest gift from the\nfield. [32] This was Dante's view, as the succeeding passages will\nshow:\n\n     \"For now doth Cain with fork of thorns confine\n     On either hemisphere, touching the wave\n     Beneath the towers of Seville. Yesternight\n     The moon was round.\"\n     (_Hell_. Canto xx., line 123.)\n\n     \"But tell, I pray thee, whence the gloomy spots\n     Upon this body, which below on earth\n     Give rise to talk of Cain in fabling quaint?\"\n     (_Paradise_, ii. 50.) [33]\n\nWhen we leave Europe, and look for the man in the moon under\nother skies, we find him, but with an altogether new aspect. He is\nthe same, and yet another; another, yet the same. In China he plays a\npleasing part in connubial affairs. \"The Chinese 'Old Man in the\nMoon' is known as _Yue-lao_, and is reputed to hold in his hands\nthe power of predestining the marriages of mortals--so that\nmarriages, if not, according to the native idea, exactly made in\nheaven, are made somewhere beyond the bounds of earth. He is\nsupposed to tie together the future husband and wife with an\ninvisible silken cord, which never parts so long as life exists.\" [34]\nThis must be the man of the Honey-moon, and we shall not meet his\nsuperior in any part of the world. Among the Khasias of the\nHimalaya Mountains \"the changes of the moon are accounted for by\nthe theory that this orb, who is a man, monthly falls in love with his\nwife's mother, who throws ashes in his face. The sun is female.\"\n[35] The Slavonic legend, following the Himalayan, says that \"the\nmoon, King of night and husband of the sun, faithlessly loves the\nmorning Star, wherefore he was cloven through in punishment, as\nwe see him in the sky.\" [36]\n\n\"One man in his time plays many parts,\" and the man in the moon is\nno exception to the rule. In Africa his _role_ is a trying one; for \"in\nBushman astrological mythology the moon is looked upon as a man\nwho incurs the wrath of the sun, and is consequently pierced by the\nknife (_i.e._ rays) of the latter. This process is repeated until almost\nthe whole of the moon is cut away, and only a little piece left; which\nthe moon piteously implores the sun to spare for his (the moon's)\nchildren. (The moon is in Bushman mythology a male being.) From\nthis little piece, the moon gradually grows again until it becomes a\nfull moon, when the sun's stabbing and cutting processes\nrecommence.\" [37]\n\nWe cross the Atlantic, and among the Greenlanders discover a myth,\nwhich is _sui generis_. \"The sun and moon are nothing else than\ntwo mortals, brother and sister. They were playing with others at\nchildren's games in the dark, when _Malina_, being teased in a\nshameful manner by her brother _Anninga_, smeared her hands\nwith the soot of the lamp, and rubbed them over the face and hands\nof her persecutor, that she might recognise him by daylight. Hence\narise the spots in the moon. Malina wished to save herself by flight,\nbut her brother followed at her heels. At length she flew upwards,\nand became the sun. Anninga followed her, and became the moon;\nbut being unable to mount so high, he runs continually round the\nsun, in hopes of some time surprising her. When he is tired and\nhungry in his last quarter, he leaves his house on a sledge harnessed\nto four huge dogs, to hunt seals, and continues abroad for several\ndays. He now fattens so prodigiously on the spoils of the chase, that\nhe soon grows into the full moon. He rejoices on the death of\nwomen, and the sun has her revenge on the death of men; all males\ntherefore keep within doors during an eclipse of the sun, and\nfemales during that of the moon.\" [38] This Esquimaux story, which\nhas some interesting features, is told differently by Dr. Hayes, the\nArctic explorer, who puts a lighted taper into the sun's hands, with\nwhich she discovered her brother, and which now causes her bright\nlight, \"while the moon, having lost his taper, is cold, and could not\nbe seen but for his sister's light.\" [39] This belief prevails as far\nsouth as Panama, for the inhabitants of the Isthmus of Darien have a\ntradition that the man in the moon was guilty of gross misconduct\ntowards his elder sister, the sun. [40]\n\nThe Creek Indians say that the moon is inhabited by a man and a\ndog. The native tribes of British Columbia, too, have their myth.\nMr. William Duncan writes to the Church Missionary Society: \"One\nvery dark night I was told that there was a moon to be seen on the\nbeach. On going to see, there was an illuminated disk, with the\nfigure of a man upon it. The water was then very low, and one of the\nconjuring parties had lit up this disk at the water's edge. They had\nmade it to wax with great exactness, and presently it was at full. It\nwas an imposing sight. Nothing could be seen around it; but the\nIndians suppose that the medicine party are then holding converse\nwith the man in the moon.\" [41] Mr. Duncan was at another time led\nto the ancestral village of a tribe of Indians, whose chief said to him:\n\"This is the place where our fore fathers lived, and they told us\nsomething we want to tell you. The story is as follows: 'One night a\nchild of the chief class awoke and cried for water. Its cries were\nvery affecting--\"Mother, give me to drink!\" but the mother heeded\nnot. The moon was affected, and came down, entered the house, and\napproached the child, saying, \"Here is water from heaven: drink.\"\nThe child anxiously laid hold of the pot and drank the draught, and\nwas enticed to go away with the moon, its benefactor. They took an\nunderground passage till they got quite clear of the village, and then\nascended to heaven.' And,\" said the chief, \"our forefathers tell us\nthat the figure we now see in the moon is that very child; and also\nthe little round basket which it had in its hand when it went to sleep\nappears there.\" [42]\n\nThe aborigines of New Zealand have a suggestive version of this\nsuperstition. It is quoted from D'Urville by De Rougemont in his\n_Le Peuple Primitif_ (tom. ii. p. 245), and is as follows:--\"Before\nthe moon gave light, a New Zealander named Rona went out in the\nnight to fetch some water from the well. But he stumbled and\nunfortunately sprained his ankle, and was unable to return home. All\nat once, as he cried out for very anguish, he beheld with fear and\nhorror that the moon, suddenly becoming visible, descended\ntowards him. He seized hold of a tree, and clung to it for safety; but\nit gave way, and fell with Rona upon the moon; and he remains\nthere to this day.\" [43] Another account of Rona varies in that he\nescapes falling into the well by seizing a tree, and both he and the\ntree were caught up to the moon. The variation indicates that the\nlegend has a living root.\n\nHere we terminate our somewhat wearisome wanderings about the\nworld and through the mazes of mythology in quest of the man in\nthe moon. As we do so, we are constrained to emphasize the striking\nsimilarity between the Scandinavian myth of Jack and Jill, that\nexquisite tradition of the British Columbian chief, and the New\nZealand story of Rona. When three traditions, among peoples so far\napart geographically, so essentially agree in one, the lessons to be\nlearned from comparative mythology ought not to be lost upon the\nphilosophical student of human history. To the believer in the unity\nof our race such a comparison of legends is of the greatest\nimportance. As Mr. Tylor tells us, \"The number of myths recorded\nas found in different countries, where it is hardly conceivable that\nthey should have grown independently, goes on steadily increasing\nfrom year to year, each one furnishing a new clue by which\ncommon descent or intercourse is to be traced.\" [44] The same\nwriter says on another page of his valuable work, \"The mythmaking\nfaculty belongs to mankind in general, and manifests itself in the\nmost distant regions, where its unity of principle develops itself in\nendless variety of form.\" [45] Take, for example, China and\nEngland, representing two distinct races, two languages, two forms\nof religion, and two degrees of civilization yet, as W. F. Mayers\nremarks, \"No one can compare the Chinese legend with the popular\nEuropean belief in the 'Man in the Moon,' without feeling convinced\nof the certainty that the Chinese superstition and the English nursery\ntale are both derived from kindred parentage, and are linked in this\nrelationship by numerous subsidiary ties. In all the range of Chinese\nmythology there is, perhaps, no stronger instance of identity with\nthe traditions that have taken root in Europe than in the case of the\nlegends relating to the moon.\" [46] This being the case, our present\nendeavour to establish the consanguinity of the nations, on the\nground of agreement in myths and modes of faith and worship,\ncannot be labour thrown away. The recognition of friends in heaven\nis an interesting speculation; but far more good must result, as\nconcerns this life at least, from directing our attention to the\nrecognition of friends on earth. If we duly estimate the worth of any\ncomparative science, whether of anatomy or philology, mythology\nor religion, this is the grand generalization to be attained, essential\nunity consistent and concurrent with endless multiformity; many\nstructures, but one life; many creeds, but one faith; many beings and\nbecomings, but all emanating from one Paternity, cohering through\none Presence, and converging to one Perfection, in Him who is the\nAuthor and Former and Finisher of all things which exist. Let no\nman therefore ridicule a myth as puerile if it be an aid to belief in\nthat commonweal of humanity for which the Founder of the purest\nreligion was a witness and a martyr. We have sought out the man in\nthe moon mainly because it was one out of many scattered stories\nwhich, as Max Mueller nobly says, \"though they may be pronounced\nchildish and tedious by some critics, seem to me to glitter with the\nbrightest dew of nature's own poetry, and to contain those\nvery touches that make us feel akin, not only with Homer or\nShakespeare, but even with Lapps, and Finns, and Kaffirs.\" [47]\nVico discovered the value of myths, as an addition to our\nknowledge of the mental and moral life of the men of the\nmyth-producing period. Professor Flint tells us that mythology, as\nviewed by the contemporaries of Vico, \"appeared to be merely a\nrubbish-heap, composed of waste, worthless, and foul products of\nmind; but he perceived that it contained the materials for a science\nwhich would reflect the mind and history of humanity, and even\nasserted some general principles as to how these materials were to be\ninterpreted and utilised, which have since been established, or at\nleast endorsed, by Heyne, Creuzer, C O Mueller, and others.\" [48]\nLet us cease to call that common which God has cleansed, and with\nthankfulness recognise the solidarity of the human race, to which\ntestimony is borne by even a lunar myth.\n\nWe now return to the point whence we deflected, and rejoin the\nchief actor in the selenographic comedy. It is a relief to get away\nfrom the legendary man in the moon, and to have the real man once\nmore in sight. We are like the little boy, whom the obliging visitor,\nanxious to show that he was passionately fond of children, and\nnever annoyed by them in the least, treated to a ride upon his knee.\n\"Trot, trot, trot; how do you enjoy that, my little man? Isn't that\nnice?\" \"Yes, sir,\" replied the child, \"but not so nice as on the real\ndonkey, the one with the four legs.\" It is true, the mythical character\nhas redeeming traits; but then he breaks the Sabbath, obstructs\npeople going to mass, steals cabbages, and is undergoing sentence\nof transportation for life. While the real man, who lives in a\nwell-lighted crescent, thoroughly ventilated; whose noble profile is\nsometimes seen distinctly when he passes by on the shady side of\nthe way; whose beaming countenance is at other times turned full\nupon us, reflecting nothing but sunshine as he winks at his many\nadmirers: he is a being of quite another order. We do not forget that\nhe has been represented with a claret jug in one hand, and a claret\ncup in the other; that he frequently takes half and half; that he is a\nsmoker; that he sometimes gets up when other people are going to\nbed; that he often stops out all the night; and is too familiar with the\nlow song--\n\n     \"We won't go home till morning.\"\n\nBut these are mere eccentricities of greatness, and with all such\nirregularities he is \"a very delectable, highly respectable\" young\nfellow; in short,\n\n     \"A most intense young man,\n     A soul-full-eyed young man,\n     An ultra-poetical, super-aesthetical,\n     Out-of-the-way young man.\"\n\nWhy, he has been known to take the shine out of old Sol himself;\nthough from his partiality to us it always makes him look black in\nthe face when we, Alexander-like, stand between him and that\nluminary. We, too, are the only people by whom he ever allows\nhimself to be eclipsed. Illustrious man in the moon I he has lifted\nour thoughts from earth to heaven, and we are reluctant to leave\nhim. But the best of friends must part; especially as other lunar\ninhabitants await attention.\n\n\"Other inhabitants!\" some one may exclaim. Surely! we reply; and\nthough it will necessitate a digression, we touch upon the question\n_en passant_. Cicero informs us that \"Xenophanes says that the\nmoon is inhabited, and a country having several towns and\nmountains in it.\" [49] This single dictum will be sufficient for those\nwho bow to the influence of authority in matters of opinion.\nSettlement of questions by \"texts\" is a saving of endless pains. For\nthat there are such lunar inhabitants must need little proof. Every\nastronomer is aware that the moon is full of craters; and every\nlinguist is aware that \"cratur\" is the Irish word for creature. Or, to\nstate the argument syllogistically, as our old friend Aristotle would\nhave done: \"Craturs\" are inhabitants; the moon is full of craters;\ntherefore the moon is full of inhabitants. We appeal to any unbiased\nmind whether such argumentation is not as sound as much of our\nmodern reasoning, conducted with every pretence to logic and\nlucidity. Besides, who has not heard of that astounding publication,\nissued fifty years since, and entitled _Great Astronomical\nDiscoveries lately made by Sir John Herschel, LL.D., F.R.S., etc., at\nthe Cape of Good Hope_? One writer dares to designate it a singular\nsatire; stigmatizes it as the once celebrated _Moon Hoax_, and\nattributes it to one Richard Alton Locke, of the United States. What\nan insinuation! that a man born under the star-spangled banner\ncould trifle with astronomy. But if a few incredulous persons\ndoubted, a larger number of the credulous believed. When the first\nnumber appeared in the New York Sun, in September, 1835, the\nexcitement aroused was intense. The paper sold daily by thousands;\nand when the articles came out as a pamphlet, twenty thousand went\noff at once. Not only in Young America, but also in Old England,\nFrance, and throughout Europe, the wildest enthusiasm prevailed.\nCould anybody reasonably doubt that Sir John had seen wonders,\nwhen it was known that his telescope contained a prodigious lens,\nweighing nearly seven tons, and possessing a magnifying power\nestimated at 42,000 times? A reverend astronomer tells us that Sir\nFrederick Beaufort, having occasion to write to Sir John Herschel at\nthe Cape, asked if he had heard of the report current in England that\nhe (Sir John) had discovered sheep, oxen, and flying _men_ in the\nmoon. Sir John had heard the report; and had further heard that an\nAmerican divine had \"improved\" the revelations. The said divine\nhad told his congregation that, on account of the wonderful\ndiscoveries of the present age, lie lived in expectation of one day\ncalling upon them for a subscription to buy Bibles for the benighted\ninhabitants of the moon. [50] What more needs to be said? Give our\nastronomical mechanicians a little time, and they will produce an\ninstrument for full verification of these statements regarding the\nlunar inhabitants; and we may realize more than we have imagined\nor dreamed. We may obtain observations as satisfactory as those of\na son of the Emerald Isle, who was one day boasting to a friend of\nhis excellent telescope. \"Do you see yonder church?\" said he.\n\"Although it is scarcely discernible with the naked eye, when I look\nat it through my telescope, it brings it so close that I can hear the\norgan playing.\" Two hundred years ago, a wise man witnessed a\nwonderful phenomenon in the moon: he actually beheld a live\nelephant there. But the unbelieving have ever since made all manner\nof fun at the good knight's expense. Take the following burlesque of\nthis celebrated discovery as an instance. \"Sir Paul Neal, a conceited\nvirtuoso of the seventeenth century, gave out that he had discovered\n'an elephant in the moon.' It turned out that a mouse had crept into\nhis telescope, which had been mistaken for an elephant in the\nmoon.\" [51] Well, we concede that an elephant and a mouse are\nvery much alike; but surely Sir Paul was too sagacious to be\ndeceived by resemblances. If we had more faith, which is\nindispensable in such matters, the revelations of science, however\nextraordinary or extravagant, would be received without a murmur\nof distrust. We should not then meet with such sarcasm as we found\nin the seventeenth century _Jest Book_ before quoted: \"One asked\nwhy men should thinke there was a world in the moone? It was\nanswered, because they were lunatique.\"\n\nAccording to promise, we must make mention of at least one visit\npaid by our hero to this lower world. We do this in the classic\nlanguage of a student of that grand old University which stands in\nthe city of Oxford. May the horns of Oxford be exalted, and the\nshadow of the University never grow less, while the moon endureth!\n\n     \"The man in the moon! why came he down\n     From his peaceful realm on high;\n     Where sorrowful moan is all unknown,\n     And nothing is born to die?\n     The man in the moon was tired, it seems,\n     Of living so long in the land of dreams;\n     'Twas a beautiful sphere, but nevertheless\n     Its lunar life was passionless;\n     Unchequered by sorrow, undimmed by crime,\n     Untouched by the wizard wand of time;\n     'Twas all too grand, there was no scope\n     For dread, and of course no room for hope\n     To him the future had no fear,\n     To make the present doubly dear;\n     The day no cast of coming night,\n     To make the borrowed ray more bright;\n     And life itself no thought of death,\n     To sanctify the boon of breath:--\n     In short, as we world-people say,\n     The man in the moon was _ennuye_.\" [52]\n\nPoor man in the moon! what a way he must have been in! We hope\nthat he found improving fellowship, say among the Fellows of some\nRoyal Astronomical Society; and that when e returned to his\nskylight, or lighthouse on the coast of immensity's wide sea, he\nreturned a wiser and much happier man. It is for us, too, to\nremember with Spenser, \"The noblest mind the best contentment\nhas.\"\n\nAnd now we record a few visits which men of this sublunary sphere\nare said to have paid to the moon. The chronicles are unfortunately\nvery incomplete. Aiming at historical fulness and fidelity, we turned\nto our national bibliotheca at the British Museum, where we fished\nout of the vasty deep of treasures a MS. without date or name. We\nwish the Irish orator's advice were oftener followed by literary\nauthors. Said he, \"Never write an anonymous letter without signing\nyour name to it.\" This MS. is entitled \"_Selenographia_, or News\nfrom the world in the moon to the lunatics of this world. By Lucas\nLunanimus of Lunenberge.\" [53] We are here told how the author,\n\"making himself a kite of ye hight(?) of a large sheet, and tying\nhimself to the tayle of it, by the help of some trusty friends, to\nwhom he promised mountains of land in this his new-found world;\nbeing furnished also with a tube, horoscope, and other instruments\nof discovery, he set saile the first of Aprill, a day alwaies esteemed\nprosperous for such adventures.\" Fearing, however, lest the date of\ndeparture should make some suspicious that the author was desirous\nof making his readers April fools, we leave this aerial tourist to\npursue his explorations without our company, and listen to a learned\nbishop, who ought to be a canonical authority, for the man in the\nmoon himself is an overseer of men. Dr. Francis Godwin, first of\nLlandaff, afterwards of Hereford, wrote about the year 1600 _The\nMan in the Moone_, or a discourse of a voyage thither. This was\npublished in 1638, under the pseudonym of Domingo Gonsales. The\nenterprising aeronaut went up from the island of El Pico, carried by\nwild swans. _Swans_, be it observed. It was not a wild-goose chase.\nThe author is careful to tell us what we believe so soon as it is\ndeclared. \"The further we went, the lesser the globe of the earth\nappeared to us; whereas still on the contrary side the moone showed\nherselfe more and more monstrously huge.\" After eleven days'\npassage, the exact time that Arago allowed for a cannon ball to\nreach the moon, \"another earth\" was approached. \"I perceived that it\nwas covered for the most part with a huge and mighty sea, those\nparts only being drie land, which show unto us here somewhat\ndarker than the rest of her body; that I mean which the country\npeople call _el hombre della Luna_, the man of the moone.\"\nThis last clause demands a protest. The bishop knocks the\ncountry-people's man out of the moon, to make room for his own\nman, which episcopal creation is twenty-eight feet high, and weighs\ntwenty-five or thirty of any of us. Besides ordinary men, of\nextraordinary measurement, the bishop finds in the moon princes\nand queens. The females, or lunar ladies, as a matter of course, are\nof absolute beauty. Their language has \"no affinity with any other I\never heard.\" This is a poor look-out for the American divine who\nexpects to send English Bibles to the moon. \"Food groweth\neverywhere without labour\": this is a cheering prospect for our\nworking classes who may some day go there. \"They need no\nlawyers\": oh what a country! \"And as little need is there of\nphysicians.\" Why, the moon must be Paradise regained. But, alas!\n\"they die, or rather (I should say) cease to live.\" Well, my lord\nbishop, is not that how we die on earth? Perhaps we need to be\nlearned bishops to appreciate the difference. If so, we might accept\nepiscopal distinction.\n\nLucian, the Greek satirist, in his _Voyage to the Globe of the\nMoon_, sailed through the sky for the space of seven days and\nnights and on the eighth \"arrived in a great round and shining island\nwhich hung in the air and yet was inhabited. These inhabitants were\nHippogypians, and their king was Endymion.\" [54] Some of the\nancients thought the lunarians were fifteen times larger than we are,\nand our oaks but bushes compared with their trees. So natural is it to\nmagnify prophets not of our own country.\n\nWilliam Hone tells us that a Mr. Wilson, formerly curate of Halton\nGill, near Skipton-in-Craven, Yorkshire, in the last century wrote a\ntract entitled _The Man in the Moon_, which was seriously meant to\nconvey the knowledge of common astronomy in the following\nstrange vehicle: A cobbler, Israel Jobson by name, is supposed to\nascend first to the top of Penniguit; and thence, as a second stage\nequally practicable, to the moon; after which he makes the grand\ntour of the whole solar system. From this excursion, however, the\ntraveller brings back little information which might not have been\nhad upon earth, excepting that the inhabitants of one of the planets, I\nforget which, were made of \"pot metal.\" [55] This curious tract, full\nof other extravagances, is rarely if ever met with, it having been\nzealously bought up by its writer's family.\n\nWe must not be detained with any detailed account of M. Jules\nVerne's captivating books, entitled _From the Earth to the Moon_,\nand _Around the Moon_. They are accessible to all, at a trifling\ncost. Besides, they reveal nothing new relating to the Hamlet of our\npresent play. Nor need we more than mention \"the surprising\nadventures of the renowned Baron Munchausen.\" His lunarians\nbeing over thirty-six feet high, and \"a common flea being much\nlarger than one of our sheep,\" [56] Munchausen's moon must be\ndeclined, with thanks.\n\n\"Certain travellers, like the author of the _Voyage au monde de\nDescartes_, have found, on visiting these different lunar countries,\nthat the great men whose names they had arbitrarily received took\npossession of them in the course of the sixteenth century, and there\nfixed their residence. These immortal souls, it seems, continued\ntheir works and systems inaugurated on earth. Thus it is, that on\nMount Aristotle a real Greek city has risen, peopled with peripatetic\nphilosophers, and guarded by sentinels armed with propositions,\nantitheses, and sophisms, the master himself living in the centre of\nthe town in a magnificent palace. Thus also in Plato's circle live\nsouls continually occupied in the study of the prototype of ideas.\nTwo years ago a fresh division of lunar property was made, some\nastronomers being generously enriched.\" [57]\n\nThat the moon is an abode of the departed spirits of men, an upper\nhades, has been believed for ages. In the Egyptian _Book of\nRespirations_, which M. p. J. de Horrack has translated from the\nMS. in the Louvre in Paris, Isis breathes the wish for her brother\nOsiris \"that his soul may rise to heaven in the disk of the moon.\"\n[58] Plutarch says, \"Of these soules the moon is the element,\nbecause soules doe resolve into her, like as the bodies of the dead\ninto the earth.\" [59] To this ancient theory Mr. Tylor refers when he\nwrites, \"And when in South America the Saliva Indians have\npointed out the moon, their paradise where no mosquitoes are, and\nthe Guaycurus have shown it as the home of chiefs and medicine-men\ndeceased, and the Polynesians of Tokelau in like manner have\nclaimed it as the abode of departed kings and chiefs, then these\npleasant fancies may be compared with that ancient theory\nmentioned by Plutarch, that hell is in the air and elysium in the\nmoon, and again with the mediaeval conception of the moon as the\nseat of hell, a thought elaborated in profoundest bathos by Mr. M. F.\nTupper:\n\n     'I know thee well, O Moon, thou cavern'd realm,\n     Sad satellite, thou giant ash of death,\n     Blot on God's firmament, pale home of crime,\n     Scarr'd prison house of sin, where damned souls\n     Feed upon punishment. Oh, thought sublime,\n     That amid night's black deeds, when evil prowls\n     Through the broad world, thou, watching sinners well,\n     Glarest o'er all, the wakeful eye of--Hell!'\n\nSkin for skin, the brown savage is not ill-matched in such\nspeculative lore with the white philosopher.\" [60]\n\nThe last journey to the moon on our list we introduce for the sake of\nits sacred lesson. Pure religion is an Attic salt, which wise men use\nin all of their entertainments: a condiment which seasons what is\notherwise insipid, and assists healthy digestion in the compound\norganism of man's mental and moral constitution. About seventy\nyears since, a little tract was published, in which the writer imagined\nhimself on _luna firma_. After giving the inhabitants of the moon an\naccount of our terrestrial race, of its fall and redemption, and of the\nunhappiness of those who neglect the great salvation, he says, \"The\nsecret is this, that nothing but an infinite God, revealing Himself by\nHis Spirit to their minds, and enabling them to believe and trust in\nHim, can give perfect and lasting satisfaction.\" He then adds, \"My\nlast observation received the most marked approbation of the lunar\ninhabitants: they truly pitied the ignorant triflers of our sinful world,\nwho prefer drunkenness, debauchery, sinful amusements, exorbitant\nriches, flattery, and other things that are highly esteemed amongst\nmen, to the pleasures of godliness, to the life of God in the soul of\nman, to the animating hope of future bliss.\" [61]\n\nHere the man in the moon and we must part. Hitherto some may\nhave supposed their thoughts occupied with a mere creature of\nimagination, or gratuitous creation of an old-world mythology.\nPerhaps the man in the moon is nothing more: perhaps he is very\nmuch more. Possibly we have information of every being in the\nuniverse; and possibly there are beings in every existing world of\nwhich we know nothing whatever. The latter possibility we deem\nmuch the more probable. Remembering our littleness as contrasted\nwith the magnitude of the whole creation, we prefer to believe that\nthere are rational creatures in other worlds besides this small-sized\nsphere in, it may be, a small-sized system. Therefore, till we acquire\nmore conclusive evidence than has yet been adduced, we will not\nregard even the moon as an empty abode, but as the home of beings\nwhom, in the absence of accurate definition, we denominate men.\nWhether the man in the moon have a body like our own, whether his\nbreathing apparatus, his digestive functions, and his cerebral organs,\nbe identical with ours, are matters of secondary moment. The\nFabricator of terrestrial organizations has limited himself to no one\ntype or form, why then should man be the model of beings in distant\nworlds? Be the man in the moon a biped or quadruped; see he\nthrough two eyes as we do, or a hundred like Argus; hold he with\ntwo hands as we do, or a hundred like Briarius; walk he with two\nfeet as we do, or a hundred like the centipede, \"the mind's the\nstandard of the man\" everywhere. If he have but a wise head and a\nwarm heart; if he be not shut up, Diogenes--like, within his own\nlittle tub of a world, but take an interest in the inhabitants of kindred\nspheres; and if he be a worshipper of the one God who made the\nheavens with all their glittering hosts;--then, in the highest sense, he\nis a _man_, to whom we would fain extend the hand of fellowship,\nclaiming him as a brother in that universal family which is confined\nto no bone or blood, no colour or creed, and, so far as we can\nconjecture, to no world, but is co-extensive with the household of\nthe Infinite Father, who cares for all of His children, and will\nultimately blend them in the blessed bonds of an endless\nconfraternity. Whether we or our posterity will ever become better\nacquainted in this life with the man in the moon is problematical;\nbut in the ages to come, \"when the manifold wisdom of God\" shall\nbe developed among \"the principalities and powers in heavenly\nplaces,\" he may be something more than a myth or topic of\namusement. He may be visible among the first who will declare\nevery man in his own tongue wherein he was born the wonderful\nworks of God, and he may be audible among the first who will lift\ntheir hallelujahs of undivided praise when every satellite shall be a\nchorister to laud the universal King. Let us, brothers of earth, by\nhigh and holy living, learn the music of eternity; and then, when the\ndiscord of \"life's little day\" is hushed, and we are called to join in\nthe everlasting song, we may solve in one beatific moment the\nproblem of the plurality of worlds, and in that solution we shall see\nmore than we have been able to see at present of the man in the\nmoon.\n\n\n\nIII. THE WOMAN IN THE MOON.\n\n     \"O woman! lovely woman! nature made thee\n     To temper man; we had been brutes without you.\n     Angels are painted fair, to look like you:\n     There's in you all that we believe of heaven\n     Amazing brightness, purity, and truth,\n     Eternal joy, and everlasting love.\"\n     (Otway's _Venice Preserved_, 1682.)\n\nIt is not good that the man in the moon should be alone; therefore\ncreative imagination has supplied him with a companion. The\nwoman in the moon as a myth does not obtain to any extent in\nEurope; she is to be found chiefly in Polynesia, and among the\nnative races of North America. The _Middle Kingdom_ furnishes\nthe following allusion: \"The universal legend of the man in the\nmoon takes in China a form that is at least as interesting as the ruder\nlegends of more barbarous people. The 'Goddess of the Palace of the\nMoon,' Chang-o, appeals as much to our sympathies as, and rather\nmore so than, the ancient beldame who, in European folk-lore, picks\nup perpetual sticks to satisfy the vengeful ideas of an ultra-Sabbatical\nsect. Mr. G. C. Stent has aptly seized the idea of the Chinese\nversifier whom he translates\n\n     \"On a gold throne, whose radiating brightness\n          Dazzles the eyes--enhaloing the scene,\n     Sits a fair form, arrayed in snowy whiteness.\n          She is Chang-o, the beauteous Fairy Queen.\n     Rainbow-winged angels softly hover o'er her,\n         Forming a canopy above the throne;\n     A host of fairy beings stand before her,\n          Each robed in light, and girt with meteor zone.'\" [62]\n\nA touching tradition is handed down by Berthold that the moon is\nMary Magdalene, and the spots her tears of repentance. [63]\nFontenelle, the French poet and philosopher, saw a woman in the\nmoon's changes. \"Everything,\" he says, \"is in perpetual motion;\neven including a certain young lady in the moon, who was seen with\na telescope about forty years ago, everything has considerably aged.\nShe had a pretty good face, but her cheeks are now sunken, her nose\nis lengthened, her forehead and chin are now prominent to such an\nextent, that all her charms have vanished, and I fear for her days.\"\n\"What are you relating to me now?\" interrupted the marchioness.\n\"This is no jest,\" replied Fontenelle. \"Astronomers perceived in the\nmoon a particular figure which had the aspect of a woman's head,\nwhich came forth from between the rocks, and then occurred some\nchanges in this region. Some pieces of mountain fell, and disclosed\nthree points which could only serve to compose a forehead, a nose,\nand an old woman's chin.\" [64] Doubtless the face and the\ndisfigurements were fictions of the author's lively imagination, and\nhis words savour less of science than of satire; but Fontenelle was\nneither the first nor the last of those to whom \"the inconstant moon\nthat monthly changes\" has been an impersonation of the fickle and\nthe feminine. The following illustration is from Plutarch: \"Cleobulus\nsaid, As touching fooles, I will tell you a tale which I heard my\nmother once relate unto a brother of mine. The time was (quoth she)\nthat the moone praied her mother to make her a peticoate fit and\nproportionate for her body. Why, how is it possible (quoth her\nmother) that I should knit or weave one to fit well about thee\nconsidering that I see thee one while full, another while croissant or\nin the wane and pointed with tips of horns, and sometime again\nhalfe rounde?\" [65] Old John Lilly, one of our sixteenth-century\ndramatists, likewise supports this ungallant theory. In the\n_Prologus_ to one of his very rare dramas he writes:\n\n     \"Our poet slumb'ring in the muses laps,\n     Hath seen a woman seated in the moone.\" [66]\n\nThis woman is Pandora, the mischief-maker among the Utopian\nshepherds. In Act v. she receives her commission to conform the\nmoon to her own mutability:\n\n     \"Now rule _Pandora_ in fayre _Cynthia's_ steede,\n     And make the moone inconstant like thyselfe,\n     Raigne thou at women's nuptials, and their birth,\n     Let them be mutable in all their loves.\n     Fantasticall, childish, and folish, in their desires\n     Demanding toyes; and stark madde\n     When they cannot have their will.\"\n\nIn North America the woman in the moon is a cosmological myth.\nTake, for example, the tale told by the Esquimaux, which word is\nthe French form of the Algonquin Indian _Eskimantsic_, \"raw-flesh\neaters.\" \"Their tradition of the formation of the sun and moon is,\nthat not long after the world was formed, a great conjuror or angikak\nbecame so powerful that he could ascend into the heavens when he\npleased, and on one occasion took with him a beautiful sister whom\nhe loved very much, and also some fire, to which he added great\nquantities of fuel, and thus formed the sun. For a time the conjuror\ntreated his sister with great kindness, and they lived happily\ntogether; but at last he became cruel, ill-used her in many ways, and,\nas a climax, burnt one side of her face with fire. After this last\nindignity she ran away from him and became the moon. Her brother\nin the sun has been in chase of her ever since; but although he\nsometimes gets near, will never overtake her. When new moon, the\nburnt side of her face is towards the earth; when full moon, the\nreverse is the case.\" [67] The likeness between this tradition and the\nGreenlanders' myth of Malina and Anninga is very close, the\ndifference consisting chiefly in the change of sex; here the moon is\nfeminine, there the moon is masculine. [68]\n\nIn Brazil the story is further varied, in that it is the sister who\nfalls in love, and receives a discoloured face for her offence. Professor\nHartt says that Dr. Silva de Coutinho found on the Rio Branco and Sr.\nBarbosa has reported from the Jamunda a myth \"in which the moon\nis represented as a maiden who fell in love with her brother and\nvisited him at night, but who was finally betrayed by his passing his\nblackened hand over her face.\" [69]\n\nThe Ottawa tale of Indian cosmogony, called Iosco, narrates the\nadventures of two Indians who \"found themselves in a beautiful\ncountry, lighted by the moon, which shed around a mild and\npleasant light. They could see the moon approaching as if it were\nfrom behind a hill. They advanced, and the aged woman spoke to\nthem; she had a white face and pleasing air, and looked rather old,\nthough she spoke to them very kindly. They knew from her first\nappearance that she was the moon. She asked them several\nquestions. She informed them that they were halfway to her\nbrother's (the sun), and that from the earth to her abode was half the\ndistance.\" [70]\n\nOther American Indians have a tradition of an old woman who lived\nwith her grand-daughter, the most beautiful girl that ever was seen\nin the country. Coming of age, she wondered that only herself and\nher grandmother were in the world. The grandam explained that an\nevil spirit had destroyed all others; but that she by her power had\npreserved herself and her grand-daughter. This did not satisfy the\nyoung girl, who thought that surely some survivors might be found.\nShe accordingly travelled in search, till on the tenth day she found a\nlodge inhabited by eleven brothers, who were hunters. The eleventh\ntook her to wife, and died after a son was born. The widow then\nwedded each of the others, beginning with the youngest. When she\ntook the eldest, she soon grew tired of him, and fled away by the\nwestern portal of the hunter's lodge. Tearing up one of the stakes\nwhich supported the door, she disappeared in the earth with her little\ndog. Soon all trace of the fugitive was lost. Then she emerged from\nthe earth in the east, where she met an old man fishing in the sea.\nThis person was he who made the earth. He bade her pass into the\nair toward the west. Meanwhile the deserted husband pursued his\nwife into the earth on the west, and out again on the east, where the\ntantalizing old fisherman cried out to him, \"Go, go; you will run\nafter your wife as long as the earth lasts without ever overtaking her,\nand the nations who will one day be upon the earth will call you\n_Gizhigooke_, he who makes the day.\" From this is derived\n_Gizis_, the sun. Some of the Indians count only eleven moons,\nwhich represent the eleven brothers, dying one after another. [71]\n\nPassing on to Polynesia, we reach Samoa, where \"we are told that\nthe moon came down one evening, and picked up a woman, called\nSina, and her child. It was during a time of famine. She was\nworking in the evening twilight, beating out some bark with which\nto make native cloth. The moon was just rising, and it reminded her\nof a great bread-fruit. Looking up to it, she said, 'Why cannot you\ncome down and let my child have a bit of you?' The moon was\nindignant at the idea of being eaten, came down forthwith, and took\nher up, child, board, mallet, and all. The popular superstition is not\nyet forgotten in Samoa of the _woman_ in the moon. 'Yonder is\nSina,' they say, 'and her child, and her mallet, and board.'\" [72] The\nsame belief is held in the adjacent Tonga group, or Friendly Islands,\nas they were named by Captain Cook, on account of the supposed\nfriendliness of the natives. \"As to the spots in the moon, they are\ncompared to the figure of a woman sitting down and beating\n_gnatoo_\" (bark used for clothing). [73]\n\nIn Mangaia, the southernmost island of the Hervey cluster, the\nwoman in the moon is Ina, the pattern wife, who is always busy, and\nindefatigable in the preparation of resplendent cloth, _i.e. white\nclouds_. At Atiu it is said that Ina took to her celestial abode a\nmortal husband, whom, after many happy years, she sent back to the\nearth on a beautiful rainbow, lest her fair home should be defiled by\ndeath. [74] Professor Max Mueller is reminded by this story of\nSelene and Endymion, of Eos and Tithonos.\n\n\n\nIV. THE HARE IN THE MOON.\n\nWhen the moon is waxing, from about the eighth day to the full, it\nrequires no very vivid imagination to descry on the westward side of\nthe lunar disk a large patch very strikingly resembling a rabbit or\nhare. The oriental noticing this figure, his poetical fancy developed\nthe myth-making faculty, which in process of time elaborated the\nlegend of the hare in the moon, which has left its marks in every\nquarter of the globe. In Asia it is indigenous, and is an article of\nreligious belief. \"To the common people in India the spots look like\na hare, _i.e._ Chandras, the god of the moon, carries a hare (sasa),\nhence the moon is called Sasin or Sasanka, hare mark or spot.\" [75]\nMax Mueller also writes, \"As a curious coincidence it may be\nmentioned that in Sanskrit the moon is called Sasanka,_i.e._ 'having\nthe marks of a hare,' the black marks in the moon being taken for the\nlikeness of the hare.\" [76] This allusion to the sacred language of the\nHindus affords a convenient opportunity of introducing one of the\nmost beautiful legends of the East. It is a Buddhist tract; but in the\nlesson which it embodies it will compare very favourably with\nmany a tract more ostensibly Christian.\n\n\"In former days, a hare, a monkey, a coot, and a fox, became\nhermits, and lived in a wilderness together, after having sworn not\nto kill any living thing. The god Sakkria having seen this through\nhis divine power, thought to try their faith, and accordingly took\nupon him the form of a brahmin, and appearing before the monkey\nbegged of him alms, who immediately brought to him a bunch of\nmangoes, and presented it to him. The pretended brahmin, having\nleft the monkey, went to the coot and made the same request, who\npresented him a row of fish which he had just found on the bank of\na river, evidently forgotten by a fisherman. The brahmin then went\nto the fox, who immediately went in search of food, and soon\nreturned with a pot of milk and a dried liguan, which he had found\nin a plain, where apparently they had been left by a herdsman. The\nbrahmin at last went to the hare and begged alms of him. The hare\nsaid, 'Friend, I eat nothing but grass, which I think is of no use to\nyou.' Then the pretended brahmin replied, 'Why, friend, if you are a\ntrue hermit, you can give me your own flesh in hope of future\nhappiness.' The hare directly consented to it, and said to the\nsupposed brahmin, 'I have granted your request, and you may do\nwhatever you please with me.' The brahmin then replied, 'Since you\nare willing to grant my request, I will kindle a fire at the foot of the\nrock, from which you may jump into the fire, which will save me\nthe trouble of killing you and dressing your flesh.' The hare readily\nagreed to it, and jumped from the top of the rock into the fire which\nthe supposed brahmin had kindled; but before he reached the fire, it\nwas extinguished; and the brahmin appearing in his natural shape of\nthe god Sakkria, took the hare in his arms and immediately drew its\nfigure in the moon, in order that every living thing of every part of\nthe world might see it.\" [77] All will acknowledge that this is a very\nbeautiful allegory. How many in England, as well as in Ceylon, are\ndescribed by the monkey, the coot, and the fox--willing to bring\ntheir God any oblation which costs them nothing; but how few are\nlike the hare--ready to present themselves as a living sacrifice, to be\nconsumed as a burnt offering in the Divine service! Those, however,\nwho lose their lives in such self-sacrifice, shall find them, and be\ncaught up to \"shine as the brightness of the firmament and as the\nstars for ever and ever.\"\n\nAnother version of this legend is slightly variant. Grimm says: \"The\npeople of Ceylon relate as follows: While Buddha the great god\nsojourned upon earth as a hermit, he one day lost his way in a wood.\nHe had wandered long, when a _hare_ accosted him: 'Cannot I help\nthee? Strike into the path on thy right. I will guide thee out of the\nwilderness.' Buddha replied: 'Thank thee, but I am poor and hungry,\nand unable to repay thy kindness.' 'If thou art hungry,' said the hare,\n'light a fire, and kill, roast, and eat me.' Buddha made a fire, and the\nhare immediately jumped in. Then did Buddha manifest his divine\npower; he snatched the beast out of the flames, and set him in the\nmoon, where he may be seen to this day.\" [78] Francis Douce, the\nantiquary, relates this myth, and adds, \"this is from the information\nof a learned and intelligent French gentleman recently arrived from\nCeylon, who adds that the Cingalese would often request of him to\npermit them to look for the hare through his telescope, and exclaim\nin raptures that they saw it. It is remarkable that the Chinese\nrepresent the moon by a rabbit pounding rice in a mortar. Their\nmythological moon Jut-ho is figured by a beautiful young woman\nwith a double sphere behind her head, and a rabbit at her feet. The\nperiod of this animal's gestation is thirty days; may it not therefore\ntypify the moon's revolution round the earth.\" [79]\n\n[Illustration: moon08]\n\nSAKYAMUNI AS A HARE IN THE MOON.\n_Collin de Plancy's_ \"_Dictionnaire Infernal_.\"\n\nIn this same apologue we have doubtless a duplicate, the original or\na copy, of another Buddhist legend found among the Kalmucks of\nTartary; in which Sakyamuni himself, in an early stage of existence,\nhad inhabited the body of a hare. Giving himself as food to feed the\nhunger of a starving creature, he was immediately placed in the\nmoon, where he is still to be seen. [80]\n\nThe Mongolian also sees a hare in the lunar shadows. We are told\nby a Chinese scholar that \"tradition earlier than the period of the\nHan dynasty asserted that a hare inhabited the surface of the moon,\nand later Taoist fable depicted this animal, called the gemmeous\nhare, as the servitor of the genii, who employ it in pounding the\ndrugs which compose the elixir of life. The connection established\nin Chinese legend between the hare and the moon is probably\ntraceable to an Indian original. In Sanskrit inscriptions the moon is\ncalled Sason, from a fancied resemblance of its spots to a leveret;\nand pandits, to whom maps of the moon's service have been shown,\nhave fixed on _Loca Paludosa_, and _Mons Porphyrites_ or\n_Keplerus_ and _Aristarchus_, for the spots which they think\nexhibit the similitude of a hare.\" [81] On another page of the same\nwork we read: \"During the T'ang dynasty it was recounted that a\ncassia tree grows in the moon, this notion being derived apparently\nfrom an Indian source. The _sal_ tree (_shorea robusta_), one of the\nsacred trees of the Buddhists, was said during the Sung dynasty to\nbe identical with the cassia tree in the moon. The lunar hare is said\nto squat at the foot of the cassia tree, pounding its drugs for the\ngenii. The cassia tree in the moon is said to be especially visible at\nmid-autumn, and hence to take a degree at the examinations which\nare held at this period is described as plucking a leaf from the\ncassia.\" [82]\n\nThis hare myth, attended with the usual transformation, has\ntravelled to the Hottentots of South Africa. The fable which follows\nis entitled \"From an original manuscript in English, by Mr. John\nPriestly, in Sir G. Grey's library.\" \"The moon, on one occasion, sent\nthe hare to the earth to inform men that as she (the moon) died away\nand rose again, so mankind should die and rise again. Instead,\nhowever, of delivering this message as given, the hare, either out of\nforgetfulness or malice, told mankind that as the moon rose and died\naway, so man should die and rise no more. The hare, having\nreturned to the moon, was questioned as to the message delivered,\nand the moon, having heard the true state of the case, became so\nenraged with him that she took up a hatchet to split his head; falling\nshort, however, of that, the hatchet fell upon the upper lip of the\nhare, and cut it severely. Hence it is that we see the 'hare-lip.' The\nhare, being duly incensed at having received such treatment, raised\nhis claws, and scratched the moon's face; and the dark parts which\nwe now see on the surface of the moon are the scars which she\nreceived on that occasion.\" [83] In an account of the Hottentot myth\nof the \"Origin of Death,\" the angered moon heats a stone and burns\nthe hare's mouth, causing the hare-lip. [84] Dr. Marshall may tell us,\nwith all the authority of an eminent physiologist, that hare-lip is\noccasioned by an arrest in the development of certain frontal and\nnasal processes, [85] and we may receive his explanation as a\nsweetly simple solution of the question; but who that suffers from\nthis leporine-labial deformity would not prefer a supernatural to a\nnatural cause? Better far that the lip should be cleft by Shakespeare's\n\"foul fiend Flibbertigibbet,\" than that an abnormal condition should\nbe accounted for by science, or comprised within the reign of\nphysical law.\n\nEven Europe is somewhat hare-brained: for Caesar tells us that the\nBritons did not regard it lawful to eat the hare, though he does not\nsay why; and in Swabia still, children are forbidden to make\nshadows on the wall to represent the sacred hare of the moon.\n\nWe may pursue this matter even in Mexico, whose deities and\nmyths a recent Hibbert lecturer brought into clearer light, showing\nthat the Mexicans \"possessed beliefs, institutions, and a developed\nmythology which would bear comparison with anything known to\nantiquity in the old world.\" [86] The Tezcucans, as they are usually\ncalled, are described by Prescott as \"a nation of the same great\nfamily with the Aztecs, whom they rivalled in power, and surpassed\nin intellectual culture and the arts of social refinement.\" [87] Their\naccount of the creation is that \"the sun and moon came out equally\nbright, but this not seeming good to the gods, one of them took a\nrabbit by the heels and slung it into the face of the moon, dimming\nits lustre with a blotch, whose mark may be seen to this day.\" [88]\n\nWe have now seen that the fancy of a hare in the moon is universal;\nbut not so much importance is to be attached to this, as to some\nother aspects of moon mythology. The hare-like patch is visible in\nevery land, and suggested the animal to all observers. That the\nrabbit's period of gestation is thirty days is a singular coincidence;\nbut that is all--nay, it is not even that, for \"the moon's revolution\nround the earth,\" which Douce supposed the Chinese myth to typify,\nis accomplished in a little more than _twenty-seven_ days. Neither\nis much weight due to the fanciful comparison of Gubernatis: \"The\nmoon is the watcher of the sky, that is to say, she sleeps with her\neyes open; so also does the hare, whence the _somnus leporinus_\nbecame a proverb.\" [89] The same author says on another page, and\nhere we follow him: \"The mythical hare is undoubtedly the moon.\nIn the first story of the third book of the _Pancatantram_, the hares\ndwell upon the shore of the lake Candrasaras, or lake of the moon,\nand their king has for his palace the lunar disk.\" [90] It is this story,\nwhich Mr. Baring-Gould relates in outline; and which we are\ncompelled still further to condense. In a certain forest there once\nlived a herd of elephants. Long drought having dried up the lakes\nand swamps, an exploring party was sent out in search of a fresh\nsupply of water. An extensive lake was discovered, called the moon\nlake. The elephants with their king eagerly marched to the spot, and\nfound their thirsty hopes fully realized. All round the lake were in\nnumerable hare warrens, which the tread of the mighty monsters\ncrushed unmercifully, maiming and mangling the helpless\ninhabitants. When the elephants had withdrawn, the poor hares met\ntogether in terrible plight, to consult upon the course which they\nshould take when their enemies returned. One wise hare undertook\nthe task of driving the ponderous herd away. This he did by going\nalone to the elephant king, and representing himself as the hare\nwhich lived in the moon. He stated that he was deputed by his\nexcellency the moon to say that if the elephants came any more to\nthe lake, the beams of night would be withheld, and their bodies\nwould be burned up with perpetual sunshine. The king of the\nelephants thinking that \"the better part of valour is discretion,\"\ndecided to offer an apology for his offence. He was conducted to the\nlake, where the moon was reflected in the water, apparently\nmeditating his revenge. The elephant thrust his proboscis into the\nlake, which disturbed the reflection. Whereupon the elephant,\njudging the moon to be enraged, hurried with his apology, and then\nwent off vowing never to return. The wise hare had proven that\n\"wisdom is better than strength\"; and the hares suffered no more\nmolestation. \"We may also remark, in this event, the truth of that\nsaying of Euripides, 'that one wise counsel is better than the strength\nof many'\" (_Polybius_, i. 35).\n\n\n\nV. THE TOAD IN THE MOON.\n\nWe owe an immense debt of gratitude and honour to the many\nenterprising and cultivated men who have gone into all parts of the\nearth and among all peoples to investigate human history and habit,\nmythology and religion, and thus enrich the stores of our national\nliterature. With such a host of travellers gathering up the fragments,\nnothing of value is likely to be lost. We have to thank intelligent\nexplorers for all we know of the mythical frog or toad in the moon:\nan addition to our information which is not unworthy of thoughtful\nnotice.\n\nThe Selish race of North-west American Indians, who inhabit the\ncountry between the Cascade and Rocky Mountains, have a\ntradition, which Captain Wilson relates as follows: \"The expression\nof 'a toad in the moon,' equivalent to our 'man in the moon,' is\nexplained by a very pretty story relating how the little wolf, being\ndesperately in love with the toad, went a-wooing one night and\nprayed that the moon might shine brightly on his adventure; his\nprayer was granted, and by the clear light of a full moon he was\npursuing the toad, and had nearly caught her, when, as a last chance\nof escape, she made a desperate spring on to the face of the moon,\nwhere she remains to this day.\" [91] Another writer says that \"the\nCowichan tribes think that the moon has a frog in it.\" [92]\n\nFrom the Great Western we turn to the Great Eastern world, and in\nChina find the frog in the moon. \"The famous astronomer Chang\nHeng was avowedly a disciple of Indian teachers. The statement\ngiven by Chang Heng is to the effect that 'How I, the fabled inventor\nof arrows in the days of Yao and Shun,[*] obtained the drug of\nimmortality from Si Wang Mu (the fairy 'Royal Mother' of the\nWest); and Chang Ngo (his wife) having stolen it, fled to the moon,\nand became the frog--_Chang-chu_--which is seen there.' The lady\n_Chang-ngo_ is still pointed out among the shadows in the surface\nof the Moon.\" [93] Dr. Wells Williams also tells us that in China\n\"the sun is symbolized by the figure of a raven in a circle, and the\nmoon by a rabbit on his hind legs pounding rice in a mortar, or by a\nthree-legged toad. The last refers to the legend of an ancient beauty,\nChang-ngo, who drank the liquor of immortality, and straightway\nascended to the moon, where she was transformed into a toad, still\nto be traced in its face. It is a special object of worship in autumn,\nand moon cakes dedicated to it are sold at this season.\" [94] We\nhave little doubt that what the Chinese look for they see. We in the\nWest characterize and colour objects which we behold, as we see\nthem through the painted windows of our predisposition or\nprejudice. As a great novelist writes: \"From the same object\ndifferent conclusions are drawn; the most common externals of\nnature, the wind and the wave, the stars and the heavens, the very\nearth on which we tread, never excite in different bosoms the same\nideas; and it is from our own hearts, and not from an outward\nsource, that we draw the hues which colour the web of our\nexistence. It is true, answered Clarence. You remember that in\ntwo specks of the moon the enamoured maiden perceived two\nunfortunate lovers, while the ambitious curate conjectured that they\nwere the spires of a cathedral.\" [95] Besides, it must be confessed\nthat the particular moon-patch that has awakened so much interest in\nevery age and nation is quite as much like a frog or toad as it is like\na rabbit or hare.\n\n[*] Mr. Herbert A. Giles says that How I was a legendary chieftain,\nwho \"flourished about 2,500 B.C.\" _Strange Stories from a Chinese\nStudio_, London, 1880, i. 19, _note_.\n\n\n\nVI. OTHER MOON MYTHS.\n\nIt is almost time that we should leave this lunar zoology; we will\ntherefore merely present a few creatures which may be of service in\na comparative anatomy of the whole subject, and then close the\naccount. There is a story told in the Fiji Islands which so nearly\napproaches the Hottentot legend of the hare, that they both seem but\nvariations of a common original. In the one case the opponent of the\nmoon's benevolent purpose affecting man's hereafter was a hare, in\nthe other a rat. The story thus runs: There was \"a contest between\ntwo gods as to how man should die. Ra Vula (the moon) contended\nthat man should be like himself--disappear awhile, and then live\nagain. Ra Kalavo (the rat) would not listen to this kind proposal, but\nsaid, 'Let man die as a rat dies.' And he prevailed.\" [96] Mr. Tylor,\nwho quotes this rat story, adds: \"The dates of the versions seem to\nshow that the presence of these myths among the Hottentots and\nFijians, at the two opposite sides of the globe, is at any rate not due\nto transmission in modern times.\" [97]\n\nFrom the rat to one of its mortal enemies is an easy transition. The\nAustralian story is that Mityan, the moon, was a native cat, who fell\nin love with another's wife, and while trying to induce her to run\naway with him, was discovered by the husband, when a fight took\nplace. Mityan was beaten and ran away, and has been wandering\never since. [98] We are indebted for another suggestion to Bishop\nWilkins, who wrote over two centuries ago: \"As for the form of\nthose spots, _Albertus_ thinks that it represents a lion, with his tail\ntowards the east, and his head the west; and some others have\nthought it to be very much like a fox, and certainly 'tis as much like\na lion as that in the _zodiac_, or as _ursa major_ is like a bear.\" [99]\nThis last remark of the old mathematician is \"a hit, a very palpable\nhit,\" at those unpoetical people who catalogue the constellations\nunder all sorts of living creatures' names, implying resemblances,\nand then \"sap with solemn sneer\" our myths of the moon.\n\nWe have now seen that the moon is populated with men, women,\nand children,--hares and rabbits, toads and frogs, cats and dogs, and\nsundry small \"cattle\"; we observe in making our exit that it is also\nplanted with a variety of trees; in short, is a zoological garden of a\nhigh order. Even among the ancients some said the lunar spots were\nforests where Diana hunted, and that the bright patches were plains.\nCaptain Cook tells us that in the South Pacific \"the spots observed\nin the moon are supposed to be groves of a sort of trees which once\ngrew in Otaheite, and, being destroyed by some accident, their seeds\nwere carried up thither by doves, where they now flourish.\" [100]\nEllis also tells of these Tahitians that \"their ideas of the moon,\nwhich they called _avae_ or _marama_, were as fabulous as those\nthey entertained of the sun. Some supposed the moon was the wife\nof the sun; others that it was a beautiful country in which the aoa\ngrew.\" [101] These arborary fancies derive additional interest, if not\na species of verisimilitude, from the record of a missionary that \"a\nstately tree, clothed with dark shining leaves, and loaded with many\nhundreds of large green or yellowish-coloured fruit, is one of the\nmost splendid and beautiful objects to be met with among the rich\nand diversified scenery of a Tahitian landscape.\"\n\nOur collection of lunar legends is now on exhibition. No thoughtful\nperson will be likely to dispute the dictum of Sir John Lubbock that\n\"traditions and myths are of great importance, and indirectly throw\nmuch light on the condition of man in ancient times.\" [102] But they\nserve far more purposes than this. They are the raw material, out of\nwhich many of our goodly garments of modern science and religion\nare made up. The illiterate negroes on the cotton plantation, and the\nrude hunters in the jungle or seal fishery, produce the staple, or\nprocure the skins, which after long labour afford comfort and\nadornment to proud philosophers and peers. The golden cross on the\nsaintly bosom and the glittering crown on the sovereign brow were\nembedded as rough ore in primeval rocks ages before their wearers\nwere born to boast of them. We shall esteem our treasures none the\nless because their origin is known, as we love \"the Best of men\"\nnone the less because he was born of a woman. We closed our series\nof moon myths with a vision of a beautiful country, ornamented\nwith groves of fruitful trees, whose seeds had been carried thither by\nwhite-winged doves; and carried thither because \"some accident\"\nhad destroyed the trees in their native isles on earth. Thus the lunar\nworld had become a desirable scene of superior and surpassing\nloveliness. Who can reflect upon this dream of human childhood,\nand not recall some dreams of later years? Who can fail to discern\nslight touches of the same hand which we see displayed in other\ndesigns? \"Happily for historic truth,\" says Mr. Tylor, \"mythic\ntradition tells its tales without expurgating the episodes which\nbetray its real character to more critical observation.\" [103] Who is\nnot led on from Tahiti to Greece, and to the Isles of the Blessed, the\nElysium which abounds in every charm of life, and to the garden of\nthe Hesperides, with its apples of gold; thence to the Meru of the\nHindoos, the sacred mountain which is perpetually clothed in the\nrays of the sun, and adorned with every variety of plants and trees;\nthence again to the Heden of the Persians, of matchless beauty,\nwhere ever flourishes the tree Hom with its wonderful fruit; on to\nthe Chinese garden, near the gate of heaven, whose noblest spring is\nthe fountain of life, and whose delightful trees bear fruits which\npreserve and prolong the existence of man? [104] Thence an easy\nentrance is gained to the Hebrew Paradise, with its abounding trees\n\"pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the\nmidst of the garden\"; and finally arises a sight of the \"better land\" of\nthe Christian poetess, the incorruptible and undefiled inheritance of\nthe Christian preacher, the prospect which is \"ever vernal and\nblooming,--and, best of all, amid those trees of life there lurks no\nserpent to destroy,--the country, through whose vast region we shall\ntraverse with untired footsteps, while every fresh revelation of\nbeauty will augment our knowledge, and holiness, and joy.\" [105]\nWho will travel on such a pilgrimage of enlarged thought, and not\ncome to the conclusion that if one course of development has been\nfollowed by all scientific and spiritual truth, then \"almost the whole\nof the mythology and theology of civilized nations maybe traced,\nwithout arrangement or co-ordination, and in forms that are\nundeveloped and original rather than degenerate, in the traditions\nand ideas of savages\"? [106] Such a conclusion may diminish our\nself-esteem, if we have supposed ourselves the sole depositaries of\nDivine knowledge; but it will exalt our conception of the generosity\nof the Father of all men, who never left a human soul without a\nwitness of His invisible presence and ineffable love.\n\n\n\nMOON WORSHIP.\n\nI. INTRODUCTION.\n\nWe have now to show that the moon has been in every age, and\nremains still, one of the principal objects of human worship. Even\namong certain nations credited with pure monotheism, it will be\nmanifested that there was the practice of that primitive polytheism\nwhich adored the hosts of heaven. And, however humiliating or\ndisappointing the disclosure may prove, it will be established that\nsome of the foremost Christian peoples of the world maintain\nluniolatry to this day, notwithstanding that they have the reproving\nlight of the latest civilization. We are so prone to talk of heathenism\nas abroad, that we forget or neglect the gross heathenism which\nabounds at home; and while we complacently speak of the march of\nthe world's progress with which we identify ourselves, we are\noblivious of the fact that much ancient falsehood survives and\nblends with the truth in which our superior minds, or minds with\nsuperior facilities, have been trained. How few of us reflect that the\nsigns and symbols of rejected theories have passed into the\nnomenclature of received systems! Nay, we plume ourselves upon\nthe new translation or revision as if we were the favoured recipients\nof some fresh revelation. Not only in the names of our days and\nmonths, but also in some of our most cherished dogmas, we are but\nthe \"liberal-conservatives\" in religion, who retain the old, while we\ncongratulate ourselves upon being the apostles of the new. That the\npast must always run into the present, and the present proceed from\nthe past, we readily enough allow as a natural and necessary law;\nyet baptized heathenism is often heathenism still, under another\nname. Again, we are sometimes so short-sighted that we deny to\nformer periods the paternity of their own more fortunate offspring,\nand behave like prosperous children who ungratefully ignore their\npoorer parents, to whom they owe their breath and being. Such\ntreatment of history is to be emphatically deprecated, whether it\narises from ignorance or ingratitude. We ought to know, if we do\nnot, and we ought also to acknowledge, that our perfect day grew\nout of primeval darkness, and that the progress was a lingering\ndawn. This we hold to be the clearest view of the Divine causation.\nOur modern method in philosophy, largely owing to the _Novum\nOrganum_ of Bacon, is evolution, the _novum organum_ of the\nnineteenth century; and this process recognises no abrupt or\ninterruptive creations, but gradual transformations from pre-existent\ntypes, \"variations under domestication,\" and the passing away of the\nold by its absorption into the new. Our religion, like our language, is\na garden not only for indigenous vegetation, but also for\nacclimatisation, in which we improve under cultivation exotic plants\nwhose roots are drawn from every soil on the earth. And, as Paul\npreached in Athens the God whom the Greeks worshipped in\nignorance, so our missionaries carry back to less enlightened\npeoples the fruit of that life-giving tree whose germs exist among\nthemselves, undeveloped and often unknown. No religion has fallen\nfrom heaven, like the fabled image of Athene, in full-grown beauty.\nAll spiritual life is primordially an inspiration or intuition from the\nFather of spirits, whose offspring all men are, and who is not far\nfrom every one of them. This intuition prompts men to \"seek the\nLord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him.\" Thus prayer\nbecomes an instinct; and to worship is as natural as to breathe. But\nman is a being with five senses, and as his contact with his\nfellow-creatures and with the whole creation is at one or other of\nthose five points, he is necessarily sensuous. Endowed with native\nintelligence, the _intellectus ipse_ of Leibnitz, he nevertheless\nreceives his impressions on _sensitive_ nerves, his emotions are\n_sentiments_, his words become _sentences_, and his stock of\nwisdom is his common _sense_. A few, very few, words express his\nsensations, a few more his perceptions, and so on; but he is\nconscious of _objects_ at first, he deals with _subjects_ afterwards.\nSoon the sun, moon, and stars, as bright lights attract his eyes, as we\nhave all seen an infant of a few days fix its gaze upon a candle or\nlamp. These heavenly orbs are found to be in motion, to be far\naway, to be the glory of day and night: what wonder if _ideas_ of\nthese _images_ are formed in the religious mind, if the worshipper\nimagines the sun and moon to be reflections of the God of light, and\npays homage to the creature which renders the Creator visible? Thus\nin the childhood of man religion grows, and with the multiplication\nof intellect and sensation, endless diversity of language, conception\nand faith is the result. Another result, of course, is the endless\ndiversity of deities. Every race, every nation, every tribe, every\nhousehold, every heart, has had its own God. And yet, with all this\nmultiplicity in religious literature and dogma, subject and object, a\nunity co-exists which the student of the science notes with profound\ninterest. All nations of men are of one blood; and all forms of God\nembody the one Eternal Spirit. To this unity mythology tends. As\none writer says: \"We must ever bear in mind that the course of\nmythology is from many gods toward one, that it is a synthesis, not\nan analysis, and that in this process the tendency is to blend in one\nthe traits and stories of originally separate divinities.\"\n[107] The ancient Hebrew worshipped God as \"the Eternal, our\nrighteousness\"; the Greek worshipped Him as wisdom and beauty;\nthe Roman as power and government; the Persian as light and\ngoodness; and so forth. Few hymns have surpassed the beauty of\nPope's _Universal Prayer_. It is the _Te Deum laudamus_ of that\ncatholic Church which embraces God-loved humanity.\n\n     \"Father of all! in every age,\n          In every clime, adored,\n     By saint, by savage, and by sage,\n          Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!\"\n\nThe Christian, believing his to be the \"One Religion,\" as a recent\nBampton Lecturer termed it, too often forgets that his system is a\nrecomposition of rays of a religious light which was decomposed in\nthe prismatic minds of earlier men. And further, with a change of\nmetaphor, if Christianity has flourished and fructified through\neighteen centuries, it must not be denied that it is a graft upon an old\nstock which through fifteen previous centuries had borne abundant\nfruit. The same course must be adopted still. We find men\neverywhere holding some truth; we add further truth; until, as a\nchemist would say, we saturate the solution, which upon\nevaporation produces a crystallized life of entirely new colour and\nquality and form. Thus Professor Nilsson writes: \"Every religious\n_change_ in a people is, in fact, only an intermixture of religions;\nbecause the new religion, whether received by means of convincing\narguments, or enforced by the eloquence of fire and sword, cannot\n_at once_ tear up all the wide-spreading roots by which its\nforerunner has grown in the heart of the people; this must be the\nwork of many years, perhaps of many generations.\" [108] We\ncannot better close this lengthy introduction than by reminding\nChristians of the saying of their Great and Good Teacher, \"I am not\ncome to destroy, but to fulfil.\"\n\n\n\nII. THE MOON MOSTLY A MALE DEITY.\n\nWe have already in part pointed out that the moon has been\nconsidered as of the masculine gender; and have therefore but to\ntravel a little farther afield to show that in the Aryan of India, in\nEgyptian, Arabian, Slavonian, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic, Teutonic,\nSwedish, Anglo-Saxon, and South American, the moon is a male\ngod. To do this, in addition to former quotations, it will be sufficient\nto adduce a few authorities. \"Moon,\" says Max Mueller, \"is a very old\nword. It was _mona_ in Anglo-Saxon, and was used there, not as a\nfeminine, but as a masculine for the moon was originally a\nmasculine, and the sun a feminine, in all Teutonic languages; and it\nis only through the influence of classical models that in English\nmoon has been changed into a feminine, and sun into a masculine. It\nwas a most unlucky assertion which Mr. Harris made in his\n_Hermes_, that all nations ascribe to the sun a masculine, and to the\nmoon a feminine gender.\" [109] Grimm says, \"Down to recent\ntimes, our people were fond of calling the sun and moon _frau\nsonne_ and _herr mond_.\"  [110] Sir Gardner Wilkinson writes:\n\"Another reason that the moon in the Egyptian mythology could not\nbe related to Bubastis is, that it was a male and not a female deity,\npersonified in the god Thoth. This was also the case in some\nreligions of the West. The Romans recognised the god Lunus; and\nthe Germans, like the Arabs, to this day, consider the moon\nmasculine, and not feminine, as were the Selene and Luna of the\nGreeks and Latins.\" [111] Again, \"The Egyptians represented their\nmoon as a male deity, like the German _mond_ and _monat_, or the\n_Lunus_ of the Latins; and it is worthy of remark, that the same\ncustom of calling it male is retained in the East to the present day,\nwhile the sun is considered female, as in the language of the\nGermans.\" [112] \"In Slavonic,\" Sir George Cox tells us, \"as in the\nTeutonic mythology, the moon is male. His wedding with the sun\nbrings on him the wrath of Perkunas [the thunder-god], as the song\ntells us\n\n     'The moon wedded the sun\n     In the first spring.\n     The sun rose early\n     The moon departed from her.\n     The moon wandered alone;\n     Courted the morning star.\n     Perkunas, greatly wroth,\n     Cleft him with a sword.\n     'Wherefore dost thou depart from the sun,\n     Wandering by night alone,\n     Courting the morning star?'\" [113]\n\n\"In a Servian song a girl cries to the sun--\n\n     'O brilliant sun! I am fairer than thou\n     Than thy brother, the bright moon.'\"\n\nIn South Slavonian poetry the sun often figures as a radiant youth.\nBut among the northern Slavonians, as well as the Lithuanians, the\nsun was regarded as a female being, the bride of the moon. 'Thou\naskest me of what race, of what family I am,' says the fair maiden of\na song preserved in the Tambof Government--\n\n     'My mother is--the beauteous Sun,\n     And my father--the bright Moon.'\" [114]\n\n\"Among the Mbocobis of South America the moon is a man and the\nsun his wife.\" [115] The Ahts of North America take the same view;\nand we know that in Sanskrit and in Hebrew the word for moon is\nmasculine.\n\nThis may seem to many a matter of no importance; but if mythology\nthrows much light upon ancient history and religion, its importance\nmay be considerable, especially as it lies at the root of that sexuality\nwhich has been the most prolific parent of both good and evil in\nhuman life. The sexual relation has existed from the very birth of\nanimated nature; and it is remarkable that a man of learning and\npiety in Germany has made the strange if not absurd statement that\nin the beginning \"Adam was externally sexless.\" [116] Another\nidea, more excusable, but equally preposterous, is, that grammatical\ngender has been the cause of the male and female personation of\ndeities, when really it has been the result. The cause, no doubt, was\ninherent in man's constitution; and was the inevitable effect of\nthought and expression. The same necessity of natural language\nwhich led the Hebrew prophets to speak of their land as married, of\ntheir nation as a wife in prosperity and a widow in calamity, of their\nMaker as their husband, who rejoices over them as the bridegroom\nrejoiceth over the bride: [117] this same necessity, becoming a habit\nlike that of our own country folks in Hampshire, of whom Cobbett\nspeaks, who call almost everything _he_ or _she_; led the sensuous\nand imaginative ancients, as it leads simple and poetical peoples\nstill, to call the moon a man and to worship him as a god. Objects of\nfear and reverence would be usually masculines; and objects of love\nand desire feminines. We may thus find light thrown upon the\nhonours paid to such goddesses as Astarte and Aphrodite: which\nwill also help us to understand the deification by a celibate\npriesthood of the Virgin Mary. We may, moreover, account partly\nfor the fact that to the sailor his ship is always she; to the swain the\nflowers which resemble his idol, as the lily and the rose, are always\nfeminine, and used as female names; while to the patriot the mother\ncountry is nearly always of the tender sex. [118] Prof. Max Mueller\nthinks that the distinction between males and females began, \"not\nwith the introduction of masculine nouns, but with the introduction\nof feminines, _i.e._ with the setting apart of certain derivative\nsuffixes for females. By this all other words became masculine.\"\n[119] Thus the sexual emotions of men created that grammatical\ngender which has contributed so powerfully to our later mythology,\nand has therefore been mistaken for the author of our male and\nfemale personations. What beside sexuality suggested the thought of\nthe Chevalier Marini? \"He introduces the god _Pan_, who boasts\nthat the spots which are seen in the moon are impressions of the\nkisses he gave it.\" [120] That grammar is very much younger than\nsexual relations is proven by the curious fact mentioned by Max\nMueller that _pater_ is not a masculine, nor _mater_ a feminine.\nGender, we must not forget, is from _genus_, a kind or class; and\nthat the classification in various languages has been arranged on no\nfixed plan. We in our modern English, with much still to do, have\nimproved in this respect, since, in Anglo-Saxon, _wif_ = wife, was\nneuter, and _wif-mann_ = woman, was masculine. In German still\n_die frau_, the woman, is feminine; but _das weib_, the wife, is\nneuter. [121] Dr. Farrar finds the root of gender in the imagination:\nwhich we admit if associated with sex. Otherwise, we cannot\nunderstand how an _unfelt_ distinction of this sort could be\nmentally _seen_. But Dr. Farrar means more than imagination, for\nhe says, \"from this source is derived the whole system of genders\nfor inanimate things, which was perhaps inevitable at that early\nchildish stage of the human intelligence, when the actively working\nsoul attributed to everything around it some portion of its own life.\nHence, well-nigh everything is spoken of as masculine or feminine.\"\n[122] We are surprised that Dr. Farrar seems to think German an\nexception, in making a masculine noun of the moon. He has failed\nto apply to this point his usual learned and laborious investigation.\n[123]\n\nDiogenes Laertius describes the theology of the Jews as an offshoot\nfrom that of the Chaldees, and says that the former affirm of the\nlatter \"that they condemn images, and especially those persons who\nsay that the gods are male and female.\" [124] Which condemnation\nimplies the prevalence of this sexual distinction between their\ndeities.\n\nIn concluding this chapter we think that it will be granted that\ngender in the personification of inanimate objects was the result of\nsex in the animate subject: that primitive men saw the moon as a\nmost conspicuous object, whose spots at periods had the semblance\nof a man's face, whose waxing and waning increased their wonder:\nwhose coming and going amid the still and solemn night added to\nthe mystery: until from being viewed as a man, it was feared,\nespecially when apparently angry in a mist or an eclipse, and so\nreverenced and worshipped as the heaven-man, the monthly god.\n\n\n\nIII. THE MOON A WORLD-WIDE DEITY.\n\nAnthropomorphism, or the representation of outward objects in the\n_form_ of _man_, wrought largely, as we have seen, in the\nmanufacture of the man in the moon; it entered no less into the\ncomposition of the moon-god. The twenty-first verse of the fiftieth\nPsalm contains its recognition and rebuke. \"Thou thoughtest that I\nwas altogether as thyself\"; or, still more literally, \"Thou hast thought\nthat being, I shall be like thee.\" As Dr. Delitzsch says, \"Because\nman in God's likeness has a bodily form, some have presumed to\ninfer backwards therefrom that God also has a bodily form like to\nman, which is related by way of prototype to the human form.\"\n[125] As well might we say that because a watchmaker constructs a\nchronometer with a movement somewhat like that of his own heart,\ntherefore he is mechanical, metallic, and round. Against this\nanthropomorphic materialism science lifts up its voice; for what\nmodern philosopher, worthy of the name, fails to distinguish\nbetween phenomenon and fact, inert matter and active force? Says a\nrecent writer, \"We infer that as our own master of the mint is neither\na sovereign nor a half-sovereign, so the force which coins and\nrecoins this ulh, or matter, must be altogether in the god-part and\nnone of it in the metal or paste in which it works.\" [126] With the\nprogress of man's intelligence we shall observe improvement in this\nanthropomorphism, but it will still survive. As Mr. Baring-Gould\ntells us: \"The savage invests God with bodily attributes; in a more\ncivilized state man withdraws the bodily attributes, but imposes the\nlimitations of his own mental nature; and in his philosophic\nelevation he recognises in God intelligence only, though still with\nanthropomorphic conditions.\" [127]\n\nXenophanes said that if horses, oxen, and lions could paint, they\nwould make gods like themselves. And Ralph Waldo Emerson says:\n\"The gods of fable are the shining moments of great men. We run\nall our vessels into one mould. Our colossal theologies of Judaism,\nChristism, Buddhism, Mahometism, are the necessary and structural\naction of the human mind. The student of history is like a man going\ninto a warehouse to buy clothes or carpets. He fancies he has a new\narticle. If he go to the factory, he shall find that his new stuff still\nrepeats the scrolls and rosettes which are found on the interior walls\nof the pyramids of Thebes. Our theism is the purification of the\nhuman mind. Man can paint, or make, or think nothing but man. He\nbelieves that the great material elements had their origin from his\nthought. And our philosophy finds one essence collected or\ndistributed.\" [128] And a devout author, whose orthodoxy\n--whatever that may mean--is unquestioned, acknowledges that man\nadored the unknown power in the sun, and \"in the moon, which\nbathes the night with its serene splendours. Under this latter form,\ncompleted by a very simple anthropomorphism which applies to the\ngods the law of the sexes, the religions of nature weighed during\nlong ages upon Western Asia.\" [129] A volume might be written\nupon this subject; but we have other work in hand.\n\nIt seems to be generally admitted that no form of idolatry is older\nthan the worship of the moon. Lord Kames says, \"It is probable that\nthe sun and moon were early held to be deities, and that they were\nthe first visible objects of worship.\" [130] Dr. Inman says, \"That the\nsun and moon were at a very early period worshipped, none who has\nstudied antiquity can deny.\" [131] And Goldziher maintains that\n\"the lunar worship is older than the solar.\" [132] Maimonides, \"the\nlight of Israel,\" says that the Zabaists not only worshipped the moon\nthemselves, but they also asserted that Adam led mankind to that\nspecies of worship. No doubt luniolatry is as old as the human race.\nIn some parts the moon is still the superior god. Mr. Tylor writes:\n\"Moon worship, naturally ranking below sun worship in importance,\nranges through nearly the same district of culture. There are\nremarkable cases in which the moon is recognised as a great deity\nby tribes who take less account, or none at all, of the sun. An old\naccount of the Caribs describes them as esteeming the moon more\nthan the sun, and at new moon coming out of their houses crying,\nBehold the moon!\" [133] This deity, then, is ancient and modern:\nalso a chief of the gods: let us now show that he is a god whose\nempire is the world.\n\nWe begin in Asia, and with the Assyrian monuments, which display\nmany religious types and emblems. \"Representations of the\nheavenly bodies, as sacred symbols, are of constant occurrence in\nthe most ancient sculptures. In the bas-reliefs we find figures of the\nsun, moon, and stars, suspended round the neck of the king when\nengaged in the performance of religious ceremonies.\" [134] In\nChaldaea \"the moon was named Sin and Hur. Hurki, Hur, and Ur\nwas the chief place of his worship, for the satellite was then\nconsidered as being masculine. The name for the moon in Armenian\nwas _Khaldi_, which has been considered by some to be the origin\nof the word Chaldee, as signifying moon worshippers.\" [135] With\nthis Chaldaean deity may be connected \"the Akkadian moon god,\nwho corresponds with the Semitic Sin,\" and who \"is Aku, 'the\nseated-father,' as chief supporter of kosmic order, styled 'the maker\nof brightness,' En-zuna, 'the lord of growth,' and Idu, 'the measuring\nlord,' the Aides of Hesychios.\" [136]\n\n\"With respect to the name of Chaldaean, perhaps the most probable\naccount of the origin of the word is, that it designates properly the\ninhabitants of the ancient capital, Ur or Hur,--_Kkaldi_ being in the\nBurbur dialect the exact equivalent of _Hur_, which was the proper\nname of the moon god, and Chaldaeans being thus either 'moon\nworshippers,' or simply, inhabitants of the town dedicated to, and\ncalled after, the moon.\" [137] Again: \"The first god of the second\ntriad is Sin or Hurki, the moon deity. It is in condescension to Greek\nnotions that Berosus inverts the true Chaldaean order, and places the\nsun before the moon in his enumeration of the heavenly bodies.\nChaldaean mythology gives a very decided preference to the lesser\nluminary, perhaps because the nights are more pleasant than the\nclays in hot countries. With respect to the names of the god, we may\nobserve that Sin, the Assyrian or Semitic term, is a word of quite\nuncertain etymology, which, however, is found applied to the moon\nin many Semitic languages.\"  [138] \"_Sin_ is used for the moon in\nMendaean and Syriac at the present day. It is the name given to the\nmoon god in St. James of Seruj's list of the idols of Harran; and it\nwas the term used for Monday by the Sabaeans as late as the ninth\ncentury.\" [139] Another author writes: \"The Babylonian and\nAssyrian moon god is Sin, whose name probably appears in Sinai.\nThe expression, 'from the origin of the god Sin,' was used by the\nAssyrians to mark remote antiquity; because, as chaos preceded\norder, so night preceded day, and the enthronement of the moon as\nthe night-king marks the commencement of the annals of kosmic\norder.\" [140]\n\nWhen we search the Hebrew Scriptures, we find too many allusions\nto the Queen of Heaven, to Astarte and the groves, for us to doubt\nthat the Israelites adored\n\n     \"--mooned Ashtaroth,\n     Heaven's queen and mother both.\" (Milton's _Odes_.)\n\nDr. Goldziher is an incontestable authority, and thus writes: \"Queen\nor Princess of Heaven is a very frequent name for the moon.\" [141]\nAgain, \"Even in the latest times the Hebrews called the moon the\n'Queen of Heaven' (Jer. vii. 18), and paid her Divine honours in this\ncharacter at the time of the captivity.\" [142] And, to complete this\nauthor's witness, he again says: \"What was the antiquity of this lunar\nworship among the Hebrews, is testified (as has long been known)\nby the part played by Mount Sinai in the history of Hebrew religion.\nFor this geographical name is doubtless related to _Sin_, one of the\nSemitic names of the moon. The mountain must in ancient times\nhave been consecrated to the moon. The beginning of the Hebrew\nreligion, which was connected with the phenomena of the night-sky,\ngerminated first during the residence in Egypt on the foundation of\nan ancient myth. The recollection of this occasioned them to call the\npart of Egypt which they had long inhabited, eres Sinim, 'moonland'\n(Isa. xlix. 12).\" [143] It is but just that we should hear the other side,\nwhen there is a difference of opinion. The above mentioned 'Queen\nof Heaven' is beyond question the Ashtoreth or Astarte (identical\nwith our _star_), which was the principal goddess of the\nPhoenicians; and we believe she was originally the goddess of the\nmoon. This is doubted by a modern writer, who says, \"Baal is\nconstantly coupled with Astarte; and the more philosophical opinion\nis that this national god and goddess were the lord and lady of\nPhoenicia, rather than the sun and moon: for to a people full of\npolitical life the sun and moon would have been themselves\nrepresentatives, while a Divine king and queen were the realities.\nAnd if so, the habitual inclination of the Israelites, an essentially\npolitical people, for this worship becomes the more easily\nunderstood.\" [144] Professor F. D. Maurice, in his _Moral and\nMetaphysical Philosophy_, also takes this view. The question here\nis not whether the Jews worshipped Astarte, but whether Astarte\nwas the moon. This we cannot hesitate to answer in the affirmative.\nKenrick writes: \"Ashtoreth or Astarte appears physically to\nrepresent the moon. She was the chief local deity of Sidon; but her\nworship must have been extensively diffused, not only in Palestine,\nbut in the countries east of the Jordan, as we find Ashtaroth-Karnaim\n(Ashtaroth of two horns) mentioned in the book of Genesis\n(xiv. 5). This goddess, like other lunar deities, appears to have been\nsymbolized by a heifer, or a figure with a heifer's head, whose horns\nresembled the crescent moon. The children of Israel renounced her\nworship at the persuasion of Samuel; and we do not read again of\nher idolatry till the reign of Solomon (1 Kings xi. 5), after which it\nappears never to have been permanently banished, though put down\nfor a time by Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 13). She is the Queen of Heaven,\nto whom, according to the reproaches of Jeremiah (vii. 18, xliv. 25),\nthe women of Israel poured out their drink-offerings, and burnt\nincense, and offered cakes, regarding her as the author of their\nnational prosperity. This epithet accords well with the supposition\nthat she represented the moon, as some ancient authors inform us.\"\n[145] Dr. Gotch, an eminent Hebrew scholar, says that there is no\ndoubt that the moon is the symbol of productive power and must be\nidentified with Astarte. \"That this goddess was so typified can\nscarcely be doubted. The ancient name of the city, Ashtaroth-Karnaim,\nalready referred to, seems to indicate a horned Astarte, that\nis an image with a crescent moon on her head like the Egyptian\nAthor. At any rate, it is certain that she was by some ancient writers\nidentified with the moon, as Lucian and Herodian. On these grounds\nMovers, Winer, Keil, and others maintain that originally Ashtoreth\nwas the moon goddess.\" [146] Clearly, then, the Hebrews\nworshipped the moon. But, even apart from Astarte, this worship\nmay be proven on other evidence. Dr. Jamieson says that the word\n_mena_ (moon: Anglo-Saxon, _mona_) \"approaches most nearly to\na word used by the prophet Isaiah, which has been understood by\nthe most learned interpreters as denoting the moon. 'Ye are they that\nprepare a table for _Gad_, and that furnish the offering unto\n_Meni_.' (Isa. lxv. 11). As _Gad_ is understood of the _sun_, we\nlearn from Diodor Sicul that _Meni_ is to be viewed as a\ndesignation of the _moon_.\" [147] This is Bishop Lowth's view.\n\"The disquisitions and conjectures of the learned concerning Gad\nand Meni are infinite and uncertain: perhaps the most probable may\nbe, that Gad means good fortune, and Meni the moon.\" [148] One\npoint is worthy of notice. In our English version _Meni_ is rendered\n\"number\"; and we know very well that by the courses of the moon\nancient months and years were numbered. In Isaiah iii. 18 we find\nthe daughters of Zion ornamented with feet-rings, and networks, and\n_crescents_: or, as our translation reads, \"round tires like the moon.\"\nAnd, once more, in Ezekiel xlvi., we read that the gate of the inner\ncourt of the sanctuary that \"looketh toward the east, shall be opened\non the day of the new moon\"; and the meat offering on \"the day of\nthe new moon shall be a young bullock without blemish, and six\nlambs, and a ram.\" If there was no sacred significance in the\nobservance of these lunar changes, why did the writer of the New\nTestament Epistle to the Colossians say, \"Let no man judge you in\nrespect of the new moon\"? A competent scholar, in recognising this\nconsociation of Hebrew religion with the moon's phases, rightly\nascribes to it an earlier origin. Says Ewald: \"To connect the annual\nfestivals with the full moon, and to commence them in the evening,\nas though greeting her with a glad shout, was certainly a primitive\ncustom, both among other races and in the circle of nations from\nwhich in the earliest times Israel sprang.\" [149] And the Bishop of\nDerry remarks: \"To a religious Hebrew it was rather the moon than\nthe sun which marked the seasons, as the calendar of the Church\nwas regulated by it.\" [150] We have sought to place this Hebrew\nluniolatry beyond dispute, because so many Christians have\nsupposed that \"the chosen people\" lived in unclouded light, and \"the\nuncovenanted heathen\" in outer and utter darkness.\n\nPassing on we find that \"in Pontus and Phrygia were temples to\n_Meen_, and Homer says _Meen_ presides over the months, whilst\nin the Sanskrit _Mina_, we see her connected with the Fish and\nVirgin. It is not improbable that the great Akaimenian race, as\nworshipping and upholding sun and moon faiths, were called after\n_Meni_, the moon.\" [151] Among the Arabians the moon was the\ngreat divinity, as may be learned from Pocock's _Specimen\nHistoriae Arabum_; Prideaux's _Connection_; Gibbon's _Decline\nand Fall of the Roman Empire_; and Sale's _Preliminary Discourse_\nto his translation of the _Koran_. Tiele says: \"The ancient religion\nof the Arabs rises little higher than animistic polydaemonism. The\nnames Itah and Shamsh, the sun god, occur among all the Semitic\npeoples; Allat, or Alilat, and Al-Uzza, as well as the triad of moon\ngoddesses to which these last belong, are common to several, and\nthe deities which bear them are reckoned among the chief.\" [152]\nThe Saracens called the moon _Cabar_, the great; and its crescent is\nthe religious symbol of the Turks to this day. Tradition says that\n\"Philip, the father of Alexander, meeting with great difficulties in\nthe siege of Byzantium, set the workmen to undermine the walls,\nbut a crescent moon discovered the design, which miscarried;\nconsequently the Byzantines erected a statue to Diana, and the\ncrescent became the symbol of the state.\" Dr. Brewer, who cites this\nstory, adds: \"Another legend is that Othman, the sultan, saw in a\nvision a crescent moon, which kept increasing till its horns extended\nfrom east to west, and he adopted the crescent of his dream for his\nstandard, adding the motto, _Donec repleat orbem_.\" [153] Schlegel\nmentions the story that Mahomet \"wished to pass with his disciples\nas a person transfigured in a supernatural light, and that the\ncredulity of his followers saw the moon, or the moon's light,\ndescend upon him, pierce his garments, and replenish him. That\nveneration for the moon which still forms a national or rather\nreligious characteristic of the Mahometans, may perhaps have its\nfoundation in the elder superstition, or pagan idolatry of the Arabs.\"\n[154] No doubt this last sentence contains the true elucidation of the\ncrescent. For astrolatry lives in the east still. The _Koran_ may\nexpressly forbid the practice, saying: \"Bend not in adoration to the\nsun or moon\"; [155] yet, \"monotheist as he is, the Moslem still claps\nhis hands at sight of the new moon, and says a prayer.\" [156]\n\nWe come next to the Persians, whom Herodotus accuses of adoring\nthe sun and moon. But, as Gibbon says, \"the Persians of every age\nhave denied the charge, and explained the equivocal conduct, which\nmight appear to give colour to it.\" [157] It will certainly require\nconsiderable explanation to free from lunar idolatry the following\npassage, which we find in the _Zend Avesta_: \"We sacrifice unto\nthe new moon, the holy and master of holiness: we sacrifice unto the\nfull moon, the holy and master of holiness.\" [158] Unquestionably\nthe Persian recognised the Lord of Light _in_ the ordinances of\nheaven; and therefore his was superior to many forms of blind\nidol-worship. So far we may accept Hegel's interpretation of the _Zend_\ndoctrine. \"Light is the _body of Ormuzd_; thence the worship of\nfire, because Ormuzd is present in all light; but he is not the sun or\nmoon itself In these the Persians venerate only the light, which is\nOrmuzd.\" [159] In fact, we owe to the Persians a valuable testimony\nto the God in whom is no darkness at all. \"The prayer of Ajax was\nfor light\"; and we too little feel the Fire which burns and shines\nbeyond the stars.\n\nIn Central India the sun and moon are worshipped by many tribes,\nas the Khonds, Korkus, Tunguses, and Buraets. The Korkus adore\nthe powers of nature, as the gods of the tiger, bison, the hill, the\ncholera, etc., \"but these are all secondary to the sun and the moon,\nwhich among this branch of the Kolarian stock, as among the Kols\nin the far east, are the principal objects of adoration.\" [160a]\n\"Although the Tongusy in general worship the sun and moon, there\nare many exceptions to this observation. I have found intelligent\npeople among them, who believed that there was a being superior to\nboth sun and moon; and who created them and all the world.\"\n[160b] This last sentence we read with gratitude, but not with\nsurprise. There is some good in all, if there seem to be all good in\nsome.\n\n\"The aboriginal tribes in the Dekkan of India also acknowledge the\npresence of the sun and moon by an act of reverence.\" [161]\n\nThe inhabitants of the island of Celebes, in the East Indian\nArchipelago, \"formerly acknowledged no gods but the sun and the\nmoon, which were held to be eternal. Ambition for superiority made\nthem fall out.\" [162] According to Milton, ambition created\nunpleasantness in the Hebrew heaven.\n\nIn Northern Asia the moon had adoring admirers among the\nSamoyedes, the Morduans, the Tschuwasches, and other tribes. This\nis stated by Sir John Lubbock. [163] Lord Kames says: \"The people\nof Borneo worship the sun and moon as real divinities. The\nSamoides worship both, bowing to them morning and evening in the\nPersian manner.\" [164] The _Samoides_ are the \"salmon-eaters\" of\nAsia.\n\nMoon-worship in China is of ancient origin, and exists in our own\ntime. Professor Legge tells us that the primitive _shih_ \"is the\nsymbol for manifestation and revelation. The upper part of it is the\nsame as that in the older form of Ti, indicating 'what is above'; but\nof the three lines below I have not found a satisfactory account. Hsue\nShan says they represent 'the sun, moon, and stars,' and that the\nwhole symbolizes 'the indications by these bodies of the will of\nHeaven! Shih therefore tells us that the Chinese fathers believed that\nthere was communication between heaven and men. The idea of\nrevelation did not shock them. The special interpretation of the\nstrokes below, however, if it were established, would lead us to\nthink that even then, so far back, there was the commencement of\nastrological superstition, and also, perhaps, of Sabian worship.\"\n[165] Sabianism, as most readers are aware, is the adoration of the\narmies of heaven: the word being derived from the Hebrew _tzaba_,\na host. Dr. Legge leaves Chinese Sabianism in some doubt, in the\nabove quotation; but later on he speaks of the spirits associated with\nthe solstitial worship, whose intercession was thus secured, \"I, the\nemperor of the Great Illustrious dynasty, have respectfully prepared\nthis paper, to inform the spirit of the sun, the spirit of the moon, the\nspirits of the five planets, of the constellations of the zodiac, and of\nall the stars in all the sky,\" and so on: and the professor adds: \"This\npaper shows how there had grown up around the primitive\nmonotheism of China the recognition and worship of a multitude of\ncelestial and terrestrial spirits.\" [166] This is ample evidence to\nprove moon-worship. True, these celestial beings were \"but\nministering spirits,\" and the \"monotheism remained.\" There was no\n_henotheism_, no worship of several _single_ supreme deities:\n_One only_ was supreme. So among the Hebrews, Persians,\nHindoos, there was one only God; and yet they offered prayers and\nsacrifices to heaven's visible and innumerable host. When we come\nto modern China we shall find some very remarkable celebrations\ntaking place, which throw sunlight upon these ancient mists.\nMeanwhile to strengthen our position, we may draw additional\nsupport from each of the three great stages reached in the progress\nof Chinese religion: namely, Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism.\nDr. Edkins describes them as the moral, materialistic, and\nmetaphysical systems, standing at the three corners of a great\ntriangle. [167] The god of Confucianism is _Shang-ti_ or _Shang-te_.\nAnd with the universal anthropomorphism \"Shang-te is the\ngreat father of gods and men: Shang-te is a gigantic man.\" [168]\nAgain \"Heaven is a great man, and man is a little heaven.\" [169]\nAnd now what does Confucianism say of moon-worship? \"The sun\nand moon being the chief objects of veneration to the most ancient\nancestors of the Chinese, they translated the soul of their great father\nheaven or the first man (Shang-te) to the sun, and the soul of their\ngreat mother earth or the first woman (the female half of the first\nman) to the moon.\" [170] In Taoism there is no room for question.\nDr. Legge says that it had its Chang and Liu, and \"many more gods,\nsupreme gods, celestial gods, great gods, and divine rulers.\" [171]\nAnd Dr. Edkins writes: \"The Taouist mythology resembles, in\nseveral points, that of many heathen nations. Some of its divinities\npersonate those beings that are supposed to reside in the various\ndepartments of nature. Many of the stars are worshipped as gods.\"\n[172] Buddhism not only supplies further evidence, it also furnishes\na noteworthy instance of mythic transformation. Sakchi or Sasi, the\nmoon, is literally one who made a sacrifice. This refers to the legend\nof the hare who gave himself to feed the god. The wife of Indra\nadopted the hare's name, and was herself called Sasi. \"The Tantra\nschool gave every deity its Sakti or consort, and speculation\nenlarged the meaning of the term still further, making it designate\nfemale energy or the female principle.\" [173] Buddhism, then, the\npopular religion in China at the present day, the religion which Dr.\nFarrar ventures to call \"atheism fast merging into idolatry,\" [174] is\nnot free from the nature worship which deifies the moon. But\nBuddhism, like most other imperfect systems, has precious gold\nmixed with its dross; and at the expense of a digression we delight\nto quote the statement of a recent writer, who says: \"There is no\nrecord, known to me, in the whole of the long history of Buddhism,\nthroughout the many countries where its followers have been for\nsuch lengthened periods supreme, of any persecution by the\nBuddhists of the followers of any other faith.\" [175] How glad we\nshould feel if we could assert the same of the Christian Church!\n\nWe come at once to those celebrations which still take place in\nChina, and illustrate the worship of the moon. The festival of\n_Yue-Ping_--which is held annually during the eighth month, from the\nfirst day when the moon is new, to the fifteenth, when it is full--is of\nhigh antiquity and of deep interest. Dr. Morrison says that \"the\ncustom of civil and military officers going on the first and fifteenth\nof every moon to the civil and military temples to burn incense,\nbegan in the time of the Luh Chaon,\" which would be not far from\nA.D. 550. Also that the \"eighth month, fifteenth day, is called\nChung-tsew-tsee. It is said that the Emperor Ming-hwang, of the\ndynasty Tang, was one night led to the palace of the moon, where he\nsaw a large assembly of Chang-go-seen-neu--female divinities\nplaying on instruments of music. Persons now, from the first to the\nfifteenth, make cakes like the moon, of various sizes, and paint\nfigures upon them: these are called Yue-ping, 'mooncakes.' Friends\nand relations pay visits, purchase and present the cakes to each\nother, and give entertainments. At full moon they spread out\noblations and make prostrations to the moon.\" [176] Dennys writes:\n\"The fifteenth day of the eighth month is a day on which a\nceremony is performed by the Chinese, which of all others we\nshould least expect to find imitated among ourselves. Most people\nresident in China have seen the moon-cakes which so delight the\nheart of the Chinese during the eighth month of every year. These\nare made for an autumnal festival often described as 'congratulating'\nor 'rewarding' the moon. The moon, it is well known, represents the\nfemale principle in Chinese celestial cosmogony, and she is further\nsupposed to be inhabited by a multitude of beautiful females; the\ncakes made in her honour are therefore veritable offerings to the\nQueen of the Heavens. Now in a part of Lancashire, on the banks of\nthe Ribble, there exists a precisely similar custom of making cakes\nin honour of the 'Queen of Heaven,'--a relic, in all probability, of the\nold heathen worship which was the common fount of the two\ncustoms.\" [177] Witness is also borne to this ceremony by a\nwell-known traveller. \"We arrived at Chaborte on the fifteenth day of the\neighth moon, the anniversary of great rejoicings among the Chinese.\nThis festival, known as the _Yue-Ping_ (loaves of the moon), dates\nfrom the remotest antiquity. Its original purpose was to honour the\nmoon with superstitious rites. On this solemn day, all labour is\nsuspended; the workmen receive from their employers a present of\nmoney, every person puts on his best clothes; and there is\nmerry-making in every family. Relations and friends interchange cakes of\nvarious sizes, on which is stamped the image of the moon; that is to\nsay, a hare crouching amid a small group of trees.\" [178] And\nDoolittle says: \"It is always full moon on the fifteenth of every\nChinese month; and, therefore, for several days previous, the\nevenings are bright, unless it happens to be cloudy, which is not\noften the case. The moon is a prominent object of attention and\ncongratulation at this time. At Canton, it is said, offerings are made\nto the moon on the fifteenth. On the following day, young people\namuse themselves by playing what is called _'pursuing_,' or\n'_congratulating_' the moon. At this city [Fuhchau], in the\nobservance of this festival, the expression '_rewarding the moon_' is\nmore frequently used than 'congratulating the moon.' It is a common\nsaying that there is 'a white rabbit in the moon pounding out rice.'\nThe dark and the white spots on the moon's face suggest the idea of\nthat animal engaged in the useful employment of shelling rice. The\nnotion is prevalent that the moon is inhabited by a multitude of\nbeautiful females, who are called by the name of an ancient beauty\nwho once visited that planet; but how they live, and what they do, is\nnot a matter of knowledge or of common fame. To the question, 'Is\nthe moon inhabited?' discussed by some Western philosophers, the\nChinese would answer in the affirmative. Several species of trees\nand flowers are supposed to flourish in the moon. Some say that,\none night in ancient times, one of the three souls of the originator of\ntheatrical plays rambled away to the moon and paid a visit to the\nLunar Palace. He found it filled with Lunarians engaged in\ntheatrical performances. He is said to have remembered the manner\nof conducting fashionable theatres in the moon, and to have imitated\nthem after his return to this earth. About the time of the festival of\nthe middle of autumn, the bake shops provide an immense amount\nand variety of cakes: many of them are circular, in imitation of the\nshape of the moon at that time, and are from six to twelve inches in\ndiameter. Some are in the form of a pagoda, or of a horse and rider,\nor of a fish, or other animals which please and cause the cake to be\nreadily sold. Some of these 'moon-cakes' have a white rabbit,\nengaged with his pounder, painted on one side, together with a lunar\nbeauty, and some trees or shrubs; on others are painted gods or\ngoddesses, animals, flowers, or persons, according to fancy.\" [179]\n\nIf we turn now to Jeremiah vii. 18, and read there, \"The women\nknead dough, to make cakes to the Queen of Heaven, and to pour\nout drink offerings unto other gods,\" and remember that, according\nto Rashi, these cakes of the Hebrews had the image of the god or\ngoddess stamped upon them, we are in view of a fact of much\ninterest. We are so unaccustomed to think that our peasants in\nLancashire can have anything in common with the Chinese five\nthousand miles away, and with the Jews of two thousand five\nhundred years ago, that to many these moon-cakes will give a\ngenuine surprise. But this is not all. Other analogies appear between\nBuddhist and Christian rites, such as those mentioned by Dr.\nMedhurst. \"The very titles of their intercessors, such as 'goddess of\nmercy,' 'holy mother,' 'queen of heaven,' with the image of a virgin,\nhaving a child in her arms, holding a cross, are all such striking\ncoincidences, that the Catholic missionaries were greatly stumbled\nat the resemblance between the Chinese worship and their own,\nwhen they came over to convert the natives to Christianity.\" [180] It\nis for the philosophical historian to show, if possible, whether these\nChinese ceremonies are copies of Christian or Hebrew originals; or\nwhether, many of our own Western forms with others of Oriental\ncharacter, are not transcripts of primitive faiths now well-nigh\nforgotten in both East and West. The hot cross buns of Good Friday,\nat first sight, have little relevancy to moon worship, and those who\neat them suppose they were originated to commemorate the\nChristian Sacrifice; but we know that the cross was a sacred symbol\nwith the earliest Egyptians, for it is carved upon their imperishable\nrecords; we know too that _bun_ itself is ancient Greek, and that\nWinckelmann relates the discovery at Herculaneum of two perfect\nbuns, each marked with a cross: while the _boun_ described by\nHesychius was a cake with a representation of _two horns_.\nIncredible as it may seem to some, the cross bun in its origin had\nnothing to do with an event with which it is in England identified; it\nprobably commemorates the worship of the moon. In passing from\nChina, we may also note the influence of that sexuality of which we\nhave spoken before. Dr. Medhurst remarks: \"The principle of the\nChinese cosmogony seems to be founded on a sexual system of the\nuniverse.\" [181]\n\nDr. Prichard tells us that among the Japanese \"sacred festivals are\nheld at certain seasons of the year and at changes of the moon.\"\nAlso, \"It appears that _Sin-too_, or original Japanese religion, is\nmerely a form of the worship of material objects, common to all the\nnations of Northern Asia, which, among the more civilized tribes,\nassumes the aspect of mythology.\" [182]\n\nFrom Asia we come to Africa, and to Egypt, that wonderful land\nwith a lithographed history at least five thousand years old; a land\nthat basked in the sunshine of civilization and culture when nearly\nthe whole world without was in shadow and gloom. The mighty\npyramid of Gizeh still stands, a monument of former national\ngreatness, and a marvel to the admirer of sublimity in design and\nperfection in execution. \"The setting of the sides to the cardinal\npoints is so exact as to prove that the Egyptians were excellent\nobservers of the elementary facts of astronomy.\" [183] But they\nwent farther. Diodorus says: \"The first generation of men in Egypt,\ncontemplating the beauty of the superior world, and admiring with\nastonishment the frame and order of the universe, judged that there\nwere two chief gods that were eternal, that is to say, the sun and the\nmoon, the first of which they called _Osiris_, and the other _Isis_.\"\n[184] This passage is proof that the Greeks and Romans had a very\nlimited acquaintance with Egyptian mythology; for the historian\nwas indubitably in error in supposing Osiris and Isis to be sun and\nmoon. But he was right in calling the sun and moon the first gods of\nthe Egyptians. Rawlinson says: \"The Egyptians had two moon-gods,\nKhons or Khonsu, and Tet or Thoth.\" [185] Dr. Birch has translated\nan inscription relating to Thoth, which reads: \"All eyes are open on\nthee, and all men worship thee as a god.\" [186] And M. Renouf\nsays: \"The Egyptian god Tehuti is known to the readers of Plato\nunder the name of Thoyth. He represents the moon, which he wears\nupon his head, either as crescent or as full disk.\" [187] The same\nlearned Egyptologist tells us that Khonsu or Chonsu was one of the\ntriad of Theban gods, and was the moon one of his attributes being\nthe reckoner of time. [188] Of the former divinity, Rawlinson\nrelates an instructive myth. \"According to one legend Thoth once\nwrote a wonderful book, full of wisdom and science, containing in it\neverything relating to the fowls of the air, the fishes of the sea, and\nthe four-footed beasts of the mountains. The man who knew a single\npage of the work could charm the heaven, the earth, the great abyss,\nthe mountains and the seas. This marvellous composition he\ninclosed in a box of gold, which he placed within a box of silver; the\nbox of silver within a box of ivory and ebony, and that again within\na box of bronze; the box of bronze within a box of brass; and the\nbox of brass within a box of iron; and the book, thus guarded, he\nthrew into the Nile at Coptos. The fact became known, and the book\nwas searched for and found. It gave its possessor vast knowledge\nand magical power, but it always brought on him misfortune. What\nbecame of it ultimately does not appear in the manuscript from\nwhich this account is taken; but the moral of the story seems to be\nthe common one, that unlawful knowledge is punished by all kinds\nof calamity.\" [189] There is also a story of the moon-god Chonsu,\nwhich is worthy of repetition. Its original is in the _Bibliotheque\nNationale_ at Paris, and for its first translation we are indebted to\nDr. Birch, of the British Museum. [190] A certain Asiatic princess\nof Bechten, wherever that was, was possessed by a spirit. Being\nconnected, through her sister's marriage, with the court of Egypt, on\nher falling ill, an Egyptian practitioner was summoned to her aid.\nHe declared that she had a demon, with which he himself was\nunable to cope. Thereupon the image of the moon-god Chonsu was\ndespatched in his mystic ark, for the purpose of exorcising the spirit\nand delivering the princess. The demon at once yielded to the divine\ninfluence; and the king of Bechten was so delighted that he kept the\nimage in his possession for upwards of three years. In consequence\nof an alarming dream he then sent him back to Egypt with presents\nof great value. Whatever evil powers the moon may have exerted\nsince, we must credit him with having once ejected an evil spirit and\nprolonged a royal life.\n\nReturning to Thoth, we find the following valuable hints in the great\nwork of Baron Bunsen:--\"The connection between Tet and the moon\nmay allude, according to Wilkinson, to the primitive use of a lunar\nyear. The ancients had already remarked that the moon in Egyptian\nwas masculine, not feminine, as the Greeks and Romans generally\nmade it. Still we have no right to suppose a particular moon-god,\nseparate from Thoth. We meet with a deity called after the moon\n(Aah) either as a mere personification, or as Thoth, in whom the\nagency of the moon and nature become a living principle. We find\nhim so represented in the tombs of the Ramesseum, opposite to\nPhre; a similar representation in Dendyra is probably symbolical.\nAccording to Champollion he is often seen in the train of Ammon,\nand then he is Thoth. He makes him green, with the four sceptres\nand cup of Ptah, by the side of which, however, is a sort of Horus\ncurl, the infantine lock, as child or son. In the inscriptions there is\nusually only the crescent, but on one occasion the sign _nuter_\n(god) is added. In the tombs a moon-god is represented sitting on a\nbark, and holding the sceptre of benign power, to whom two\nCynocephali are doing homage, followed by the Crescent and Nuter\ngod. Lastly, the same god is found in a standing posture,\nworshipped by two souls and two Cynocephali.\" [191]\n\nWith these \"dog-headed\" worshippers of the moon may be\nassociated another animal that from an early date has been\nconnected with the luminaries of the day and night. We saw that the\nAustralian moon-myth of Mityan was of a native cat. Renouf says:\n\"It is not improbable that the cat, in Egyptian _maeu_, became the\nsymbol of the Sun-god, or Day, because the word maeu also means\nlight.\" [192] Charles James Fox, with no thought of Egyptian, told\nthe Prince of Wales that \"cats always prefer the sunshine.\" The\nnative land of this domestic pet, or nuisance, is certainly Persia, and\nsome etymologists assign _pers_ as the origin of _puss_. Be this as\nit may, the pupil of a cat's eye is singularly changeable, dilating\nfrom the narrow line in the day-time to the luminous orb in the dark.\nOn this account the cat is likened to the moon. But in Egypt feline\neyes shine with supernatural lustre. Mr. Hyde Clarke tells us that\n\"the mummies of cats, which Herodotus saw at Bubastis, attested\nthen, as they do now, to the dedication of the cat to Pasht, the moon,\nand the veneration of the Egyptians for this animal. The cat must\nhave been known to man, and have been named at least as early as\nthe origin of language. The superstition of its connection with the\nmoon is also of pre-historic date, and not invented by the Egyptians.\nAccording to Plutarch, a cat placed in a lustrum denoted the moon,\nillustrating the mutual symbology. He supposes that this is because\nthe pupils of a cat's eyes dilate and decrease with the moon. The\nreason most probably depends, as before intimated, on another\nphenomenon of periodicity corresponding to the month. Dr. Rae\nhas, however, called my attention to another possible cause of the\nassociation, which is the fact that the cat's eyes glisten at night or in\nthe dark. It is to be observed that the name of the sun in the Malayan\nand North American languages is the day-eye, or sky-eye, and that\nof the moon the night-eye.\" [193] Our own daisy, too, is the _day's\neye_, resembling the sun, and opening its little pearly lashes when\nthe spring wakes to newness of life.\n\nThe Nubians \"pay adoration to the moon; and that their worship is\nperformed with pleasure and satisfaction, is obvious every night that\nshe shines. Coming out from the darkness of their huts, they say a\nfew words upon seeing her brightness, and testify great joy, by\nmotions of their feet and hands, at the first appearance of the new\nmoon.\" [194] The Shangalla worship the moon, and think that \"a\nstar passing near the horns of the moon denotes the coming of an\nenemy.\" [195] In Western Africa moon-worship is very prevalent.\nMerolla says: \"They that keep idols in their houses, every first day\nof the moon are obliged to anoint them with a sort of red wood\npowdered. At the appearance of every new moon, these people fall\non their knees, or else cry out, standing and clapping their hands, 'So\nmay I renew my life as thou art renewed.'\" [196]\n\nH. H. Johnston, Esq., F.Z.S., F.R.G.S., who had just returned from\nthe region of the Congo, related the following curious incident\nbefore the Anthropological Institute, in January, 1884. It looks\nremarkably like a relic of ancient worship, which gave the fruit of\nthe body for the sin of the soul, and committed murder on earth to\nawaken mercy in heaven! \"At certain villages between Manyanga\nand Isangila there are curious eunuch dances to celebrate the new\nmoon, in which a white cock is thrown up into the air alive, with\nclipped wings, and as it falls towards the ground it is caught and\nplucked by the eunuchs. I was told that originally this used to be a\nhuman sacrifice, and that a young boy or girl was thrown up into the\nair and torn to pieces by the eunuchs as he or she fell, but that of late\nyears slaves had got scarce or manners milder, and a white cock was\nnow substituted.\" [197]\n\nThe Mandingoes are more attracted to the varying moon than to the\nsun. \"On the first appearance of the new moon, which they look\nupon to be newly created, the Pagan natives, as well as\nMahomedans, say a short prayer; and this seems to be the only\nvisible adoration which the Kaffirs offer up to the Supreme Being.\"\nThe purport of this prayer is \"to return thanks to God for His\nkindness through the existence of the past moon, and to solicit a\ncontinuation of His favour during that of the new one.\" [198] Park\nwrites on another page: \"When the fast month was almost at an end,\nthe Bushreens assembled at the Misura to watch for the appearance\nof the new moon; but the evening being rather cloudy, they were for\nsome time disappointed, and a number of them had gone home with\na resolution to fast another day, when on a sudden this delightful\nobject showed her sharp horns from behind a cloud, and was\nwelcomed with the clapping of hands, beating of drums, firing\nmuskets, and other marks of rejoicing.\" [199] The Makololo and\nBechuana custom of greeting the new moon is curious. \"They watch\nmost eagerly for the first glimpse of the new moon, and when they\nperceive the faint outline after the sun has set deep in the west, they\nutter a loud shout of 'Ku?!' and vociferate prayers to it.\" [200] The\ndegraded Hottentots have not much improved since Bory de St.\nVincent described them as \"brutish, lazy, and stupid,\" and their\nworship of the moon is still demonstrative, as when Kolben wrote:\n\"These dances and noises are religious honours and invocations\nto the moon. They call her _Gounja_. The Supreme they call\n_Gounja-Gounja_, or _Gounja Ticquoa_, the god of gods, and place him\nfar above the moon. The moon, with them, is an inferior visible god\n--the subject and representation of the High and Invisible. They\njudge the moon to have the disposal of the weather, and invoke her\nfor such as they want. They assemble for the celebration of her\nworship at full and change constantly. No inclemency of the\nweather prevents them. And their behaviour at those times is indeed\nvery astonishing. They throw their bodies into a thousand different\ndistortions, and make mouths and faces strangely ridiculous and\nhorrid. Now they throw themselves flat on the ground, screaming\nout a strange, unintelligible jargon. Then jumping up on a sudden,\nand stamping like mad (insomuch that they make the ground shake),\nthey direct, with open throats, the following expressions, among\nothers, to the moon: '_I salute you; you are welcome. Grant us\nfodder for our cattle and milk in abundance_.' These and other\naddresses to the moon they repeat over and over, accompanying\nthem with dancing and clapping of hands. At the end of the dance\nthey sing '_Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho!_' many times over, with a variation of\nnotes; which being accompanied with clapping of hands makes a\nvery odd and a very merry entertainment to a stranger.\" [201] In\nreality they hold a primitive watch-night service; their welcome of\nthe new moon being very similar to our popular welcome of the new\nyear. Nor should it be omitted that the ancient Ethiopians\nworshipped the moon; and that those who lived above Meroe\nadmitted the existence of eternal and incorruptible gods, among\nwhich the moon ranked as a chief divinity.\n\nDescending the Nile and crossing the Mediterranean, we come to\nGreece.\n\n     \"The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece\n          Where burning Sappho loved and sung,\n     Where grew the arts of war and peace,\n          Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung\n     Eternal summer gilds them yet,\n          But all, except their sun, is set.\" [202]\n\nYes, Pericles and Plato, Sophocles and Pheidias, are dust; and much\nof their nation's pristine glory has \"melted into the infinite azure of\nthe past\": but the sun shines as youthful yet as on that eventful day\nwhen unwearied he sank in ocean, \"loth, and ere his time:\n\n     \"So the sun sank, and all the host had rest\n     From onset and the changeful chance of war.\" [203]\n\nWhere Phoebus sprang, sprang Phoebe also--the bright and beautiful\nmoon. To a people addicted to the idolatry of perfect form and\ncomeliness, no object could be more attractive than the queen of the\nnight. When Socrates was accused of innovating upon the Greek\nreligion, and of ridiculing the Athenian deities, he replied on his\ntrial, \"You strange man, Meletus, are you seriously affirming that I\ndo not think Helios and Selene to be gods, as the rest of mankind\nthink?\" [204] Pausanias, the historian, tells us that in Phocis there\nwas a chapel consecrated to Isis, which of all the places erected by\nthe Greeks to this Egyptian goddess was by far the most holy. It was\nnot lawful for any one to approach this sacred edifice but those\nwhom the goddess had invited by appearing to them for that purpose\nin a dream. [205] By Isis, as we saw from Diodorus, the Greeks\nunderstood the moon. Diana was also one of the Grecian moon-goddesses,\nbut Sir George C. Lewis thinks that this was not till a\ncomparatively late period. The religion of Greece was so mixed up,\nor made up, with mythology, that for an interpretation of their\ntheogony we must resort to poetry and impersonation. Here again\nwe see the working of sexual anthropomorphism. _Ouranos_\nespoused _Ge_, and their offspring was _Kronos_; which is but an\nancient mode of saying that chronology is the measurement on earth\nof heavenly motion. Solar and lunar worship was but the recognition\nin the primitive consciousness of the superior _worth-ship_ of these\ncelestial bodies. As Grote says: \"To us these now appear puerile,\nthough pleasing fancies, but to our Homeric Greek they seemed\nperfectly natural and plausible. In his view, the description of the\nsun, as given in a modern astronomical treatise, would have\nappeared not merely absurd, but repulsive and impious.\" [206] What\nan amount of misunderstanding would be obviated if readers of the\nBible would bear this in mind when they meet with erroneous\nconceptions in Hebrew cosmogony. Grote further says on the same\npage of his magnificent history: \"Personifying fiction was blended\nby the Homeric Greeks with their conception of the physical\nphenomena before them, not simply in the way of poetical\nornament, but as a genuine portion of their everyday belief.\" We\ncannot better conclude our brief glance at ancient Greece than by\nquoting that splendid comparison from the bard of Chios, which\nPope thought \"the most beautiful night-piece that can be found in\npoetry.\" Pope's own version is fine, but, as a translation, Lord\nDerby's must be preferred:\n\n     \"As when in heaven, around the glittering moon\n     The stars shine bright amid the breathless air;\n     And every crag and every jutting peak\n     Stands boldly forth, and every forest glade\n     Even to the gates of heaven is opened wide\n     The boundless sky; shines each particular star\n     Distinct; joy fills the gazing shepherd's heart.\" [207]\n\nThe Romans had many gods, superior and inferior. The former were\nthe _celestial_ deities, twelve in number, among whom was Diana;\nand the _Dii Selecti_, numbering eight. Of these, one was Luna, the\nmoon, daughter of Hyperion and sister of the Sun. [208] Livy\nspeaks of \"a temple of Luna, which is on the Aventine\"; and Tacitus\nmentions, in his Annals, a temple consecrated to the moon. In\nHorace, Luna is \"_siderum regina_\"; [209] and in Apuleius,\n\"_Regina coeli_,\" [210] Bishop Warburton, in his synopsis of\nApuleius, speaks of the hopeless condition of _Lucius_, which\nobliged him to fly to heaven for relief. \"The _moon_ is in full\nsplendour; and the awful silence of the night inspires him with\nsentiments of religion.\" He then purifies himself, and so makes his\nprayer to the moon, invoking her by her several names, as the\ncelestial _Venus_ and _Diana_. [211] This whole section of the\n_Divine Legation_ is worthy of close study.\n\n\"The ancient Goths,\" says Rudbeck (\"Atalantis,\" ii. 609), \"paid such\nregard to the moon, that some have thought that they worshipped\nher more than the sun.\" [212]\n\nAnd of the ancient Germans Grimm says: \"That to our remote\nancestry the heavenly bodies, especially the sun and moon, were\ndivine beings, will not admit of any doubt.\" [213] Gibbon, Friedrich\nSchlegel, and others, say the same.\n\nThe Finns worshipped \"Kun, the male god of the moon, who\ncorresponded exactly with the Aku, Enizuna, or Itu of the\nAccadians.\" [214]\n\nIn ancient Britain the moon occupied a high position in the religion\nof the Druids, who had superstitious rites at the lunar changes, and\nwho are \"always represented as having the crescent in their hands.\"\n[215] \"From the _Penitential_ of Theodore, Archbishop of\nCanterbury, in the seventh century, and the _Confessional_ of\nEcgbert, Archbishop of York, in the early part of the eighth century,\nwe may infer that homage was then offered to the sun and moon.\"\n[216] Again, \"There are many proofs, direct and circumstantial, that\nplace it beyond all doubt that the moon was one of the objects of\nheathen worship in Britain. But under what name the moon was\ninvoked is not discoverable, unless it may have been Andraste,\nthe goddess to whom the British queen Boadicea, with hands\noutstretched to heaven, appealed when about to engage in battle\nwith the Romans.\" [217] A writer of the seventeenth century, says:\n\"In Yorkeshire, etc., northwards, some country woemen do-e\nworship the New Moon on their bare knees, kneeling upon an\nearthfast stone. And the people of Athol, in the High-lands in\nScotland, doe worship the New Moon.\" [218] Camden writes of the\nIrish: \"Whether or no they worship the moon, I know not; but, when\nthey first see her after the change, they commonly bow the knee,\nand say the Lord's Prayer; and near the wane, address themselves to\nher with a loud voice, after this manner: 'Leave us as well as thou\nfoundest us.'\" [219] Sylvester O'Halloran, the Irish general and\nhistorian, speaking of \"the correspondent customs of the\nPhoenicians and the Irish,\" adds: \"Their deities were the same. They\nboth adored Bel, or the sun, the Moon, and the stars. The house of\nRimmon (2 Kings v. 18), which the Phoenicians worshipped in, like\nour temples of Fleachta, in Meath, was sacred to the moon. The\nword 'Rimmon' has by no means been understood by the different\ncommentators; and yet by recurring to the Irish (a branch of the\nPhoenicians) it becomes very intelligible; for _Re_ is Irish for the\nmoon, and _Muadh_ signifies an image; and the compound word\n_Reamham_ signifies prognosticating by the appearances of the\nmoon. It appears by the life of our great St. Columba, that the Druid\ntemples were _here_ decorated with figures of the sun, the moon,\nand the stars. The Phoenicians, under the name of Bel-Samen,\nadored the Supreme; and it is pretty remarkable that _to this very\nday_, to wish a friend every happiness this life can afford, we say in\nIrish, '_the blessings of Samen and Eel be with you_!' that is, of all\nthe seasons; Bel signifying the sun, and Samhain the moon.\" [220]\nAnd again: \"Next to the sun was the moon, which the Irish\nundoubtedly adored. Some remains of this worship may be traced,\neven at this day; as particularly borrowing, if they should not have it\nabout them, a piece of silver on the first night of a new moon, as an\nomen of plenty during the month; and at the same time saying in\nIrish, 'As you have found us in peace and prosperity, so leave us in\ngrace and mercy.'\" [221] Tuathal, the prince to whom the estates\n(_circa_ A.D. 106) swore solemnly \"by the sun, moon, and stars,\" to\nbear true allegiance, \"in that portion of the imperial domain taken\nfrom Munster, erected a magnificent temple called Flachta, sacred\nto the fire of Samhain, and to the Samnothei, or priests of the moon.\nHere, on every eve of November, were the fires of Samhain lighted\nup, with great pomp and ceremony, the monarch, the Druids, and\nthe chiefs of the kingdom attending; and from this holy fire, and no\nother, was every fire in the land first lit for the winter. It was\ndeemed an act of the highest impiety to kindle the winter fires from\nany other; and for this favour the head of every house paid a\nScrubal, or threepence, tax, to the Arch-Druid of Samhain.\" [222]\nAnother writer mentions another Irish moon-god. \"The next heathen\ndivinity which I would bring under notice is St. Luan, _alias_\nMolua, _alias_ Euan, _alias_ Lugidus, _alias_ Lugad, and Moling,\netc. The foundations, with which this saint under some of his\n_aliases_ is connected, extend over eight counties in the provinces\nof Ulster, Leinster, and Munster. Luan is to this; day the common\nIrish word for the moon. We read that there were fifteen saints of\nthe name of Lugadius; and as Lugidus was one of Luan's _aliases_, I\nhave set them all down as representing the moon in the several\nplaces where that planet was worshipped as the symbol of Female\nnature.\" [223] We have already seen that the moon was the\nembodiment of the female principle in China, and now we see that\nthe primitive Kelts associated sexuality with astronomy and\nreligion. It but further proves that \"one touch of nature makes the\nwhole world kin.\"\n\nMoreover, to show that former moon-worship still colours our\nreligion, it is not to be overlooked that, as our Christmas festivities\nare but a continuation of the Roman saturnalia, with their\ninterchanges of visits and presents, so \"the Church, celebrating in\nAugust the festival of the harvest moon, celebrates at the same time\nthe feast of the Assumption and of the Sacred Heart of the Virgin.\nAnd Catholic painters, following the description in the Apocalypse,\nfondly depict her as 'clothed with the sun, and having the moon\nunder her feet,' and both as overriding the dragon. Even the triumph\nof Easter is not celebrated until, by attaining its full, the moon\naccords its aid and sanction. Is it not interesting thus to discover the\ntrue note of Catholicism in the most ancient paganisms, and to find\nthat the moon, which for us is incarnate in the blessed Virgin Mary,\nwas for the Syrians and Greeks respectively personified in the virgin\nAshtoreth, the queen of heaven, and Diana, or Phoebe, the feminine\nof Phoebus?\" [224]\n\nA recent contributor to one of our valuable serials writes: \"I take the\nfollowing extract from a little book published under the auspices of\nDr. Barnardo. It is the 'truthful narrative' of a little sweep-girl picked\nup in the streets of some place near Brighton, and 'admitted into Dr.\nBarnardo's Village Home.' 'She had apparently no knowledge of\nGod or sense of His presence. The only thing she had any reverence\nfor was the moon. On one occasion, when the children were going\nto evening service, and a beautiful moon was shining, one of them\npointed to it, exclaiming, 'Oh, mother! look, what a beautiful moon!'\nLittle Mary caught hold of her hand, and cried, 'Yer mustn't point at\nthe blessed moon like that; and yer mustn't talk about it!' Was it\nfrom constantly sleeping under hedges and in barns, and waking up\nand seeing that bright calm eye looking at her, that some sense of a\nmysterious Presence had come upon the child?\" [225] To this query,\nthe answer we think should be negative. The cause more likely was\nthat she had heard the common tradition which is yet current in East\nLancashire, Cumberland, and elsewhere, that it is a sin to point at\nthe moon. Certain old gentlemen, who ought to be better informed,\nstill touch their hats, and devout young girls in the country districts\nstill curtsey, to the new moon, as an act of worship.\n\nThe American races practise luniolatry very generally. The\nDakotahs worship both sun and moon. The Delaware and Iroquois\nIndians sacrifice to these orbs, and it is most singular that \"they\nsacrifice to a hare, because, according to report, the first ancestor of\nthe Indian tribes had that name.\" But, although they receive in a\ndream as their tutelar spirits, the sun, moon, owl, buffalo, and so\nforth, \"they positively deny that they pay any adoration to these\nsubordinate good spirits, and affirm that they only worship the true\nGod, through them.\" [226] This reminds us of some excellent\nremarks made by one whose intimate acquaintance with North\nAmerican Indians entitled him to speak with authority. We have\nseen from Dr. Legge's writings that though the Chinese worshipped\na multitude of celestial spirits, \"yet the monotheism remained.\" Mr.\nCatlin will now assure us that though the American Indians adore\nthe heavenly bodies, they recognise the Great Spirit who inhabits\nthem all. These are his words: \"I have heard it said by some very\ngood men, and some who have even been preaching the Christian\nreligion amongst them, that they have no religion--that all their zeal\nin their worship of the Great Spirit was but the foolish excess of\nignorant superstition--that their humble devotions and supplications\nto the sun and the moon, where many of them suppose that the\nGreat Spirit resides, were but the absurd rantings of idolatry. To\nsuch opinions as these I never yet gave answer, nor drew other\ninstant inferences from them, than that, from the bottom of my\nheart, I pitied the persons who gave them.\" [227] Mr. Catlin\nundoubtedly was right, as the Apostle Paul was right, when he\nacknowledged that the Athenians worshipped the true God, albeit in\nignorance. At the same time, though idolatry is in numberless\ninstances nothing more than the use of media and mediators, in\nseeking the One, Invisible, Absolute Spirit, it is so naturally abused\nby sensuous beings who rest in the concrete, that no image\nworshipper is free from the propensity to worship the creature more\nthan the Creator, and to forget the Essence in familiarity with the\nform. The perfection of worship, we conceive, is pure theism; but\nhow few are capable of breathing in such a supersensuous air! Men\nmust have their \"means of grace,\" their visible symbols, their holy\nwaters and consecrated wafers, their crucifixes and talismans, their\nsilver shrines and golden calves. \"These be thy gods, O Israel.\"\n\n\"The Ahts undoubtedly worship the sun and the moon, particularly\nthe full moon, and the sun while ascending to the zenith. Like the\nTeutons, they regard the moon as the husband, and the sun as the\nwife; hence their prayers are more generally addressed to the moon,\nas being the superior deity. The moon is the highest of all the\nobjects of their worship; and they describe the moon--I quote the\nwords of my Indian informant--as looking down upon the earth in\nanswer to prayer, and as seeing everybody.\" [228] Of the Indians of\nVancouver Island, another writer says: \"The moon is among all the\nheavenly bodies the highest object of veneration. When working at\nthe settlement at Alberni in gangs by moonlight, individuals have\nbeen observed to look up to the moon, blow a breath, and utter\nquickly the word, '_Teech! teech!_' (health, or life). Life! life! this is\nthe great prayer of these people's hearts.\" [229] \"Among the\nComanches of Texas, the sun, moon, and earth are the principal\nobjects of worship.\" The Kaniagmioutes consider the moon and sun\nto be brother and sister. [230]\n\nMeztli was the moon as deified by the Mexicans. In Teotihuacan,\nthirty miles north of the city of Mexico, is the site of an ancient city\ntwenty miles in circumference. Near the centre of this spot stand the\nPyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. The Pyramid of\nthe Sun has a base 682 feet long and is 180 feet high (the Pyramid\nof Cheops is 728 feet at the base, and is 448 feet in height). The\nPyramid of the Moon is rather less, and is due north of that of the\nSun. [231] No doubt the philosophy of all pyramids would show\nthat they embody the uplifting of the human soul towards the\nHeaven-Father of all.\n\nIn Northern Mexico still \"the Ceris superstitiously celebrate the new\nmoon.\" [232] This luniolatry the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg\nexplains by a novel theory. He holds that the forefathers of\nAmerican civilization lived in a certain Crescent land in the Atlantic\nthat a physical catastrophe destroyed their country whereupon the\nremnant that was saved commemorated their lost land by adopting\nthe moon as their god. [233] \"The population of Central America,\"\nsays the Vicomte de Bussierre, \"although they had preserved the\nvague notion of a superior eternal God and Creator, known by the\nname Teotl, had an Olympus as numerous as that of the Greeks and\nthe Romans. It would appear that the inhabitants of Anahuac joined\nto the idea of a supreme being the worship of the sun and the moon,\noffering them flowers, fruits, and the first fruits of their fields.\"\n[234] Dr. Reville bids us \"note that the ancient Central-American\ncultus of the sun and moon, considered as the two supreme deities,\nwas by no means renounced by the Aztecs.\" [235] Regarding this\nremarkable race, a writer in the _Quarterly Review_ for April, 1883,\nsays: \"Even the Chaldaeans were not greater astrologers than the\nAztecs, and we need no further proof that the heavenly bodies were\nclosely and accurately observed, than we find in the fact that the\ntrue length of the tropical year had been ascertained long before\nscientific instruments were even thought of. Their religious festivals\nwere regulated by the movements of these bodies; but with their\nknowledge was mingled so vast a mass of superstition, that it is\ndifficult to discern a gleam of light through the thick darkness.\"\n\"The Botocudos of Brazil held the moon in high veneration, and\nattributed to her influence the chief phenomena in nature.\" [236]\nThe Indian of the Coroados tribe in Brazil, \"chained to the present,\nhardly ever raises his eyes to the starry firmament. Yet he is\nactuated by a certain awe of some constellations, as of everything\nthat indicates a spiritual connection of things. His chief attention,\nhowever, is not directed to the sun, but to the moon; according to\nwhich he calculates time, and from which he is used to deduce good\nand evil.\" [237]\n\nThe celebrated Abipones honour with silver altars and adoration the\nmoon, which they call the consort of the sun, and certain stars,\nwhich they term the handmaids of the moon: but their most singular\nidea is that the Pleiades represent their grandfather; and \"as that\nconstellation disappears at certain periods from the sky of South\nAmerica, upon such occasions they suppose that their grandfather is\nsick, and are under a yearly apprehension that he is going to die; but\nas soon as those seven stars are again visible in the month of May,\nthey welcome their grandfather, as if returned and restored from\nsickness, with joyful shouts, and the festive sound of pipes and\ntrumpets, congratulating him on the recovery of his health.\" [238]\n\nThe Peruvians \"acknowledge no other gods than the Pachacamac,\nwho is the supreme, and the Sun, who is inferior to him, and the\nMoon, who is his sister and wife.\" [239] In the religion of the Incas\nthe idol (huaco) of the Moon was in charge of women, and when it\nwas brought from the house of the Sun, to be worshipped, it was\ncarried on their shoulders, because they said \"it was a woman, and\nthe figure resembled one.\"  [240]_Pachacamac_, the great deity\nmentioned above, signifies \"earth-animator.\"\n\nPrescott, in describing the temple of the Sun, at Cuzco in Peru, tells\nus that \"adjoining the principal structure were several chapels of\nsmaller dimensions. One of them was consecrated to the Moon, the\ndeity held next in reverence, as the mother of the Incas. Her effigy\nwas delineated in the same manner as that of the Sun, on a vast plate\nthat nearly covered one side of the apartment. But this plate, as well\nas all the decorations of the building, was of silver, as suited to the\npale, silvery light of the beautiful planet.\" [241]\n\nIn the far-off New Hebrides the Eramangans \"worship the moon,\nhaving images in the form of the new and full moons, made of a\nkind of stone. They do not pray to these images, but cleave to them\nas their protecting gods.\" [242]\n\nWe have now circumnavigated the globe, touching at many points,\nwithin many degrees of latitude and longitude. But everywhere,\namong men of different literatures and languages, colours and\ncreeds, we have discovered the worship of the moon. No nation has\noutgrown the practice, for it obtains among the polished as well as\nthe rude. One thing, indeed, we ought to have had impressed upon\nour minds with fresh force; namely, that we often draw the lines of\ndemarcation too broad between those whom we are pleased to\ndivide into the civilized and the savage. Israelite and heathen,\nGrecian and barbarian, Roman and pagan, enlightened and\nbenighted, saintly and sinful, are fine distinctions from the Hebrew,\nGreek, Roman, enlightened, and saintly sides of the question; but\nthey often reflect small credit upon the wisdom and generosity of\ntheir authors. The antipodal Eramangan who cleaves to his moon\nimage for protection may be quite equal, both intellectually and\nmorally, with the Anglo-Saxon who still wears his amulet to ward\noff disease, or nails up his horse-shoe, as Nelson did to the mast of\nthe _Victory_, as a guarantee of good luck. Sir George Grey has\nwritten: \"It must be borne in mind, that the native races, who\nbelieved in these traditions or superstitions, are in no way deficient\nin intellect, and in no respect incapable of receiving the truths of\nChristianity; on the contrary, they readily embrace its doctrines and\nsubmit to its rules; in our schools they stand a fair comparison with\nEuropeans; and, when instructed in Christian truths, blush at their\nown former ignorance and superstitions, and look back with shame\nand loathing upon their previous state of wickedness and credulity.\"\n[243]\n\n\n\nIV. THE MOON A WATER-DEITY.\n\nWe design this chapter to be the completion of moon-worship, and\nat the same time an anticipation of those lunary superstitions which\nare but scattered leaves from luniolatry, the parent tree. If the new\nmoon, with its waxing light, may represent the primitive\nnature-worship which spread over the earth; and the full moon, the deity\nwho is supposed to regulate our reservoirs and supplies of water: the\nwaning moon may fitly typify the grotesque and sickly superstition,\nwhich, under the progress of radiant science and spiritual religion, is\nreadier every hour to vanish away.\n\n\"The name Astarte was variously identified with the moon, as\ndistinguished from the sun, or with air and water, as opposed in\ntheir qualities to fire. The name of this goddess represented to the\nworshipper the great female parent of all animated things, variously\nconceived of as the moon, the earth, the watery element, primeval\nnight, the eldest of the destinies.\" [244] It is worthy of note that Van\nHelmont, in the seventeenth century, holds similar language. His\nwords are, \"The moon is chief over the night darkness, rest, death,\nand the waters.\" [245] It is also remarkable that in the language of\nthe Algonquins of North America the ideas of night, death, cold,\nsleep, water, and moon are expressed by one and the same word.\n[246] In the oriental mythology \"the connection between the moon\nand water suggests the idea that the moon produces fertility and\nfreshness in the soil.\" [247] \"Al Zamakhshari, the commentator on\nthe Koran, derives _Manah_ (one of the three idols worshipped by\nthe Arabs before the time of Mohammad) from the root 'to flow,'\nbecause of the blood which flowed at the sacrifices to this idol, or,\nas Millius explains it, because the ancient idea of the moon was that\nit was a star full of moisture, with which it filled the sublunary\nregions.\" [248] The Persians held that the moon was the cause of an\nabundant supply of water and of rain, and therefore the names of the\nmost fruitful places in Persia are compounded with the word _mah_,\n\"moon\"; \"for in the opinion of the Iranians the growth of plants\ndepends on the influence of the moon.\" [249] In India \"the moon is\ngenerally a male, for its most popular names, _Candras_, _Indus_,\nand _Somas_, are masculine; but as Somas signifies ambrosia, the\nmoon, as giver of ambrosia, soon came to be considered a\nmilk-giving cow; in fact, moon is one among the various meanings given\nin Sanskrit to the word Gaus (cow). The moon, Somas, who\nillumines the nocturnal sky, and the pluvial sun, Indras, who during\nthe night, or the winter, prepares the light of morn, or spring, are\nrepresented as companions; a young girl, the evening, or autumnal\ntwilight, who goes to draw water towards night, or winter, finds in\nthe well, and takes to Indras, the ambrosial moon, that is, the Somas\nwhom he loves. Here are the very words of the Vedic hymn: 'The\nyoung girl, descending towards the water, found the moon in the\nfountain, and said: I will take you to Indras, I will take you to\nCakras; flow, O moon, and envelop Indras.'\" [250] Here in India we\nagain find our old friend \"the frog in the moon.\" \"It is especially\nIndus who satisfies the frog's desire for rain. Indus, as the moon,\nbrings or announces the Somas, or the rain; the frog, croaking,\nannounces or brings the rain; and at this point the frog, which we\nhave seen identified at first with the cloud, is also identified with the\npluvial moon.\" [251] This myth is not lacking in involution.\n\nIn China \"the moon is regarded as chief and director of everything\nsubject in the kosmic system to the Yin [feminine] principle, such as\ndarkness, the earth, female creatures, water, etc. Thus Pao P'ah Tsze\ndeclares with reference to the tides: 'The vital essence of the moon\ngoverns water: and hence, when the moon is at its brightest, the\ntides are high.'\" [252] According to the Japanese fairy tale the moon\nwas to \"rule over the new-born earth and the blue waste of the sea,\nwith its multitudinous salt waters.\" [253] Thus we see that\nthroughout Asia, \"as lord of moisture and humidity, the moon is\nconnected with growth and the nurturing power of the peaceful\nnight.\" [254]\n\nOf the kindred of the Pharaohs, Plutarch observes: \"The sun and\nmoon were described by the Egyptians as sailing round the world in\nboats, intimating that these bodies owe their power of moving, as\nwell as their support and nourishment, to the principle of humidity\"\n(Plut. de Isid. s. 34): which statement Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson says\nis confirmed by the sculptures. The moon-god Khons bears in his\nhands either a palm-branch or \"the Nilometer.\" When the Egyptians\nsacrificed a pig to the moon, \"the first sacred emblem they carried\nwas a _hydria_, or water-pitcher.\" At another festival the Egyptians\n\"marched in procession towards the sea-side, whither likewise the\npriests and other proper officers carried the sacred chest, inclosing a\nsmall boat or vessel of gold, into which they first poured some fresh\nwater; and then all present cried out with a loud voice 'Osiris is\nfound.' This ceremony being ended, they threw a little fresh mould,\ntogether with rich odours and spices, into the water, mixing the\nwhole mass together, and working it up into a little image in the\nshape of a crescent. The image was afterwards dressed and adorned\nwith a proper habit, and the whole was intended to intimate that they\nlooked upon these gods as the essence and power of earth and\nwater.\" [255]\n\nThe Austro-Hungarians have a man in the moon who is a sort of\naquarius. Grimm says: \"Water, an essential part of the Norse myth,\nis wanting in the story of the man with the thorn bush, but it\nreappears in the Carniolan story cited in Bretano's Libussa (p. 421):\nthe man in the moon is called Kotar, he makes her grow by pouring\nwater.\" [256] The Scandinavian legend, distilled into Jack and Jill,\nis, as we have seen, an embodiment of early European belief that the\nebb and flow of the tides were dependent upon the motions and\nmutations of the moon.\n\nWe find the same notion prevailing in the western hemisphere. \"As\nthe MOON is associated with the dampness and dews of night, an\nancient and widespread myth identified her with the goddess of\nwater. Moreover, in spite of the expostulations of the learned, the\ncommon people the world over persist in attributing to her a marked\ninfluence on the rains. Whether false or true, this familiar opinion is\nof great antiquity, and was decidedly approved by the Indians, who\nwere all, in the words of an old author, 'great observers of the\nweather by the moon.' They looked upon her, not only as\nforewarning them by her appearance of the approach of rains and\nfogs, but as being their actual cause. Isis, her Egyptian title, literally\nmeans moisture; Ataensic, whom the Hurons said was the moon, is\nderived from the word for water; and Citatli and Atl, moon and\nwater, are constantly confounded in Aztec theology.\" [257] One of\nthe gods of the Dakotahs was \"Unk-ta-he (god of the water). The\nDakotahs say that this god and its associates are seen in their\ndreams. It is the master-spirit of all their juggling and superstitious\nbelief, From it the medicine men obtain their supernatural powers,\nand a great part of their religion springs from this god.\" [258]\nBrinton also says of this large Indian nation, \"that Muktahe, spirit of\nwater, is the master of dreams and witchcraft, is the belief of the\nDakotahs.\" [259] We know that the Dakotahs worshipped the moon,\nand therefore see no difficulty in identifying that divinity with their\ngod of dreams and water. \"In the legend of the Muyscas it is Chia,\nthe moon, who was also goddess of water and flooded the earth out\nof spite.\" [260] In this myth the moon is a malevolent deity, and\nwater, usually a symbol of life, becomes an agency of death.\nReactions are constantly occurring in the myth-making process. The\ngod is male or female, good or evil, angry or amiable, according to\nthe season or climate, the aspect of nature or the mood of the\npeople. \"In hot countries,\" says Sir John Lubbock, \"the sun is\ngenerally regarded as an evil, and in cold as a beneficent being.\"\n[261] We are willing to accept this, with allowance. There is little\nquestion that taking men as a whole they are mainly optimistic in\ntheir judgments respecting the gifts of earth and the glories of\nheaven. Mr. Brinton, in reference to the imagined destructiveness of\nthe water deity, writes: \"Another reaction in the mythological\nlaboratory is here disclosed. As the good qualities of water were\nattributed to the goddess of night, sleep, and death, so her\nmalevolent traits were in turn reflected back on this element.\nTaking, however, American religions as a whole, water is far more\nfrequently represented as producing beneficent effects than the\nreverse.\" [262]\n\n\"The time of full moon was chosen both in Mexico and Peru to\ncelebrate the festival of the deities of water, the patrons of\nagriculture, and very generally the ceremonies connected with the\ncrops were regulated by her phases. The Nicaraguans said that the\ngod of rains, Quiateot, rose in the east, thus hinting how this\nconnection originated.\" [263] \"The Muyscas of the high plains of\nBogota were once, they said, savages without agriculture, religion,\nor law; but there came to them from the east an old and bearded\nman, Bochica, the child of the sun, and he taught them to till the\nfields, to clothe themselves, to worship the gods, to become a\nnation. But Bochica had a wicked, beautiful wife, Huythaca, who\nloved to spite and spoil her husband's work; and she it was who\nmade the river swell till the land was covered by a flood, and but a\nfew of mankind escaped upon the mountain tops. Then Bochica was\nwroth, and he drove the wicked Huythaca from the earth, and made\nher the moon, for there had been no moon before; and he cleft the\nrocks and made the mighty cataract of Tequendama, to let the\ndeluge flow away. Then, when the land was dry, he gave to the\nremnant of mankind the year and its periodic sacrifices, and the\nworship of the sun. Now the people who told this myth had not\nforgotten, what indeed we might guess without their help, that\nBochica was himself Zuhe, the sun, and Huytheca, the sun's wife,\nthe moon.\" [264] This interesting and instructive legend, to which\nwe alluded before in a brief quotation from Mr. Brinton, is worthy\nof reproduction in its fuller form, and fitly concludes our moon\nmythology and worship, as it presents a synoptical view of the chief\npoints to which our attention has been turned. It shows us primitive\nor primeval man, the dawn of civilization, the daybreak of religion,\nthe upgrowth of national life. In its solar husband and lunar wife it\nembraces that anthropomorphism and sexuality which we think\nhave been and still are the principal factors in the production of\nlegendary and religious impersonations. It includes that dualism\nwhich is one of man's oldest attempts to account for the opposition\nof good and evil. And finally it predicts a new humanity, springing\nfrom a remnant of the old; and a progress of brighter years, when,\nthe deluge having disappeared, the dry land shall be fruitful in every\ngood; when men shall worship the Father of lights, and \"God shall\nbe all in all.\"\n\n[*] For further information on the universality of moon-worship, see\n_The Ceremonies and Religious Customs of the Various Nations of\nthe Known World_, by Bernard Picart. London: 1734, folio, vol. iii.\n\n\n\nMOON SUPERSTITIONS.\n\nI. INTRODUCTION.\n\nSuperstition may be defined as an extravagance of faith and fear:\nnot what Ecclesiastes calls being \"righteous overmuch,\" but\nreligious reverence in excess. Some etymologists say that the word\noriginally meant a \"_standing_ still _over_ or by a thing\" in fear,\nwonder, or dread. [265] Brewer's definition is rather more classical:\n\"That which survives when its companions are dead (Latin,\n_supersto_). Those who escaped in battle were called _superstites_.\nSuperstition is that religion which remains when real religion is\ndead; that fear and awe and worship paid to the religious impression\nwhich survives in the mind when correct notions of Deity no longer\nexist.\" [266] Hooker says that superstition \"is always joined with a\nwrong opinion touching things divine. Superstition is, when things\nare either abhorred or observed with a zealous or fearful, but\nerroneous relation to God. By means whereof the superstitious do\nsometimes serve, though the true God, yet with needless offices, and\ndefraud Him of duties necessary; sometimes load others than Him\nwith such honours as properly are His.\" [267] A Bampton Lecturer\non this subject says: \"Superstition is an _unreasonable belief_ of\nthat which is mistaken for truth concerning the nature of God and\nthe invisible world, our relations to these unseen objects, and the\nduties which spring out of those relations.\" [268]\n\nWe may next briefly inquire into the origin of the thing, which, of\ncourse, is older than the word. Burton will help us to an easy\nanswer. He tells us that \"the _primum mobile_, and first mover of\nall superstition, is the devil, that great enemy of mankind, the\nprincipal agent, who in a thousand several shapes, after divers\nfashions, with several engines, illusions, and by several names, hath\ndeceived the inhabitants of the earth, in several places and countries,\nstill rejoicing at their falls.\" [269] Verily this protean, omnipresent,\nand malignant devil has proved himself a great convenience! He has\nbeen the scapegoat upon whom we have laid the responsibility of all\nour mortal woe: and now we learn that to his infernal influence we\nare indebted for our ignorance and superstition. Henceforth, when\nwe are at our wit's end, we may apostrophize the difficulty, and\nexclaim, \"O thou invisible spirit, if thou hast no name to be known\nby, let us call thee devil!\" We hesitate to spoil this serviceable\nillusion: for as we have known some good people, of a sort, who\nwould be distressed to find that there was no hell to burn up the\nopponents of their orthodoxy; we fear lest many would be\ndisappointed if they found out that the infernal spirit was not at the\nbottom of our abysmal ignorance. But we will give even the devil\nhis due. We are not like Sir William Brown, who \"could never bring\nhimself heartily to hate the devil.\" We can, wherever we find him;\nbut we think it only honest to father our own mental deficiencies, as\nwell as our moral delinquencies, and instead of seeking a substitute\nto use the available remedy. \"To err is human\"; and it is in humanity\nitself that we shall discover the source of superstition. We are the\ndescendants of ancestors who were the children of the world, and\nwe were ourselves children not so long ago. Childhood is the age of\nfancy and fiction; of sensitiveness to outer influences; of\nimpressions of things as they seem, not as they are. When we\nbecome men we put away childish things; and in the manhood of\nour race we shall banish many of the idols and ideas which please us\nwhile we grow. Darwin has told us that our \"judgment will not\nrarely err from ignorance and weak powers of reasoning. Hence the\nstrangest customs and superstitions, in complete opposition to the\ntrue welfare and happiness of mankind, have become all-powerful\nthroughout the world. How so many absurd rules of conduct, as well\nas so many absurd religious beliefs, have originated, we do not\nknow; nor how it is that they have become, in all quarters of the\nworld, so deeply impressed on the mind of men; but it is worthy of\nremark that a belief constantly inculcated during the early years of\nlife, whilst the brain is impressible, appears to acquire almost the\nnature of an instinct; and the very essence of an instinct is that it is\nfollowed independently of reason.\" [270]\n\nBut if superstition be the result of imperfection, there is no\ngainsaying the fact that it is productive of infinite evil; and on this\naccount it has been attributed to a diabolical paternity. Bacon even\naffirms that \"it were better to have no opinion of God at all, than\nsuch an opinion as is unworthy of Him; for the one is unbelief, the\nother is contumely: and certainly superstition is the reproach of the\nDeity.\" [271] Most heartily do we hold with Dr. Thomas Browne:\n\"It is not enough to believe in God as an irresistible power that\npresides over the universe; for this a malignant demon might be. It\nis necessary for our devout happiness that we should believe in Him\nas that pure and gracious Being who is the encourager of our virtues\nand the comforter of our sorrows.\n\n     Quantum religio potuit suadere malorum,\n\nexclaims the Epicurean poet, in thinking of the evils which\nsuperstition, characterized by that ambiguous name, had produced;\nand where a fierce or gloomy superstition has usurped the influence\nwhich religion graciously exercises only for purposes of\nbenevolence to man, whom she makes happy with a present\nenjoyment, by the very expression of devout gratitude for happiness\nalready enjoyed, it would not be easy to estimate the amount of\npositive misery which must result from the mere contemplation of a\ntyrant in the heavens, and of a creation subject to his cruelty and\ncaprice.\" [272] The above quoted line from Lucretius--To such evils\ncould religion persuade!--is more than the exclamation of righteous\nindignation against the sacrifice of Iphigenia by her father,\nAgamemnon, at the bidding of a priest, to propitiate a goddess. It is\nstill further applicable to the long chain of outrageous wrongs which\nhave been inflicted upon the innocent at the instigation of a stupid\nand savage fanaticism. What is worst of all, much of this\nbloodthirsty religion has claimed a commission from the God of\nlove, and performed its detestable deeds in the insulted name of that\n\"soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit,\" whom the loftiest and\nbest of men delight to adore as the Prince of peace. No wonder that\nVoltaire cried out, \"Christian religion, behold thy consequences!\" if\nhe could calculate that ten million lives had been immolated on the\naltar of a spurious Christianity. One hundred thousand were slain in\nthe Bartholomew massacre alone. Righteousness, peace, and love\nwere not the monster which Voltaire laboured to crush: he was most\nintensely incensed against the blind and bigoted priesthood, against\nthe malicious and murderous servants who ate the bread of a holy\nand harmless Master, against \"their intolerance of light and hatred of\nknowledge, their fierce yet profoundly contemptible struggles with\none another, the scandals of their casuistry, their besotted cruelty.\"\n[273] We have been betrayed into speaking thus strongly of the\nextreme lengths to which superstition will carry those who yield\nthemselves to its ruthless tyranny. But perhaps we have not gone far\nfrom our subject, after all; for the innocent Iphigenia, whose doom\nkindled our ire, was sacrificed to the goddess of the moon.\n\n\n\nII. LUNAR FANCIES.\n\nThere are a few phosphorescent fancies about the moon, like _ignes\nfatui_,\n\n     \"Dancing in murky night o'er fen and lake,\"\n\nwhich we may dispose of in a section by themselves. Those of them\nthat are mythical are too evanescent to become full-grown myths;\nand those which are religious are too volatile to remain in the\nsolution or salt of any bottled creed. Like the wandering lights of the\nRussians, answering to our will-o'-the-wisp, they are the souls of\nstill-born children. There is, for example, the insubstantial and\nformless but pleasing conception of the Indian Veda. In the\nRamayanam the moon is a good fairy, who in giving light in the\nnight assumes a benignant aspect and succours the dawn. In the\nVedic hymn, Raka, the full moon, is exhorted to sew the work with\na needle which cannot be broken. Here the moon is personified as\npreparing during the night her luminous garments, one for the\nevening, the other for the morning, the one lunar and of silver, the\nother solar and of gold. [274] Another notion, equally airy but more\nreligious, has sprung up in Christian times and in Catholic countries.\nIt is that heathen fancy which connects the moon with the Virgin\nMary. Abundant evidence of this association in the minds of Roman\nCatholics is furnished by the style of the ornaments which crowd the\ncontinental churches. One of the most conspicuous is the sun and\nmoon in conjunction, precisely as they are represented on\nBabylonian and Grecian coins; and the identification of the Virgin\nand her Child with the moon any Roman Catholic cathedral will\nshow. [275] The _Roman Missal_ will present to any reader \"Sancta\nMaria, coeli Regina, et mundi Domina\"; the _Glories of Mary_ will\nexhibit her as the omnipotent mother, Queen of the Universe; and\nEcclesiastical History will declare how, as early as the close of\nthe fourth century, the women who were called Collyridians\nworshipped her \"as a goddess, and judged it necessary to appease\nher anger, and seek her favour and protection, by libations,\nsacrifices, and oblations of cakes (_collyridae_).\" [276] This is but a\nrepetition of the women kneading dough to make cakes to the queen\nof heaven, as recorded by Jeremiah; and proves that the relative\nposition occupied by Astarte in company with Baal, Juno with\nJupiter, Doorga with Brahma, and Ma-tsoo-po with Boodh, is that\noccupied by Mary with God. Nay more, she is \"Mater Creatoris\"\nand \"Dei Genetrix\": Mother of the Creator, Mother of God. Having\nthus been enthroned in the position in the universal pantheon which\nwas once occupied by the moon, what wonder that the ignorant\ndevotee should see her in that orb, especially as the sun, moon, and\nstars of the Apocalypse are her chief symbols. Southey has recorded\na good illustration of this superstitious fancy. \"A fine circumstance\noccurred in the shipwreck of the _Santiago_, 1585. The ship struck\nin the night; the wretched crew had been confessing, singing\nlitanies, etc., and this they continued till, about two hours before\nbreak of day, the moon arose beautiful and exceeding bright; and\nforasmuch as till that time they had been in such darkness that they\ncould scarcely sec one another when close at hand, such was the stir\namong them at beholding the brightness and glory of that orb, that\nmost part of the crew began to lift up their voices, and with tears,\ncries, and groans called upon Our Lady, saying they saw her in the\nmoon.\" [277]\n\nThe preceding fancies would produce upon the poetic and religious\nsense only an agreeable effect. Other hallucinations have wrought\neffects of an opposite kind. The face in the moon does not always\nwear an amiable aspect, and it is not unnatural that those who have\nbeen taught to believe in angry gods and frowning providences\nshould see the caricatures of their false teachers reproduced in the\nheavens above and in the earth beneath. We are reminded here of\nthe magic mirror mentioned by Bayle. There is a trick, invented by\nPythagoras, which is performed in the following manner. The moon\nbeing at the full, some one writes with blood on a looking-glass\nanything he has a mind to; and having given notice of it to another\nperson, he stands behind that other and turns towards the moon the\nletters written in the glass. The other looking fixedly on the shining\norb reads in it all that is written on the mirror as if it were written on\nthe moon. [278] This is precisely the _modus operandi_ by which\nthe knavish have imposed upon the foolish in all ages. The\nmanipulator of the doctrine stands behind his credulous disciple,\nwriting out of sight his invented science or theology, and writing too\noften with the blood of some innocent victim. The poor patient\nstudent is meanwhile gazing on the moon in dreamy devotion; until\nas the writing on the mirror is read with solemn intonation, it all\nappears before his moon-struck gaze as a heavenly revelation. Woe\nto the truth-loving critic who breaks the enchantment and the mirror,\ncrying out in the vernacular tongue, Your mysteries are myths, your\nwritings are frauds; and the fair moon is innocent of the lying\nimposition!\n\nTo multitudes the moon has always been an object of terror and\ndread. Not only is it a supramundane and magnified man--that it\nwill always be while its spots are so anthropoid, and man himself is\nso anthropomorphic--but it has ever been, and still is, a being of\nmaleficent and misanthropic disposition. As Mr. Tylor says, \"When\nthe Aleutians thought that if any one gave offence to the moon, he\nwould fling down stones on the offender and kill him; or when the\nmoon came down to an Indian squaw, appearing in the form of a\nbeautiful woman with a child in her arms, and demanding an\noffering of tobacco and fur-robes: what conceptions of personal life\ncould be more distinct than these?\" [279] Personal and distinct,\nindeed, but far from pleasant. Another author tells us that \"in some\nparts of Scotland to point at the stars or to do aught that might be\nconsidered an indignity in the face of the sun or moon, is still to be\ndreaded and avoided; so also it was not long since, probably still is,\nin Devonshire and Cornwall. The Jews seem to have been equally\nsuperstitious on this point (Jer. viii. 1, 2), and the Persians believed\nleprosy to be an infliction on those who had committed some\noffence against the sun.\" [280] Southey supplies us with an\nillustration of the moon in a fit of dudgeon. He is describing the\nsufferings of poor Hans Stade, when he was caught by the\nTupinambas and expected that he was about to die. \"The moon was\nup, and fixing his eyes upon her, he silently besought God to\nvouchsafe him a happy termination of these sufferings. Yeppipo\nWasu, who was one of the chiefs of the horde, and as such had\nconvoked the meeting, seeing how earnestly he kept gazing\nupwards, asked him what he was looking at. Hans had ceased from\npraying, and was observing the man in the moon, and fancying that\nhe looked angry; his mind was broken down by continual terror, and\nhe says it seemed to him at that moment as if he were hated by God,\nand by all things which God had created. The question only half\nroused him from this phantasy, and he answered, it was plain that\nthe moon was angry. The savage asked whom she was angry with,\nand then Hans, as if he had recollected himself, replied that she was\nlooking at his dwelling. This enraged him, and Hans found it\nprudent to say that perhaps her eyes were turned so wrathfully upon\nthe Carios; in which opinion the chief assented, and wished she\nmight destroy them all.\" [281] Some such superstitious fear must\nhave furnished the warp into which the following Icelandic story\nwas woven. \"There was once a sheep-stealer who sat down in a\nlonely place, with a leg of mutton in his hand, in order to feast upon\nit, for he had just stolen it. The moon shone bright and clear, not a\nsingle cloud being there in heaven to hide her. While enjoying his\ngay feast, the impudent thief cut a piece off the meat, and, putting it\non the point of his knife, accosted the moon with these godless\nwords:--\n\n          'O moon, wilt thou\n          On thy mouth now\n     This dainty bit of mutton-meat?'\n\nThen a voice came from the heavens, saying:--\n\n          'Wouldst thou, thief, like\n          Thy cheek to strike\n     This fair key, scorching-red with heat?'\n\nAt the same moment, a red-hot key fell from the sky on to the cheek\nof the thief, burning on it a mark which he carried with him ever\nafterwards. Hence arose the custom in ancient times of branding or\nmarking thieves.\" [282] The moral influence of this tale is excellent,\nand has the cordial admiration of all who hate robbery and\neffrontery: at the same time it exhibits the moon as an irascible\nbody, with which no liberty may be taken. In short, it is an object of\nsuperstitious awe.\n\nOne other lunar fancy, born and bred in fear, is connected with the\nabominable superstition of witchcraft. Abominable, unquestionably,\nthe evil was; but justice compels us to add that the remedy of\nrelentless and ruthless persecution with which it was sought to\nremove the pest was a reign of abhorrent and atrocious cruelty. Into\nthe question itself we dare not enter, lest we should be ourselves\nbewitched. We know that divination by supposed supernatural\nagency existed among the Hebrews, that magical incantations were\npractised among the Greeks and Romans, and that more modern\nwitchcraft has been contemporaneous with the progress of\nChristianity. But we must dismiss the subject in one borrowed\nsentence. \"The main source from which we derived this superstition\nis the East, and traditions and facts incorporated in our religion.\nThere were only wanted the ferment of thought of the fifteenth\ncentury, the energy, ignorance, enthusiasm, and faith of those days,\nand the papal denunciation of witchcraft by the bull of Innocent the\nEighth, in 1459, to give fury to the delusion. And from this time, for\nthree centuries, the flames at which more than a hundred thousand\nvictims perished cast a lurid light over Europe.\" [283] The singular\nnotion, which we wish to present, is the ancient belief that witches\ncould control the moon. In the _Clouds_ of Aristophanes,\nStrepsiades tells Socrates that he has \"a notion calculated to deprive\nof interest\"; which is as follows:--\n\n     \"_Str_. If I were to buy a Thessalian witch, and draw down the\n          moon by night, then shut her up in a round helmet-case, like a\n          mirror, and then keep watching her--\"\n\n     \"_Soc_. What good would that do you, then?\"\n\n     \"_Str_. What? If the moon were not to rise any more anywhere, I\n          should not pay the interest.\"\n\n     \"_Soc_. Because what?\"\n\n     \"_Str_. Because the money is lent by the month.\" [284]\n\nShakespeare alludes to this, where Prospero says, \"His mother was a\nwitch, and one so strong that could control the moon\" (_Tempest_,\nAct v.).\n\nIf the witch's broom, on whose stick she rode to the moon, be a type\nof the wind, we may guess how the fancy grew up that the airy\ncreation could control those atmospheric vapours on which the light\nand humidity of the night were supposed to depend. [285]\n\n\n\nIII. LUNAR ECLIPSES.\n\nAll round the globe, from time immemorial, those periodic\nphenomena known as solar and lunar eclipses have been occasions\nof mental disquietude and superstitious alarm. Though now\nregarded as perfectly natural and regular, they have seemed so\npreternatural and irregular to the unscientific eye that we cannot\nwonder at the consternation which they have caused. And it must be\nconfessed that a total obscuration of the sun in the middle of the day\ncasts such a gloom over the earth that men not usually timid are still\nexcusable if during the parenthesis they feel a temporary uneasiness,\nand are relieved when the ruler of the day emerges from his dark\nchamber, apparently rejoicing to renew his race. An eclipse of the\nmoon, though less awe-inspiring, is nevertheless sufficiently so to\nawaken in the superstitious brain fearful forebodings of impending\ncalamity. Science may demonstrate that there is nothing abnormal in\nthese occurrences, but to the seeker after signs it wilt be throwing\nwords away; for, as Lord Kames says, \"Superstitious eyes are never\nopened by instruction.\"\n\nWe will now produce a number of testimonies to show how these\nlunar eclipses have been viewed among the various races of the\nearth in ancient and modern times. The Chaldaeans were careful\nobservers of eclipses, and Berosus believed that when the moon was\nobscured she turned to us her dark side. Anaximenes said that her\nmouth was stopped. Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and the\nMathematicians said that she fell into conjunction with the bright\nsun. Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (born B.C. 499) was the first to\nexplain the eclipse of the moon as caused by the shadow of the earth\ncast by the sun. But he was as one born out of due time. We are all\nfamiliar with the use made by students of unfulfilled prophecy of\nevery extraordinary occurrence in nature, such as the sudden\nappearance of a comet, an earthquake, an eclipse, etc. We know\nhow mysteriously they interpret those simple passages in the Bible\nabout the sun being darkened and the moon being turned into blood.\nIf they were not wilfully blind, such facts as are established by the\nfollowing quotations would open their eyes to the errors in their\nexegesis. At any rate, they would find their theories anticipated in\nnearly every particular by those very heathen whom they are wont\nto pity as so benighted and hopelessly lost.\n\nGrimm writes: \"One of the most terrible phenomena to heathens\nwas an _eclipse_ of the sun or moon, which they associated with a\ndestruction of all things and the end of the world. I may safely\nassume that the same superstitious notions and practices attend\neclipses among nations ancient and modern. The Indian belief is that\na serpent eats up the sun and moon when they arc eclipsed, or a\ndemon devours them. To this day the Hindoos consider that a giant\nlays hold of the luminaries and tries to swallow them. The Chinese\ncall the solar eclipse zhishi (solis devoratio), the lunar yueshi (lunae\ndevoratio), and ascribe them both to the machinations of a dragon.\nNearly all the populations of Northern Asia hold the same opinion.\nThe Finns of Europe, the Lithuanians, and the Moors in Africa, have\na similar belief.\" [286] Flammarion says: \"Among the ancient\nnations people used to come to the assistance of the moon, by\nmaking a confused noise with all kinds of instruments, when it was\neclipsed. It is even done now in Persia and some parts of China,\nwhere they fancy that the moon is fighting with a great dragon, and\nthey think the noise will make him loose his hold and take to flight.\nAmong the East Indians they have the same belief that when the sun\nand the moon are eclipsed, a dragon is seizing them, and\nastronomers who go there to observe eclipses are troubled by the\nfears of their native attendants, and by their endeavours to get into\nthe water as the best place under the circumstances. In America the\nidea is that the sun and moon are tired when they are eclipsed. But\nthe more refined Greeks believed for a long time that the moon was\nbewitched, and that the magicians made it descend from heaven to\nput into the herbs a certain maleficent froth. Perhaps the idea of the\ndragon arose from the ancient custom of calling the places in the\nheavens at which the eclipses of the moon took place the head and\ntail of the dragon.\" [287] Sir Edward Sherburne, in his \"Annotations\nupon the _Medea_,\" quaintly says: \"Of the beating of kettles,\nbasons, and other brazen vessels used by the ancients when the\nmoone was eclipsed (which they did to drown the charms of\nwitches, that the moon might not hear them, and so be drawne from\nher spheare as they suppos'd), I shall not need to speake, being a\nthing so generally knowne, a custom continued among the Turks to\nthis day; yet I cannot but adde, and wonder at, what Joseph Scaliger,\nin his 'Annotations upon Manilius,' reports out of Bonincontrius, an\nancient commentator upon the same poet, who affirms that in a\ntown of Italy where he lived (within these two centuries of yeares),\nhe saw the same piece of paganisme acted upon the like occasion.\"\n[288] Another, and more recent writer, also says of these eclipses:\n\"The Chinese imagine them to be caused by great dragons trying to\ndevour the sun and moon, and beat drums and brass kettles to make\nthe monsters give up their prey. Some of the tribes of American\nIndians speak of the moon as hunted by huge dogs, catching and\ntearing her till her soft light is reddened and put out by the blood\nflowing from her wounds. To this day in India the native beats his\ngong, as the moon passes across the sun's face, and it is not so very\nlong ago that in Europe both eclipses and rushing comets were\nthought to show that troubles were near.\" [289] Respecting China, a\nmodern traveller speaks in not very complimentary language. \"If\nthere is on the earth a nation absorbed by the affairs of this world\nand who trouble themselves little about what passes among the\nheavenly bodies, it is assuredly the Chinese. The most erudite\namong them just know of the existence of astronomy, or, as they\ncall it, _tienwen_--'celestial literature.' But they are ignorant of the\nsimplest principles of the science, and those who regard an eclipse\nas a natural phenomenon, instead of a dragon who is seeking to\ndevour the sun and moon, are enlightened indeed.\" [290] This\nstatement ought to be taken with more than one _granum salis_,\nespecially as Mrs. Somerville assures us that the Chinese had made\nadvances in the science of astronomy 1,100 years before the\nChristian era, and also adds: \"Their whole chronology is founded on\nthe observation of eclipses, which prove the existence of that empire\nfor more than 4,700 years.\" [291] With this discount the charge\nagainst Chinese ignorance may be passed. \"A Mongolian myth\nmakes out that the gods determined to punish Arakho for his\nmisdeeds, but he hid so effectually that no one could find out his\nlurking-place. They therefore asked the _sun_, who gave an\nunsatisfactory answer; but when they asked the _moon_, she\ndisclosed his whereabouts. So Arakho was dragged forth and\nchastised; in revenge of which he _pursues both sun and moon_,\nand whenever he comes to hand-grips with one of them, _an eclipse\noccurs_. To help the lights of heaven in their sad plight, a\n_tremendous uproar_ is made with musical and other instruments,\ntill Arakho is scared away.\" [292] \"Referring to the Shoo, Pt. III.,\nBk. IV., parag. 4, we find this sentence: 'On the first day of the last\nmonth of autumn the sun and moon did not meet harmoniously in\nFang.'\" [293] In less euphemistic phrase, the sun and moon were\n_crossed_.\n\nDr. Wells Williams describes an interesting scene. \"In the middle of\nthe sixth moon lanterns are hung from the top of a pole placed on\nthe highest part of the house. A single small lantern is deemed\nsufficient, but if the night be calm, a greater display is made by\nsome householders, and especially in boats, by exhibiting coloured\nglass lamps arranged in various ways. The illumination of a city like\nCanton, when seen from a high spot, is made still more brilliant by\nthe moving boats on the river. On one of these festivals at Canton,\nan almost total eclipse of the moon called out the entire population,\neach one carrying something with which to make a noise, kettles,\npans, sticks, drums, gongs, guns, crackers, and what not to frighten\naway the dragon of the sky from his hideous feast. The advancing\nshadow gradually caused the myriads of lanterns to show more and\nmore distinctly, and started a still increasing clamour, till the\ndarkness and the noise were both at their climax. Silence gradually\nresumed its sway as the moon recovered her fulness.\" [294] On\nanother page Dr. Williams tells us that \"some clouds having on one\noccasion covered the sky, so that an eclipse could not be seen, the\ncourtiers joyfully repaired to the emperor to felicitate him that\nHeaven, touched by his virtues, had spared him the pain of\nwitnessing the 'eating of the sun.'\" [295] The following passage\nfrom Doolittle's work on the Chinese is sufficiently interesting to be\ngiven without abridgment: \"It is a part of the official duties of\nmandarins to 'save the sun and moon when eclipsed.' Prospective\neclipses are never noticed in the Imperial Calendar, published\noriginally at Peking, and republished in the provinces. The imperial\nastronomers at the capital, a considerable time previous to a visible\neclipse, inform the Board of Rites of its month, day, and hour.\nThese officers send this intelligence to the viceroys or governors of\nthe eighteen provinces of the empire. These, in turn, communicate\nthe information to all the principal subordinate officers in the\nprovinces of the civil and the military grade. The officers make\narrangements to save the moon or the sun at the appointed time. On\nthe day of the eclipse, or on the day preceding it, some of them put\nup a written notice in or near their yamuns, for the information of\nthe public.\n\n\"The Chinese generally have no rational idea of the cause of\neclipses. The common explanation is that the sun or the moon has\nexperienced some disaster. Some even affirm that the object\neclipsed is being devoured by an immense ravenous monster. This is\nthe most popular sentiment in Fuhchau in regard to the procuring\ncause of eclipses. All look upon the object eclipsed with wonder.\nMany are filled with apprehension and terror. Some of the common\npeople, as well as mandarins generally, enter upon some course of\naction, the express object of which is to save the luminary from its\ndire calamity, or to rescue it from the jaws of its greedy enemy.\nMandarins must act officially, and in virtue of their being officers of\ngovernment. Neither they nor the people seem to regard the\nimmense distance of the celestial object as at all interfering with the\nsuccess of their efforts. The various obstacles which ought\napparently to deter them from attempting to save the object eclipsed\ndo not seem to have occurred to them at all, or, if they have\noccurred, do not appear to be sufficient to cause them to desist from\nprosecuting their laudable endeavours. The high mandarins procure\nthe aid of priests of the Taoist sect at their yamuns. These place an\nincense censer and two large candlesticks for holding red candles or\ntapers on a table in the principal reception room of the mandarin, or\nin the open space in front of it under the open heavens.\n\n\"At the commencement of the eclipse the tapers are lighted, and\nsoon after the mandarin enters, dressed in his official robes. Taking\nsome sticks of lighted incense in both hands, he makes his\nobeisance before or facing the table, raising and depressing the\nincense two or three times, according to the established fashion,\nbefore it is placed in the censer. Or sometimes the incense is lighted\nand put in the censer by one of the priests employed. The officer\nproceeds to perform the high ceremony of kneeling down three\ntimes, and knocking his head on the ground nine times. After this he\nrises from his knees. Large gongs and drums near by are now beaten\nas loudly as possible. The priests begin to march slowly around the\ntables, reciting formulas, etc., which marching they keep up, with\nmore or less intermissions, until the eclipse has passed off.\n\n\"A uniform result always follows these official efforts to save the\nsun and the moon. _They are invariably successful_. There is not a\nsingle instance recorded in the annals of the empire when the\nmeasures prescribed in instructions from the emperor's astronomers\nat Peking, and correctly carried out in the provinces by the\nmandarins, have not resulted in a complete rescue of the object\neclipsed. Doubtless the vast majority of the common people in\nChina believe that the burning of tapers and incense, the prostration\nof the mandarins, the beating of the gongs and drums, and the\nrecitations on the part of the priests, are signally efficacious in\ndriving away the voracious monster. They observe that the sun or\nthe moon does not seem to be permanently injured by the attacks of\nits celestial enemy, although a half or nearly the whole appeared to\nhave been swallowed up. This happy result is doubtless viewed with\nmuch complacency by the parties engaged to bring it about. The\nlower classes generally leave the saving of the sun or the moon,\nwhen eclipsed, to their mandarins, as it is a part of their official\nbusiness. Some of the people occasionally beat in their houses a\nwinnowing instrument, made of bamboo splints, on the occasion of\nan eclipse. This gives out a loud noise. Some venture to assert that\nthe din of this instrument penetrates the clouds as high as the very\ntemple of Heaven itself! The sailors connected with junks at this\nplace, on the recurrence of a lunar eclipse, always contribute their\naid to rescue the moon by beating their gongs in a most deafening\nmanner.\n\n\"Without doubt, most of the mandarins understand the real occasion\nof eclipses, or, at least, they have the sense to perceive that nothing\nwhich they can do will have any effect upon the object eclipsed, or\nthe cause which produces the phenomenon; but they have no\noptional course in regard to the matter. They must comply with\nestablished custom, and with the understood will of their superiors.\nThe imperial astronomers, having been taught the principles of\nastronomy and the causes which produce eclipses by the Roman\nCatholic missionaries a long while since, of course know that the\ncommon sentiments on the subject are as absurd as the common\ncustoms relating to it are useless. But the emperor and his cabinet\ncling to ancient practices, notwithstanding the clearest evidences of\ntheir false and irrational character.\" [296]\n\nMr. Herbert Giles accounts for this Chinese obtuseness, or, as some\nwould have it, opacity, in much the same way. Under the head of\n_Natural Phenomena_, he writes: \"It is a question of more than\nordinary interest to those who regard the Chinese people as a worthy\nobject of study, What are the speculations of the working and\nuneducated classes concerning such natural phenomena as it is quite\nimpossible for them to ignore? Their theory of eclipses is well\nknown, foreign ears being periodically stunned by the gonging of an\nexcited crowd of natives, who are endeavouring with hideous noises\nto prevent some imaginary dog of colossal proportions from\nbanqueting, as the case may be, upon the sun or moon. At such\nlaughable exhibitions of native ignorance it will be observed there is\nalways a fair sprinkling of well-to-do, educated persons, who not\nonly ought to know better themselves, but should be making some\neffort to enlighten their less fortunate countrymen instead of joining\nin the din. Such a hold, however, has superstition on the minds of\nthe best informed in a Chinese community, that under the influence\nof any real or supposed danger, philosophy and Confucius are\nscattered to the four winds of heaven, and the proudest disciple of\nthe master proves himself after all but a man.\" [297] No doubt Mr.\nDoolittle and Mr. Giles are both right: custom and superstition form\na twisted rope which pinions the popular mind. But there is yet\nanother strand to be mentioned which makes the bond a threefold\ncord which it will take some time to break. _Prescriptive right_\nrequires that the official or cultured class in China, answering to the\nclerical caste elsewhere, should keep the other classes in ignorance;\nbecause, if science and religion are fellow-helpers, science and\nsuperstition can never dwell together, and the downfall of\nsuperstition in China would be the destruction of imperial despotism\nand magisterial tyranny. \"Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have\nour wealth. But this Paul says that they be no gods, which are made\nwith hands: so that our craft is in danger to be set at nought. Great is\nDiana of the Ephesians!\" The mandarins know why they encourage\nthe mechanics and merchants to save the moon.\n\nWe once met a good story in reading one of Jean Astruc's medical\nworks. \"Theodore de Henry, of Paris, coming one time into the\nchurch of St. Dionis, he fell prostrate at the foot of the statue of\nCharles the Eighth, as in a sudden fit of devotion. When being told\nby one of the monks that was not the image of any saint, he replied,\nhe was not ignorant of that, but was willing to pay a grateful\nacknowledgment to the memory of that prince who had brought the\n_Morbus Gallicus_ into France, by which he had made his own\nfortune.\" Herein lies the secret of half of the hypocrisy of the world.\nThank God! the world moves; and the millennium of truth is at\nhand.\n\nThe literature of China is, happily, not all linsey-woolsey. The\nfollowing sample is of the finest silk, worthy to adorn the purest\nsaint.\n\n\"MING TI of the HOUSE of WEI.\n\n\"Reigned 227-239 A.D.\n\n\"_On an Eclipse.--A Rescript_. WE have heard that if a sovereign is\nremiss in government, Heaven terrifies him by calamities and\nstrange portents. These are divine reprimands sent to recall him to a\nsense of duty. Thus, partial eclipses of the sun and moon are\nmanifest warnings that the rod of empire is not wielded aright. Ever\nsince WE ascended the throne, OUR inability to continue the\nglorious traditions of our departed ancestors and carry on the great\nwork of civilization, has now culminated in a warning message from\non high. It therefore behoves Us to issue commands for personal\nreformation, in order to avert the impending calamity.\n\n\"But the relations of Heaven with Man are those of a father and son;\nand a father about to chastise his son would not be deterred were the\nlatter to present him with a dish of meat. WE do not therefore\nconsider it part of OUR duty to act in accordance with certain\nmemorials advising that the prime minister and chief astronomer be\ninstructed to offer up sacrifices on this occasion. Do ye, governors\nof districts and other high officers of State, seek rather to rectify\nyour own hearts; and if any one can devise means to make up for\nOUR shortcomings, let him submit his proposals to the Throne.\"\n[298]\n\nThe writer of that was \"not far from the kingdom of God.\"\n\nFather Borri, in his account of Cochin China, describes the effect of\na lunar eclipse upon several scholars in the city of Nuoecman in the\nprovince of Pulucambi. \"I showed them that the circle of the moon,\non that side the eclipse began, was not so perfect as it should be, and\nsoon after all the moon being darkened, they perceived the truth of\nmy prediction. The commander and all of them being astonished,\npresently sent to give notice of it to all the ward, and spread the\nnews of the eclipse throughout the city, that every man might go out\nto make the usual noise in favour of the moon; giving out\neverywhere that there were no such men as the fathers, whose\ndoctrine and books could not fail being true, since they had so\nexactly foretold the eclipse, which their learned men had taken no\nnotice of; and therefore, in performance of his promise, the\ncommander with all his family became Christians, as did many\nmore of his ward, with some of the most learned men of the city and\nothers of note.\" [299] In no unkind spirit we cannot refrain from\nnoticing, what will strike every reader, how ready divines of all\ndenominations are to turn the teachings of science to their own\naccount in the propagation of their faith. It would have been\nseemlier for theologians in all ages, if their attitude towards physical\ninquirers had been less hostile; they would then have made converts\nthrough eclipses with a better grace. They would, moreover, have\nprevented the alienation of many of their truest friends.\n\nCaptain Beeckman gives an amusing story of an eclipse in\nCantongee, in the island of Borneo, on the 10th of November, 1714.\n\"We sat very merry till about eight at night, when, preparing to go to\nbed, we heard all on a sudden a most terrible outcry, mixed with\nsquealing, halloing, whooping, firing of guns, ringing and clattering\nof gongs or brass pans, that we were greatly startled, imagining\nnothing less but that the city was surprised by the rebels. I ran\nimmediately to the door, where I found my old fat landlord\nroaring and whooping like a man raving mad. This increased my\nastonishment, and the noise was so great that I could neither be\nheard, nor get an answer to know what the matter was. At last I\ncried as loud as possibly I could to the old man to know the reason\nof this sad confusion and outcry, who in a great fright pointed up to\nthe heavens, and said, '_Look there; see, the devil is eating up the\nmoon_!' I was very glad to hear that there was no other cause of\ntheir fright but their own ignorance. It was only a great eclipse of\nthe moon. I smiled, and told him that there was no danger; that in a\nlittle while the moon would be as well as ever. Whereupon, catching\nfast hold of my sleeve, as I was returning to bed, he asked me if I\nwas sure on't (for they take us white men to be very wise in those\nmatters). I assured him I was, and that we always knew many years\nbefore when such a thing would happen; that it proceeded from a\nnatural cause, according to the course and motion of the sun and\nmoon, and that the devil had no hand in it. After the eclipse was\nover, the old man, being not a little rejoiced, took me in.\" [300]\nAnother writer speaks of the East India Islands in general. \"There is\nto this day hardly a country of the Archipelago in which the\nceremony of frightening the supposed monster from his attack on\nthe luminary is not performed. This consists in shouting, in striking\ngongs, but, above all, in striking their stampers against the sides of\nthe wooden mortars which are used by the villagers in husking their\ncorn.\" [301] That the Indians of the continent regard the phenomena\nin question with more than ordinary interest is evinced by their\nresorting in large numbers to Benares, the ancient seat of\nbrahminical learning and religion, on every occasion of an eclipse of\nthe moon. Lord Kames reminds us that among the Greeks \"an\neclipse being held a prognostic given by the gods of some grievous\ncalamity, Anaxagoras was accused of atheism for attempting to\nexplain the eclipse of the moon by natural causes: he was thrown\ninto prison, and with difficulty was relieved by the influence of\nPericles. Protagoras was banished Athens for maintaining the same\ndoctrine.\" [302]\n\nThucydides tells us that an eclipse of the moon delayed the\ndeparture of the expedition against the Syracusans. \"The\npreparations were made, and they were on the point of sailing, when\nthe moon, being just then at the full, was eclipsed. The mass of the\narmy was greatly moved, and called upon the generals to remain.\nNicias himself, who was too much under the influence of divination\nand omens, refused even to discuss the question of their removal\nuntil they had remained thrice nine days, as the soothsayers\nprescribed. This was the reason why the departure of the Athenians\nwas finally delayed.\" [303]\n\n\"At any eclipse of the moone, the Romanes would take their brazen\npots and pannes, and beat them, lifting up many torches and linckes\nlighted, and firebrandes into the aire, thinking by these superstitious\nmeanes to reclaime the moone to her light.\" [304]\n\n_The Constantinople Messenger_ of December 23rd, 1880, contains\nthe following:--\"Mgr. Mamarbasci, who represents the Syrian\nPatriarch at the Porte, and who resides in St. Peter's Monastery in\nGalata, underwent a singular experience on the evening of the last\neclipse of the moon. Hearing a great noise outside of the firing of\nrevolvers and pistols, he opened his window to see what could be\nthe cause of so much waste of powder. Being a native of Aleppo, he\nwas at no loss to understand the cause of the disturbance as soon as\nhe cast his eye on the heavens, and he therefore immediately\nwithdrew his head from the window again. Hardly had he done so,\nhowever, ere a ball smashed the glass into a thousand pieces. Rising\nfrom the seat into which he had but just sat down, he perceived a\nconical ball on the floor of his room, which there is every reason to\nbelieve would have killed him on the spot had he remained a\nmoment longer on the spot he had just quitted. From the yard of the\nmosque of Arab-Djami, which is in front of the prelate's window,\nthe bullet had, it appears, been fired with the intention of frightening\nthe dragon or bear which, according to oriental superstition, lies in\nwait to devour the moon at its eclipse. It is a fortunate circumstance\nthat the Syrian ecclesiastic escaped scathless from the snares laid to\ndestroy the celestial dragon.\" [305]\n\nIn the _Edda_, an ancient collection of Scandinavian poetry,\nembodying the national mythology, Managarmer is the monster who\nsometimes swallows up the moon, and stains the heaven and the air\nwith blood. \"Here,\" says M. Mallett, \"we have the cause of eclipses;\nand it is upon this very ancient opinion that the general practice is\nfounded, of making noises at that time, to fright away the monster,\nwho would otherwise devour the two great luminaries.\" [306] Of the\nGermans, Grimm says:--\"In a lighted candle, if a piece of the wick\ngets half detached and makes it burn away too fast, they say 'a\n_wolf_ (as well as a thief) is in the candle'; this too is like the wolf\ndevouring the sun or moon. Eclipses of sun or moon have been a\nterror to many heathen nations; the incipient and increasing\nobscuration of the luminous orb marks for them the moment when\nthe gaping jaws of the wolf threaten to devour it, and they think by\nloud cries to bring it succour.\" [307] And again:--\"The personality\nof the sun and moon shows itself moreover in a fiction that has\nwell-nigh gone the round of the world. These two, in their unceasing\nunflagging career through the void of heaven, appear to be in flight,\navoiding some pursuer. A pair of wolves are on their track, _Skoell_\ndogging the steps of the sun, _Hati_ of the moon: they come of a\ngiant race, the mightiest of whom, Managarmr (moon-dog),\napparently but another name for Hati, is sure some day to _overtake\nand swallow the moon_.\" [308] Francis Osborn, whose _Advice_\ncontains, in the opinion of Hallam, \"a considerable sprinkling of\nsound sense and observation,\" thus counsels his son: \"Imitate not\nthe wild Irish or Welch, who, during eclipses, run about beating\nkettles and pans, thinking their clamour and vexations available to\nthe assistance of the higher orbs.\" [309] \"In eclipses of the moon,\nthe Greenlanders carry boxes and kettles to the roofs of their houses,\nand beat on them as hard as they can.\" [310] With the Californian\nIndians, \"on an eclipse, all is consternation. They congregate and\nsing, as some say to appease, and others to frighten, the evil spirits.\nThey believe that the devils are eating up the luminary, and they do\nnot cease until it comes forth in its wonted splendour.\" [311]\nAmong certain Indian tribes \"dogs were supposed to stand in some\npeculiar relation to the moon, probably because they howl at it, and\nrun at night; uncanny practices which have cost them dear in\nreputation. The custom prevailed among tribes so widely asunder as\nPeruvians, Tupis, Creeks, Iroquois, Algonkins, and Greenland\nEskimos, to thrash the curs most soundly during an eclipse. The\nCreeks explained this by saying that the big dog was swallowing the\nsun, and that by whipping the little ones they could make him desist.\nWhat the big dog was they were not prepared to say. We know. It\nwas the night goddess, represented by the dog, who was thus\nshrouding the world at midday.\" [312]\n\nIt is well known that Columbus found his acquaintance with the\ncalculations of astronomy of great practical value. For when, during\nhis last expedition, he was reduced to famine by the inhabitants of\nthe newly discovered continent, who kept him and his companions\nprisoners, he, aware that an eclipse was at hand, threatened to\ndeprive them of the light of the moon, if they did not forthwith bring\nhim provisions. At first they did not care; but when the moon\ndisappeared, they brought abundance of supplies, with much\nentreaty of pardon. This occurred on the 1st day of March, 1504, a\ndate which modern tables of lunar eclipses may fully verify.\n\n\"In the Mexican mythology we read of the woman serpent, or the\nmoon, devoured by the sun, a myth probably descriptive of the\nchanges in the phases of the moon.\" [313] More probably this myth\nreferred to the moon's eclipse; for Bradford tells us that \"the\nMexicans believed when there was an eclipse of the sun or moon,\nthat one of those bodies was being devoured by the other. The\nPeruvians believed these phenomena portended some great\ncalamity; that the eclipsed body was sick and about to die, in which\ncase the world would perish. As soon as an eclipse commenced,\nthey made a dreadful noise with their musical instruments; they\nstruck their dogs and made them howl, in the hope that the moon,\nwhich they believed had an affection for those animals in\nconsequence of some signal service which they had rendered her,\nwould have pity on their cries. The Araucanians called eclipses the\n'deaths' of the sun and moon.\" [314] In Aglio we are told of the\nMexicans that \"in the year of Five Rabbits, or in 1510, there was an\neclipse of the sun; they take no account of the eclipses of the moon,\nbut only of those of the sun; for they say that the sun devours the\nmoon when an eclipse of the moon takes place.\" [315] \"The\nTlascaltecs, regarding the sun and the moon as husband and wife,\nbelieved eclipses to be domestic quarrels. Ribas tells how the\nSinaloas held that the moon in an eclipse was darkened with the\ndust of battle. Her enemy had come upon her, and a terrible fight,\nbig with consequence to those on earth, went on in heaven. In wild\nexcitement the people beat on the sides of their houses, encouraging\nthe moon, and shooting flights of arrows up into the sky to distract\nher adversary. Much the same as this was also done by certain\nCalifornians.\" [316] \"At a lunar eclipse the Orinoko Indians seized\ntheir hoes and laboured with exemplary vigour on their growing\ncorn, saying the moon was veiling herself in anger at their habitual\nlaziness.\" [317] The umbrated moon did good in this way: as many\nof us remember the beautiful comet of 1858 did good, when it\nfrightened some trembling Londoners into a speedy settlement of\nold debts, in anticipation of the final account. Ellis says of the\nTahitians: \"An eclipse of the moon filled them with dismay; they\nsupposed the planet was _natua_, or under the influence of the spell\nof some evil spirit that was destroying it. Hence they repaired to the\ntemple, and offered prayers for the moon's release. Some imagined\nthat on an eclipse, the sun and moon were swallowed by the god\nwhich they had by neglect offended. Liberal presents were offered,\nwhich were supposed to induce the god to abate his anger, and eject\nthe luminaries of day and night from his stomach.\" [318] The\nTongans or Friendly Islanders have a notion that the earth's surface\nis flat, that the sun and moon \"pass through the sky and come back\nsome way, they know not how. When the moon is eclipsed, they\nattribute the phenomenon to a thick cloud passing over it: the same\nwith the sun.\" [319] In the Hervey Islands, the common exclamation\nduring an eclipse is, \"Alas! a divinity has devoured the moon!\"\n\nFinally, to close this chapter where it commenced, in Chaldaea, the\ncradle of _star-reading_, Sir Austen Henry Layard says: \"I gained,\nas other travellers have done before me, some credit for wisdom and\nsuperhuman knowledge by predicting, through the aid of an\nalmanack, a partial eclipse of the moon. It duly took place, to the\ngreat dismay of my guests, who well-nigh knocked out the bottoms\nof all my kitchen utensils in their endeavour to frighten away the\njins who had thus laid hold of the planet. The common notion\namongst ignorant Mahometans is, that an eclipse is caused by some\nevil spirit catching hold of the sun or moon. On such occasions, in\nEastern towns, the whole population assembles with pots, pans, and\nother equally rude instruments of music, and, with the aid of their\nlungs, make a din and turmoil which might suffice to drive away a\nwhole army of evil spirits, even at so great a distance.\" [320] We\nhave reached three general conclusions. _First_, when the moon is\nocculted by the earth it is believed to be devoured by some evil\ndemon, or by wolves or dogs. This is the superstitious vagary of the\nHindoos, the Chinese, Asiatics generally, Europeans, Africans,\nAmericans, and Polynesians. _Secondly_, a lunar eclipse is the\nprecursor of some dreadful calamity to the inhabitants of the earth.\nThis notion is also traceable in every quarter of the globe. And\n_thirdly_, during the obscuration the light of the moon is reddened,\nand at last extinguished, by the blood which flows from its wounds;\nwhich belief originates with the _Edda_, and obtains in the Western\nworld. Students of sacred prophecy may still elect to deem these\noccurrences that are purely natural as of supernatural significance,\nand may risk the interests of true religion in their insane disregard of\nscience; but the truth will remain, in spite of their misconceptions,\nthat eclipses of the moon have no concern with the moral destiny of\nmankind.\n\n\n\nIV. LUNAR INFLUENCES.\n\nThe superficies of the earth being twice seven times that of the\nmoon, what an influence the earth must exercise over its satellite!\nWe may be unable to describe this influence in all of its effects; but\nwe may observe its existence in some of its apparent signs. The\nmoon not only turns while we turn, but its rotations on its axis keep\nexact time with its revolutions round our globe; it accompanies us as\nwe encircle the sun, facing us all the while, never turning its back\nupon us; it waits on us like a link-bearer, or lackey; is our admiring\nBoswell, living and moving and having its being in the equability it\nderives from attending its illustrious master. An African sage once\nillustrated this philosophical principle of the greater controlling the\nless, by the following fine conundrum. \"Why does the dog waggle\nhis tail?\" This problem, being beyond his auditors, was given up.\nThe sage made answer, \"Because the dog is bigger than the tail; else\nthe tail would waggle the dog.\" It is alarming to contemplate the\neffect which the moon might have upon our august earth, if it were\nfourteen times larger instead of fourteen times smaller in extent of\nsurface. As it is, Luna's influences are so many and so mighty, that\nwe will require considerable space merely to set them in order, and\nto substantiate them with a few facts. We believe that most, if not\nall, of them, are the offspring of superstition; but we shall none the\nless find them in every land, in every age. In the nineteenth century\nas well as in the dark ages, in London as well as in the ends of the\nearth, men of all colours and clans are found turning their faces\nheavenward to read their duty and destiny in the oracular face of the\nmoon. Many consult their almanacks more than their Bibles, and\nfollow the lunar phases as their sole interpretation of the will of\nGod.\n\nAmong those who worship the moon as a personal deity, whether\nbeneficent or malign, its influences are of course welcomed or\ndreaded as the manifestations of supreme power. In South America,\nfor example, \"the Botocudos are said to give the highest rank among\nthe heavenly bodies to Taru, the moon, as causing thunder and\nlightning and the failure of vegetables and fruits, and as even\nsometimes falling to the earth, whereby many men die.\" [321] So, in\nAfrica, the emotions of the worshippers vary with their subjective\nviews of their god. \"Negro tribes seem almost universally to greet\nthe new moon, whether in delight or disgust. The Guinea people\nfling themselves about with droll gestures, and pretend to throw\nfirebrands at it; the Ashango men behold it with superstitious fear;\nthe Fetu negroes jumped thrice into the air with hands together and\ngave thanks.\" [322] But even amongst men who neither personify\nnor deify the moon, its dominion over the air, earth, and sea, over\nhuman health and happiness, is held to be so all-important, that if\nthe Maker and Monarch of all were jealous, as men count jealousy,\nsuch lunar fears and affections would be unpardonable sin.\n\nLet us proceed to particulars, rising from inorganic nature to beings\nendowed with the highest instruments of life. Even the mineral\nkingdom is supposed to be swayed by the moon; for in Scotland,\nMartin says, \"The natives told me, that the rock on the east side of\nHarries, in the Sound of Island Glass, hath a vacuity near the front,\non the north-west side of the Sound; in which they say there is a\nstone that they call the _Lunar Stone_, which advances and retires\naccording to the increase and decrease of the moon.\" [323] An\nancient instance of belief in lunar influence upon inanimate matter is\ncited by Plutarch. \"_Euthydemus_ of _Sunium_ feasted us upon a\ntime at his house, and set before us a wilde bore, of such bignesse,\nthat all wee at the table wondred thereat; but he told us that there\nwas another brought unto him farre greater; mary naught it was, and\ncorrupted in the carriage, by the beames of the moone-shine;\nwhereof he made great doubt and question, how it should come to\npasse; for that he could not conceive, nor see any reason, but that\nthe sunne should rather corrupt flesh, being as it was, farre hotter\nthan the moone.\" [324] Pliny said that the moon corrupted carcases\nof animals exposed to its malefic rays. As with the lifeless, so with\nthe living. \"The inhabitants of St. Kilda observe that when the April\nmoon goes far in May, the fowls are ten or twelve days later in\nlaying their eggs than ordinarily they use to be.\" [325] The influence\nof the moon upon vegetation is an opinion hoary with age. In the\n_Zend-Avesta_ we read, \"And when the light of the moon waxes\nwarmer, golden-hued plants grow on from the earth during the\nspring.\" [326] An old English author writes:--\n\n     \"Sowe peason and beanes, in the wane of the moone,\n     Who soweth them sooner, he soweth too soone\n     That they with the planet may rest and arise,\n     And flourish, with bearing most plentiful wise.\" [327]\n\nCucumbers, radishes, turnips, leeks, lilies, horseradish, saffron, and\nother plants, are said to increase during the fulness of the moon; but\nonions, on the contrary, are much larger and are better nourished\nduring the decline. [328] To recur to Plutarch is to find him saying:\n\"The moone showeth her power most evidently even in those\nbodies, which have neither sense nor lively breath; for carpenters\nreject the timber of trees fallen in the ful-moone, as being soft and\ntender, subject also to the worme and putrifaction, and that quickly,\nby reason of excessive moisture; husbandmen, likewise, make haste\nto gather up their wheat and other grain from the threshing-floore, in\nthe wane of the moone, and toward the end of the month, that being\nhardened thus with drinesse, the heape in the garner may keepe the\nbetter from being fustie, and continue the longer; whereas corne\nwhich is inned and laied up at the full of the moone, by reason of\nthe softnesse and over-much moisture, of all other, doth most cracke\nand burst. It is commonly said also, that if a leaven be laied in the\nful-moone, the paste will rise and take leaven better.\" [329] Still in\nCornwall the people gather all their medicinal plants when the moon\nis of a certain age; which practice is very probably a relic of\ndruidical superstition. \"In some parts it is a prevalent belief that the\ngrowth of mushrooms is influenced by the changes of the moon, and\nin Essex the subjoined rule is often scrupulously adhered to:--\n\n     \"When the moon is at the full,\n     Mushrooms you may freely pull\n     But when the moon is on the wane,\n     Wait ere you think to pluck again.'\" [330]\n\nHenderson says, \"I may, perhaps, mention here, that apples are said\nto 'shrump up' in Devonshire if picked when the moon is waning.\"\n[331] A writer of miscellaneous literature tells us that \"it has been\ndemonstrated that moonlight has the power, _per se_, of awakening\nthe sensitive plant, and consequently that it possesses an influence\nof some kind on vegetation. It is true that the influence is very\nfeeble, compared with that of the sun; but the action is established,\nand the question remains, what is the practical value of the fact? 'It\nwill immediately,' says Professor Lindley, 'occur to the reader that\npossibly the screens which are drawn down over hothouses at\nnight, to prevent loss of heat by radiation, may produce some\nunappreciated injury by cutting off the rays of the moon, which\nnature intended to fall upon plants as much as the rays of the sun.\"\n[332] The same author says elsewhere, \"Columella, Cato, Vitruvius,\nand Pliny, all had their notions of the advantages of cutting timber at\ncertain ages of the moon; a piece of mummery which is still\npreserved in the royal ordonnances of France to the conservators of\nthe forests, who are directed to fell oaks only 'in the wane of the\nmoon' and 'when the wind is at north.'\" [333] Of trees, astrologers\naffirm that the moon rules the palm tree (which the ancients say\n\"sends forth a twig every time the moon rises\") and all plants, trees,\nand herbs that are juicy and full of sap. [334]\n\n\"A description of the New Netherlands, written about 1650, remarks\nthat the savages of that land 'ascribe great influence to the moon\nover crops.' This venerable superstition, common to all races, still\nlingers among our own farmers, many of whom continue to observe\n'the signs of the moon' in sowing grain, setting out trees, cutting\ntimber, and other rural avocations.\" [335] What is here said of the\nnew world applies also to the old; for in England a current\nexpression in Huntingdonshire is \"a dark Christmas sends a fine\nharvest\": dark meaning moonless.\n\nOf the lunar influence upon the tides, old John Lilly writes: \"There\nis nothing thought more admirable, or commendable in the sea, than\nthe ebbing and flowing; and shall the moone, from whom the sea\ntaketh this virtue, be accounted fickle for encreasing and\ndecreasing?\" [336] Another writer of the sixteenth century says,\n\"The moone is founde, by plaine experience, to beare her greatest\nstroke uppon the seas, likewise in all things that are moiste, and by\nconsequence in the braines of man.\" [337] Dennys tells us that \"the\ninfluence exerted by the moon on tides is recognised by the\nChinese.\" [338] What some record in prose, others repeat in rhyme.\nThe following is _one_ kind of poetry.\n\n     \"Moone changed, keepes closet, three daies as a Queene,\n     Er she in hir prime, will of any be scene:\n     If great she appereth, it showreth out,\n     If small she appereth, it signifieth drout.\n     At change or at full, come it late, or else soone,\n     Maine sea is at highest, at midnight and noone,\n     But yet in the creekes, it is later high flood:\n     Through farnesse of running, by reason as good.\" [339]\n\nIndirectly, through the influence upon the tides, the moon is\nconcerned in human mortality.\n\n     \"Tyde flowing is feared, for many a thing,\n     Great danger to such as be sick it doth bring.\n     Sea eb, by long ebbing, some respit doth give,\n     And sendeth good comfort, to such as shal live.\" [340]\n\nHenderson says, \"It is a common belief along the east coast of\nEngland, from Northumberland to Kent, that deaths mostly occur\nduring the falling of the tide.\" [341] Every reader of the inimitable\nDickens will be reminded here of the death of poor old Barkis.\n\n\"'He's a-going out with the tide,' said Mr. Peggotty to me, behind his\nhand.\n\n\"My eyes were dim, and so were Mr. Peggotty's; but I repeated in a\nwhisper, 'With the tide?'\n\n\"'People can't die, along the coast,' said Mr. Peggotty, 'except when\nthe tide's pretty nigh out. They can't be born, unless it's pretty nigh\nin-not properly born, till flood. He's a-going out with the tide. It's\nebb at half-arter three, slack water half an hour. If he lives till it\nturns, he'll hold his own till past the flood, and go out with the next\ntide.'\n\n\"'He's coming to himself,' said Peggotty.\n\n\"Mr. Peggotty touched me, and whispered with much awe and\nreverence, 'They are both a-going out fast.'\n\n\"He now opened his eyes.\n\n\"I was on the point of asking him if he knew me, when he tried to\nstretch out his arm, and said to me distinctly, with a pleasant\nsmile,--\n\n\"'Barkis is willin'.'\n\n\"And, it being low water, he went out with the tide.\" [342]\n\nThat the rise and fall of our tides twice a day, with spring and neap\ntides twice in the lunar month, are the effect of the combined action\nof the sun and moon, is never called in question. The water under\nthe moon is drawn up from the earth, and the earth is drawn from\nthe water on the opposite side, the consequence of which is two high\ntides in the two hemispheres at the same hour. The rotation of the\nearth bringing the same point of the ocean twice under the moon's\nmeridian, once under the upper meridian and once under the lower,\neach hemisphere has two high tides in the course of the day. The\nspring tide is caused by the attractive force of the sun and moon\nacting in conjunction, or in a straight line; and the neap tide is\ncaused by the moon being in quadrature, or when the sun and moon\nare at right angles to each other. They counteract each other's\ninfluence, and our tides arc therefore low. So much is science; but\nthe connection of ebb and flow with life and death is superstition.\n\nFrom a very remote antiquity, in the twilight of natural astrology, a\nbelief arose that changes in the weather were occasioned by the\nmoon. [343] That the notion lives on, and will not soon die, is clear\nto any one who is conversant with current literature and common\nfolk-lore. Even intelligent, well-informed people lend it\ncountenance. Professor Newcomb, of Washington, rightly says:\n\"Thus far there is no evidence that the moon directly affects the\nearth or its inhabitants in any other way than by her attraction,\nwhich is so minute as to be entirely insensible except in the ways we\nhave described. A striking illustration of the fallibility of the human\njudgment when not disciplined by scientific training is afforded by\nthe opinions which have at various times obtained currency\nrespecting a supposed influence of the moon on the weather. Neither\nin the reason of the case nor in observations do we find any real\nsupport for such a theory. It must, however, be admitted that\nopinions of this character are not confined to the uneducated.\" [344]\nMr. Edward B. Tylor holds similar language: \"The notion that the\nweather changes with the moon's quarterings is still held with great\nvigour in England. That educated people to whom exact weather\nrecords are accessible should still find satisfaction in the fanciful\nlunar rule, is an interesting case of intellectual survival.\" [345] No\nmarvel that the \"heathen Chinee\" considers lunar observations as\nforecasting scarcity of provisions he is but of the same blood with\nhis British brother, who takes his tea and sends him opium. \"The\nHakkas (and also many Puntis) believe that if in the night of the\nfifteenth day of the eighth month (mid autumn) there are clouds\nobscuring the moon before midnight, it is a sign that oil and salt will\nbecome very dear. If, however, there are clouds obscuring the moon\nafter midnight, the price of rice will, it is supposed, undergo a\nsimilar change.\" [346]\n\nOne of our provincial proverbs is: \"So many days old the moon is\non Michaelmas Day, so many floods after.\" Sometimes a proverb is\na short saying spoken after long experience; at other times it is a\nsmall crystal left after a lengthy evaporation. In certain instances our\nrural apothegms are sacred relics of extinct but canonized fictions.\nAn equally wise prediction is that if Christmas comes during a\nwaxing moon we shall have a very good year; and the nearer to the\nnew moon, the better. But if during a waning moon, a hard year; and\nthe nearer the end of the moon, so much the worse. Another sage\nbelief is that the condition of the weather is dependent upon the day\nof the week upon which the new moon chances to fall. We are told\nthat \"Dr. Forster, of Bruges, well known as a meteorologist, declares\nthat by the _Journal_ kept by his grandfather, father, and self, ever\nsince 1767, to the present time, whenever the new moon has fallen\non a _Saturday_, the following _twenty days_ have been wet and\nwindy, in nineteen cases out of twenty.\" [347] In Italy it is said, \"If\nthe moon change on a Sunday, there will be a flood before the\nmonth is out.\" New moon on Monday, or moon-day, is, of course,\neverywhere held a sign of good weather and luck.\n\nThat a misty moon is a misfortune to the atmosphere is widely\nsupposed. In Scotland it is an agricultural maxim among the canny\nfarmers that--\n\n     \"If the moon shows like a silver shield,\n     You need not be afraid to reap your field\n     But if she rises haloed round,\n     Soon we'll tread on deluged ground.\" [348]\n\nOthers say that a mist is unfavourable only with the new moon, not\nwith the old.\n\n     \"An old moon in a mist\n     Is worth gold in a kist (chest)\n     But a new moon's mist\n     Will never lack thirst,\" [349]\n\nis a rugged rhyme found in several places. In Cornwall the idea is\nthat--\n\n     \"A fog and a small moon\n     Bring an easterly wind soon.\"\n\nThe east wind, as we know, is dry. Two of the Shepherd of\nBanbury's rules are:\n\n     \"xii. If mists in the new moon, rain in the old.\n     xiii. If mists in the old, rain in the new moon.\" [350]\n\nOne thing is a meteorological certainty: the full moon very\nfrequently clears the sky. But this may be partly accounted for by\nthe fact that a full moon shows the night to be clear, which in the\nmoon's absence might be called cloudy.\n\nAnother observation shows that in proportion to the clearness of the\nnight is its cold. The clouds covering the earth with no thick\nblanket, it radiates its heat into space. This has given rise to the\nnotion that the moon itself reduces our temperature. It is _cold_ at\nnight without doubt. But the cold moon is so warm when the sun is\nshining full on its disk that no creature on earth could endure a\nmoment's contact with its surface. The centre of the \"pale-faced\nmoon\" is hotter than boiling water. This thought may cheer us when\n\"the cold round moon shines deeply down.\" We may be pardoned if\nwe take with a tincture of scepticism the following statement\n\"Native Chinese records aver that on the 18th day of the 6th moon,\n1590, snow fell one summer night from the midst of the moon. The\nflakes were like fine willow flowers on shreds of silk.\" [351] Instead\nof cold, it is more likely that the white moon gives us heat, for from\nMelloni's letter to Arago it seems to be already an ascertained fact.\nHaving concentrated the lunar rays with a lens of over three feet\ndiameter upon his thermoscopic pile, Melloni found that the needle\nhad deviated from 0 deg. 6' to 4 deg. 8', according to the lunar phase. Other\nthermoscopes may give even larger indications; but meanwhile the\nItalian physicist has exploded an error with a spark of science.\n\n\"Another weather guide connected with the moon is, that to see 'the\nold moon in the arms of the new one' is reckoned a sign of fine\nweather; and so is the turning up of the horns of the new moon. In\nthis position it is supposed to retain the water, which is imagined to\nbe in it, and which would run out if the horns were turned down.\"\n[352] On this novel idea of a lunar bason or saucer, Southey writes\nfrom \"Keswick, December 29th, 1828,\" as follows:--\"Poor\nLittledale has this day explained the cause of our late rains, which\nhave prevailed for the last six weeks, by a theory which will\nprobably be as new to you as it is to me. 'I have observed,' he says,\n'that, when the moon is turned upward, we have fine weather after\nit; but if it is turned down, then we have a wet season; and the\nreason I think is, that when it is turned down, it holds no water, like\na bason, you know, and then down it all comes.' There, it will be a\nlong while before the march of intellect shall produce a theory as\noriginal as this, which I find, upon inquiry, to be the popular opinion\nhere.\" [353] George Eliot has taken notice of this fancy in the burial\nof \"poor old Thias Bede.\" \"They'll ha' putten Thias Bede i' the\nground afore ye get to the churchyard,\" said old Martin, as his son\ncame up. \"It 'ud ha' been better luck if they'd ha' buried him i' the\nforenoon when the rain was fallin'; there's no likelihoods of a drop\nnow, an' the moon lies like a boat there, dost see? That's a sure sign\no' fair weather; there's a many as is false, but that's sure.\" [354]\n\nIn Dekker's _Match Me in London_, Act i., the King says, \"My\nLord, doe you see this change in the moone? Sharp hornes doe\nthreaten windy weather.\"\n\nIn the famous ballad of Sir Patrick Spens, concerning whose origin\nthere has been so much discussion, without eliciting any very\naccurate information, we read:\n\n     \"O ever alack! my master dear,\n          I fear a deadly storm.\n     I saw the new moon late yestreen,\n          Wi' the auld moon in her arm\n          And if ye gang to sea, maister,\n     I fear we'll suffer harm.\" [355]\n\nJamieson informs us that \"prognostications concerning the weather,\nduring the course of the month, are generally formed by the country\npeople in Scotland from the appearance of the _new moon_. It is\nconsidered as an almost infallible presage of bad weather, if she\n_lies sair on her back_, or when her horns are pointed towards the\nzenith. It is a similar prognostic, when the new moon appears _wi'\nthe auld moon in her arm_, or, in other words, when that part of the\nmoon which is covered with the shadow of the earth is seen through\nit.\" [356] The last sentence is a _lapsus calami_. Dr. Jamieson\nshould have said, when that part of the moon which is turned from\nthe sun is dimly visible through the reflected light of the earth.\n\n\"At Whitby, when the moon is surrounded by a halo with watery\nclouds, the seamen say that there will be a change of weather, for\nthe 'moon dogs' are about.\" [357] At Ulceby, in Lincolnshire, \"there\nis a very prevalent belief amongst sailors and seafaring men that\nwhen a large star or planet is seen near the moon, or, as they express\nit, 'a big star is dogging the moon,' that this is a certain\nprognostication of wild weather. I have met old sailors having the\nstrongest faith in this prediction, and who have told me that they\nhave verified it by a long course of observation.\" [358]\n\n\"Some years ago,\" says a writer from Torquay, \"an old fisherman of\nthis place told me, on the morning next after a violent gale, that he\nhad foreseen the storm for some time, as he had observed one star\nahead of the moon, towing her, and another astern, chasing her. 'I\nknow'd 'twas coming, safe enough.'\" [359] The moon was simply in\napparent proximity to two stars; but the old Devonian descried\nmischief.\n\nThe following incident from Zulu life will be of interest. \"1878. A\ncurious phenomenon occurred 7th January. A bright star appeared\nnear the moon at noonday, the sun shining brightly. _Omen_--The\nnatives from this foretold the coming war with the Amazulu. Intense\nheat and drought prevailed at this time.\" [360]\n\nHitherto we have reviewed only the imaginary influences of the\nmoon over inanimate nature and what are called irrational beings.\nWe have seen that this potent orb is supposed to affect the lightning\nand thunder of the air; the rocks and seas, the vegetables and\nanimals of the earth; and generally to govern terrestrial matters in a\nmanner altogether its own. Furthermore, we have found these\nimaginations rooted in all lands, and among men whose culture\nmight have been expected to refuse such fruitless excrescences.\nWhen classical authors counsel us to set eggs under the hen at new\nmoon, and to root up trees only when the moon is waning and after\nmid-day; and when \"the wisest, brightest,\" if not the \"meanest of\nmankind\" seriously attributes to the moon the extraction of heat, the\nfurtherance of putrification, the increase of moisture, and the\nexcitement of animal spirits, with the increase of hedges and herbs\nif cut or set during certain phases of that body, we can but repeat to\nourselves the saying, \"The best of men are but men at the best.\" The\nhalf, however, has not been told; and we must now pass on to speak\nof lunar influences upon the birth, health, intellect, and fortune of\nmicrocosmical man.\n\nIn the system of astrology, which professed to interpret the events of\nhuman existence by the movements of the stars, the moon was one\nof the primary planets. As man was looked upon in the light of a\nmicrocosm, or world in miniature, so the several parts of his\nconstitution were viewed as but a reproduction in brief of the great\nparts of the vast organism. Creation was a living, intelligent being,\nwhose two eyes were the sun and the moon, whose body was the\nearth, whose intellect was the ether, whose wings were the heavens.\nMan was an epitome of all this; and as the functions of the less were\nheld to correspond with the functions of the greater, the microcosm\nwith the macrocosm, man's movements could be inferred by first\nascertaining the motions of the universe. The moon, having\ndominion in the twelve \"houses\" of heaven, through which she\npassed in the course of the year, her _aspects_ to the other bodies\nwere considered as of prime significance, in indicating benignant or\nmalignant influences upon human life. This system, which was\nbased upon ignorance and superstition, and upheld by arbitrary rules\nand unreasoning credulity, is so repugnant to all principles of\nscience and common sense, that it would be unworthy of notice, if\nwe did not know that to this day there are educated persons still to\nbe seen poring over old almanacs and peering into the darkness of\ndivination, to read their own fortune or that of their children by the\ndim light of some lucky or unlucky configuration of the planets with\nthe moon. The wheel of fortune yet revolves, and the despotism of\nastrology is not dead. The lunar influence is considered supreme in\nthe hour of birth. Nay, with some the moon is potential even before\nbirth. In Iceland it is said: \"If a pregnant woman sit with her face\nturned towards the moon, her child will be a lunatic.\" [361] And this\nimagination obtains at home as well as abroad. We are told that\n\"astrologers ascribe the most powerful influence to the moon on\nevery person, both for success and health, according to her zodiacal\nand mundane position at birth, and her aspects to other planets. The\nsensual faculties depend almost entirely on the moon, and as she is\naspected so are the moral or immoral tendencies. She has great\ninfluence always upon every person's constitution.\" [362] This is the\ndoctrine of a book published not thirty years ago. Another work,\nissued also in London, says, \"Cynthia, 'the queen of heaven,' as the\nancients termed her, or the MOON, the companion of the earth, and\nchief source of our evening light, is a cold, moist, watery,\nphlegmatic planet, variable to an extreme, in astrological science;\nand partaking of good or evil, as she is aspected by good or evil\nstars. When angular and unafflicted in a nativity, she is the\npromissory pledge of great success in life and continual good\nfortune. She produces a full stature, fair, pale complexion, round\nface, gray eyes, short arms, thick hands and feet, smooth, corpulent,\nand phlegmatic body. Blemishes in the eyes, or a peculiar weakness\nin the sight, is the result of her being afflicted by the Sun. Her\nconjunction, semi-sextile, sextile, or trine, to Jupiter, is exceeding\nfortunate; and she is said by the old Astrologers to govern the\n_brain_, _stomach_, _bowels_, _left eye_ of the male, and _right\neye_ of the female. Her usual diseases are rheumatism, consumption,\npalsy, cholic, apoplexy, vertigo, lunacy, scrophula, smallpox,\ndropsy, etc.; also most diseases peculiar to young children.\"\n[363] Such teaching is not a whit in advance of Plutarch's odd\ndictum that the moon has a \"special hand in the birth of children.\"\n\nIf this belief have disciples in London, it is not by any means\nconfined to that city. In Sweden great influence is ascribed to the\nmoon, not only in regulating the weather, but as affecting all the\naffairs of man's daily life. The lower orders, and many of the better\nsort, will not fell a tree for agricultural purposes in the wane of that\norb, lest it should shrink and decay; nor will the housewife then\nslaughter for her family, lest the meat should shrivel and melt away\nin the pot. The moon is the domestic deity, whom the household\nmust fear: the Fortuna who presides over the daily doings of\nsublunary mortals. In the matter of birth, we find Francis Bacon\naffirming that \"the calculation of nativities, fortunes, good or bad\nhours of business, and the like fatalities, are mere levities that have\nlittle in them of certainty and solidity, and may be plainly confuted\nby physical reasons\"; [364] and yet in his Natural History he writes:\n\"It may be that children and young cattle that are brought forth in\nthe full of the moon, are stronger and larger than those that are\nbrought forth in the wane.\" [365] There surely can be no\nsuperstition in studying the moon's conjunctions and oppositions if\nher influence in a nativity have the slightest weight. And this\ninfluence is still widely maintained by philosophers who read\nBacon, as well as by the peasants who read nothing at all. \"In\nCornwall, when a child is born in the interval between an old moon\nand the first appearance of a new one, it is said that it will never live\nto reach the age of puberty. Hence the saying, 'no moon, no man.' In\nthe same county, too, when a boy is born in the wane of the moon, it\nis believed that the next birth will be a girl, and vice versa; and it is\nalso commonly said that when a birth takes place on the 'growing of\nthe moon' the next child will be of the same sex.\" [366]\n\nAs a natural proceeding, we find that the moon has influence when\nthe child is weaned. Caledonian mothers very carefully observe the\nlunar phases on this account. Jamieson tells us that \"this\nsuperstition, with respect to the fatal influence of a waning moon,\nseems to have been general in Scotland. In Angus, it is believed,\nthat, if a child be put from the breast during the waning of the moon,\nit will decay all the time that the moon continues to wane.\" [367] So\nin the heart of Europe, \"the Lithuanian precept to wean boys at a\nwaxing, but girls on a waning moon, no doubt to make the boys\nsturdy and the girls slim and delicate, is a fair match for the Orkney\nIslanders' objection to marrying except with a growing moon, while\nsome even wish for a flowing tide.\" [368] As to marriage, the\nancient Greeks considered the day of the full moon the most\npropitious period for that ceremony. In Euripides, Clytemnestra\nhaving asked Agamemnon when he intended to give Iphigenia in\nmarriage to Achilles, he replies, \"When the full moon comes forth\nwith good luck.\" In Pindar, too, this season is preferred. [369]\n\nLunar influences over physical health and disease must be a fearful\ncontemplation to those who are of a superstitious turn. There is no\nmalady within the whole realm of pathology which the moon's\ndestroying angel cannot inflict; and from the crown of the head to\nthe sole of the foot the entire man is at the mercy of her beams. We\nhave all seen those disgusting woodcuts to which the following just\ncondemnation refers: \"The moon's influence on parts of the human\nbody, as given in some old-fashioned almanacs, is an entire\n_fallacy_; it is most untrue and absurd, often indecent, and is a\ndiscredit to the age we live in.\" [370] Most of these inartistic\nproductions are framed upon the assumption of the old alchymists\nthat the physiological functions were regulated by planetary\ninfluence. The sun controlled the heart, the moon the brain, Jupiter\nthe lungs, Saturn the spleen, Mars the liver, Venus the kidneys, and\nMercury the reproductive powers. But even with this distribution\namong the heavenly bodies the moon was allowed plenipotentiary\nsway. As in mythology it is the god or goddess of water, so in\nastrology it is the embodiment of moisture, and therefore rules the\nhumours which circulate throughout the human system. No wonder\nthat phlebotomy prevailed so long as the reign of the moon endured.\n\"This lunar planet,\" says La Martiniere, \"is damp of itself, but, by\nthe radiation of the sun, is of various temperaments, as follows: in\nits first quadrant it is warm and damp, at which time it is good to let\nthe blood of sanguine persons; in its second it is warm and dry, at\nwhich time it is good to bleed the choleric; in its third quadrant it is\ncold and moist, and phlegmatic people may be bled; and in its fourth\nit is cold and dry, at which time it is well to bleed the melancholic.\"\nWhatever the moon's phase may be, let blood be shed! We are\nreminded here of that sanguifluous theology, which even Christians\nof a certain temperament seem to enjoy, while they sing of fountains\nfilled with blood: as though a God of love could take delight in the\neffusion of precious life. La Martiniere continues, and physicians\nwill make a note of his words: \"It is a thing quite necessary to those\nwho meddle with medicine to understand the movement of this\nplanet, in order to discern the causes of sickness. And as the moon is\noften in conjunction with Saturn, many attribute to it apoplexy,\nparalysis, epilepsy, jaundice, hydropsy, lethargy, catapory,\ncatalepsy, colds, convulsions, trembling of the limbs, etc., etc. I\nhave noticed that this planet has such enormous power over living\ncreatures, that children born at the first quarter of the declining\nmoon are more subject to illness, so that children born when there is\nno moon, if they live, are weak, delicate, and sickly, or are of little\nmind or idiots. Those who are born under the house of the moon\nwhich is Cancer, are of a phlegmatic disposition.\" [371]\n\nThat the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans believed in the\ndeleterious influence of the moon on the health of man, is very\nevident. The Talmud refers the words, \"Though I walk through the\nvalley of the shadow of death\" (Ps. xxiii. 4) \"to him who sleeps in\nthe shadow of the moon.\" [372] Another Psalm (cxxi. 6) reads,\nliterally, \"By day the sun shall not smite thee, and the moon in the\nnight.\" In the Greek Testament we find further proof of this belief.\nAmong those who thronged the Great Teacher (Matt. iv. 24) were\nthe seleniaxomenoi (_lunatici_, Beza; _i lunatici_, Diodati; _les\nlunatiques_, French version; \"those who were lunatick\"). The\nRevised Version of 1881 reads \"epileptic,\" but that is a comment, not\na translation. So again (Matt. xvii. 15) we read of a boy who was\n\"lunatick\"--seleniaxetai. On which Archbishop Trench remarks,\n\"Of course the word originally, like mania (from mene) and\nlunaticus, arose from the widespread belief of the evil influence of\nthe moon on the human frame.\" [373] Jerome attributes all this\nsuperstition to daemons, of which men were the dupes. \"The\n_lunatics_,\" he says, \"were not really smitten by the moon, but were\nbelieved to be so, through the subtlety of the daemons, who by\nobserving the seasons of the moon sought to bring an evil report\nagainst the creature, that it might redound to the blasphemy of the\nCreator.\" [374] Demons or no demons, faith in moonstroke is clear\nenough. Pliny was of opinion that the moon induced drowsiness and\nstupor in those who slept under her beams. Galen, in the second\ncentury, taught that those who were born when the moon was\nfalciform, or sickle-shaped, were weak and short-lived, while those\nborn during the full moon were vigorous and of long life. He also\ntook notice of the lunar influence in epilepsy [375] of which fearful\nmalady a modern physician writes, \"This disease has been known\nfrom the earliest antiquity, and is remarkable as being that malady\nwhich, even beyond insanity, was made the foundation of the\ndoctrine of possession by evil spirits, alike in the Jewish, Grecian,\nand Roman philosophy.\" [376] The terrible disorder was a fact; and\nevil spirits or the moon had to bear the blame.\n\nIn modern times the moon is no less the deity of insalutary disaster.\nOf Mexico, Brinton says: \"Very different is another aspect of the\nmoon-goddess, and well might the Mexicans paint her with two\ncolours. The beneficent dispenser of harvests and offspring, she\nnevertheless has a portentous and terrific phase. She is also the\ngoddess of the night, the dampness, and the cold; she engenders the\nmiasmatic poisons that rack our bones; she conceals in her mantle\nthe foe who takes us unawares; she rules those vague shapes which\nfright us in the dim light; the causeless sounds of night or its more\noppressive silence are familiar to her; she it is who sends dreams\nwherein gods and devils have their sport with man, and slumber, the\ntwin brother of the grave.\" [377] So farther south, \"the Brazilian\nmother carefully shielded her infant from the lunar rays, believing\nthat they would produce sickness; the hunting tribes of our own\ncountry will not sleep in its light, nor leave their game exposed to\nits action. We ourselves have not outgrown such words as lunatic,\nmoon-struck, and the like. Where did we get these ideas? The\nphilosophical historian of medicine, Kurt Sprengel, traces them to\nthe primitive and popular medical theories of ancient Egypt, in\naccordance with which all maladies were the effects of the anger of\nthe goddess Isis, the moisture, the moon.\" [378] Perhaps Dr.\nBrinton's own Mexican myth is a better elucidation of this origin of\nnocturnal evil than that which traces it to Egypt. According to an\nancient tradition in Mexico, \"it is said that in the absence of the sun\nall mankind lingered in darkness. Nothing but a human sacrifice\ncould hasten his arrival. Then Metzli, the moon, led forth one\nNanahuatl, the leprous, and building a pyre, the victim threw\nhimself in its midst. Straightway Metzli followed his example, and\nas she disappeared in the bright flames, the sun rose over the\nhorizon. Is not this a reference to the kindling rays of the aurora, in\nwhich the dark and baleful night is sacrificed, and in whose light the\nmoon presently fades away, and the sun comes forth?\" [379] We\nventure to think that it is, and that it is nearest to a natural\nexplanation of purely natural effects.\n\nComing next to Britain, we find that \"no prejudice has been more\nfirmly rivetted than the influence of the moon over the human\nframe, originating perhaps in some superstition more ancient than\nrecorded by the earliest history. The frequent intercourse of\nScotland with the north may have conspired to disseminate or renew\nthe veneration of a luminary so highly venerated there, in\ncounteracting the more southern ecclesiastical ordinances.\" [380]\nForbes Leslie surely goes too far, and mixes matters up too much,\nwhen he writes: \"An ancient belief, adhered to by the ignorant after\nbeing denounced and apparently disproved by the learned, is now\nadmitted to be a fact; viz. the influence of the moon in certain\ndiseases. This, from various circumstances, is more apparent in\nsome of the Asiatic countries, and may have given rise to the\ncustom which extended into Britain, of exposing sick children on\nthe housetops.\" [381] We know that the _solar_ rays, from the time\nof Hippocrates, the reputed \"father of medicine,\" were believed by\nthe Greeks to prolong life; and that the Romans built terraces on the\ntops of their houses called _solaria_, where they enjoyed their solar\nbaths. \"Levato sole levatur morbus,\" was one of their medical\naxioms. But who ever heard of the _lunar_ rays as beneficial? If\nsick children were exposed on the housetops, it must have been in\nthe daytime; and, unless it were intended as an alterative, it is\ndifficult to see what connection this had with the belief that disease\nwas the product of the lunar beam. Besides, is the moon's influence\nin disease an admitted fact? The \"certain diseases\" should be\nspecified, and their lunar origin sustained.\n\nThe following strange superstition is singularly like that interpolated\nlegend in the Gospel of John, about the angel troubling the pool of\nBethesda. In this case the medicinal virtue seems to come with the\nchange of the moon. But in both cases supernatural agency is\nequally mythical. \"A cave in the neighbourhood of Dunskey ought\nalso to be mentioned, on account of the great veneration in which it\nis held by the people. At the change of the moon (which is still\nconsidered with superstitious reverence), it is usual to bring, even\nfrom a great distance, infirm persons, and particularly ricketty\nchildren, whom they often suppose bewitched, to bathe in a stream\nwhich pours from the hill, and then dry them in the cave.\" [382]\n\nThose who are in danger of apoplexy, or other cerebral disease,\nthrough indulgence too freely in various liquids, vinous and\nspirituous, should cherish Bacon's sapient deliverance: \"It is like\nthat the brain of man waxeth moister and fuller upon the full of the\nmoon; and therefore it were good for those that have moist brains,\nand are great drinkers, to take sume of _lignum aloes_, rosemary,\nfrankincense, etc., about the full of the moon. It is like, also, that the\nhumours in men's bodies increase and decrease as the moon doth;\nand therefore it were good to purge some day or two after the full;\nfor that then the humours will not replenish so soon again.\" [383]\nAll this sounds so unphilosophical that it is almost incredible that\nthe learned Bacon believed what he wrote. Darker superstitions,\nhowever, still linger in our land. \"In Staffordshire, it is commonly\nsaid, if you want to cure chin-cough, take out the child and let it\nlook at the new moon; lift up its clothes and rub your right hand up\nand down its stomach, and repeat the following lines (looking\nsteadfastly at the moon, and rubbing at the same time):--\n\n     'What I see, may it increase;\n     What I feel, may it decrease;\n\nIn the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.'\" [384]\nThere is a little ambiguity here. What is felt is the child's stomach.\nBut the desire is not that that may decrease, but only the whooping\ncough, which is _felt_, we take it, by proxy. A lady, writing of the\nsouthern county of Sussex, says: \"A superstition lingering amongst\nus, worthy of the days of paganism, is that the new May moon,\naided by certain charms, has the power of curing scrofulous\ncomplaints.\" [385]\n\nAs the cutting of hair, finger-nails, and corns has some relation to\nhealth and comfort, we may here mention that in Devonshire it is\nsaid that hair and nails should always be cut in the waning of the\nmoon, thereby beneficial consequences will result. If corns are cut\nafter the full moon, some say that they will gradually disappear. In\nthe _British Apollo_ we have the following request for advice:\n\n     \"Pray tell your querist if he may\n     Rely on what the vulgar say,\n     That when the moon's in her increase,\n     If corns be cut they'll grow apace\n     But if you always do take care\n     After the full your corns to pare,\n     They do insensibly decay\n     And will in time wear quite away.\n     If this be true, pray let me know,\n     And give the reason why 'tis so.\" [386]\n\nThe following passage is worth quoting, without any abbreviation,\nas an excellent summary of wisdom and sense regarding the moon's\ninfluence on health: \"There is much reason for regarding the moon\nas a source of evil, yet not that she herself is so, but only the\ncircumstances which attend her. With us it happens that a bright\nmoonlight night is always a cold one. The absence of cloud allows\nthe earth to radiate its heat into space, and the air gradually cools,\nuntil the moisture it contained is precipitated in the form of dew,\nand lies like a thick blanket on the ground to prevent a further\ncooling. When the quantity of moisture in the air is small, the\nrefrigerating process continues until frost is produced, and many a\nmoonlight night in spring destroys half or even the whole of the\nfruit of a new season. Moonlight, therefore, frequently involves the\nidea of frigidity. With us, whose climate is comparatively cold, the\nchange from the burning, blasting, or blighting heat of day, or\nsun-up, to the cold of a clear night, or sun-down, is not very great, but\nwithin the tropics the change is enormous. To such sudden\nvicissitudes in temperature, an Indian doctor, in whom I have great\nconfidence, attributes fevers and agues. As it is clear that those\npersons only, whose business or pleasure obliges them to be out on\ncloudless nights, suffer from the severe cold produced by the rapid\nradiation into space of the heat of their own bodies and that of the\nearth, those who remain at home are not likely to suffer from the\neffects of the sudden and continued chill. Still further, it is clear that\npeople in general will not care to go out during the darkness of a\nmoonless night, unless obliged to do so. Consequently few persons\nhave experience of the deleterious influence of starlight nights. But\nwhen a bright moon and a hot, close house induce the people to turn\nout and enjoy the coldness and clearness of night, it is very probable\nthat refrigeration may be followed by severe bodily disease.\nAmongst such a people, the moon would rather be anathematised\nthan adored. One may enjoy half an hour, or perhaps an hour, of\nmoonlight, and yet be blighted or otherwise injured by a whole\nnight of it.\" [387] In Denmark a superstition is current concerning\nthe noxious influences of night. The Danes have a kind of elves\nwhich they call the \"Moon Folk.\" \"The man is like an old man with\na low-crowned hat upon his head; the woman is very beautiful in\nfront, but behind she is hollow, like a dough-trough, and she has a\nsort of harp on which she plays, and lures young men with it, and\nthen kills them. The man is also an evil being, for if any one comes\nnear him he opens his mouth and breathes upon them, and his breath\ncauses sickness. It is easy to see what this tradition means: it is the\ndamp marsh wind, laden with foul and dangerous odours; and the\nwoman's harp is the wind playing across the marsh rushes at\nnightfall.\" [388] It is the Queen of the Fairies in the\n_Midsummer-Night's Dream_ who says to the Fairy King,--\n\n     These are the forgeries of jealousy\n     And never, since the middle summer's spring,\n     Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,\n     By paved fountain, or by rushy brook,\n     Or in the beached margent of the sea,\n     To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,\n     But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.\n     No night is now with hymn or carol blest:\n     Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,\n     Pale in her anger, washes all the air,\n     That rheumatic diseases do abound\n     And this same progeny of evils comes\n     From our debate, from our dissension\n     We are their parents and original.\n\nIt will be thought rashly iconoclastic if we cast the least doubt upon\nthe idea that blindness is caused directly by the light of the moon.\nSo many cases have been adduced that it is considered a settled\npoint. We, however, dare to dispute some of the evidence. For\ninstance \"A poor man born in the village _Rowdil_, commonly\ncalled St. Clement's, blind, lost his sight at every change of the\nmoon, which obliged him to keep his bed for a day or two, and then\nhe recovered his sight.\" [389] If logic would enable us to prove a\nnegative to this statement, we would meet it with simple denial. But\nwe have no hesitation in saying that an investigation into this case\nwould have exonerated the moon of any share in the affliction, and\nhave revealed some other and likely cause. Our chief objection to\nthis story is its element of periodicity; and we would require\noverwhelming testimony to establish even the probability of such a\nmiracle once a month. That permanent injury may accrue to those\nwhose sleeping eyes are exposed all night to the brightness of a full\nmoon is probable enough. But this would take place not because the\nmoon's beams were peculiarly baneful, but because any strong light\nwould have a hurtful effect upon the eyes when fixed for hours in\nthe condition of sleep.\n\nWe can quite believe that in a dry atmosphere like that of Egypt,\nwhere ophthalmia is very prevalent on account of constant irritation\nfrom the fine sand in the air, the eye, weary with the heat and aridity\nof the day, would be impaired if uncovered in the air to the rays of\nthe moon. Carne's statements are consequently quite credible. He\ntells us: \"The effect of the moonlight on the eyes in this country is\nsingularly injurious; the natives tell you, as I found they also\nafterwards did in Arabia, always to cover your eyes when you sleep\nin the open air. The moon here really strikes and affects the sight,\nwhen you sleep exposed to it, much more than the sun; indeed, the\nsight of a person who should sleep with his face exposed at night,\nwould soon be utterly impaired or destroyed.\" [390] For the same\nreason, that strong light oppresses the slumbering eye, \"the seaman\nin his hammock takes care not to face the full moon, lest he be\nstruck with blindness.\" [391] Nor can we regard the following as\n\"an _extraordinary_ effect of moonlight upon the human subject.\" In\n1863, \"a boy, thirteen years of age, residing near Peckham Rye, was\nexpelled his home by his mother for disobedience. He ran away to a\ncornfield close by, and, on lying down in the open air, fell asleep.\nHe slept throughout the night, which was a moonlight one. Some\nlabourers on their way to work, next morning, seeing the boy\napparently asleep, aroused him; the lad opened his eyes, but\ndeclared he could not see. He was conveyed home, and medical\nadvice was obtained; the surgeon affirmed that the total loss of sight\nresulted from sleeping in the moonlight.\" [392] This was sad\nenough; but it was antecedently probable. No doubt a boy of\nthirteen who for disobedience was cast out of home in such a place\nas London had a hard lot, and went supperless to his open bed. His\noptic nerves were young and sensitive, and the protracted light so\nparalysed them that the morning found them closed \"in endless\nnight.\" This was a purely natural result: to admitting it, reason\nopposes no demur. But we must object, for truth's sake, to the\ntendency to account for natural consequences by assigning\nsupernatural causes. The moon is no divinity; moonlight is no\nDivine emanation, with a vindictive animus; and those who\ncountenance such silly superstition as that moonstroke is a\nmysterious, evil agency, are contributing to a polytheism which\nleads to atheism: for many gods logically means no GOD at all.\n\nAnother branch of this umbrageous if not fructuous tree of lunar\nsuperstition is the moon's influence on human fortune. Butler\nsatirizes the visionary who--\n\n     \"With the moon was more familiar\n     Than e'er was almanac well-willer (compiler);\n     Her secrets understood so clear\n     That some believed he had been there;\n     Knew when she was in fittest mood\n     For cutting corns, or letting blood:\n     Whether the wane be, or increase,\n     Best to set garlick, or sow pease:\n     Who first found out the man i' th' moon,\n     That to the ancients was unknown.\"--_Hudibras_.\n\nA Swiss theologian amusingly describes the superstitious person\nwho reads his fortune in the stars. He, it is said, \"will be more afraid\nof the constellation fires than the flames of his next neighbour's\nhouse. He will not open a vein till he has asked leave of the planets.\nHe will not commit his seed to the earth when the soil, but when the\nmoon, requires it. He will have his hair cut when the moon is either\nin _Leo_, that his locks may stare like the lion's shag, or in _Aries_,\nthat they may curl like a ram's horn. Whatever he would have to\ngrow, he sets about when she is in her increase; but for what he\nwould have made less, he chuses her wane. When the moon is in\n_Taurus_, he never can be persuaded to take physic, lest that animal\nwhich chews its cud should make him cast it up again. He will avoid\nthe sea whenever _Mars_ is in the midst of heaven, lest that warrior-god\nshould stir up pirates against him. In _Taurus_ he will plant his\ntrees, that this sign, which the astrologers are pleased to call\n_fixed_, may fasten them deep in the earth. If at any time he has a\nmind to be admitted into the presence of a prince, he will wait till\nthe moon is in conjunction with the sun; for 'tis then the society of\nan inferior with a superior is salutary and successful.\" [393]\n\nThe _new moon_ is considered pre-eminently auspicious for\ncommencements,--for all kinds of building up, and beginning _de\nnovo_. Houses are to be erected and moved into; marriages are to be\nconcluded, money counted, hair and nails cut, healing herbs and\npure dew gathered, all at the new moon. Money counted at that\nperiod will be increased. The _full moon_ is the time for pulling\ndown, and thinking of the end of all things. Cut your timber, mow\nyour grass, make your hay, not while the sun shines, but while the\nmoon wanes; also stuff your feather-bed then, and so kill the newly\nplucked feathers completely, and bring them to rest. Wash your\nlinen, too, by the waning moon, that the dirt may disappear with the\ndwindling light. [394] According to one old notion it was deemed\nunlucky to assume a new dress when the moon was in her decline.\nSo says the Earl of Northampton: \"They forbidde us when the\nmoone is in a fixed signe, to put on a newe garment. Why so?\nBecause it is lyke that it wyll be too longe in wearing, a small fault\nabout this towne, where garments seldome last till they be payd for.\nBut thyr meaning is, that the garment shall continue long, not in\nrespect of any strength or goodness in the stuffe, but by the durance\nor disease of him that hath neyther leysure nor liberty to weare it.\"\n[395] It is well known that the ancient Hebrews held the new moon\nin religious reverence. The trumpets were blown, solemn sacrifices\nwere offered and festivals held; and the first clay of the lunar month\nwas always holy. In a Talmudic compilation, to which Dr. Farrar\nhas contributed a preface, we find an interesting account of the\n_Blessing the new moon_. \"It is a very pious act to bless the moon\nat the close of the Sabbath, when one is dressed in his best attire and\nperfumed. If the blessing is to be performed on the evening of an\nordinary week-day, the best dress is to be worn. According to the\nKabbalists the blessings upon the moon are not to be said till seven\nfull days after her birth, but, according to later authorities, this may\nbe done after three days. The reason for not performing this monthly\nservice under a roof, but in the open air, is because it is considered\nas the reception of the presence of the Shekinah, and it would not be\nrespectful so to do anywhere but in the open air. It depends very\nmuch upon circumstances when and where the new moon is to be\nconsecrated, and also upon one's own predisposition, for authorities\ndiffer. We will close these remarks with the conclusion of the Kitzur\nSh'lu on the subject, which, at p. 72, col. 2, runs thus:\n\n\"When about to sanctify the new moon, one should straighten his\nfeet (as at the Shemonah-esreh) and give one glance at the moon\nbefore he begins to repeat the ritual blessing, and having\ncommenced it he should not look at her at all. Thus should he begin\n--'In the united name of the Holy and Blessed One' and His\nShekinah, through that Hidden and Consecrated One! and in the\nname of all Israel!' Then he is to proceed with the 'Form of Prayer\nfor the New Moon,' word for word, with out haste, but with solemn\ndeliberation, and when he repeats--\n\n     'Blessed is thy Former, Blessed is thy Maker,\n     Blessed is thy Possessor, Blessed is thy Creator,'\n\nhe is to meditate on the initials of the four Divine epithets, which\nform 'Jacob'; for the moon, which is called 'the lesser light,' is his\nemblem or symbol, and he is also called 'little' (see Amos vii. 2).\nThis he is to repeat three times. He is to skip three times while\nrepeating thrice the following sentence, and after repeating three\ntimes forwards and backwards: thus (_forwards_)--'Fear and dread\nshall fall upon them by the greatness of thine arm; they shall be as\nstill as a stone'; thus (_backwards_)--'Still as a stone may they be;\nby the greatness of thine arm may fear and dread fall on them'; he\nthen is to say to his neighbour three times, 'Peace be unto you,' and\nthe neighbour is to respond three times, 'Unto you be peace.' Then\nhe is to say three times (very loudly), 'David, the King of Israel,\nliveth and existeth!' and finally, he is to say three times, 'May a\ngood omen and good luck be upon us and upon all Israel! Amen!'\"\n[396a]\n\nThat the ancient Germans held the moon in similar regard we know\nfrom Caesar, who, having inquired why Ariovistus did not come to\nan engagement, discovered this to be the reason: \"that among the\nGermans it was the custom for their matrons to pronounce from lots\nand divination, whether it were expedient that the battle should be\nengaged in or not; that they had said, 'that it was not the will of\nheaven that the Germans should conquer, if they engaged in battle\nbefore the new moon.'\" [396b]\n\nHalliwell has reproduced an illustration of British superstition of the\nsame sort. \"A very singular divination practised at the period of the\nharvest moon is thus described in an old chap-book. When you go to\nbed, place under your pillow a prayer-book open at the part of the\nmatrimonial service 'with this ring I thee wed'; place on it a key, a\nring, a flower, and a sprig of willow, a small heart-cake, a crust of\nbread, and the following cards:--the ten of clubs, nine of hearts, ace\nof spades, and the ace of diamonds. Wrap all these in a thin\nhandkerchief of gauze or muslin, and on getting into bed, cross your\nhands, and say:--\n\n     'Luna, every woman's friend,\n     To me thy goodness condescend\n     Let me this night in vision see\n     Emblems of my destiny.'\n\nIf you dream of storms, trouble will betide you; if the storm ends in\na fine calm, so will your fate; if of a ring or the ace of diamonds,\nmarriage; bread, an industrious life; cake, a prosperous life; flowers,\njoy; willow, treachery in love; spades, death; diamonds, money;\nclubs, a foreign land; hearts, illegitimate children; keys, that you\nwill rise to great trust and power, and never know want; birds, that\nyou will have many children; and geese, that you will marry more\nthan once.\" [397] Such ridiculous absurdities would be rejected as\napocryphal if young ladies were not still in the habit of placing bits\nof wedding cake under their pillows in the hope that their dreaming\neyes may be enchanted with blissful visions of their future lords.\n\nHone tells us that in Berkshire, \"at the first appearance of a new\nmoon, maidens go into the fields, and, while they look at it, say:--\n\n     'New moon, new moon, I hail thee!\n     By all the virtue in thy body.\n     Grant this night that I may see\n     He who my true love is to be.'\n\nThen they return home, firmly believing that before morning their\nfuture husbands will appear to them in their dreams.\" [398]\n\nIn Devonshire also \"it is customary for young people, as soon as\nthey see the first new moon after midsummer, to go to a stile, turn\ntheir back to it, and say:--\n\n     'All hail, new moon, all hail to thee!\n     I prithe, good moon, reveal to me\n     This night who shall my true love be\n     Who is he, and what he wears,\n     And what he does all months and years.'\" [399]\n\nAubrey says the same of the Scotch of his day, and the custom is not\nyet extinct. \"In Scotland (especially among the Highlanders) the\nwomen doe make a curtsey to the new moon; I have known one in\nEngland doe it, and our English woemen in the country doe retain\n(some of them) a touch of this gentilisme still, _e.g._:--\n\n     'All haile to thee, moon, all haile to thee\n     I prithe, good moon, declare to me,\n     This night, who my husband must be.'\n\nThis they doe sitting astride on a gate or stile the first evening the\nnew moon appears. In Herefordshire, etc., the vulgar people at the\nprime of the moon say, ''Tis a fine moon, God bless her.'\" [400] \"In\nIreland, at the new moon, it is not an uncommon practice for people\nto point with a knife, and after invoking the Holy Trinity, to say:--\n\n     'New moon, true morrow, be true now to me,\n     That I ere the morrow my true love may see.'\n\nThe knife is then placed under the pillow, and silence strictly\nobserved, lest the charm should be broken.\" [401]\n\nDr. Charles Mackay quotes from Mother Bridget's _Dream and\nOmen Book_ the following prescription for ascertaining the events\nof futurity. \"_First new moon of the year_. On the first new moon in\nthe year take a pint of clear spring water, and infuse into it the\n_white_ of an egg laid by a _white_ hen, a glass of _white_ wine,\nthree almonds peeled _white_, and a tablespoonful of _white_\nrose-water. Drink this on going to bed, not making more nor less than\nthree draughts of it; repeating the following verses three several\ntimes in a clear distinct voice, but not so loud as to be overheard by\nanybody:--\n\n     'If I dream of water pure\n     Before the coming morn,\n     'Tis a sign I shall be poor,\n     And unto wealth not born.\n     If I dream of tasting beer,\n     Middling, then, will be my cheer--\n     Chequered with the good and bad,\n     Sometimes joyful, sometimes sad;\n     But should I dream of drinking wine,\n     Wealth and pleasure will be mine.\n     The stronger the drink, the better the cheer--\n     Dreams of my destiny, appear, appear!'\" [402]\n\nThe day of the week on which the moon is new or full, is a question\nthat awakens the most anxious concern. In the north of Italy\nWednesday is dreaded for a lunar change, and in the south of France\nthe inauspicious day is Friday. [403] In most of our own rural\ndistricts Friday's new moon is much disliked\n\n     \"Friday's moon,\n     Come when it wool,\n     It comes too soon.\"\n\nSaturday is unlucky for the _new_, and Sunday for the _full_ moon.\nIn Norfolk it is said:--\n\n     \"Saturday's new and Sunday's full,\n     Never was good, and never wull.\"\n\nAn apparently older version of the same weather-saw runs:--\n\n     \"A Saturday's change, and a Sunday's prime,\n     Was nivver a good mune in nea man's time.\"\n\nIn Worcestershire, a cottager near Berrow Hill told Mr. Edwin Lees,\nF.L.S., that as the new moon had fallen on a Saturday, there would\nfollow twenty-one days of wind or rain; for\n\n     \"If the moon on a Saturday be new or full,\n     There always _was_ rain, and there always _wuell_.\"\n\nOne rustic rhyme rehearsed in some places is:--\n\n     \"A Saturday moon,\n     If it comes once in seven years,\n          Comes once too soon.\"\n\nNext to the day, the medium through which the new moon is first\nbeheld, is of vital moment. In Staffordshire it is unlucky to see this\nsight through trees. A correspondent in _Notes and Queries_ (21st\nJanuary, 1882) once saw a person almost in tears because she\nlooked on the new moon through her veil, feeling convinced that\nmisfortune would follow. Henderson cites a canon to be observed\nby those who would know what year they would wed. \"Look at the\nfirst new moon of the year through a silk handkerchief which has\nnever been washed. As many moons as you see through the\nhandkerchief (the threads multiplying the vision), so many years\nwill pass ere you are married.\" [404] Hunt tells us, what in fact is\nwidely believed, that \"to see the new moon for the first time through\nglass, is unlucky; you may be certain that you will break glass\nbefore that moon is out. I have known persons whose attention has\nbeen called to a clear new moon hesitate. 'Hev I seed her out o'\ndoors afore?' if not, they will go into the open air, and, if possible,\nshow the moon 'a piece of gold,' or, at all events, turn their money.\"\n[405] Mrs. Latham says: \"Many of our Sussex superstitions are\nprobably of Saxon origin; amongst which may be the custom of\nbowing or curtseying to the new or Lady moon, as she is styled, to\ndeprecate bad luck. There is another kindred superstition, that the\nQueen of night will dart malignant rays upon you, if on the first day\nof her re-appearance you look up to her without money in your\npocket. But if you are not fortunate enough to have any there, in\norder to avert her evil aspect, you must immediately turn head over\nheels! It is considered unlucky to see the new moon through a\nwindow-pane, and I have known a maidservant shut her eyes when\nclosing the shutters lest she should unexpectedly see it through the\nglass. Do not kill your pig until full moon, or the pork will be\nruined.\" [406] In Suffolk, also, \"it is considered unlucky to kill a pig\nin the wane of the moon; if it is done, the pork will waste in boiling.\nI have known the shrinking of bacon in the pot attributed to the fact\nof the pig having been killed in the moon's decrease; and I have also\nknown the death of poor piggy delayed, or hastened, so as to happen\nduring its increase.\" [407]\n\nThe desirability of possessing _silver_ in the pocket, and of turning\nit over, when the new moon is first seen, is a point of some interest.\nForbes Leslie says, \"The ill-luck of having no _silver_ money\n--coins of other metals being of no avail--when you first see or hail a\nnew moon, is still a common belief from Cornwall to Caithness, as\nwell as in Ireland.\" [408] And Jamieson writes: \"Another\nsuperstition, equally ridiculous and unaccountable, is still regarded\nby some. They deem it very unlucky to see the new moon for the\nfirst time without having _silver_ in one's pocket. Copper is of no\navail.\" [409] We venture to think that this is not altogether\nunaccountable. The moon at night, in a clear sky, reflects a brilliant\nwhiteness. The two Hebrew words used of this luminary in the\nBible, mean \"pale light\" and \"white.\" \"Hindooism says that the\nmoon, Soma, was turned into a female called Chandra--'the White\nor Silvery One.'\" [410] The Santhals of India call the sun _Chando_,\nwhich means bright, and is also a name for the moon. Now pure\nsilver is of a very white colour and of a strong metallic lustre. It was\none of the earliest known metals, and used as money from the\nremotest times. Its whiteness led the ancient astrologers, as it\nafterwards led the alchemists, to connect it with the moon, and to\ncall it Diana and Luna, names previously given to the satellite. For\nArtemis, the Greek Diana, the Ephesian craftsmen made silver\nshrines. The moon became the symbol of silver; and to this day\nfused nitrate of silver is called _lunar_ caustic. It was natural and\neasy for superstition to suppose that silver was the moon's own\nmetal; and to imagine that upon the reappearance of the lunar deity\nor demon, its beams should be propitiated by some argentine\npossession. We find that silver was exclusively used in the worship\nof the moon in Peru.\n\nIn a book published in the earlier part of last century, and attributed\nto Daniel Defoe, we read; \"To see a new moon the first time after\nher change, on the right hand, or directly before you, betokens the\nutmost good fortune that month; as to have her on your left, or\nbehind you, so that in turning your head back you happen to see her,\nforeshows the worst; as also, they say, to be without gold in your\npocket at that time is of very bad consequence.\" [411] The mistake\nin substituting gold for silver here is easily explained. As among the\nRomans _aes_ meant both copper and money; and among the\nFrench _argent_ means both silver and money in general; so in\nEngland gold is the common expression for coin of any substance.\nSilver being _money_, the word gold was thus substituted; the\ngeneric for the specific. Other superstitions besides those above\nnoticed are found in different parts of our enlightened land. Denham\nsays, \"I once saw an aged matron turn her apron to the new moon to\ninsure good luck for the ensuing month.\" [412] And Halliwell\nmentions a prayer customary among some persons:--\n\n     \"I see the moon, and the moon sees me.\n     God bless the moon, and God bless me.\" [413]\n\nIn Devonshire it is lucky to see the new moon over the right, but\nunlucky to see it over the left shoulder; and to see it straight before\nis good fortune to the end of the month. \"In Renfrewshire, if a man's\nhouse be burnt during the wane of the moon, it is deemed unlucky.\nIf the same misfortune take place when the moon is waxing, it is\nviewed as a presage of prosperity. In Orkney, also, it is reckoned\nunlucky to flit, or to remove from one habitation to another, during\nthe waning of the moon.\" [414] A recent writer tells us that in\nOrkney \"there are superstitions likewise associated with the moon.\nThe increase, and full growth, and wane of that satellite are the\nemblems of a rising, flourishing, and declining fortune. No business\nof importance is begun during the moon's wane; if even an animal is\nkilled at that period, the flesh is supposed to be unwholesome. A\ncouple to think of marrying at that time would be regarded as\nrecklessly careless respecting their future happiness Old people in\nsome parts of Argyllshire were wont to invoke the Divine blessing\non the moon after the monthly change. The Gaelic word for fortune\nis borrowed from that which denotes the full moon; and a marriage\nor birth occurring at that period is believed to augur prosperity.\"\n[415]\n\nKirkmichael, says another writer on the Highlands of Scotland, hath\n\"its due proportion of that superstition which generally prevails over\nthe Highlands. Unable to account for the cause, they consider the\neffects of times and seasons as certain and infallible. The moon in\nher increase, full growth, and in her wane, are with them the\nemblems of a rising, flourishing, and declining fortune. At the last\nperiod of her revolution they carefully avoid to engage in any\nbusiness of importance; but the first and the middle they seize with\navidity, presaging the most auspicious issue to their undertakings.\nPoor Martinus Scriblerus never more anxiously watched the\nblowing of the west wind to secure an heir to his genius, than the\nlove-sick swain and his nymph for the coming of the new moon to\nbe noosed together in matrimony. Should the planet happen to be at\nthe height of her splendour when the ceremony is performed, their\nfuture life will be a scene of festivity, and all its paths strewed over\nwith rosebuds of delight. But when her tapering horns are turned\ntowards the north, passion becomes frost-bound, and seldom thaws\ntill the genial season again approaches. From the moon they not\nonly draw prognostications of the weather, but according to their\ncreed also discover future events. There they are clearly portrayed,\nand ingenious illusion never fails in the explanation. The veneration\npaid to this planet, and the opinion of its influences, are obvious\nfrom the meaning still affixed to some words of the Gaelic\nlanguage. In Druidic mythology, when the circle of the moon was\ncomplete, fortune then promised to be most propitious. Agreeably to\nthis idea, _rath_, which signifies in Gaelic a wheel or circle, is\ntransferred to signify fortune.\" [416]\n\nForbes Leslie writes: \"The influence which the moon was supposed\nto exercise on mankind, as well as on inanimate objects, may be\ntraced in the practice of the Druids. It is not yet extinct in Scotland;\nand the moon, in the increase, at the full, and on the wane, are\nemblems of prosperity, established success, or declining fortune, by\nwhich many persons did, and some still do, regulate the period for\ncommencing their most important undertakings.\" [417] And yet\nonce more, to make the induction most conclusive; we are told that\n\"the canon law anxiously prohibited observance of the moon as\nregulating the period of marriage; nor was any regard to be paid to\ncertain days of the year for ceremonies. If the Lucina of the ancients\nbe identified with Diana, it was not unreasonable to court the care of\nthe parturient, by selecting the time deemed most propitious. The\nstrength of the ecclesiastical interdiction does not seem to have\nprevailed much in Scotland. Friday, which was consecrated to a\nnorthern divinity, has been deemed more favourable for the union.\nIn the southern districts of Scotland, and in the Orkney Islands, the\ninhabitants preferred the increase of the moon for it. Auspicious\ncircumstances were anticipated in other parts, from its celebration at\nfull moon. Good fortune depended so much on the increase of that\nluminary, that nothing important was undertaken during its wane.\nBenefit even accrued to the stores provided during its increase, and\nits effect in preserving them is still credited.\" [418] To what, but to\nthis prevalent belief in lunar influence on fortune can Shakespeare\nallude, when Romeo swears:\n\n     \"_Rom_. Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear,\n          That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops--\n     _Jul_. Oh, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,\n          That monthly changes in her circled orb,\n          Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.\" [419]\n\nUpon the physiological influence of the lunar rays in the generation\nor aggravation of disease, we have but little to add to what has been\nalready written. It is a topic for a special treatise, and properly\nbelongs to those medical experts whose research and practice in this\nparticular branch of physics qualify them to speak with plenary\nauthority. Besides, it has been so wisely handled by Dr. Forbes\nWinslow, in his admirable monograph on _Light_, that inquirers\ncannot follow a safer guide than his little book affords. Dr. Winslow\naccounts for the theory of planetary influence partly by the action of\nthe moon in producing the tides. He says: \"Astronomers having\nadmitted that the moon was capable of producing this physical\neffect upon the waters of the ocean, it was not altogether unnatural\nthat the notion should become not only a generally received but a\npopular one, that the ebb and flow of the tides had a material\ninfluence over the bodily functions. The Spaniards imagine that all\nwho die of chronic diseases breathe their last during the ebb.\nSouthey says, that amongst the wonders of the isles and city of\nCadiz, which the historian of that city, Suares de Salazar,\nenumerates, one is, according to p. Labat, that the sick never die\nthere while the tide is rising or at its height, but always during the\nebb. He restricts the notion to the isle of Leon, but implies that the\neffect was there believed to take place in diseases of all kinds, acute\nas well as chronic. 'Him fever,' says the negro in the West Indies,\n'shall go when the water come low; him always come not when the\ntide high.' The popular notion amongst the negroes appears to be\nthat the ebb and flow of the tides are caused by a '_fever of the\nsea_,' which rages for six hours, and then intermits for as many\nmore.\" [420] Dr. Winslow then subjoins a long list of learned\nauthorities, several of whose writings he subjects to a brief analysis.\nHe disapproves of the presumption that the subject is altogether\nvisionary and utopian; and affirms that it has not always been\npursued by competent observers. Periodicity is noted as an\nimportant symptom in disease; a feature in febrile disturbance which\nthe present writer himself had abundant opportunity of marking and\nmeasuring during an epidemic of yellow fever in the city of\nSavannah in the year 1876. This periodicity Dr. Winslow regards as\nthe foundation of the alleged lunar influence in morbid conditions.\nSome remarkable cases are referred to, which, if the fact of the\nmoon's interference with human functions could be admitted, would\ngo a long way to corroborate and confirm it. The supposed influence\nof the moon on plants is not passed over, nor the chemical\ncomposition of lunar light as a possible evil agency. Still\nconsidering the matter _sub judice_, Dr. Winslow then proceeds to\nthe alleged influence of the moon on the insane; a question with\nwhich he was pre-eminently competent to cope. After alluding to\nthe support given to the popular belief by poets and philosophers of\nancient and modern times, the question of periodicity, or \"lucid\nintervals,\" is again discussed, this time in its mental aspect, and the\nhygienic or sanatory influence of light is allowed its meed of\nconsideration. The final result of the investigation is that the matter\nis held to be purely speculative, and it is esteemed wise to hold in\nreserve any theory in relation to the subject that may have been\nformed. With this conclusion we are greatly disappointed. Dr.\nWinslow's aid in the inquiry is most valuable, and if he, after his\ncareful review of pathological literature on lunar influence, coupled\nwith his own extended experience, holds the question in abeyance,\nwho will venture upon a decision? We however believe, notwithstanding\nevery existing difficulty, that the subject will be brought\ninto clear light ere long, and all superstition end in accurate\nscience. Meanwhile, many, even of the enlightened, will cling to the\nunforgotten fancy which gave rise to the word _lunatic_, and in\ncases of mental derangement will moralize with young Banks in the\n_Witch of Edmonton_ (1658), \"When the moon's in the full, then\nwit's in the wane.\"\n\n\n\nMOON INHABITATION.\n\nScience having practically diminished the moon's distance, and\nrendered distinct its elevations and depressions, it is natural for\n\"those obstinate questionings of sense and outward things\" to urge\nthe inquiry, _Is the moon inhabited_? This question it is easier to\nask than to answer. It has been a mooted point for many years, and\nour wise men of the west seem still disposed to give it up, or, at\nleast, to adjourn its decision for want of evidence. Of \"guesses at\ntruth\" there have been a great multitude, and of dogmatic assertions\nnot a few; but demonstrations are things which do not yet appear.\nWe now take leave to report progress, and give the subject a little\nventilation. We do not expect to furnish an Ariadne's thread, but we\nmay hope to find some indication of the right way out of this\nlabyrinth of uncertainty. _Veritas nihil veretur nisi abscondi_: or, as\nthe German proverb says, \"Truth creeps not into corners\"; its life is\nthe light.\n\nBut before we advance a single step, we desire to preclude all\nmisunderstanding on one point, by distinctly avowing our\nconviction that the teachings of Christian theology are not at all\ninvolved in the issue of this discussion, whatever it may prove.\nInfinite harm has been done by confusing the religion of science\nwith the science of religion. Religion _is_ a science, and science is a\nreligion; but they are not identical. Philosophy ought to be pious,\nand piety ought to be philosophical; but philosophy and piety are\ntwo quantities and qualities that may dwell apart, though, happily,\nthey may also be found in one nature. Each has its own faculties and\nfunctions; and in our present investigation, religion has nothing\nmore to do than to shed the influence of reverence, humility, and\nteachableness over the scientific student as he ponders his problem\nand works out the truth. In this, and in kindred studies, we may\nyield without reluctance what a certain professor of religion\nconcedes, and grant without grudging what a certain professor of\nscience demands. Dr. James Martineau says, \"In so far as Church\nbelief is still committed to a given kosmogony and natural history of\nman, it lies open to scientific refutation\"; and again, \"The whole\nhistory of the Genesis of things Religion must unconditionally\nsurrender to the Sciences.\" [421] In this we willingly concur, for\nscience ought to be, and will be, supreme in its own domain. Bishop\nTemple does \"not hesitate to ascribe to Science a clearer knowledge\nof the true interpretation of the first chapter of Genesis, and to\nscientific history a truer knowledge of the great historical prophets.\nScience enters into Religion, and the believer is bound to recognise\nits value and make use of its services.\" [422] Then, to quote the\nprofessor of science, Dr. John Tyndall says. \"The impregnable\nposition of science may be described in a few words. We claim, and\nwe shall wrest from Theology, the entire domain of cosmological\ntheory.\" [423] We wish the eloquent professor all success. It was not\nthe spirit of primitive Christianity, but the spirit of priestly\nignorance, intolerance, and despotism, which invaded the territory\nof natural science; and if those who are its rightful lords can recover\nthe soil, we bid them heartily, God speed! We have been driven to\nthese remarks by a twofold impulse. First, we can never forget the\ninjury that has been inflicted on science by the oppositions of a\nheadless religion; any more than we can forget the injury which has\nbeen inflicted on religion by the oppositions of a heartless science.\nSecondly, we have seen this very question of the inhabitation of the\nplanets and satellites rendered a topic of ridicule for Thomas Paine,\nand an inviting theme for raillery to others of sophistical spirit, by\nthe way in which it has been foolishly mixed up with sacred or\nspiritual concerns. Surely, the object of God in the creation of our\nterrestrial race, or the benefits of the death of Jesus Christ, can have\nno more to do with the habitability of the moon, than the doctrine of\nthe Trinity has to do with the multiplication table and the rule of\nthree, or the hypostatical union with the chemical composition of\nwater and light. Having said thus much of compulsion, we return,\nnot as ministers in the temple of religion so much as students in the\nschool of science, to consider with docility the question in dispute,\n_Is the moon inhabited_?\n\nThree avenues, more or less umbrageous, are open to us; all of\nwhich have been entered. They may be named _observation_,\n_induction_, and _analogy_. The first, if we could pursue it, would\nexplicate the enigma at once. The second, if clear, would satisfy our\nreason, which, in such a matter, might be equivalent to sight. And\nthe third might conduct us to a shadow which would \"prove the\nsubstance true.\" We begin by dealing briefly with the argument\nfrom _observation_. Here our data are small and our difficulties\ngreat. One considerable inconvenience in the inquiry is, of course,\nthe moon's distance. Though she is our next-door neighbour in the\nmany-mansioned universe, two hundred and thirty-seven thousand\nmiles are no mere step heavenward. Transit across the intervenient\nspace being at present impracticable, we have to derive our most\nenlarged views of this \"spotty globe\" from the \"optic glass.\" But this\nadmirable appliance, much as it has revealed, is thus far wholly\ninadequate to the solution of our mystery. Robert Hooke, in the\nseventeenth century, thought that he could construct a telescope\nwith which we might discern the inhabitants of the moon life-size\n--seeing them as plainly as we see the inhabitants of the earth. But,\nalas! the sanguine mathematician died in his sleep, and his dream\nhas not yet come true. Since Hooke's day gigantic instruments have\nbeen fitted up, furnished with all the modern improvements which\ncould be supplied through the genius or generosity of such\nastronomers as Joseph Fraunhofer and Sir William Herschel, the\nthird Earl of Rosse and the fourth Duke of Northumberland. But all\nof these worthy men left something to be done by their successors.\nConsequently, not long since, our scientists set to work to increase\ntheir artificial eyesight. The Rev. Mr. Webb tells us that \"the first\n'Moon Committee' of the British Association recommended a power\nof 1,000.\" But he discourages us if we anticipate large returns; for\nhe adds: \"Few indeed are the instruments or the nights that will bear\nit; but when employed, what will be the result? Since increase of\nmagnifying is equivalent to decrease of distance, we shall see the\nmoon as large (though not as distinct) as if it were 240 miles off,\nand any one can judge what could be made of the grandest building\nupon earth at that distance.\" [424] If therefore we are to see the\nsettlement of the matter in the speculum of a telescope, it may be\nsome time before we have done with what Guillemin calls \"the\ninteresting, almost insoluble question, of the existence of living and\norganized beings on the surface of the satellite of our little earth.\"\n[425] Some cynic may interpose with the quotation,--\n\n     \"But optics sharp it needs, I ween,\n     To see what is not to be seen.\" [426]\n\nTrue, but it remains to be shown that there is nothing to be seen\nbeyond what _we_ see. We are not prepared to deny the existence of\neverything which our mortal eyes may fail to trace. Four hundred\nyears ago all Europe believed that to sail in search of a western\ncontinent was to wish \"to see what is not to be seen\"; but a certain\nChristopher Columbus went out persuaded of things not seen as yet,\nand having embarked in faith he landed in sight. The lesson must\nnot be lost upon us.\n\n     \"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,\n     Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.\"\n\nBecause we cannot now make out either habitations or habitants on\nthe moon, it does not necessarily follow that the night will never\ncome when, through some mightier medium than any ever yet\nconstructed or conceived, we shall descry, beside mountains and\nvalleys, also peopled plains and populous cities animating the fair\nfeatures of this beautiful orb. One valuable auxiliary of the\ntelescope, destined to play an important part in lunar discovery,\nmust not be overlooked. Mr. Norman Lockyer says, \"With reference\nto the moon, if we wish to map her correctly, it is now no longer\nnecessary to depend on ordinary eye observations alone; it is\nperfectly clear that by means of an image of the moon, taken by\nphotography, we are able to fix many points on the lunar surface.\"\n[427] With telescopic and photographic lenses in skilled hands, and\na wealth of inventive genius in fertile brains, we can afford to wait a\nlong while before we close the debate with a final negative.\n\nIn the meantime, eyes and glasses giving us no satisfaction, we turn\nto scientific _induction_. Speculation is a kind of mental mirror, that\nbefore now has anticipated or supplemented the visions of sense.\nNot being practical astronomers ourselves, we have to follow the\ncounsel of that unknown authority who bids us believe the expert.\nBut expertness being the fruit of experience, we may be puzzled to\ntell who have attained that rank. We will inquire, however, with due\ndocility, of the oracles of scientific research. It is agreed on all sides\nthat to render the moon habitable by beings at all akin with our own\nkind, there must be within or upon that body an atmosphere, water,\nchanging seasons, and the alternations of day and night. We know\nthat changes occur in the moon, from cold to heat, and from\ndarkness to light. But the lunar day is as long as 291 of ours; so that\neach portion of the surface is exposed to, or turned from, the sun for\nnearly 14 days. This long exposure produces excessive heat, and the\nlong darkness excessive cold. Such extremities of temperature are\nunfavourable to the existence of beings at all like those living upon\nthe earth, especially if the moon be without water and atmosphere.\nAs these two desiderata seem indispensable to lunar inhabitation,\nwe may chiefly consider the question, Do these conditions exist? If\nso, inductive reasoning will lead us to the inference, which\nsubsequent experience will strengthen, that the moon is inhabited\nlike its superior planet. But if not, life on the satellite similar to life\non the earth, is altogether improbable, if not absolutely impossible.\n\nThe replies given to this query will be by no means unanimous. But,\nfor the full understanding of the state of the main question, and to\nassist us in arriving at some sort of verdict, we will hear several\nauthorities on both sides of the case. The evidence being\ncumulative, we pursue the chronological order, and begin with La\nPlace. He writes: \"The lunar atmosphere, if any such exists, is of an\nextreme rarity, greater even than that which can be produced on the\nsurface of the earth by the best constructed air-pumps. It may be\ninferred from this that no terrestrial animal could live or respire at\nthe surface of the moon, and that if the moon be inhabited, it must\nbe by animals of another species.\" [428] This opinion, as Sir David\nBrewster points out, is not that the moon has no atmosphere, but\nthat if it have any it is extremely attenuated. Mr. Russell Hind's\nopinion is similar with respect to water. He says: \"Earlier\nselenographists considered the dull, grayish spots to be water, and\ntermed them the lunar seas, bays, and lakes. They arc so called to\nthe present day, though we have strong evidence to show that if\nwater exist at all on the moon, it must be in very small quantity.\"\n[429] Mr. Grant tells us that \"the question whether the moon\nbe surrounded by an atmosphere has been much discussed by\nastronomers. Various phenomena are capable of indicating such an\natmosphere, but, generally speaking, they are found to be\nunfavourable to its existence, or at all events they lead to the\nconclusion that it must be very inconsiderable.\" [430] Humboldt\nthinks that Schroeter's assumptions of a lunar atmosphere and lunar\ntwilight are refuted, and adds: \"If, then, the moon is without any\ngaseous envelope, the entire absence of any diffused light must\ncause the heavenly bodies, as seen from thence, to appear projected\nagainst a sky _almost black_ in the day-time. No undulation of air\ncan there convey sound, song, or speech. The moon, to our\nimagination, which loves to soar into regions inaccessible to full\nresearch, is a desert where silence reigns unbroken.\" [431] Dr.\nLardner considers it proven \"that there does not exist upon the moon\nan atmosphere capable of reflecting light in any sensible degree,\"\nand also believes that \"the same physical tests which show the\nnon-existence of an atmosphere of air upon the moon are equally\nconclusive against an atmosphere of vapour.\" [432] Mr. Breen is\nmore emphatic. He writes: \"In the want of water and air, the\nquestion as to whether this body is inhabited is no longer equivocal.\nIts surface resolves itself into a sterile and inhospitable waste, where\nthe lichen which flourishes amidst the frosts and snows of Lapland\nwould quickly wither and die, and where no animal with a drop of\nblood in its veins could exist.\" [433] The anonymous author of the\nEssay on the _Plurality of Worlds_ announces that astronomers are\nagreed to negative our question without dissent. We shall have to\nmanifest his mistake. His words are: \"Now this minute examination\nof the moon's surface being possible, and having been made by\nmany careful and skilful astronomers, what is the conviction which\nhas been conveyed to their minds with regard to the fact of her\nbeing the seat of vegetable or animal life? Without exception, it\nwould seem, they have all been led to the belief that the moon is not\ninhabited; that she is, so far as life and organization are concerned,\nwaste and barren, like the streams of lava or of volcanic ashes on the\nearth, before any vestige of vegetation has been impressed upon\nthem; or like the sands of Africa, where no blade of grass finds\nroot.\" [434] Robert Chambers says: \"It does not appear that our\nsatellite is provided with an atmosphere of the kind found upon\nearth; neither is there any appearance of water upon the surface. . . .\nThese characteristics of the moon forbid the idea that it can be at\npresent a theatre of life like the earth, and almost seem to declare\nthat it never can become so.\" [435] Schoedler's opinion is\nconcurrent with what has preceded. He writes: \"According to the\nmost exact observations it appears that the moon has no atmosphere\nsimilar to ours, that on its surface there are no great bodies of water\nlike our seas and oceans, so that the existence of water is doubtful.\nThe whole physical condition of the lunar surface must, therefore,\nbe so different from that of our earth, that beings organized as we\nare could not exist there.\" [436] Another German author says: \"The\nobservations of Fraunhofer (1823), Brewster and Gladstone (1860),\nHuggins and Miller, as well as Janssen, agree in establishing the\ncomplete accordance of the lunar spectrum with that of the sun. In\nall the various portions of the moon's disk brought under\nobservation, no difference could be perceived in the dark lines of the\nspectrum, either in respect of their number or relative intensity.\nFrom this entire absence of any special absorption lines, it must be\nconcluded that there is no atmosphere in the moon, a conclusion\npreviously arrived at from the circumstance that during an\noccultation no refraction is perceived on the moon's limb when a\nstar disappears behind the disk.\" [437] Mr. Nasmyth follows in the\nsame strain. Holding that the moon lacks air, moisture, and\ntemperature, he says, \"Taking all these adverse conditions into\nconsideration, we are in every respect justified in concluding that\nthere is no possibility of animal or vegetable life existing on the\nmoon, and that our satellite must therefore be regarded as a barren\nworld.\" [438] A French astronomer holds a like opinion, saying:\n\"There is nothing to show that the moon possesses an atmosphere;\nand if there was one, it would be perceptible during the occultations\nof the stars and the eclipses of the sun. It seems impossible that, in\nthe complete absence of air, the moon can be peopled by beings\norganized like ourselves, nor is there any sign of vegetation or of\nany alteration in the state of its surface which can be attributed to a\nchange of seasons.\" [439] On the same side Mr. Crampton writes\nmost decisively, \"With what we _do_ know, however, of our\nsatellite, I think the idea of her being inhabited may be dismissed\n_summarily_; _i.e._ her inhabitation by intelligent beings, or an\nanimal creation such as exist here.\" [440] And, finally, in one of\nMaunder's excellent _Treasuries_, we read of the moon, \"She has no\natmosphere, or at least none of sufficient density to refract the rays\nof light as they pass through it, and hence there is no water on her\nsurface; consequently she can have no animals like those on our\nplanet, no vegetation, nor any change of seasons.\" [441] These\nopinions, recorded by so many judges of approved ability and\nlearning, have great weight; and some may regard their premisses\nand conclusions as irresistibly cogent and convincing. The case\nagainst inhabitation is certainly strong. But justice is impartial.\n_Audi alteram partem_.\n\nJudges of equal erudition will now speak as respondents. We go\nback to the seventeenth century, and begin with a work whose\nreasoning is really remarkable, seeing that it is nearly two hundred\nand fifty years since it was first published. We refer to the\n_Discovery of a New World_ by John Wilkins, Bishop of Chester;\nin which the reverend philosopher aims to prove the following\npropositions:--\"1. That the strangeness of this opinion (that the\nmoon may be a world) is no sufficient reason why it should be\nrejected; because other certain truths have been formerly esteemed\nas ridiculous, and great absurdities entertained by common consent.\n2. That a plurality of worlds does not contradict any principle of\nreason or faith. 3. That the heavens do not consist of any such pure\nmatter which can privilege them from the like change and\ncorruption, as these inferior bodies are liable unto. 4. That the moon\nis a solid, compacted, opacous body. 5. That the moon hath not any\nlight of her own. 6. That there is a world in the moon, hath been the\ndirect opinion of many ancient, with some modern mathematicians;\nand may probably be deduced from the tenets of others. 9. That\nthere are high mountains, deep valleys, and spacious plains in the\nbody of the moon. 10. That there is an atmosphoera, or an orb of\ngross vaporous air, immediately encompassing the body of the\nmoon. 13. That 'tis probable there may be inhabitants in this other\nworld; but of what kind they are, is uncertain.\" [442] We go on to\n1686, and listen to the French philosopher, Fontenelle, in his\nConversations with the Marchioness. \"'Well, madam,' _said I_, 'you\nwill not be surprised when you hear that the moon is an earth too,\nand that she is inhabited as ours is.' 'I confess,' _said she_, 'I have\noften heard talk of the world in the moon, but I always looked upon\nit as visionary and mere fancy.' 'And it may be so still,' _said I_. 'I\nam in this case as people in a civil war, where the uncertainty of\nwhat may happen makes them hold intelligence with the opposite\nparty; for though I verily believe the moon is inhabited, I live civilly\nwith those who do not believe it; and I am still ready to embrace the\nprevailing opinion. But till the unbelievers have a more considerable\nadvantage, I am for the people in the moon.'\" [443] Whatever may\nbe thought of his philosophy, no one could quarrel with the\nSecretary of the Academy on the score of his politeness or his\nprudence. A more recent and more reliable authority appears in Sir\nDavid Brewster. He tells us that \"MM. Maedler and Beer, who have\nstudied the moon's surface more diligently than any of their\npredecessors or contemporaries, have arrived at the conclusion that\nshe has an atmosphere.\" Sir David himself maintains that \"_every\nplanet and satellite in the solar system must have an atmosphere_.\"\n[444] Bonnycastle, whilom professor of mathematics in the Royal\nMilitary Academy, Woolwich, writes: \"Astronomers were formerly\nof opinion that the moon had no atmosphere, on account of her\nnever being obscured by clouds or vapours; and because the fixed\nstars, at the time of an occultation, disappear behind her\ninstantaneously, without any gradual diminution of their light. But if\nwe consider the effects of her days and nights, which are near thirty\ntimes as long as with us, it may be readily conceived that the\nphenomena of vapours and meteors must be very different. And\nbesides, the vaporous or obscure part of our atmosphere is only\nabout the one thousand nine hundred and eightieth part of the earth's\ndiameter, as is evident from observing the clouds, which are seldom\nabove three or four miles high; and therefore, as the moon's\napparent diameter is only about thirty-one minutes and a half, or one\nthousand eight hundred and ninety seconds, the obscure part of her\natmosphere, supposing it to resemble our own, when viewed from\nthe earth, must subtend an angle of less than one second; which is so\nsmall a space, that observations must be extremely accurate to\ndetermine whether the supposed obscuration takes place or not.\"\n[445] Dr. Brinkley, at one time the Astronomer-Royal of Ireland,\nwrites: \"Many astronomers formerly denied the existence of an\natmosphere at the moon; principally from observing no variation of\nappearance on the surface, like what would take place, did clouds\nexist as with us; and also, from observing no change in the light of\nthe fixed stars on the approach of the dark edge of the moon. The\ncircumstance of there being no clouds, proves either that there is no\natmosphere similar to that of our earth, or that there are no waters on\nits surface to be converted into vapour; and that of the lustre of the\nstars not being changed, proves that there can be no dense\natmosphere. But astronomers now seem agreed that an atmosphere\ndoes surround the moon, although of small density when compared\nwith that of our earth. M. Schroeter has observed a small twilight in\nthe moon, such as would arise from an atmosphere capable of\nreflecting the rays at the height of about one mile.\" [446] Dr.\nBrinkley is inaccurate in saying that astronomers are agreed as to\nthe lunar atmosphere. Like students in every other department of\ninquiry, spiritual as well as physical, they fail at present to see \"eye\nto eye\"; which is not surprising, seeing that the eye is so restricted,\nand the object so remote.\n\nDr. Dick, whose productions have done much to popularize the\nstudy of the heavens, and to promote its reverent pursuit, says: \"On\nthe whole it appears most probable that the moon is surrounded with\na fluid which serves the purpose of an atmosphere; although this\natmosphere, as to its nature, composition, and refractive power, may\nbe very different from the atmosphere which surrounds the earth. It\nforms no proof that the moon, or any of the planets, is destitute of\nan atmosphere, because its constitution, its density, and its power of\nrefracting the rays of light are different from ours. An atmosphere\nmay surround a planetary body, and yet its parts be so fine and\ntransparent that the rays of light, from a star or any other body, may\npass through it without being in the least obscured, or changing their\ndirection. In our reasonings on this subject, we too frequently\nproceed on the false principle, that everything connected with other\nworlds must bear a resemblance to those on the earth.\" [447] Mr.\nNeison, who has written one of the latest contributions to the\nscience of selenography, says, \"Of the present non-existence of\nmasses of water upon the surface of the moon, there remains no\ndoubt, though no evidence of its entire absence from the lunar crust\ncan be adduced; and similarly, many well-established facts in\nreference to the moon afford ample proof of the non-existence of a\nlunar atmosphere, having a density equal to, or even much less than,\nthat of the earth; but of the absence of an atmosphere, whose mass\nshould enable it to play an important part in the moulding of the\nsurface of the moon, and comparable almost to that of the terrestrial\natmosphere, in their respective ratios to the masses of their planets,\nlittle, if any, trustworthy evidence exists.\" On another page of the\nsame work, the author affirms \"that later inquiries have shown that\nthe moon may possess an atmosphere that must be regarded as fully\ncapable of sustaining various forms of vegetation of even an\nadvanced type; and, moreover, it does not appear how it can justly\nbe questioned that the lunar surface in favourable positions may yet\nretain a sufficiency of moisture to support vegetation of many kinds;\nwhilst in a very considerable portion of the entire surface of the\nmoon, the temperature would not vary sufficiently to materially\naffect the existence of vegetable life.\" [448] Some of these writers\nmay appear to be travelling rather too fast or too far, and their\nassumptions may wear more of the aspect of plausibility than of\nprobability. But on their atmospheric and aqueous hypothesis,\nvegetation in abundance is confessedly a legitimate consequence. If\na recent writer has liberty to condense into a sentence the conclusion\nfrom the negative premiss in the argument by saying, \"As there is\nbut a little appearance of water or air upon the moon, the conclusion\nhas been inferred that there exists no vegetable or animal life on that\nglobe,\" [449] other writers, holding opposite views of the moon's\nphysical condition, may be allowed to expatiate on the luxuriant\nlife which an atmosphere with water and temperature would\nundoubtedly produce. Mr. Proctor's tone is temperate, and his\nlanguage that of one who is conscious with Hippocrates that \"art is\nlong and life is short.\" He says, in one of his contributions to lunar\nscience, \"It may safely be asserted that the opportunities presented\nduring the life of any single astronomer for a trustworthy\ninvestigation of any portion of the moon's surface, under like\nconditions, are few and far between, and the whole time so\nemployed must be brief, even though the astronomer devote many\nmore years than usual to observational research.\" [450] This\nprepares us to find in another of the same author's works the\nfollowing suggestive sentence: \"With regard to the present\nhabitability of the moon, it may be remarked that we are not\njustified in asserting positively that no life exists upon her surface.\nLife has been found under conditions so strange, we have been so\noften mistaken in assuming that _here_ certainly, or _there_, no\nliving creatures can possibly exist, that it would be rash indeed to\ndogmatise respecting the state of the moon in this respect.\" [451]\nNarrien, one of the historians of the science, may be heard, though\nhis contribution might be cast into either scale. He writes: \"The\nabsence of those variations of light and shade which would be\nproduced by clouds floating above her surface, and the irregularities\nof the ground, visible at the bottom and on the sides of her cavities,\nhave given reason to believe that no atmosphere surrounds her, and\nthat she is destitute of rivers and seas. Such are the opinions\ngenerally entertained concerning the moon; but M. Schroeter, a\nGerman astronomer, ventures to assert that our satellite is the abode\nof living and intellectual beings; he has perceived some indications\nof an atmosphere which, however, he admits, cannot exceed two\nmiles in height, and certain elevations which appear to him to be\nworks of art rather than of nature. He considers that a uniformity of\ntemperature must be produced on her surface by her slow rotation\non her axis, by the insensible change from day to night, and the\nattenuated state of her atmosphere, which is never disturbed by\nstorms; and that light vapours, rising from her valleys, fall in the\nmanner of a gentle and refreshing dew to fertilize her fields.\" [452]\nDr. H. W. M. Olbers is fully persuaded \"that the moon is inhabited\nby rational creatures, and that its surface is more or less covered\nwith a vegetation not very dissimilar to that of our own earth.\" Dr.\nGruithuisen, of Munich, maintains that he has descried through his\nlarge achromatic telescope \"great artificial works in the moon\nerected by the lunarians,\" which he considers to be \"a system of\nfortifications thrown up by the selenitic engineers.\" We should have\nscant hope of deciding the dispute by the dicta of the ancients, were\nthese far more copious than we find them to be. Yet reverence for\nantiquity may justify our quoting one of the classic fathers. Plutarch\nsays, \"The Pythagoreans affirme, that the moone appeereth\nterrestriall, for that she is inhabited round about, like as the earth\nwherein we are, and peopled as it were with the greatest living\ncreatures, and the fairest plants.\" Again, \"And of all this that hath\nbeen said (my friend _Theon_) there is nothing that doth proove and\nshow directly, this habitation of men in the moon to be impossible.\"\n[453] Here we close the argument based on _induction_, and sum\nup the evidence in our possession. On the one hand, several\nscientific men, whose names we need not repeat, having surveyed\nthe moon, deny it an atmosphere, water, and other conditions of life.\nConsequently, they disbelieve in its inhabitation, solely because\nthey consider the fact undemonstrable; none of them being so\nunscientific as to believe it to be absolutely impossible. On the other\nhand, we have the valuable views of Maedler and Beer, whose lunar\nlabours are unsurpassed, and whose map of the moon is a marvel\nand model of advanced selenography. They do not suppose the\nconditions on our satellite to be exactly what they are on this globe.\nIn their own words, the moon is \"no copy of the earth, much less a\ncolony of the same.\" They merely believe her to be environed with\nair, and thus habitable. And when we recall our own Sir David\nBrewster, Professor Bonnycastle, Dr. Brinkley, Dr. Dick, Mr.\nNeison, and Mr. Proctor; and reckon with them the continental\nastronomers, Dr. Gruithuisen, Dr. Olbers, and Schroeter, all of\nwhom attempted to fix the idea of planetary inhabitation on the\npopular mind, we must acknowledge that they, with their opponents,\nhave a strong claim on our attention. The only verdict we are able\njust now to render, after hearing these conflicting testimonies, is the\nScotch one, _Not proven_. We but append the legal indorsement\n_ignoramus_, we do not know. The subject must remain _sub\njudice_; but what we know not now, we hope to know hereafter.\n\nHaving interrogated _sense_ and _science_, with the solution of our\nenigma anything but complete, we resort last of all to the argument\nfrom _analogy_. If this can illumine the obscurity, it will all be on\nthe positive side of the inquiry. At present the question resembles a\nhalf-moon: analogy may show that the affirmative is waxing\ntowards a full-orbed conviction. We open with Huyghens, a Dutch\nastronomer of note, who, while he thinks it certain \"that the moon\nhas no air or atmosphere surrounding it as we have,\" and \"cannot\nimagine how any plants or animals whose whole nourishment\ncomes from fluid bodies, can thrive in a dry, waterless, parched\nsoil,\" yet asks, \"What, then, shall this great ball be made for;\nnothing but to give us a little weak light in the night time, or to raise\nour tides in the sea? Shall not we plant some people there that may\nhave the pleasure of seeing our earth turn upon its axis, presenting\nthem sometimes with a prospect of Europe and Africa, and then of\nAsia and America; sometimes half and sometimes full?\" [454] Ray\nwas \"persuaded that this luminary doth serve many ends and uses,\nespecially to maintain the creatures which in all likelihood breed\nand inhabit there.\" [455] Swedenborg's _ipse dixit_ ought to\nconvince the most incredulous; for he speaks \"from what has been\nheard and seen.\" Thus he says: \"That there are inhabitants in the\nmoon is well known to spirits and angels, and in like manner that\nthere are inhabitants in the moons or satellites which revolve about\nJupiter and Saturn. They who have not seen and discoursed with\nspirits coming from those moons still entertain no doubt but there\nare men inhabiting them, because they are earths alike with the\nplanets, and wherever an earth is, there are men inhabitants; for man\nis the end for which every earth was created, and nothing was made\nby the great Creator without an end.\" [456] If any are still sceptical,\nSir William Herschel, an intellectual light of no mean magnitude,\nmay reach them. He writes: \"While man walks upon the ground, the\nbirds fly in the air, and fishes swim in water, we can certainly not\nobject to the conveniences afforded by the moon, if those that are to\ninhabit its regions are fitted to their conditions as well as we on this\nglobe arc to ours. An absolute or total sameness seems rather to\ndenote imperfections, such as nature never exposes to our view;\nand, on this account, I believe the analogies that have been\nmentioned fully sufficient to establish the high probability of the\nmoon's being inhabited like the earth.\" [457] The voice of Dr.\nDwight, the American theologian, will not be out of harmony here.\nIn discoursing of the starry heavens, he says of the planets: \"Of\nthese inferior worlds, the moon is one; and to us, far the most\ninteresting. How many important purposes which are known does\nthis beautiful attendant of our earth continually accomplish! How\nmany more, in all probability, which are hitherto unknown, and\nwhich hereafter may be extensively disclosed to more enlightened,\nvirtuous, and happy generations of men! At the same time, it is most\nrationally concluded that intelligent beings in great multitudes\ninhabit her lucid regions, being far better and happier than\nourselves.\" [458] Whewell's _Bridgewater Treatise_ will furnish us\na fitting quotation. \"The earth, the globular body thus covered with\nlife, is not the only globe in the universe. There are, circling about\nour own sun, six others, so far as we can judge, perfectly analogous\nin their nature: besides our moon and other bodies analogous to it.\nNo one can resist the temptation to conjecture, that these globes,\nsome of them much larger than our own, are not dead and barren:\n--that they are, like ours, occupied with organization, life,\nintelligence.\" [459] In a most eloquent passage, Dr. Chalmers, who\nwill always be heard with admiration, exclaims: \"Who shall assign a\nlimit to the discoveries of future ages? Who shall prescribe to\nscience her boundaries, or restrain the active and insatiable curiosity\nof man within the circle of his present acquirements? We may guess\nwith plausibility what we cannot anticipate with confidence. The\nday may yet be coming when our instruments of observation shall\nbe inconceivably more powerful. They may ascertain still more\ndecisive points of resemblance. They may resolve the same question\nby the evidence of sense which is now so abundantly convincing\nby the evidence of analogy. They may lay open to us the\nunquestionable vestiges of art, and industry, and intelligence. We\nmay see summer throwing its green mantle over those mighty tracts,\nand we may see them left naked and colourless after the flush of\nvegetation has disappeared. In the progress of years or of centuries,\nwe may trace the hand of cultivation spreading a new aspect over\nsome portion of a planetary surface. Perhaps some large city, the\nmetropolis of a mighty empire, may expand into a visible spot by\nthe powers of some future telescope. Perhaps the glass of some\nobserver, in a distant age, may enable him to construct the map of\nanother world, and to lay down the surface of it in all its minute and\ntopical varieties. But there is no end of conjecture; and to the men of\nother times we leave the full assurance of what we can assert with\nthe highest probability, that yon planetary orbs are so many worlds,\nthat they teem with life, and that the mighty Being who presides in\nhigh authority over this scene of grandeur and astonishment has\nthere planted the worshippers of His glory.\" [460]\n\nHow fine is this outburst of the great Scotch orator! He spoke as one\ninspired with prophetic foreknowledge; for in less than twenty years\nafter this utterance, Beer and Maedler published their splendid\n_Mappe Selenographica_, or map of the moon; and photography\noffered its aid to the fuller delineation of our silvery satellite. Who\ncan tell what the last fifteen years of this eventful century may\ndevelop in the same direction? Verily these intuitions of reason\nseem often favoured with an apocalypse of coming disclosures; and,\nif we may venture to adopt with slight alteration a sentence of\nShelley, we will say: \"It is impossible to read the compositions of\nthe most celebrated writers of the present day without being startled\nwith the electric life which burns within their words. They measure\nthe circumference and sound the depths of nature with a\ncomprehensive and all-penetrating spirit, and they are themselves\nperhaps the most sincerely astonished at its manifestations; for it is\nless their spirit than the spirit of the age.\" The poets of science, in\ntheir analogies, are \"the hierophants of an unapprehended\ninspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts\nupon the present.\" [461] Equally noble with the language of\nChalmers is a paragraph which we have extracted from a work by\nthat scholarly writer, Isaac Taylor. He says: \"There are two facts,\neach of which is significant in relation to our present subject, and of\nwhich the first has long been understood, while the latter (only of\nlate ascertained) is every day receiving new illustrations; namely,\nthat our planet is, in no sense, of primary importance in the general\nsystem, or entitled, by its magnitude, or its position, or its\nconstitution, to be considered as exerting any peculiar influence\nover others, or as the object of more regard than any others. This\nknowledge of our real place and value in the universe is a very\nimportant consequence of our modern astronomy, and should not be\nlost sight of in any of our speculations. But then it is also now\nascertained that the great laws of our own planet, and of the solar\nsystem to which it belongs, prevail in all other and the most remote\nsystems, so as to make the visible universe, in the strictest sense,\nONE SYSTEM--indicating one origin and showing the presence of\none Controlling Power. Thus the law of gravitation, with all the\nconditions it implies, and the laws of light, are demonstrated to be in\noperation in regions incalculably remote; and just so far as the\nphysical constitution of the other planets of our system can be either\ntraced, or reasonably conjectured, it appears that, amid great\ndiversities of constitution, the same great principles prevail in all;\nand therefore our further conjecture concerning the existence of\nsentient and rational life in other worlds is borne out by every sort\nof analogy, abstract and physical; and this same rule of analogy\nimpels us to suppose that rational and moral agents, in whatever\nworld found, and whatever diversity of form may distinguish them,\nwould be such that we should soon feel at home in their society, and\nable to confer with them, to communicate knowledge to them, and\nto receive knowledge from them. Neither truth nor virtue is local;\nnor can there be wisdom and goodness in one planet, which is not\nwisdom and goodness in every other.\" [462] The writer of the\n_Plurality of Worlds_, a little work distinct from the essay already\nquoted, vigorously vindicates \"the deeply cherished belief of some\nphilosophers, and of many Christians, that our world, in its present\nstate, contains the mere embryo of intelligent, moral, and religious\nhappiness; that the progress of man in his present state is but the\ninitiation of an interminable career of glory; and that his most\nwidely extended associations are a preparation for as interminably\nan intercourse with the whole family of an intelligent universe.\"\n[463] Dr. Arnott may add a final word, a last link in this evidential\nchain of analogy. He writes: \"To think, as our remote forefathers\ndid, that the wondrous array of the many planets visible from this\nearth serve no purpose but to adorn its nocturnal sky, would now\nappear absurd indeed; but whether they are inhabited by beings at\nall resembling the men of this earth, we have not the means of\nknowing. All the analogies favour the opinion that they are the\nabodes of life and its satisfactions. On this earth there is no place so\nhot or so cold, so illumined or so dark, so dry or so wet, but that it\nhas creatures constituted to enjoy life there.\" [464]\n\nHere our long list of learned authorities shall terminate. We have\nstrung together a large number of citations, and have ourselves\nfurnished only the string. Indeed, what more have amateurs that\nthey can do? For, as Pope puts it,--\n\n     \"Who shall decide, when doctors disagree,\n     And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?\"\n\nBesides, astronomy is no child's play, nor are its abstruse problems\nto be mastered by superficial meddlers. \"Its intricacy,\" as Narrien\nreminds us, \"in the higher departments, is such as to render the\nprocesses unintelligible to all but the few distinguished persons\nwho, by nature and profound application to the subject, are qualified\nfor such researches.\" [465] But if professionals must be summoned\nas witnesses, ordinary men may sit as jurors. This function we have\nwished to fufil; and we avow ourselves considerably perplexed,\nthough not in despair. We hoped that after a somewhat exhaustive\nexamination, we might be able to state the result with an emphasis\nof conviction. This we find impossible; but we can affirm on which\nside the evidence appears to preponderate, and whither, we rest\nassured, further light will lead our willing feet. The conclusion,\ntherefore, of the whole matter is: we cannot see any living creatures\non the moon, however long we strain our eyes. No instrument has\nyet been constructed that will reveal the slightest vestige of\ninhabitation. Consequently, the actual evidence of sense is all\nagainst us, and we resign it without demur. This point, being settled,\nis dismissed.\n\nNext, we reconsider the results of scientific study, and are strongly\ninclined to think the weight of testimony favours the existence of a\nthin atmosphere, at least some water, and a measure of light and\nshade in succession. These conditions must enable vegetables and\nanimals to exist upon its surface, though their constitution is in all\nprobability not analogous with that of those which are found upon\nour earth. But to deny the being of inhabitants of some kind,\neven in the absence of these conditions, we submit would be\nunphilosophical, seeing that the Power which adapted terrestrial life\nto terrestrial environments could also adapt lunar life to the\nenvironments in the moon. We are seeking no shelter in the\nmiraculous, nor do we run from a dilemma to the refuges of\nreligion. Apart from our theological belief in the potency of the\nCreator and Controller of all worlds, we simply regard it as illogical\nand inconclusive to argue that because organization, life, and\nintelligence obtain within one sphere under one order of\ncircumstances, _therefore_ the same order obtains in every other\nsphere throughout the system to which that one belongs. The unity\nof nature is as clear to us as the unity of God; but unity is not\nuniformity. We view the whole creation as we view this world; the\nentire empire as we view this single province,\n\n     \"Where order in variety we see,\n     And where, though all things differ, all agree.\"\n\nAnd, finally, as analogy is unreservedly on the side of the\noccupation of every domain in creation, by some creatures who\nhave the dominion, we cannot admit the probability that the earth is\nthe only tenement with tenants: we must be confirmed in our\njudgment that the sun and the planets, with their moons, ours of\ncourse included, are neither blank nor barren, but abodes of\nvariously organized beings, fitted to fulfil the chief end of all noble\nexistence: the enjoyment of life, the effluence of love, the good of\nall around and the glory of God above.\n\nThis article, that the moon is inhabited, may therefore form a clause\nof our scientific creed; not to be held at any hazard, as a matter of\nlife or death, or a test of communion, but to be maintained subject to\ncorrections such as future elucidation may require. We believe that\nwe are justified by science, reason, and analogy; and confidently\nlook to be further justified by verification. We accept many things\nas matters of faith, which we have not fully ascertained to be\nmatters of fact; but \"faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the\nproving of things not seen.\" By double entry the books of science\nare kept, by reasoning and demonstration: when future auditors shall\nexamine the accounts of the moon's inhabitation, we are persuaded\nthat the result of our reckoning will be found to be correct.\n\nIf any would charge us with a wish to be wise above what is written,\nwe merely reply: There are unwritten revelations which are\nnevertheless true. Besides, we are not sure that at least an intimation\nof other races than those of the earth is not already on record. Not to\nprove any position, but to check obstructive criticism, we refer to\nthe divine who is said to have witnessed in magnificent apocalypse\nsome closing scenes of the human drama. If he also heard in\nsublime oratorio a prelude of this widely extended glory, our vision\nmay not be a \"baseless fabric.\" After the quartettes of earth, and the\ninterludes of angels, came the grand finale, when every creature\nwhich is in heaven, as well as on the earth, was heard ascribing\n\"Blessing and honour and glory and power to Him who sitteth upon\nthe throne.\" Assuredly, our conception of a choir worthy to render\nthat chorus is not of an elect handful of \"saints,\" or contracted souls,\nembraced within any Calvinistic covenant, but of an innumerable\nmultitude of ennobled, purified, and expanded beings, convoked\nfrom every satellite and planet, every sun and star, and overflowing\nwith gratitude and love to that universal Father of lights, with whom\nis no parallax, nor descension, and who kindled every spark of life\nand beauty that in their individual and combined lustre He might\nreflect and repeat His own ineffable blessedness.\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX.\n\n_Literature of the Lunar Man_.\n\n_Vide_ p. 8.\n\n1. _The Man in the Moone_. Telling Strange Fortunes. London,\n1609.\n\n2. \"_The Man in the Moone_, discovering a world of Knavery under\nthe Sunne; both in the _Parliament_, the _Councel_ of _State_, the\n_Army_, the _City_, and the _Country_.\" Dated, \"Die Lunae,\nFrom Nov. 14 to Wednesday Novemb. 21 1649.\" _Periodical\nPublications, London_. British Museum. Another Edition, \"Printed\nfor Charles Tyns, at the Three Cups on London Bridge, 1657.\"\n\n3. \"SELENARCHIA, _or the Government of the World in the\nMoon_.\" A comical history written by Cyrano Bergerac, and done\ninto English by Tho. St. Serf. London 1659.\"\n\nThe same, Englished by A. Lovell, A.M., London, 1687.\n\n4. \"_The Man in the Moon, or Travels into the Lunar Regions_,\" by\nW. Thomson, London, 1783.\n\nIn this lucubration the Man in the Moon shows the Man of the\nPeople (Charles Fox), many eminent contemporaries, by means of a\nmagical glass.\n\n5. \"_The Man in the Moon_, consisting of Essays and Critiques.\"\nLondon, 1804. Of no value. After shining feebly like a rushlight for\nabout two months, it went out in smoke.\n\n6. _The Man in the Moon_. London, 1820. A Political Squib.\n\n7. _The Loyal Man in the Moon_, 1820, is a Political Satire, with\nthirteen cuts.\n\n8. _The Man in the Moon_, London, 1827(?). A Poem. _N.B._ The\nword _poem_ has many meanings.\n\n9. _The Man in the Moon_. Edinburgh, 1832. A small sheet, sold\nfor political purposes, at the high price of a penny. The Lunar Man\npledges himself to \"do as I like, and not to care one straw for the\nopinion of any person on earth.\"\n\n10. _The Man in the Moon_. London, 1847. This is a comical serial,\nedited by Albert Smith and Angus B. Reach; and is rich, racy, and\nnow rare.\n\n11. _The Moon's Histories_. By a Lady. London, 1848.\n\n_The Mirror of Pythagoras_\n\n_Vide_ p. 147.\n\n     \"In laying thus the blame upon the moone,\n     Thou imitat'st subtill _Pythagoras_,\n     Who, what he would the people should beleeve,\n     The same be wrote with blood upon a glasse,\n     And turn'd it opposite 'gainst the new moone\n     Whose beames reflecting on it with full force,\n     Shew'd all those lynes, to them that stood behinde,\n     Most playnly writ in circle of the moone;\n     And then he said, Not I, but the new moone\n     Fair _Cynthia_, perswades you this and that.\"\n\n_Summer to Sol_, in _A Pleasant Comedie, called Summer's Last\nWill and Testament_. Written by Thomas Nash. London, 1600.\n\n_The East Coast of Greenland_.\n\n_Vide_ p. 171.\n\n\"When an eclipse of the moon takes place, they attribute it to the\nmoon's going into their houses, and peeping into every nook and\ncorner, in search of skins and eatables, and on such occasions\naccordingly, they conceal all they can, and make as much noise as\npossible, in order to frighten away their unbidden guest.\"\n--_Narrative of an Expedition to the East Coast of Greenland_: Capt.\nW. A. Graah, of the Danish Roy. Navy. London, 1837, p. 124.\n\n_Lord Iddesleigh on the Moon_.\n\n_Vide_ p. 189.\n\nSpeaking at a political meeting in Aberdeen, on the 22nd of\nSeptember, 1885, the Earl of Iddesleigh approved the superannuated\nnotion of lunar influence, and likened the leading opponents of his\nparty to the old and new moon. \"What signs of bad weather are\nthere which sometimes you notice when storms are coming on? It\nalways seems to me that the worst sign of bad weather is when you\nsee what is called the new moon with the old moon in its arms. I\nhave no doubt that many of you Aberdeen men have read the fine\nold ballad of Sir Patrick Spens, who was drowned some twenty or\nthirty miles off the coast of Aberdeen. In that ballad he was\ncautioned not to go to sea, because his faithful and weatherwise\nattendant had noticed the new moon with the old moon in its lap. I\nthink myself that that is a very dangerous sign, and when I see Mr.\nChamberlain, the new moon, with Mr. Gladstone, the old one, in his\narms, I think it is time to look out for squally weather.\"--_The\nStandard_, London, Sept. 23rd, 1885.\n\nThe Scottish ballad of Sir Patrick Spens, which is given in the\ncollections of Thomas Percy, Sir Walter Scott, William Motherwell,\nand others, is supposed by Scott to refer to a voyage that may really\nhave taken place for the purpose of bringing back the Maid of\nNorway, Margaret, daughter of Alexander III., to her own kingdom\nof Scotland. Finlay regards it as of more modern date. Chambers\nsuspects Lady Wardlaw of the authorship. While William Allingham\ncounsels his readers to cease troubling themselves with the\nhistorical connection of this and all other ballads, and to enjoy\nrather than investigate. Coleridge calls Sir Patrick Spens a \"grand\nold ballad.\"\n\n_Greeting the New Moon in Fiji_.\n\n_Vide_ p. 212.\n\n\"There is, I find, in Colo ('the devil's country' as it is called), in the\nmountainous interior of Viti Levu, the largest island of Fiji, a very\ncurious method of greeting the new moon, that may not, as few\nEuropeans have visited this wild part, have been noticed. The\nnative, on seeing the thin crescent rise above the hills, salutes it with\na prolonged 'Ah!' at the same time quickly tapping his open mouth\nwith his hand, thus producing a rapid vibratory sound. I inquired of\na chief in the town the meaning and origin of this custom, and my\ninterpreter told me that he said, 'We always look and hunt for the\nmoon in the sky, and when it comes we do so to show our pleasure\nat finding it again. I don't know the meaning of it; our fathers\nalways did so.'\"--Alfred St. Johnston, in _Notes and Queries_ for\nJuly 23rd, 1881, p. 67. See also Mr. St. Johnston's _Camping\nAmong Cannibals_, London, 1883, p. 283.\n\n_Lunar Influence on Dreams_.\n\n_Vide_ p. 214.\n\nArnason says that in Iceland \"there are great differences between a\ndream dreamt in a crescent moon, and one dreamt when the moon is\nwaning. Dreams that are dreamt before full moon are but a short\nwhile in coming true; those dreamt later take a longer time for their\nfulfilment.\"--_Icelandic Legends_, Introductory Essay, p. lxxxvii.\n\n\n\nNOTES.\n\n1  _The Martyrs of Science_, by Sir David Brewster, K.H., D.C.L.\nLondon, 1867, p. 21.\n\n2  _The Marvels of the Heavens_, by Camile Flammarion. London,\n1870, p. 238.\n\n3  _The Jest Book_. Arranged by Mark Lemon. London, 1864, p.\n310.\n\n4  _Timon_, a Play. Edited by the Rev. A. Dyce. London\n(Shakespeare Society), 1842, Act iv. Scene iii.\n\n5  _The Man in the Moon drinks Claret_, as it was lately sung at the\nCourt in Holy-well. _Bagford Ballads_, Folio Collection in the\nBritish Museum, vol. ii. No. 119.\n\n6  _Conceits, Clinches, Flashes, and Whimzies_. Edited by J. O.\nHalliwell, F.R.S. London, 1860, p. 41.\n\n7  _The Man in the Moon_, by C. Sloman. London, 1848, Music by\nE. J. Loder.\n\n8  _Ancient Songs and Ballads_, by Joseph Ritson. London, 1877,\np. 58.\n\n9  _On the Religions of India_. Hibbert Lectures for 1878. London,\np. 132.\n\n10  _An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language_, by\nJohn Jamieson, D.D. Paisley, 1880, iii. 299.\n\n11  _Sir Thomas Browne's Works_. Edited by Simon Wilkin,\nF.L.S., London, 1835, iii. 157.\n\n12  _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_. Hazlitt's Edition.\nLondon, 1870, ii. 275.\n\n13  _Asgard and the Gods_. Adapted from the work of Dr. Waegner,\nby M.W. Macdowall; and edited by W. S. Anson. London, 1884, p.\n30.\n\n14  _An Introduction to the Science of Comparative Mythology and\nFolk Lore_, by the Rev. Sir George W. Cox, Bart., M.A. London,\n1881, p. 12.\n\n15  _Plutarch's Morals_. Translated by p. Holland. London, 1603, p.\n1160.\n\n16  _Myths and Marvels of Astronomy_, by R. A. Proctor. London,\n1878, p. 245. See also, _As Pretty as Seven and other German\nTales_, by Ludwig Bechstein. London, p. 111.\n\n17  _Curious Myths of the Middle Ages_, by S. Baring-Gould, M.A.\nLondon, 1877, p. 193.\n\n18  _Northern Mythology_, by Benjamin Thorpe. London, 1851, iii.\n57.\n\n19  _Notes and Queries_. First Series, 1852, vol. vi. p. 232. The\nentire text of this poem is given in Bunsen's _God in History_.\nLondon, 1868, ii. 495.\n\n20   Thorpe's _Mythology_, i. 6.\n\n21  _Ibid.,_ 143.\n\n22  _Curious Myths_, pp. 201-203.\n\n23  _Teutonic Mythology_, by Jacob Grimm. Translated by J. S.\nStallybrass. London, 1883, ii. 717.\n\n24  _De Natura Rerum_. MS. Harl. No. 3737.\n\n25   MS. Harl. No. 2253, 81.\n\n26  _The Archaeological Journal_ for March, 1848, pp. 66, 67.\n\n27   See Tyrwhitt's _Chaucer_. London, 1843, p. 448.\n\n28   Dekker's _Dramatic Works_. Reprinted, London, 1873, ii. 121.\n\n29  _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_. Robert Chambers. London and\nEdinburgh, 1870, p. 185.\n\n30  _Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales_, by J. O. Halliwell.\nLondon, 1849, p. 228.\n\n31  _Curious Myths_, p. 197.\n\n32   Grimm's _Teutonic Mythology_, ii. 719-20.\n\n33  _The Vision of Dante Alighieri_. Translated by the Rev. H. F.\nCary, A.M. London.\n\n34  _The Folk-Lore of China_, by N. B. Dennys, Ph.D. London and\nHong Kong, 1876, p. 117.\n\n35  _Himalayan Journals_, by Joseph D. Hooker, M.D., R.N., F.R.S.\nLondon, 1855, ii. 278.\n\n36  _Primitive Culture_, by Edward B. Tyler. London, 1871, i 320.\n\n37  _A Brief Account of Bushman Folk-Lore_, by W. H. J. Bleek,\nPh.D. Cape Town, 1875, p. 9.\n\n38  _The History of Greenland_, from the German of David Cranz.\nLondon, 1820, i. 212.\n\n39  _An Arctic Boat Journey in the Autumn of 1854_, by Isaac J.\nHayes, M.D. Boston, U.S., 1883, p. 254.\n\n40  _The Natural Genesis_, by Gerald Massey. London, 1883, i.\n115.\n\n41  _The Church Missionary Intelligencer_ for November, 1858, p.\n249.\n\n42  _Ibid._, for April, 1865, p. 116.\n\n43   See _Notes and Queries_. First Series. Vol. xi. p. 493.\n\n44  _Researches into the Early History of Mankind_, by Edward B.\nTylor, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S. London, 1878, p. 378.\n\n45  _Ibid.,_ p. 336.\n\n46  _Notes and Queries: on China and Japan_. Hong Kong, August,\n1869, p, 123.\n\n47  _Selected Essays on Language, Mythology, and Religion_.\nLondon, 1881, i. 613.\n\n48  _Vico_, by Robert Flint. Edinburgh, 1884, p. 210.\n\n49  _The Dictionary Historical and Critical_ of Mr. Peter Bayle.\nLondon, 1734, v. 576.\n\n50   See _Lunar World_, by the Rev. J. Crampton, M.A. Edinburgh,\n1863, p. 83.\n\n51  _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_, by the Rev. E. Cobham\nBrewer, LL.D. London, p. 592.\n\n52  _The Man in the Moon_. By an Undergraduate of Worcester\nCollege. Oxford, 1839, Part i. p. 3.\n\n53   MS. in the British Museum Library. Additional MSS. No.\n11,812.\n\n54   Lucian's _Works_. Translated from the Greek by Ferrand\nSpence. London, 1684, ii. 182.\n\n55  _The Table Book_. By William Hone. London, 1838, ii. 252.\n\n56  _Adventures of Baron Munchausen_. London, 1809, p. 44.\n\n57   Flammarion's _Marvels of the Heavens_, p. 241.\n\n58  _Records of the Past_. Edited by S. Birch, LL.D., D.C.L.\nLondon, iv. 121.\n\n59  _The Philosophie_, 1603, Holland's Transl. p. 1184.\n\n60  _Primitive Culture_, ii. 64.\n\n61  _A Journey to the Moon_, by the Author of _Worlds\nDisplayed_. London, p. 6.\n\n62   Dennys' _Folk-Lore of China_, p. 101.\n\n63   Grimm's _Teutonic Mythology_, ii. 720.\n\n64   Flammarion's _Marvels of the Heavens_, p. 253.\n\n65  _The Philosophie_, p. 338.\n\n66  _The Woman in the Moone_, by John Lyllie. London, 1597.\n\n67   Dr. Rae, _On the Esquimaux_. Transactions of the Ethnological\nSociety, vol. iv., p. 147.\n\n68  _Vide_ also _A Description of Greenland_, by Hans Egede.\nSecond Edition. London, 1818, p. 206.\n\n69  _Amazonian Tortoise Myths_, by Ch. Fred. Hartt, A.M. Rio de\nJaneiro, 1875, p. 40.\n\n70  _Algic Researches_, by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft. New York,\n1839, ii. 54.\n\n71  _Information respecting the History, &c., of the Indian Tribes_,\nby H. R. Schoolcraft. Philadelphia, v. 417.\n\n72  _Nineteen Years in Polynesia_, by the Rev. George Turner.\nLondon, 1861, p. 247.\n\n73  _An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands in the South\nPacific Ocean_, by William Mariner. Arranged by John Martin,\nM.D. London, 1818, ii. 127.\n\n74  _Myths and Songs from the South Pacific_, by the Rev. W. W.\nGill, B.A. London, 1876, p. 45.\n\n75   Grimm's _Teutonic Mythology_, ii. 716.\n\n76  _Selected Essays_, vol. i. note to p. 611.\n\n77  _The Sacred and Historical Books of Ceylon_, edited by\nEdward Upham. London, 1833, iii. 309.\n\n78  _Teutonic Mythology_, ii. 716.\n\n79  _Illustrations of Shakespeare_. London, 1807, i. 17.\n\n80  _Dictionnaire Infernal_, par J. Collin de Plancy. Paris, 1863, p.\n592.\n\n81  _The Chinese Reader's Manual_, by W. F. Mayers. Shanghai,\n1874, p. 219.\n\n82  _The Chinese Readers Manual_, p. 95.\n\n83  _Reynard the Fox in South Africa; or, Hottentot Fables and\nTales_ by W. H. J. Bleek. London, 1864, p. 72.\n\n84  _A Brief Account of Bushman Folk-Lore_, by Dr. Bleek. Cape\nTown, 1875, p. 10.\n\n85  _Outlines of Physiology, Human and Comparative_, by John\nMarshall, F.R.S. London, 1867, ii. 625.\n\n86  _Lectures on the Native Regions of Mexico and Peru_, by\nAlbert Reville, D.D. London, 1884, p. 8.\n\n87  _History of the Conquest of Mexico_, by William H. Prescott.\nLondon, 1854, p. 50.\n\n88  _The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America_, by\nHubert Howe Bancroft. New York, 1875, iii. 62.\n\n89  _Zoological Mythology; or, the Legends of Animals_, by\nAngelo de Gubernatis. London, 1872, ii. 80.\n\n90  _Ibid._, ii. 76.\n\n91  _Report on the Indian Tribes Inhabiting the Country in the\nVicinity of the 49th Parallel of North Latitude_, by Capt. Wilson.\nTrans. of Ethnolog. Society of London, 1866. New Series, iv. 304.\n\n92  _The Races of Mankind_, by Robert Brown, M.A., Ph.D.\nLondon, 1873-76, i. 148.\n\n93   Dennys' _Folk-Lore of China_, p. 117.\n\n94  _The Middle Kingdom_, by S. Wells Williams, LL.D. New\nYork, 1883, ii. 74.\n\n95  _The Disowned_, by the Right Hon. Lord Lytton, chap. lxii.\n\n96  _Fiji and the Fijians_, by Thomas Williams. London, 1858, i.\n205.\n\n97  _Primitive Culture_, i. 321.\n\n98  _On the Aborigines of Southern Australia_, by W. E.\nStanbridge, of Wombat, Victoria. Transactions of Ethnolog. Society\nof London, 1861, p. 301.\n\n99  _A Discovery of a New World_, by John Wilkins, Bishop of\nChester. London, 1684, p. 77.\n\n100  _A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean_, by Capt. James Cook,\nF.R.S., and Capt. James King, LL.D., F.R.S. London, 1784, ii. 167.\n\n101  _Polynesian Researches during a Residence of nearly Eight\nYears in the Society and Sandwich Islands_, by William Ellis.\nLondon, 1833, iii. 171.\n\n102  _Prehistoric Times_, by Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., D.C.L.\nLondon, 1878, p. 440.\n\n103  _Primitive Culture_, i. 318.\n\n104  _See_ Kalisch on _Genesis_. London, 1858, p. 70.\n\n105  _Sermons_, by the Rev. W. Morley Punshon, LL.D. Second\nSeries. London, 1884, p. 376.\n\n106  _Outlines of the History of Religion_, by C. P. Tiele. Trans. by\nJ. E. Carpenter. London, 1877, p. 8.\n\n107  _The Myths of the New World_, by Daniel G. Brinton, A.M.,\nM.D. New York, 1868, p. 131.\n\n108  _The Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia_. By Sven Nilsson\n(Lubbock's edit.). London, 1868, p. 206.\n\n109  _Lectures on the Science of Language_. London, 1880, i. 6.\n\n110  _Teutonic Mythology_, iii. 704.\n\n111  _The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians_.\nLondon, 1878, iii. 39.\n\n112  _Ibid._, iii. 165.\n\n113  _The Mythology of the Aryan Nations_. London, 1882, note to\np. 372.\n\n114  _Russian Folk-Lore_, by W. R. S. Ralston, M.A. London,\n1873, p. 176.\n\n115   Tylor's _Primitive Culture_, i. 260.\n\n116  _A System of Biblical Psychology_, by Franz Delitzsch, D.D.,\ntranslated by the Rev. R. E. Wallis, Ph.D. Edinburgh, 1875, p. 124.\n\n117  _The Book of Isaiah_ liv. 4-6, and lxii. 4.\n\n118  _English Grammar, Historical and Analytical_, by Joseph\nGostwick. London, 1878, pp. 67-72.\n\n119  _Hibbert Lectures_ for 1878, p. 190.\n\n120   Bayle's _Dictionary_, i. 113.\n\n121   Vide Tylor's _Anthropology_. London, 1881, p. 149.\n\n122  _Language and Languages_, by the Rev. Frederic W. Farrar,\nD.D., F.R.S. London, 1878, p. 181.\n\n123  _Ibid._, p. 182. Coleridge also was in error on this question.\nSee his _Table Talk_, under date May 7th, 1830.\n\n124  _Hebrew and Christian Records_, by the Rev. Dr. Giles.\nLondon, 1877, i. 366.\n\n125  _Biblical Psychology_, p. 79.\n\n126  _Antitheism_, by R. H. Sandys, M.A. London, 1883, p. 32.\n\n127  _The Origin and Development of Religious Belief_. London,\n1878, i. 187.\n\n128  _The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson_. London, 1882, i. 274.\n\n129  _Jesus Christ: His Times, Life, and Work_, by E. de Pressense.\nLondon, 1866, p. 38.\n\n130  _Sketches of the History of Man_, by the Hon. Henry Home of\nKames. Edinburgh, 1813, iii. 364.\n\n131  _Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient names_, by Thomas\nInman. London, 1872, ii. 325.\n\n132  _Mythology among the Hebrews_, by Ignaz Goldziher, Ph.D.\nLondon, 877, p. 76.\n\n133  _Primitive Culture_, ii. 271.\n\n134  _Nineveh and its Remains_, by Austen Henry Layard, M.P.\nLondon, ii. 446.\n\n135   Inman's _Ancient Faiths_, i. 93.\n\n136  _The Unicorn: a Mythological Investigation_, by Robert\nBrown, F.S.A. London, 1881, p. 34.\n\n137  _The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World_,\nby George Rawlinson, M.A. London, 1871, i. 56.\n\n138  _Ibid._, vol. i. p. 123.\n\n139  _Ibid._, vol. i. note to p. 124.\n\n140   Brown's _Unicorn_, p. 34.\n\n141  _Mythology among the Hebrews_, p. 158,\n\n142  _Ibid._, 159.\n\n143  _Ibid._, 160.\n\n144  _Jewish History and Politics_, by Sir Edward Strachey, Bart.\nLondon, 1874, p. 256.\n\n145  _Phoenicia_, by John Kenrick, M.A. London, 1855, p. 301.\n\n146  _Dictionary of the Bible_, edited by William Smith, LL.D. Art.\nASHTORETH.\n\n147  _Dictionary of the Scottish Language_, iii. 299.\n\n148   On _Isaiah_. London, 1824, ii. 374.\n\n149  _The Antiquities of Israel_, by Heinrich Ewald (trans. by\nSolly).London, 1876, p. 341.\n\n150  _The Bampton Lectures for 1876_, by William Alexander,\nD.D., D.C.L. London, 1878, p. 378.\n\n151  _Rivers of Life, showing the Evolution of Faiths_, by\nMajor-General J. G. R. Forlong. London, 1883, ii. 62.\n\n152  _Outlines of the History of Religion_, by C. p. Tiele, p. 63.\n\n153  _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_, p. 194.\n\n154  _The Philosophy of History_, by Frederick von Schlegel,\ntranslated by J. B. Robertson. London, 1846, p. 325.\n\n155  _El-Koran; or, The Koran_, translated from the Arabic by J. M.\nRodwell, M.A. London, 1876, p. 199.\n\n156   Tylor's _Primitive Culture_, ii. 274.\n\n157  _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_. London, 1862, p. 76.\n\n158  _The Zend-Avesta_, translated by James Darmesteter. Oxford,\n1883, Part ii., p. 90.\n\n159  _The Philosophy of History_, by G. W. F. Hegel, translated by\nJ. Sibree, M.A. London, 1861, p. 186.\n\n160a  _The Highlands of Central India_, by Captain J. Forsyth.\nLondon, 1871, p. 146.\n\n160b  _Travels from St. Petersburg in Russia to Diverse Parts of\nAsia_, by John Bell of Antermony. Glasgow, 1763, i. 230.\n\n161  _The Early Races of Scotland_, by Forbes Leslie. Edinburgh,\n1866, i. 138.\n\n162   Kames' _History of Man_, iii. 299.\n\n163  _The Origin of Civilization and the Primitive Condition of\nMan_, by Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D.\nLondon, 1882, p. 315.\n\n164  _History Of Man_, iii. 366.\n\n165  _The Religions of China_, by James Legge. London, 1880, p.\n12.\n\n166  _Ibid._, pp. 44-46.\n\n167  _Religion in China_, by Joseph Edkins, D.D. London, 1878, p.\n60.\n\n168  _A Translation of the Confucian Yih King_, by the Rev. Canon\nMcClatchie, M.A. Shanghai, 1876, p. 386.\n\n169  _Ibid._, p. 388.\n\n170  _Ibid._, p. 449.\n\n171  _The Religions of China_, p. 170.\n\n172  _Religion in China_, p. 105.\n\n173  _Handbook for the Student of Chinese Buddhism_, by Rev. E.\nJ. Eitel, London. 1870, p. 107.\n\n174  _Hulsean Lectures for 1870_, p. 203.\n\n175  _Hibbert Lectures on Indian Buddhism_, by T. W. Rhys\nDavids. London, 1881, p. 231.\n\n176  _A View of China for Philological Purposes_, by the Rev. R.\nMorrison. Macao, 1817, p. 107.\n\n177   Dennys' _Folk-Lore of China_, p. 28.\n\n178  _Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China during the years\n1844-46_, by M. Huc. Translated by W. Hazlitt. London, i. 61.\n\n179  _Social Life of the Chinese_, by Rev. Justus Doolittle. New\nYork, 1867, ii. 65.\n\n180  _China: Its State and Prospects_, by W. H. Medhurst. London,\n1838, p. 217.\n\n181  _Ibid._, p. 188.\n\n182  _Researches into the Physical History of Mankind_, by James\nCowles Prichard, M.D., F.R.S. London, 1844, iv. 496-7.\n\n183   Tylor's _Anthropology_, p. 21.\n\n184  _The Historical Library of Diodorus the Sicilian_, Made\nEnglish by G. Booth. London, 1700, p. 21.\n\n185  _History of Ancient Egypt_, by George Rawlinson, M.A.\nLondon, 1881, i. 369.\n\n186  _Records of the Past_, Edited by S. Birch, LL.D., D.C.L., etc.\nLondon, vi. iii.\n\n187  _Hibbert Lectures for 1879_, p. 116.\n\n188  _Ibid._, p. 155.\n\n189  _Ancient Egypt_, i. 373.\n\n190  _Records of the Past_, iv. 53.\n\n191  _Egypt's Place in Universal History_, by Christian C. J.\nBunsen, D.Ph., and D.C.L. Translated by C. H. Cottrell, M.A.\nLondon, 1848, i. 395.\n\n192  _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 237.\n\n193  _On the Relations between Pasht, the Moon, and the Cat, in\nEgypt_. Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, 1878,\nvol. vi. 3 16.\n\n194  _Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, in the years_\n1768-73, by James Bruce, F.R.S. Edinburgh, 1813, vi. 343.\n\n195  _Ibid._, iv. 36.\n\n196  _A Voyage to Congo_, by Father Jerom Merolla da Sorrento.\nPinkerton's _Voyages and Travels_. London, 1814, vol. xvi. 273.\n\n197  _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, May, 1884.\n\n198  _Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa_, by Mungo Park,\nSurgeon. London, 1779, vol. i. 271.\n\n199  _Ibid._, i. 322.\n\n200  _Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa_, by\nDavid Livingstone, LL.D., D.C.L., etc. London, 1857, p. 235.\n\n201  _The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope_, by Peter\nKolben, A.M. London, 1731, i. 96.\n\n202  _The Poetical Works of Lord Byron_. London, 1876 (_Don\nJuan_, Canto iii.), p. 636.\n\n203  _The Iliad of Homer_. Translated by J. G. Cordery. London,\n1871, ii. 183.\n\n204  _A History of Greece_, by George Grote, F.R.S. London,\n1872, i. 317.\n\n205  _Vide Pausan_., L. x. c. 32, p. 880. Edit. Kuhnii, fol. Lips,\n1696.\n\n206  _History of Greece_, i. 317.\n\n207  _The Iliad of Homer_, by Edward Earl of Derby. London,\n1867, i. 190.\n\n208   See _Roman Antiquities_, by Alexander Adam, LL.D.\nLondon, 1825, pp. 251-60.\n\n209  _Carmen Saeculare_, 35.\n\n210  _Metam_., lib. xi. 657.\n\n211  _The Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated_, by William\nWarburton, D. D. London, 1837, i. 316.\n\n212   Jamieson's _Scottish Dictionary_, iii. 299.\n\n213  _Teutonic Mythology_, ii. 704.\n\n214  _Chaldaean Magic: Its Origin and Development_, by Francois\nLenormant. London, p. 249.\n\n215  _Flammarion's Astronomical Myths_, p. 35.\n\n216   Leslie's _Early Races of Scotland_, i. 113.\n\n217  _Ibid._, i. 134.\n\n218  _Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme_, by John Aubrey,\n1686-7. Edited by James Britten, F.L.S. London, 1881, p. 83.\n\n219  _Britannia_, by William Camden, translated by Edmund\nGibson, D.D. London, 1772, ii. 380.\n\n220  _A General History of Ireland from the Earliest Accounts_, by\nMr. O'Halloran. London, 1778, i. 47.\n\n221  _Ibid._, i. 113.\n\n222  _Ibid._, i. 221.\n\n223  _The Towers and Temples of Ancient Ireland_, by Marcus\nKeane, M.R.I.A. Dublin, 1867, p. 59.\n\n224  _The Keys of the Creeds_. London, 1875, p. 148.\n\n225   A. S., in _Notes and Queries_ for Nov. 19, 1881, p. 407.\n\n226  _History of the Missions of the United Brethren among the\nIndians in North America_, by George Henry Loskiel. London,\n1794, Part i. p. 40.\n\n227  _Illustrations of the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the\nNorth American Indians_, by George Catlin. London, 1876, ii. 242.\n\n228  _Scenes and Studies of Savage Life_, by Gilbert Malcolm\nSproat. London, 1868, p. 206.\n\n229   Brown's _Races of Mankind_, p. 142.\n\n230   Lubbock's _Origin of Civilization_, p. 315.\n\n231   See _Mexico To-day_, by Thomas Unett Brocklehurst.\nLondon, 1883, p. 175.\n\n232   Bancroft's _Races of the Pacific_, i. 587.\n\n233  _Ibid._, iii. 112.\n\n234  _Ibid._, iii. 187.\n\n235  _Hibbert Lectures for 1884_, p. 45.\n\n236  _American Antiquities and Researches into the Origin anti\nHistory of the Red Race_, by Alexander W. Bradford. New York,\n1843, p. 353.\n\n237  _Travels in Brazil in the Years_ 1817-20, by Dr. Joh. Bapt. von\nSpix and Dr. C. F. Phil. von Martius. London, 1824, ii. 243.\n\n238  _An Account of the Abipones, an Equestrian People of\nParaguay_, from the Latin of Martin Dobrizhoffer. London, 1822, ii.\n65.\n\n239  _The Royal Commentaries of Peru_, by the Inca Garcilasso de\nla Vega. Translated by Sir Paul Rycaut, Knt. London, 1688, folio, p.\n455.\n\n240  _Narratives of the Rites and Laws of the Yncas_. Translated\nfrom the Spanish MS. of Christoval de Molina, by Clements R.\nMarkham, C.B., F.R.S. London, 1873, p. 37.\n\n241  _History of the Conquest of Peru_, by William H. Prescott.\nLondon, 1878, p. 47.\n\n242  _Jottings during the Cruise of H.M.S. Curacoa among the\nSouth Sea Islands_ in 1865, by Julius L. Brenchley, M.A., F.R.G.S.\nLondon, 1873, p. 320.\n\n243  _Polynesian Mythology_, by Sir George Grey, late Governor\nin Chief of New Zealand. London, 1855, _Pref_. xiii.\n\n244   Kenrick's _Phoenicia_, p. 303.\n\n245  _Workes_ of John Baptista Van Helmont. London, 1644, p.\n142.\n\n246   Goldziher's _Hebrew Mythology_, Note to p. 206.\n\n247  _Ibid._, p. 206.\n\n248   Dr. Smith's _Bible Dictionary_, Article _Meni_, by William\nA. Wright, M.A., ii. 323.\n\n249   Goldziher's _Hebrew Mythology_, p. 160.\n\n250   Gubernatis' _Zoological Mythology_, i. 18.\n\n251  _Ibid._, ii. 375.\n\n252   Mayers' _Chinese Reader's Manual_, p. 288.\n\n253  _Japanese Fairy World_. Stories from the Wonder Lore of\nJapan, by William Elliot Griffis. Schenectady, N. Y., 1880, p. 299.\n\n254   Brown's _Unicorn_, p. 69.\n\n255   Wilkinson's _Ancient Egyptians_, iii. 375.\n\n256  _Teutonic Mythology_, ii. Note to p. 719.\n\n257   Brinton's _Myths of the New World_, p. 130.\n\n258   Schoolcraft's _Indian Tribes_, iii. 485.\n\n259  _Myths of the New World_, p. 133.\n\n260  _Ibid._, p. 134.\n\n261  _Origin of Civilization_, p. 315.\n\n262   _Myths of the New World_, pp. 135-7.\n\n263  _Ibid._, p. 131.\n\n264   Tylor's _Primitive Culture_, i. 318.\n\n265   Chambers's _Etymological Dictionary_ (Findlater).\n\n266  _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_, p. 865.\n\n267  _Ecclesiastical Polity_. London, 1617, p. 191.\n\n268  _The Natural History of Infidelity and Superstition_, by J. E.\nRiddle, M.A. Oxford, 1852, p. 155.\n\n269  _The Anatomy of Melancholy_. London, 1836, p. 669.\n\n270  _The Descent of Man_, by Charles Darwin, M.A., F.R.S., etc.\nLondon, 1877, p. 121.\n\n271  _Essays. Of Superstition_.\n\n272  _Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind_. Edinburgh,\n1828, p. 673\n\n273  _Voltaire_, by John Morley. London, 1878, p. 156. See also\nParton's _Life of Voltaire_.\n\n274   Gubernatis' _Zoological Mythology_, i. 56.\n\n275  _Vide_ Inman's _Ancient Faiths_, ii. 260, 326.\n\n276   Mosheim's _Ecclesiastical History_. London, 1847, i. 116.\n\n277  _History of Brazil_, by Robert Southey. London, 1810, p. 635.\n\n278  _The Dictionary, Historical and Critical_. London, 1734, iv.\n672.\n\n279  _Primitive Culture_, i. 262.\n\n280   Leslie's _Early Races of Scotland_, ii. 496.\n\n281  _History of Brazil_, i. 193.\n\n282  _Icelandic Legends_. Collected by Jon Arnason (Powell and\nMagnusson). London, 1866, p. 663.\n\n283  _On the Truths contained in Popular Superstitions_, by Herbert\nMayo, M.D. Edinburgh and London, 1851, p. 135.\n\n284  _A Literal Translation of Aristophanes: The Clouds_, by a\nFirst-Class Man of Balliol College. Oxford, 1883, p. 31.\n\n285   See _Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk-Lore_,\nby Walter H. Kelly. London, 1863, p. 226.\n\n286  _Teutonic Mythology_, ii. 706.\n\n287  _Astronomical Myths_, p. 331\n\n288  _Medea: a Tragedie_. Written in Latin by Lucius Anneus\nSeneca. London, 1648, p. 105.\n\n289  _The Childhood of the World_, by Edward Clodd, F.R.A.S.\nLondon, 1875, p. 65.\n\n290  _The Chinese Empire_, by M. Hue. London, 1855, ii. 376.\n\n291  _The Connection of the Physical Sciences_. London, 1877, p.\n104.\n\n292   Grimm's _Teutonic Mythology_, ii. 707.\n\n293  _Appendix on the Astronomy of the Ancient Chinese_, by the\nRev. John Chalmers, A.M. Legge's Chinese Classics. Vol. iii. Part i.\nHong-Kong, 1861, p. 101.\n\n294  _The Middle Kingdom_, i. 818.\n\n295  _Ibid._, ii. 73.\n\n296  _Social Life of the Chinese_, by the Rev. Justus Doolittle, of\nFuhchau. New York, 1867, i. 308.\n\n297  _Chinese Sketches_, by Herbert A. Giles. London, 1876, p. 99.\n\n298  _Gems of Chinese Literature_, by Herbert A. Giles. Shanghai,\n1884 p. 102.\n\n299  _An Account of Cochin China_. Written in Italian by the R. E.\nChristopher Borri, a Milanese, of the Society of Jesus. Pinkerton's\nTravels, ix. 816.\n\n300  _A Voyage to and from the Island of Borneo in the East\nIndies_, by Captain Daniel Beeckman. London, 1878, p. 107.\n\n301  _History of the Indian Archipelago_, by John Crawfurd, F.R.S.\nEdinburgh, 1820, i. 305.\n\n302  _Sketches of the History of Man_, iii. 300.\n\n303  _Thucydides_. Translated by B. Jowett, M.A. Oxford, 1881, i.\n521.\n\n304  _The Stratagems of Jerusalem_, by Lodowick Lloyd, Esq., One\nof her Majestie's Serjeants at arms. London, 1602, p. 286.\n\n305   Quoted in _Notes and Queries_, 16th of April, 1881, by\nWilliam E. A. Axon.\n\n306  _Northern Antiquities_, by Paul Henri Mallett. London, 1790,\ni. 39.\n\n307  _Teutonic Mythology_, i. 245.\n\n308  _Ibid._, ii. 705.\n\n309  _Advice to a Son_. Oxford, 1658, p. 105\n\n310   Grimm's _Teutonic Mythology_, ii. 714.\n\n311   Schoolcraft's _Indian Tribes_, v. 2 16.\n\n312   Brinton's _Myths_, p. 137.\n\n313   Bradford's _American Antiquities_, p. 332.\n\n314  _Ibid._, p. 333.\n\n315  _The Antiquities of Mexico_, by Augustine Aglio. London,\n1830, folio vi. 144.\n\n316   Bancroft's _Native Races_, iii. 111.\n\n317   Brinton's _Myths_, p. 131.\n\n318  _Polynesian Researches_, i. 331.\n\n319   Mariner's _Natives of the Tonga Islands_, ii. 127.\n\n320  _Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon_. London,\n1853, p. 552.\n\n321   Tylor's _Primitive Culture_, ii. 272.\n\n322  _Ibid._, ii. 272.\n\n323  _Description of the Western Islands of Scotland_, by Martin\nMartin. London, 1716, p. 41.\n\n324  _The Philosophie_, p. 696.\n\n325  _A Voyage to St. Kilda, the remotest of all the Hybrides_, by\nM. Martin, Gent. Printed in the year 1698. Miscellanea Scottica.\nGlasgow, 1818, p. 34.\n\n326  _The Zend-Avesta_. Oxford, 1883, ii. 90.\n\n327  _Five Hundred pointes of good Husbandrie_, by Thomas\nTusser. London, 1580, p. 37.\n\n328   Flammarion's _Marvels of the Heavens_, p. 244.\n\n329  _The Philosophie_, 1603, p. 697.\n\n330  _English Folk-Lore_, by the Rev. T. F. Thiselton Dyer, M.A.,\nOxon. London, 1880, p. 42.\n\n331  _Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England\nand the Borders_, by William Henderson. London, 1866, p. 86.\n\n332  _Knowledge for the Time_, by John Timbs, F.S.A. London, p.\n227.\n\n333  _Popular Errors, Explained and Illustrated_, by John Timbs,\nF.S.A. London, 1857, p. 131.\n\n334  _A Manual of Astrology_, by Raphael. London, 1828, p. 90.\n\n335   Brinton's _Myths_, p. 132.\n\n336  _Endimion: The Man in the Moone_. London, 159 1, Act i. Sc.\nI.\n\n337  _A defensative against the poyson of supposed Prophecies_, by\nHenry Howard, Earl of Northampton. London, 1583.\n\n338  _Folk-Lore of China_, p. 118.\n\n339   Tusser's _Good Husbandrie_, p. 13.\n\n340  _Ibid._, p. 13.\n\n341  _Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England_, p. 41\n\n342  _David Copperfield_. The \"Charles Dickens\" edition, p. 270.\n\n343   See _An Historical Survey of the Astronomy of the Ancients_,\nby the Rt. Hon. Sir George C. Lewis, Bart. London, 1862, p. 312.\n\n344  _Popular Astronomy_, by Simon Newcomb, LL.D. New York,\n1882, p. 325.\n\n345   _Primitive Culture_, i. 118.\n\n346   Dennys's _Folk-Lore of China_, p. 32.\n\n347  _Folk-Lore; or, Manners and Customs of the North of\nEngland_, by M.A.D. Novo-Castro-sup. Tynan, 1850-51, p. 11.\n\n348   Dyer's _Folk-Lore_, p. 42.\n\n349  _Ibid._, p. 41.\n\n350  _Time's Telescope_ for 1814. London, p. 368.\n\n351   Dennys's _Folk-Lore of China_, p. 118.\n\n352  _The Book of Days: a Miscellany of Popular Antiquities_.\nEdited by R. Chambers. London and Edinburgh, ii. 203.\n\n353  _The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey_. Edited by\nhis son. London, 1850, v. 341.\n\n354  _Adam Bede_, chap. xviii.\n\n355  _Scottish Ballads and Songs_. Edited by James Maidment.\nEdinburgh, 1868, i. 41.\n\n356  _Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language_. Paisley,\n1880, iii. 299.\n\n357   Dyer's _Folk-Lore_, p. 38.\n\n358  _Notes and Queries_ for May 16th, 1874, p. 384.\n\n359  _Ibid._ for August 1st, 1874, p. 84.\n\n360  _Amazulu_, by Thomas B. Jenkinson, B.A., late Canon of\nMaritzburg. London, 1882, p. 61.\n\n361  _Legends of Iceland_. Collected by Jon Arnason. Second\nseries. London, 1866, p. 635.\n\n362  _Astrology, as it is, not as it has been represented_, by a\nCavalry Officer. London, 1856, p. 37.\n\n363  _A Manual of Astrology_, by Raphael. London, 1828, p. 89.\n\n364  _The Dignity and Advancement of Learning_. London (Bohn),\n1853, p. 129.\n\n365  _Works_. London, 1740, iii. 187.\n\n366   Dyer's _Folk-Lore_, p. 41.\n\n367  _Scottish Dictionary_, iii. 300.\n\n368   Tylor's _Primitive Culture_, i. 117.\n\n369   Vide Potter's _Antiquities of Greece_, ii. 262.\n\n370  _Recreations in Astronomy_, by the Rev. Lewis Tomlinson,\nM.A. London, 1858, p. 251.\n\n371   Flammarion's _Marvels of the Heavens_, p. 243.\n\n372  _Genesis, with a Talmudic Commentary_, by Paul Isaac\nHershon. London, 1883, p. 50.\n\n373  _Notes on the Miracles_, p. 363.\n\n374  _The Gospel of S. Matthew illustrated from Ancient and\nModern Authors_, by the Rev. James Ford, M.A. London, 1859, p.\n310.\n\n375   See _Light: Its Influence on Life and Health_, by Forbes\nWinslow, M.D., D.C.L. London, 1867, p. 94. Also, _The History of\nAstronomy_, by George Costard, M.A. London, 1767, p. 275.\n\n376  _The Science and Practice of Medicine_, by William Aitken,\nM.D. London, 1864, ii. 353.\n\n377  _Myths of the New World_, p. 132.\n\n378  _Ibid._, p. 134.\n\n379  _Ibid._, p. 135.\n\n380  _The Darker Superstitions of Scotland illustrated from history\nand practice_, by John Graham Dalyell. Edinburgh, 1834, p. 286.\n\n381  _The Early Races of Scotland_, i. 136.\n\n382  _The Statistical Account of Scotland_, by Sir John Sinclair,\nBart. Edinburgh, 1791, i. 47.\n\n383  _Works_. London, 1740, iii. 187.\n\n384   Dyer's _Folk-Lore_, p. 47.\n\n385  _Some West Sussex Superstitions Lingering in_ 1868.\nCollected by Charlotte Latham, at Fittleworth. _The Folk-Lore\nRecord_ for 1878, p. 45.\n\n386   Dyer's _Folk-Lore_, p. 48.\n\n387   Inman's _Ancient Faiths_, ii. 327.\n\n388  _Fairy Tales: their origin and meaning_, by John Thackray\nBunce. London, 1878, p. 131.\n\n389   Martin's _Western Islands of Scotland_, 1716, p. 42.\n\n390  _Letters from the East_, by John Carne, Esq. London, 1826, p.\n77.\n\n391   Grimm's _Teutonic Mythology_, ii. 715.\n\n392   Timbs's _Knowledge for the Time_, p. 227.\n\n393  _Dissertation upon Superstitions in Natural Things_, by\nSamuel Werenfels, Basil, Switzerland. London, 1748, p. 6.\n\n394   Vide Grimm's _Teutonic Mythology_, ii. 714-716.\n\n395  _Defensative_, 1583.\n\n396a  _A Talmudic Miscellany_. Compiled and translated by Paul\nIsaac Hershon. London, 1880, p. 342.\n\n396b  _Caesar's Commentaries_. London (Bohn), 1863, Book i.\nChap. 50.\n\n397  _Popular Rhymes_, p. 217.\n\n398  _The Year Book of Daily Recreation and Information_, by\nWilliam Hone. London, 1838, p. 254.\n\n399   Dyer's _Folk-Lore_, p. 43.\n\n400  _Gentilisme_, p. 37.\n\n401   Dyer's _Folk-Lore_, p. 44.\n\n402  _Extraordinary Popular Delusions_. London, i. 260.\n\n403   Dyer's _Folk-Lore_, p. 38.\n\n404   Henderson's _Folk-Lore_, p. 86.\n\n405  _Popular Romances of the West of England_. Collected by\nRobert Hunt, F.R.S. London, 1881, p. 429.\n\n406  _West Sussex Superstitions_, p. 10.\n\n407   C. W. J. in Chambers's _Book of Days_, ii. 202.\n\n408  _Early Races of Scotland_, i. 136.\n\n409  _Scottish Dictionary_, iii. 300.\n\n410   Forlong's _Rivers of Life_, ii. 63.\n\n411  _Secret Memoirs of the late Mr. Duncan Campbel_. Written by\nHimself. London, 1732, p. 62.\n\n412  _Folk-Lore_, 1851, p. 8.\n\n413  _Popular Rhymes_.\n\n414   Jamieson's _Scottish Dictionary_, iii. 300.\n\n415  _Familiar Illustrations of Scottish Character_, by the Rev.\nCharles Rogers, LL. D. London, 1865, p. 172.\n\n416  _Statistical Account of Scotland_, xii. 457.\n\n417  _Early Races of Scotland_, ii. Note to p. 406.\n\n418   Dalyell's _Darker Superstitions of Scotland_, p. 285.\n\n419  _Romeo and Juliet_, Act ii. Sc. 2.\n\n420  _Light: Its Influence on Life and Health_, p. 101.\n\n421  _Religion as Affected by Modern Materialism_, by James\nMartineau, LL.D. London, 1874, pp. 7, 11.\n\n422  _The Relations between Religion and Science_. Bampton\nLectures for 1884, p. 245.\n\n423  _Address delivered before the British Association assembled at\nBelfast_, by John Tyndall, F.R.S. London, 1874, p. 61.\n\n424  _Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes_, by the Rev. T.\nW. Webb, M.A., F.R.A.S. London, 1873, p. 58.\n\n425  _The Heavens_, by Amedee Guillemin. London, 1876, p. 144.\n\n426  _McFingal_, by John Trumbull. Hartford, U.S.A., 1782 Canto\ni. line 69.\n\n427  _Stargazing_, by J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S. London, 1878, p.\n476.\n\n428  _The System of the World_, by M. le Marquis de La Place.\nDublin, 1830, i. 42.\n\n429  _The Solar System_, by J. Russell Hind. London, 1852, p. 48.\n\n430  _History of Physical Astronomy_, by Robert Grant, F.R.A.S.\nLondon, 1852, p. 230.\n\n431  _Cosmos_, by Alexander von Humboldt (Sabine's Edition).\nLondon, 1852, iii. 357.\n\n432  _Handbook of Astronomy_, by Dionysinus Lardner, D.C.L.\nLondon, 1853, pp. 194, 197.\n\n433  _The Planetary Worlds_, by James Breen. London, 1854, p.\n123.\n\n434  _Of the Plurality of Worlds. An Essay_. Fourth Edition.\nLondon, 1855, p. 289.\n\n435  _Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation_. Eleventh\nEdition. London, 1860, pp. 21, 22.\n\n436  _The Treasury of Science_, by Friedrich Schoedler, Ph.D.\nLondon, 1865, p. 167.\n\n437  _Spectrum Analysis_, by Dr. H. Schellen. London, 1872, p.\n481.\n\n438  _The Moon_, by James Nasmyth, C.E., and James Carpenter,\nF.R.A.S. London, 1874, p. 157.\n\n439  _Astronomy_, by J. Rambosson. Translated by C. B. Pitman.\nLondon, 1875, p. 191.\n\n440  _The Three Heavens_, by the Rev. Josiah Crampton, M.A.\nLondon, 1879, p. 328.\n\n441  _Scientific and Literary Treasury_, by Samuel Maunder.\nLondon, 1880, p. 470.\n\n442  _The Mathematical and Philosophical Works of John\nWilkins_. London, 1708.\n\n443  _A Plurality of Worlds_, by Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle.\nLondon, 1695, p. 35.\n\n444  _More Worlds than One_, by Sir David Brewster, M.A.,\nD.C.L. London, 1874, pp. 120, 121.\n\n445  _An Introduction to Astronomy_, by John Bonnycastle.\nLondon, 1822, p. 367.\n\n446  _Elements of Astronomy_, by John Brinkley, D. D., F.R.S.\nDublin, 1819, p. 113.\n\n447  _Celestial Scenery_, by Thomas Dick, LL.D. London, 1838, p.\n350.\n\n448  _The Moon_, by Edmund Neison, F.R.A.S. London, 1876, pp.\n17, 129.\n\n449  _The Art of Scientific Discovery_, by G. Gore, LL. D., F.R.S.\nLondon, 1878, p. 587.\n\n450  _The Moon, her Motions, Aspect, Scenery, and Physical,\nCondition_, by Richard A. Proctor. London, 1878, p. 300.\n\n451  _Other Worlds than Ours_. London, 1878, p. 167.\n\n452  _An Historical Account of Astronomy_, by John Narrien,\nF.R.A.S. London, 1833, p. 448. See also Schroeter's, Observations\non the Atmosphere of the Moon. Philosophical Trans. for 1792, p.\n337.\n\n453  _Plutarch's Morals_. Translated by P. Holland. London, 1603,\npp. 825, 1178.\n\n454  _Cosmotheoros_, by Christian Huyghens van Zuylichem.\nGlasgow, 1757, pp. 177, 178.\n\n455  _The Wisdom of God in the Creation_, by John Ray, F.R.S.\nLondon, 1727, p. 66.\n\n456  _On the Earths in our Solar System_, by Emanuel Swedenborg.\nLondon, 1840, p. 59.\n\n457  _Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society for_ 1795, p.\n66.\n\n458  _Theology_, by Timothy Dwight, LL.D. London, 1836, p. 91.\n\n459  _Astronomy and General Physics_, by William Whewell, M.A.\nLondon, 1836, p. 269.\n\n460  _Astronomical Discourses_, by Thomas Chalmers, D. D.,\nLL.D. Edinburgh, 1871, p. 23.\n\n461  _A Defence of Poetry_, in ESSAYS, etc., by Percy Bysshe\nShelley. London, 1852, i. 48.\n\n462  _Physical Theory of Another Life_. London, 1836, p. 200.\n\n463  _The Plurality of Worlds, the Positive Argument from\nScripture_, etc. London (Bagster), 1855, p. 146.\n\n464  _Elements of Physics_, by Neil Arnott, M.D., F.R.S. London,\n1865, part ii. p. 684.\n\n465  _Historical Account of Astronomy_, p. 520.\n\n\n\nINDEX.\n\nAah, 111.\nAbipones, 129.\nAdam, Alexander, 119.\nAfrica, 114, 177.\nAgesinax, 20.\nAglio, 172.\nAhts, 84, 127.\nAitken, Dr., 198.\nAjax, 99.\nAlbertus, 72.\nAlchymists, 196.\nAleutians, 148.\nAlexander, Bishop of Derry, 96.\nAlgonquins, 133.\nAl Zamakhshari, 133.\nAnahuac, 128.\nAnaxagoras, 153, 168.\nAnaximines, 153.\nAndraste, 121.\nAnglo-Saxon, 86.\nAngus, 195.\nAnninga and Malina, 34.\nAnthropomorphism, 19, 87, 118.\nAphrodite, 85.\nApollo, 18.\nApuleius, 119.\nArabians, 83, 97.\nArago, 46.\nArakho, 157.\nAraucanians, 172.\n_Archaeological Journal_, 28.\nAristophanes, 152.\nAristotle, 2, 41, 49, 153.\nArnason, 150, 192, 262.\nArnott, Dr., 253.\nAshango, 177.\nAsia, Northern, 100, 154.\nAssyrians, 90.\nAstarte, 85, 92, 94, 132.\nAsterodia, 19.\nAstrology, 191.\nAstruc, 163.\nAtaensic, 136.\nAthenians, 117, 168.\nAthol, 121.\nAtiu, 59.\nAtmosphere of the moon, 234.\nAubrey, 121, 214.\nAustralians, 72.\nAustro-Hungarians, 135.\nAztecs, 128, 136.\n\nBaal, 93.\nBabylonians, 92.\nBacon, 78, 143, 190, 194, 202.\nBancroft, H. H., 66, 128, 172.\nBarbosa, 57.\nBaring-Gould, 23, 25, 31, 67, 88.\nBarnardo, Dr., 124.\nBayles, 41, 86, 147.\nBeaufort, Sir F., 42.\nBechstein, Ludwig, 22.\nBechten, Princess, 110.\nBechuana, 115.\nBeeckman, Capt., 166.\nBeer, Wilhelm, 240, 246, 251.\nBell, John, 99.\nBerkshire, 214.\nBerosus, 91, 153.\nBerthold, 54.\nBil and Hiuki, 24.\nBirch, Dr. S., 49, 109, 110.\nBleek, Dr.W. H. J., 33,65.\nBlindness and the moon, 206.\nBochica, 138.\nBogota, 138.\nBonnycastle, 240.\n_Book of Respirations_, 49.\nBorneo, 100, 166.\nBorri, Father, 165.\nBory de St. Vincent, 115.\nBotocudos, 129, 176.\nBradford, A. W., 129, 172.\nBrahmins, 6i, 146.\n_Brand's Antiquities_, 18.\nBrasseur de Bourbourg, 128.\nBrazil, 57, 199.\nBreen, James, 235.\nBrenchley, J. L., 130.\nBrewer, Dr. E. C, 43, 97, 140.\nBrewster, Sir D., 1, 234, 240.\nBrinkley, Dr. John, 241.\nBrinton, D. G., 80, 136, 137, 171, 173, 180, 199.\nBritish Apollo, 203.\nBritish Columbians, 35.\nBritish Museum Library, 28, 45.\nBritons, Ancient, 66, 120.\nBrocklehurst, T. U., 127.\nBrougham, Lord, 4.\nBrown, Robert, F.S.A., 91, 92, 134.\nBrown, Robert, M.A., 69, 127.\nBrown, Dr. T., 143.\nBrown, Sir W., 142.\nBrowne, Sir T., 18.\nBruce, James, 113.\nBuddha, 62.\nBuddhists, 60, 64, 102.\nBunce, J. T., 205.\nBuns, Cross, 107.\nBunsen, Baron, 111.\nBuraets, 99.\nBurton, Robert, 141.\nBushmen, 33, 115.\nBussierre, 128.\nButler, Samuel, 18, 208.\nByron, 117.\nByzantium, 97.\n\nCaesar, 66, 212.\nCain, 32.\nCaledonia, 194.\nCalifornian Indians, 171.\nCamden, 121.\nCampbel, Duncan, 220.\nCandrasaras, 67.\nCanton, 105, 158.\nCaribs, 90.\nCarne, 207.\nCarpenter, James, 237.\nCassia tree, 64.\nCat, 72, 112.\nCatholics, 124, 146.\nCatlin, 125.\nCelebes, 99.\nCeris, 128.\nCeylon, 62.\nChaldseans, 87, 90, 153, 174.\nChalmers, J., 157.\nChalmers, Dr. T., 249.\nChambers, R., 30, 140, 187, 218, 236.\nChampollion, 111.\nChandras, 60, 219.\nChang-Heng, 70.\nChang-ngo, 74.\nChaucer, 29.\nCheap John,\nChinese, 33, 38, 54, 63, 64, 70, 75, 100-108, 134, 154, 156, 164,\n     181, 184, 187.\nChristmas, 185.\nCicero, 41.\nClarke, Hyde, 112.\nClemens Alexandrinus, 20.\nCleobulus, 55.\nClodd, E., 156.\nCobbett, 85.\nCochin China, 165.\nCollin de Plancy, 63.\nCollyridians, 146.\nColumbus, 171, 232.\nComanches, 127.\nComparative mythology, 37.\n_Confessional of Ecgbert_, 120.\nConfucianism, 101.\nCongo, 114.\n_Constantinople Messenger_, 168.\nCook, Capt., 59, 73.\nCordery's Homer, 117.\nCornwall, 149, 179, 186, 194.\nCoroados, 129.\nCoutinho, 57.\nCowichans, 69.\nCox, Sir G. W., 19, 83.\nCrampton, Josiah, 42, 238.\nCranz, 34.\nCraters, 41.\nCrawfurd, 167.\nCreeks, 35, 171.\nCrescent, 97.\nCruikshank, 9.\nCuzco, 130.\nCynocephali, 112.\nCynthia, 29.\n\nDakotahs, 125, 136, 137.\nDalyell, 200, 223.\nDante, 32.\nDarien, 35.\nDarwin, 142.\nDay's eye, 113.\nDavids, T. W. Rhys, 103.\nDefoe, 220.\nDekkan, 99.\nDekker, 30, 188.\nDelawares, 125.\nDelitzsch, Dr., 84, 88.\nDemocritus, 2.\nDemons, 198.\nDenham, 220.\nDenmark, 205.\nDennys, N. B., 33, 54, 70, 104, 181, 184, 187.\nDerby, Earl of, 119.\nDe Rougemont, 36.\nDescartes, 49.\nDevil, 141.\nDevonshire, 149, 179, 203, 214, 220.\nDiana, 18, 20, 73, 97, 118, 119, 219.\nDick, Dr. Thomas, 242.\nDickens, 182.\nDiodorus, 109.\nDiogenes Laertius, 87.\nDisease and the moon, 195, 224.\nDobrizhoffer, 129.\nDomingo Gonsales, 46.\nDoolittle, Justus, 105, 158.\nDouce, Francis, 62, 67.\nDragon, 155.\nDreams, 213, 215, 262.\nDruids, 120, 222.\nDuncan, William, 35.\nDundas, 22.\nDunskey, 201.\nD'Urville, 36.\nDwight, Dr. T., 249.\nDyer, 179, 185, 189, 194, 202, 203, 214, 215, 216, 217.\n\nEaster, 124.\nEast Indian Archipelago, 167.\nEclipses, 152.\n_Edda_, 25, 169.\nEdkins, Dr. J., 101, 102.\nEgede, Hans, 57.\nEgyptians, 49, 82, 93, 107, 108, 112, 135, 207.\nEitel, E. J., 102.\nEliot, George, 188.\nEllis, W., 73, 173.\nElysium, 75.\nEmerson, R. W., 89.\nEndymion, 19, 20, 47, 59.\nEos, 59.\nEramangans, 130.\nEsquimaux, 35, 56.\nEssex, 179.\nEthiopians, 116.\nEuripides, 68, 195.\nEuthydemus, 177.\nEwald, Heinrich, 96.\n\nFarrar, F. W., 86, 103.\nFetu negroes, 177.\nFijians, 71, 261.\nFinns, 120, 154.\nFischart, 23.\nFlammarion, 2, 49, 55, 120, 154, 178, 196.\nFleachta, 121.\nFlibbertigibbet, 66.\nFlint, Professor, 39.\nFontenelle, 54, 239.\nForlong, Major-General, 96.\nForster, Dr., 185.\nForsyth, Capt. J., 99.\nFortune and the moon, 208.\nFox, Charles J., 112.\nFraunhofer, 231.\nFrench, 20, 32, 180, 216.\nFriendly Islands, 59, 173.\nFrisians, North, 23.\nFrog in the moon, 69, 134.\nFuhchau, 105.\n\nGalen, 198.\nGalileo, 1.\nGarcilasso de la Vega, 130.\nGender, 16, 84.\nGermans, 22, 83, 86, 120, 170, 212.\nGibbon, 97, 98.\nGiles, Dr. J. A., 87.\nGiles, Herbert A., 70, 162, 164.\nGill, W. W., 59.\nGizeh Pyramid, 108.\nGodwin, Francis, 46.\nGoethe, title page.\nGoldziher, 90, 92, 133.\nGore, George, 243.\nGostwick, J., 85.\nGotch, Dr. F. W., 94.\nGoths, 120.\nGraah, Capt., 260.\nGrant, Robert, 234.\nGreeks, 19, 75, 80, 117, 155, 168, 195, 201.\nGreenlanders, 34, 170, 260.\nGrey, Sir George, 65, 131.\nGriffis, 134.\nGrimm, 26, 54, 60, 62, 82, 120, 135, 154, 157, 170, 207, 210.\nGrote, George, 117, 118.\nGruithuisen, 245.\nGuaycurus, 49.\nGubernatis, 67, 133, 145.\nGuillemin, 231.\nGuinea, 177.\nGyffyn Church, 31.\n\nHakkas, 184.\nHalliwell, J. O., 31, 213, 220.\nHampshire, 85.\nHans Stade, 149.\nHare in the moon, 60.\nHare-lip, 65.\nHartt, C F., 57.\nHayes, Dr. J. J., 35.\nHebrews, 75, 80, 85, 92, 94, 106, 197, 210.\nHeden of the Persians, 75.\nHegel, 98.\nHelmont, 132.\nHemans, Mrs., 75.\nHenderson, 179, 182.\nHenotheism, 101.\nHerefordshire, 215.\nHerodotus, 98, 112.\nHerschel, Sir John, 42.\nHerschel, Sir William, 231, 248.\nHershon, 197.\nHervey Islands, 59, 174.\nHesperides, 75.\nHesychios, 108.\nHibernian, 5.\nHimalayas, 33.\nHind, J. R., 234.\nHindoos, 154, 219.\nHippogypians, 47.\nHiuki and Bil, 24.\nHomer, 117, 119.\nHone, 9,48, 214.\nHooke, 230.\nHooker, J. D., 33.\nHooker, R., 140.\nHorace, 119.\nHorrack, P. J. de, 49.\nHottentots, 65, 115.\nHoward, Earl of Northampton, 181, 210.\nHow I, 70.\nHue, 104, 156.\nHumboldt, 235.\nHunt, Robert, 217.\nHuntingdonshire, 181.\nHuyghens, 247.\nHuythaca, 138.\n\nIceland, 150, 192, 262.\nIddesleigh, Earl of, 261.\nIna, 59.\nIncas, 130.\nIndia, 60, 99, 133, 145, 155, 156, 167.\nIndia, Central, 99.\nIndians, American, 35, 57, 69, 125, 127, 136, 155, 156, 171.\nIndras, 133.\nIndus, 133.\nInhabitants of the moon, 47, 106.\nInman, Dr. T., 90, 146, 203.\nIosco, 57.\nIphigenia, 144.\nIrish, 43, 45, 121.\nIroquois, 125.\nIsaac, 32.\nIsis, 49, 109, 118, 136, 199.\nItaly, 156, 185, 216.\n\nJack and Jill, 25, 136.\nJacob, 21.\nJamieson, 17,95,120, 189, 195, 218.\nJamunda, 57.\nJapanese, 108, 134.\nJenkinson, T. B., 190.\nJerome, 198.\nJerusalem pipes, 31.\n_Jest Book_ of 17th century, 11, 44.\nJews, 21, 87, 149.\nJohnston, H. H., 114.\n_Journey to the Moon_, 50.\nJudas Iscariot, 32.\nJut-ho, 63.\n\nKaffirs, 115.\nKalisch, M. M., 75.\nKalmucks of Tartary, 63.\nKames, Lord, 89, 99, 100, 153, 168.\nKaniagmioutes, 127.\nKeane, 123.\nKelly, W. H., 152.\nKenrick, John, 94, 132.\n_Keys of the Creeds_, 124.\nKhasias, 33.\nKhonds, 99.\nKhonsu, or Chonsu, 109, 110, 135\nKing, Capt. James, 59, 73.\nKirkmichael, 221.\nKolben, Peter, 115.\n_Koran_, 98.\nKorkus, 99.\nKun, 120.\n\nLa Martiniere, 196.\nLancashire custom, 104.\nLaplace, 16, 234.\nLardner, Dr. D., 235.\nLatham, Mrs., 202, 217.\nLayard, Sir A. H., 90, 174.\nLees, Edwin, 216.\nLegge, Dr. James, 100, 102.\nLeibnitz, 79.\nLemon, Mark, 4.\nLenormant, 120.\nLeslie, Forbes, 99, 120, 149, 200, 218, 222.\nLewis, Sir G. C, 118.\nLindley, Professor, 180.\nLippershey, Hans, 1.\nLithuanians, 154, 195.\nLittledale, 187.\nLivingstone, 115.\nLivy, 119.\nLloyd, Lodowick, 168.\nLocke, R. Alton, 42.\nLockyer, J. N., 232.\nLoskiel, G. H., 125.\nLowth, Bishop, 95.\nLuan, St., 123.\nLubbock, Sir John, 73, 100, 127, 137.\nLucian, 47.\nLucius, 120.\nLucretius, 143.\nLuna, 4, 119.\nLunar fancies, 145.\nLunar influences, 175.\nLunar inhabitation, 227.\nLunar stone, 177.\nLunatic, 6.\nLyllie, or Lilly, 7, 55, 181.\nLyndhurst, Lord, 4.\nLytton, Lord, 70.\n\nMcClatchie, Canon, 101.\nMackay, Charles, 215.\nMadler, 240, 246, 251.\nMahomet, 97.\nMaidment, 188.\nMaimonides, 90.\nMakololo, 115.\nMalayan, 113.\nMalina and Anninga, 34.\nMallett, 169.\nMamarbasci, 168.\nManagarmer, 169.\nMandarins, 159.\nMandingoes, 114.\nMangaians, 59.\n_Man in the Moon drinks Claret_, 11.\nMani, 24.\nMariner, W., 59, 173.\nMarini, 86.\nMarken, 23.\nMarshall, Dr. John, 65.\nMartin, 177, 206.\nMartineau, Dr. James, 228.\n_Mary, Glories of_, 146.\nMary Magdalene, 54.\nMassey, Gerald, 35.\nMaunder, Samuel, 238.\nMaurice, F. D., 93.\nMayers, W. F., 38, 64, 134.\nMayo, Herbert, 151.\nMbocobis, 84.\nMedhurst, W. H., 107, 108.\nMeen, 96.\nMelloni, 187.\nMeni, 95.\nMerolla, 114.\nMem of the Hindoos, 75.\nMexicans, 66, 127, 138, 172, 199.\nMeztli, 127, 200.\nMicrocosm, 191.\nMilton, 13, 100.\nMing Ti, 164.\nMityan, 72.\nMolina, 130.\nMongolians, 64, 157.\nMoon-cakes, 104, 106.\nMoon, cold, 186.\n\"  full, 209.\n\"  misty, 185.\n\"  new, 189, 209.\n\"  no, 194.\n\"  old, 187.\nMoon folk, 205.\n_Moon Hoax_, 42.\nMoon inhabitation, 227.\nMoon lake, 67.\nMoon worship, 77.\n\"Moone\" Tavern, 11.\nMooney, 5.\nMoors, 154.\nMorduans, 100.\nMorley, John, 144.\nMorrison, R., 103.\nMoses, 21.\nMosheim, 146.\nMountains of the Moon, 2.\nMueller, Max, 16, 39, 59, 60, 82, 85, 86.\nMunchausen, Baron, 48.\nMundilfoeri, 24.\nMuyscas, 138.\n\nNanahuatl, 200.\nNarrien, John, 244, 254.\nNash, Thomas, 260.\nNasmyth, James, 237.\nNeal, Sir Paul, 43.\nNeckham, Alexander, 27.\nNegroes, 225.\nNeison, Edmund, 242.\nNelson, 131.\nNewcomb, Simon, 183.\nNew Hebrides, 130.\nNew Netherlands, 180.\n_New York Sun_, 42.\nNew Zealanders, 36.\nNicaraguans, 138.\nNilsson, Sven, 81.\nNithi, 24.\nNorfolk, 216.\nNorse, 24.\nNorthumberland, 31.\nNorthumberland, Duke of, 231.\n_Notes and Queries_, 124, 168, 217.\nNubians, 113.\nNyi, 24.\n\nO'Halloran, 121.\nOlbers, 245.\n\"Origin of Death,\" 65.\nOrinokos, 173.\nOrkney, 221, 223.\nOrmuzd, 98.\nOsborn, Francis, 170.\nOsiris, 49, 109, 135.\nOtaheite, 73.\nOthman, 97.\nOttawas, 57.\nOtway, 53.\nOxford undergraduate, 44.\n\nPachacamac, 130.\nPaine, Thomas, 219.\nPan, 86.\nPanama, 33.\n_Pancatantram_, 67.\nPandora, 56.\nParadise, 75.\nPark, Mungo, 114.\nPasht, 113.\nPaul, 20, 79.\nPausanias, 118.\nPeacock, Reginald, 30.\n_Penitential _of Theodore, 120.\nPeriodicity, 225.\nPerkunas, 83.\nPersians, 80, 98, 131, 133, 149.\nPersonification, 19.\nPeruvians, 130, 172, 219.\nPhilip of Macedon, 97.\nPhlebotomy, 196.\nPhocis, 118.\nPhoenicia, 93, 121.\nPhotography, 8, 232.\nPhrygia, 96.\nPicart, 139.\nPindar, 195.\nPlato, 49, 153.\nPleiades, 129.\nPliny, 178, 198.\n_Plurality of Worlds, Essay on_, 236.\n_Plurality of Worlds. Positive Argument_, 253.\nPlutarch, 20, 49, 55, 113, 135, 177, 178, 193, 246.\nPocock, 97.\nPoetry, 14.\nPolybius, 68.\nPolynesians, 50, 59.\nPontus, 96.\nPope, Alexander, 81, 119, 254.\nPotter, Dr. John, 195.\nPrescott, W. H., 66, 130.\nPressense, Dr. E. de, 89.\nPrichard, J. C, 108.\nPrideaux, 97.\nPriestly, John, 65.\nProctor, R. A., 222, 244.\nPraetorius, 23.\nProtagoras, 168.\nProtogenia, 19.\n_Punch_, 4.\nPunshon, W. M., 75.\nPythagoras, 147, 260.\n\n_Quarterly Review_, 128.\nQueen of heaven, 92, 104.\nQuiateot, 138.\n\nRabbit in the moon, 56, 105.\nRae, Dr., 56, 113.\nRaka, 145.\nRalston, W. R. S., 83.\nRamayanam, 145.\nRambosson, 237.\nRantum, 24.\n\"Raphael,\" 180, 192.\nRashi, 107.\nRat story, 71.\nRavvlinson, George, 91, 109.\nRay, John, 248.\nRenfrewshire, 220.\nRenouf, P. le Page, 109, 112.\nReville, Dr. A., 66, 128.\nRiddle, J. E., 141.\nRimmon, 121.\nRitson, Joseph, 16, 28.\nRodvvell, J. M., 98.\nRogers, Charles, 221.\nRomans, 80, 83, 119, 168, 201.\n_Roman Missal_, 146.\nRona, 36.\nRosse, Earl of, 231.\nRudbeek, 120.\n\nSabianism, 100.\nSt. Johnston, Alfred, 262.\nSt. Kilda, 178.\nSakkria, 60.\nSakyamuni, 63.\nSale, 97.\nSaliva Indians, 49.\nSamoa, 59.\nSamoides, 100.\nSandys, R. H., 88.\nSanskrit, 16, 60, 64.\nSanthals, 219.\nSaracens, 97.\nSasanka, 60.\nSavannah, 225.\nScaliger, 155.\nScandinavians, 24.\nSchaumberg-Lippe, 23.\nSchellen, Dr. H., 237.\nSchlegel, F., 97.\nSchoedler, Dr. F., 236.\nSchoolcraft, H. R., 57, 136, 171.\nSchroeter, 235, 241, 245.\nScotch Highlanders, 149, 214, 221.\nScotland, 177, 185,223.\nSelene, 19, 59.\nSelenograpkia, 45.\nSelish Indians, 69.\nSerapion, 20.\nServian, 83.\nSexuality, 84, 108.\nShakespeare, 9,30, 66, 152, 205, 223, 232.\nShangalla, 113.\nShang-te, 102.\nShelley, 3, 251.\nShepherd of Banbury, 186.\nSherburne, Sir E., 155.\nSheridan, 22.\nSibyl, 20.\nSidonians, 94.\nSilver, 218, 220.\nSin and Sinim, 91, 93.\nSina, 59.\nSinaloas, 173.\nSinclair, Sir John, 201, 222.\nSin-too, 108.\nSirturi, 1.\nSlavonians, 33, 83.\nSloman, Charles, 14.\nSmith, Charlotte, ix.\nSmith, Dr. W., 95.\nSmoker-man in the moon, A, 13.\nSocrates, 117.\nSol, 24.\nSolaria, 201.\nSomas, 133, 219.\nSomerville, Mary, 157.\nSouthey, 147, 149, 187.\nSpaniards, 224.\nSpectrum, lunar, 237.\nSpens, Sir Patrick, 188, 261.\nSpenser, Edmund, 45.\nSpix and Martius, 129.\nSprengel, 199.\nSproat, 127.\nStaffordshire, 202, 217.\nStanbridge, W. E., 72.\n_Standard_, 261.\nStent, G. S., 54.\nStilpo, 11.\nStoics, 153.\nStrachey, Sir E., 93.\nSuffolk, 218.\nSuperstition, 140.\nSussex, 203, 217.\nSwabia, 23, 66.\nSwedenborg, 248.\nSwedes, 25, 193.\nSylt, 23.\n\nTacitus, 119.\nTahitians, 73, 173.\n_Talmud_, 21, 197.\nTaoism, 64, 102.\nTaru, 176.\nTaylor, Hudson, 28.\nTaylor, Isaac, 251.\nTelescope, 1.\nTemple, Bishop, 228.\nTeotihuacan, 127.\nTezcucans, 66.\nTheism, 126.\nThorpe, Benjamin, 25.\nThoth, 83, 109, 111.\nThucydides, 168.\nTides, 183.\nTiele, C. P., 76, 97.\nTimbs, John, 180, 207.\n_Time's Telescope_, 186.\n_Timon_, a Play, II.\nTithonos, 59.\nTlascaltecs, 172.\nToad in the moon, 69.\nTobler, 22.\nTomlinson, 195.\nTongans, 59, 173.\nTongusy, 99.\nTorquay, 190.\nTrench, 198.\nTrumbull, John, 232.\nTschuwasches, 100.\nTuathal, 122.\nTunguses, 99.\nTupper, M. F., 50.\nTurks, 97, 155.\nTurner, Dr. G., 59.\nTusser, 178, 181.\nTylor, E. B., 37, 49, 72, 74, 84, 86, 90, 98, 109, 138, 148, 176,184,\n     195.\nTyndall, John, 229.\nTyrwhitt's Chaucer, 29.\n\nUlceby, 189.\nUnk-ta-he, 136.\nUpham, Edward, 60.\n\nVerne, Jules, 48.\nVico, 39.\nVirgin Mary, 85, 146.\nVoltaire, 144.\n_Voelu-Spa_, 24.\n\nWagner, Dr. W., 19.\nWales, 31.\nWalled plains in the moon, 234.\nWarburton, W., 120.\nWater in the moon, 234.\nWeather, 183.\nWebb, T. W., 231.\nWerenfels, 209.\nWhewell, W., 249.\nWhitby, 189.\nWilkins, John, 72, 238.\nWilkinson, Sir G., 82, 135.\nWilliams, S. Wells, 70, 157.\nWilliams, Thomas, 71.\nWilson, Captain, 69.\nWilson, Rev. Mr., 48.\nWinckelmann, 108.\nWinslow, Dr. Forbes, 198, 224.\nWitchcraft, 151.\nWitch of Edmonton, 226.\nWoman in the moon, 53.\nWorcestershire, 216.\nWright, Thomas, 27.\nWright, W. A., 133.\n\nXenophanes, 41, 88.\n\nYorkshire, 131.\nYue Lao, 33.\nYue Ping, 103.\n\nZabaists, 90.\nZend-avesta, 98, 178.\nZulus, 190.","title":"Moon Lore","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":74799}