Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1840-06-12
OCk MOON STORY.
CONTINUED from LIST page.

cannot conceive that it could have obtained so
instantaneous and extraordinary a circulation ?
Docs he class these among those "real discover
les of science" which he charges me with having
preiudiced If so, / should be obliged to him to
state whether any improvements have been
made IN the telescope, or any discoveries by il,
within the last half century, that in anywisc JUS
tify the p%ruricnt expectations which he is per-
petualIy fostering about discoveries in the moon.
and merely, as | am sorry TO believe, from the
grovelling motive ofsclling his books. All such
expectations are entirely idle, and DR.. Dick
kaops them to be so. They should at once be
abandoned as unfavorablc to the steady pursuit
of practical knowledge by young minds that arc
but too readily induced TO play the truant in the
fowcry fields of fancy, without such artificial
temptations. Until some essentially now and
hitherto unconjcctured principle in mechanical
optics be developed and applied, it seems impos-
siblc that our %knowcldI re Of the physical peculiar
tics of that luminary can be greatly extended.
It was on this account that ! invented such a
principle, and gave it sonc degree of superficial
plauslblllty, as a basis for my fiction. | assigned
some sort of reason for lunar discoveries which
DIR. Dick has been pcrsuading the world TO cx-
pcct, without any reason whatever; yet in his
disingcnuo,s structures upon my imaginary tel
cscopc, he has the uniairness to omit the least
reference to this essential particular-thc trans
Il VI 81 III anu lii-i NY l- I,-h Nbi'tE
the focal object-and then l~earncdly lays it down
that my mere object-glass could not have achiev-
ed the feats which | proclaimed. 1t will be seen
that ! had said so myself.
To Justify what | have said concerning the
more serious trcspasses of DR.. Dicks thcolo~i-
cal school of philosophy upon the paramount
jurisdiction of physical science, | will give an
illustration from that writer's Celestial Seen
cry =
"Thc existence of volcanoes on our globe is
scarcely to be considered as a part Of lis original
constitution. Such appalling and destructive
agents appear altogether inconsistent with the
state of an innocent being formed after the
Divine image and therefore we have 10 rca-
son to believe that they existed in the primitive
age of the world, while man remained in his
paradisical state, but began to operate only
after the period of the universal delurc, when
the primitive constitution OF our globe was al
tered and dcrangcd, and when earthquakes,
storms and tcmpests began, at the same time to
exert their destructive energies. They are TO
be considered as an evidence or indication that
man is no longer in a state of moral perfection,
and that his habitation now corresponds with
his character as a sinner. TO suppose, there
T. tore, that such destructive agents exist in the
moon, would be virtually to admit that the in
habitants ofthat planet are in the same depraved
condition as the inhabitants of this world. The
same thing may be said with regard to a pre-
; tended discovery which was announced some
| years ago, that there are foriifcatioRS in the
moon : for if such notifications really existed. it
would he a plain proof that the inhabitants were
engaged in wars and contentious. and animated
with the same diabollcal principles Of pride.
:. ambition and revenge which have rayarcd our
! globe, and deinorallzed its inhabitants. -. 2G5
!! Is not this pretty stuff to pass for philosophy.
Il and 10 ho urasopt.I IN ,,ir ,outI - u rtln 81
t Judgment in determining questions of fact -
, Let us observe the s~ectarlan shacklcs upon the
mind, in this pitiable specimen of rcasoning.-
, First, there would be 10 volcanoes. nor storms.
= nor earthquakes, nor any other destructive
agents upon our globe, unless man were a sin
ner. And why! Simply because ''they appear
altogether inconsistent with the state Of an IN
nocent being formed after the Divine image
That is. they so appear when viewed through that
medium Of fanatical fancy, and measured by that
imaginary standard of the theological fitness Of
things. which the philosophers or this school
think proper to adopt for themselves. and to
impose as far as possible upon others. Now
tins is nothing less than trampling upon all the
evidences of natures Inherent laws to elevate a
t%avorlte tigmcnt of a creed the philosophy OF
fact. Not to say that what are contractedly and
enormously considered the physical evils of ma.
ture are as inevitable results of the operation OF
ilcl laws : ItT dchIlDN ituItu DltSSllnS. dllU
are inscperable links in that great economy o.
alterations and reaCting forces which fills the
whole universe and makes it what it is. It i,
admitted on all hands that the destructive agent,
of nature display as much of divine Contrivanco
and design as any other productions of his ctCr
nal mind. The fang Of the viper, the claws Of
the tiger, the tail of the spider, the sting of the
wasp, the bcak AMI talons Ct the oagle, are a,
very good for their respective purposes, a,
the milky fountains Of the maminalia, or the
curious ~chrysalis of the butterfly. Al nature
abounds with destructive agents; in fact the
whole system of nature is one of production and
destruction. The leaves of autumn fail to give
birth to the buds OF spring the a@cd trco dies t,
give place to the sapling at its feet; and so the
generations of all s~cntjcnt beings pass away tina
others may succeed them. As to volcanoes. no
one man in millions ever heard Of thrm, ant
those who know them the best, Notwithstanding
they are sad simcri-tlat is the mcn-dcligh
TO cultivate their vineyards upon the very bosom
of them. As to man in his paradjsical state
~(pcrhaps | should say cstate)-that IS Adam
few there was only one mon, and he only for
\. little while, for whom volcanoes and such thing.
k were improper-it is only necessary TO say tina
Y f he had fallen into the river Pison before h,
It had learned to swim. it would have closed hi
account for him almost as quickly as mount We
=, suvius or Etna. And without intending TIN
least disrespcct to our mother Eve. | can vcntur,
~ TO atiirm that if the serpent had craWled dow
i her pretty throat when she was asleep with he
mouth open under the tree OF life, it would a
lc certainly have been the death of her as if sh
u had been swallowed up by an earthquake.
of But nevertheless, in the philosophy of D.
,t Dick, it is impossible that there can be any vol
"a canoes in the moon, notwithstanding that oil
~ sir William lierschel and others d~iscoyerc
.l,,,, No, ypors otr,. lacplrs1 tho lIl,pr'n. az