Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1856-03-12
WHOLE NO. so5s.
MATTERS IN THE MOON.


The editor of Putnam's Monthly Mag
azine says, what curious almanac these
good people in the moon would have
There. days are as long as years. and
day and year are equal to our months,
90 days, ls hours and As minutes. The
seasons differ but very little from each
other. On the equator there reigns etei-
nal summer, for the sun is ever in the
zenith the poles are buried in eternal
winter. The days are of equal length
throughout the year, all days equally
light, all nights equally dark. The abb
sence of an atmosphere deprives the
moon of the sweet charms of twilight,
and glaring day would follow gloomy
night with the rapidity of lightning, if
the slow rising and setting Of the sun did
not slightly break the suddenness Of the
transition. Human eyes, however, could
not bear the fierce contrast Of light and
shadow; they would long in vain for the
soft materials between the two extremes,
the other coiors, which beauiify our
world with their joyous variety and soft
harmony. The sky there is not blue,
but even in day time, black, aud BY the
side of the dazzling sun, the stars claim
their places and light in the heavens
Near the poles the mountain tops shine
in unbroken splendOr year after year,
but the valleys know neither day nor
night, scantily lighted as they ever are
by the faint glimmer of the surrounding
walls.
The side of the moon which is turned
from US has night of nearly fifteen
days; the stars only, and planets, shine
on its very dark sky. The side we see.
on the contrary, knows no night; the
night lights it up with never ceasing
earth shine, a light fourteen times strong
er than that which we receive from the
moon. We recognize our light lent to
our friend, in the faint, grayish glimmer
of that portion of the moon which before
and after the new moon, receives no.
light from the sun. but only from The
earth. and reflects it back again upon
us. Mornings in fall, show it more brill
lianily than evenings in sprihg, because
in autumn the continents Of the earth
with their brighter light illuminate the
moon, while in the spring, she onl7 re-
ceives fainter light from our oceans
Our orb appears to the Man in the Moon
as changeable as his home to US, and he
might speak Of the first or last quarter
of the new earth or the full earth. Tho
whole earth moves before him once in
twenty-nine days around its axis ; the
sun and stars rise andset regularly once
in the long day, but the vast orb Of our
earth is nearly immovable- All around
is in unceasing motion; the mild face Of
the earth alone, a-gorgeous moon Of i'm
mense magnitude, never sets or rises,
but remains ever fixed in the zenith.
Itsppears sixteen times larger than the
moon to US, and daily exhibits its vast
panorama of oceans, continents and IS
lands. Bright light and dark shadows
are seen in every varied change, land or
water, clearings of forests appear new
with every cloud of fog. and different at
different seasons. The man in the moon
has thus not only his watch and his al
manac daily before him in the ever
changing face of the earth, but he may,
for all we know, have maps OF our globe,
which many q geogispher would envy
on account Of its fullness and accuracy.
Long before Columbus discovered Amer
lea, and Cook, New Holland, our lunar
neighbor knew most correctly the form
and the outlines of the new continents.
There was no new world for him, and
there is none left. He could tell us the
secrets Of the interior of Africa, and re-
veal to us the fertile mysteries Of the
Polar seas. But how be on his side
must marvel at our vast fields Of snow,
our volcanoes and tropical storms and
knows neither FIRE, nor
snow, nor clouds
What strange fables he may have iE-
vented TO explain the shadows of our
clouds as they chase each other over
sea and land, and hide FROM him in an
instant the sunset landscape And
stranger still, on the side of the moon
which is turned from the earth, he knows
nothing at all about US, unless news
reach him from the happier side. 0rhe
may undertake-the greatest events in
his liie-a long and painful journey to
The bright balf-of his globe; to stare at
the wonderOusly brilliant earth-star, with
its unread mysteries. and marvellous
changes Of fitting lights and shadows.
Who knows what earnest prayers may
arise from the moon, full OF thanks for
the food Of light and heat we pour upon
them, or OF ardent wishes that their souls
might be allowed TO dwell in the bright
home Of the besuteous star
RISK early to your business. learn good
things and Oblige good nen; these are
three thinos Won shsfT mover renont