The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1883-05-31
One Lunar Day.

Let us, i'll fancy, take such a journey
us perhaps the emancipatcd soul may
take, across the aDysses of space. We
must leave our bodies behind us, and
go on the voyage as unclothed spirits
go. We swiftly traverse the void, and
take our place in the center of the
moons visible hemisphere in the depth
OF the lunar midnight. We are not
wrapped III complete darkness; a sill
very carth-light illuminates such a
landscape as Dante might have added
to his pictures of the Inferno. We are
campod upon rugged plain of CLASSY
baSalt anu Scoria. TO the westward
the prOdigiOuS volcanic masses of
CopernicuS rise twelve thousand feet
above us, and to the northward the
view is bounded by the great wall of the
Apcnnines, rising to Andcan heights.
They are not fOreSt-clOtheu or snow
crowned. We see only bas:ltic needles
and columns, and enormous vertical
precipices Of CLASSY obsidian, standing
unchanged and immovable from age to
agc-tor here is no wind nor rain, nor
amy active agency capable of disturbing
the deathly stiffness and repose. No
stream gnawS at the base OF the tre-
mcndous precipiceS; no cloud rests upon
their SUBMITS; no sound ever rever-
DcrateS from mountain to mountain.
Under our feet the floor of lava seems
to rest upon insecure foundations.
Vast chaSmS and crcviceS, of incOnceiv-
able depths and filled with II mysterious
darkness, traverse the plain. We seem
to be lost spirits-sole survivors of
some awful doom, dwelling upon the
burnt-Out cindcrs OF Il floating planetary
hell, now dead and frozen to it's heart.
We look upward and see a fairer vision
One Of planetary life. In the center
of the black dome above us, unchanging
iii It's place except It's il swuys inper-
ceptibly nortllward and southwark in a
Slight vibration, we see, as vast and
bright as its equator the great cloud
ring is revealed as Il zone of dazzling
whitencss; and cloud-masses are float
ing ngcVerywhcrc,y yet not whollycOnccaling
fifteen full moons, our familiar earth.
Around arc the well-known outlines of
hccontinents. The earth has no secret to
hide from us, as the moon hides one of
it's hemisphercs from the earth. AS
we look upward we perceive a steady
rotation, the continents marching past
i'll panoramic succession. AS Asia
vanishcs upon the eastern rim, America
rises upon the western; the polar ice
caps shine with splendid white light
The earth remains fixed in our zenith,
but the stars march past it in All end
less flow. The milky way, the constel-
lations of the zodiac, the planets in
their order, all sweep by or are hidden
for q little while behind the great white
orb, which seems to take no part in the
endless procession Of the universe; it
whirls swiftly and visibly OH it's axis,
but never changes it's place. But for
it's slight pendulum swing, it is fixed
immovably in mid-heaven. 1t was well
that we left our bodies hidden under
the warm, white atmosphere of the
earth; the great planet above us has
completed more than seven revolutions
since the sunlight shone upon our rest
ing-place, and around us is deadly,
terrible cold, almost the inconceivablo,
absolute zero of the intcrplanetary
spaces. The long night slowly wanes
as we keep our strange watch. 1t was
lightest at the lunar midnight, for a
black shadow is slowly creeping across
the carth's splendid white disk. Itwas
a perfect sphere when we first looked
upon IL, but now it has completed seven
revolutions, and is but a hemisphere;
half Of it has been swallowed by dark
ness. 1t is darkest jast before dawn;
but now change is coming. There Is
no dawn light in the sky, but the tre-
mendous spires Of the Apennines. begin
to glitter with an intense bluish-white
splendor. The moons morning is at
hand. There is no pomp Of prcpara-
tiOn, such as wo saw on earth; no
chariot Of Apollo wrapped in gold and
crimson clouds, no Aurora opening tho