Omaha daily bee., 1919-08-14
Beauty of the Moon
Garrett p. Serviss in Philadelphia Bulletin.

On cool evening after painting hot sum.
mer day what sight is more refreshing than
that of the full moon TRANQUILITY shedding its sill
very rays down upon the reposng earth while
the lambent stars glow softly through the
transparent curtains of the night? 1t is nc
wonder that in the poetry of all nations the
moon is figured as a goddess, or that in the
folklore of every people it is the subject of the
most romantic legends and of superstitions
that lose their mischief-f any they have-in
their beauty.
"Who is she that ooketh forth, fair as the
moon?" sings Solomon in his love song.
Il beheld the moon walking in brightness"
admiringly recounts Job, the poet-phlosopher
of the desert.
And while I gaze thy mild and placid light
Sheds soft calm upon my troubled breast
So writes a modern poetess.
And Oft think fair planet Of the night,
That in thy orb the wretched may have rest;
The sufferers Of the earth perhaps may go,
Released by death. to thy benignant sphere.
And the sad children Of despair and woe
Forget in thee their cup Of sorrow here.
The astronomer knows that all this beauty
of the moon, awakening so many charming
thoughts and longings, is due to the enchant-
ment of distance. The moon is the only world
IN the sky whose features can be seen with the
naked eye, and thus seen they show no rugged
ness and give no hint of the terrible spectacles
of planetary disaster and death which stare at
the beholder in telescope views.
Seen by the unaided eye out of the shadow
OF the earth, gilded by sunlight in the far
depths of space the bare luna skull is rounded
into the semblance of a face modulated with
delicately graduated shades and graceful in its
outlines. An opera glass view but heighens
the resplendence of the impression made by the
full moon upon the naked eye. The sight re-
calls ancient cameo cut by some great artist
out of precious stone. But exchange the
opera glass for telescope and all is at once
different.
The spectacle still possesses its elements
of beauty, but now they submerged in the
impression of death dealing violence that over
whelms the mind once it overwhelmed that
little world The fascination of the scene is
akin to that which feels in looking from
an icy peak over the snow choked and life
abandoned landscapes of the inner and higher
Alps.
Now, curiously enough, the same telescope
magnifying power which reveals the true aspect
of the moon and banishes its seeming lifelike
charm is just that which brings enough to the
observer to give it the appearance of a most
idylc world, appealing at once to the magma
ton and the desire for scientific investigation
1t is not improbable that if telescopes could be
constructed capable of magnifying Mars 1880
diameters, which would bring it. when nearest
the earth, to be the same apparent distance
that power of $50 dameters brings the moon,
we should at once be able to settle all the
pulling and captivating questions that have
arisen concerning the Availability of that planet
and the wonderful dongs of its inhabitants, be-
cause then we might see plainly and decide
beyond controversy what the real state of
Mars is.
To return to moon ersttions-which may
not all be absolutely without foundation-I
have letter from Gary. Ind, dwelling upon
the question of the influence Of moonlight fall
ing upon the face of sleeper. This, like the
popular saws concerning the influence of the
moon on plants, etc. is exceeding ancient
superstition, found in all parts Of the world
Indeed the word "unacy," describing par
ticuar kind of insanity, is derived from the old
Roman name for the moon, Luna.
The antiquity of this notion is sufficiently
attested by passage in the l2lst Psalm which
reads: The sun shall not smite thee by day
nor the moon by night" We accept this evil
dence of an early recognition of the danger of
sunstroke. but the progress of science has not
yet produced a conviction that the moon too,
can "smie," whatever the experience Of indi-
viduals may have induced them to believe.