Timothy Harley - Moon Lore

[Note: the original text had two footnotes 160 and two footnotes 396. I have indicated these by naming them 160a and b, and 396a and b. In the Index, I changed the spelling of "Aglonquins" to "Algonquins. All other spelling remains the same.]

[Illustration: moon01]

VOYAGING TO THE MOON
From Domingo Gonsales [A.D. 1638]
See page 46.

MOON LORE

"And when the clear moon, with its soothing influences, rises full in my view,--from the wall-like rocks, out of the damp underwood, the silvery forms of past ages hover up to me, and soften the austere pleasure of contemplation."
Goethe's "Faust." Hayward's Translation, London, 1855, p. 100.

LONDON:
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN, LE BAS & LOWREY,
PATERNOSTER SQUARE
1885
BUTLER & TAYLOR
THE SELWOOD PRINTING WORKS
FROME, AND LONDON

"I beheld the moon walking in brightness."--Job xxxi. 26.
"The moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained."--Psalm viii. 3.
"Who is she that looketh forth, fair as the moon?"--Solomon's Song vi. 10.
"The precious things put forth by the moon."--Deuteronomy xxxiii. 14.
"Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale."--Addison's Ode.
"In fall-orbed glory, yonder moon Divine
Rolls through the dark-blue depths."--Southey's Thalaba.
"Queen of the silver bow! by thy pale beam,
Alone and pensive, I delight to stray,
And watch thy shadow trembling in the stream,
Or mark the floating clouds that cross thy way;
And while I gaze, thy mild and placid light
Sheds a soft calm upon my troubled breast:
And oft I 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.
Oh that I soon may reach thy world serene,
Poor wearied pilgrim in this toiling scene!"
--Charlotte Smith.

PREFACE

This work is a contribution to light literature, and to the literature of light. Though a monograph, it is also a medley.

The first part is mythological and mirthsome. It is the original nucleus around which the other parts have gathered. Some years since, the writer was led to investigate the world-wide myth of the Man in the Moon, in its legendary and ludicrous aspects; and one study being a stepping-stone to another, the ball was enlarged as it rolled.

The second part, dealing with moon-worship, is designed to show that anthropomorphism and sexuality have been the principal factors in that idolatry which in all ages has paid homage to the hosts of heaven, as heaved above the aspiring worshipper. Man adores what he regards as higher than he. And if the moon is supposed to affect his tides, that body becomes his water-god.

The third part treats of lunar superstitions, many of which yet live in the vagaries which sour and shade our modern sweetness and light.

The fourth and final part is a literary essay on lunar inhabitation, presenting in nuce the present state of the enigma of "the plurality of worlds."

Of the imperfections of his production the author is partly conscious. Not wholly so; for others see us often more advantageously than we see ourselves. But a hope is cherished that this work--a compendium of lunar literature in its least scientific branches--may win a welcome which shall constitute the worker's richest reward. To the innumerable writers who are quoted, the indebtedness felt is inexpressible.

CONTENTS.

I
1	1
2	5
3	53
4	60
5	69
6	71
II
1	77
2	82
3	87
4	132
III
1	145
2	152
3	175
IV	227
259
263
285

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

1	Frontispiece
From Domingo Gonsales, 1638
2	9
From Hone's Facetiae and Miscellanies, 1821. Drawn by George Cruikshank.
3	12
(From the Bagford Ballads, ii, 119, Brit. Mus.)
4	13
(Banks Collection in Brit. Mus.)
5	22
From Ludwig Richter's Der Familienshatz, Leipzig, p. 25
6	28
In the Archaeological Journal for March, 1848, p. 68
7	32
From Baring-Gould's Curious Myths
8	63
From Colin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal

MOON SPOTS.

I. INTRODUCTION.

With the invention of the telescope came an epoch in human history. To Hans Lippershey, a Dutch optician, is accorded the honour of having constructed the first astronomical telescope, which he made so early as the 2nd of October, 1608. Galileo, hearing of this new wonder, set to work, and produced and improved instrument, which he carried in triumph to Venice, where it occasioned the intensest delight. Sir David Brewster tells us that "the interest which the exhibition of the telescope excited at Venice did not soon subside: Sirturi describes it as amounting to frenzy. When he himself had succeeded in making one of these instruments, he ascended the tower of St. Mark, where he might use it without molestation. He was recognised, however, by a crowd in the street, and such was the eagerness of their curiosity, that they took possession of the wondrous tube, and detained the impatient philosopher for several hours till they had successively witnessed its effects." Nor are we astonished at their astonishment when they beheld mountains which have since been found to be from 15,000 to 26,000 feet in height--highlands of the moon indeed--far higher in proportion to the moon's diameter than any elevations on the earth; when they saw the surface of the satellite scooped out into deep valleys, or spread over with vast walled plains from 130 to 140 miles across. No wonder that the followers of Aristotle resented the explosion of their preconceived beliefs; for their master had taught that the moon was perfectly spherical and smooth, and that the spots were merely reflections of our own mountains. Other ancient philosophers had said that these patches were shadows of opaque bodies floating between the sun and the moon. But to the credit of Democritus be it remembered that he propounded the opinion that the spots were diversities or inequalities upon the lunar surface; and thus anticipated by twenty centuries the disclosures of the telescope. The invention of this invaluable appliance we have regarded as marking a great modern epoch; and what is usually written on the moon is mainly a summary of results obtained through telescopic observation, aided by other apparatus, and conducted by learned men. We now purpose to go back to the ages when there were neither reflectors nor refractors in existence; and to travel beyond the bounds of ascertained fact into the regions of fiction, where abide the shades of superstition and the dreamy forms of myth. Having promised a contribution to light literature, we shall give to fancy a free rein, and levy taxes upon poets and story-tellers, wits and humorists wherever they may be of service. Much will have to be said, in the first place, of the man in the moon, whom we must view as he has been manifested in the mask of mirth, and also in the mirror of mythology. Then we shall present the woman in the moon, who is less known than the immortal man. Next a hare will be started; afterwards a frog, and other objects; and when we reach the end of our excursion, if we mistake not, it will be confessed that the moon has created more merriment, more marvel, and more mystery, than all of the other orbs taken together.