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THE ROMANCE OF THE MOON
An observer endued with an infinite range of vision, and placed in that
unknown center around which the entire world revolves, might have beheld
myriads of atoms filling all space during the chaotic epoch of the universe.
Little by little, as ages went on, a change took place; a general law of
attraction manifested itself, to which the hitherto errant atoms became
obedient: these atoms combined together chemically according to their
affinities, formed themselves into molecules, and composed those nebulous
masses with which the depths of the heavens are strewed. These masses became
immediately endued with a rotary motion around their own central point. This
center, formed of indefinite molecules, began to revolve around its own axis
during its gradual condensation; then, following the immutable laws of mechanics,
in proportion as its bulk diminished by condensation, its rotary motion became
accelerated, and these two effects continuing, the result was the formation of
one principal star, the center of the nebulous mass.
By attentively watching, the observer would then have perceived the
other molecules of the mass, following the example of this central star, become
likewise condensed by gradually accelerated rotation, and gravitating round it
in the shape of innumerable stars. Thus was formed the Nebulae, of which
astronomers have reckoned up nearly 5,000.
Among these 5,000 nebulae there is one which has received the name of
the Milky Way, and which contains eighteen millions of stars, each of which has
become the center of a solar world.
If the observer had then specially directed his attention to one of the
more humble and less brilliant of these stellar bodies, a star of the fourth
class, that which is arrogantly called the Sun, all the phenomena to which the
formation of the Universe is to be ascribed would have been successively
fulfilled before his eyes. In fact, he would have perceived this sun, as yet in
the gaseous state, and composed of moving molecules, revolving round its axis
in order to accomplish its work of concentration. This motion, faithful to the
laws of mechanics, would have been accelerated with the diminution of its
volume; and a moment would have arrived when the centrifugal force would have
overpowered the centripetal, which causes the molecules all to tend toward the
center.
Another phenomenon would now have passed before the observer’s
eye, and the molecules situated on the plane of the equator, escaping like a
stone from a sling of which the cord had suddenly snapped, would have formed
around the sun sundry concentric rings resembling that of Saturn. In their
turn, again, these rings of cosmical matter, excited by a rotary motion about
the central mass, would have been broken up and decomposed into secondary
nebulosities, that is to say, into planets. Similarly he would have observed
these planets throw off one or more rings each, which became the origin of the
secondary bodies which we call satellites.
Thus, then, advancing from atom to molecule, from molecule to nebulous
mass, from that to principal star, from star to sun, from sun to planet, and
hence to satellite, we have the whole series of transformations undergone by
the heavenly bodies during the first days of the world.
Now, of those attendant bodies which the sun maintains in their
elliptical orbits by the great law of gravitation, some few in turn possess
satellites. Uranus has eight, Saturn eight, Jupiter four, Neptune possibly
three, and the Earth one. This last, one of the least important of the entire
solar system, we call the Moon; and it is she whom the daring genius of the
Americans professed their intention of conquering.
The moon, by her comparative proximity, and the constantly varying
appearances produced by her several phases, has always occupied a considerable
share of the attention of the inhabitants of the earth.
From the time of Thales of Miletus, in the fifth century B.C., down to
that of Copernicus in the fifteenth and Tycho Brahe in the sixteenth century
A.D., observations have been from time to time carried on with more or less
correctness, until in the present day the altitudes of the lunar mountains have
been determined with exactitude. Galileo explained the phenomena of the lunar
light produced during certain of her phases by the existence of mountains, to
which he assigned a mean altitude of 27,000 feet. After him Hevelius, an
astronomer of Dantzic, reduced the highest elevations to 15,000 feet; but the
calculations of Riccioli brought them up again to 21,000 feet.
At the close of the eighteenth century Herschel, armed with a powerful
telescope, considerably reduced the preceding measurements. He assigned a
height of 11,400 feet to the maximum elevations, and reduced the mean of the
different altitudes to little more than 2,400 feet. But Herschel’s
calculations were in their turn corrected by the observations of Halley,
Nasmyth, Bianchini, Gruithuysen, and others; but it was reserved for the labors
of Boeer and Maedler finally to solve the question. They succeeded in measuring
1,905 different elevations, of which six exceed 15,000 feet, and twenty-two
exceed 14,400 feet. The highest summit of all towers to a height of 22,606 feet
above the surface of the lunar disc. At the same period the examination of the
moon was completed. She appeared completely riddled with craters, and her
essentially volcanic character was apparent at each observation. By the absence
of refraction in the rays of the planets occulted by her we conclude that she
is absolutely devoid of an atmosphere. The absence of air entails the absence
of water. It became, therefore, manifest that the Selenites, to support life
under such conditions, must possess a special organization of their own, must
differ remarkably from the inhabitants of the earth.
At length, thanks to modern art, instruments of still higher perfection
searched the moon without intermission, not leaving a single point of her
surface unexplored; and notwithstanding that her diameter measures 2,150 miles,
her surface equals the one-fifteenth part of that of our globe, and her bulk
the one-forty-ninth part of that of the terrestrial spheroid— not one of
her secrets was able to escape the eyes of the astronomers; and these skillful
men of science carried to an even greater degree their prodigious observations.
Thus they remarked that, during full moon, the disc appeared scored in
certain parts with white lines; and, during the phases, with black. On
prosecuting the study of these with still greater precision, they succeeded in
obtaining an exact account of the nature of these lines. They were long and
narrow furrows sunk between parallel ridges, bordering generally upon the edges
of the craters. Their length varied between ten and 100 miles, and their width
was about 1,600 yards. Astronomers called them chasms, but they could not get
any further. Whether these chasms were the dried-up beds of ancient rivers or
not they were unable thoroughly to ascertain.
The Americans, among others, hoped one day or other to determine this
geological question. They also undertook to examine the true nature of that
system of parallel ramparts discovered on the moon’s surface by
Gruithuysen, a learned professor of Munich, who considered them to be “a
system of fortifications thrown up by the Selenitic engineers.” These two
points, yet obscure, as well as others, no doubt, could not be definitely
settled except by direct communication with the moon.
Regarding the degree of intensity of its light, there was nothing more
to learn on this point. It was known that it is 300,000 times weaker than that
of the sun, and that its heat has no appreciable effect upon the thermometer.
As to the phenomenon known as the “ashy light,” it is explained
naturally by the effect of the transmission of the solar rays from the earth to
the moon, which give the appearance of completeness to the lunar disc, while it
presents itself under the crescent form during its first and last phases.
Such was the state of knowledge acquired regarding the earth’s
satellite, which the Gun Club undertook to perfect in all its aspects,
cosmographic, geological, political, and moral.
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