and that her day and night, taken together, is as long as our lunar month. The Moon, like the Earth, is an orbicular and opaque body, which shines only by reflecting the Sun's light. While that half of her, therefore, which is toward the Sun, is illuminated, the other half is dark and invisible. Hence, she disappears when she comes between the Earth and the Sun; because her dark side is then towards us. When she has gone somewhat forward, we see a little of her enlightened side, which still increases to our view, as she advances forward, until she comes to be opposite the Sun, where her entire enlightened side is toward the Earth, and she appears with a full illuminated orb, which we call the Full Moon; her dark side being then turned away from the Earth. From the full she decreases gradually as she proceeds through the other half of her course; showing us less and less of her bright side every day, till her next change or conjunction with the Sun, and then she disappears as before. These different appearances having been observed by Endymion, an ancient Grecian, who watched her motions, it gave rise to the fable of Diana falling in love with him. These different appearances of the Moon, which we call her Phases, are sufficient to demonstrate, that she shines not by any light of her own; for otherwise as her form is spherical, we should always behold her, like the Sun, with a full orb. Philosophers, moreover, have observed, that one half of the Moon has no darkness at all; the Earth constantly affording it a strong light in the absence of the Sun; while the other half has alternately a fortnight's darkness and a fortnight's light. Our Earth serves as the moon to the Moon, waxing and waning regularly, but appearing thirteen times as large, and affording her thirteen times as much light as she does to us When she changes to us, the Earth appears full to her; when she is in her first quarter to us, the Earth is in her third quarter to her; and vice versa. The Moon has no visible atmosphere, of any density, surrounding her, as we have; for if she had we could never see her edge so well defined as it appears; but there would be a mist or haziness about her, which would make the stars look fainter when they are seen through it. But it has been proved by observation, that the stars which disappear behind the Moon, retain their full lustre, until they seem to touch her very edge, when they vanish in an instant. Nor can there be any seas in the Moon; for if there were, she could have no clouds, nor rains, nor storms as we have; because she has no such atmosphere to support the vapours which occasion them. And it is apparent to all, that when the Moon is above the horizon in the night-time, she is visible, unless the clouds of our atmosphere hide her from our view; and every part of her appears constantly with the same serene and unclouded aspect. Those dark parts of the Moon, which were formerly thought to be seas, are now found to be only vast and deep cavities, and places which reflect not the light of the Sun so strongly as others. For, by observations through the telescope, the Moon has been found to be full of high mountains and deep vallies; and some of these mountains, by comparing their height with the diameter of the Moon, are found to be three times higher than the highest hills upon our Earth Such are the principal phenomena that distinguish this beautiful luminary. And if we advert to the signal benefits of which it is productive to our globe, we can never be sufficiently grateful to the omnipotent Creator, who in this, as well as in all his works, has displayed infinite wisdom and inexaustible goodness. How cheerless and uncomfortable would be our nights, but for the constant returns of light, which this our sister orb, our faithful and inseparable companion, dispenses in such agreeable vicissitude! How highly useful are even her eclipses, in our atmospherical, geographical, and chronological calculations! How salutary too is her attrac tive influence, which sways the ocean, and actuates the world of waters; which swells the tides, and perpetu ates the regular returns of ebb and flow; and which thus not only preserves the liquid element itself from putrefaction, but the surrounding continents, in course, from infection and disease. I will not here urge those sentiments of devotion, those grand and august conceptions, which this subject has a tendency to inspire, Yet not wholly to conclude this paper without a moral. I will just intimate to my fair readers, that Mr. Pope, from the mild serene appearance of the Moon, contrasted with the bright and dazzling lustre of the Sun, exhibits a beautiful comparison, and a portrait not less beautiful of an estimable woman. This, I am persuaded, will inculcate a lesson, which, if properly attended to by the fair, cannot fail to heighten and perpetuate every charm: Ah! friend, to dazzle let the vain design; To raise the thought, and touch the heart be thine; ELEGANT EXTRACT. THE fresh greenness of spring has long since passed away; the ardent heat of summer has abated; and sober autumn now makes its solemn entree into the kingdom of nature. The frost is in the air, and the sear is on the leaf. Every thing around us discourses of decay. The mutations in the microcosm of man, although slower and more gradual than among the green herbage and the lofty forest, are no less certain, Let us be wise enough to profit by the lessons which Providence has multiplied about us, and prepare ourselves for the fleeting hours which lie between us and the grave, that when we are required to go into fellowship with the worm, and mingle with the clods of the valley, we may feel within us a hope, which wili sustain us above the reach of fear, and with its glorious bean gild the dark edges of the clouds of futurity. Nazareth, the modern Naszera or Nassera, seems, says one writer as if fifteen mountains met to form an enclosure for this delightful spot; they rise round it like the edge of a shell to guard it from intrusion. It is a rich and beautiful field in the midst of barren hills. The church stands in a cave supposed to be the place where the Blessed Virgin received the joyful message of the angel, recorded in the first chapter of St. Luke's Gospel. It resembles the figure of a cross. That part of it which stands for the tree of the cross is fourteen paces long and six broad, and runs directly into the grot, having no other arch over it at top but that of the natural rock. The transverse part is nine paces in length and four in width, and is built athwart the mouth of the cave. Just at the section of these divisions are erected two granite pillars, two feet in diameter, and about three feet distant from each other. They are supposed by the faithful to stand on the very places where the angel and the Blessed Virgin respectively stood at the time of the Annunciation. When Dr. Clarke visited this sanctuary, the friars pointed out the kitchen and the fire place of the Virgin Mary; and as all consecrated places in the Holy Land contain some supposed miracle for exhibition, the monks, he informs us, have taken care not to be altogether deficient in supernatural rarities. Accordingly. the first things they show to strangers who descend into the cave are two stone pillars in the front of it; one of which, separated from its base, is said to sustain its ca, pital and a part of its shaft miraculously in the air. The fact is, that the capital and a piece of the shaft of a pillar of gray granite have been fastened to the roof of the grotto; and "so clumsily is the rest of the hocus pocus contrived, that what is shown for the lower fragent of the same pillar resting upon the earth is not of the same substance, but of Cipolino marble."* A variety of stories are circulated about the fracture of this miraculous pillar. The more ancient travellers were told that it was broken by a pasha in search of hidden treasure, who was struck with blindness for his impiety; at present it is said that it separated into two parts, in the manner in which it still appears, when the angel announced to Mary the glad tidings with which he was commissioned. Maundrell was not less observ. ant than the author just quoted, although he does not so openly expose the deception. "It touches the roof above, and is probably hanged upon that; unless you had rather take the friars' account of it, namely that it is supported by a miracle." Pococke has proved that the tradition concerning the dwelling-place of the parents of Jesus Christ existed at a very early period; because the church built over it is mentioned by writers of the seventh century. Nor is there in the circumstance that their abode was fixed in a grotto or natural cave, any thing repugnant to the notions usually entertained either of the ancient custorns of the country or of the class of society to which Joseph and his espoused wife belonged, But when we are called upon to surrender our belief to the legends invent, ed by men whose ignorance is the best apology we can urge for their superstition, a certain degree of disgust and indignation is perfectly justifiable, In such a case we are disposed to question the good effects ascribed by some authors to the pious zeal of the Empress Helena, who, although she did not in fact erect *Clarke, you. I. p. 170 |