ave
certainly notified him of these marvellous discoveries. The writer of it
had not troubled himself to invent probabilities, but had borrowed his
scenery from the Arabian Nights and his lunar inhabitants from Peter
Wilkins.

After this lecture the Capitalist stepped forward and applied his eye to
the lens. I suspect it to have been shut most of the time, for I observe
a good many elderly people adjust the organ of vision to any optical
instrument in that way. I suppose it is from the instinct of protection
to the eye, the same instinct as that which makes the raw militia-man
close it when he pulls the, trigger of his musket the first time. He
expressed himself highly gratified, however, with what he saw, and
retired from the instrument to make room for the Young Girl.

She threw her hair back and took her position at the instrument. Saint
Simeon Stylites the Younger explained the wonders of the moon to
her,--Tycho and the grooves radiating from it, Kepler and Copernicus with
their craters and ridges, and all the most brilliant shows of this
wonderful little world. I thought he was more diffuse and more
enthusiastic in his descriptions than he had been with the older members
of the party. I don't doubt the old gentleman who lived so long on the
top of his pillar would have kept a pretty sinner (if he could have had
an elevator to hoist her up to him) longer than he would have kept her
grandmother. These young people are so ignorant, you know. As for our
Scheherezade, her delight was unbounded, and her curiosity insatiable.
If there were any living creatures there, what odd things they must be.
They could n't have any lungs, nor any hearts. What a pity! Did they
ever die? How could they expire if they didn't breathe? Burn up? No
air to burn in. Tumble into some of those horrid pits, perhaps, and
break all to bits. She wondered how the young people there liked it, or
whether there were any young people there; perhaps nobody was young and
nobody was old, but they were like mummies all of them--what an idea
--two mummies making love to each other! So she went on in a rattling,
giddy kind of way, for she was excited by the strange scene in which she
found herself, and quite astonished the Young Astronomer with her
vivacity. All at once she turned to him.

Will you show me the double star you said I should see?

With the greatest pleasure,--he said, and proceeded to wheel the
ponderous dome, and then to