ther,
as a child does her doll. On looking around, I found myself lying on what
had been the ceiling of our chamber, which still, however, felt like the
bottom. My eyes and my feelings were thus in collision, and I could only
account for what I saw, by supposing that the machine had been turned
upside down. I was bewildered and alarmed.
After enjoying my surprise for a moment, the Brahmin observed: "We have,
while you were asleep, passed the middle point between the earth's and the
moon's attraction, and we now gravitate less towards our own planet than
her satellite. I took the precaution to move you, before you fell by your
own gravity, from what was lately the bottom, to that which is now so,
and to keep you in this place until you were retained in it by the moon's
attraction; for, though your fall would have been, at this point, like
that of a feather, yet it would have given you some shock and alarm. The
machine, therefore, has undergone no change in its position or course;
the change is altogether in our feelings."
The Brahmin then, after having looked through either telescope, but for
a longer time through the one at the bottom, and having performed his
customary devotions, soon fell into a slumber, but not into the same
quiet sleep as before, for he was often interrupted by sudden starts,
of so distressing a character, that I was almost tempted to wake him.
After a while, however, he seemed more composed, when I betook myself
to the telescope turned towards the earth.
The earth's appearance I found so diminished as not to exceed four times
the diameter of the moon, as seen from the earth, and its whole face was
entirely changed. After the first surprise, I recollected it was the
moon I was then regarding, and my curiosity was greatly awakened. On
raising myself up, and looking through the upper telescope, the earth
presented an appearance not very dissimilar; but the outline of her
continents and oceans were still perceptible, in different shades, and
capable of being easily recognised; but the bright glare of the sun made
the surfaces of both bodies rather dim and pale.
After a short interval, I again looked at the moon, and found not only
its magnitude very greatly increased, but that it was beginning to
present a more beautiful spectacle. The sun's rays fell obliquely on
her disc, so that by a large part of its surface not reflecting the light,
I saw every object on it, so far as I was enabled by the p
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