arth
and the Sun at the other. In comparison therefore with the point which
she had occupied in _conjunction_, or when her invisible side was fully
illuminated, she is farther from the Sun by double her distance from the
Earth, or nearly 480,000 miles. Therefore, my dear Captain, you can
readily see how when the Moon's invisible side is turned _from_ the Sun,
she is nearly half a million miles further from him than she had been
before. Therefore her heat should be so much the less."

"Well done, friend Ardan!" cried Barbican, clapping his hands with
pleasure. "Yes, Captain, he understood it as well as either of us the
whole time. Intelligence, not indifference, caused him to interrupt.
Wonderful fellow!"

"That's the kind of a man I am!" replied Ardan, not without some degree
of complacency. Then he added simply: "Barbican, my friend, if I
understand your explanations so readily, attribute it all to their
astonishing lucidity. If I have any faculity, it is that of being able
to scent common sense at the first glimmer. Your sentences are so
steeped in it that I catch their full meaning long before you end
them--hence my apparent inattention. But we're not yet done with the
visible face of the Moon: it seems to me you have not yet enumerated all
the advantages in which it surpasses the other side."

"Another of these advantages," continued Barbican, "is that it is from
the visible side alone that eclipses of the Sun can be seen. This is
self-evident, the interposition of the Earth being possible only between
this visible face and the Sun. Furthermore, such eclipses of the Sun
would be of a far more imposing character than anything of the kind to
be witnessed from our Earth. This is chiefly for two reasons: first,
when we, terrestrians, see the Sun eclipsed, we notice that, the discs
of the two orbs being of about the same apparent size, one cannot hide
the other except for a short time; second, as the two bodies are moving
in opposite directions, the total duration of the eclipse, even under
the most favorable circumstances, can't last longer than 7 minutes.
Whereas to a Selenite who sees the Earth eclipse the Sun, not only does
the Earth's disc appear four times larger than the Sun's, but also, as
his day is 14 times longer than ours, the two heavenly bodies must
remain several hours in contact. Besides, notwithstanding the apparent
superiority of the Earth's disc, the refracting power of the atmosphere
will never all