if
the Maker and Monarch of all were jealous, as men count jealousy,
such lunar fears and affections would be unpardonable sin.

Let us proceed to particulars, rising from inorganic nature to beings
endowed with the highest instruments of life. Even the mineral
kingdom is supposed to be swayed by the moon; for in Scotland,
Martin says, "The natives told me, that the rock on the east side of
Harries, in the Sound of Island Glass, hath a vacuity near the front,
on the north-west side of the Sound; in which they say there is a
stone that they call the _Lunar Stone_, which advances and retires
according to the increase and decrease of the moon." [323] An
ancient instance of belief in lunar influence upon inanimate matter is
cited by Plutarch. "_Euthydemus_ of _Sunium_ feasted us upon a
time at his house, and set before us a wilde bore, of such bignesse,
that all wee at the table wondred thereat; but he told us that there
was another brought unto him farre greater; mary naught it was, and
corrupted in the carriage, by the beames of the moone-shine;
whereof he made great doubt and question, how it should come to
passe; for that he could not conceive, nor see any reason, but that
the sunne should rather corrupt flesh, being as it was, farre hotter
than the moone." [324] Pliny said that the moon corrupted carcases
of animals exposed to its malefic rays. As with the lifeless, so with
the living. "The inhabitants of St. Kilda observe that when the April
moon goes far in May, the fowls are ten or twelve days later in
laying their eggs than ordinarily they use to be." [325] The influence
of the moon upon vegetation is an opinion hoary with age. In the
_Zend-Avesta_ we read, "And when the light of the moon waxes
warmer, golden-hued plants grow on from the earth during the
spring." [326] An old English author writes:--

"Sowe peason and beanes, in the wane of the moone,
Who soweth them sooner, he soweth too soone
That they with the planet may rest and arise,
And flourish, with bearing most plentiful wise." [327]

Cucumbers, radishes, turnips, leeks, lilies, horseradish, saffron, and
other plants, are said to increase during the fulness of the moon; but
onions, on the contrary, are much larger and are better nourished
during the decline. [328] To recur to Plutarch is to find him saying:
"The moone showeth her power most evidently even in those
bodies, which have neither sense nor lively breath; for carpenters