gy; and confidently
look to be further justified by verification. We accept many things
as matters of faith, which we have not fully ascertained to be
matters of fact; but "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the
proving of things not seen." By double entry the books of science
are kept, by reasoning and demonstration: when future auditors shall
examine the accounts of the moon's inhabitation, we are persuaded
that the result of our reckoning will be found to be correct.

If any would charge us with a wish to be wise above what is written,
we merely reply: There are unwritten revelations which are
nevertheless true. Besides, we are not sure that at least an intimation
of other races than those of the earth is not already on record. Not to
prove any position, but to check obstructive criticism, we refer to
the divine who is said to have witnessed in magnificent apocalypse
some closing scenes of the human drama. If he also heard in
sublime oratorio a prelude of this widely extended glory, our vision
may not be a "baseless fabric." After the quartettes of earth, and the
interludes of angels, came the grand finale, when every creature
which is in heaven, as well as on the earth, was heard ascribing
"Blessing and honour and glory and power to Him who sitteth upon
the throne." Assuredly, our conception of a choir worthy to render
that chorus is not of an elect handful of "saints," or contracted souls,
embraced within any Calvinistic covenant, but of an innumerable
multitude of ennobled, purified, and expanded beings, convoked
from every satellite and planet, every sun and star, and overflowing
with gratitude and love to that universal Father of lights, with whom
is no parallax, nor descension, and who kindled every spark of life
and beauty that in their individual and combined lustre He might
reflect and repeat His own ineffable blessedness.

APPENDIX.

_Literature of the Lunar Man_.

_Vide_ p. 8.

1. _The Man in the Moone_. Telling Strange Fortunes. London,
1609.

2. "_The Man in the Moone_, discovering a world of Knavery under
the Sunne; both in the _Parliament_, the _Councel_ of _State_, the
_Army_, the _City_, and the _Country_." Dated, "Die Lunae,
From Nov. 14 to Wednesday Novemb. 21 1649." _Periodical
Publications, London_. British Museum. Another Edition, "Printed
for Charles Tyns, at the Three Cups on London Bridge, 1657."

3. "SELENARCHIA, _or the Government of the World in the
Moon_." A comica