th astronomy. But if a few incredulous persons
doubted, a larger number of the credulous believed. When the first
number appeared in the New York Sun, in September, 1835, the
excitement aroused was intense. The paper sold daily by thousands;
and when the articles came out as a pamphlet, twenty thousand went
off at once. Not only in Young America, but also in Old England,
France, and throughout Europe, the wildest enthusiasm prevailed.
Could anybody reasonably doubt that Sir John had seen wonders,
when it was known that his telescope contained a prodigious lens,
weighing nearly seven tons, and possessing a magnifying power
estimated at 42,000 times? A reverend astronomer tells us that Sir
Frederick Beaufort, having occasion to write to Sir John Herschel at
the Cape, asked if he had heard of the report current in England that
he (Sir John) had discovered sheep, oxen, and flying _men_ in the
moon. Sir John had heard the report; and had further heard that an
American divine had "improved" the revelations. The said divine
had told his congregation that, on account of the wonderful
discoveries of the present age, lie lived in expectation of one day
calling upon them for a subscription to buy Bibles for the benighted
inhabitants of the moon. [50] What more needs to be said? Give our
astronomical mechanicians a little time, and they will produce an
instrument for full verification of these statements regarding the
lunar inhabitants; and we may realize more than we have imagined
or dreamed. We may obtain observations as satisfactory as those of
a son of the Emerald Isle, who was one day boasting to a friend of
his excellent telescope. "Do you see yonder church?" said he.
"Although it is scarcely discernible with the naked eye, when I look
at it through my telescope, it brings it so close that I can hear the
organ playing." Two hundred years ago, a wise man witnessed a
wonderful phenomenon in the moon: he actually beheld a live
elephant there. But the unbelieving have ever since made all manner
of fun at the good knight's expense. Take the following burlesque of
this celebrated discovery as an instance. "Sir Paul Neal, a conceited
virtuoso of the seventeenth century, gave out that he had discovered
'an elephant in the moon.' It turned out that a mouse had crept into
his telescope, which had been mistaken for an elephant in the
moon." [51] Well, we concede that an elephant and a mouse are
very much alike; but surely Sir Paul was t