d, something
entirely different from this. About the month of September the slant at
which the full moon comes up from below the horizon happens to be such
that, during several evenings together, she _rises almost at the same
hour_, instead of some fifty minutes later, as is usually the case. As
the harvest is being gathered in about that time, it has come to be
popularly considered that this is a provision of nature, according to
which the sunlight is, during several evenings, replaced without delay
by more or less full-moonlight, in order that harvesters may continue
their work straight on into the night, and not be obliged to break off
after sunset to wait until the moon rises. The same phenomenon is almost
exactly repeated a month later, but by reason of the pursuits then
carried on it is known as the "hunter's moon."

In this connection should be mentioned that curious phenomenon above
alluded to, and which seems to attract universal notice, namely, that
the moon _looks much larger when near the horizon_--at its rising, for
instance, than when higher up in the sky. This seeming enlargement is,
however, by no means confined to the moon. That the sun also looks much
larger when low down in the sky than when high up, seems to strike even
the most casual watcher of a sunset. The same kind of effect will,
indeed, be noted if close attention be paid to the stars themselves. A
constellation, for instance, appears more spread out when low down in
the sky than when high up. This enlargement of celestial objects when in
the neighbourhood of the horizon is, however, only _apparent_ and not
real. It must be entirely an _illusion_; for the most careful
measurements of the discs of the sun and of the moon fail to show that
the bodies are any larger when near the horizon than when high up in the
sky. In fact, if there be any difference in measurements with regard to
the moon, it will be found to be the other way round; for her disc, when
carefully measured, is actually the slightest degree _greater_ when
_high_ in the sky, than when low down. The reason for this is that, on
account of the rotundity of the earth's surface, she is a trifle nearer
the observer when overhead of him.

This apparent enlargement of celestial objects, when low down in the
sky, is granted on all sides to be an illusion; but although the
question has been discussed with animation time out of mind, none of the
explanations proposed can be said to have rece