ts greenish clarity varying with the
extent of cloud that veils its seas and continents, and they observe its
motion of rotation, by which all the countries of our planet are
revealed in succession to its admirers.

We are talking of these pageants seen from the Moon, and of the
inhabitants of our satellite as if they really existed. The sterile and
desolate aspect of the lunar world, however, rather brings us to the
conclusion that such inhabitants are non-existent, although we have no
authorization for affirming this. That they have existed seems to me
beyond doubt. The lunar volcanoes had a considerable activity, in an
atmosphere that allowed the white volcanic ashes to be carried a long
way by the winds, figuring round the craters the stellar rays that are
still so striking. These cinders were spread over the soil, preserving
all its asperities of outline, a little heaped up on the side to which
they were impelled. The magnificent photographs recently made at the
Paris Observatory by MM. Loewy and Puiseux are splendid evidence of
these projections. In this era of planetary activity there were liquids
and gases on the surface of the lunar globe, which appear subsequently
to have been entirely absorbed. Now the teaching of our own planet is
that Nature nowhere remains infertile, and that the production of Life
is a law so general and so imperious that life develops at its own
expense, sooner than abstain from developing. Accordingly, it is
difficult to suppose that the lunar elements can have remained inactive,
when only next door they exhibited such fecundity upon our globe. Yes,
the Moon has been inhabited by beings doubtless very different from
ourselves, and perhaps may still be, although this globe has run through
the phases of its astral life more rapidly than our own, and the
daughter is relatively older than the mother.

The duration of the life of the worlds appears to have been in
proportion with their masses. The Moon cooled and mineralized more
quickly than the Earth. Jupiter is still fluid.

The progress of optics brings us already very close to this neighboring
province. 'Tis a pity we can not get a little nearer!

A telescopic magnification of 2,000 puts the Moon at 384,000/2000 or 192
kilometers (some 120 miles) from our eye. Practically we can obtain no
more, either from the most powerful instruments, or from photographic
enlargements. Sometimes, exceptionally, enlargements of 3,000 can be
used. T