his = 384000/3000 or 128 kilometers (some 80 miles). Undoubtedly,
this is an admirable result, which does the greatest honor to human
intelligence. But it is still too far to enable us to determine anything
in regard to lunar life.

Any one who likes to be impressed by grand and magnificent sights may
turn even a modest field-glass upon our luminous satellite, at about
first quarter, when the relief of its surface, illuminated obliquely by
the Sun, is at its greatest value. If you examine our neighbor world at
this period, for choice at the hour of sunset, you will be astonished at
its brilliancy and beauty. Its outlines, its laces, and embroideries,
give the image of a jewel of shining silver, translucent, fluid,
palpitating in the ether. Nothing could be more beautiful, nothing
purer, and more celestial, than this lunar globe floating in the silence
of space, and sending back to us as in some fairy dream the solar
illumination that floods it. But yesterday I received the same
impression, watching a great ring half standing out, and following the
progress of the Sun as it mounted the lunar horizon to touch these
silvered peaks. And I reflected that it is indeed inconceivable that
999,999/1,000,000 of the inhabitants of our planet should pass their
lives without ever having attended to this pageant, nor to any of those
others which the divine Urania scatters so profusely beneath the
wondering gaze of the observers of the Heavens.

CHAPTER X

THE ECLIPSES

Among all the celestial phenomena at which it may be our lot to assist
during our contemplation of the universe, one of the most magnificent
and imposing is undoubtedly that which we are now going to consider.

The hirsute comets, and shooting stars with their graceful flight,
captivate us with a mysterious and sometimes fantastic attraction. We
gladly allow our thoughts, mute questioners of the mysteries of the
firmament, to rest upon the brilliant, golden trail they leave behind
them. These unknown travelers bring a message from eternity; they tell
us the tale of their distant journeys. Children of space, their ethereal
beauty speaks of the immensity of the universe.

The eclipses, on the other hand, are phenomena that touch us more
nearly, and take place in our vicinity.

In treating of them, we remain between the Earth and the Moon, in our
little province, and witness the picturesque effects of the combined
movements of our satellite around us.

H