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The Christian Philosopher; or, Science and Religion

Note V.—Remarks on the pretended discovery of a Lunar Fortification

Note V.—Remarks on the pretended discovery of a Lunar Fortification

The British public, not long ago, was amused by the announcement of a discovery said to have been made by Professor Frauenhofer of Munich. This gentleman was said to have discovered a fortification in the Moon, and to have distinguished several lines of roads, supposed to be the work of the lunar inhabitants. It is scarcely necessary to say, that such announcements are obviously premature. To perceive distinctly the shape of an object in the Moon, which resembles a fortification, it is requisite, that that object be of a much larger size than our terrestrial ramparts. Beside, although an object resembling one of our fortifications were perceived on the surface of the Moon, there would be no reason to conclude, that it served the same purpose as fortifications do among us. We are so much accustomed to war in our terrestrial system, and reflect so little on its diabolical nature, that we are apt to imagine that it must form a necessary employment even in other worlds. To be assured that a fortification existed in the Moon for the same purposes as with us, would indeed be dismal tidings from another world; for it would be a necessary conclusion, from such intelligence, that the inhabitants of that globe are actuated by the same principles of depravity, ambition, and revenge, which have infected the moral atmosphere of our sublunary world. With regard to the pretended discovery of the lunar roads, it may not be improper to remark, that such roads behooved to be at least 400 feet broad, or ten times the breadth of ours, in order to be perceived as faint lines through a telescope which magnifies a thousand times; which is a higher power, I presume, than Frauenhofer can apply with distinctness to any of his telescopes. It is not at all likely that the lunar inhabitants are of such a gigantic size, or employ carriages of such an enormous bulk, as to require roads of such dimensions, since the whole surface of the Moon is only the thirteenth part of the area of our globe.

Schroeter conjectures the existence of a great city to the north of Marius (a spot in the Moon), and of an extensive canal toward Hygena (another spot), and he represents part of the spot named Mare Imbrium, to be as fertile as the Campania. See Edin. Phil. Jour., No. 21, for July, 1824. Similar remarks to those now stated will apply to these conjectures of Schroeter. We are too apt to imagine, that the objects we perceive in the Moon must bear a certain resemblance to those with which we are acquainted on the Earth; whereas there is every reason to believe, from the variety we perceive in nature, that not one world resembles another, except in some of its more prominent and general arrangements. The moon bears a general resemblance to the Earth, in its being diversified with mountains and valleys; but the positions and arrangement of these objects in the Moon, and the scenery they exhibit, are materially different from what appears on the surface of the terraqueous globe.