14. The mass of the moon is always equal, and the motion of the moon is constant. The moon passes daily and regularly through all the meridians of the heavens, or over the longitudes of all the portions of the earth; and the action of the tides, or the changes in the heights of the ocean in all its different parts, are regular and daily also. There is consistency, therefore, at the least, in supposing a connection between the regular daily changes of place of the moon, and the regular daily changes of the heights of the parts of the ocean, or the rise and fall of the tides; but what is there reasonably to connect the changes of only the light of the moon, with the changes of the wind and weather?

15. The action, both of the mass of the moon and of the light of the moon, is equal over all parts of the earth; but the winds and weather are regular upon some parts of the earth, and irregular upon others. Can the equal action of the mass and of light of the moon in all parts, be the equal cause of the regularity in one place, and of the irregularity in another?

16. I have said more to my little readers, about the complicated question of the influence of the moon upon the changes of the weather, than I should have permitted myself, if it had not seemed to me that the points which I have thus brought forward will greatly help them in their reflections upon the nature and history of the moon, and consequently in their knowledge of both. But I have some things still to add, about

the light of the moon, which I reserve for my next chapter. The light of the moon (the sole subject of change in the moon) is certainly a powerful agent in nature, or has powerful influences upon the earth and most things that belong to it; but is it only to changes of the light of the moon, that changes of wind and weather are usually ascribed; and can these changes of the light of the moon (regular all over the earth) be the causes of the changes of wind and weather, regular upon some parts of the earth, and irregular upon others?

CHAPTER XI.

MORE ABOUT MOONLIGHT AND ITS INFLUENCES. ABOUT THE FREEZING INFLUENCE OF MOONLIGHT. ABOUT THE NATURE OF FROST, OR PHENOMENON OF FREEZING. ABOUT CRYSTALLIZATION. M. BECQUEREL AND MR. CROSSE. ABOUT PLAYING AND DANCING BY MOONLIGHT.

1. I HAVE said that even the light of the moon is confessedly a powerful agent in nature; or that, in other words, it has powerful influences upon the earth, and upon most of the things belonging to the earth. I am not going to talk much upon that large subject; but only to mention a striking and beneficent example.

2. Would you believe that light is able to freeze, as well as to warm, the objects which it falls upon? Yet this is said to be the operation, in certain circumstances, of the light of the moon! You must hear me patiently.

3. Very odd things, indeed, are said, and have always been said, of the light of the moon; and, in truth, it is right I should tell you, that all things bad and disagreeable have been ascribed to it, as well as all things agreeable, beneficent, and good.

4. But its freezing, with respect to things proper to be frozen, is esteemed a good. The frosts in the early spring, of which, as to many of their effects, we often complain, are really of great value to the growth of plants. For the moonlight nights in spring cause water to freeze before it is cold enough to freeze in the dark; and thus we have the benefit of frost without exposure to great cold!

5. The buds and leaves of plants, if exposed, on a clear night, to the full moon, are found to be frozen, though the thermometer remains many degrees above the freezing point!

6. I must here, however, add a word or two upon what I have said of the coldness or comparative absence of heat, in the light of the moon, with reference to its established crystallizing or freezing power.

7. The act of freezing is the act of forming crystals of the matter of fluids. But, according to M. Becquerel, who succeeded in the electrical formation of many crystals, light is one of the elements required for crystallization.

8. Cold is only the absence of heat. Fluids, then, being cold through the absence of the sun, is it the light without heat of the moon, which causes them to freeze?

9. But Mr. Crosse, who, with others, has followed the track of M. Becquerel, (and who, with so much modesty, has made such extraordinary advances in modern science,) declares light to be unfavourable to the production of crystals; and thus, if he is right upon that subject, he overturns my attempt to refer the freezing influence of moonlight to that light unaccompanied by heat.

10. What has been called the coldness of the light of the moon, must be only this: that the moon shines in the absence of the sun, and that its light (that is, comparatively speaking,) is without heat.

11. I shall tell you more of this freezing or crystallizing power of the light of the moon; but now let me close this chapter by calling to all our recollections the

merry play of "boys and girls" by moonlight, when, as the song says,

and yet recommending you not entirely to forget those ill stories of moonlight to which I have alluded; and which make it probable, that such as very much indulge in the beauty and cheerfulness of that light abroad, should, at the same time, be hearty, and be taking exercise.

REPRESENTED.

CHAPTER XII.

TELESCOPIC DISCOVERIES IN THE MOON. SIR JOHN HERSCHEL MISIMPERFECTIONS OF TELESCOPES INCREASING WITH THEIR POWERS. THE MONSTER IN THE HEAVENS. THE STORY OF THE POOR HOUSE-FLY.

1. I HAVE given you some account of the geographical, and even geological, discoveries which Sir John Herschel believes himself to have made, by means of his telescope, in the moon. I have also told you of the mountain-scenery, described by Sir David Brewster, upon the surface of that satellite of the earth.

2. Whether Sir John Herschel has been in any degree too hasty in persuading himself of the reality of what he believes himself to see, is more than your friend Parley can presume to say; but some of his statements have been attacked in France, and ridiculed, in the form of mock productions from his pen, in the United States of North America. In the latter country, a well-written pamphlet, entitled a "Supplement to the Edinburgh Journal of Science," was filled with a pretended account of lunar discoveries by Sir John;