belief arose that changes in the weather were occasioned by the
moon. [343] That the notion lives on, and will not soon die, is clear
to any one who is conversant with current literature and common
folk-lore. Even intelligent, well-informed people lend it
countenance. Professor Newcomb, of Washington, rightly says:
"Thus far there is no evidence that the moon directly affects the
earth or its inhabitants in any other way than by her attraction,
which is so minute as to be entirely insensible except in the ways we
have described. A striking illustration of the fallibility of the human
judgment when not disciplined by scientific training is afforded by
the opinions which have at various times obtained currency
respecting a supposed influence of the moon on the weather. Neither
in the reason of the case nor in observations do we find any real
support for such a theory. It must, however, be admitted that
opinions of this character are not confined to the uneducated." [344]
Mr. Edward B. Tylor holds similar language: "The notion that the
weather changes with the moon's quarterings is still held with great
vigour in England. That educated people to whom exact weather
records are accessible should still find satisfaction in the fanciful
lunar rule, is an interesting case of intellectual survival." [345] No
marvel that the "heathen Chinee" considers lunar observations as
forecasting scarcity of provisions he is but of the same blood with
his British brother, who takes his tea and sends him opium. "The
Hakkas (and also many Puntis) believe that if in the night of the
fifteenth day of the eighth month (mid autumn) there are clouds
obscuring the moon before midnight, it is a sign that oil and salt will
become very dear. If, however, there are clouds obscuring the moon
after midnight, the price of rice will, it is supposed, undergo a
similar change." [346]
One of our provincial proverbs is: "So many days old the moon is
on Michaelmas Day, so many floods after." Sometimes a proverb is
a short saying spoken after long experience; at other times it is a
small crystal left after a lengthy evaporation. In certain instances our
rural apothegms are sacred relics of extinct but canonized fictions.
An equally wise prediction is that if Christmas comes during a
waxing moon we shall have a very good year; and the nearer to the
new moon, the better. But if during a waning moon, a hard year; and
the nearer the end of the moon, so much the worse. Another sage
belief is that the condition of the weather is dependent upon the day
of the week upon which the new moon chances to fall. We are told
that "Dr. Forster, of Bruges, well known as a meteorologist, declares
that by the _Journal_ kept by his grandfather, father, and self, ever
since 1767, to the present time, whenever the new moon has fallen
on a _Saturday_, the following _twenty days_ have been wet and
windy, in nineteen cases out of twenty." [347] In Italy it is said, "If
the moon change on a Sunday, there will be a flood before the
month is out." New moon on Monday, or moon-day, is, of course,
everywhere held a sign of good weather and luck.
That a misty moon is a misfortune to the atmosphere is widely
supposed. In Scotland it is an agricultural maxim among the canny
farmers that--
"If the moon shows like a silver shield,
You need not be afraid to reap your field
But if she rises haloed round,
Soon we'll tread on deluged ground." [348]
Others say that a mist is unfavourable only with the new moon, not
with the old.
"An old moon in a mist
Is worth gold in a kist (chest)
But a new moon's mist
Will never lack thirst," [349]
is a rugged rhyme found in several places. In Cornwall the idea is
that--
"A fog and a small moon
Bring an easterly wind soon."
The east wind, as we know, is dry. Two of the Shepherd of
Banbury's rules are:
"xii. If mists in the new moon, rain in the old.
xiii. If mists in the old, rain in the new moon." [350]
One thing is a meteorological certainty: the full moon very
frequently clears the sky. But this may be partly accounted for by
the fact that a full moon shows the night to be clear, which in the
moon's absence might be called cloudy.
Another observation shows that in proportion to the clearness of the
night is its cold. The clouds covering the earth with no thick
blanket, it radiates its heat into space. This has given rise to the
notion that the moon itself reduces our temperature. It is _cold_ at
night without doubt. But the cold moon is so warm when the sun is
shining full on its disk that no creature on earth could endure a
moment's contact with its surface. The centre of the "pale-faced
moon" is hotter than boiling water. This thought may cheer us when
"the cold round moon shines deeply down." We may be pardoned if
we take with a tincture of scepticism the following statement
"Native Chinese records aver that on the 18th day of the 6th moon,
1590, snow fell one summer night from the midst of the moon. The
flakes were like fine willow flowers on shreds of silk." [351] Instead
of cold, it is more likely that the white moon gives us heat, for from
Melloni's letter to Arago it seems to be already an ascertained fact.
Having concentrated the lunar rays with a lens of over three feet
diameter upon his thermoscopic pile, Melloni found that the needle
had deviated from 0 deg. 6' to 4 deg. 8', according to the lunar phase. Other
thermoscopes may give even larger indications; but meanwhile the
Italian physicist has exploded an error with a spark of science.
"Another weather guide connected with the moon is, that to see 'the
old moon in the arms of the new one' is reckoned a sign of fine
weather; and so is the turning up of the horns of the new moon. In
this position it is supposed to retain the water, which is imagined to
be in it, and which would run out if the horns were turned down."
[352] On this novel idea of a lunar bason or saucer, Southey writes
from "Keswick, December 29th, 1828," as follows:--"Poor
Littledale has this day explained the cause of our late rains, which
have prevailed for the last six weeks, by a theory which will
probably be as new to you as it is to me. 'I have observed,' he says,
'that, when the moon is turned upward, we have fine weather after
it; but if it is turned down, then we have a wet season; and the
reason I think is, that when it is turned down, it holds no water, like
a bason, you know, and then down it all comes.' There, it will be a
long while before the march of intellect shall produce a theory as
original as this, which I find, upon inquiry, to be the popular opinion
here." [353] George Eliot has taken notice of this fancy in the burial
of "poor old Thias Bede." "They'll ha' putten Thias Bede i' the
ground afore ye get to the churchyard," said old Martin, as his son
came up. "It 'ud ha' been better luck if they'd ha' buried him i' the
forenoon when the rain was fallin'; there's no likelihoods of a drop
now, an' the moon lies like a boat there, dost see? That's a sure sign
o' fair weather; there's a many as is false, but that's sure." [354]
In Dekker's _Match Me in London_, Act i., the King says, "My
Lord, doe you see this change in the moone? Sharp hornes doe
threaten windy weather."
In the famous ballad of Sir Patrick Spens, concerning whose origin
there has been so much discussion, without eliciting any very
accurate information, we read:
"O ever alack! my master dear,
I fear a deadly storm.
I saw the new moon late yestreen,
Wi' the auld moon in her arm
And if ye gang to sea, maister,
I fear we'll suffer harm." [355]
Jamieson informs us that "prognostications concerning the weather,
during the course of the month, are generally formed by the country
people in Scotland from the appearance of the _new moon_. It is
considered as an almost infallible presage of bad weather, if she
_lies sair on her back_, or when her horns are pointed towards the
zenith. It is a similar prognostic, when the new moon appears _wi'
the auld moon in her arm_, or, in other words, when that part of the
moon which is covered with the shadow of the earth is seen through
it." [356] The last sentence is a _lapsus calami_. Dr. Jamieson
should have said, when that part of the moon which is turned from
the sun is dimly visible through the reflected light of the earth.
"At Whitby, when the moon is surrounded by a halo with watery
clouds, the seamen say that there will be a change of weather, for
the 'moon dogs' are about." [357] At Ulceby, in Lincolnshire, "there
is a very prevalent belief amongst sailors and seafaring men that
when a large star or planet is seen near the moon, or, as they express
it, 'a big star is dogging the moon,' that this is a certain
prognostication of wild weather. I have met old sailors having the
strongest faith in this prediction, and who have told me that they
have verified it by a long course of observation." [358]
"Some years ago," says a writer from Torquay, "an old fisherman of
this place told me, on the morning next after a violent gale, that he
had foreseen the storm for some time, as he had observed one star
ahead of the moon, towing her, and another astern, chasing her. 'I
know'd 'twas coming, safe enough.'" [359] The moon was simply in
apparent proximity to two stars; but the old Devonian descried
mischief.
The following incident from Zulu life will be of interest. "1878. A
curious phenomenon occurred 7th January. A bright star appeared
near the moon at noonday, the sun shining brightly. _Omen_--The
natives from this foretold the coming war with the Amazulu. Intense
heat and drought prevailed at this time." [360]
Hitherto we have reviewed only the imaginary influences of the
moon over inanimate nature and what are called irrational beings.
We have seen that this potent orb is supposed to affect the lightning
and thunder of the air; the rocks and seas, the vegetables and
animals of the earth; and generally to govern terrestrial matters in a
manner altogether its own. Furthermore, we have found these
imaginations rooted in all lands, and among men whose culture
might have been expected to refuse such fruitless excrescences.
When classical authors counsel us to set eggs under the hen at new
moon, and to root up trees only when the moon is waning and after
mid-day; and when "the wisest, brightest," if not the "meanest of
mankind" seriously attributes to the moon the extraction of heat, the
furtherance of putrification, the increase of moisture, and the
excitement of animal spirits, with the increase of hedges and herbs
if cut or set during certain phases of that body, we can but repeat to
ourselves the saying, "The best of men are but men at the best." The
half, however, has not been told; and we must now pass on to speak
of lunar influences upon the birth, health, intellect, and fortune of
microcosmical man.
In the system of astrology, which professed to interpret the events of
human existence by the movements of the stars, the moon was one
of the primary planets. As man was looked upon in the light of a
microcosm, or world in miniature, so the several parts of his
constitution were viewed as but a reproduction in brief of the great
parts of the vast organism. Creation was a living, intelligent being,
whose two eyes were the sun and the moon, whose body was the
earth, whose intellect was the ether, whose wings were the heavens.
Man was an epitome of all this; and as the functions of the less were
held to correspond with the functions of the greater, the microcosm
with the macrocosm, man's movements could be inferred by first
ascertaining the motions of the universe. The moon, having
dominion in the twelve "houses" of heaven, through which she
passed in the course of the year, her _aspects_ to the other bodies
were considered as of prime significance, in indicating benignant or
malignant influences upon human life. This system, which was
based upon ignorance and superstition, and upheld by arbitrary rules
and unreasoning credulity, is so repugnant to all principles of
science and common sense, that it would be unworthy of notice, if
we did not know that to this day there are educated persons still to
be seen poring over old almanacs and peering into the darkness of
divination, to read their own fortune or that of their children by the
dim light of some lucky or unlucky configuration of the planets with
the moon. The wheel of fortune yet revolves, and the despotism of
astrology is not dead. The lunar influence is considered supreme in
the hour of birth. Nay, with some the moon is potential even before
birth. In Iceland it is said: "If a pregnant woman sit with her face
turned towards the moon, her child will be a lunatic." [361] And this
imagination obtains at home as well as abroad. We are told that
"astrologers ascribe the most powerful influence to the moon on
every person, both for success and health, according to her zodiacal
and mundane position at birth, and her aspects to other planets. The
sensual faculties depend almost entirely on the moon, and as she is
aspected so are the moral or immoral tendencies. She has great
influence always upon every person's constitution." [362] This is the
doctrine of a book published not thirty years ago. Another work,
issued also in London, says, "Cynthia, 'the queen of heaven,' as the
ancients termed her, or the MOON, the companion of the earth, and
chief source of our evening light, is a cold, moist, watery,
phlegmatic planet, variable to an extreme, in astrological science;
and partaking of good or evil, as she is aspected by good or evil
stars. When angular and unafflicted in a nativity, she is the
promissory pledge of great success in life and continual good
fortune. She produces a full stature, fair, pale complexion, round
face, gray eyes, short arms, thick hands and feet, smooth, corpulent,
and phlegmatic body. Blemishes in the eyes, or a peculiar weakness
in the sight, is the result of her being afflicted by the Sun. Her
conjunction, semi-sextile, sextile, or trine, to Jupiter, is exceeding
fortunate; and she is said by the old Astrologers to govern the
_brain_, _stomach_, _bowels_, _left eye_ of the male, and _right
eye_ of the female. Her usual diseases are rheumatism, consumption,
palsy, cholic, apoplexy, vertigo, lunacy, scrophula, smallpox,
dropsy, etc.; also most diseases peculiar to young children."
[363] Such teaching is not a whit in advance of Plutarch's odd
dictum that the moon has a "special hand in the birth of children."
If this belief have disciples in London, it is not by any means
confined to that city. In Sweden great influence is ascribed to the
moon, not only in regulating the weather, but as affecting all the
affairs of man's daily life. The lower orders, and many of the better
sort, will not fell a tree for agricultural purposes in the wane of that
orb, lest it should shrink and decay; nor will the housewife then
slaughter for her family, lest the meat should shrivel and melt away
in the pot. The moon is the domestic deity, whom the household
must fear: the Fortuna who presides over the daily doings of
sublunary mortals. In the matter of birth, we find Francis Bacon
affirming that "the calculation of nativities, fortunes, good or bad
hours of business, and the like fatalities, are mere levities that have
little in them of certainty and solidity, and may be plainly confuted
by physical reasons"; [364] and yet in his Natural History he writes:
"It may be that children and young cattle that are brought forth in
the full of the moon, are stronger and larger than those that are
brought forth in the wane." [365] There surely can be no
superstition in studying the moon's conjunctions and oppositions if
her influence in a nativity have the slightest weight. And this
influence is still widely maintained by philosophers who read
Bacon, as well as by the peasants who read nothing at all. "In
Cornwall, when a child is born in the interval between an old moon
and the first appearance of a new one, it is said that it will never live
to reach the age of puberty. Hence the saying, 'no moon, no man.' In
the same county, too, when a boy is born in the wane of the moon, it
is believed that the next birth will be a girl, and vice versa; and it is
also commonly said that when a birth takes place on the 'growing of
the moon' the next child will be of the same sex." [366]
As a natural proceeding, we find that the moon has influence when
the child is weaned. Caledonian mothers very carefully observe the
lunar phases on this account. Jamieson tells us that "this
superstition, with respect to the fatal influence of a waning moon,
seems to have been general in Scotland. In Angus, it is believed,
that, if a child be put from the breast during the waning of the moon,
it will decay all the time that the moon continues to wane." [367] So
in the heart of Europe, "the Lithuanian precept to wean boys at a
waxing, but girls on a waning moon, no doubt to make the boys
sturdy and the girls slim and delicate, is a fair match for the Orkney
Islanders' objection to marrying except with a growing moon, while
some even wish for a flowing tide." [368] As to marriage, the
ancient Greeks considered the day of the full moon the most
propitious period for that ceremony. In Euripides, Clytemnestra
having asked Agamemnon when he intended to give Iphigenia in
marriage to Achilles, he replies, "When the full moon comes forth
with good luck." In Pindar, too, this season is preferred. [369]
Lunar influences over physical health and disease must be a fearful
contemplation to those who are of a superstitious turn. There is no
malady within the whole realm of pathology which the moon's
destroying angel cannot inflict; and from the crown of the head to
the sole of the foot the entire man is at the mercy of her beams. We
have all seen those disgusting woodcuts to which the following just
condemnation refers: "The moon's influence on parts of the human
body, as given in some old-fashioned almanacs, is an entire
_fallacy_; it is most untrue and absurd, often indecent, and is a
discredit to the age we live in." [370] Most of these inartistic
productions are framed upon the assumption of the old alchymists
that the physiological functions were regulated by planetary
influence. The sun controlled the heart, the moon the brain, Jupiter
the lungs, Saturn the spleen, Mars the liver, Venus the kidneys, and
Mercury the reproductive powers. But even with this distribution
among the heavenly bodies the moon was allowed plenipotentiary
sway. As in mythology it is the god or goddess of water, so in
astrology it is the embodiment of moisture, and therefore rules the
humours which circulate throughout the human system. No wonder
that phlebotomy prevailed so long as the reign of the moon endured.
"This lunar planet," says La Martiniere, "is damp of itself, but, by
the radiation of the sun, is of various temperaments, as follows: in
its first quadrant it is warm and damp, at which time it is good to let
the blood of sanguine persons; in its second it is warm and dry, at
which time it is good to bleed the choleric; in its third quadrant it is
cold and moist, and phlegmatic people may be bled; and in its fourth
it is cold and dry, at which time it is well to bleed the melancholic."
Whatever the moon's phase may be, let blood be shed! We are
reminded here of that sanguifluous theology, which even Christians
of a certain temperament seem to enjoy, while they sing of fountains
filled with blood: as though a God of love could take delight in the
effusion of precious life. La Martiniere continues, and physicians
will make a note of his words: "It is a thing quite necessary to those
who meddle with medicine to understand the movement of this
planet, in order to discern the causes of sickness. And as the moon is
often in conjunction with Saturn, many attribute to it apoplexy,
paralysis, epilepsy, jaundice, hydropsy, lethargy, catapory,
catalepsy, colds, convulsions, trembling of the limbs, etc., etc. I
have noticed that this planet has such enormous power over living
creatures, that children born at the first quarter of the declining
moon are more subject to illness, so that children born when there is
no moon, if they live, are weak, delicate, and sickly, or are of little
mind or idiots. Those who are born under the house of the moon
which is Cancer, are of a phlegmatic disposition." [371]
That the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans believed in the
deleterious influence of the moon on the health of man, is very
evident. The Talmud refers the words, "Though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death" (Ps. xxiii. 4) "to him who sleeps in
the shadow of the moon." [372] Another Psalm (cxxi. 6) reads,
literally, "By day the sun shall not smite thee, and the moon in the
night." In the Greek Testament we find further proof of this belief.
Among those who thronged the Great Teacher (Matt. iv. 24) were
the seleniaxomenoi (_lunatici_, Beza; _i lunatici_, Diodati; _les
lunatiques_, French version; "those who were lunatick"). The
Revised Version of 1881 reads "epileptic," but that is a comment, not
a translation. So again (Matt. xvii. 15) we read of a boy who was
"lunatick"--seleniaxetai. On which Archbishop Trench remarks,
"Of course the word originally, like mania (from mene) and
lunaticus, arose from the widespread belief of the evil influence of
the moon on the human frame." [373] Jerome attributes all this
superstition to daemons, of which men were the dupes. "The
_lunatics_," he says, "were not really smitten by the moon, but were
believed to be so, through the subtlety of the daemons, who by
observing the seasons of the moon sought to bring an evil report
against the creature, that it might redound to the blasphemy of the
Creator." [374] Demons or no demons, faith in moonstroke is clear
enough. Pliny was of opinion that the moon induced drowsiness and
stupor in those who slept under her beams. Galen, in the second
century, taught that those who were born when the moon was
falciform, or sickle-shaped, were weak and short-lived, while those
born during the full moon were vigorous and of long life. He also
took notice of the lunar influence in epilepsy [375] of which fearful
malady a modern physician writes, "This disease has been known
from the earliest antiquity, and is remarkable as being that malady
which, even beyond insanity, was made the foundation of the
doctrine of possession by evil spirits, alike in the Jewish, Grecian,
and Roman philosophy." [376] The terrible disorder was a fact; and
evil spirits or the moon had to bear the blame.