the hydro-oxygen, be applied to render distinct, and, if necessary, even
to magnify, the focal object?" Sir David sprung from his chair' [and
well he might, though not] 'in an ecstasy of conviction, and, leaping
half-way to the ceiling, exclaimed, "Thou art the man!" Each philosopher
anticipated the other in presenting the prompt illustration that if the
rays of the hydro-oxygen microscope, passed through a drop of water
containing the larvae of a gnat and other objects invisible to the naked
eye, rendered them not only keenly but firmly magnified to dimensions of
many feet; so could the same artificial light, passed through the
faintest focal object of a telescope, both distinctify (to coin a new
word for an extraordinary occasion) and magnify its feeblest component
members. The only apparent desideratum was a recipient for the focal
image which should transfer it, without refranging it, to the surface on
which it was to be viewed under the revivifying light of the microscopic
reflectors.'
Singularly enough, the idea here mentioned does not appear to many so
absurd as it is in reality. It is known that the image formed by the
large lens of an ordinary telescope or the large mirror of a reflecting
telescope is a real image; not a merely virtual image like that which is
seen in a looking-glass. It can be received on a sheet of paper or other
white surface just as the image of surrounding objects can be thrown
upon the white table of the camera obscura. It is this real image, in
fact, which we look at in using a telescope of any sort, the portion of
such a telescope nearest to the eye being in reality a microscope for
viewing the image formed by the great lens or mirror, as the case may
be. And it does not seem to some altogether absurd to speak of
illuminating this image by transfused light, or of casting by means of
an illuminating microscope a vastly enlarged picture of this image upon
a screen. But of course the image being simply formed by the passage of
rays (which originally came from the object whose image they form)
through a certain small space, to send _other_ rays (coming from some
other luminous object) through the same small space, is not to improve,
but, so far as any effect is produced at all, to impair, the
distinctness of the image. In fact, if these illuminating rays reached
the eye, they would seriously impair the distinctness of the image.
Their effect may be compared exactly with the effect of rays of light
cast upon the image in a camera obscura; and, to see what the effect of
such rays would be, we need only consider why it is that the camera _is_
made 'obscura,' or dark. The effect of the transfusion of light through
a telescopic image may be easily tried by any one who cares to make the
experiment. He has only to do away with the tube of his telescope
(substituting two or three straight rods to hold the glass in its
place), and then in the blaze of a strong sun to direct the telescope on
some object lying nearly towards the sun. Or if he prefer artificial
light for the experiment, then at night let him direct the telescope so
prepared upon the moon, while a strong electric light is directed upon
the place where the focal image is formed (close in front of the eye).
The experiment will not suggest very sanguine hopes of good result from
the transfusion of artificial light. Yet, to my own knowledge, not a few
who were perfectly well aware that the lunar hoax was not based on
facts, have gravely reasoned that the principle suggested might be
sound, and, in fact, that they could see no reason why astronomers
should not try it, even though it had been first suggested as a joke.
To return, however, to the narrative. 'The co-operative philosophers,
having hit upon their method, determined to test it practically. They
decided that a medium of the purest plate-glass (which it is said they
obtained, by consent, be it observed, from the shop-window of M.
Desanges, the jeweller to his ex-majesty Charles X., in High Street) was
the most eligible they could discover. It answered perfectly with a
telescope which magnified a hundred times, and a microscope of about
thrice that power.' Thus fortified by experiment, and 'fully sanctioned
by the high optical authority of Sir David Brewster, Sir John laid his
plan before the Royal Society, and particularly directed to it the
attention of his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, the ever munificent
patron of science and the arts. It was immediately and enthusiastically
approved by the committee chosen to investigate it, and the chairman,
who was the Royal President' (this continual reference to royalty is
manifestly intended to give a British tone to the narrative),
'subscribed his name for a contribution of L10,000, with a promise that
he would zealously submit the proposed instrument as a fit object for
the patronage of the privy purse. He did so without delay; and his
Majesty, on being informed that the estimated expense was L70,000,
naively enquired if the costly instrument would conduce to any
improvement in _navigation_. On being informed that it undoubtly would,
the sailor king promised a _carte blanche_ for any amount which might be
required.'
All this is very clever. The 'sailor king' comes in as effectively to
give _vraisemblance_ to the narrative as 'Crabtree's little bronze
Shakspeare that stood over the fireplace,' and the 'postman just come to
the door with a double letter from Northamptonshire.'
Then comes a description of the construction of the object-glass,
twenty-four feet in diameter, 'just six times the size of the elder
Herschel's;' who, by the way, never made a telescope with an
object-glass. The account of Sir John Herschel's journey from England,
and even some details of the construction of the observatory, were based
on facts, indeed, so many persons in America as well as in England were
acquainted with some of these circumstances, that it was essential to
follow the facts as closely as possible. Of course, also, some
explanation had to be given of the circumstance that nothing had before
been heard respecting the gigantic instrument taken out by Sir John
Herschel. 'Whether,' says the story, 'the British Government were
sceptical concerning the promised splendour of the discoveries, or
wished them to be scrupulously veiled until they had accumulated a
full-orbed glory for the nation and reign in which they originated, is a
question which we can only conjecturally solve. But certain it is that
the astronomer's royal patrons enjoined a masonic taciturnity upon him
and his friends until he should have officially communicated the results
of his great experiment.'
It was not till the night of January 10, 1835, that the mighty telescope
was at length directed towards our satellite. The part of the moon
selected was on the eastern part of her disc. 'The whole immense power
of the telescope was applied, and to its focal image about one half of
the power of the microscope. On removing the screen of the latter, the
field of view was covered throughout its entire area with a beautifully
distinct and even vivid representation of _basaltic rock_. Its colour
was a greenish brown; and the width of the columns, as defined by their
interstices on the canvas, was invariably twenty-eight inches. No
fracture whatever appeared in the mass first presented; but in a few
seconds a shelving pile appeared, of five or six columns' width, which
showed their figure to be hexagonal, and their articulations similar to
those of the basaltic formation at Staffa. This precipitous cliff was
profusely covered with a dark red flower, precisely similar, says Dr.
Grant, to the Papaver Rhoeus, or Rose Poppy, of our sublunary
cornfields; and this was the first organic production of nature in a
foreign world ever revealed to the eyes of men.'
It would be wearisome to go through the whole series of observations
thus fabled, and only a few of the more striking features need be
indicated. The discoveries are carefully graduated in interest. Thus we
have seen how, after recognising basaltic formations, the observers
discovered flowers: they next see a lunar forest, whose 'trees were of
one unvaried kind, and unlike any on earth except the largest kind of
yews in the English churchyards.' (There is an American ring in this
sentence, by the way, as there is in one, a few lines farther on, where
the narrator having stated that by mistake the observers had the Sea of
Clouds instead of a more easterly spot in the field of view, proceeds to
say: 'However, the moon was a free country, and we not as yet attached
to any particular province.') Next a lunar ocean is described, 'the
water nearly as blue as that of the deep sea, and breaking in large
white billows upon the strand, while the action of very high tides was
quite manifest upon the face of the cliffs for more than a hundred
miles.' After a description of several valleys, hills, mountains and
forests, we come to the discovery of animal life. An oval valley
surrounded by hills, red as the purest vermilion, is selected as the
scene. 'Small collections of trees, of every imaginable kind, were
scattered about the whole of this luxuriant area; and here our
magnifiers blessed our panting hopes with specimens of conscious
existence. In the shade of the woods we beheld brown quadrupeds having
all the external characteristics of the bison, but more diminutive than
any species of the bos genus in our natural history.' Then herds of
agile creatures like antelopes are described, 'abounding on the
acclivitous glades of the woods.' In the contemplation of these
sprightly animals the narrator becomes quite lively. 'This beautiful
creature,' says he, 'afforded us the most exquisite amusement. The
mimicry of its movements upon our white painted canvas was as faithful
and luminous as that of animals within a few yards of the camera
obscura. Frequently, when attempting to put our fingers upon its beard,
it would suddenly bound away as if conscious of our earthly
impertinence; but then others would appear, whom we could not prevent
nibbling the herbage, say or do to them what we would.'
A strange amphibious creature, of a spherical form, rolling with great
velocity along a pebbly beach, is the next object of interest, but is
presently lost sight of in a strong current setting off from the angle
of an island. After this there are three or four pages descriptive of
various lunar scenes and animals, the latter showing a tendency,
singular considering the circumstances, though very convenient for the
narrator, to become higher and higher in type as the discoveries
proceed, until an animal somewhat of the nature of the missing link is
discovered. It is found in the Endymion (a circular walled plain) in
company with a small kind of reindeer, the elk, the moose, and the
horned bear, and is described as the biped beaver. It 'resembles the
beaver of the earth in every other respect than in its destitution of a
tail, and its invariable habit of walking upon only two feet. It carries
its young in its arms like a human being, and moves with an easy gliding
motion. Its huts are constructed better and higher than those of many
tribes of human savages, and, from the appearance of smoke in nearly all
of them, there is no doubt of its being acquainted with the use of fire.
Still, its head and body differ only in the points stated from that of
the beaver; and it was never seen except on the borders of lakes and
rivers, in which it has been observed to immerse for a period of several
seconds.'
The next step towards the climax brings us to domestic animals, 'good
large sheep, which would not have disgraced the farms of Leicestershire
or the shambles of Leadenhall Market; we fairly laughed at the
recognition of so familiar an acquaintance in so distant a land.
Presently they appeared in great numbers, and, on reducing the lenses,
we found them in flocks over a great part of the valley. I need not say
how desirous we were of finding shepherds to these flocks, and even a
man with blue apron and rolled-up sleeves would have been a welcome
sight to us, if not to the sheep; but they fed in peace, lords of their
own pastures, without either protector or destroyer in human shape.'
In the meantime, discussion had arisen as to the lunar locality where
men, or creatures resembling them, would most likely be found. Herschel
had a theory on the subject--viz., that just where the balancing or
libratory swing of the moon brings into view the greatest extent beyond
the eastern or western parts of that hemisphere which is turned
earthwards in the moon's mean or average position, lunar inhabitants
would probably be found, and nowhere else. This, by the way (speaking
seriously), is a rather curious anticipation of a view long subsequently
advanced by Hansen, and for a time adopted by Sir J. Herschel, that
possibly the remote hemisphere of the moon may be a fit abode for living
creatures, the oceans and atmosphere which are wanting on the nearer
hemisphere having been (on this hypothesis) drawn over to the remoter
because of a displacement of the moon's centre of gravity. I ventured in
one of my first books on astronomy to indicate objections to this
theory, the force of which Sir J. Herschel admitted in a letter
addressed to me on the subject.
Taking, then, an opportunity when the moon had just swung to the extreme
limit of her balancing, or, to use technical terms, when she had
attained her maximum libration in longitude, the observers approached
the level opening to Lake Langrenus, as the narrator calls this fine
walled plain, which, by the way, is fully thirty degrees of lunar
longitude within the average western limit of the moon's visible
hemisphere. 'Here the valley narrows to a mile in width, and displays
scenery on both sides picturesque and romantic beyond the powers of a
prose description. Imagination, borne on the wings of poetry, could
alone gather similes to portray the wild sublimity of this landscape,
where dark behemoth crags stood over the brows of lofty precipices, as
if a rampart in the sky; and forests seemed suspended in mid-air. On the
eastern side there was one soaring crag, crested with trees, which hung
over in a curve like three-fourths of a Gothic arch, and being of a rich
crimson colour, its effect was most strange upon minds unaccustomed to
the association of such grandeur with such beauty. But, whilst gazing
upon them in a perspective of about half a mile, we were thrilled with
astonishment to perceive four successive flocks of large winged
creatures, wholly unlike any kind of birds, descend with a slow even
motion from the cliffs on the western side and alight upon the plain.
They were first noticed by Dr. Herschel, who exclaimed: "Now, gentlemen,
my theories against your proofs, which you have often found a pretty
even bet, we have here something worth looking at. I was confident that
if ever we found beings in human shape it would be in this longitude,
and that they would be provided by their Creator with some extraordinary
powers of locomotion." ... We counted three parties of these creatures,
of twelve, nine, and fifteen in each, walking erect towards a small wood
near the base of the eastern precipices. Certainly they _were_ like
human beings, for their wings had now disappeared, and their attitude in
walking was both erect and dignified.... They averaged four feet in
height, were covered, except on the face, with short and glossy
copper-coloured hair, lying snugly upon their backs, from the top of the
shoulders to the calves of the legs. The face, which was of a yellowish
flesh colour, was a slight improvement upon that of the large orang
outang, being more open and intelligent in its expression, and having a
much greater expansion of forehead. The mouth, however, was very
prominent, though somewhat relieved by a thick beard upon the lower jaw,
and by lips far more human than those of any species of the simia genus.
In general symmetry of body and limbs they were infinitely superior to
the orang outang; so much so, that, but for their long wings, Lieutenant
Drummond said they would look as well on a parade ground as some of the
old Cockney militia.... These creatures were evidently engaged in
conversation; their gesticulation, more particularly the varied action
of their hands and arms, appeared impassioned and emphatic. We hence
inferred that they were rational beings, and, although not perhaps of so
high an order as others which we discovered the next month on the shores
of the Bay of Rainbows, that they were capable of producing works of art
and contrivance.... They possessed wings of great expansion, similar in
construction to those of the bat, being a semi-transparent membrane
united in curvilinear divisions by means of straight radii, united at
the back by the dorsal integuments. But what astonished us very much
was the circumstance of this membrane being continued from the shoulders
to the legs, united all the way down, though gradually decreasing in
width' (very much as Fuseli depicted the wings of his Satanic Majesty,
though H.S.M. would seem to have the advantage of the lunar Bat-men in
not being influenced by gravity[48]). 'The wings seemed completely under
the command of volition, for those of the creatures whom we saw bathing
in the water spread them instantly to their full width, waved them as
ducks do theirs to shake off the water, and then as instantly closed
them again in a compact form. Our further observation of the habits of
these creatures, who were of both sexes, led to results so very
remarkable, that I prefer they should be first laid before the public in
Dr. Herschel's own work, where I have reason to know they are fully and
faithfully stated, however incredulously they may be received.... We
scientifically denominated them the Vespertilio-homo or Bat-man; and
they are doubtless innocent and happy creatures, notwithstanding that
some of their amusements would but ill comport with our terrestrial
notions of decorum.' The omitted passages were suppressed in obedience
to Dr. Grant's private injunction. 'These, however, and other prohibited
passages,' were to be presently 'published by Dr. Herschel, with the
certificates of the civil and military authorities of the colony, and of
several Episcopal, Wesleyan, and other ministers, who in the month of
March last were permitted, under stipulation of temporary secrecy, to
visit the observatory, and become eye-witnesses of the wonders which
they were requested to attest. We are confident that his forthcoming
volumes will be at once the most sublime in science, and the most
intense in general interest, that ever issued from the press.'
The actual climax of the narrative, however, is not yet reached. The
inhabitants of Langrenus, though rational, do not belong to the highest
orders of intelligent Lunarians. Herschel, ever ready with theories, had
pointed out that probably the most cultivated races would be found
residing on the slopes of some active volcano, and, in particular, that
the proximity of the flaming mountain Bullialdus (about twenty degrees
south and ten east of the vast crater Tycho, the centre whence extend
those great radiations which give to the moon something of the
appearance of a peeled orange) 'must be so great a local convenience to
dwellers in this valley during the long periodical absence of solar
light, as to render it a place of popular resort for the inhabitants of
all the adjacent regions, more especially as its bulwark of hills
afforded an infallible security against any volcanic eruption that could
occur.' Our observers therefore applied their full power to explore it.
'Rich, indeed, was our reward. The very first object in this valley that
appeared upon our canvas was a magnificent work of art. It was a
temple--a fane of devotion or of science, which, when consecrated to the
Creator, is devotion of the loftiest order, for it exhibits His
attributes purely, free from the masquerade attire and blasphemous
caricature of controversial creeds, and has the seal and signature of
His own hand to sanction its aspirations. It was an equi-angular temple,
built of polished sapphire, or of some resplendent blue stone, which,
like it, displayed a myriad point of golden light twinkling and
scintillating in the sunbeams.... The roof was composed of yellow metal,
and divided into three compartments, which were not triangular planes
inclining to the centre, but subdivided, curved, and separated so as to
present a mass of violently agitated flames rising from a common source
of conflagration, and terminating in wildly waving points. This design
was too manifest and too skilfully executed to be mistaken for a single
moment. Through a few openings in these metallic flames we perceived a
large sphere of a darker kind of metal nearly of a clouded copper
colour, which they enclosed and seemingly raged around, as if
hieroglyphically consuming it.... What did the ingenious builders mean
by the globe surrounded by flames? Did they, by this, record any past
calamity of _their_ world, or predict any future one of _ours_?' (Why,
by the way, should the past theory be assigned to the moon and the
future one to our earth?) 'I by no means despair of ultimately solving
not only these but a thousand other questions which present themselves
respecting the objects in this planet; for not the millionth part of her
surface has yet been explored, and we have been more desirous of
collecting the greatest possible number of new facts than of indulging
in speculative theories, however seductive to the imagination.'
After this we have an account of the behaviour of the Vespertilio-homo
at meals. 'They seemed eminently happy, and even polite; for individuals
would select large and bright specimens of fruit, and throw them
archwise across to some friend who had extracted the nutriment from
those scattered around him.' However, the lunar men are not on the whole
particularly interesting beings according to this account. 'So far as we
could judge, they spent their happy hours in collecting various fruits
in the woods, in eating, flying, bathing, and loitering about the
summits of precipices.' One may say of them what Huxley is reported to
have said of the spirits as described by spiritualists, that no student
of science would care to waste his time inquiring about such a stupid
set of people.
Such are the more interesting and characteristic portions of a
narrative, running in the original to forty or fifty large octavo pages.
In its day the story attracted a good deal of notice, and, even when
every one had learned the trick, many were still interested in a
_brochure_ which was so cleverly conceived and had deceived so many. To
this day the lunar hoax is talked of in America, where originally it had
its chief--or, one may rather say, its only real--success as a hoax. It
reached England too late to deceive any but those who were unacquainted
with Herschel's real doings, and no editors of public journals, I
believe, gave countenance to it at all. In America, on the contrary,
many editors gave the narrative a distinguished place in their columns.
Some indeed expressed doubts, and others followed the safe course of the
'Philadelphia Inquirer,' which informed its readers that 'after an
attentive perusal of the whole story they could decide for themselves;'
adding that, 'whether true or false, the narrative is written with
consummate ability and possesses intense interest.' But others were more
credulous. According to the 'Mercantile Advertiser' the story carried
'intrinsic evidence of being an authentic document.' The 'Albany Daily
Advertiser' had read the article 'with unspeakable emotions of pleasure
and astonishment.' The 'New York Times' announced that 'the writer (Dr.
Andrew Grant) displays the most extensive and accurate knowledge of
astronomy; and the description of Sir John's recently improved
instruments, the principle on which the inestimable improvements were
founded, the account of the wonderful discoveries in the moon, etc., all
are probable and plausible, and have an air of intense verisimilitude.'
The 'New Yorker' considered the discoveries 'of astounding interest,
creating a new era in astronomy and science generally.'[49]