The Moon-hoax; or the discovery that the moon has a vast population of
human beings. By Richard Adams Locke.[226] New York, 1859, 8vo.
This is a reprint of the hoax already mentioned. I suppose R. A. Locke is
the name assumed by M. Nicollet.[227] The publisher informs us that when
the hoax first appeared day by day in a morning paper, the circulation
increased fivefold, and the paper obtained a permanent footing. Besides
this, an edition of 60,000 was sold off in less than one month.
The discovery was also published under the name of A. R. Grant.[228]
Sohncke's[229] _Bibliotheca Mathematica_ confounds this Grant with Prof. R.
Grant[230] of Glasgow, the author of the _History of Physical Astronomy_,
who is accordingly made to guarantee the discoveries in the moon. I hope
Adams Locke will not merge in J. C. Adams,[231] the co-discoverer of
Neptune. Sohncke gives the titles of {132} three French translations of the
Moon hoax at Paris, of one at Bordeaux, and of Italian translations at
Parma, Palermo, and Milan.
A Correspondent, who is evidently fully master of details, which he has
given at length, informs me that the Moon hoax appeared first in the _New
York Sun_, of which R. A. Locke was editor. It so much resembled a story
then recently published by Edgar A. Poe, in a Southern paper, "Adventures
of Hans Pfaal," that some New York journals published the two side by side.
Mr. Locke, when he left the _New York Sun_, started another paper, and
discovered the manuscript of Mungo Park;[232] but this did not deceive. The
_Sun_, however, continued its career, and had a great success in an account
of a balloon voyage from England to America, in seventy-five hours, by Mr.
Monck Mason,[233] Mr. Harrison Ainsworth,[234] and others. I have no doubt
that M. Nicollet was the author of the Moon hoax,[235] written in a way
which marks the practised observatory astronomer beyond all doubt, and by
evidence seen in the most minute details. Nicollet had an eye to Europe. I
suspect that he took Poe's story, and made it a basis for his own. Mr.
Locke, it would seem, when he attempted a fabrication for himself, did not
succeed.
The Earth we inhabit, its past, present, and future. By Capt.
Drayson.[236] London, 1859, 8vo.
The earth is growing; absolutely growing larger: its diameter increases
three-quarters of an inch per mile every year. The foundations of our
buildings will give way in {133} time: the telegraph cables break, and no
cause ever assigned except ships' anchors, and such things. The book is for
those whose common sense is unwarped, who can judge evidence as well as the
ablest philosopher. The prospect is not a bad one, for population increases
so fast that a larger earth will be wanted in time, unless emigration to
the Moon can be managed, a proposal of which it much surprises me that
Bishop Wilkins has a monopoly.