above the horizon; and a room, lighted by windows in the roof, must be in the same predicament, except when the sun shines directly down. No clouds float overhead; and the murky atmosphere, and the dense clouds of smoke hanging over our manufacturing towns, must be incomprehensible to the Lunarians, as they watch our globe rapidly rotating on its axis, but immovably fixed in the heavens. These are a few of the consequences involved in the want of an atmosphere, apart altogether from the incompatibility of such want with life. We are, every moment, bathed in this fluid, which ministers to our wants in a thousand ways 5 and, yet, how little are we conscious of its benefits! How seldom do we think of Him who has so wondrously adapted the medium, in which we move, to the necessities of our nature!
It will be then said, that the moon must be abandoned as an argument for the plurality of worlds, seeing that it fails to exhibit the prime condition of life. The advocates of this doctrine, after fruitless endeavour to educe an argument, gave it up in despair. A recent discovery has, however, entirely changed the aspect of things; and the moon may now be appealed to, as furnishing a theatre for the display of all the activities of animated and intelligent beings. This discovery, while curious in reference to its bearing on this question, also presents one of the most brilliant achievements of science in modern times.
