"These are but a handful of the innumerable certificates of credence, and of complimentary testimonials with which the universal press of the country is loading our tables. Indeed, we find very few of the public papers express any other opinion. We have named the Journal of Commerce as an exception, because it not only ignorantly doubted the authenticity of the discoveries, but ill-naturedly said that we had fabricated them for the purpose of making a noise and drawing attention to our paper.
"Col. Webb of the Courier and Inquirer has said nothing upon the subject; but he only feels the more, and we are this moment assured that he has made arrangements with the proprietors of the Charleston steam-packets to take the splendid boat William Gibbons of that line, and charter her for the Cape of Good Hope, whither he is going with all his family—including Hoskin.
"We yesterday extracted from the celebrated Supplement, a mathematical problem demonstrating an entirely new, and the only true method of measuring the height of the lunar mountains. We were not then aware of its great importance as a demonstration, also, of the authenticity of the great discoveries. But several eminent mathematicians have since called and assured us, that it is the greatest mathematical discovery of the present age. Now, that problem was either predicated by us, or by some other person, who has thereby made the greatest of all modern discoveries in mathematical astronomy. We did not make it, for we know nothing of mathematics whatever; therefore, it was made by the only person to whom it can rationally be ascribed, namely, Herschel the astronomer, its only avowed and undeniable author."—Editor of the Sun.
FOOTNOTES:
"As when the Moon,[2] refulgent lamp of night!
O'er heav'n's clear azure spreads her sacred light,
When not a breath disturbs the deep serene,
And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene;
Around her throne the vivid planets roll,
And stars unnumber'd gild the glowing pole,
O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed,
And tip with silver ev'ry mountain's head;
Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise,
A flood of glory bursts from all the skies."
Homer.
The earth is accompanied by a Moon or satellite, whose distance is 237,000 miles, and diameter 2,160. Her surface is composed of hill and dale, of rocks and mountains, nearly two miles high, and of circular cavities, sometimes five miles in depth and forty in diameter. She possesses neither rivers, nor lakes, nor seas, and we cannot discover with the telescope any traces of living beings, or any monuments of their hands. Viewing the earth as we now do, as the third planet in order from the sun, can we doubt that it is a globe like the rest, poised in ether like them, and, like them, moving round the central luminary?
[2] As when the moon, &c. This comparison is inferior to none in Homer. It is the most beautiful night-piece that can be found in poetry. He presents you with a prospect of the heavens, the seas, and the earth; the stars shine, the air is serene, the world enlighten'd, and the moon mounted in glory.
[3] For an account of the singular views which the ancients had entertained on this subject, see "The Theology of the Phœnicians," by Sanchoniatho, who flourished about the time of the Trojan war. Published in a collection of Ancient Fragments. New York. 1835.