Section II.—The Moon.
Names — Dimensions — Motions — Seasons — Phases — Harvest Moon — Moon’s Surface — Aërial Stones — Eclipses — Moonlight — Epithets — Religious Improvement.
The moon is called a great light, but less than the sun. Moses does not here speak philosophically, according to her bulk, but to the proportion of light she affords us, which is more than all the planets in the solar system and all the fixed stars put together.
“He smooth’d the rough-cast moon’s imperfect mould,
And comb’d her beamy locks with sacred gold;
Be thou, said he, Queen of the mournful night,—
And as he spoke, she rose o’erclad wish light,
With thousand stars attending on her train.”
The moon is not a primary planet, but only a satellite, or secondary planet, attendant on our earth, round which she revolves, and along with which she is carried round the sun.