Such, then, are the most prominent effects that would manifest themselves to the visual and other senses of a being transported to the moon. The picture is not on the whole a pleasant one, but it is instructive; and our rendering of it, imperfect though it be, may serve to suggest other inferences that cannot but add to the interest which always attaches to the contemplation of natural scenes and phenomena from points of view different from those which we ordinarily occupy.
[Illustration: PLATE XXIII. GROUP of LUNAR MOUNTAINS. ideal lunar landscape.]
CHAPTER XIV. THE MOON AS A SATELLITE: ITS RELATION TO THE EARTH AND MAN.
Apart from the recondite functions of the moon considered as one of the interdependent members of the solar family, into which it would be beyond our purpose to inquire, there are certain means by which it subserves human interests and ministers to the wants of civilized man to which we deem it desirable to call attention, especially as some of them are not so self-apparent as to have attracted popular attention.
The most generally appreciated because the most evident of the uses of the moon is that of a luminary. Popular regard for it is usually confined to its service in that character, and in that character poets and painters have never tired in their efforts to glorify it. And obviously this service as a “lesser light” is sufficiently prominent to excite our warmest admiration. But moonlight is, from the very conditions of its production, of such a changeable and fugitive nature, and it affords after all so partial and imperfect an alleviation of night’s darkness, that we are fain to regard the light-giving office of the moon as one of secondary importance. Far more valuable to mankind in general, so estimable as to lead us to place it foremost in our category of lunar offices, is the duty which the moon performs in the character of a sanitary agent. We can conceive no direful consequences that would follow from a withdrawal of the moon’s mere light; but it is easy to imagine what highly dangerous results would ensue if the moon ceased to produce the tides of the ocean. Motion and activity in the elements of the terraqueous globe appear to be among the prime conditions in creation. Rest and stagnation are fraught with mischief. While the sun keeps the atmosphere in constant and healthy circulation through the agency of the winds, the moon performs an analogous service to the waters of the sea and the rivers that flow into them. It is as the chief producer of the tides—for we must not forget that the sun exercises _its_ tidal influences, though in much lesser degree—that we ought to place the highest value on the services of the moon: but for its aid as a mighty scavenger, our shores, where rivers terminate, would become stagnant deltas of fatal corruption. Twice (to speak generally) a day, however, the organic matter which rivers deposit in a decomposing state at their embouchures is swept away by the tidal wave; and thus, thanks to the moon, a source of direful pestilence is prevented from arising. Rivers themselves are providentially cleansed by the same means, where they are polluted by bordering towns and cities which, from the nature of things, are sure to arise on river banks; and it seems to be also in the nature of things that the river traversing a city must become its main sewer. The foul additions may be carried down by the stream in its natural course towards the ocean, but where the river is large there will be a decrease in velocity of the current near the mouth or where it joins the sea, thus causing partial stagnation and consequent deposition of the deleterient matters. All this, however, is removed, and its inconceivable evils are averted by our mighty and ever active “sanitary commissioner,” the moon. We can scarcely doubt that a healthy influence of less obvious degree is exerted in the wide ocean itself; but, considering merely human interests, we cannot suppress the conviction that man is more widely and immediately benefited by this purifying office of the moon than by any other.