We do not on the Earth see the Stars in daylight. The same thick air which keeps us warm also spreads the sunlight about, and softens black shadows into gray, and turns the sky into a blue depth, and shuts off from our sight the feeble glimmer of stars, and carries to and fro the clouds and mists. But on the Moon there is no air to form a veil of light; no air to cause a blue sky; no air to spread the sunlight about; no air to make inky shadows gray; no air to carry clouds or mists; no air to hide the stars. There, in the day-time, in a cloudless deep-black sky shines a dazzling Sun. Not only a Sun, but also a magnificent Earth, hanging like an enormous Moon always in one spot. And not only Sun and Earth, but also countless brilliant Stars, steadfast and untwinkling. This is a view which a man might have if he could stand on the nearer side of the Moon. The Sun which he would see would be our Sun. The stars would be the same stars upon which we gaze. The Earth in his sky would be this world upon which we live. He would see a glorious sight; of that we may be sure. But though our thick moist air does hide the stars by day, and make them twinkle and grow dim by night, think how one would miss the blue sky, and all the pretty changeful clouds which come and go! Think, too, how dismal a scene it would be around a man standing there! Nothing but dead craters, and bare rocks, and plains without any grass or water, and mountains without any trees. Nothing green, nothing blue, nothing soft or fair, no breaking waves, no trickling streams, no passing showers, no colors, no sounds! Do you think you would like such a world to live in, even if you _could_ live there without any air to breathe? I am very sure that you would soon wish to be back again on our beautiful Earth. If you were there, you would find one more thing different from what it is here: you would become all at once a great deal lighter in your body. Just as the Earth pulls everything towards herself so does the Moon also. The mountains and rocks on the moon are dragged moonwards, just as mountains and rocks on the Earth are dragged earthwards. But the pulling there is much less than here, because the Moon is so much smaller than the Earth. On the surface of the Moon, _downwards_ is always towards the centre of the Moon and _upwards_ is always towards the sky. All round the Moon it is the same; just as it is on the Earth. The Moon in our sky is _upwards_ to us who live on the Earth. But the Earth in the Moon’s sky would be _upwards_ to anybody living on the Moon. QUESTIONS. 1. Who made the first telescope? Galileo. 2. How long ago? Nearly three hundred years ago. 3. How near does the biggest telescope seem to bring the Moon? Perhaps to less than one hundred miles. 4. Could a man live on the Moon? No; because there is neither air nor water. 5. No air at all? There may be a very, very little; but much too little for men or animals to breathe.