The moon hoax : $b or, A discovery that the moon has a vast population of human beings — John Locke — John Shaqi
The moon hoax : $b or, A discovery that the moon has a vast population of human beings
John Locke · en
It is impossible to contemplate any great Astronomical discovery
without feelings closely allied to a sensation of awe, and nearly akin
to those with which a departed spirit may be supposed to discover the
realities of a future state. Bound by the irrevocable laws of nature
to the globe on which we live, creatures "close shut up in infinite
expanse," it seems like acquiring a fearful supernatural power when any
remote mysterious works of the Creator yield tribute to our curiosity.
It seems almost a presumptuous usurpation of powers denied us by the
divine will, when man, in the pride and confidence of his skill, steps
forth, far beyond the apparently natural boundary of his privileges,
and demands the secrets and familiar fellowship of other worlds. We
are assured that when the immortal philosopher to whom mankind is
indebted for the thrilling wonders now first made known, had at length
adjusted his new and stupendous apparatus with a certainty of success,
he solemnly paused several hours before he commenced his observations,
that he might prepare his own mind for discoveries which he knew would
fill the minds of myriads of his fellow-men with astonishment, and
secure his name a bright, if not transcendant conjunction with that
of his venerable father to all posterity. And well might he pause!
From the hour the first human pair opened their eyes to the glories of
the blue firmament above them, there has been no accession to human
knowledge at all comparable in sublime interest to that which he has
been the honored agent in supplying; and we are taught to believe that,
when a work, already preparing for the press, in which his discoveries
are embodied in detail, shall be laid before the public, they will be
found of incomparable importance to some of the grandest operations of
civilized life. Well might he pause! He was about to become the sole
depository of wondrous secrets which had been hid from the eyes of
all men that had lived since the birth of time. He was about to crown
himself with a diadem of knowledge which would give him a conscious
pre-eminence above every individual of his species who then lived, or
who had lived in the generations that are passed away. He paused ere he
broke the seal of the casket which contained it.