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"And when the clear moon, with its soothing influences, rises full in my view,--from the wall-like rocks, out of the damp underwood, the silvery forms of past ages hover up to me, and soften the austere pleasure of contemplation."
Goethe's "Faust." Hayward's Translation, London, 1855, p. 100.
THIS work is a contribution to light literature, and to the literature of light. Though a monograph, it is also a medley.
The first part is mythological and mirthsome. It is the original nucleus around which the other parts have gathered. Some years since, the writer was led to investigate the world-wide myth of the Man in the Moon, in its legendary and ludicrous aspects; and one study being a stepping-stone to another, the ball was enlarged as it rolled.
The second part, dealing with moon-worship, is designed to show that anthropomorphism and sexuality have been the principal factors in that idolatry which in all ages has paid homage to the hosts of heaven, as heaved above the aspiring worshipper. Man adores what he regards as higher than he. And if the moon is supposed to affect his tides, that body becomes his water-god.
The third part treats of lunar superstitions, many of which yet live in the vagaries which sour and shade our modern sweetness and light.
The fourth and final part is a literary essay on lunar inhabitation, presenting in nuce the present state of the enigma of "the plurality of worlds."
Of the imperfections of his production the author is partly conscious. Not wholly so; for others see us often more advantageously than we see ourselves. But a hope is cherished that this work--a compendium of lunar literature in its least scientific branches--may win a welcome which shall constitute the worker's richest reward. To the innumerable writers who are quoted, the indebtedness felt is inexpressible.