countable, as he would explain them in such a manner, in his publication, as should satisfy scepticism itself. When he had arrived at that point, where the attractions of the moon and of our orb balance each other, his balloon was a considerable time in doubt what course to pursue; and would certainly have remained there in jeopardy to all eternity, had not a lucky impulse from one of the before mentioned eddies, inclined it some fractions of an inch (the exact quantity he intends computing) towards the former of these globes. It now assumed a rapid movement onwards, when the Doctor suddenly experienced a violent concussion on the head, which rendered him senseless. This was no other than a shower of meteoric stones, that was proceeding on a visit to our earth, and was attracted, by a sympathy or particles, to that uncivil invasion of the Doctor's person.

When Heidelberg recovered, he found himself landed near a large pit, that appears from our globe like a dimple on the moon's chin; and his balloon, at a little distance, entangled amongst the bushes. Nothing could be more enchanting than the surrounding scenery. Rows of poplars and of elms here presented a grateful shelter from the solar beams, and there the majestic oak and cedar a secure refuge to the eagle and the vulture. Fields of waving corn and of smiling meadows occupied the plains, bounded by groves of evergreens, where the birds, in ceaseless carols, filled the air with their melody. Here and there, too, on the plain, was seen a flock of sheep, and several grotesque figures, that looked like the Sylvan deities of the Planet. There wanted only the meanderings of some rivulet, or the plashing of a waterfall, to constitute the place romantic ground. Without in the least minding this charming prospect, Heidelberg had no sooner shook his limbs, and found them not materially bruised, than he set himself to measure a degree of the meridian with the utmost alacrity. For this purpose he seized the branch of a tree, and was proceeding to the measurement of a base line, when he recollected that he must have some standard length to measure with. Why, take a foot, to be sure, thought he-But how much is a foot?-Twelve inches certainly-And how much is

an inch?-The twelfth part of a foot. With that ready ingenuity which adapts itself to every emergency, the Doctor took up a large round stone, and, drawing several threads out of his handkerchief, which he fastened to each other, and round the stone, he suspended the apparatus to the branch of a tree, which projected laterally. Then looking around, and making an allowance for the buoyancy and temperature of the atmosphere, as well as for the attraction of a mountain, which he observed peeping above the horizon, he took out his watch, and set his pendulum a swinging, to find what length would vibrate seconds at that latitude. After swinging_it with great patience for two hours, the thread gave way, owing to the Doctor's jerking it rather too suddenly; but this he quickly replaced, and continued the experiment, computing the movements lost from the doctrine of chances; as he considered that, in observations of such delicacy, the seldomer they were repeated the better. Then shifting his point of vibration for a centre of suspension, he set the other end of his pendulum in motion, to verify the experiment. watching the thread, shaking about in the wind, for a time corresponding to the first, he took the means of all the observations; and having now obtained a determinate measure, he took down the apparatus. But he was again at a stand for want of something to compute angles with. While in this perplexity he perceived a strange figure, mounted upon an animal, somewhat resembling the fabled being of a griffin, emerge from the woods, and advance swiftly towards him, with a kind of movement between bounding and flying. He was above the size of a man, but resembled him in other respects, except that his feet were parted, like a goat's. A single garment was passed with numerous folds around his body, and came upon his shoulder in a knot, that added a dignity to his benign aspect and silvery locks. The only notice that Heidel berg took of this grotesque apparition, was that of making him a sign of what he wanted.

After

The Lunarian pulled out a small theodolite, which he offered to our philosopher, who immediately flung the instrument, with all his might, into the moon's dimple, and asked him, in

a passion, if he did not know that the three angles of a triangle, had been discovered to be greater than two right angles? The Lunarian, smiling, asked him in Latin, whether, since the moon was in motion through absolute space, at the same rate, and in precisely the contrary direction to that in which he had projected the instrument, it could be positively said to have moved or not? Certainly, said the doctor, it has never stirred, but the moon ran aI gainst it; likewise, he observed, the gravity of the machine is increased, since it has approached the centre of the planet. Well then, returned the Lunarian, whose name was Zuloc, since my theodolite has not stirred from this, I will thank you to hand it me, as it was the best I had. But come, added he, do not trouble your self any farther about this matter, for we have already ascertained the exact degree of curvature to every point, not only on our planet, but on yours also, even to the ten millionth part of an inch. If you will mount behind me, I will take you to my observatory, and also show you a few other things worthy of your notice.

They accordingly journeyed onwards; and in the way the Doctor obtained much curious information: but it is much to be regretted that his intelligence is very scanty, except in what relates to his favourite pursuits. Zuloc had heard nothing either of the knight Astolpho, or of Father Kircher; but the three ancient philosophers who were transported to the Lunar Regions to examine their natural productions, and who squandered their time in singing and dancing, left behind them some Latin manuscripts, which enabled the learned men acquire that language. The inhabitants are divided into two classes; the Satyrs or learned men, and the Shepherds; and they reside almost wholly upon this side of the moon; the other being considered, from the absence of the Earth's light, as a kind of purgatory. They do not exceed nine or ten thousand altogether; but they live to a very advanced age, sometimes five hundred years. The shepherds live in the most charming state of primeval simplicity, tending their flocks, and dancing to the melody of lutes and Pan's-pipes. Almost all the philosophers have observatorics and appara

tus of their own; which they have brought to such perfection as to have made the most surprising discoveries. Their telescopes bring the sight within a very few miles of the terrestrial globe, so that they easily distinguish our towns and rivers, fleets and armies. Heidelberg has procured the most accurate maps of the regions within our polar circles, together with tables of the curvature of the earth, to the hundredth part of an inch; from which there appears to be a difference of some inches between our two hemispheres, that will occasion an alteration of our geological systems. But their most profound discovery is that of perpetual motion, which they have applied to almost every subject; and which has enabled them to erect works in a very short space of time, which it would cost us ages to finish. By this they have constructed timekeepers, which will shew the longitude to the thousandth part of a second, for such as have occasion to visit the nether side of the Lunar Sphere, where they have not the advantage of observing this great dial of the Earth.

As our travellers were passing a pool of water, the first which Heidelberg had seen in the moon, he was astonished to observe it boiling and bubbling up, as if it had been in a cauldron. Zuloc acquainted him that this was occasioned by the extreme levity of the Lunar atmosphere; and were it not for the pneumatic apparatus for condensing fluids, which the philosophers have placed over certain wells, and which are kept constantly going, by their admirable invention of perpetual motion, all the waters of the moon would soon evaporate. But the philosophers themselves will seldom be at the trouble of resorting to these wells; for, by the mixture of several kinds of air in a glass, and the mere compression of a fillip, they can obtain as much water as they please. Indeed, this is one of the means they have in contemplation for replenishing the ocean, which, in the infancy of the moon, was very considerable, but which has gradually vanished from the preceding cause. To illustrate this great tendency of the air to ignition, our Lunarian gently struck one of the trees with his cudgel, and immediately the whole forest was in flames. Zuloc has computed the Lunar atmosphere to be

seven furlongs, two metres, and one inch, in height; its weight, one million and six tons, three ounces, and two grains, troy; and that it would fill a globe, of the density of our earth, of one mile, nine inches, and three tenths, in diameter. These results Heidelberg has rendered according to the English method of computation; as all measures and weights, periods and quantities whatever, whether natural or artificial, are subdivided into decimal parts, for the convenience of mathematicians.

This conversation brought them to the observatory of Zuloc, which is situated in the principal town, near the left corner of the moon's mouth. It consisted of an immense concave of entire glass, with numerous doors and skylights, which could be opened or closed at pleasure, by mechanical appendages. The first objects that struck Heidelberg were a number of prodigious prisms, suspended to the ceiling. These were for separating and conducting the rays of the sun into different places. Zuloc placed the Doctor beneath one of them, and decoyed the several rays of light into different bottles, so that Heidelberg was left perfectly in the dark, notwithstanding that the sun appeared to be shining full upon him; but he still experienced the influence of its heat. Our Lunarian now attracted away the heating beam, and Heidelberg was obliged speedily to decamp, or he would soon have been frozen to death. The first of these phenomena is employed for producing artificial night, when the astronomers wish to sleep; since the natural nights and days are too long for the common purposes of life; and the second is made use of in the torture of criminals. This experiment convinced Heidelberg of the fantastic existence of colours; and he now thinks that the dispute concerning the nature of substances is for ever laid at rest. Zuloc proved to him, that neither colours nor bodies had any existence but in the imagination. He defines the last to be nothing but shape and extension; and accounts the resistance we meet with from solids, to be merely a quality, or affection, and not a real essence; just as melting is a faculty of lead, or heat an affection of fire. Tastes, smells, sounds, and shadows, he has also added to our list of substances. Heidelberg was rather

startled at the admission of this last; but Zuloc assured him, that if he would only divest himself of the prejudice which the sound occasioned, he would perceive that it had a better title to that rank than many phantasms of the brain which are admitted, since it possessed the various properties of extension, motion, and figure.

The Doctor saw here barometers, which were supplied with that delightful metal oxygen, which has so lately been discovered on the earth, and has such levity as to swim on the water: indeed no other substance would have been sensitive enough to be affected by the impressions of so volatile an atmosphere.

Here were substances, lying upon one another, whose parts had such an aversion, that though the undermost were pressed by the whole weight of the upper, yet their surfaces continued half an inch apart; and other bodies, so partial to each other, that their parts mutually overtopped nearly an inch.

Here were a variety of pendulums, vibrating, in all directions, without ceasing, by the application of that delightful invention of perpetual motion; and all the mathematic figures in nature, physically expressed, in the most beautiful manner, with silver wiresthe spiral of Archimedes, the cissoid, the conchoid, the caustic and catenary curves, and those two lines which are said continually to be approaching, yet never to meet. These, indeed, seemed to incline to each other so much, near one of the doors of the observatory, that the Doctor slyly opened it, to see whether they met outside, but was delighted to find that they proceeded as far as the eye could reach without touching. Lines, points, and circles, were flowing about in every direction, by the contrivance of perpetual motion; and forming pyramids and cylinders, by means of which, the most abstruse operations were performed from simple mechanism. In all these experiments, lunar children, from forty to fifty years of age, attended, to learn how to deduce ultimate causes from their physical effects. The Doctor, at this scene, rubbed his hands with delight-but, at the same time, received a knock on the head from a huge pendulum, and set his nails on fire with the friction of his hands. Zuloc cautioned him against making

too sudden motions in an atmosphere so subject to combustion.

At one end of this delightful repository of the sciences, was another party of little Lunarians, from twenty to thirty years old, amusing themselves at a curious kind of play, called the Game of Ideas, to render them familiar with the operations of the understanding, in comparing and producing images. There was a large dark chamber, which excluded every admission, but from two small windows; the one of glass, for exhibiting Ideas to the spectators outside; the other open, for receiving Images, but provided with a shutter inside. A Lunar child was turned into this room by itself, while one party outside was continually employed in throwing into the open window a quantity of toys and images, the symbols of ideas; and another at the glass window, demanding the exhibition of whatever they pleased, whether simple or compound words, sentences, or even orations; all of which were to be physically expressed by producing images in succession at the window. When the child was more than ten minutes searching for an idea, which, from the vast heap of objects, was often no easy task to find, it was considered as very stupid, and turned out. When it wished to abstract, it shut both windows, and employed itself considering a subject without any extraneous appendages; but the sportsmen outside would seldom permit this indulgence long, as the inmate often made it a pretence for gaining time to arrange its ideas, and sometimes was even accused of going to sleep. Sometimes the same set of images had been so often called for, that the child had strung them together in an association; so that it often happened, that when a single object was demanded, it was so careless as to produce the whole string.

Some children were considered very witty for taking a handful of ideas, at

half-hazard, and displaying them at the window.

As Heidelberg was endeavouring to look inside, the little Lunarian within held up an astronomer, a butterfly, and a thief, with several other objects, all in a string.

When our philosopher had sufficiently amused himself with admiring these wonderful objects, Zuloc pressed him to partake of a Lunar repast; but he felt himself so much affected by the fineness of the air, that he was obliged, however unwillingly, to express his intention of departing from this delightful planet. Zuloc accordingly repaired his balloon, and provided him with an aereal dipping needle, for pointing out the several objects he should pass in his flight; and an instrument for ascertaining the position, and measuring the distances, between

bodies not in view.

The only phenomenon which Heidelberg observed in his passage, was a view of the upper region of the terrestrial atmosphere, oscillating to and fro, like the pendulum of a clock, from the joint influence of the sun and moon.

Among the valuable discoveries Professor Heidelberg has brought with him, is an account of a comet that will fall into the sun in the 2715, which by that time will stand in great need of such a reinforcement, and which will cause a great disturbance in our system, by altering the centres of gyration and gravity, and occasioning an anomaly in our tables of equation and the tides. From this comet Zuloc intends sequestrating a part of the tail, in its passage, to densify the Lunar atmosphere withal; also a table of the specific gravities of Lunar bodies, and a method of determining the most difficult problems from impossible premises; all of which will, together with the before-mentioned improvements in natural knowledge, be laid in due time before the Royal Society of Edinburgh

A MIDSHIPMAN.