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1PERMISSIVE LIMITS OF IGNORANCE AND BELIEF IN THE UNITED STATES The immediate result of Barbicane's proposition was to
2place upon the orders of the day all the astronomical facts relative to the Queen of the Night. Everybody set to work to
3study assiduously. One would have thought that the moon had just appeared for the first time, and that no one had ever
4before caught a glimpse of her in the heavens. The papers revived all the old anecdotes in which the "sun of the wolves"
5played a part; they recalled the influences which the ignorance of past ages ascribed to her; in short, all America was
6seized with selenomania, or had become moon-mad. The scientific journals, for their part, dealt more especially with the
7questions which touched upon the enterprise of the Gun Club. The letter of the Observatory of Cambridge was published by
8them, and commented upon with unreserved approval. Until that time most people had been ignorant of the mode in which
9the distance which separates the moon from the earth is calculated. They took advantage of this fact to explain to them
10that this distance was obtained by measuring the parallax of the moon. The term parallax proving "caviare to the
11general," they further explained that it meant the angle formed by the inclination of two straight lines drawn from
12either extremity of the earth's radius to the moon. On doubts being expressed as to the correctness of this method, they
13immediately proved that not only was the mean distance 234,347 miles, but that astronomers could not possibly be in
14error in their estimate by more than seventy miles either way. To those who were not familiar with the motions of the
15moon, they demonstrated that she possesses two distinct motions, the first being that of rotation upon her axis, the
16second being that of revolution round the earth, accomplishing both together in an equal period of time, that is to say,
17in twenty-seven and one-third days. The motion of rotation is that which produces day and night on the surface of the
18moon; save that there is only one day and one night in the lunar month, each lasting three hundred and fifty-four and
19one-third hours. But, happily for her, the face turned toward the terrestrial globe is illuminated by it with an
20intensity equal to that of fourteen moons. As to the other face, always invisible to us, it has of necessity three
21hundred and fifty-four hours of absolute night, tempered only by that "pale glimmer which falls upon it from the stars."
22Some well-intentioned, but rather obstinate persons, could not at first comprehend how, if the moon displays invariably
23the same face to the earth during her revolution, she can describe one turn round herself. To such they answered, "Go
24into your dining-room, and walk round the table in such a way as to always keep your face turned toward the center; by
25the time you will have achieved one complete round you will have completed one turn around yourself, since your eye will
26have traversed successively every point of the room. Well, then, the room is the heavens, the table is the earth, and
27the moon is yourself." And they would go away delighted. So, then the moon displays invariably the same face to the
28earth; nevertheless, to be quite exact, it is necessary to add that, in consequence of certain fluctuations of north and
29south, and of west and east, termed her libration, she permits rather more than half, that is to say, five-sevenths, to
30be seen. As soon as the ignoramuses came to understand as much as the director of the observatory himself knew, they
31began to worry themselves regarding her revolution round the earth, whereupon twenty scientific reviews immediately came
32to the rescue. They pointed out to them that the firmament, with its infinitude of stars, may be considered as one vast
33dial-plate, upon which the moon travels, indicating the true time to all the inhabitants of the earth; that it is during
34this movement that the Queen of Night exhibits her different phases; that the moon is full when she is in opposition
35with the sun, that is when the three bodies are on the same straight line, the earth occupying the center; that she is
36new when she is in conjunction with the sun, that is, when she is between it and the earth; and, lastly that she is in
37her first or last quarter, when she makes with the sun and the earth an angle of which she herself occupies the apex.
38Regarding the altitude which the moon attains above the horizon, the letter of the Cambridge Observatory had said all
39that was to be said in this respect. Every one knew that this altitude varies according to the latitude of the observer.
40But the only zones of the globe in which the moon passes the zenith, that is, the point directly over the head of the
41spectator, are of necessity comprised between the twenty-eighth parallels and the equator. Hence the importance of the
42advice to try the experiment upon some point of that part of the globe, in order that the projectile might be discharged
43perpendicularly, and so the soonest escape the action of gravitation. This was an essential condition to the success of
44the enterprise, and continued actively to engage the public attention. Regarding the path described by the moon in her
45revolution round the earth, the Cambridge Observatory had demonstrated that this path is a re-entering curve, not a
46perfect circle, but an ellipse, of which the earth occupies one of the foci. It was also well understood that it is
47farthest removed from the earth during its apogee, and approaches most nearly to it at its perigee. Such was then the
48extent of knowledge possessed by every American on the subject, and of which no one could decently profess ignorance.
49Still, while these principles were being rapidly disseminated many errors and illusory fears proved less easy to
50eradicate. For instance, some worthy persons maintained that the moon was an ancient comet which, in describing its
51elongated orbit round the sun, happened to pass near the earth, and became confined within her circle of attraction.
52These drawing-room astronomers professed to explain the charred aspect of the moon--a disaster which they attributed to
53the intensity of the solar heat; only, on being reminded that comets have an atmosphere, and that the moon has little or
54none, they were fairly at a loss for a reply. Others again, belonging to the doubting class, expressed certain fears as
55to the position of the moon. They had heard it said that, according to observations made in the time of the Caliphs, her
56revolution had become accelerated in a certain degree. Hence they concluded, logically enough, that an acceleration of
57motion ought to be accompanied by a corresponding diminution in the distance separating the two bodies; and that,
58supposing the double effect to be continued to infinity, the moon would end by one day falling into the earth. However,
59they became reassured as to the fate of future generations on being apprised that, according to the calculations of
60Laplace, this acceleration of motion is confined within very restricted limits, and that a proportional diminution of
61speed will be certain to succeed it. So, then, the stability of the solar system would not be deranged in ages to come.
62There remains but the third class, the superstitious. These worthies were not content merely to rest in ignorance; they
63must know all about things which had no existence whatever, and as to the moon, they had long known all about her. One
64set regarded her disc as a polished mirror, by means of which people could see each other from different points of the
65earth and interchange their thoughts. Another set pretended that out of one thousand new moons that had been observed,
66nine hundred and fifty had been attended with remarkable disturbances, such as cataclysms, revolutions, earthquakes, the
67deluge, etc. Then they believed in some mysterious influence exercised by her over human destinies--that every Selenite
68was attached to some inhabitant of the earth by a tie of sympathy; they maintained that the entire vital system is
69subject to her control, etc. But in time the majority renounced these vulgar errors, and espoused the true side of the
70question. As for the Yankees, they had no other ambition than to take possession of this new continent of the sky, and
71to plant upon the summit of its highest elevation the star- spangled banner of the United States of America.
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