that of the sun. There are periods, however, when the sun and moon act in conjunction. This is particularly the case at new and full moon; and, at these periods, accordingly, the tides are invariably higher. At the quarters, the sun and moon are in opposition, and, consequently, at these periods of the month the tides descend to their lowest point. From time immemorial the moon has been regarded as exercising a very powerful influence on our atmosphere, and in regulating the state of the weather. M. Arago, the eminent French astronomer, in the year 1833 published the result of careful observations on these points, embracing a period of twenty-eight years; and the conclusion to which he came was, that a greater amount of rain falls during the increase of the moon than during the wane, and that when the moon is nearest the earth, the chances of rain falling are the greater. The influence of the moon on organic life is very remarkable. In the one hundred and twenty-first Psalm, the writer says-"The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night." In eastern regionsmore especially the tropical, and those of high latitudes-the rays of the sun are most injurious to the membranes of the brain, and a stroke of the sun, as it is called, often proves fatal. In the same regions the injurious influences of the rays of the moon have to be as carefully avoided. They frequently bring on a species of frenzy or madness, and hence persons who imagine they have a large amount of poetic talent, are proverbially said to be moonstruck. It is a well-known fact that, in the east, the rays of the moon are very injurious to the eyes. Persons who sleep in the open air, on this account, use the precaution of covering the eyes. In Batavia nobody sleeps in the open air without a covering, and those who neglect this precaution are often seized with a convulsive affection of the muscles of the neck, from which they never recover. The fishermen of Sicily carefully cover their fish at night when there is moonlight, otherwise they would rapidly putrify. In the highlands and western islands of Scotland, where the fuel chiefly consists of peats-masses of solid moss about the size of a brick, cut during the summer months, it is remarked that, if cut during the increase of the moon, they are longer in drying, and never burn so brightly as those cut during the wane. Some years ago the London Missionary Society sent out two gentlemen, Messrs. Tyerman and Bennet, on a tour of inspection to all their mission stations in the world. In the report which Mr. Bennet was spared to publish, he mentions that he had observed many curious phenomena occasioned by lunar influence. He was assured that, when sailors slept in the moonlight, with their faces exposed to the moonbeams, the muscles were spasmodically contracted, and their mouths irrecoverably drawn to one side. The eyesight was often seriously affected for months. When fish was hung up during the night, so as to catch the moonbeams, it acquired qualities so deleterious that, if eaten next day, it brought on sickness and excruciating pains. Now, this is a long bill of indictments against our near neighbour the moon; so much so, that the impression may be made on some minds, that we are not in the best of company by this close attendant. Let the moon, however, have justice done her, and let her not be rashly condemned for high crimes and misdemeanors. We have no doubt that if she had ability to defend herself at our bar, her plea would be, "Not guilty." All the facts, as above stated, are true; but there are pleas in exculpation. Fish become tainted, animal food putrifies rapidly, and peats do not dry if exposed to the moon's rays; but all this is owing, not solely to the rays of the moon falling on them, but to the removal of the clouds; to the clear, pure, night sky, which favours the radia tion of heat, so that exposed bodies become colder than the surrounding air. In consequence of the temperature of certain bodies falling below that of the atmosphere, dew is deposited upon them, and it is the moisture thus deposited which hastens decomposition and putridity. Again, plants are often destroyed during the moonlight of April and May; but it is not the moonlight falling on them which does the mischief, but the clear, unclouded sky during these months, abstracting heat from the plants too largely and rapidly. Very often, during these months, buds and tender plants are frozen, although the thermometer be several degrees above the freezing point. If tender plants were shaded from the moon's rays they would be safe. The two great physicians of antiquity, Hippocrates and Galen, regarded the moon as exercising a very powerful influence upon human diseases, especially epilepsy and insanity. Several modern physicians of great eminence, among whom Mead, Hoffman, and Sauvage must be mentioned, have adopted the same opinions. Our word lunacy expresses this idea. The idea, however, is not very popular among physiologists. Many of them entirely discredit it; yet all parties who have studied the subject have the candour to admit that it has not yet been sufficiently tested by statistical observations. After all, sound philosophy admits that health or sickness very much depends on the state of the atmosphere; and, therefore, by affecting the atmosphere, the moon may have an influence on the general organism of the human system. To say that insanity, or any disease of the brain, is exasperated at full moon, or change of the moon, or is the result of that change, is to speak rashly. It may, nevertheless, be possible for the imagination to be peculiarly affected at the period of greatest lunar light and shade. Several physicians of emi nence have given a favourable opinion in support of this idea. Dr. Prichard, the physician of the Lunatic Asylum at Northampton, has distinctly expressed his concurrence with it. Even though it could be established that these exasperations of the brain, in epilepsy and lunacy, do take place at çertain intervals, it might only amount to a striking coincidence, leaving the doctrine of the connexion between the brain and the moon, in certain of her positions, untouched. There is a very remarkable adaptation of our bodily system to the time which the earth takes to make one revolution on her axis. The reader of this article may have remarked-the writer of it has had experience of it hundreds of times-that if necessitated to sit up to an early hour in the morning, the influence of sleep was strongest about midnight, and if the influence can then be overcome, the likelihood is that he can keep awake for hours. The case of ague or of fever affords another illustration. There are tertian and quartan fevers and agues, the fits of which come on regularly after intervals of three or four days respectively, as if three or four revolutions of our earth on her axis regulated and determined the symptoms of the diseases. Now, in the case of lunacy, it may require thirty days for the interval between attacks, without the moon, after all, having any direct connexion with this melancholy form of mental malady. We are under many obligations to the moon. Our nights are not invariably shrouded with clouds and darkness. The moon periodically lights her silvery lamp. "She is the beauty of heaven, the glory of the stars, an ornament giving light in the high places of the Lord." The traveller prosecuting his night journey, the mariner crossing the ocean, the shepherd when anxious about the state of his flocks, and sentimental lovers in their evening walks, are under obligations to the moon. Even her eclipses are beneficial. They excite many to the closer study of astronomy; they confirm the accuracy of calculations; they settle the geographical position of towns; they assist the astronomer in his researches. The inhabitants of the polar regions, perhaps, owe most to the moon, since but for her light they would be months together in comparative darkness. In her influences and change of aspect, we recognize and acknowledge the wisdom, the care, and beneficence of God. He has ordained "the moon and the stars to shine by night;" and their doing so is a permanent proof that "his mercy endureth for ever." B. HEAVEN SACRIFICED TO THE WORLD. Matt. xix. 16. A HOPEFUL youth to Jesus came-- He ran, he knelt, and ask'd for light, |