CHAP. XX.

ABOUT THE HARVEST MOON, AND ABOUT THE HUNTER'S MOON. ORDINARY CHANGES OF TIME FOR THE RISING OF THE MOON.

BUT there are exceptions to the general order of the monthly changes of the moon; among them those that are productive of the phenomena of the Harvest Moon and Hunter's Moon.

Every autumn you will be likely to hear people talk of the Harvest Moon, and the Hunter's Moon; and sometimes as if they were larger and more bright and beautiful than other moons.

The Harvest Moon is seen in harvest-time, and favours the labours of the husbandman; and the Hunter's Moon is that of the succeeding month, and has its name from the light which it offers to such as hunt by moonlight the wild beasts of the forest.

The Harvest Moon merely extends the number of the hours of light during which the hus

bandman may either reap his corn or carry it from off the field; and the phenomenon has

been so distinctly analysed, and physically so perfectly accounted for, that astronomical principles are laid down, explaining, beforehand, why, and in what years, there should and always actually will be experienced, the Harvest Moons that are called those most beneficial to the husbandman; and why, in other certain years, there should, and actually will be experienced, the Harvest Moons least beneficial;

that is, the Harvest Moons that yield either the most or the least of their distinguishing and early light. The Harvest Moon rises at the time of sunset; and what it is that is so striking, as to the Harvest Moon, and as to the Hunter's Moon, is, that the moon, at the season I am speaking of, instead of rising, as is usual, about fifty minutes later every evening than it rose the evening before, now rises, or rather seems to rise, for several evenings together, at the same time each evening.

What increases their value also, both the Harvest Moon and the Hunter's Moon are Full Moons; that is, the Moon is full at the times when it receives these names. They are two Full Moons, which, one after the other, rise, for nearly a week's continuance each, at the setting of the sun.

Now the cause is the peculiar position of the orbit of the moon, in respect of the equator of the earth, at the time when the moon is at its

full. The orbit is in the same position at some time during every month throughout the year; but it is only in the two months in question, that it comes into this position at the time when the moon is at its full; and hence its continued rising at the same hour (and this an early hour) is taken notice of at these times, and not at others.

It is, therefore, but in the fulling of the moon, at the time when, in these two successive months, its orbit has assumed a peculiar but monthly position, that consists the cause of the phenomena of the Harvest and Hunter's Moons, and not in any separate circumstance belonging to the order of the lunar risings.

There seems little danger, in the mean time, of our mistaking the purpose of this autumnal departure from the general order, or autumnal arrangement for the adaptation of this order to the production of the phenomena of which we are speaking; and surely both the

purpose and

the means are here among the finest examples I could readily adduce to you, of the establishment of the laws of creation for the benefit of its creatures!

There is a somewhat kindred phenomenon experienced the more forcibly the more we approach to the Pole, consisting in a wonderful adaptation of the path of the moon in the heaven, so that a greater share of moonlight is enjoyed in winter than in summer; while, in the regions of the Equator, where the sun is in equal power throughout the year, there is no more moonlight at one season than at another!

I shall speak of all these phenomena again, in those Tales of Clouds, Frosts, Snow, and every kind of Meteor, which I have promised you; and then tell you with more fulness the reflections which they excite in my mind, as well as the further phenomena with which I venture to connect them.