28 times slower than it is with us,
there is continuous sunshine on the Moon for 304 hours, and this long
day--equal to about a fortnight of our time--is succeeded by a night of
similar duration. As there is no atmosphere overhead to diffuse or
reflect the light, the Sun shines in a pitch-black sky, and at lunar
noonday the planets and constellations can be seen displaying a
brilliancy of greater intensity than can be perceived on Earth during
the darkest night. Every portion of the Moon's surface is bleak, bare,
and untouched by any softening influences. No gentle gale ever sweeps
down her valleys or disturbs the dead calm that hangs over this world;
no cloud ever tempers the fierce glare of the Sun that pours down his
unmitigated rays from a sky of inky blackness; no refreshing shower ever
falls upon her arid mountains and plains; no sound ever breaks the
profound stillness that reigns over this realm of solitude and
desolation.

[Illustration: A PORTION OF THE MOON'S SURFACE]

As might be expected, Milton makes frequent allusion to the Moon in
'Paradise Lost,' and does not fail to set forth the distinctive charms
associated with the unrivalled queen of the firmament. The majority of
poets would most likely regard a description of evening as incomplete
without an allusion to the Moon. Milton has adhered to this sentiment,
as may be perceived in the following lines:--

till the Moon,
Rising in clouded majesty, at length
Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light,
And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.--iv. 606-609.

now reigns
Full-orbed the Moon, and with more pleasing light,
Shadowy sets off the face of things.--v. 41-43.

The association of the Moon with the nocturnal revels and dances of
elves and fairies is felicitously expressed in the following passage:--

or faery elves,
Whose midnight revels, by a forest side
Or fountain, some belated peasant sees,
Or dreams he sees, while overhead the Moon
Sits arbitress, and nearer to the Earth
Wheels her pale course.--i. 781-86.

In contrast with this, we have Milton's description of the Moon when
affected by the demoniacal practices of the 'night-hag' who was believed
to destroy infants for the sake of drinking their blood, and applying
their mangled limbs to the purposes of incantation. The legend is of
Scandin