I crave not a boon,
For a shrewd old fellow's the Man in the Moon.
And I looked on 'mid the watery strife,
When the world was deluged and all was lost
Save one blessed vessel, preserver of life,
Which rode on through safety, though tempest tost.
I have seen crime clothed in ermine and gold,
And virtue shuddering in winter's cold.
I have seen the hypocrite blandly smile,
While straightforward honesty starved the while.
Oh! the strange sights that I have seen,
Since earth first wore her garment of green!
I have gazed on the coronet decking the brow
Of the villain who, breathing affection's vow,
Hath poisoned the ear of the credulous maiden,
Then left her to pine with heart grief laden.
Oh! oh! if this, then, be the world, say I,
I'll keep to my home in the clear blue sky;
Still to dwell in my planet I crave as a boon,
For the earth ne'er will do for the Man in the Moon." [7]

This effusion is not excessively flattering to our "great globe," and
"all which it inherit"; and we surmise that the author was in a
misanthropic mood when it was written. Yet it is serviceable
sometimes to see ourselves as others see us. On the other hand, we
have but little liking for those who "hope to merit heaven by making
earth a hell," in any sense. We prefer to believe that the tide is
rising though the waves recede, and that our dark world is waxing
towards the full-orbed glory "to which the whole creation moves."

Here for the present we part company with the man in the moon as
material for amusement, that we may track him through the mythic
maze, where, in well-nigh every language, he has left some traces of
his existence. As there is a side of the moon which we have never
seen, and according to Laplace never shall see, there is also an
aspect of the matter in hand that remains to be traversed, if we
would circumambulate its entire extent. Our subject must now be
viewed in the magic mirror of mythology. The antiquarian Ritson
shall state the question to be brought before our honourable house of
inquiry. He denominates the man in the moon "an imaginary being,
the subject of perhaps one of the most ancient, as well as one of the
most popular, superstitions of the world." [8] And as we must
explore the vestiges of antiquity, Asiatic and European, African and
American, and even Polynesian, we bespeak patient forbearance and
attention. One lit