an atmosphere of vapour." [432] Mr. Breen is
more emphatic. He writes: "In the want of water and air, the
question as to whether this body is inhabited is no longer equivocal.
Its surface resolves itself into a sterile and inhospitable waste, where
the lichen which flourishes amidst the frosts and snows of Lapland
would quickly wither and die, and where no animal with a drop of
blood in its veins could exist." [433] The anonymous author of the
Essay on the _Plurality of Worlds_ announces that astronomers are
agreed to negative our question without dissent. We shall have to
manifest his mistake. His words are: "Now this minute examination
of the moon's surface being possible, and having been made by
many careful and skilful astronomers, what is the conviction which
has been conveyed to their minds with regard to the fact of her
being the seat of vegetable or animal life? Without exception, it
would seem, they have all been led to the belief that the moon is not
inhabited; that she is, so far as life and organization are concerned,
waste and barren, like the streams of lava or of volcanic ashes on the
earth, before any vestige of vegetation has been impressed upon
them; or like the sands of Africa, where no blade of grass finds
root." [434] Robert Chambers says: "It does not appear that our
satellite is provided with an atmosphere of the kind found upon
earth; neither is there any appearance of water upon the surface. . . .
These characteristics of the moon forbid the idea that it can be at
present a theatre of life like the earth, and almost seem to declare
that it never can become so." [435] Schoedler's opinion is
concurrent with what has preceded. He writes: "According to the
most exact observations it appears that the moon has no atmosphere
similar to ours, that on its surface there are no great bodies of water
like our seas and oceans, so that the existence of water is doubtful.
The whole physical condition of the lunar surface must, therefore,
be so different from that of our earth, that beings organized as we
are could not exist there." [436] Another German author says: "The
observations of Fraunhofer (1823), Brewster and Gladstone (1860),
Huggins and Miller, as well as Janssen, agree in establishing the
complete accordance of the lunar spectrum with that of the sun. In
all the various portions of the moon's disk brought under
observation, no difference could be perceived in the dark lines of the
spectrum, either