But,
      unhappily, in proportion to the increase of size in the lens, and
      consequently of space-penetrating power, is the diminution of
      light from the object, by diffusion of its rays. And for this
      evil there is no remedy within human ability; for an object is
      seen by means of that light alone which proceeds from itself,
      whether direct or reflected. Thus the only “artificial” light
      which could avail Mr. Locke, would be some artificial light which
      he should be able to throw—not upon the “focal object of vision,”
      but upon the real object to be viewed—to wit: upon the moon. It
      has been easily calculated that, when the light proceeding from a
      star becomes so diffused as to be as weak as the natural light
      proceeding from the whole of the stars, in a clear and moonless
      night, then the star is no longer visible for any practical
      purpose. The Earl of Ross’s telescope, lately constructed in England, has
      a _speculum_ with a reflecting surface of 4,071 square inches;
      the Herschel telescope having one of only 1,811. The metal of the
      Earl of Ross’s is 6 feet diameter; it is 5 1/2 inches thick at
      the edges, and 5 at the centre. The weight is 3 tons. The focal
      length is 50 feet. I have lately read a singular and somewhat ingenious little book,
      whose title-page runs thus: “L’Homme dans la lvne ou le Voyage
      Chimerique fait au Monde de la Lvne, nouellement decouvert par
      Dominique Gonzales, Aduanturier Espagnol, autrem?t dit le Courier
      volant. Mis en notre langve par J. B. D. A. Paris, chez Francois
      Piot, pres la Fontaine de Saint Benoist. Et chez J. Goignard, au
      premier pilier de la grand’salle du Palais, proche les
      Consultations, MDCXLVII.” Pp. 76. The writer professes to have translated his work from the English
      of one Mr. D’Avisson (Davidson?) although there is a terrible
      ambiguity in the statement. “J’ en ai eu,” says he “l’original de
      Monsieur D’Avisson, medecin des mieux versez qui soient
      aujourd’huy dans la cõnoissance des Belles Lettres, et sur tout
      de la Philosophic Naturelle. Je lui ai cette obligation entre les
      autres, de m’ auoir non seulement mis en main ce Livre en
      anglois, mais encore le Manuscrit du Sieur Thomas D’Anan,
      gentilhomme Eccossois, recommandable pour sa vertu, sur la
      version duquel j’ advoue que j’ ay tiré le plan de la mienne.”

      After some irrelevant adventures, much in the manner of Gil Blas,
      and which occupy the first thirty pages, the author relates that,
      being ill during a sea voyage, the crew abandoned him, together
      with a negro servant, on the island of St. Helena. To increase
      the chances of obtaining food, the two separate, and live as far
      apart as possible. This brings about a training of birds, to
      serve the purpose of carrier-pigeons between them. By and by
      these are taught to carry parcels of some weight—and this weight
      is gradually increased. At length the idea is entertained of
      uniting the force of a great number of the birds, with a view to
      raising the author himself. A machine is contrived for the
      purpose, and we have a minute description of it, which is
      materially helped out by a steel engraving. Here we perceive the
      Signor Gonzales, with point ruffles and a huge periwig, seated
      astride something which resembles very closely a broomstick, and
      borne aloft by a multitude of wild swans _(ganzas)_ who had
      strings reaching from their tails to the machine. The main event detailed in the Signor’s narrative depends upon a
      very important fact, of which the reader is kept in ignorance
      until near the end of the book. The _ganzas,_ with whom he had
      become so familiar, were not really denizens of St. Helena, but
      of the moon. Thence it had been their custom, time out of mind,
      to migrate annually to some portion of the earth. In proper
      season, of course, they would return home; and the author,
      happening, one day, to require their services for a short voyage,
      is unexpectedly carried straight tip, and in a very brief period
      arrives at the satellite. Here he finds, among other odd things,
      that the people enjoy extreme happiness; that they have no _law;_
      that they die without pain; that they are from ten to thirty feet
      in height; that they live five thousand years; that they have an
      emperor called Irdonozur; and that they can jump sixty feet high,
      when, being out of the gravitating influence, they fly about with
      fans. I cannot forbear giving a specimen of the general _philosophy_ of
      the volume. “I must not forget here, that the stars appeared only on that side of
the globe turned toward the moon, and that the closer they were to it
the larger they seemed. I have also me and the earth. As to the stars,
_since there was no night where I was, they always had the same
appearance; not brilliant, as usual, but pale, and very nearly like the
moon of a morning. _But few of them were visible, and these ten times
larger (as well as I could judge) than they seem to the inhabitants of
the earth. The moon, which wanted two days of being full, was of a
terrible bigness. “I must not forget here, that the stars appeared only on that side of
the globe turned toward the moon, and that the closer they were to it
the larger they seemed. I have also to inform you that, whether it was
calm weather or stormy, I found myself _always immediately between the
moon and the earth._ I_ _was convinced of this for two reasons-because
my birds always flew in a straight line; and because whenever we
attempted to rest, _we were carried insensibly around the globe of the
earth. _For I admit the opinion of Copernicus, who maintains that it
never ceases to revolve _from the east to the west, _not upon the poles
of the Equinoctial, commonly called the poles of the world, but upon
those of the Zodiac, a question of which I propose to speak more at
length here-after, when I shall have leisure to refresh my memory in
regard to the astrology which I learned at Salamanca when young, and
have since forgotten.”

      Notwithstanding the blunders italicized, the book is not without
      some claim to attention, as affording a naive specimen of the
      current astronomical notions of the time. One of these assumed,
      that the “gravitating power” extended but a short distance from
      the earth’s surface, and, accordingly, we find our voyager
      “carried insensibly around the globe,” etc. There have been other “voyages to the moon,” but none of higher
      merit than the one just mentioned. That of Bergerac is utterly
      meaningless.