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Show 140 MOONBEAMS. pendently of faint flashes of lightning not beipg so well seen in moonlight as when there is none, it is matter of common observation that it lightens less on moonlight nights than at other times, even admitting the general state of the earth and the air to be the same. That is a further confirmation of the very intimate connexion there is, not only between solar light and lightning, but between the red and heating rays of light and that phenomenon ; and it is probable that the moonbeams, consisting chiefly of the middle and other end of the spectrum, take the quality of lightning out of the clouds, or of the moisture that is floating invisibly in the air. Experiment increases the probability of that ; because the artificial lightning that can be excited by peculiar combinations and actions of substances, and of which electricity, galvanism, and magnetism are the modifications with which we are best acquainted, has always two poles, the one of which has a relation to oxidizing and producing colour, and the other an opposite relation. And we can observe a very beautiful instance or that in the beams of the moon. These, as has been ~aid, contain little of the red or the heating rays ; and it is well known how very efficient moonlight is in performing those operations which are more immediately performed by the rays towards the deoxi< lizing end of the spectrum. Every housewife knows how nicely her linen is whitened if she can leave it out during the moonlight ; and many kno~ that muslins which the sun would render yellow or brown can be preserved as white as snow if dried by the light of the moon. Every farmer, too, that takes notice {and surely the most unobserving farmers watch the progress of their crops}, must have observed how very rapidly the moonlight, not merely whitens, but actually matures and ripens his corn. In that respect, one fine moonlight night is equal to at least two days of sunshine; and that circum. stance, while it lets us see that moonlig}:lt has 9ther THE HARVEST MOON. 141 quali~ies besides poetical beauty, tells us, that Nature Is a WHOLE, and that the parts which we wou1d suppose to be the most distant and uncomiected yet co-operate with each other in the most perfect and wonderful manner. In consequence of that obliquity in the earth's path round the sun which gives summer and winter alternat.ely to the two hemispheres, and a regular su?cesswn pf .the four seasons to all the temperate lat!tu~es, afl.d m consequence of an additional obliqmty 11~ th~ moon's path round the earth, the full moon rises JUSt at su~set for about a week together. That t~kes place durmg the harvest; its mean season bemg about the twenty-second of September and the middle of it never more than fifteen day~ sooner or later than that. That is called the harvest ~oon, and though in the early districts, where there Is plenty of sol~r .action to ripen the crops, it b~ n?t much heeded, It IS very beneficial in the cold d1stncts; and 3:s t~e obliquity to which it is owing increa~ es as the latitude increases, the harvest moon contm':les for the greatest number of nights in the cold climates. Thus we see how far the influence of what we would deem a simple cause extends in the ~perations ?f nature, and how well that which onr Ignorance IS apt to regard as a disadvantage works for our goo~. Indeed, th.ere is not an object ~r. an occurrence m nature whiCh has not its use If w~ would but look for it; and it is just because w~ ?re Ignorant ?f the uses of little things that we fail m the execution of great ones. It is in the perceiving of these connexions which appear _remote and unexpected, that men who combme sCience and observation together have so much the advantage of mere men of science or mere surface observers. One would not at first suppose that the study of the mere motions of the earth and moon and the fact th.at the light of the moon is a secondary or .refl~cted h~ht, had any thing to do with the wh1tenmg of lmen or the ripening of corn; and vet |