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Show 142 MOONLIGHT IN DIFFERENT LATITUDES. the two are as closely connected as if tbey were parts of one single process. That should teach us not to pass any one thing or occurrence unobserved, or any one observation without reflecting on it ; because there is knowledge in them all; and, at a time when we may have no means of obtaining it, we may be greatly at a loss for that very knowledge which we pass over unheeded. There is another circumstance connected with moonlight which is worthy of notice,.and that is, that where there is least sunshine there is most moonlight. The full moon is not always directly opposite to the sun, but sometimes a little higher and sometimes a little lower thqn the point oppO· site, but directly opposite is the average place of the full moon ; and thus the full moon is, on the average, just as long above the horizon and shining, as the sun is below it and set ; and if the sun is high at noon, the moon is low at midnight ; also, if the mid. day sun is low, the midnight moon is correspondingly high. The influence, or action of the light, both of the sun and the moon, is in proportion to the length of time that they shine~ and also to their height above the horizon; and thus, during winter, there is the greatest duration as well as the greatest strength of moonlight; and always as one goes into a higher latitude, the winter full moons shine longer and more brightly. The Lapland moon is an object far more beautiful than they who live in more genial climates and have the atmosphere loaded with va. pour can easily imagine. The intense frost there sends down every particle of water in a state of finely powdered snow, each little piece as hard and bright as rock crystal ; and the strong power of crystallization so holds the particles of those little pieces together, that even when there is a glimmer of mid-day sun, that produces no vapour. The win~ ter sky is in consequence perfectly pure, dry, and transparent. No sapphire can rival the depth of its IGl'tr.! 'FATUUS. 143 blue · every star blazes like a diamond ; and the light'of the moon, of which every particle is sent down through the pure air_, well d~serves M_ilton's epithet of "p~erless_." It IS _so bnght and ~1lvery, and so gratifymg, Without bemg the least pamf~l to the eye, that it is probably the most glonou_s sight in nature. But it can be seen only at some distance from the unfrozen sea, and the collected habitations of men, as there is always some action in the atmo. sphere at such places. Moonlight is not the only_ in~tance that w~ have of cold light; for the first begmmngs of flame, m sub. stances that are easily kindled, and also the last glimmers of smouldering fires, are cold and blu~ as compared with the light of _vig<;>rous combustiOn. That may be seen in the hghtmg of a common match the flame of the easily burnt sulphur on which is cold and blue in comparison with the flame after it has reached the splinter of wood. Phosphorus, and also those substances which give out lights that are called phosphorescent, are also cold and blue. One of the most remarkable of these is the IGNis FATuus, or "Lantern Jack," which floats over marshy places, and in all probability, consists of hydrogen gas combined ~ith {>hosphorus and sul. phur, which, being exceedmgly m:fiammable, may be 1set on fire by the friction of the air in a br~eze too gentle for agitating the branches or rustlmg the leaves. The motion of a human being through an atmosphere strongly impregnated _with those highly inflammable gases, may be sufficient to produce a train of the cold blue :flame. It is from the decom. position of animal and vegetable matter that those gases are produced. The quantity of small animals- chiefly of the insect tribes, that are continu· ally perishing in marshes-by falling fro'!! their island-habitations in their rushes and reeds mto the water between, is much greater than would readily be supposed ; and when those waters are shallow and the air and light in consequence act powerfully |