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Iwas
excited to hear a recent announcement by NASA that it planned to
land people on the far side of the Moon.
My excitement came from the reflection that even
if it is not NASA astronauts who eventually fly to the Moon's
mountainous and mysterious far side, then others are sure to do
so. The Moon will draw them.
For since
the beginning of history people have been fascinated by our
natural satellite. Nearly every ancient civilisation had its Moon
goddess. Rome had Diana, Greece Artemis, Egypt Hathor, and both
Carthage and Canaan had Ashtoreth.
Many
writers have had the idea that the silvery Moon was ``pure'' while
the Earth was ``foul.'' Astolpho, the hero of the great
Renaissance epic poem Orlando
Furioso (Galileo's favourite piece of literature), is
disgusted by life on Earth, where he finds that time and wealth
are misspent, vows are broken, prayers are unanswered, tears are
fruitless, ambitions are frustrated, and desires are unfulfilled.
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But
Astolpho solves these problems by flying to the Moon. There, he
finds that bribes are hung on golden hooks, princes' favours are
kept in bellows, and wasted talent is conveniently preserved in
vases. Alexander Pope enlarged on this theme in 1714 in The
Rape of the Lock. When the Lock disappeared, according to
Pope:
Some thought it mounted to the Lunar sphere,
Since all
things lost on Earth are treasured there;
There heroes'
wits are kept in pond'rous vases,
And beaux' in
snuff boxes and tweezer cases.
There broken
vows and death bed alms are found,
And lovers'
hearts with ends of ribbon bound,
The courtiers'
promises, and sick men's prayers,
The smiles of
harlots, and the tears of heirs,
Cages for
gnats, and chains to yoke a flea,
Fried
butterflies and tomes of casuistry.
The
preview of the Moon that caused the most excitement was the great
1835 hoax by Richard Adam Locke, who wrote a series of articles in
the New York Sun, claiming that the great astronomer Sir John Herschel -
then out of touch observing in South Africa - had seen intelligent
man‑like creatures walking about and swimming in lunar
forests and oceans.
Locke's
pack of lies doubled the Sun's circulation to 20,000 copies, the
highest in the world at that time, and despite the exposure of the
hoax they raised public excitement about the Moon and its possible
inhabitants to a pitch that would not be reached again until the
days of the Apollo landings.
Most
important, Locke's forgeries re‑introduced to the public
mind the Moon as a planet‑like body as revealed by Galileo,
with its mountain ranges and apparent seas. Before this it was a
domain of magic, the dwelling place of the ``man in the Moon'',
who was sometimes seen as a man accompanied by his dog leaning on
a fork on which he carries a bundle of sticks for firewood that he
has picked up on a Sunday.
For
this, according to the Book
of Numbers (ch. 15, verses 32‑36) he was executed by
Moses and Aaron for working on the Sabbath. As a character remarks
in Midsummer Night's Dream:
"This man with lantern, dog and bush of thorn, presenteth
moonshine."
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