From: Dave <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
DAVEH: So....in absence of Dean answering my below question, do you know
what he is talking about, Perry? I vaguely remember somebody posting some
stuff about moon men and LDS theology several years ago, but don't recall
the details. A quick search of the net didn't get me very far, and I'm too
tired to do much else tonight. Perhaps you have it at your fingertips...
Dave, I find it hard to beleive that you have never heard that JS claimed
there were men living on the moon. You must not be looking too hard. It has
been brought up on this forum more than once, and I have posted a link to
the "moon hoax" site before.
Try these links:
http://www.challengemin.org/moon.html
http://www.carm.org/lds/quotes_js.htm
http://www.irr.org/mit/WDIST/wdist-strange-teachings.html
BTW.......I didn't see any connection between your below URL and
JS.....did I miss it? (That is one difficult site to read with the small
print and the moon in the background!!!)
The "moon hoax" article could explain why Joseph Smith believed that men
lived on the moon. While it does not mention JS in particular (why should
it?), it was written in 1935, two years before he was claimed to have made
the statement. The hoax drew in a lot of prominent men, and JS may have been
duped as well.
Dave, wake up! I am offering you a plausible explanation to why Joseph Smith
may have uttered a seemingly stupid statament about people living on the
moon! I think this is quite a credible explanation, and somewhat excuses the
less-than-prophetic statement of JS. I have not seen this posted before in
defense of JS, not even on apologetic mormon sites. "PERRY IS DEFENDING
YOUR PROPHET!" This alone should be the reason for taking the time to
understand the connection!
BTW, if you are not using Internet Explorer, them moon in the background
will scroll with the text, making parts of it hard to read. But, with
Internet Explorer the background remains fixed in place, and the text can be
scrolled to a dark place and be quite readable. However, I will attach the
article below so you can read it without the "quaker-inhabited" full moon in
the background:
THE MOON HOAX 1
The "moon hoax," as it has come to be known, is a neglected chapter in the
history of astronomy. It was not scientific and may not have been
influential, but it shows what was believable in 1835. Many educated laymen
accepted it and even scientists wondered at least whether it could be true.
The main "hero" of the affair was Sir John Herschel, the son of Sir William.
He had embarked, in November 1833, on the long journey to South Africa for
the purpose of getting a good look at the Southern sky, which up to that
time had been neglected, simply because all the large telescopes, and most
of the small ones, were located in the northern hemisphere. Sir John
transported a 5-inch refractor and an 18-inch reflector to Capetown.
The carrier of the moon hoax was the daily New York Sun, then only two years
old, with a circulation of about 8,000. In addition to ordinary news and
advertisements the paper was in the habit of running long essays in serial
form. One of these had been written by the British-born author and essayist
Richard Adams Locke (of the same family as the philosopher John Locke,
though not a lineal descendant, as wrongly stated by Edgar Allan Poe). Mr.
Locke had been paid $150 for his essay and the proprietors of The Sun had
asked more. Locke had been reading, in the 1826 volume of the Edinburgh,New
Philosophical Journal, a tediously philosophizing article on the inhabitants
of other worlds, especially of the moon. The outcome of this reading, plus
the offer of another $150, was what we now call the "moon hoax."
The story began in The Sun on August 25, 1835, under the title "Great
Astronomical Discoveries Lately Made by Sir John Herschel, LL.D. F.R.S. &c,
at the Cape of Good Hope." An editorial stated that the editors of The Sun
were pleased to bring to American readers "this reprint of a special
Supplement of the Edinburgh,Journal of Science," complete, except for
mathematical material of no interest to the average reader.
The article itself began with introductory remarks by the editor of the
"Edinburgh Journal" to the British public and continued:
To render our enthusiasm intelligible, we will state at once, that by
means of a telescope, of vast dimensions and an entirely new principle, the
younger Herschel, at his observatory in the Southern Hemisphere, has already
made the most extraordinary discoveries in every planet of our solar system;
has discovered planets in other solar systems; has obtained a distinct view
of objects in the moon, fully equal to that which the unaided eye commands
of terrestrial objects at the distance of a hundred yards; has affirmatively
settled the question whether this satellite be inhabited, and by what orders
of beings; has firmly established a new theory of cometary phenomena; and
has solved or corrected nearly every leading problem of mathematical
astronomy. For our early and almost exclusive information concerning these
facts, we are indebted to the devoted friendship of Dr. Andrew Grant, the
pupil of the elder, and for several years past the inseparable coadjutor of
the younger Herschel. The amanuensis of the latter at the Cape of Good Hope,
and the indefatigable superintendent of his telescope during the whole
period of its construction and operation, Dr. Grant has been enabled to
supply us with intelligence equal, in general interest at least, to that
which Dr. Herschel himself has transmitted to the Royal Society.
The reader of The Sun was given the impression that he was being let in on
wonderful discoveries at the earliest possible moment, that the Royal
Society was still digesting the material submitted by Dr. Herschel, but that
Herschel's friend, working faster, had written it all up for his scientific
friends in Edinburgh, and now The Sun, by a lucky combination of
circumstances (or, preferably, because of the astuteness of its editors) had
the first advance copy of the Scottish journal to reach American shores and
was sharing all this information with its readers, for only a few pennies.
The first day's installment was somewhat dull, at least by present-day
standards. It described the new telescope, with a simply astonishing
expenditure of wordage. The technical jargon, all meaningless, was just
"thick" enough to convince the reader that he would not be able to follow it
if it grew any more detailed and persuade him to accept the supertelescope
as described. When Sir John Herschel was satisfied that the telescope was
perfect, "he sailed from London on the 4th of September, 18342, in company
with Dr. Andrew Grant, Lieut. Drummond, of the Royal Engineers, F.R.A.S.,
and a large party of the best English mechanics. They arrived, after an
expeditious and agreeable passage, and immediately proceeded to transport
the lens and the frame of the large observatory to its destined site, which
was a piece of table-land of great extent and elevation, about thirty-five
miles to the northeast of Capetown. . . . All this, of course, was under
strictest government secrecy."
This ended the first day's installment. The sales figures of The Sun climbed
to about 12,000 copies on that day. The next day's installment got around to
the moon.
It was about half-past nine o'clock on the night of the 10th [of January
1835], the moon having then advanced within four days of her mean libration,
that the astronomer adjusted his instruments for the inspection of her
eastern limb. The whole immense power of his telescope was applied, and its
focal image about one-half of the power of his microscope. On removing the
screen of the latter, the field of view was covered throughout its entire
area with a beautifully distinct, and even vivid representation of basaltic
rock. Its color was a greenish brown, and the width of the column, as
defined by their interstices on the canvas, was invariably twenty-eight
inches. No fracture whatever appeared in the mass first presented, but in a
few seconds a shelving pile appeared of five or six columns width, which
showed their figure to be hexagonal, and their articulations similar to
those of the basaltic formation at Staffa. This precipitous shelf was
profusely covered with a dark red flower, "precisely similar," says Dr.
Grant, "to the Papaver rhaeas, or rose-poppy of our sublunary cornfield";
and this was the first organic production of nature, in a foreign world,
ever revealed to the eyes of men.... At the base of [another rock mass] they
were at length delighted to perceive that novelty, a lunar forest. "The
trees," says Dr. Grant, "for a period of ten minutes, were of one unvaried
kind, and unlike any I have seen, except the largest class of yews in the
English church-yards, which they in some respects resemble. These were
followed by a level green plain, which, as measured by the painted circle on
our canvas of forty-nine feet, must have been more than half a mile in
breadth; and then appeared as fine a forest of firs, unequivocal firs, as I
have ever seen cherished in the bosom of my native mountains. Wearied with
the long continuance of these, we greatly reduced the magnifying power of
the microscope, without eclipsing either of the reflectors, and immediately
perceived that we had been insensibly descending, as it were, a mountainous
district of a highly diversified and romantic character, and that we were on
the verge of a lake, or inland sea.... The water, wherever we obtained a
view of it, was nearly as blue as that of the deep ocean, and broke in large
white billows upon the strand. . . .
Having continued this close inspection nearly two hours ... Dr. Herschel
proposed that we should take out all our lenses, give a rapid speed to the
panorama, and search for some of the principal valleys known to astronomers.
. . The lenses being removed, and the effulgence of our unutterly glorious
reflectors left undiminished, we found, in accordance with our calculations,
that our field of view comprehended about twenty-five miles of the lunar
surface, with the distinctness both of outline and detail which could be
procured of a terrestrial object at the distance of two and a half miles. .
. . Presently a train of scenery met our eye, of features so entirely novel,
that Dr. Herschel signalled for the lowest convenient gradation of movement.
It was a lofty chain of obelisk-shaped, or very slender pyramids, standing
in irregular groups, each composed of about thirty or forty spires, every
one of which was perfectly square, and as accurately truncated as the finest
specimens of Cornish crystal. They were of a faint lilac hue, and very
resplendent. I now thought that we had assuredly fallen on productions of
art; but Dr. Herschel shrewdly remarked that if the Lunarians could build
thirty or forty miles of such monuments as these, we should ere now have
discovered others of a less equivocal character. He pronounced them quarz
formations, of probably the wine-colored amethyst species. . . . On
introducing a lens, his conjecture was fully confirmed: they were monstrous
amethysts, of a diluted claret color, glowing in the intensest light of the
sun! They varied in height from sixty to ninety feet.... and here our
magnifiers blest our panting hopes with specimens of conscious existence. In
the shade of the woods, on the southeastern side, we beheld continuous herds
of brown quadrupeds, having all the external characteristics of the bison,
but more diminutive than any species of the bos genus in our natural
history. . . . It had, however, one widely distinctive feature, which we
afterwards found common to nearly every lunar quadruped we have discovered;
namely, a remarkable fleshy appendage over the eyes, crossing the whole
breadth of the forehead and united to the eyes. We could most distinctly
perceive this hairy veil . . . lifted and lowered by means of the ears. It
immediately occurred to the acute mind of Dr. Herschel, that this was a
providential contrivance to protect the eyes of the animal from the great
extremes of light and darkness to which all the inhabitants of our side of
the moon are periodically subjected. The next animal perceived would be
classed on earth as a monster. It was of bluish lead-color, about the size
of a goat, with a head and beard like him, and a single horn, slightly
inclined forward from the perpendicular. The female was destitute of the
horn and beard, but had a much longer tail. It was gregarious, and chiefly
abounded on the acclivitous glades of the woods. In elegance of symmetry it
rivalled the antelope, and like him it seemed an agile sprightly creature
running with great speed, and springing from the green turf with all the
unaccountable antics of a young lamb or kitten. This beautiful creature
afforded us the most exquisite amusement.
The lunar unicorn ended the second installment. By that time New Yorkers
besieged the offices of The Sun and every copy the steam presses could turn
out was snatched up. Circulation was at 19,360 copies. The Sun had suddenly
become the biggest newspaper in the world; even the Times of London only
printed 17,000 copies.
The following installment consisted of a painstaking, if fanciful,
description of a number of lunar formations. Locke pictured a rather watery
world, with tidal marks and so forth, although most astronomers were by then
agreed that our moon is virtually waterless. Many of his readers must have
read somewhere about the lack of water on the moon; presumably the
implication that the experts were wrong was welcomed. That the public went
along willingly with the story is testified by witnesses.
Edgar Allan Poe, then the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger in
Richmond, Virginia, wrote later: "Not one person in ten discredited it, and
(strangest point of' all!) the doubters were chiefly those who doubted
without being able to say why-the ignorant-those uninformed in
astronomy-people who would not believe, because, the thing was so novel, so
entirely out of the usual way. A grave Professor of Mathematics in a
Virginia college told me, seriously, that he had no doubt of the truth of
the whole affair!"
William N. Griggs, who reprinted the moon hoax with its background, reported
that he was present at the door of The Sun's office on one of these hectic
days "when a highly respectable-looking elderly gentleman, in a fine
broadcloth Quaker suit, completely dispelled the undecided opinions of the
listening crowd around him, by asserting, in the calmest, coolest, and most
unquestionable manner, that he was fortunately engaged on commercial
business at the East India Docks, in London, when the cast lens, of seven
tons weight, and the whole gigantic apparatus of the telescope described in
the story, was taken on board an East India ship, for erection at the Cape
of Good Hope, and that he himself saw it craned on board. He added that the
statement in the introductory part of the narrative, that this shipment was
made from St. Catherine's Docks, was, therefore, evidently an error on the
part of the Edinburgh writer."
There is some reason to believe that Locke expanded his story as he went
along; some minor inconsistencies suggest that he interpolated long segments
in his original manuscript. The next installment reached the climax: the
discovery of "rational beings" of the moon.
. . .we were thrilled with astonishment to perceive four successive
flocks of large winged creatures, wholly unlike any kind of birds, descend
with a slow even motion from the cliffs on the western side, and alight upon
the plain.... We counted three parties of these creatures, of twelve, nine,
and fifteen each, walking erect towards a small wood near the base of the
eastern precipices. Certainly they were like human beings, for their wings
had now disappeared, and their attitude in walking was both erect and
dignified....
Whilst passing across the canvas, and whenever we afterwards saw them,
these creatures were evidently engaged in conversation; their gesticulation,
more particularly the varied action of their hands and arms, appeared
impassioned and emphatic. We hence inferred that they were rational beings,
and, although not perhaps of so high an order as others which we discovered
the next month on the shores of the Bay of Rainbows, that they were capable
of producing works of art and contrivance.
There were several other installments, in one of which the big telescope was
nearly destroyed, and finally one in which Sir John Herschel established the
nature of Saturn's rings-the details unfortunately omitted . . .as "being
too mathematical for popular comprehension." With a promise of a much fuller
account by Sir John himself, the series ended.
Since the presses of The Sun were busy printing as many copies of the paper
as possible, its proprietors must have employed another printer for the
pamphlet edition which they thoughtfully had ready the following day.3
The next few days were still hectic. Yale professors, named Olmstead and
Loomis, journeyed to New York to ask for the omitted pages of mathematics.
Locke told them that the original was at a print shop and supplied the
address. Then he raced ahead and instructed the printer to direct the two
professors to still another address. They finally gave up, convinced that
they had been tricked but still unable to say that the supplement to the
Edinburgh Journal did not exist.
Another New York newspaper, the Journal of Commerce, wanted to reprint the
whole story and also asked for the Edinburgh Journal. Locke first tried the
tack that this was old stuff by now and the Journal of Commerce would just
be wasting space. Then he apparently told the truth, because the Journal of
Commerce was the first publication to label the whole story a hoax.
It was later surmised that Locke had a collaborator, a French astronomer
named lean Nicolas Nicollet who had recently arrived in New York, having
left France because of financial difficulties. Whether or not he helped
Locke for a cash consideration, will probably never be known.
There are two more items of interest, the first concerning a friend of Sir
John Herschel. Naturally copies of The Sun had reached Europe. The director
of the Paris Observatory, Francois Arago, was outraged, not so much because
a hoax had been perpetrated upon the public, as because it besmirched the
name of Sir John Herschel. Arago read a full translation of the moon hoax to
the French scientists assembled at the Academy and asked for a resolution.
The resolution declared that while the piece was not to be regarded as a
willful malicious attack on Sir John Herschel, its contents had to be
declared "utterly incredible."
The second item concerns Sir John Herschel himself, who was actually in
South Africa, making astronomical observations.
At intervals, for example, when the weather was bad, he went to Capetown,
where he stayed at a hotel to read the papers and relax. Soon after the
appearance of the moon hoax a Mr. Caleb Weeks, who lived in Jamaica, New
York, and was the proprietor of a menagerie, went to Capetown to buy up some
African animals. He took copies both of The Sun and of the pamphlet edition
with him, hoping to find Sir John Herschel. Capetown probably did not have
many good hotels at the time-Weeks stayed at the one that was visited almost
daily by Sir John. The astronomer was there when Weeks asked the hotel clerk
where he could be found. Weeks had himself announced, saying that he wished
to discuss Sir John's new astronomical discoveries with him. Sir John
received him with some surprise; he said that he was, of course, flattered
by American interest, but did not understand how his discoveries could be
known in America, since he had not yet even written a report.
Weeks handed him the pamphlet and a bundle of the New York newspapers and
withdrew. Only minutes later Sir John rejoined him in some agitation, asking
whether the story was really a reprint from an Edinburgh journal, or a hoax
made up in New York. According to Griggs, who knew Weeks personally, Weeks
replied that the account was taken to be gospel truth in New York and
elsewhere in the United States, and wasn't it a maxim that what everybody
says must be true? Sir John Herschel started to laugh and invited Weeks and
the other Americans with him into a private room to tell him the full story.
In general he was amused.
Most Europeans however, did not accept the hoax as lightheartedly as did its
chief victim. That this "contribution" to astronomy had come from an English
journalist was obscured by distance, and for decades to come astronomical
news from America was received with great caution in Europe. The skepticism
did not die out because American astronomers made more and more genuine and
valuable contributions; it ended because the moon hoax itself was gradually
forgotten.
Footnotes:
1. Excerpt from "Watchers of the Skies", by Willy Ley, The Viking Press,
New York, 1963.
2. Herschel's actual sailing date was November 13, 1833.
3. After its original publication in The Sun, the moon hoax first
appeared in the pamphlet mentioned, with a reported total edition of 60,000
copies in two or three printings. The next reprint, edited by William
Gowans, appeared in New York in 1859 as the title The Moon Hoax; or, A
Discovery that the moon has a vast population of Human Beings, by Richard
Adams Locke, with a short appendix of editorial opinions from newspapers
other than The Sun. A small book, entitled The Celebrated "Moon Story," its
Origins and Incidents, by William N. Griggs. (New York: Bunnell and Price,
1852), gives the background of the story, a biographical sketch of Locke,
the story itself, and, in an appendix, an "authentic description of the
moon." All the quotations in this chapter are from this book. In 1937 the
text of the moon hoax was again reprinted in The Sky (New York), in several
installments, with an introduction by William H. Barton, Jr. Grigg's book
mentions French and German translations, which probably were in contemporary
magazines and newspapers; my search for German or French editions in book or
pamphlet form was unsuccessful.
Perry
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