Charles Perry Locke wrote:
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.
DAVEH: I do recall hearing such, but Dean introduced a new element
into it that I had not heard.....7 foot Quakers. Seems like some folks
just make stuff up and then simply declare it as truth. There is a lot
of rumor and innuendo floating around TT about JS and LDS theology. I'm
amazed that some folks would just assume because it is posted on TT that
it is true. Rather than make a claim that JS did such and such, or that
Mormons believe in a certain unsavory way....wouldn't it be better to
ask about it, or do some web searching to find out what is really
factual? And....wouldn't one be a little skeptical about using the
opinions of anti-Mormons as being a good source of LDS theology?
You must not be looking too hard.
DAVEH: You are right, and I think I said so....I was pretty tired at
the time, and wasn't up to spending a lot of time searching for 7 foot
quakers. I did a cursory search and failed to find them, so I suspected
that Dean's facts were a little at odds with reality.
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
DAVEH: Thank you for posting them. It seems like there is only one
primary source that claims JS referred to moon men. Kinda makes you
wonder, doesn't it. IF Js had really believed AND taught others about
moon men, then one would expect it to show up in his teachings, writings
or even in the journals of many of the folks who heard it. After
all....that would certainly be a controversial thought at the time, I
should think. Yet there seems to be just the one recounting of it...by
Oliver Huntington. I'm not suggesting that Huntington is lying, but
who knows in what context the matter was discussed. I can think of all
kinds of scenarios where one person could be chatting and speculating
about what and who lives on the moon, or that it be made of green
cheese. If the person listening is thinking that the guy is instead
prophesying rather than just offering an opinion, then the way he
relates that discussion to somebody else could have a much different
slant on it than what was intended by the other person making the comments.
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.
DAVEH: BY also made some similar comments about moon inhabitants that
may (or may not) be related to JS's comments. LDS theology allows for
spirits inhabiting certain worlds as I understand it. To discuss it
with you would require a lot of speculation on my part, and doing so
with an anti-Mormon would only be painting a target on my chest.
Discussing it on TT would just be asking to be stood up before the
firing squad.
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!
DAVEH: I did realize that, Perry. Thank you for your consideration.
But I think it more likely that JS did a lot of speculating about
things, and a lot of folks really paid attention to what he said because
of his prophet status. And knowing how folks can hear what a person
says and then entirely misrepresent it when relating it to another....I
think my explanation is much more plausible.
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!
DAVEH: You are assuming I did not understand the connection. I did. I
just don't think it is as plausible as a couple other scenarios that I
can think of based on my understanding of how LDS think, and how folks
misinterpret what others say.
BTW, if you are not using Internet Explorer,
DAVEH: I use OPERA.
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.
DAVEH: OPERA renders it as well as IE, but I am out of town right now,
using an old and small monitor without very good resolution. Combine
that with my old (and tired) eyes, and it was a poorly laid out website,
IMO.
However, I will attach the article below so you can read it without
the "quaker-inhabited" full moon in the background:
DAVEH: Thanx. I could have done the same, but read it far enough to
figure it wasn't worth the time due to my alternate theory.
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
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dave Hansen
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.langlitz.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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