Thus, in the case of our moon, we
sometimes observe more than the half of its surface, the eastern and
northern edges being more visible at one time, and the western or southern
at another. By means of this libration* we are enabled to see the annular
mountain Malapert (which occasionally conceals the Moon's south pole), the
arctic landscape round the crater of Gioja, and the large gray plane near
Endymion which exceeds in superficial extent the 'Mare Vaporum'.
[footnote] *Beer and Madler, op. cit., 185, s.208, and ?ยค 347, s. 332; and
ix their 'Phys. Kenntniss der himml. Korper', s. 4 und 69, Tab. 1 (Physical
History of the Heavenly Bodies).
Three sevenths of the Moon's surface are entirely
p 99
concealed from our observation, and must always remain so, unless new and
unexpected disturbing causes come into play. These cosmical relations
involuntarily remind us of nearly similar conditions in the intellectual
world, where, in the domain of deep research into the mysteries and the
primeval creative forces of nature, there are regions similarly turned away
from us, and apparently unattainable, of which only a narrow margin has
revealed itself, for thousands of years, to the human mind, appearing, from
time to time, either glimmering in true or delusive light.
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