A Lunar “New Jerusalem.”

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A PAMPHLET has been received containing a series of lectures by the Rev. G. B. Berry on “The New Jerusalem,” with a preface by the Lord Bishop of Exeter. With the spiritual interpretation of the Apocalypse we are not concerned in these columns, but an astonishing speculation put forward in the last lecture demands a word of comment. Mr. Berry suggests that the invisible part of the moon has the same size and shape as the-mighty pyramid which, according to Revelation, forms the heavenly Jerusalem. Eventually the lunar hemisphere visible to us is to bury itself in the earth, and the pyramidal portion is to project above “the rack and ruin of the elements” caused by the catastrophe, and to be the Celestial City in which the faithful will pass eternity. As a vision, this picture may appeal to imaginative minds, but from the point of view of celestial mechanics it can scarcely be taken seriously. A pyramid of the dimensions; of that upon which Mr. Berry's New Jerusalem rises tier upon tier would be crushed by its own weight even if it were built of steel. As, however, the structure is visionary, we imagine that this material fact affords no valid objection to it. The changed moment of inertia of a moon with the invisible side of a pyramidal form would necessitate modification of the whole theory of the physical librations of our satellite; but perhaps Mr. Berry does not appreciate the force of this difficulty. He is certainly not familiar with the theory of tidal friction or with the fact that Laplace, who studied the physical librations, showed that one side of the moon always faces the earth because that position is one of dynamical stability. A fuller knowledge of celestial mechanics might have made Mr. Berry hesitate before erecting such a visionary structure as he describes upon so slender a foundation. His views would have pleased mediaeval schoolmen, but modern science demands that even the most fascinating hypothesis should be based upon results of observation capable of Being put to the test of inquiry rather than upon “revealed truth” to be accepted without criticism.