‘A Gleaming and Glorious Star’: Rethinking History in the Plurality-of-Worlds Debate

Abstract

In August 1835, the NewY ork Sun published as erialized account of John Herschel's lunar discoveries, supposedly written by his assistant, 'Dr.AndrewGrant'. Herschel the younger had, the Sun claimed, developed 'a telescope of vast dimensions and an entirely new principle'w hich allowed him to examine the moon at ap reviously unknown magnification. There, the account continued, he was able to observe flora and fauna in tremendous detail, including the behaviour of human-liket hough unrefined creatures: 'Wes cientifically denominated them as Ve spertilio-homo,o r man-bat; and they are doubtless innocent and happy creatures, notwithstanding that some of their amusements would but ill comport with our terrestrial notions of decorum'( Figure1 ). 1 Subsequent observations revealed architecture, evidenceo f civilization and even religion, which invited interpretation and conjecture: