"Is it coming to life ?" I cried, and a great pang of hope shot through me.
Alas, no! it was the edge of a moon peering up keen and sharp over a level horizon! She brought me light--but no guidance! SHE would not hover over me, would not wait on my faltering steps! She could but offer me an ignorant choice! With a full face she rose, and I began to see a little about me.
Westward of her, and not far from me, a range of low hills broke the horizon-line: I set out for it.
But what a night I had to pass ere I reached it! The moon seemed to know something, for she stared at me oddly.

Her look was indeed icy-cold, but full of interest, or at least curiosity.

She was not the same moon I had known on the earth; her face was strange to me, and her light yet stranger.

Perhaps it came from an unknown sun! Every time I looked up, I found her staring at me with all her might! At first I was annoyed, as at the rudeness of a fellow creature; but soon I saw or fancied a certain wondering pity in her gaze: why was I out in her night?
Then first I knew what an awful thing it was to be awake in the universe: I WAS, and could not help it! As I walked, my feet lost the heather, and trod a bare spongy soil, something like dry, powdery peat.

To my dismay it gave a momentary heave under me; then presently I saw what seemed the ripple of an earthquake running on before me, shadowy in the low moon.