Henry Warren Recreations In Astronomy        With Directions For Practical Experiments And Telescopic Work 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 1 
 During All The Ages There Has Been One Bright And Glittering Page 
 Of Loftiest Wisdom Unrolled Before The Eye Of Man. That This Page 
 May Be Read In Every Part,  Man's Whole World Turns Him Before It. 
 This Motion Apparently Changes The Eternally Stable Stars Into A 
 Moving Panorama,  But It Is Only So In Appearance. The Sky Is A 
 Vast,  Immovable Dial-Plate Of "That Clock Whose Pendulum Ticks 
 Ages Instead Of Seconds," And Whose Time Is Eternity. The Moon 
 Moves Among The Illuminated Figures,  Traversing The Dial Quickly, 
 Like A Second-Hand,  Once A Month. The Sun,  Like A Minute-Hand,  Goes 
 Over The Dial Once A Year. Various Planets Stand For Hour-Hands, 
 Moving Over The Dial In Various Periods Reaching Up To One Hundred 
 And Sixty-Four Years; While The Earth,  Like A Ship Of Exploration, 
 Sails The Infinite Azure,  Bearing The Observers To Different Points 
 Where They May Investigate The Infinite Problems Of This Mighty 
 Machinery. 
   
 This Dial Not Only Shows Present Movements,  But It Keeps The History 
 Of Uncounted Ages Past Ready To Be [Page 4] Read Backward In Proper 
 Order; And It Has Glorious Volumes Of Prophecy,  Revealing The 
 Far-Off Future To Any Man Who Is Able To Look Thereon,  Break The 
 Seals,  And Read The Record. Glowing Stars Are The Alphabet Of This 
 Lofty Page. They Combine To Form Words. Meteors,  Rainbows,  Auroras, 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 2 
 Shifting Groups Of Stars,  Make Pictures Vast And Significant As The 
 Armies,  Angels,  And Falling Stars In The Revelation Of St. 
 John--Changing And Progressive Pictures Of Infinite Wisdom And 
 Power. 
   
 Men Have Not Yet Advanced As Far As Those Who Saw The Pictures John 
 Describes,  And Hence The Panorama Is Not Understood. That Continuous 
 Speech That Day After Day Uttereth Is Not Heard; The Knowledge That 
 Night After Night Showeth Is Not Seen; And The Invisible Things 
 Of God From The Creation Of The World,  Even His Eternal Power And 
 Godhead,  Clearly Discoverable From Things That Are Made,  Are Not 
 Apprehended. 
   
 The Greatest Triumphs Of Men's Minds Have Been In Astronomy--And 
 Ever Must Be. We Have Not Learned Its Alphabet Yet. We Read Only 
 Easy Lessons,  With As Many Mistakes As Happy Guesses. But In Time We 
 Shall Know All The Letters,  Become Familiar With The Combinations, 
 Be Apt At Their Interpretation,  And Will Read With Facility The 
 Lessons Of Wisdom And Power That Are Written On The Earth,  Blazoned 
 In The Skies,  And Pictured By The Flowers Below And The Rainbows 
 Above. 
   
 In Order To Know How Worlds Move And Develop,  We Must Create Them; 
 We Must Go Back To Their Beginning,  Give Their Endowment Of Forces, 
 And Study The Laws Of Their Unfolding. This We Can Easily Do By That 
 Faculty Wherein Man Is Likest His Father,  A Creative Imagination. 
 God Creates And Embodies; We Create,  But [Page 5] It Remains In 
 Thought Only. But The Creation Is As Bright,  Strong,  Clear, 
 Enduring,  And Real,  As If It Were Embodied. Every One Of Us Would 
 Make Worlds Enough To Crush Us,  If We Could Embody As Well As 
 Create. Our Ambition Would Outrun Our Wisdom. Let Us Come Into The 
 High And Ecstatic Frame Of Mind Which Shakspeare Calls Frenzy,  In 
 The Exigencies Of His Verse,  When 
   
  "The Poet's Eye,  In A Fine Frenzy Rolling, 
   Doth Glance From Heaven To Earth,  From Earth To Heaven; 
   And,  As Imagination Bodies Forth 
   The Forms Of Things Unknown,  The Poet's Pen 
   Turns Them To Shapes,  And Gives To Airy Nothing 
   A Local Habitation And A Name." 
   
 In The Supremacy Of Our Creative Imagination Let Us Make Empty 
 Space,  In Order That We May Therein Build Up A New Universe. Let Us 
 Wave The Wand Of Our Power,  So That All Created Things Disappear. 
 There Is No World Under Our Feet,  No Radiant Clouds,  No Blazing 
 Sun,  No Silver Moon,  Nor Twinkling Stars. We Look Up,  There Is 
 No Light; Down,  Through Immeasurable Abysses,  There Is No Form; 
 All About,  And There Is No Sound Or Sign Of Being--Nothing Save 
 Utter Silence,  Utter Darkness. It Cannot Be Endured. Creation Is 
 A Necessity Of Mind--Even Of The Divine Mind. 
   
 We Will Now,  By Imagination,  Create A Monster World,  Every Atom 
 Of Which Shall Be Dowered With The Single Power Of Attraction. 
 Every Particle Shall Reach Out Its Friendly Hand,  And There Shall 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 3 
 Be A Drawing Together Of Every Particle In Existence. The Laws 
 Governing This Attraction Shall Be Two. When These Particles Are 
 Associated Together,  The Attraction Shall Be In Proportion To The 
 Mass. A Given Mass Will Pull Twice [Page 6] As Much As One Of Half 
 The Size,  Because There Is Twice As Much To Pull. And A Given Mass 
 Will Be Pulled Twice As Much As One Half As Large,  Because There Is 
 Twice As Much To Be Pulled. A Man Who Weighed One Hundred And Fifty 
 Pounds On The Earth Might Weigh A Ton And A Half On A Body As Large 
 As The Sun. That Shall Be One Law Of Attraction; And The Other Shall 
 Be That Masses Attract Inversely As The Square Of Distances Between 
 Them. Absence Shall Affect Friendships That Have A Material Basis. 
 If A Body Like The Earth Pulls A Man One Hundred And Fifty Pounds At 
 The Surface,  Or Four Thousand Miles From The Centre,  It Will Pull 
 The Same Man One-Fourth As Much At Twice The Distance,  One-Sixteenth 
 As Much At Four Times The Distance. That Is,  He Will Weigh By A 
 Spring Balance Thirty-Seven And A Half Pounds At Eight Thousand 
 Miles From The Centre,  And Nine Pounds Six Ounces At Sixteen 
 Thousand Miles From The Centre,  And He Will Weigh Or Be Pulled By 
 The Earth 1/24 Of A Pound At The Distance Of The Moon. But The Moon 
 Would Be Large Enough And Near Enough To Pull Twenty-Four Pounds On 
 The Same Man,  So The Earth Could Not Draw Him Away. Thus The Two 
 Laws Of Attraction Of Gravitation Are--1,  _Gravity Is Proportioned 
 To The Quantity Of Matter_; And 2,  _The Force Of Gravity Varies 
 Inversely As The Square Of The Distance From The Centre Of The 
 Attracting Body_. 
   
 The Original Form Of Matter Is Gas. Almost As I Write Comes The 
 Announcement That Mr. Lockyer Has Proved That All The So-Called 
 Primary Elements Of Matter Are Only So Many Different Sized Molecules 
 Of One Original Substance--Hydrogen. Whether That Is True Or Not, 
 Let Us Now Create All The Hydrogen We Can [Page 7] Imagine,  Either 
 In Differently Sized Masses Or In Combination With Other Substances. 
 There It Is! We Cannot Measure Its Bulk; We Cannot Fly Around It In 
 Any Recordable Eons Of Time. It Has Boundaries,  To Be Sure,  For We 
 Are Finite,  But We Cannot Measure Them. Let It Alone,  Now; Leave It 
 To Itself. What Follows? It Is Dowered Simply With Attraction. The 
 Vast Mass Begins To Shrink,  The Outer Portions Are Drawn Inward. 
 They Rush And Swirl In Vast Cyclones,  Thousands Of Miles In Extent. 
 The Centre Grows Compact,  Heat Is Evolved By Impact,  As Will Be 
 Explained In Chapter Ii. Dull Red Light Begins To Look Like Coming 
 Dawn. Centuries Go By; Contraction Goes On; Light Blazes In 
 Insufferable Brightness; Tornadoes,  Whirlpools,  And Tempests 
 Scarcely Signify Anything As Applied To Such Tumultuous Tossing. 
   
 There Hangs The Only World In Existence; It Hangs In Empty Space. 
 It Has No Tendency To Rise; None To Fall; None To Move At All In 
 Any Direction. It Seethes And,  Flames,  And Holds Itself Together 
 By Attractive Power,  And That Is All The Force With Which We Have 
 Endowed It. 
   
 Leave It There Alone,  And Withdraw Millions Of Miles Into Space: 
 It Looks Smaller And Smaller. We Lose Sight Of Those Distinctive 
 Spires Of Flame,  Those Terrible Movements. It Only Gives An Even 
 Effulgence,  A Steady Unflickering Light. Turn One Quarter Round. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 4 
 If A Body Like The Earth Pulls A Man One Hundred And Fifty Pounds At 
 The Surface,  Or Four Thousand Miles From The Centre,  It Will Pull 
 The Same Man One-Fourth As Much At Twice The Distance,  One-Sixteenth 
 As Much At Four Times The Distance. That Is,  He Will Weigh By A 
 Spring Balance Thirty-Seven And A Half Pounds At Eight Thousand 
 Miles From The Centre,  And Nine Pounds Six Ounces At Sixteen 
 Thousand Miles From The Centre,  And He Will Weigh Or Be Pulled By 
 The Earth 1/24 Of A Pound At The Distance Of The Moon. But The Moon 
 Would Be Large Enough And Near Enough To Pull Twenty-Four Pounds On 
 The Same Man,  So The Earth Could Not Draw Him Away. Thus The Two 
 Laws Of Attraction Of Gravitation Are--1,  _Gravity Is Proportioned 
 To The Quantity Of Matter_; And 2,  _The Force Of Gravity Varies 
 Inversely As The Square Of The Distance From The Centre Of The 
 Attracting Body_. 
   
 The Original Form Of Matter Is Gas. Almost As I Write Comes The 
 Announcement That Mr. Lockyer Has Proved That All The So-Called 
 Primary Elements Of Matter Are Only So Many Different Sized Molecules 
 Of One Original Substance--Hydrogen. Whether That Is True Or Not, 
 Let Us Now Create All The Hydrogen We Can [Page 7] Imagine,  Either 
 In Differently Sized Masses Or In Combination With Other Substances. 
 There It Is! We Cannot Measure Its Bulk; We Cannot Fly Around It In 
 Any Recordable Eons Of Time. It Has Boundaries,  To Be Sure,  For We 
 Are Finite,  But We Cannot Measure Them. Let It Alone,  Now; Leave It 
 To Itself. What Follows? It Is Dowered Simply With Attraction. The 
 Vast Mass Begins To Shrink,  The Outer Portions Are Drawn Inward. 
 They Rush And Swirl In Vast Cyclones,  Thousands Of Miles In Extent. 
 The Centre Grows Compact,  Heat Is Evolved By Impact,  As Will Be 
 Explained In Chapter Ii. Dull Red Light Begins To Look Like Coming 
 Dawn. Centuries Go By; Contraction Goes On; Light Blazes In 
 Insufferable Brightness; Tornadoes,  Whirlpools,  And Tempests 
 Scarcely Signify Anything As Applied To Such Tumultuous Tossing. 
   
 There Hangs The Only World In Existence; It Hangs In Empty Space. 
 It Has No Tendency To Rise; None To Fall; None To Move At All In 
 Any Direction. It Seethes And,  Flames,  And Holds Itself Together 
 By Attractive Power,  And That Is All The Force With Which We Have 
 Endowed It. 
   
 Leave It There Alone,  And Withdraw Millions Of Miles Into Space: 
 It Looks Smaller And Smaller. We Lose Sight Of Those Distinctive 
 Spires Of Flame,  Those Terrible Movements. It Only Gives An Even 
 Effulgence,  A Steady Unflickering Light. Turn One Quarter Round. 
 Still We See Our World,  But It Is At One Side. 
   
 Now In Front,  In The Utter Darkness,  Suddenly Create Another World 
 Of The Same Size,  And At The Same Distance From You. There They 
 Stand--Two Huge,  Lone Bodies,  In Empty Space. But We Created Them 
 Dowered With Attraction. Each Instantly Feels The Drawing Influence 
 Of The Other. They Are Mutually Attractive,  And Begin To [Page 8] 
 Move Toward Each Other. They Hasten Along An Undeviating Straight 
 Line. Their Speed Quickens At Every Mile. The Attraction Increases 
 Every Moment. They Fly Swift As Thought. They Dash Their Flaming, 
 Seething Foreheads Together. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 5 
   
 And Now We Have One World Again. It Is Twice As Large As Before, 
 That Is All The Difference. There Is No Variety,  Neither Any Motion; 
 Just Simple Flame,  And Nothing To Be Warmed Thereby. Are Our Creative 
 Powers Exhausted By This Effort? 
   
   
 No,  We Will Create Another World,  And Add Another Power To It That 
 Shall Keep Them Apart. That Power Shall Be What Is Called The Force 
 Of Inertia,  Which Is Literally No Power At All; It Is An Inability 
 To Originate Or Change Motion. If A Body Is At Rest,  Inertia Is 
 That Quality By Which It Will Forever Remain So,  Unless Acted Upon 
 By Some Force From Without; And If A Body Is In Motion,  It Will 
 Continue On At The Same Speed,  In A Straight Line,  Forever,  Unless 
 It Is Quickened,  Retarded,  Or Turned From Its Path By Some Other 
 Force. Suppose Our Newly Created Sun Is 860,000 Miles In Diameter. 
 Go Away 92,500,000 Miles And Create An Earth Eight Thousand Miles 
 In Diameter. It Instantly Feels The Attractive Power Of The Sun 
 Drawing It To Itself Sixty-Eight [Page 9] Miles A Second. Now,  Just 
 As It Starts,  Give This Earth A Push In A Line At Right Angles With 
 Line Of Fall To The Sun,  That Shall Send It One Hundred And 
 Eighty-Nine Miles A Second. It Obeys Both Forces. The Result Is That 
 The World Moves Constantly Forward At The Same Speed By Its Inertia 
 From That First Push,  And Attraction Momentarily Draws It From Its 
 Straight Line,  So That The New World Circles Round The Other To The 
 Starting-Point. Continuing Under The Operation Of Both Forces,  The 
 Worlds Can Never Come Together Or Fly Apart. 
   
 They Circle About Each Other As Long As These Forces Endure; For 
 The First World Does Not Stand Still And The Second Do All The 
 Going; Both Revolve Around The Centre Of Gravity Common To Both. 
 In Case The Worlds Are Equal In Mass,  They Will Both Take The Same 
 Orbit Around A Central Stationary Point,  Midway Between The Two. 
 In Case Their Mass Be As One To Eighty-One,  As In The Case Of The 
 Earth And The Moon,  The Centre Of Gravity Around Which Both Turn 
 Will Be 1/81 Of The Distance From The Earth's Centre To The Moon's 
 Centre. This Brings The Central Point Around Which Both Worlds 
 Swing Just Inside The Surface Of The Earth. It Is Like An Apple 
 Attached By A String,  And Swung Around The Hand; The Hand Moves 
 A Little,  The Apple Very Much. 
   
 Thus The Problem Of Two Revolving Bodies Is Readily Comprehended. 
 The Two Bodies Lie In Easy Beds,  And Swing Obedient To Constant 
 Forces. When Another Body,  However,  Is Introduced,  With Its Varying 
 Attraction,  First On One And Then On The Other,  Complications Are 
 Introduced That Only The Most Masterly Minds Can Follow. Introduce 
 A Dozen Or A Million Bodies,  And Complications Arise That Only 
 Omniscience Can Unravel. 
   
 [Page 10] 
   
 Let The Hand Swing An Apple By An Elastic Cord. When The Apple 
 Falls Toward The Earth It Feels Another Force Besides That Derived 
 From The Hand,  Which Greatly Lengthens The Elastic Cord. To Tear 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 6 
 It Away From The Earth's Attraction,  And Make It Rise,  Requires 
 Additional Force,  And Hence The String Is Lengthened; But When 
 It Passes Over The Hand The Earth Attracts It Downward,  And The 
 String Is Very Much Shortened: So The Moon,  Held By An Elastic Cord, 
 Swings Around The Earth. From Its Extreme Distance From The Earth, 
 At A,  Fig. 2,  It Rushes With Increasing Speed Nearly A Quarter Of A 
 Million Of Miles Toward The Sun,  Feeling Its Attraction Increase 
 With Every Mile Until It Reaches B; Then It Is Retarded In Its 
 Speed,  By The Same Attraction,  As It Climbs Back Its Quarter Of 
 A Million Of Miles Away From The Sun,  In Defiance Of Its Power, 
 To C. All The While The Invisible Elastic Force Of The Earth Is 
 Unweariedly Maintained; And Though The Moon's Distances Vary Over A 
 Range Of 31,355 Miles,  The Moon Is Always In A Determinable Place. 
 A Simple Revolution Of One World About Another In A Circular Orbit 
 Would Be A Problem Of Easy Solution. It Would Always Be At The 
 Same Distance From Its Centre,  And Going With The Same Velocity. 
 But There Are Over Sixty Causes That Interfere With Such A Simple 
 Orbit In The Case Of The Moon,  All Of Which Causes And Their 
 Disturbances Must Be Considered In Calculating Such A Simple Matter 
 As An Eclipse,  Or Predicting The Moon's Place As The Sailors Guide. 
 One Of The Most Puzzling Of The Irregularities [Page 11] Of Our 
 Night-Wandering Orb Has Just Been Explained By Professor Hansen,  Of 
 Gotha,  As A Curious Result Of The Attraction Of Venus. 
   
   
 Take A Single Instance Of The Perturbations Of Jupiter And Saturn 
 Which Can Be Rendered Evident. The Times Of Orbital Revolution Of 
 Saturn And Jupiter Are Nearly As Five To Two. Suppose The Orbits Of 
 The Planets To Be,  As In Fig. 3,  Both Ellipses,  But Not Necessarily 
 Equally Distant In All Parts. The Planets Are As Near As Possible 
 At 1,  1. Drawn Toward Each Other By Mutual Attraction,  Jupiter's 
 Orbit Bends Outward,  And Saturn's Becomes More Nearly Straight,  As 
 Shown By The Dotted Lines. A Partial Correction Of This Difficulty 
 Immediately Follows. As Jupiter Moves On Ahead Of Saturn It Is Held 
 Back--Retarded In Its Orbit By That Body; And Saturn Is Hastened 
 In Its Orbit By The Attraction Of Jupiter. Now Greater Speed Means 
 A Straighter Orbit. A Rifle-Ball Flies Nearer In A Straight Line 
 Than A Thrown Stone. A Greater Velocity Given To A Whirled Ball 
 Pulls The Elastic Cord Far Enough To Give The Ball A Larger Orbit. 
 Hence,  Being Hastened,  Saturn Stretches Out Nearer Its Proper Orbit, 
 And,  Retarded,  Jupiter Approaches The Smaller Curve That Is Its 
 True Orbit. 
   
 But If They Were Always To Meet At This Point,  As They Would If 
 Jupiter Made Two Revolutions To Saturn's One,  It Would Be Disastrous. 
 In Reality,  When Saturn Has Gone Around Two-Thirds Of Its Orbit To 
 2,  Jupiter Will Have Gone Once And Two-Thirds Around And Overtaken 
 [Page 12] Saturn; And They Will Be Near Again,  Be Drawn Together, 
 Hastened,  And Retarded,  As Before; Their Next Conjunction Would Be 
 At 3,  3,  Etc. 
   
 Now,  If They Always Made Their Conjunction At Points Equally Distant, 
 Or At Thirds Of Their Orbits,  It Would Cause A Series Of Increasing 
 Deviations; For Jupiter Would Be Constantly Swelling His Orbit At 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 7 
 Three Points,  And Saturn Increasingly Contracting His Orbit At 
 The Same Points. Disaster Would Be Easily Foretold. But As Their 
 Times Of Orbital Revolutions Are Not Exactly In The Ratio Of Five 
 And Two,  Their Points Of Conjunction Slowly Travel Around The Orbit, 
 Till,  In A Period Of Nine Hundred Years,  The Starting-Point Is 
 Again Reached,  And The Perturbations Have Mutually Corrected One 
 Another. 
   
 For Example,  The Total Attractive Effect Of One Planet On The Other 
 For 450 Years Is To Quicken Its Speed. The Effect For The Next 450 
 Years Is To Retard. The Place Of Saturn,  When All The Retardations 
 Have Accumulated For 450 Years,  Is One Degree Behind What It Is 
 Computed If They Are Not Considered; And 450 Years Later It Will 
 Be One Degree Before Its Computed Place--A Perturbation Of Two 
 Degrees. When A Bullet Is A Little Heavier Or Ragged On One Side, 
 It Will Constantly Swerve In That Direction. The Spiral Groove In 
 The Rifle,  Of One Turn In Forty-Five Feet,  Turns The Disturbing 
 Weight Or Raggedness From Side To Side--Makes One Error Correct 
 Another,  And So The Ball Flies Straight To The Bull's-Eye. So The 
 Place Of Jupiter And Saturn,  Though Further Complicated By Four 
 Moons In The Case Of Jupiter,  And Eight In The Case Of Saturn,  And 
 Also By Perturbations Caused By Other Planets,  Can Be Calculated 
 With Exceeding Nicety. 
   
 The Difficulties Would Be Greatly Increased If The Orbits [Page 13] 
 Of Saturn And Jupiter,  Instead Of Being 400,000,000 Miles Apart, 
 Were Interlaced. Yet There Are The Orbits Of One Hundred And 
 Ninety-Two Asteroids So Interlaced That,  If They Were Made Of Wire, 
 No One Could Be Lifted Without Raising The Whole Net-Work Of Them. 
 Nevertheless,  All These Swift Chariots Of The Sky Race Along The 
 Course Of Their Intermingling Tracks As Securely As If They Were 
 Each Guided By An Intelligent Mind. _They Are Guided By An 
 Intelligent Mind And An Almighty Arm._ 
   
 Still More Complicated Is The Question Of The Mutual Attractions Of 
 All The Planets. Lagrange Has Been Able To Show,  By A Mathematical 
 Genius That Seems Little Short Of Omniscience In His Single Department 
 Of Knowledge,  That There Is A Discovered System Of Oscillations, 
 Affecting The Entire Planetary System,  The Periods Of Which Are 
 Immensely Long. The Number Of These Oscillations Is Equal To That 
 Of All The Planets,  And Their Periods Range From 50,000 To 2,000,000 
 Years, 
   
 Looking Into The Open Page Of The Starry Heavens We See Double 
 Stars,  The Constituent Parts Of Which Must Revolve Around A Centre 
 Common To Them Both,  Or Rush To A Common Ruin. Eagerly We Look 
 To See If They Revolve,  And Beholding Them In The Very Act,  We 
 Conclude,  Not Groundlessly,  That The Same Great Law Of Gravitation 
 Holds Good In Distant Stellar Spaces,  And That There The Same Sufficient 
 Mind Plans,  And The Same Sufficient Power Directs And Controls All 
 Movements In Harmony And Security. 
   
 When We Come To The Perturbations Caused By The Mutual Attractions 
 Of The Sun,  Nine Planets,  Twenty Moons,  One Hundred And Ninety-Two 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 8 
 Asteroids,  Millions [Page 14] Of Comets,  And Innumerable Meteoric 
 Bodies Swarming In Space,  And When We Add To All These,  That Belong 
 To One Solar System,  The Attractions Of All The Systems Of The Other 
 Suns That Sparkle On A Brilliant Winter Night,  We Are Compelled To 
 Say,  "As High As The Heavens Are Above The Earth,  So High Above Our 
 Thoughts And Ways Must Be The Thoughts And Ways Of Him Who 
 Comprehends And Directs Them All." 
   
   
   
   
   
   
 [Page 15] 
 Ii. 
   
 Creative Progress. 
   
   "And God Said,  Let There Be Light,  And There Was Light."--_Genesis_ 
   I.,  3. 
   
   "God Is Light."--1 _John_,  I. 5. 
   
 [Page 16] 
   "Hail! Holy Light,  Offspring Of Heaven First Born, 
   Or Of The Eternal,  Co-Eternal Beam, 
   May I Express Thee Unblamed? Since God Is Light, 
   And Never But In Unapproached Light 
   Dwelt From Eternity,  Dwelt Then In Thee, 
   Bright Effluence Of Bright Essence Increate." 
     Milton. 
   
   "A Million Torches Lighted By Thy Hand 
   Wander Unwearied Through The Blue Abyss: 
   They Own Thy Power,  Accomplish Thy Command, 
   All Gay With Life,  All Eloquent With Bliss. 
   What Shall We Call Them? Piles Of Crystal Light-- 
   A Glorious Company Of Golden Streams-- 
   Lamps Of Celestial Ether Burning Bright-- 
   Suns Lighting Systems With Their Joyous Beams? 
   But 'Thou To These Art As The Noon To Night." 
     Derzhavin,  Trans. By Bowring. 
   
   
 [Page 17] 
 Ii. 
   
 _Creative Progress._ 
   
 Worlds Would Be Very Imperfect And Useless When Simply Endowed 
   
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 9 
 With Attraction And Inertia,  If No Time Were Allowed For These 
 Forces To Work Out Their Legitimate Results. We Want Something 
 More Than Swirling Seas Of Attracted Gases,  Something More Than 
 Compacted Rocks. We Look For Soil,  Verdure,  A Paradise Of Beauty, 
 Animal Life,  And Immortal Minds. Let Us Go On With The Process. 
   
 Light Is The Child Of Force,  And The Child,  Like Its Father,  Is Full 
 Of Power. We Dowered Our Created World With But A Single Quality--A 
 Force Of Attraction. It Not Only Had Attraction For Its Own Material 
 Substance,  But Sent Out An All-Pervasive Attraction Into Space. By 
 The Force Of Condensation It Flamed Like A Sun,  And Not Only Lighted 
 Its Own Substance,  But It Filled All Space With The Luminous Outgoings 
 Of Its Power. A World May Be Limited,  But Its Influence Cannot; 
 Its Body May Have Bounds,  But Its Soul Is Infinite. Everywhere Is 
 Its Manifestation As Real,  Power As Effective,  Presence As Actual, 
 As At The Central Point. He That Studies Ponderable Bodies Alone 
 Is Not Studying The Universe,  Only Its Skeleton. Skeletons Are 
 Somewhat Interesting In Themselves,  But Far More So When Covered 
 With Flesh,  Flushed With Beauty,  And Inspired With Soul. The 
 Universe [Page 18] Has Bones,  Flesh,  Beauty,  Soul,  And All Is One. 
 It Can Be Understood Only By A Study Of All Its Parts,  And By 
 Tracing Effect To Cause. 
   
 But How Can Condensation Cause Light? Power Cannot Be Quiet. The 
 Mighty Locomotive Trembles With Its Own Energy. A Smitten Piece 
 Of Iron Has All Its Infinitesimal Atoms Set In Vehement Commotion; 
 They Surge Back And Forth Among Themselves,  Like The Waves Of A 
 Storm-Blown Lake. Heat Is A Mode Of Motion. A Heated Body Commences 
 A Vigorous Vibration Among Its Particles,  And Communicates These 
 Vibrations To The Surrounding Air And Ether. When These Vibrations 
 Reach 396,000,000,000,000 Per Second,  The Human Eye,  Fitted To Be 
 Affected By That Number,  Discerns The Emitted Undulations,  And The 
 Object Seems To Glow With A Dull Red Light; Becoming Hotter,  The 
 Vibrations Increase In Rapidity. When They Reach 765,000,000,000,000 
 Per Second The Color Becomes Violet,  And The Eye Can Observe Them No 
 Farther. Between These Numbers Are Those Of Different Rapidities, 
 Which Affect The Eye--As Orange,  Yellow,  Green,  Blue,  Indigo,  In An 
 Almost Infinite Number Of Shades--According To The Sensitiveness 
 Of The Eye. 
   
 We Now See How Our Dark Immensity Of Attractive Atoms Can Become 
 Luminous. A Force Of Compression Results In Vibrations Within, 
 Communicated To The Ether,  Discerned By The Eye. Illustrations Are 
 Numerous. If We Suddenly Push A Piston Into A Cylinder Of Brass, 
 The Force Produces Heat Enough To Set Fire To An Inflammable Substance 
 Within. Strike A Half-Inch Cube Of Iron A Moderate Blow And It Becomes 
 Warm; A Sufficient Blow,  And Its Vibrations Become Quick Enough To 
 Be Seen--It Is Red-Hot. Attach A Thermometer To An Extended [Page 
 19] Arm Of A Whirling Wheel; Drive It Against The Air Five Hundred 
 Feet Per Second,  The Mercury Rises 16 Deg.. The Earth Goes 98,000 Feet 
 Per Second,  Or One Thousand Miles A Minute. If It Come To An 
 Aerolite Or Mass Of Metallic Rock,  Or Even A Cloudlet Of Gas, 
 Standing Still In Space,  Its Contact With Our Air Evolves 600,000 Deg. 
 Of Heat. And When The Meteor Comes Toward The World Twenty-Six Miles 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 10 
 A Second,  The Heat Would Become Proportionally Greater If The Meteor 
 Could Abide It,  And Not Be Consumed In Fervent Heat. It Vanishes 
 Almost As Soon As Seen. If There Were Meteoric Masses Enough Lying 
 In Our Path,  Our Sky Would Blaze With Myriads Of Flashes Of Light. 
 Enough Have Been Seen To Enable A Person To Read By Them At Night. 
 If A Sufficient Number Were Present,  We Should Miss Their Individual 
 Flashes As They Blend Their Separate Fires In One Sea Of 
 Insufferable Glory. The Sun Is 1,300,000 Times As Large As Our 
 Planet; Its Attraction Proportionally Greater; The Aerolites More 
 Numerous; And Hence An Infinite Hail Of Stones,  Small Masses And 
 Little Worlds,  Makes Ceaseless Trails Of Light,  Whose Individuality 
 Is Lost In One Dazzling Sea Of Glory. 
   
 On The 1st Day Of September,  1859,  Two Astronomers,  Independently 
 Of Each Other,  Saw A Sudden Brightening On The Surface Of The Sun. 
 Probably Two Large Meteoric Masses Were Travelling Side By Side 
 At Two Or Three Hundred Miles Per Second,  And Striking The Sun's 
 Atmosphere,  Suddenly Blazed Into Light Bright Enough To Be Seen 
 On The Intolerable Light Of The Photosphere As A Background. The 
 Earth Responded To This New Cause Of Brilliance And Heat In The 
 Sun. Vivid Auroras Appeared,  Not Only At The North And South Poles, 
 But Even Where Such Spectacles Are Seldom Seen. The Electro-Magnetic 
 [Page 20] Disturbances Were More Distinctly Marked. "In Many Places 
 The Telegraphic Wires Struck Work. In Washington And Philadelphia 
 The Electric Signalmen Received Severe Electric Shocks; At A Station 
 In Norway The Telegraphic Apparatus Was Set Fire To; And At Boston A 
 Flame Of Fire Followed The Pen Of Bain's Electric Telegraph." There 
 Is The Best Of Reason For Believing That A Continuous Succession Of 
 Such Bodies Might Have Gone Far Toward Rendering The Earth 
 Uncomfortable As A Place Of Residence. 
   
 Of Course,  The Same Result Of Heat And Light Would Follow From 
 Compression,  If A Body Had The Power Of Contraction In Itself. We 
 Endowed Every Particle Of Our Gas,  Myriads Of Miles In Extent,  With An 
 Attraction For Every Other Particle. It Immediately Compressed Itself 
 Into A Light-Giving Body,  Which Flamed Out Through The Interstellar 
 Spaces,  Flushing All The Celestial Regions With Exuberant Light. 
   
 But Heat Exerts A Repellent Force Among Particles,  And Soon An 
 Equilibrium Is Reached,  For There Comes A Time When The Contracting 
 Body Can Contract No Farther. But Heat And Light Radiate Away Into 
 Cold Space,  Then Contraction Goes On Evolving More Light,  And So 
 The Suns Flame On Through The Millions Of Years Unquenched. It Is 
 Estimated That The Contraction Of Our Sun,  From Filling Immensity 
 Of Space To Its Present Size,  Could Not Afford Heat Enough To Last 
 More Than 18,000,000 Years,  And That Its Contraction From Its Present 
 Density (That Of A Swamp) To Such Rock As That Of Which Our Earth 
 Is Composed,  Could Supply Heat Enough For 17,000,000 Years Longer. 
 But The Far-Seeing Mind Of Man Knows A Time Must Come When The 
 Present Force Of Attraction [Page 21] Shall Have Produced All The 
 Heat It Can,  And A New Force Of Attraction Must Be Added,  Or The Sun 
 Itself Will Become Cold As A Cinder,  Dead As A Burned-Out Char. 
   
 Since Light And Heat Are The Product Of Such Enormous Cosmic Forces, 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 11 
 They Must Partake Of Their Nature,  And Be Force. So They Are. The 
 Sun Has Long Arms,  And They Are Full Of Unconquerable Strength 
 Ninety-Two Millions,  Or Any Other Number Of Millions,  Of Miles 
 Away. All This Light And Heat Comes Through Space That Is 200 Deg. 
 Below Zero,  Through Utter Darkness,  And Appears Only On The Earth. 
 So The Gas Is Darkness In The Underground Pipes,  But Light At The 
 Burner. So The Electric Power Is Unfelt By The Cable In The Bosom 
 Of The Deep,  But Is Expressive Of Thought And Feeling At The End. 
 Having Found The Cause Of Light,  We Will Commence A Study Of Its 
 Qualities And Powers. 
   
 Light Is The Astronomer's Necessity. When The Sublime Word Was 
 Uttered,  "Let There Be Light!" The Study Of Astronomy Was Made 
 Possible. Man Can Gather But Little Of It With His Eye; So He Takes 
 A Lens Twenty-Six Inches In Diameter,  And Bends All The Light That 
 Passes Through It To A Focus,  Then Magnifies The Image And Takes 
 It Into His Eye. Or He Takes A Mirror,  Six Feet In Diameter,  So 
 Hollowed In The Middle As To Reflect All The Rays Falling Upon It 
 To One Point,  And Makes This Larger Eye Fill His Own With Light. 
 By This Larger Light-Gathering He Discerns Things For Which The 
 Light Falling On His Pupil One-Fifth Of An Inch In Diameter Would 
 Not Be Sufficient. We Never Have Seen Any Sun Or Stars; We Have 
 Only Seen The Light That Left Them Fifty Minutes Or Years Ago,  More 
 Or Less. Light Is The Aerial Sprite That Carries Our Measuring-Rods 
 Across The Infinite [Page 22] Spaces; Light Spreads Out The History 
 Of That Far-Off Beginning; Brings Us The Measure Of Stars A Thousand 
 Times Brighter Than Our Sun; Takes Up Into Itself Evidences Of The 
 Very Constitutional Elements Of The Far-Off Suns,  And Spreads Them 
 At Our Feet. It Is Of Such Capacity That The Divine Nature,  Looking 
 For An Expression Of Its Own Omnipotence,  Omniscience,  And Power Of 
 Revelation,  Was Content To Say,  "God Is Light." We Shall Need All 
 Our Delicacy Of Analysis And Measurement When We Seek To Determine 
 The Activities Of Matter So Fine And Near To Spirit As Light. 
   
   
 We First Seek The Velocity Of Light. In Fig. 4 The Earth Is 92,500,000 
 Miles From The Sun At E; Jupiter Is 480,000,000 Miles From The Sun 
 At J. It Has Four Moons: The Inner One Goes Around The Central 
 Body In Forty-Two Hours,  And Is Eclipsed At Every Revolution. The 
 Light That Went Out From The Sun To M Ceases To Be Reflected Back 
 To The Earth By The Intervention Of The Planet Jupiter. We Know 
 To A Second When These Eclipses Take Place,  And They Can Be Seen 
 With A Small Telescope. But When The Earth Is On The Opposite Side 
 Of The Sun [Page 23] From Jupiter,  At E',  These Eclipses At J' Take 
 Place Sixteen And A Half Minutes Too Late. What Is The Reason? Is 
 The Celestial Chronometry Getting Deranged? No,  Indeed; These Great 
 Worlds Swing Never An Inch Out Of Place,  Nor A Second Out Of Time. 
 By Going To The Other Side Of The Sun The Earth Is 184,000,000 Miles 
 Farther From Jupiter,  And The Light That Brings The Intelligence Of 
 That Eclipse Consumes The Extra Time In Going Over The Extra 
 Distance. Divide One By The Other And We Get The Velocity,  185,000 
 Miles Per Second. That Is Probably Correct To Within A Thousand 
 Miles. Methods Of Measurement By The Toothed Wheel Of Fizeau Confirm 
 This Result. Suppose The Wheel,  Fig. 5,  To Have One Thousand Teeth, 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 12 
 Making Five Revolutions To The Second. Five Thousand Flashes Of 
 Light Each Second Will Dart Out. Let Each Flash Travel Nine Miles To 
 A Mirror And Return. If It Goes That Distance In 1/10000 Of A 
 Second,  Or At The Rate Of 180,000 Miles A Second,  The Next Tooth 
 Will Have Arrived Before The Eye,  And Each Returning Ray Be Cut Off. 
 Hasten The Revolutions A Little,  And The Next Notch Will Then Admit 
 The Ray,  On Its Return,  That Went Out Of Each Previous Notch: The 
 Eighteen Miles Having Been Traversed Meanwhile. The Method Of 
 Measuring By Means Of A Revolving Mirror,  Used By Faucault,  Is Held 
 To Be Even More Accurate. 
   
   
 When We Take Instantaneous Photographs By The Exposure [Page 24] Of 
 The Sensitive Plate 1/20000 Part Of A Second,  A Stream Of Light Nine 
 Miles Long Dashes In Upon The Plate In That Very Brief Period Of 
 Time. 
   
 The Highest Velocity We Can Give A Rifle-Ball Is 2000 Feet A Second, 
 The Next Second It Is Only 1500 Feet,  And Soon It Comes To Rest. 
 We Cannot Compact Force Enough Behind A Bit Of Lead To Keep It 
 Flying. But Light Flies Unweariedly And Without Diminution Of Speed. 
 When It Has Come From The Sun In Eight Minutes,  Alpha Centauri 
 In Three Years,  Polaris In Forty-Five Years,  Other Stars In One 
 Thousand,  Its Wings Are In Nowise Fatigued,  Nor Is The Rapidity 
 Of Its Flight Slackened In The Least. 
   
 It Is Not The Transactions Of To-Day That We Read In The Heavens, 
 But It Is History,  Some Of It Older Than The Time Of Adam. Those 
 Stars May Have Been Smitten Out Of Existence Decades Of Centuries 
 Ago,  But Their Poured-Out Light Is Yet Flooding The Heavens. 
   
 It Goes Both Ways At Once In The Same Place,  Without Interference. 
 We See The Light Reflected From The New Moon To The Earth; Reflected 
 Back From The House-Tops,  Fields,  And Waters Of Earth,  To The Moon 
 Again,  And From The Moon To Us Once More--Three Times In Opposite 
 Directions,  In The Same Place,  Without Interference,  And Thus We 
 See "The Old Moon In The Arms Of The New." 
   
 _Constitution Of Light._ 
   
   
 Light Was Once Supposed To Be Corpuscular,  Or Consisting Of Transmitted 
 Particles. It Is Now Known To Be The Result Of Undulations In Ether. 
 Reference Has Been Made To The Minuteness Of These Undulations. 
 Their Velocity Is Equally Wonderful. Put A Prism Of Glass Into 
 A Ray Of Light Coming Into A Dark Room,  And It Is [Page 25] 
 Instantly Turned Out Of Its Course,  Some Parts More And Some Less, 
 According To The Number Of Vibrations,  And Appears As The Seven 
 Colors On Different Parts Of The Screen. Fig. 6 Shows The 
 Arrangement Of Colors,  And The Number Of Millions Of Millions Of 
 Vibrations Per Second Of Each. But The Different Divisions We Call 
 Colors Are Not Colors In Themselves At All,  But Simply A Different 
 Number Of Vibrations. Color Is All In The Eye. Violet Has In 
 Different Places From 716 To 765,000,000,000,000 Of Vibrations Per 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 13 
 Second; Red Has,  In Different Places,  From 396 To 
 470,000,000,000,000 Vibrations Per Second. None Of These In Any 
 Sense Are Color,  But Affect The Eye Differently,  And We Call These 
 Different Effects Color. They Are Simply Various Velocities Of 
 Vibration. An Object,  Like One Kind Of Stripe In Our Flag,  Which 
 Absorbs All Kinds Of Vibrations Except Those Between 396 And 
 470,000,000,000,000,  And Reflects Those,  Appears Red To Us. The 
 Field For The Stars Absorbs And Destroys All But Those Vibrations 
 Numbering About 653,000,000,000,000 Of [Page 25] Vibrations Per 
 Second. A Color Is A Constant Creation. Light Makes Momentary Color 
 In The Flag. Drake Might Have Written,  In The Continuous Present As 
 Well As In The Past, 
   
  "Freedom Mingles With Its Gorgeous Dyes 
   The Milky Baldrick Of The Skies, 
   And Stripes Its Pore Celestial White 
   With Streakings Of The Morning Light." 
   
 Every Little Pansy,  Tender As Fancy,  Pearled With Evanescent Dew, 
 Fresh As A New Creation Of Sunbeams,  Has Power To Suppress In One 
 Part Of Its Petals All Vibrations We Call Red,  In Another Those 
 We Call Yellow,  And Purple,  And Reflect Each Of These In Other 
 Parts Of The Same Tender Petal. "Pansies Are For Thoughts," Even 
 More Thoughts Than Poor Ophelia Knew. An Evening Cloud That Is 
 Dense Enough To Absorb All The Faster And Weaker Vibrations,  Leaving 
 Only The Stronger To Come Through,  Will Be Said To Be Red; Because 
 The Vibrations That Produce The Impression We Have So Named Are 
 The Only Ones That Have Vigor Enough To Get Through. It Is Like An 
 Army Charging Upon A Fortress. Under The Deadly Fire And Fearful 
 Obstructions Six-Sevenths Go Down,  But One-Seventh Comes Through 
 With The Glory Of Victory Upon Its Face. 
   
 Light Comes In Undulations To The Eye,  As Tones Of Sound To The 
 Ear. Must Not Light Also Sing? The Lowest Tone We Can Hear Is Made 
 By 16.5 Vibrations Of Air Per Second; The Highest,  So Shrill And 
 "Fine That Nothing Lives 'Twixt It And Silence," Is Made By 38,000 
 Vibrations Per Second. Between These Extremes Lie Eleven Octaves; 
 C Of The G Clef Having 258-7/8 Vibrations To The Second,  And Its 
 Octave Above 517-1/2. Not That Sound Vibrations Cease [Page 27] At 
 38,000,  But Our Organs Are Not Fitted To Hear Beyond Those 
 Limitations. If Our Ears Were Delicate Enough,  We Could Hear Even Up 
 To The Almost Infinite Vibrations Of Light. In One Of Those 
 Semi-Inspirations We Find In Shakspeare's Works,  He Says-- 
   
  "There's Not The Smallest Orb Which Thou Beholdest, 
   But In His Motion Like An Angel Sings, 
   Still Quiring To The Young-Eyed Cherubim. 
   Such Harmony Is In Immortal Souls; 
   But,  Whilst This Muddy Vesture Of Decay 
   Doth Grossly Close It In,  We Cannot Hear It." 
   
 And That Older Poetry Which Is Always Highest Truth Says,  "The 
 Morning Stars Sing Together." We Misconstrued Another Passage Which 
 We Could Not Understand,  And Did Not Dare Translate As It Was Written, 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 14 
 Till Science Crept Up To A Perception Of The Truth That Had Been 
 Standing There For Ages,  Waiting A Mind That Could Take It In. 
 Now We Read As It Is Written--"Thou Makest The Out-Goings Of The 
 Morning And Evening To Sing." Were Our Senses Fine Enough,  We Could 
 Hear The Separate Keynote Of Every Individual Star. Stars Differ 
 In Glory And In Power,  And So In The Volume And Pitch Of Their 
 Song. Were Our Hearing Sensitive Enough,  We Could Hear Not Only 
 The Separate Key-Notes But The Infinite Swelling Harmony Of These 
 Myriad Stars Of The Sky,  As They Pour Their Mighty Tide Of United 
 Anthems In The Ear Of God: 
   
  "In Reason's Ear They All Rejoice, 
   And Utter Forth A Glorious Voice. 
   Forever Singing,  As They Shine, 
   The Hand That Made Us Is Divine." 
   
 This Music Is Not Monotonous. Stars Draw Near Each Other,  And Make 
 A Light That Is Unapproachable By Mortals; [Page 28] Then The Music 
 Swells Beyond Our Ability To Endure. They Recede Far Away,  Making A 
 Light So Dim That The Music Dies Away,  So Near To Silence That Only 
 Spirits Can Perceive It. No Wonder God Rejoices In His Works. They 
 Pour Into His Ear One Ceaseless Tide Of Rapturous Song. 
   
 Our Senses Are Limited--We Have Only Five,  But There Is Room For 
 Many More. Some Time We Shall Be Taken Out Of "This Muddy Vesture 
 Of Decay," No Longer See The Universe Through Crevices Of Our 
 Prison-House,  But Shall Range Through Wider Fields,  Explore Deeper 
 Mysteries,  And Discover New Worlds,  Hints Of Which Have Never Yet 
 Been Blown Across The Wide Atlantic That Rolls Between Them And 
 Men Abiding In The Flesh. 
   
 _Chemistry Of Suns Revealed By Light._ 
   
 When We Examine The Assemblage Of Colors Spread From The White Ray 
 Of Sunlight,  We Do Not Find Red Simple Red,  Yellow Yellow,  Etc., 
 But There Is A Vast Number Of Fine Microscopic Lines Of Various 
 Lengths,  Parallel--Here Near Together,  There Far Apart,  Always The 
 Same Number And The Same Relative Distance,  When The Same Light 
 And Prism Are Used. What New Alphabets To New Realms Of Knowledge 
 Are These! Remember,  That What We Call Colors Are Only Various 
 Numbers Of Vibrations Of Ether. Remember,  That Every Little Group In 
 The Infinite Variety Of These Vibrations May Be Affected Differently 
 From Every Other Group. One Number Of These Is Bent By The Prism 
 To Where We See What We Call The Violet,  Another Number To The 
 Place We Call Red. All Of The Vibrations Are Destroyed When They 
 Strike A Surface We Call Black. A Part Of Them Are Destroyed When 
 [Page 29] They Strike A Substance We Call Colored. The Rest Are 
 Reflected,  And Give The Impression Of Color. In One Place On The 
 Flag Of Our Nation All Vibrations Are Destroyed Except The Red; In 
 Another,  All But The Blue. Perhaps On That Other Gorgeous Flag,  Not 
 Of Our Country But Of Our Sun,  The Flag We Call The Solar Spectrum, 
 All Vibrations Are Destroyed Where These Dark Lines Appear. Perhaps 
 This Effect Is Not Produced By The Surface Upon Which The Rays Fall, 
 But By Some Specific Substance In The Sun. This Is Just The Truth. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 15 
 Light Passing Through Vapor Of Sodium Has The Vibrations That Would 
 Fall On Two Narrow Lines In The Yellow Utterly Destroyed,  Leaving 
 Two Black Spaces. Light Passing Through Vapor Of Burning Iron Has 
 Some Four Hundred Numbers Or Kinds Of Vibrations Destroyed,  Leaving 
 That Number Of Black Lines; But If The Salt Or Iron Be Glowing Gas, 
 In The Source Of The Light Itself The Same Lines Are Bright Instead 
 Of Dark. 
   
 Thus We Have Brought To Our Doors A Readable Record Of The Very 
 Substances Composing Every World Hot Enough To Shine By Its Own 
 Light. Thus,  While Our Flag Means All We Have Of Liberty,  Free As 
 The Winds That Kiss It,  And Bright As The Stars That Shine In It, 
 The Flag Of The Sun Means All That It Is In Constituent Elements, 
 All That It Is In Condition. 
   
 We Find In Our Sun Many Substances Known To Exist In The Earth, 
 And Some That We Had Not Discovered When The Sun Wrote Their Names, 
 Or Rather Made Their Mark,  In The Spectrum. Thus,  Also,  We Find 
 That Betelguese And Algol Are Without Any Perceivable Indications 
 Of Hydrogen,  And Sirius Has It In Abundance. What A Sense Of 
 Acquaintanceship It Gives Us To Look Up And Recognize [Page 30] The 
 Stars Whose Very Substance We Know! If We Were Transported Thither, 
 Or Beyond,  We Should Not Be Altogether Strangers In An Unknown 
 Realm. 
   
 But The Stars Differ In Their Constituent Elements; Every Ray That 
 Flashes From Them Bears In Its Very Being Proofs Of What They Are. 
 Hence The Eye Of Omniscience,  Seeing A Ray Of Light Anywhere In 
 The Universe,  Though Gone From Its Source A Thousand Years,  Would 
 Be Able To Tell From What Orb It Originally Came. 
   
 _Creative Force Of Light._ 
   
 Just Above The Color Vibrations Of The Unbraided Sunbeam,  Above 
 The Violet,  Which Is The Highest Number Our Eyes Can Detect,  Is 
 A Chemical Force; It Works The Changes On The Glass Plate In 
 Photography; It Transfigures The Dark,  Cold Soil Into Woody Fibre, 
 Green Leaf,  Downy Rose Petals,  Luscious Fruit,  And Far Pervasive 
 Odor; It Flushes The Wide Acres Of The Prairie With Grass And Flowers, 
 Fills The Valleys With Trees,  And Covers The Hills With Corn,  A 
 Single Blade Of Which All The Power Of Man Could Not Make. 
   
 This Power Is Also Fit And Able To Survive. The Engineer Stephenson 
 Once Asked Dr. Buckland,  "What Is The Power That Drives That Train?" 
 Pointing To One Thundering By. "Well,  I Suppose It Is One Of Your 
 Big Engines." "But What Drives The Engine?" "Oh,  Very Likely A Canny 
 Newcastle Driver." "No,  Sir," Said The Engineer,  "It Is Sunshine." 
 The Doctor Was Too Dull To Take It In. Let Us See If We Can Trace 
 Such An Evident Effect To That Distant Cause. Ages Ago The Warm 
 Sunshine,  Falling On The Scarcely Lifted Hills Of Pennsylvania, 
 Caused The Reedy Vegetation To Grow Along The Banks Of [Page 31] 
 Shallow Seas,  Accumulated Vast Amounts Of This Vegetation,  Sunk It 
 Beneath The Sea,  Roofed It Over With Sand,  Compacted The Sand Into 
 Rock,  And Changed This Vegetable Matter--The Products Of The 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 16 
 Sunshine--Into Coal; And When It Was Ready,  Lifted It Once More,  All 
 Garnered For The Use Of Men,  Roofed Over With Mighty Mountains. We 
 Mine The Coal,  Bring Out The Heat,  Raise The Steam,  Drive The Train, 
 So That In The Ultimate Analyses It Is Sunshine That Drives The 
 Train. These Great Beds Of Coal Are Nothing But Condensed 
 Sunshine--The Sun's Great Force,  Through Ages Gone,  Preserved For 
 Our Use To-Day. And It Is So Full Of Force That A Piece Of Coal That 
 Will Weigh Three Pounds (As Big As A Large Pair Of Fists) Has As 
 Much Power In It As The Average Man Puts Into A Day's Work. Three 
 Tons Of Coal Will Pump As Much Water Or Shovel As Much Sand As The 
 Average Man Will Pump Or Shovel In A Lifetime; So That If A Man 
 Proposes To Do Nothing But Work With His Muscles,  He Had Better Dig 
 Three Tons Of Coal And Set That To Do His Work And Then Die,  Because 
 His Work Will Be Better Done,  And Without Any Cost For The 
 Maintenance Of The Doer. 
   
 Come Down Below The Color Vibrations,  And We Shall Find That Those 
 Which Are Too Infrequent To Be Visible,  Manifest As Heat. Naturally 
 There Will Be As Many Different Kinds Of Heat As Tints Of Color, 
 Because There Is As Great A Range Of Numbers Of Vibration. It Is 
 Our Privilege To Sift Them Apart And Sort Them Over,  And Find What 
 Kinds Are Best Adapted To Our Various Uses. 
   
 Take An Electric Lamp,  Giving A Strong Beam Of Light And Heat,  And 
 With A Plano-Convex Lens Gather It Into A Single Beam And Direct 
 It Upon A Thermometer,  Twenty Feet Away,  That Is Made Of Glass 
 And Filled With Air. The [Page 32] Expansion Or Contraction Of This 
 Air Will Indicate The Varying Amounts Of Heat. Watch Your 
 Air-Thermometer,  On Which The Beam Of Heat Is Pouring,  For The 
 Result. There Is None. And Yet There Is A Strong Current Of Heat 
 There. Put Another Kind Of Test Of Heat Beyond It And It Appears; 
 Coat The Air-Thermometer With A Bit Of Black Cloth,  And That Will 
 Absorb Heat And Reveal It. But Why Not At First? Because The Glass 
 Lens Stops All The Heat That Can Affect Glass. The Twenty Feet Of 
 Air Absorbs All The Heat That Affects Air,  And No Kind Of Heat Is 
 Left To Affect An Instrument Made Of Glass And Air; But There Are 
 Kinds Of Heat Enough To Affect Instruments Made Of Other Things. 
   
 A Very Strong Current Of Heat May Be Sent Right Through The Heart 
 Of A Block Of Ice Without Melting The Ice At All Or Cooling Off 
 The Heat In The Least. It Is Done In This Way: Send The Beam Of 
 Heat Through Water In A Glass Trough,  And This Absorbs All The Heat 
 That Can Affect Water Or Ice,  Getting Itself Hot,  And Leaving All 
 Other Kinds Of Heat To Go Through The Ice Beyond; And Appropriate 
 Tests Show That As Much Heat Comes Out On The Other Side As Goes 
 In On This Side,  And It Does Not Melt The Ice At All. Gunpowder 
 May Be Exploded By Heat Sent Through Ice. Dr. Kane,  Years Ago, 
 Made This Experiment. He Was Coming Down From The North,  And Fell 
 In With Some Esquimaux,  Whom He Was Anxious To Conciliate. He Said 
 To The Old Wizard Of The Tribe,  "I Am A Wizard; I Can Bring The 
 Sun Down Out Of The Heavens With A Piece Of Ice." That Was A Good, 
 Deal To Say In A Country Where There Was So Little Sun. "So," He 
 Writes,  "I Took My Hatchet,  Chipped A Small Piece Of Ice Into The 
 Form Of A Double-Convex Lens,  [Page 33] Smoothed It With My Warm 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 17 
 Hands,  Held It Up To The Sun,  And,  As The Old Man Was Blind,  I 
 Kindly Burned A Blister On The Back Of His Hand To Show Him I Could 
 Do It." 
   
 These Are Simple Illustrations Of The Various Kinds Of Heat. The 
 Best Furnace Or Stove Ever Invented Consumes Fifteen Times As Much 
 Fuel To Produce A Given Amount Of Heat As The Furnace In Our Bodies 
 Consumes To Produce A Similar Amount. We Lay In Our Supplies Of 
 Carbon At The Breakfast,  Dinner,  And Supper Table,  And Keep Ourselves 
 Warm By Economically Burning It With The Oxygen We Breathe. 
   
 Heat Associated With Light Has Very Different Qualities From That 
 Which Is Not. Sunlight Melts Ice In The Middle,  Bottom,  And Top At 
 Once. Ice In The Spring-Time Is Honey-Combed Throughout. A Piece 
 Of Ice Set In The Summer Sunshine Crumbles Into Separate Crystals. 
 Dark Heat Only Melts The Surface. 
   
 Nearly All The Heat Of The Sun Passes Through Glass Without Hinderance; 
 But Take Heat From White-Hot Platinum And Only Seventy-Six Per Cent. 
 Of It Goes Through Glass,  Twenty-Four Per Cent. Being So Constituted 
 That It Cannot Pass With Facility. Of Heat From Copper At 752 Deg. 
 Only Six Per Cent. Can Go Through Glass,  The Other Ninety-Four Per 
 Cent. Being Absorbed By It. 
   
 The Heat Of The Sun Beam Goes Through Glass Without [Page 34] Any 
 Hinderance Whatever. It Streams Into The Room As Freely As If There 
 Were No Glass There. But What If The Furnace Or Stove Heat Went 
 Through Glass With Equal Facility? We Might As Well Try To Heat Our 
 Rooms With The Window-Panes All Out,  And The Blast Of Winter 
 Sweeping Through Them. 
   
 The Heat Of The Sun,  By Its Intense Vibrations,  Comes To The Earth 
 Dowered With A Power Which Pierces The Miles Of Our Atmosphere, 
 But If Our Air Were As Pervious To The Heat Of The Earth,  This 
 Heat Would Flyaway Every Night,  And Our Temperature Would Go Down 
 To 200 Deg. Below Zero. This Heat Comes With The Light,  And Then, 
 Dissociated From It,  The Number Of Its Vibrations Lessened,  It Is 
 Robbed Of Its Power To Get Away,  And Remains To Work Its Beneficent 
 Ends For Our Good. 
   
 Worlds That Are So Distant As To Receive Only 1/1000 Of The Heat 
 We Enjoy,  May Have Atmospheres That Retain It All. Indeed It Is 
 Probable That Mars,  That Receives But One-Quarter As Much Heat 
 As The Earth,  Has A Temperature As High As Ours. The Poet Drew On 
 His Imagination When He Wrote: 
   
   "Who There Inhabit Must Have Other Powers, 
    Juices,  And Veins,  And Sense And Life Than Ours; 
    One Moment's Cold Like Theirs Would Pierce The Bone, 
    Freeze The Heart's-Blood,  And Turn Us All To Stone." 
   
 The Power That Journeys Along The Celestial Spaces In The Flashing 
 Sunshine Is Beyond Our Comprehension. It Accomplishes With Ease 
 What Man Strives In Vain To Do With All His Strength. At West Point 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 18 
 There Are Some Links Of A Chain That Was Stretched Across The River 
 To Prevent British Ships From Ascending; These Links Were Made 
 Of Two-And-A-Quarter-Inch Iron. A Powerful Locomotive Might Tug 
 In Vain At One Of Them And Not Stretch It The Thousandth Part Of 
 An Inch. But The Heat Of A Single Gas-Burner,  That Glows With The 
 Preserved Sunlight Of Other Ages,  When Suitably Applied To The 
 Link,  Stretches It With Ease; Such Enormous Power Has A Little 
 Heat. There Is A Certain Iron Bridge Across The Thames At London, 
 Resting On Arches. The Warm Sunshine,  Acting [Page 35] Upon The 
 Iron,  Stations Its Particles Farther And Farther Apart. Since The 
 Bottom Cannot Give Way The Arches Must Rise In The Middle. As They 
 Become Longer They Lift The Whole Bridge,  And All The Thundering 
 Locomotives And Miles Of Goods-Trains Cannot Bring That Bridge Down 
 Again Until The Power Of The Sunshine Has Been Withdrawn. There Is 
 Bunker Hill Monument,  Thirty-Two Feet Square At The Base,  With An 
 Elevation Of Two Hundred And Twenty Feet. The Sunshine Of Every 
 Summer's Day Takes Hold Of That Mighty Pile Of Granite With Its 
 Aerial Fingers,  Lengthens The Side Affected,  And Bends The Whole 
 Great Mass As Easily As One Would Bend A Whipstock. A Few Years Ago 
 We Hung A Plummet From The Top Of This Monument To The Bottom. At 9 
 A.M. It Began To Move Toward The West; At Noon It Swung Round Toward 
 The North; In The Afternoon It Went East Of Where It First Was,  And 
 In The Night It Settled Back To Its Original Place. 
   
 The Sunshine Says To The Sea,  Held In The Grasp Of Gravitation, 
 "Rise From Your Bed! Let Millions Of Tons Of Water Fly On The Wings 
 Of The Viewless Air,  Hundreds Of Miles To The Distant Mountains, 
 And Pour There Those Millions Of Tons That Shall Refresh A Whole 
 Continent,  And Shall Gather In Rivers Fitted To Bear The Commerce 
 And The Navies Of Nations." Gravitation Says,  "I Will Hold Every 
 Particle Of This Ocean As Near The Centre Of The Earth As I Can." 
 Sunshine Speaks With Its Word Of Power,  And Says,  "Up And Away!" 
 And In The Wreathing Mists Of Morning These Myriads Of Tons Rise 
 In The Air,  Flyaway Hundreds Of Miles,  And Supply All The Niagaras, 
 Mississippis And Amazons Of Earth. The Sun Says To The Earth,  Wrapped 
 In The Mantle Of Winter,  [Page 36] "Bloom Again;" And The Snows 
 Melt,  The Ice Retires,  And Vegetation Breaks Forth,  Birds Sing,  And 
 Spring Is About Us. 
   
 Thus It Is Evident That Every Force Is Constitutionally Arranged 
 To Be Overcome By A Higher,  And All By The Highest. Gravitation Of 
 Earth Naturally And Legitimately Yields To The Power Of The Sun's 
 Heat,  And Then The Waters Fly Into The Clouds. It As Naturally 
 And Legitimately Yields To The Power Of Mind,  And The Waters Of The 
 Red Sea Are Divided And Stand "Upright As An Heap." Water Naturally 
 Bursts Into Flame When A Bit Of Potassium Is Thrown Into It,  And 
 As Naturally When Elijah Calls The Right Kind Of Fire From Above. 
 What Seems A Miracle,  And In Contravention Of Law,  Is Only The 
 Constitutional Exercise Of Higher Force Over Forces Organized To 
 Be Swayed. If Law Were Perfectly Rigid,  There Could Be But One 
 Force; But Many Grades Exist From Cohesion To Mind And Spirit. 
 The Highest Forces Are Meant To Have Victory,  And Thus Give The 
 Highest Order And Perfectness. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 19 
 Across The Astronomic Spaces Reach All These Powers,  Making Creation 
 A Perpetual Process Rather Than A Single Act. It Almost Seems As 
 If Light,  In Its Varied Capacities,  Were The Embodiment Of God's 
 Creative Power; As If,  Having Said,  "Let There Be Light," He Need Do 
 Nothing Else,  But Allow It To Carry Forward The Creative Processes 
 To The End Of Time. It Was Newton,  One Of The Earliest And Most 
 Acute Investigators In This Study Of Light,  Who Said,  "I Seem To 
 Have Wandered On The Shore Of Truth's Great Ocean,  And To Have 
 Gathered A Few Pebbles More Beautiful Than Common; But The Vast 
 Ocean Itself Rolls Before Me Undiscovered And Unexplored." 
   
 [Page 37] 
 Experiments With Light. 
   
 A Light Set In A Room Is Seen From Every Place; Hence Light Streams 
 In Every Possible Direction. If Put In The Centre Of A Hollow Sphere, 
 Every Point Of The Surface Will Be Equally Illumined. If Put In 
 A Sphere Of Twice The Diameter,  The Same Light Will Fall On All 
 The Larger Surface. The Surfaces Of Spheres Are As The Squares 
 Of Their Diameters; Hence,  In The Larger Sphere The Surface Is 
 Illumined Only One-Quarter As Much As The Smaller. The Same Is True 
 Of Large And Small Rooms. In Fig. 7 It Is Apparent That The Light 
 That Falls On The First Square Is Spread,  At Twice The Distance, 
 Over The Second Square,  Which Is Four Times As Large,  And At Three 
 Times The Distance Over Nine Times The Surface. The Varying Amount 
 Of Light Received By Each Planet Is Also Shown In Fractions Above 
 Each World,  The Amount Received By The Earth Being 1. 
   
   
   
 The Intensity Of Light Is Easily Measured. Let Two Lights Of Different 
 Brightness,  As In Fig. 8,  Cast Shadows On The Same Screen. Arrange 
 Them As To Distance So That Both Shadows Shall Be Equally Dark. 
 Let Them Fall Side By Side,  And Study Them Carefully. Measure The 
 Respective Distances. Suppose One Is Twenty Inches,  The Other Forty. 
 Light Varies As The Square [Page 38] Of The Distance: The Square Of 
 20 Is 400,  Of 40 Is 1600. Divide 1600 By 400,  And The Result Is That 
 One Light Is Four Times As Bright As The Other. 
   
   
 Light Can Be Handled,  Directed,  And Bent,  As Well As Iron Bars. 
 Darken A Room And Admit A Beam Of Sunlight Through A Shutter,  Or 
 A Ray Of Lamp-Light Through The Key-Hole. If There Is Dust In The 
 Room It Will Be Observed That Light Goes In Straight Lines. Because 
 Of This Men Are Able To Arrange Houses And Trees In Rows,  The Hunter 
 Aims His Rifle Correctly,  And The Astronomer Projects Straight 
 Lines To Infinity. Take A Hand-Mirror,  Or Better,  A Piece Of Glass 
 Coated On One Side With Black Varnish,  And You Can Send Your Ray 
 Anywhere. By Using Two Mirrors,  Or Having An Assistant And Using 
 Several,  You Can Cause A Ray Of Light To Turn As Many Corners As You 
 Please. I Once Saw Mr. Tyndall Send A Ray Into A Glass Jar Filled 
 With Smoke (Fig. 9). Admitting A Slender Ray Through A Small Hole In 
 A Card Over The Mouth,  One Ray Appeared; Removing The Cover,  The 
 Whole Jar Was Luminous; As The Smoke Disappeared In Spots Cavities 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 20 
 Of Darkness Appeared. Turn The Same Ray Into A Tumbler Of Water, 
 [Page 39] 
 It Becomes Faintly Visible; Stir Into It A Teaspoonful Of Milk,  Then 
 Turn In The Ray Of Sunlight,  And It Glows Like A Lamp,  Illuminating 
 The Whole Room. These Experiments Show How The Straight Rays Of 
 The Sun Are Diffused In Every Direction Over The Earth. 
   
 Set A Small Light Near One Edge Of A Mirror; Then,  By Putting The 
 Eye Near The Opposite Edge,  You See Almost As Many Flames As You 
 Please From The Multiplied Reflections. How Can This Be Accounted 
 For? 
   
 Into Your Beam Of Sunlight,  Admitted Through A Half-Inch Hole, 
 Put The Mirror At An Oblique Angle; You Can Arrange It So As To 
 Throw Half A Dozen Bright Spots On The Opposite Wall. 
   
   
 In Fig. 10 The Sunbeam Enters At A,  And,  Striking The Mirror _M_ 
 At _A_,  Is Partly Reflected To 1 On The Wall,  And Partly Enters 
 The Glass,  Passes Through To The Silvered Back At B,  And Is Totally 
 Reflected To _B_,  Where It Again Divides,  Some Of It Going To The 
 Wall At 2,  And The Rest,  Continuing To Make The Same Reflections 
 And Divisions,  Causes Spots 3,  4,  5,  Etc. The Brightest Spot Is 
 At No.2,  Because The Silvered Glass At B Is The Best Reflector 
 And Has The Most Light. 
   
 When The Discovery Of The Moons Of Mars Was Announced In 1877, 
 It Was Also Widely Published That They Could Be Seen By A Mirror. 
 Of Course This Is Impossible. The Point Of Light Mistaken For The 
 Moon In This Secondary Reflection Was Caused By Holding The Mirror 
 In An Oblique Position. 
   
 Take A Small Piece Of Mirror,  Say An Inch In Surface,  And Putting 
 Under It Three Little Pellets Of Wax,  Putty,  Or Clay,  Set It On 
 The Wrist,  With One Of The Pellets On The Pulse. Hold The Mirror 
 Steadily In The Beam Of Light,  And The Frequency And Prominence Of 
 Each Pulse-Beat Will Be Indicated By The Tossing Spot Of Light On 
 The Wall. If The Operator Becomes Excited The Fact Will Be Evident 
 To All Observers. 
   
   
 Place A Coin In A Basin (Fig. 11),  And Set It So That The Rim Will 
 Conceal The Coin From The Eye. Pour In Water,  And The Coin Will 
 [Page 40] Appear To Rise Into Sight. When Light Passes From A Medium 
 Of One Density To A Medium Of Another,  Its Direction Is Changed. 
 Thus A Stick In Water Seems Bent. Ships Below The Horizon Are 
 Sometimes Seen Above,  Because Of The Different Density Of The Layers 
 Of Air. 
   
 Thus Light Coming From The Interstellar Spaces,  And Entering Our 
 Atmosphere,  Is Bent Down More And More By Its Increasing Density. 
 The Effect Is Greatest When The Sun Or Star Is Near The Horizon, 
 None At All In The Zenith. This Brings The Object Into View Before 
 It Is Risen. Allowance For This Displacement Is Made In All Delicate 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 21 
 Astronomical Observations. 
   
   
 Notice On The Floor The Shadow Of The Window-Frames. The Glass 
 Of Almost Every Window Is So Bent As To Turn The Sunlight Aside 
 Enough To Obliterate Some Of The Shadows Or Increase Their Thickness. 
   
 Decomposition Of Light. 
   
 Admit The Sunbeam Through A Slit One Inch Long And One-Twentieth 
 Of An Inch Wide. Pass It Through A Prism. Either Purchase One Or 
 Make It Of Three Plain Pieces Of Glass One And A Half Inch Wide 
 By Six Inches Long,  Fastened Together In Triangular Shape--Fasten 
 The Edges With Hot Wax And Fill It With Water; Then On A Screen 
 Or Wall You Will Have The Colors Of The Rainbow,  Not Merely Seven 
 But Seventy,  If Your Eyes Are Sharp Enough. 
   
 Take A Bit Of Red Paper That Matches The Red Color Of The Spectrum. 
 Move It Along The Line Of Colors Toward The Violet. In The Orange 
 It Is Dark,  In The Yellow Darker,  In The Green And All Beyond, 
 Black. That Is Because There Are No More Red Rays To Be Reflected 
 By It. So A Green Object Is True To Its Color Only In The Green 
 Rays,  And Black Elsewhere. All These Colors May Be Recombined By 
 A Second Prism Into White Light. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
 [Page 41] 
 Iii. 
   
 Astronomical Instruments. 
   
   "The Eyes Of The Lord Are In Every Place."--_Proverbs_ Xv. 3. 
   
 [Page 42] 
 "Man,  Having One Kind Of An Eye Given Him By His Maker,  Proceeds 
 To Construct Two Other Kinds. He Makes One That Magnifies Invisible 
 Objects Thousands Of Times,  So That A Dull Razor-Edge Appears As 
 Thick As Three Fingers,  Until The Amazing Beauty Of Color And Form 
 In Infinitesimal Objects Is Entrancingly Apparent,  And He Knows That 
 God's Care Of Least Things Is Infinite. Then He Makes The Other Kind 
 Four Or Six Feet In Diameter,  And Penetrates The Immensities Of Space 
 Thousands Of Times Beyond Where His Natural Eye Can Pierce,  Until He 
 Sees That God's Immensities Of Worlds Are Infinite Also."--Bishop 
 Foster. 
   
   
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 22 
 [Page 43] 
 Iii. 
   
 _The Telescope._ 
   
 Frequent Allusion Has Been Made In The Previous Chapter To Discovered 
 Results. It Is Necessary To Understand More Clearly The Process By 
 Which Such Results Have Been Obtained. Some Astronomical Instruments 
 Are Of The Simplest Character,  Some Most Delicate And Complex. 
 When A Man Smokes A Piece Of Glass,  In Order To See An Eclipse 
 Of The Sun,  He Makes A Simple Instrument. Ferguson,  Lying On His 
 Back And Slipping Beads On A String At A Certain Distance Above 
 His Eye,  Measured The Relative Distances Of The Stars. The Use 
 Of More Complex Instruments Commenced When Galileo Applied The 
 Telescope To The Heavens. He Cannot Be Said To Have Invented The 
 Telescope,  But He Certainly Constructed His Own Without A Pattern, 
 And Used It To Good Purpose. It Consists Of A Lens,  O B (Fig. 13), 
 Which Acts As A Multiple Prism To Bend All The Rays To One Point 
 At R. Place The Eye There,  And It Receives As Much Light As If It 
 Were As Large As The Lens O B. The Rays,  However,  Are Convergent, 
 And The Point Difficult To [Page 44] Find. Hence There Is Placed At 
 R A Concave Lens,  Passing Through Which The Rays Emerge In Parallel 
 Lines,  And Are Received By The Eye. Opera-Glasses Are Made Upon 
 Precisely This Principle To-Day,  Because They Can Be Made 
 Conveniently Short. 
   
   
 If,  Instead Of A Concave Lens At R,  Converting The Converging Rays 
 Into Parallel Ones,  We Place A Convex Or Magnifying Lens,  The Minute 
 Image Is Enlarged As Much As An Object Seems Diminished When The 
 Telescope Is Reversed. This Is The Grand Principle Of The Refracting 
 Telescope. Difficulties Innumerable Arise As We Attempt To Enlarge 
 The Instruments. These Have Been Overcome,  One After Another,  Until 
 It Is Now Felt That The Best Modern Telescope,  With An Object Lens 
 Of Twenty-Six Inches,  Has Fully Reached The Limit Of Optical Power. 
   
 _The Reflecting Telescope_. 
   
 This Is The Only Kind Of Instrument Differing Radically From The 
 Refracting One Already Described. It Receives The Light In A Concave 
 Mirror,  M (Fig. 14),  Which Reflects It To The Focus F,  Producing The 
 Same Result As The Lens Of The Refracting Telescope. Here A Mirror 
 May Be Placed Obliquely,  Reflecting The Image At Right Angles To The 
 Eye,  Outside The Tube,  In Which Case It Is Called The Newtonian 
 Telescope; Or A Mirror At R May Be Placed Perpendicularly,  And Send 
 The Rays Through [Page 45] An Opening In The Mirror At M. This Form 
 Is Called The Gregorian Telescope. Or The Mirror M May Be Slightly 
 Inclined To The Coming Rays,  So As To Bring The Point F Entirely 
 Outside The Tube,  In Which Case It Is Called The Herschelian 
 Telescope. In Either Case The Image May Be Magnified,  As In The 
 Refracting Telescope. 
   
   
 Reflecting Telescopes Are Made Of All Sizes,  Up To The Cyclopean 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 23 
 Eye Of The One Constructed By Lord Rosse,  Which Is Six Feet In 
 Diameter. The Form Of Instrument To Be Preferred Depends On The 
 Use To Which It Is To Be Put. The Loss Of Light In Passing Through 
 Glass Lenses Is About Two-Tenths. The Loss By Reflection Is Often 
 One-Half. In View Of This Peculiarity And Many Others,  It Is Held 
 That A Twenty-Six-Inch Refractor Is Fully Equal To Any Six-Foot 
 Reflector. 
   
 The Mounting Of Large Telescopes Demands The Highest Engineering 
 Ability. The Whole Instrument,  With Its Vast Weight Of A Twenty-Six-Inch 
 Glass Lens,  With Its Accompanying Tube And Appurtenances,  Must Be 
 Pointed As Nicely As A Rifle,  And Held As Steadily As The Axis 
 Of The Globe. To Give It The Required Steadiness,  The Foundation 
 On Which It Is Placed Is Sunk Deep In The Earth,  Far From Rail Or 
 Other Roads,  And No Part Of The Observatory Is Allowed To Touch 
 This Support. When A Star Is Once Found,  The Earth Swiftly Rotates 
 The Telescope Away From It,  And It Passes Out Of The Field. To 
 Avoid This,  Clock-Work Is So Arranged That The Great Telescope 
 Follows The Star By The Hour,  If Required. It Will Take A Star At 
 Its Eastern Rising,  And Hold It Constantly In View While It Climbs 
 To The Meridian And Sinks In The West (Fig. 15). The Reflector 
 Demands Still More Difficult Engineering. That Of Lord Rosse Has 
 A Metallic Mirror [Page 46] Weighing Six Tons,  A Tube Forty Feet 
 Long,  Which,  With Its Appurtenances,  Weighs Seven Tons More. It 
 Moves Between Two Walls Only 10 Deg. East And West. The New Paris 
 Reflector (Fig. 16) Has A Much Wider Range Of Movement. 
   
   
 _The Spectroscope._ 
   
 A Spectrum Is A Collection Of The Colors Which Are Dispersed By 
 A Prism From Any Given Light. If It Is Sunlight,  It Is A Solar 
 Spectrum; If The Source Of Light Is A [Page 49] Star,  Candle, 
 Glowing Metal,  Or Gas,  It Is The Spectrum Of A Star,  Candle,  Glowing 
 Metal,  Or Gas. An Instrument To See These Spectra Is Called A 
 Spectroscope. Considering The Infinite Variety Of Light,  And Its 
 Easy Modification And Absorption,  We Should Expect An Immense Number 
 Of Spectra. A Mere Prism Disperses The Light So Imperfectly That 
 Different Orders Of Vibrations,  Perceived As Colors,  Are Mingled. No 
 Eye Can Tell Where One Commences Or Ends. Such A Spectrum Is Said To 
 Be Impure. What We Want Is That Each Point In The Spectrum Should Be 
 Made Of Rays Of The Same Number Of Vibrations. As We Can Let Only A 
 Small Beam Of Light Pass Through The Prism,  In Studying Celestial 
 Objects With A Telescope And Spectroscope We Must,  In Every 
 Instance,  Contract The Aperture Of The Instrument Until We Get Only 
 A Small Beam Of Light. In Order To Have The Colors Thoroughly 
 Dispersed,  The Best Instruments Pass The Beam Of Light Through A 
 Series Of Prisms Called A Battery,  Each One Spreading Farther The 
 Colors Which The Previous Ones Had Spread. In Fig. 17 The Ray Is 
 Seen Entering Through The Telescope A,  Which Renders The Rays 
 Parallel,  And Passing [Page 50] Through The Prisms Out To Telescope 
 B,  Where The Spectrum Can Be Examined On The Retina Of The Eye For A 
 Screen. In Order To Still Farther Disperse The Rays,  Some Batteries 
 Receive The Ray From The Last Prism At O Upon An Oblique Mirror, 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 24 
 Send It Up A Little To Another,  Which Delivers It Again To The Prism 
 To Make Its Journey Back Again Through Them All,  And Come Out To Be 
 Examined Just Above Where It Entered The First Prism. 
   
   
 Attached To The Examining Telescope Is A Diamond-Ruled Scale Of Glass, 
 Enabling Us To Fix The Position Of Any Line With Great Exactness. 
   
   
 In Fig. 18 Is Seen,  In The Lower Part,  A Spectrum Of The Sun,  With 
 About A Score Of Its Thousands Of Lines Made Evident. In The Upper 
 Part Is Seen The Spectrum Of Bright Lines Given By Glowing Hydrogen 
 Gas. These Lines Are Given By No Other Known Gas; They Are Its 
 Autograph. It Is Readily Observed That They Precisely Correspond 
 With Certain Dark Lines In The Solar Spectrum. Hence We Easily 
 Know That A Glowing Gas Gives The Same Bright Lines That It Absorbs 
 From The Light Of Another Source Passing Through It--That Is,  Glowing 
 Gas Gives Out The Same Rays Of Light That It Absorbs When It Is 
 Not Glowing. 
   
 The Subject Becomes Clearer By A Study Of The Chromolithic Plate. 
 No. 1 Represents The Solar Spectrum,  With A Few Of Its Lines On An 
 Accurately Graduated Scale. [Page 51] No.3 Shows The Bright Line Of 
 Glowing Sodium,  And,  Corresponding To A Dark Line In The Solar 
 Spectrum,  Shows The Presence Of Salt In That Body. No. 2 Shows That 
 Potassium Has Some Violet Rays,  But Not All; And There Being No Dark 
 Line To Correspond In The Solar Spectrum,  We Infer Its Absence From 
 The Sun. No.6 Shows The Numerous Lines And Bands Of Barium--Several 
 Red,  Orange,  Yellow,  And Four Are Very Bright Green Ones. The Lines 
 Given By Any Volatilized Substances Are Always In The Same Place On 
 The Scale. 
   
 A Patient Study Of These Signs Of Substances Reveals,  Richer Results 
 Than A Study Of The Cuniform Characters Engraved On Assyrian Slabs; 
 For One Is The Handwriting Of Men,  The Other The Handwriting Of 
 God. 
   
 One Of The Most Difficult And Delicate Problems Solved By The 
 Spectroscope Is The Approach Or Departure Of A Light-Giving Body 
 In The Line Of Sight. Stand Before A Locomotive A Mile Away,  You 
 Cannot Tell Whether It Approaches Or Recedes,  Yet It Will Dash By 
 In A Minute. How Can The Movements Of The Stars Be Comprehended 
 When They Are At Such An Immeasurable Distance? 
   
 It Can Best Be Illustrated By Music. The Note C Of The G Clef Is 
 Made By Two Hundred And Fifty-Seven Vibrations Of Air Per Second. 
 Twice As Many Vibrations Per Second Would Give Us The Note C An Octave 
 Above. Sound Travels At The Rate Of Three Hundred And Sixty-Four 
 Yards Per Second. If The Source Of These Two Hundred And Fifty-Seven 
 Vibrations Could Approach Us At Three Hundred And Sixty-Four Yards 
 Per Second,  It Is Obvious That Twice As Many Waves Would Be Put 
 Into A Given Space,  And We Should Hear The Upper C When Only Waves 
 Enough Were Made For The Lower C. The Same [Page 52] Result Would 
 Appear If We Carried Our Ear Toward The Sound Fast Enough To Take Up 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 25 
 Twice As Many Valves As Though We Stood Still. This Is Apparent To 
 Every Observer In A Railway Train. The Whistle Of An Approaching 
 Locomotive Gives One Tone; It Passes,  And We Instantly Detect 
 Another. Let Two Trains,  Running At A Speed Of Thirty-Six Yards A 
 Second,  Approach Each Other. Let The Whistle Of One Sound The Note 
 E,  Three Hundred And Twenty-Three Vibrations Per Second. It Will Be 
 Heard On The Other As The Note G,  Three Hundred And Eighty-Eight 
 Vibrations Per Second; For The Speed Of Each Train Crowds The 
 Vibrations Into One-Tenth Less Room,  Adding 32+ Vibrations Per 
 Second,  Making Three Hundred And Eighty-Eight In All. The Trains 
 Pass. The Vibrations Are Put Into One-Tenth More Space By The 
 Whistle Making Them,  And The Other Train Allows Only Nine-Tenths Of 
 What There Are To Overtake The Ear. Each Subtracts 32+ Vibrations 
 From Three Hundred And Twenty-Three,  Leaving Only Two Hundred And 
 Fifty-Eight,  Which Is The Note C. Yet The Note E Was Constantly 
 Uttered. 
   
   
 If A Source Of Light Approach Or Depart,  It Will Have A Similar 
 Effect On The Light Waves. How Shall We Detect It? If A Star Approach 
 Us,  It Puts A Greater Number Of Waves Into An Inch,  And Shortens Their 
 Length. If It Recedes,  It Increases The Length Of The Wave--Puts 
 A Less Number Into An Inch. If A Body Giving Only The Number Of 
 Vibrations We Call Green Were To Approach Sufficiently Fast,  It 
 Would Crowd In Vibrations Enough To Appear What We Call Blue,  Indigo, 
 Or Even Violet,  According To Its Speed. If It Receded Sufficiently 
 Fast,  It Would Leave Behind It Only Vibrations Enough To Fill Up 
 [Page 53] The Space With What We Call Yellow,  Orange,  Or Red, 
 According To Its Speed; Yet It Would Be Green,  And Green Only,  All 
 The Time. But How Detect The Change? If Red Waves Are Shortened They 
 Become Orange In Color; And From Below The Red Other Rays,  Too Far 
 Apart To Be Seen By The Eye,  Being Shortened,  Become Visible As Red, 
 And We Cannot Know That Anything Has Taken Place. So,  If A Star 
 Recedes Fast Enough,  Violet Vibrations Being Lengthened Become 
 Indigo; And From Above The Violet Other Rays,  Too Short To Be Seen, 
 Become Lengthened Into Visible Violet,  And We Can Detect No Movement 
 Of The Colors. The Dark Lines Of The Spectrum Are The Cutting Out Of 
 Rays Of Definite Wave-Lengths. If The Color Spectrum Moves Away, 
 They Move With It,  And Away From Their Proper Place In The Ordinary 
 Spectrum. If,  Then,  We Find Them Toward The Red End,  The Star Is 
 Receding; If Toward The Violet End,  It Is Approaching. Turn The 
 Instrument On The Centre Of The Sun. The Dark Lines Take Their 
 Appropriate Place,  And Are Recognized On The Ruled Scale. Turn It On 
 One Edge,  That Is Approaching Us One And A Quarter Miles A Second By 
 The Revolution Of The Sun On Its Axis,  The Spectral Lines Move 
 Toward The Violet End; Turn The Spectroscope Toward The Other Edge 
 Of The Sun,  It Is Receding From Us One And A Quarter Miles A Second 
 By Reason Of The Axial Revolution,  And The Spectral Lines Move 
 Toward The Red End. Turn It Near The Spots,  And It Reveals The 
 Mighty Up-Rush In One Place And The Down-Rush In Another Of One 
 Hundred Miles A Second. We Speak Of It As An Easy Matter,  But It Is 
 A Problem Of The Greatest Delicacy,  Almost Defying The Mind Of Man 
 To Read The Movements Of Matter. 
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 26 
 It Should Be Recognized That Professor Young,  Of [Page 54] 
 Princeton,  Is The Most Successful Operator In This Recent Realm Of 
 Science. He Already Proposes To Correct The Former Estimate Of The 
 Sun's Axial Revolutions,  Derived From Observing Its Spots,  By The 
 Surer Process Of Observing Accelerated And Retarded Light. 
   
 Within A Very Few Years This Wonderful Instrument,  The Spectroscope, 
 Has Made Amazing Discoveries. In Chemistry It Reveals Substances 
 Never Known Before; In Analysis It Is Delicate To The Detection Of 
 The Millionth Of A Grain. It Is The Most Deft Handmaid Of Chemistry, 
 The Arts,  Of Medical Science,  And Astronomy. It Tells The Chemical 
 Constitution Of The Sun,  The Movements Taking Place,  The Nature Of 
 Comets,  And Nebulae. By The Spectroscope We Know That The Atmospheres 
 Of Venus And Mars Are Like Our Own; That Those Of Jupiter And Saturn 
 Are Very Unlike; It Tells Us Which Stars Approach And Which Recede, 
 And Just How One Star Differeth From Another In Glory And Substance. 
   
 In The Near Future We Shall Have The Brilliant And Diversely Colored 
 Flowers Of The Sky As Well Classified Into Orders And Species As 
 Are The Flowers Of The Earth. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
 [Page 55] 
 Iv. 
   
 Celestial Measurements. 
   
 "Who Hath Measured The Waters In The Hollow Of His Hand,  And Meted 
 Out Heaven With The Span? Mine Hand Also Hath Laid The Foundation 
 Of The Earth,  And My Right Hand Hath Spanned The Heavens."--_Isa._ 
 Xl. 12; Xlviii. 13. 
   
 [Page 56] 
  "Go To Yon Tower,  Where Busy Science Plies 
   Her Vast Antennae,  Feeling Thro' The Skies; 
   That Little Vernier,  On Whose Slender Lines 
   The Midnight Taper Trembles As It Shines, 
   A Silent Index,  Tracks The Planets' March 
   In All Their Wanderings Thro' The Ethereal Arch, 
   Tells Through The Mist Where Dazzled Mercury Burns, 
   And Marks The Spot Where Uranus Returns. 
   
  "So,  Till By Wrong Or Negligence Effaced, 
   The Living Index Which Thy Maker Traced 
   Repeats The Line Each Starry Virtue Draws 
   Through The Wide Circuit Of Creation's Laws; 
   Still Tracks Unchanged The Everlasting Ray 
   Where The Dark Shadows Of Temptation Stray; 
   But,  Once Defaced,  Forgets The Orbs Of Light, 
   And Leaves Thee Wandering O'er The Expanse Of Night." 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 27 
       Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
 [Page 57] 
 Iv. 
   
 _Celestial Measurements._ 
   
 We Know That Astronomy Has What Are Called Practical Uses. If A 
 Ship Had Been Driven By Euroclydon Ten Times Fourteen Days And 
 Nights Without Sun Or Star Appearing,  A Moment's Glance Into The 
 Heavens From The Heaving Deck,  By A Very Slightly Educated Sailor, 
 Would Tell Within One Hundred Yards Where He Was,  And Determine 
 The Distance And Way To The Nearest Port. We Know That,  In All 
 Final And Exact Surveying,  Positions Must Be Fixed By The Stars. 
 Earth's Landmarks Are Uncertain And Easily Removed; Those Which 
 We Get From The Heavens Are Stable And Exact. 
   
 In 1878 The United States Steam-Ship _Enterprise_ Was Sent To Survey 
 The Amazon. Every Night A "Star Party" Went Ashore To Fix The Exact 
 Latitude And Longitude By Observations Of The Stars. Our Real Landmarks 
 Are Not The Pillars We Rear,  But The Stars Millions Of Miles Away. 
 All Our Standards Of Time Are Taken From The Stars; Every Railway 
 Train Runs By Their Time To Avoid Collision; By Them All Factories 
 Start And Stop. Indeed,  We Are Ruled By The Stars Even More Than 
 The Old Astrologers Imagined. 
   
 Man's Finest Mechanism,  Highest Thought,  And Broadest Exercise 
 Of The Creative Faculty Have Been Inspired By Astronomy. No Other 
 Instruments Approximate In Delicacy Those Which Explore The Heavens; 
 No Other [Page 58] System Of Thought Can Draw Such Vast And Certain 
 Conclusions From Its Premises. "Too Low They Build Who Build Beneath 
 The Stars;" We Should Lay Our Foundations In The Skies,  And Then 
 Build Upward. 
   
 We Have Been Placed On The Outside Of This Earth,  Instead Of The 
 Inside,  In Order That We May Look Abroad. We Are Carried About, 
 Through Unappreciable Distance,  At The Inconceivable Velocity Of 
 One Thousand Miles A Minute,  To Give Us Different Points Of Vision. 
 The Earth,  On Its Softly-Spinning Axle,  Never Jars Enough To Unnest 
 A Bird Or Wake A Child; Hence The Foundations Of Our Observatories 
 Are Firm,  And Our Measurements Exact. Whoever Studies Astronomy, 
 Under Proper Guidance And In The Right Spirit,  Grows In Thought 
 And Feeling,  And Becomes More Appreciative Of The Creator. 
   
 _Celestial Movements._ 
   
 Let It Not Be Supposed That A Mastery Of Mathematics And A Finished 
 Education Are Necessary To Understand The Results Of Astronomical 
 Research. It Took At First The Highest Power Of Mind To Make The 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 28 
 Discoveries That Are Now Laid At The Feet Of The Lowliest. It Took 
 Sublime Faith,  Courage,  And The Results Of Ages Of Experience In 
 Navigation,  To Enable Columbus To Discover That Path To The New 
 World Which Now Any Little Boat Can Follow. Ages Of Experience 
 And Genius Are Stored Up In A Locomotive,  But Quite An Unlettered 
 Man Can Drive It. It Is The Work Of Genius To Render Difficult 
 Matters Plain,  Abstruse Thoughts Clear. 
   
   
 A Brief Explanation Of A Few Terms Will Make The Principles Of 
 World Inspection Easily Understood. Imagine A Perfect Circle Thirty 
 Feet In Diameter--That Is,  Create [Page 59] One (Fig. 19). Draw 
 Through It A Diameter Horizontally,  Another Perpendicularly. The 
 Angles Made By The Intersecting Lines Are Each Said To Be Ninety 
 Degrees,  Marked Thus  Deg.. The Arc Of A Circle Included Between Any Two 
 Of The Lines Is Also 90 Deg.. Every Circle,  Great Or Small,  Is Divided 
 Into These 360 Deg.. If The Sun Rose In The East And Came To The Zenith 
 At Noon,  It Would Have Passed 90 Deg.. When It Set In The West It Would 
 Have Traversed Half The Circle,  Or 180 Deg.. In Fig. 20 The Angle Of The 
 Lines Measured On The Graduated Arc Is 10 Deg.. The Mountain Is 10 Deg. 
 High,  The World 10 Deg. In Diameter,  The Comet Moves 10 Deg. A Day,  The 
 Stars Are 10 Deg. Apart. The Height Of The Mountain,  The Diameter Of The 
 World,  The Velocity Of The Comet,  And The Distance Between The 
 Stars,  Depend On The Distance Of Each From The Point Of Sight. Every 
 Degree Is Divided Into 60 Minutes (Marked '),  And Every Minute Into 
 60 Seconds (Marked "). 
   
   
 Imagine Yourself Inside A Perfect Sphere One Hundred Feet In Diameter, 
 With The Interior Surface Above,  Around,  And Below Studded With 
 Fixed Bright Points Like Stars. The Familiar Constellations Of 
 Night Might Be Blazoned There In Due Proportion. 
   
 If This Star-Sprent Sphere Were Made To Revolve Once In Twenty-Four 
 Hours,  All The Stars Would Successively [Page 60] Pass In Review. 
 How Easily We Could Measure Distances Between Stars,  From A Certain 
 Fixed Meridian,  Or The Equator! How Easily We Could Tell When Any 
 Particular Star Would Culminate! It Is As Easy To Take All These 
 Measurements When Our Earthly Observatory Is Steadily Revolved 
 Within The Sphere Of Circumambient Stars. Stars Can Be Mapped As 
 Readily As The Streets Of A Great City. Looking Down On It In The 
 Night,  One Could Trace The Lines Of Lighted Streets,  And Judge 
 Something Of Its Extent And Regularity. But The Few Lamps Of Evening 
 Would Suggest Little Of The Greatness Of The Public Buildings,  The 
 Magnificent Enterprise And Commerce Of Its Citizens,  Or The 
 Intelligence Of Its Scholars. Looking Up To The Lamps Of The 
 Celestial City,  One Can Judge Something Of Its Extent And 
 Regularity; But They Suggest Little Of The Magnificence Of The Many 
 Mansions. 
   
 Stars Are Reckoned As So Many Degrees,  Minutes,  And Seconds From 
 Each Other,  From The Zenith,  Or From A Given Meridian,  Or From The 
 Equator. Thus The Stars Called The Pointers,  In The Great Bear, 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 29 
 Are 5 Deg. Apart; The Nearest One Is 29 Deg. From The Pole Star,  Which Is 
 39 Deg. 56' 29" Above The Horizon At Philadelphia. In Going To England 
 You Creep Up Toward The North End Of The Earth,  Till The Pole Star 
 Is 54 Deg. High. It Stays Near Its Place Among The Stars Continually, 
   
  "Of Whose True-Fixed And Resting Quality 
   There Is No Fellow In The Firmament." 
   
 _How To Measure._ 
   
 Suppose A Telescope,  Fixed To A Mural Circle,  To Revolve On An Axis, 
 As In Fig. 21; Point It Horizontally At A Star; [Page 61] Turn It Up 
 Perpendicular To Another Star. Of Course The Two Stars Are 90 Deg. 
 Apart,  And The Graduated Scale,  Which Is Attached To The Outer Edge 
 Of The Circle,  Shows A Revolution Of A Quarter Circle,  Or 90 Deg.,  But A 
 Perfect Accuracy Of Measurement Must Be Sought; For To Mistake The 
 Breadth Of A Hair,  Seen At The Distance Of One Hundred And 
 Twenty-Five Feet,  Would Cause An Error Of 3,000,000 Miles At The 
 Distance Of The Sun,  And Immensely More At The Distance Of The 
 Stars. The Correction Of An Inaccuracy Of No Greater Magnitude Than 
 That Has Reduced Our Estimate Of The Distance Of Our Sun 3,000,000 
 Miles. 
   
   
 Consider The Nicety Of The Work. Suppose The Graduated Scale To 
 Be Thirty Feet In Circumference. Divided Into 360 Deg.,  Each Would 
 Be One Inch Long. Divide Each Degree Into 60',  Each One Is 1/60 
 Of An Inch Long. It Takes Good Eyesight To Discern It. But Each 
 Minute Must Be [Page 62] Divided Into 60",  And These Must Not Only 
 Be Noted,  But Even Tenths And Hundredths Of Seconds Must Be 
 Discerned. Of Course They Are Not Seen By The Naked Eye; Some 
 Mechanical Contrivance Must Be Called In To Assist. A Watch Loses 
 Two Minutes A Week,  And Hence Is Unreliable. It Is Taken To A 
 Watch-Maker That Every Single Second May Be Quickened 1/20160 Part 
 Of Itself. Now 1/20000 Part Of A Second Would Be A Small Interval Of 
 Time To Measure,  But It Must Be Under Control. If The Temperature Of 
 A Summer Morning Rises Ten Or Twenty Degrees We Scarcely Notice It; 
 But The Magnetic Tastimeter Measures 1/5000 Of A Degree. 
   
 Come To Earthly Matters. In 1874,  After Nearly Twenty-Eight Years' 
 Work,  The State Of Massachusetts Opened A Tunnel Nearly Five Miles 
 Long Through The Hoosac Mountains. In The Early Part Of The Work 
 The Engineers Sunk A Shaft Near The Middle 1028 Feet Deep. Then The 
 Question To Be Settled Was Where To Go So As To Meet The Approaching 
 Excavations From The East And West. A Compass Could Not Be Relied 
 On Under A Mountain. The Line Must Be Mechanically Fixed. A Little 
 Divergence At The Starting-Point Would Become So Great,  Miles Away, 
 That The Excavations Might Pass Each Other Without Meeting; The 
 Grade Must Also Rise Toward The Central Shaft,  And Fall In Working 
 Away From It; But The Lines Were Fixed With Such Infinitesimal 
 Accuracy That,  When The One Going West From The Eastern Portal And 
 The One Going East From The Shaft Met In The Heart Of The Mountain, 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 30 
 The Western Line Was Only One-Eighth Of An Inch Too High,  And 
 Three-Sixteenths Of An Inch Too Far North. To Reach This Perfect 
 Result They Had To Triangulate From The Eastern Portal To Distant 
 [Page 63] Mountain Peaks,  And Thence Down The Valley To The Central 
 Shaft,  And Thus Fix The Direction Of The Proposed Line Across The 
 Mouth Of The Shaft. Plumb-Lines Were Then Dropped One Thousand And 
 Twenty-Eight Feet,  And Thus The Line At The Bottom Was Fixed. 
   
 Three Attempts Were Made--In 1867,  1870,  And 1872--To Fix The Exact 
 Time-Distance Between Greenwich And Washington. These Three Separate 
 Efforts Do Not Differ One-Tenth Of A Second. Such Demonstrable Results 
 On Earth Greatly Increase Our Confidence In Similar Measurements 
 In The Skies. 
   
   
 A Scale Is Frequently Affixed To A Pocket-Rule,  By Which We Can 
 Easily Measure One-Hundredth Of An Inch (Fig. 22). The Upper And 
 Lower Line Is Divided Into Tenths Of An Inch. Observe The Slanting 
 Line At The Right Hand. It Leans From The Perpendicular One-Tenth 
 Of An Inch,  As Shown By Noticing Where It Reaches The Top Line. When 
 It Reaches The Second Horizontal Line It Has Left The Perpendicular 
 One-Tenth Of That Tenth--That Is,  One-Hundredth. The Intersection 
 Marks 99/100 Of An Inch From One End,  And One-Hundredth From The 
 Other. 
   
 When Division-Lines,  On Measures Of Great Nicety,  Get Too Fine 
 To Be Read By The Eye,  We Use The Microscope. By Its Means We Are 
 Able To Count 112,000 Lines Ruled On A Glass Plate Within An Inch. 
 The Smallest Object That Can Be Seen By A Keen Eye Makes An Angle 
 Of 40",  But By Putting Six Microscopes On The Scale Of The Telescope 
 On The Mural Circle,  We Are Able To Reach An Exactness Of 0".1,  Or 
 1/3600 Of An Inch. This Instrument Is Used To Measure The Declination 
 Of Stars,  Or Angular [Page 64] Distance North Or South Of The 
 Equator. Thus A Star's Place In Two Directions Is Exactly Fixed. 
 When The Telescope Is Mounted On Two Pillars Instead Of The Face Of 
 A Wall,  It Is Called A Transit Instrument. This Is Used To Determine 
 The Time Of Transit Of A Star Over The Meridian,  And If The Transit 
 Instrument Is Provided With A Graduated Circle It Can Also Be Used 
 For The Same Purposes As The Mural Circle. Man's Capacity To Measure 
 Exactly Is Indicated In His Ascertainment Of The Length Of Waves Of 
 Light. It Is Easy To Measure The Three Hundred Feet Distance Between 
 The Crests Of Storm-Waves In The Wide Atlantic; Easy To Measure The 
 Different Wave-Lengths Of The Different Tones Of Musical Sounds. So 
 Men Measure The Lengths Of The Undulations Of Light. The Shortest Is 
 Of The Violet Light,  154.84 Ten-Millionths Of An Inch. By The 
 Horizontal Pendulum Professor Root Has Made 1/36000000 Of An Inch 
 Apparent. 
   
 The Next Elements Of Accuracy Must Be Perfect Time And Perfect 
 Notation Of Time. As Has Been Said,  We Get Our Time From The Stars. 
 Thus The Infinite And Heavenly Dominates The Finite And Earthly. 
 Clocks Are Set To The Invariable Sidereal Time. Sidereal Noon Is 
 When We Have Turned Ourselves Under The Point Where The Sun Crosses 
 The Equator In March,  Called The Vernal Equinox. Sidereal Clocks 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 31 
 Are Figured To Indicate Twenty-Four Hours In A Day: They Tick Exact 
 Seconds. To Map Stars We Wish To Know The Exact Second When They 
 Cross The Meridian,  Or The North And South Line In The Celestial 
 Dome Above Us. The Telescope (Fig. 21,  P. 61) Swings Exactly North 
 And South. In Its Focus A Set Of Fine Threads Of Spider-Lines Is 
 Placed (Fig. 23). The Telescope Is Set Just High Enough,  So That 
 By The Rolling Over Of The Earth [Page 65] The Star Will Come Into 
 The Field Just Above The Horizontal Thread. The Observer Notes The 
 Exact Second And Tenth Of A Second When The Star Reaches Each 
 Vertical Thread In The Instrument,  Adds Together The Times And 
 Divides By Five To Get The Average,  And The Exact Time Is Reached. 
   
   
 But Man Is Not Reliable Enough To Observe And Record With Sufficient 
 Accuracy. Some,  In Their Excitement,  Anticipate Its Positive Passage, 
 And Some Cannot Get Their Slow Mental Machinery In Motion Till 
 After It Has Made The Transit. Moreover,  Men Fall Into A Habit Of 
 Estimating Some Numbers Of Tenths Of A Second Oftener Than Others. 
 It Will Be Found That A Given Observer Will Say Three Tenths Or 
 Seven Tenths Oftener Than Four Or Eight. He Is Falling Into Ruts, 
 And Not Trustworthy. General O. M. Mitchel,  Who Had Been Director 
 Of The Cincinnati Observatory,  Once Told One Of His Staff-Officers 
 That He Was Late At An Appointment. "Only A Few Minutes," Said The 
 Officer,  Apologetically. "Sir," Said The General,  "Where I Have 
 Been Accustomed To Work,  Hundredths Of A Second Are Too Important 
 To Be Neglected." And It Is To The Rare Genius Of This Astronomer, 
 And To Others,  That We Owe The Mechanical Accuracy That We Now 
 Attain. The Clock Is Made To Mark Its Seconds On Paper Wrapped 
 Around A Revolving Cylinder. Under The Observer's Fingers Is An 
 Electric Key. This He Can Touch At The Instant Of The Transit Of 
 The Star [Page 66] Over Each Wire,  And Thus Put His Observation On 
 The Same Line Between The Seconds Dotted By The Clock. Of Course 
 These Distances Can Be Measured To Minute Fractional Parts Of A 
 Second. 
   
 But It Has Been Found That It Takes An Appreciable Time For Every 
 Observer To Get A Thing Into His Head And Out Of His Finger-Ends, 
 And It Takes Some Observers Longer Than Others. A Dozen Men,  Seeing 
 An Electric Spark,  Are Liable To Bring Down Their Recording Marks 
 In A Dozen Different Places On The Revolving Paper. Hence The Time 
 That It Takes For Each Man To Get A Thing Into His Head And Out 
 Of His Fingers Is Ascertained. This Time Is Called His Personal 
 Equation,  And Is Subtracted From All Of His Observations In Order To 
 Get At The True Time; So Willing Are Men To Be Exact About Material 
 Matters. Can It Be Thought That Moral And Spiritual Matters Have 
 No Precision? Thus Distances East Or West From Any Given Star Or 
 Meridian Are Secured; Those North And South From The Equator Or 
 The Zenith Are As Easily Fixed,  And Thus We Make Such Accurate 
 Maps Of The Heavens That Any Movements In The Far-Off Stars--So 
 Far That It May Take Centuries To Render The Swiftest Movements 
 Appreciable--May At Length Be Recognized And Accounted For. 
   
   
 We Now Come To A Little Study Of The Modes Of Measuring Distances. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 32 
 Create A Perfect Square (Fig. 24); Draw A Diagonal Line. The Square 
 Angles Are 90 Deg.,  The Divided Angles Give Two Of 45 Deg. Each. Now The 
 Base A B Is Equal To The Perpendicular A C. Now Any Point--C,  Where 
 A Perpendicular,  A C,  And A Diagonal,  B C,  Meet--Will Be [Page 67] 
 As Far From A As B Is. It Makes No Difference If A River Flows 
 Between A And C,  And We Cannot Go Over It; We Can Measure Its 
 Distance As Easily As If We Could. Set A Table Four Feet By Eight 
 Out-Doors (Fig. 25); So Arrange It That,  Looking Along One End,  The 
 Line Of Sight Just Strikes A Tree The Other Side Of The River. Go To 
 The Other End,  And,  Looking Toward The Tree,  You Find The Line Of 
 Sight To The Tree Falls An Inch From The End Of The Table On The 
 Farther Side. The Lines,  Therefore,  Approach Each Other One Inch In 
 Every Four Feet,  And Will Come Together At A Tree Three Hundred And 
 Eighty-Four Feet Away. 
   
   
   
 The Next Process Is To Measure The Height Or Magnitude Of Objects 
 At An Ascertained Distance. Put Two Pins In A Stick Half An Inch 
 Apart (Fig. 26). Hold It Up Two Feet From The Eye,  And Let The 
 Upper Pin Fall In Line With Your Eye And The Top Of A Distant Church 
 Steeple,  And The Lower Pin In Line With The Bottom Of The Church And 
 Your Eye. If The Church Is Three-Fourths Of A Mile Away,  It Must 
 Be Eighty-Two Feet High; If A Mile Away,  It Must Be One Hundred 
 And Ten Feet High. For If Two Lines Spread [Page 68] One-Half An 
 Inch Going Two Feet,  In Going Four Feet They Will Spread An Inch, 
 And In Going A Mile,  Or Five Thousand Two Hundred And Eighty Feet, 
 They Will Spread Out One-Fourth As Many Inches,  Viz.,  Thirteen 
 Hundred And Twenty--That Is,  One Hundred And Ten Feet. Of Course 
 These Are Not Exact Methods Of Measurement,  And Would Not Be Correct 
 To A Hair At One Hundred And Twenty-Five Feet,  But They Perfectly 
 Illustrate The True Methods Of Measurement. 
   
 Imagine A Base Line Ten Inches Long. At Each End Erect A Perpendicular 
 Line. If They Are Carried To Infinity They Will Never Meet: Will 
 Be Forever Ten Inches Apart. But At The Distance Of A Foot From 
 The Base Line Incline One Line Toward The Other 63/10000000 Of 
 An Inch,  And The Lines Will Come Together At A Distance Of Three 
 Hundred Miles. That New Angle Differs From The Former Right Angle 
 Almost Infinitesimally,  But It May Be Measured. Its Value Is About 
 Three-Tenths Of A Second. If We Lengthen The Base Line From Ten 
 Inches To All The Miles We Can Command,  Of Course The Point Of 
 Meeting Will Be Proportionally More Distant. The Angle Made By 
 The Lines Where They Come Together Will Be Obviously The Same As 
 The Angle Of Divergence From A Right Angle At This End. That Angle 
 Is Called The Parallax Of Any Body,  And Is The Angle That Would 
 Be Made By Two Lines Coming From That Body To The Two Ends Of Any 
 Conventional Base,  As The Semi-Diameter Of The Earth. That That 
 Angle Would Vary According To The Various Distances Is Easily Seen 
 By Fig. 27. 
   
   
 Let O P Be The Base. This Would Subtend A Greater Angle Seen From 
 Star A Than From Star B. Let B Be Far Enough Away,  And O P Would 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 33 
 Become Invisible,  And B [Page 69] Would Have No Parallax For That 
 Base. Thus The Moon Has A Parallax Of 57" With The Semi-Equatorial 
 Diameter Of The Earth For A Base. And The Sun Has A Parallax 8".85 
 On The Same Base. It Is Not Necessary To Confine Ourselves To Right 
 Angles In These Measurements,  For The Same Principles Hold True In 
 Any Angles. Now,  Suppose Two Observers On The Equator Should Look At 
 The Moon At The Same Instant. One Is On The Top Of Cotopaxi,  On The 
 West Coast Of South America,  And One On The West Coast Of Africa. 
 They Are 90 Deg. Apart--Half The Earth's Diameter Between Them. The One 
 On Cotopaxi Sees It Exactly Overhead,  At An Angle Of 90 Deg. With The 
 Earth's Diameter. The One On The Coast Of Africa Sees Its Angle With 
 The Same Line To Be 89 Deg. 59' 3"--That Is,  Its Parallax Is 57". Try 
 The Same Experiment On The Sun Farther Away,  As Is Seen In Fig. 27, 
 And Its Smaller Parallax Is Found To Be Only 8".85. 
   
 It Is Not Necessary For Two Observers To Actually Station Themselves 
 At Two Distant Parts Of The Earth In Order To Determine A Parallax. 
 If An Observer Could Go From One End Of The Base-Line To The Other, 
 He Could Determine Both Angles. Every Observer Is Actually Carried 
 Along Through Space By Two Motions: One Is That Of The Earth's 
 Revolution Of One Thousand Miles An Hour Around The Axis; And The 
 Other Is The Movement Of The Earth Around The Sun Of One Thousand 
 Miles In A Minute. Hence We Can Have The Diameter Not Only Of [Page 
 70] The Earth (Eight Thousand Miles) For A Base-Line,  But The 
 Diameter Of The Earth's Orbit (184,000,000 Miles),  Or Any Part Of 
 It,  For Such A Base. Two Observers At The Ends Of The Earth's 
 Diameter,  Looking At A Star At The Same Instant,  Would Find That It 
 Made The Same Angle At Both Ends; It Has No Parallax On So Short A 
 Base. We Must Seek A Longer One. Observe A Certain Star On The 21st 
 Of March; Then Let Us Traverse The Realms Of Space For Six Months, 
 At One Thousand Miles A Minute. We Come Round In Our Orbit To A 
 Point Opposite Where We Were Six Months Ago,  With 184,000,000 Of 
 Miles Between The Points. Now,  With This For A Base-Line,  Measure 
 The Angles Of The Same Stars: It Is The Same Angle. Sitting In My 
 Study Here,  I Glance Out Of The Window And Discern Separate Bricks, 
 In Houses Five Hundred Feet Away,  With My Unaided Eye; They Subtend 
 A Discernible Angle. But One Thousand Feet Away I Cannot Distinguish 
 Individual Bricks; Their Width,  Being Only Two Inches,  Does Not 
 Subtend An Angle Apprehensible To My Vision. So At These Distant 
 Stars The Earth's Enormous Orbit,  If Lying Like A Blazing Ring In 
 Space,  With The World Set On Its Edge Like A Pearl,  And The Sun 
 Blazing Like A Diamond In The Centre,  Would All Shrink To A Mere 
 Point. Not Quite To A Point From The Nearest Stars,  Or We Should 
 Never Be Able To Measure The Distance Of Any Of Them. Professor Airy 
 Says That Our Orbit,  Seen From The Nearest Star,  Would Be The Same 
 As A Circle Six-Tenths Of An Inch In Diameter Seen At The Distance 
 Of A Mile: It Would All Be Hidden By A Thread One-Twenty-Fifth Of An 
 Inch In Diameter,  Held Six Hundred And Fifty Feet From The Eye. If A 
 Straight Line Could Be Drawn From A Star,  Sirius In The East To The 
 Star Vega In The West,  Touching Our [Page 71] Earth's Orbit On One 
 Side,  As T R A (Fig. 28),  And A Line Were To Be Drawn Six Months 
 Later From The Same Stars,  Touching Our Earth's Orbit On The Other 
 Side,  As R B T,  Such A Line Would Not Diverge Sufficiently From A 
 Straight Line For Us To Detect Its Divergence. Numerous Vain 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 34 
 Attempts Had Been Made,  Up To The Year 1835,  To Detect And Measure 
 The Angle Of Parallax By Which We Could Rescue Some One Or More Of 
 The Stars From The Inconceivable Depths Of Space,  And Ascertain 
 Their Distance From Us. We Are Ever Impelled To Triumph Over What Is 
 Declared To Be Unconquerable. There Are Peaks In The Alps No Man Has 
 Ever Climbed. They Are Assaulted Every Year By Men Zealous Of More 
 Worlds To Conquer. So These Greater Heights Of The Heavens Have Been 
 Assaulted,  Till Some Ambitious Spirits Have Outsoared Even 
 Imagination By The Certainties Of Mathematics. 
   
   
 It Is Obvious That If One Star Were Three Times As Far From Us As 
 Another,  The Nearer One Would Seem To Be Displaced By Our Movement 
 In Our Orbit Three Times As Much As The Other; So,  By Comparing One 
 Star With Another,  We Reach A Ground Of Judgment. The Ascertainment 
 Of Longitude At Sea By Means Of The Moon Affords A Good Illustration. 
 Along The Track Where The Moon Sails,  Nine Bright Stars,  Four Planets, 
 And The Sun Have Been Selected. The Nautical Almanacs Give The 
 Distance Of The Moon From These Successive Stars Every Hour In 
 The Night For Three Years In Advance. The Sailor Can Measure The 
 Distance At Any Time By His Sextant. Looking From The World At 
 D (Fig. 29),  The Distance Of The Moon And [Page 72] Star Is A E, 
 Which Is Given In The Almanac. Looking From C,  The Distance Is Only 
 B E,  Which Enables Even The Uneducated Sailor To Find The Distance, 
 C D,  On The Earth,  Or His Distance From Greenwich. 
   
   
 So,  By Comparisons Of The Near And Far Stars,  The Approximate Distance 
 Of A Few Of Them Has Been Determined. The Nearest One Is The Brightest 
 Star In The Centaur,  Never Visible In Our Northern Latitudes,  Which 
 Has A Parallax Of About One Second. The Next Nearest Is No. 61 In 
 The Swan,  Or 61 Cygni,  Having A Parallax Of 0".34. Approximate 
 Measurements Have Been Made On Sirius,  Capella,  The Pole Star, 
 Etc.,  About Eighteen In All. The Distances Are Immense: Only The 
 Swiftest Agents Can Traverse Them. If Our Earth Were Suddenly To 
 Dissolve Its Allegiance To The King Of Day,  And Attempt A Flight 
 To The North Star,  And Should Maintain Its Flight Of One Thousand 
 Miles A Minute,  It Would Flyaway Toward Polaris For Thousands Upon 
 Thousands Of Years,  Till A Million Years Had Passed Away,  Before 
 It Reached That Northern Dome Of The Distant Sky,  And Gave Its 
 New Allegiance To Another Sun. The Sun It Had Left Behind It Would 
 Gradually Diminish Till It Was Small As Arcturus,  Then Small As 
 Could Be Discerned By The Naked Eye,  Until At Last It Would Finally 
 Fade Out In Utter Darkness Long Before The New Sun Was Reached. 
 Light Can Traverse The Distance Around Our Earth Eight Times In 
 One Second. It Comes In Eight Minutes From The Sun,  But It Takes 
 Three And A Quarter Years To Come From Alpha [Page 73] Centauri, 
 Seven And A Quarter Years From 61 Cygni,  And Forty-Five Years From 
 The Polar Star. 
   
 Sometimes It Happens That Men Steer Along A Lee Shore,  Dependent 
 For Direction On Polaris,  That Light-House In The Sky. Sometimes It 
 Has Happened That Men Have Traversed Great Swamps By Night When That 
 Star Was The Light-Housse Of Freedom. In Either Case The Exigency 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 35 
 Of Life And Liberty Was Provided For Forty-Five Years Before By A 
 Providence That Is Divine. 
   
 We Do Not Attempt To Name In Miles These Enormous Distances; We 
 Must Seek Another Yard-Stick. Our Astronomical Unit And Standard Of 
 Measurement Is The Distance Of The Earth From The Sun--92,500,000 
 Miles. This Is The Golden Reed With Which We Measure The Celestial 
 City. Thus,  By Laying Down Our Astronomical Unit 226,000 Times,  We 
 Measure To Alpha Centauri,  More Than Twenty Millions Of Millions 
 Of Miles. Doubtless Other Suns Are As Far From Alpha Centauri And 
 Each Other As That Is From Ours. 
   
 Stars Are Not Near Or Far According To Their Brightness. 61 Cygni Is 
 A Telescopic Star,  While Sirius,  The Brightest Star In The Heavens, 
 Is Twice As Far Away From Us. One Star Differs From Another Star 
 In Intrinsic Glory. 
   
 The Highest Testimonies To The Accuracy Of These Celestial Observations 
 Are Found In The Perfect Predictions Of Eclipses,  Transits Of Planets 
 Over The Sun,  Occultation Of Stars By The Moon,  And Those Statements 
 Of The Nautical Almanac That Enable The Sailor To Know Exactly 
 Where He Is On The Pathless Ocean By The Telling Of The Stars: 
 "On The Trackless Ocean This Book Is The Mariner's Trusted Friend 
 And Counsellor; Daily And Nightly Its Revelations Bring Safety 
 To Ships In All Parts Of The [Page 74] World. It Is Something More 
 Than A Mere Book; It Is An Ever-Present Manifestation Of The Order 
 And Harmony Of The Universe." 
   
 Another Example Of This Wonderful Accuracy Is Found In Tracing 
 The Asteroids. Within 200,000,000 Or 300,000,000 Miles From The 
 Sun,  The One Hundred And Ninety-Two Minute Bodies That Have Been 
 Already Discovered Move In Paths Very Nearly The Same--Indeed Two Of 
 Them Traverse The Same Orbit,  Being One Hundred And Eighty Degrees 
 Apart;--They Look Alike,  Yet The Eye Of Man In A Few Observations 
 So Determines The Curve Of Each Orbit,  That One Is Never Mistaken 
 For Another. But Astronomy Has Higher Uses Than Fixing Time, 
 Establishing Landmarks,  And Guiding The Sailor. It Greatly Quickens 
 And Enlarges Thought,  Excites A Desire To Know,  Leads To The Utmost 
 Exactness,  And Ministers To Adoration And Love Of The Maker Of 
 The Innumerable Suns. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
 [Page 75] 
 V. 
   
 The Sun. 
   
 "And God Made Two Great Lights; The Greater Light To Rule The Day,  And 
 The Lesser Light To Rule The Night: He Made The Stars Also."--_Gen._ 
 I. 16. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 36 
   
 [Page 76] 
 "It Is Perceived That The Sun Of The World,  With All Its Essence, 
 Which Is Heat And Light,  Flows Into Every Tree,  And Into Every 
 Shrub And Flower,  And Into Every Stone,  Mean As Well As Precious; 
 And That Every Object Takes Its Portion From This Common Influx, 
 And That The Sun Does Not Divide Its Light And Heat,  And Dispense 
 A Part To This And A Part To That. It Is Similar With The Sun Of 
 Heaven,  From Which The Divine Love Proceeds As Heat,  And The Divine 
 Wisdom As Light; These Two Flow Into Human Minds,  As The Heat And 
 Light Of The Sun Of The World Into Bodies,  And Vivify Them According 
 To The Quality Of The Minds,  Each Of Which Takes From The Common 
 Influx As Much As Is Necessary."--Swedenborg. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
 [Page 77] 
 V. 
   
 _The Sun._ 
   
 Suppose We Had Stood On The Dome Of Boston Statehouse November 9th, 
 1872,  On The Night Of The Great Conflagration,  And Seen The Fire 
 Break Out; Seen The Engines Dash Through The Streets,  Tracking Their 
 Path By Their Sparks; Seen The Fire Encompass A Whole Block,  Leap 
 The Streets On Every Side,  Surge Like The Billows Of A Storm-Swept 
 Sea; Seen Great Masses Of Inflammable Gas Rise Like Dark Clouds 
 From An Explosion,  Then Take Fire In The Air,  And,  Cut Off From 
 The Fire Below,  Float Like Argosies Of Flame In Space. Suppose We 
 Had Felt The Wind That Came Surging From All Points Of The Compass 
 To Fan That Conflagration Till It Was Light Enough A Mile Away To 
 See To Read The Finest Print,  Hot Enough To Decompose The Torrents 
 Of Water That Were Dashed On It,  Making New Fuel To Feed The Flame. 
 Suppose We Had Seen This Spreading Fire Seize On The Whole City, 
 Extend To Its Environs,  And,  Feeding Itself On The Very Soil,  Lick 
 Up Worcester With Its Tongues Of Flame--Albany,  New York,  Chicago, 
 St. Louis,  Cincinnati--And Crossing The Plains Swifter Than A Prairie 
 Fire,  Making Each Peak Of The Rocky Mountains Hold Up Aloft A Separate 
 Torch Of Flame,  And The Sierras Whiter With Heat Than They Ever Were 
 With Snow,  The Waters Of The Pacific Resolve Into Their Constituent 
 Elements Of Oxygen And Hydrogen,  And [Page 78] Burn With 
 Unquenchable Fire! We Withdraw Into The Air,  And See Below A World 
 On Fire. All The Prisoned Powers Have Burst Into Intensest Activity. 
 Quiet Breezes Have Become Furious Tempests. Look Around This Flaming 
 Globe--On Fire Above,  Below,  Around--There Is Nothing But Fire. Let 
 It Roll Beneath Us Till Boston Comes Round Again. No Ember Has Yet 
 Cooled,  No Spire Of Flame Has Shortened,  No Surging Cloud Has Been 
 Quieted. Not Only Are The Mountains Still In Flame,  But Other Ranges 
 Burst Up Out Of The Seething Sea. There Is No Place Of Rest,  No 
 Place Not Tossing With Raging Flame! Yet All This Is Only A Feeble 
 Figure Of The Great Burning Sun. It Is But The Merest Hint,  A 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 37 
 Million Times Too Insignificant. 
   
 The Sun Appears Small And Quiet To Us Because We Are So Far Away. 
 Seen From The Various Planets,  The Relative Size Of The Sun Appears 
 As In Fig. 30. Looked For From Some Of The Stars About Us,  The 
 Sun Could Not Be Seen At All. Indeed,  Seen From The Earth,  It Is 
 Not Always The Same Size,  Because The Distance Is Not Always The 
 Same. If We Represent The Size Of The Sun By One Thousand On The 
 23d Of September Or 21st Of March,  It Would Be Represented By Nine 
 Hundred And Sixty-Seven On The 1st Of July,  And By One Thousand 
 And Thirty-Four On The 1st Of January. 
   
   
 We Sometimes Speak Of The Sun As Having A Diameter Of 860,000 Miles. 
 We Mean That That Is The Extent Of The Body As Soon By The Eye. 
 But That Is A Small Part Of Its Real Diameter. So We Say The Earth 
 Has An Equatorial Diameter Of 7925-1/2 Miles,  And A Polar One Of 
 7899. But The Air Is As Much A Part Of The Earth As The Rocks Are. 
 The Electric Currents Are As Much A Part Of The [Page 79] Earth As 
 The Ores And Mountains They Traverse. What The Diameter Of The Earth 
 Is,  Including These,  No Man Can Tell. We Used To Say The Air 
 Extended Forty-Five Miles,  But We Now Know That It Reaches Vastly 
 Farther. So Of The Sun,  We Might Almost Say That Its Diameter Is 
 Infinite,  For Its Light And Heat Reach Beyond Our Measurement. Its 
 Living,  Throbbing Heart Sends Out Pulsations,  Keeping All Space Full 
 Of Its Tides Of Living Light. 
   
 [Page 80] 
   
 We Might Say With Evident Truth That The Far-Off Planets Are A 
 Part Of The Sun,  Since The Space They Traverse Is Filled With The 
 Power Of That Controlling King; Not Only With Light,  But Also With 
 Gravitating Power. 
   
 But Come To More Ponderable Matters. If We Look [Page 81] Into Our 
 Western Sky Soon After Sunset,  On A Clear,  Moonless Night In March 
 Or April,  We Shall See A Dim,  Soft Light,  Somewhat Like The 
 Milky-Way,  Often Reaching,  Well Defined,  To The Pleiades. It Is 
 Wedge-Shaped,  Inclined To The South,  And The Smallest Star Can 
 Easily Be Seen Through It. Mairan And Cassini Affirm That They Have 
 Seen Sudden Sparkles And Movements Of Light In It. All Our Best 
 Tests Show The Spectrum Of This Light To Be Continuous,  And 
 Therefore Reflected; Which Indicates That It Is A Ring Of Small 
 Masses Of Meteoric Matter Surrounding The Sun,  Revolving With It And 
 Reflecting Its Light. One Bit Of Stone As Large As The End Of One's 
 Thumb,  In A Cubic Mile,  Would Be Enough To Reflect What Light We See 
 Looking Through Millions Of Miles Of It. Perhaps An Eye Sufficiently 
 Keen And Far Away Would See The Sun Surrounded By A Luminous Disk, 
 As Saturn Is With His Rings. As It Extends Beyond The Earth's Orbit, 
 If This Be Measured As A Part Of The Sun,  Its Diameter Would Be 
 About 200,000,000 Miles. 
   
 Come Closer. When The Sun Is Covered By The Disk Of The Moon At 
 The Instant Of Total Eclipse,  Observers Are Startled By Strange 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 38 
 Swaying Luminous Banners,  Ghostly And Weird,  Shooting In Changeful 
 Play About The Central Darkness (Fig. 32). These Form The Corona. 
 Men Have Usually Been Too Much Moved To Describe Them,  And Have 
 Always Been Incapable Of Drawing Them In The Short Minute Or Two 
 Of Their Continuance. But In 1878 Men Travelled Eight Thousand 
 Miles,  Coming And Returning,  In Order That They Might Note The 
 Three Minutes Of Total Eclipse In Colorado. Each Man Had His Work 
 Assigned To Him,  And He Was Drilled To Attend To That And Nothing 
 Else. Improved Instruments Were Put Into His [Page 82] Hands,  So 
 That The Sun Was Made To Do His Own Drawing And Give His Own Picture 
 At Consecutive Instants. Fig. 33 Is A Copy Of A Photograph Of The 
 Corona Of 1878,  By Mr. Henry Draper. It Showed Much Less 
 Changeability That Year Than Common,  It Being Very Near The Time Of 
 Least Sun-Spot. The Previous Picture Was Taken Near The Time Of 
 Maximum Sun-Spot. 
   
   
 It Was Then Settled That The Corona Consists Of Reflected Light, 
 Sent To Us From Dust Particles Or Meteoroids Swirling In The Vast 
 Seas,  Giving New Densities And [Page 83] Rarities,  And Hence This 
 Changeful Light. Whether They Are There By Constant Projection,  And 
 Fall Again To The Sun,  Or Are Held By Electric Influence,  Or By 
 Force Of Orbital Revolution,  We Do Not Know. That The Corona Cannot 
 Be In Any Sense An Atmosphere Of Any Continuous Gas,  Is Seen From 
 The Fact That The Comet Of 1843,  Passing Within 93,000 Miles Of The 
 Body Of The Sun,  Was Not Burned Out Of Existence As A Comet,  Nor In 
 Any Perceptible Degree Retarded In Its Motion. If The Sun's Diameter 
 Is To Include The Corona,  It Will Be From 1,260,000 To 1,460,000 
 Miles. 
   
  [Page 84] Come Closer Still. At The Instant Of The Totality Of The 
  Eclipse Red Flames Of Most Fantastic Shape Play Along The Edge Of 
  The Moon's Disk. They Can Be Seen At Any Time By The Use Of A 
  Proper Telescope With A Spectroscope Attached. I Have Seen Them 
  With Great Distinctness And Brilliancy With The Excellent 
  Eleven-Inch Telescope Of The Wesleyan University. A Description Of 
  Their Appearance Is Best Given In The Language Of Professor Young, 
  Of Princeton College,  Who Has Made These Flames The Object Of Most 
  Successful Study. On September 7th,  1871,  He Was Observing A Large 
  Hydrogen Cloud By The Sun's Edge. This Cloud Was About 100,000 
  Miles Long,  And Its Upper Side Was Some 50,000 Miles Above The 
  Sun's Surface,  The Lower Side Some 15,000 Miles. The Whole Had The 
  Appearance Of Being Supported On Pillars Of Fire,  These Seeming 
  Pillars Being In Reality Hydrogen Jets Brighter And More Active 
  Than The Substance Of The Cloud. At Half-Past Twelve,  When 
  Professor Young Chanced To Be Called Away From His Observatory, 
  There Were No Indications Of Any Approaching Change,  Except That 
  One Of The Connecting Stems Of The Southern Extremity Of The Cloud 
  Had Grown Considerably Brighter And More Curiously Bent To One 
  Side; And Near The Base Of Another,  At The Northern End,  A Little 
  Brilliant Lump Had Developed Itself,  Shaped Much Like A Summer 
  Thunderhead. 
   
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 39 
   
 But When Professor Young Returned,  About Half An Hour Later,  He 
 Found That A Very Wonderful Change Had Taken Place,  And That A 
 Very Remarkable Process Was Actually In Progress. "The Whole Thing 
 Had Been Literally Blown To Shreds," He Says,  "By Some Inconceivable 
 Uprush From Beneath. In Place Of The Quiet Cloud I Had [Page 87] 
 Left,  The Air--If I May Use The Expression--Was Filled With The 
 Flying _Debris_,  A Mass Of Detached Vertical Fusi-Form Fragments, 
 Each From Ten To Thirty Seconds (_I. E._,  From Four Thousand Five 
 Hundred To Thirteen Thousand Five Hundred Miles) Long,  By Two Or 
 Three Seconds (Nine Hundred To Thirteen Hundred And Fifty Miles) 
 Wide--Brighter,  And Closer Together Where The Pillars Had Formerly 
 Stood,  And Rapidly Ascending. When I Looked,  Some Of Them Had 
 Already Reached A Height Of Nearly Four Minutes (100,000 Miles); And 
 While I Watched Them They Arose With A Motion Almost Perceptible To 
 The Eye,  Until,  In Ten Minutes,  The Uppermost Were More Than 200,000 
 Miles Above The Solar Surface. This Was Ascertained By Careful 
 Measurements,  The Mean Of Three Closely Accordant Determinations 
 Giving 210,000 Miles As The Extreme Altitude Attained. I Am 
 Particular In The Statement,  Because,  So Far As I Know, 
 Chromatospheric Matter (Red Hydrogen In This Case) Has Never Before 
 Been Observed At Any Altitude Exceeding Five Minutes,  Or 135,000 
 Miles. The Velocity Of Ascent,  Also--One Hundred And Sixty-Seven 
 Miles Per Second--Is Considerably Greater Than Anything Hitherto 
 Recorded. * * * As The Filaments Arose,  They Gradually Faded Away 
 Like A Dissolving Cloud,  And At A Quarter Past One Only A Few Filmy 
 Wisps,  With Some Brighter Streamers Low Down Near The 
 Chromatosphere,  Remained To Mark The Place. But In The Mean While 
 The Little 'Thunder-Head' Before Alluded To Had Grown And Developed 
 Wonderfully Into A Mass Of Rolling And Ever-Changing Flame,  To Speak 
 According To Appearances. First,  It Was Crowded Down,  As It Were, 
 Along The Solar Surface; Later,  It Arose Almost Pyramidally 50,000 
 Miles In Height; Then [Page 88] Its Summit Was Drawn Down Into Long 
 Filaments And Threads,  Which Were Most Curiously Rolled Backward And 
 Forward,  Like The Volutes Of An Ionic Capital,  And Finally Faded 
 Away,  And By Half-Past Two Had Vanished Like The Other. The Whole 
 Phenomenon Suggested Most Forcibly The Idea Of An Explosion Under 
 The Great Prominence,  Acting Mainly Upward,  But Also In All 
 Directions Outward; And Then,  After An Interval,  Followed By A 
 Corresponding In-Rush." 
   
 No Language Can Convey Nor Mind Conceive An Idea Of The Fierce 
 Commotion We Here Contemplate. If We Call These Movements Hurricanes, 
 We Must Remember That What We Use As A Figure Moves But One Hundred 
 Miles An Hour,  While These Move One Hundred Miles A Second. Such 
 Storms Of Fire On Earth,  "Coming Down Upon Us From The North,  Would, 
 In Thirty Seconds After They Had Crossed The St. Lawrence,  Be In 
 The Gulf Of Mexico,  Carrying With Them The Whole Surface Of The 
 Continent In A Mass Not Simply Of Ruins But Of Glowing Vapor,  In 
 Which The Vapors Arising From The Dissolution Of The Materials 
 Composing The Cities Of Boston,  New York,  And Chicago Would Be 
 Mixed In A Single Indistinguishable Cloud." In The Presence Of 
 These Evident Visions Of An Actual Body In Furious Flame,  We Need 
 Hesitate No Longer In Accepting As True The Words Of St. Peter 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 40 
 Of The Time "In Which The [Atmospheric] Heavens Shall Pass Away 
 With A Great Noise,  And The Elements Shall Melt With Fervent Heat; 
 The Earth Also,  And The Works That Are Therein,  Shall Be Burned 
 Up." 
   
 This Region Of Discontinuous Flame Below The Corona Is Called The 
 Chromosphere. Hydrogen Is The Principal Material Of Its Upper Part; 
 Iron,  Magnesium,  And Other [Page 89] Metals,  Some Of Them As Yet 
 Unknown On Earth,  But Having A Record In The Spectrum,  In The Denser 
 Parts Below. If These Fierce Fires Are A Part Of The Sun,  As They 
 Assuredly Are,  Its Diameter Would Be From 1,060,000 To 1,260,000 
 Miles. 
   
 Let Us Approach Even Nearer. We See A Clearly Recognized Even Disk, 
 Of Equal Dimensions In Every Direction. This Is The Photosphere. 
 We Here Reach Some Definitely Measurable Data For Estimating Its 
 Visible Size. We Already Know Its Distance. Its Disk Subtends An 
 Angle Of 32' 12".6,  Or A Little More Than Half A Degree. Three 
 Hundred And Sixty Such Suns,  Laid Side By Side,  Would Span The 
 Celestial Arch From East To West With A Half Circle Of Light. Two 
 Lines Drawn From Our Earth At The Angle Mentioned Would Be 860,000 
 Miles Apart At The Distance Of 92,500,000 Miles. This,  Then,  Is 
 The Diameter Of The Visible And Measurable Part Of The Sun. It 
 Would Require One Hundred And Eight Globes Like The Earth In A Line 
 To Measure The Sun's Diameter,  And Three Hundred And Thirty-Nine, 
 To Be Strung Like The Beads Of A Necklace,  To Encircle His Waist. 
 The Sun Has A Volume Equal To 1,245,000 Earths,  But Being Only 
 One-Quarter As Dense,  It Has A Mass Of Only 326,800 Earths. It 
 Has Seven Hundred Times The Mass Of All The Planets,  Asteroids, 
 And Satellites Put Together. Thus It Is Able To Control Them All 
 By Its Greater Power Of Attraction. 
   
 Concerning The Condition Of The Surface Of The Sun Many Opinions 
 Are Held. That It Is Hot Beyond All Estimate Is Indubitable. Whether 
 Solid Or Gaseous We Are Not Sure. Opinions Differ: Some Incline To 
 The First Theory,  Others To The Second; Some Deem The Sun Composed 
 Of Solid Particles,  Floating In Gas So Condensed [Page 90] By 
 Pressure And Attraction As To Shine Like A Solid. It Has No Sensible 
 Changes Of General Level,  But Has Prodigious Activity In Spots. 
 These Spots Have Been The Objects Of Earnest And Almost Hourly Study 
 On The Part Of Such Men As Secchi,  Lockyer,  Faye,  Young,  And Others, 
 For Years. But It Is A Long Way Off To Study An Object. No Telescope 
 Brings It Nearer Than 200,000 Miles. Theory After Theory Has Been 
 Advanced,  Each One Satisfactory In Some Points,  None In All. The 
 Facts About The Spots Are These: They Are Most Abundant On The Two 
 Sides Of The Equator. They Are Gregarious,  Depressed Below The 
 Surface,  Of Vast Extent,  Black In The Centre,  Usually Surrounded By 
 A Region Of Partial Darkness,  Beyond Which Is Excessive Light. They 
 Have Motion Of Their Own Over The Surface--Motion Rotating About An 
 Axis,  Upward And Downward About The Edges. They Change Their 
 Apparent Shape As The Sun Carries Them Across Its Disk By Axial 
 Revolution,  Being Narrow As They Present Their Edges To Us,  And 
 Rounder As We Look Perpendicularly Into Them (Fig. 35). 
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 41 
   
 These Spots Are Also Very Variable In Number,  Sometimes There Being 
 None For Nearly Two Hundred Days,  And Again Whole Years During Which 
 The Sun Is Never Without Them. The Period From Minimum To Maximum 
 [Page 91] Of Spots Is About Eleven Years. We Might Look For Them 
 Again And Again In Vain This Year (1878). They Will Be Most Numerous 
 In 1882 And 1893. The Cause Of This Periodicity Was Inferred To Be 
 The Near Approach Of The Enormous Planet Jupiter,  Causing 
 Disturbance By Its Attraction. But The Periods Do Not Correspond, 
 And The Cause Is The Result Of Some Law Of Solar Action To Us As Yet 
 Unknown. 
   
 These Spots May Be Seen With Almost Any Telescope,  The Eye Being 
 Protected By Deeply Colored Glasses. 
   
 Until Within One Hundred Years They Were Supposed To Be Islands Of 
 Scoriae Floating In The Sea Of Molten Matter. But They Were Depressed 
 Below The Surface,  And Showed A Notch When On The Edge. Wilson 
 Originated And Herschel Developed The Theory That The Sun's Real 
 Body Was Dark,  Cool,  And Habitable,  And That The Photosphere Was 
 A Luminous Stratum At A Distance From The Real Body,  With Openings 
 Showing The Dark Spots Below. Such A Sun Would Have Cooled Off In 
 A Week,  But Would Previously Have Annihilated All Life Below. 
   
 The Solar Spots Being Most Abundant On The Two Sides Of The Equator, 
 Indicates Their Cyclonic Character; The Centre Of A Cyclone Is 
 Rarefied,  And Therefore Colder,  And Cold On The Sun Is Darkness. 
 M. Faye Says: "Like Our Cyclones,  They Are Descending,  As I Have 
 Proved By A Special Study Of These Terrestrial Phenomena. They 
 Carry Down Into The Depths Of The Solar Mass The Cooler Materials 
 Of The Upper Layers,  Formed Principally Of Hydrogen,  And Thus Produce 
 In Their Centre A Decided Extinction Of Light And Heat As Long As 
 The Gyratory Movement Continues. Finally,  The Hydrogen Set Free 
 At The Base Of The Whirlpool Becomes Reheated At This [Page 92] 
 Great Depth,  And Rises Up Tumultuously Around The Whirlpool,  Forming 
 Irregular Jets,  Which Appear Above The Chromosphere. These Jets 
 Constitute The Protuberances. The Whirlpools Of The Sun,  Like Those 
 On The Earth,  Are Of All Dimensions,  From The Scarcely Visible Pores 
 To The Enormous Spots Which We See From Time To Time. They Have, 
 Like Those Of The Earth,  A Marked Tendency,  First To Increase And 
 Then To Break Up,  And Thus Form A Row Of Spots Extending Along The 
 Same Parallel." 
   
   
 A Spot Of 20,000 Miles Diameter Is Quite Small; There Was One 14,816 
 Miles Across,  Visible To The Naked Eye For A Week In 1843. This 
 Particular Sun-Spot Somewhat [Page 93] Helped The Millerites. On The 
 Day Of The Eclipse,  In 1858,  A Spot Over 107,000 Miles In Extent Was 
 Clearly Seen. In Such Vast Tempests,  If There Were Ships Built As 
 Large As The Whole Earth,  They Would Be Tossed Like Autumn Leaves In 
 An Ocean Storm. 
   
 The Revolution Of The Sun Carries A Spot Across Its Face In About 
 Fourteen Days. After A Lapse Of As Much More Time,  They Often Reappear 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 42 
 On The Other Side,  Changed But Recognizable. They Often Break Ont 
 Or Disappear Under The Eye Of The Observer. They Divide Like A 
 Piece Of Ice Dropped On A Frozen Pond,  The Pieces Sliding Off In 
 Every Direction,  Or Combine Like Separate Floes Driven Together 
 Into A Pack. Sometimes A Spot Will Last For More Than Two Hundred 
 Days,  Recognizable Through Six Or Eight Revolutions. Sometimes 
 A Spot Will Last Only Half An Hour. 
   
 The Velocities Indicated By These Movements Are Incredible. An 
 Up-Rush And Down-Rush At The Sides Has Been Measured Of Twenty 
 Miles A Second; A Side-Rush Or Whirl,  Of One Hundred And Twenty 
 Miles A Second. These Tempests Rage From A Few Days To Half A Year, 
 Traversing Regions So Wide That Our Indian Ocean,  The Realm Of 
 Storms,  Is Too Small To Be Used For Comparison; Then,  As They Cease, 
 The Advancing Sides Of The Spots Approach Each Other At The Rate Of 
 20,000 Miles An Hour; They Strike Together,  And The Rising Spray 
 Of Fire Leaps Thousands Of Miles Into Space. It Falls Again Into The 
 Incandescent Surge,  Rolls Over Mountains As The Sea Over Pebbles,  And 
 All This For Eon After Eon Without Sign Of Exhaustion Or Diminution. 
 All These Swift Succeeding Himalayas Of Fire,  Where One Hundred 
 Worlds Could Be Buried,  Do Not Usually Prevent The Sun's Appearing 
 To Our Far-Off Eyes As A Perfect Sphere. 
   
 [Page 94] 
 _What The Sun Does For Us._ 
   
 To What End Does This Enormous Power,  This Central Source Of Power, 
 Exist? That It Could Keep All These Gigantic Forces Within Itself 
 Could Not Be Expected. It Is In A System Where Every Atom Is Made 
 To Affect Every Other Atom,  And Every World To Influence Every 
 Other. The Author Of All Lives Only To Do Good,  To Send Rain On 
 The Just And Unjust,  To Cause His Sun To Rise On The Evil And The 
 Good,  And To Give His Spirit,  Like A Perpetually Widening River, 
 To Every Man To Profit Withal. 
   
 The Sun Reaches His Unrelaxing Hand Of Gravitation To Every Other 
 World At Every Instant. The Tendency Of Every World Is To Fly Off 
 In A Straight Line. This Tendency Must Be Momentarily Curbed,  And 
 The Planet Held In Its True Curve About The Sun. These Giant Worlds 
 Must Be Perfectly Handled. Their Speed,  Amounting To Seventy Times 
 As Fast As That Of A Rifle-Ball,  Must Be Managed. Each And Every 
 World May Be Said To Be Lifted Momentarily And Swung Perpetually 
 At Arm's-Length By The Power Of The Sun. 
   
 The Sun Warms Us. It Would Convey But A Small Idea Of The Truth 
 To State How Many Hundreds Of Millions Of Cubic Miles Of Ice Could 
 Be Hailed At The Sun Every Second Without Affecting Its Heat; But, 
 If Any One Has Any Curiosity To Know,  It Is 287,200,000 Cubic Miles 
 Of Ice Per Second. 
   
 We Journey Through Space Which Has A Temperature Of 200 Deg. Below 
 Zero; But We Live,  As It Were,  In A Conservatory,  In The Midst Of 
 Perpetual Winter. We Are Roofed Over By The Air That Treasures The 
 Heat,  Floored Under By Strata Both Absorptive And Retentive Of Heat, 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 43 
 [Page 95] And Between The Earth And Air Violets Grow And Grains 
 Ripen. The Sun Has A Strange Chemical Power. It Kisses The Cold 
 Earth,  And It Blushes With Flowers And Matures The Fruit And Grain. 
 We Are Feeble Creatures,  And The Sun Gives Us Force. By It The Light 
 Winds Move One-Eighth Of A Mile An Hour,  The Storm Fifty Miles,  The 
 Hurricane One Hundred. The Force Is As The Square Of The Velocity. 
 It Is By Means Of The Sun That The Merchant's White-Sailed Ships Are 
 Blown Safely Home. So The Sun Carries Off The Miasma Of The Marsh, 
 The Pollution Of Cities,  And Then Sends The Winds To Wash And 
 Cleanse Themselves In The Sea-Spray. The Water-Falls Of The Earth 
 Turn Machinery,  And Make Lowells And Manchesters Possible,  Because 
 The Sun Lifted All That Water To The Hills. 
   
 Intermingled With These Currents Of Air Are The Currents Of Electric 
 Power,  All Derived From The Sun. These Have Shown Their Swiftness 
 And Willingness To Serve Man. The Sun's Constant Force Displayed 
 On The Earth Is Equal To 543,000,000,000 Engines Of 400-Horse Power 
 Each,  Working Day And Night; And Yet The Earth Receives Only 
 1/21500000000 Part Of The Whole Force Of The Sun. 
   
 Besides All This,  The Sun,  With Provident Care,  Has Made And Given 
 To Us Coal. This Omnipotent Worker Has Stored Away In Past Ages 
 An Inexhaustible Reservoir Of His Power Which Man May Easily Mine 
 And Direct,  Thus Releasing Himself From Absorbing Toil. 
   
 Experiments. 
   
 Any One May See The Spots On The Sun Who Has A Spy-Glass. Darken 
 The Room And Put The Glass Through An Opening Toward The Sun,  As 
 Shown In Fig. 37. The Eye-Piece Should Be Drawn Out About Half 
 An Inch Beyond [Page 96] Its Usual Focusing For Distant Objects. The 
 Farther It Is Drawn,  The Nearer Must We Hold The Screen For A 
 Perfect Image. 
   
 By Holding A Paper Near The Eye-Piece,  The Proper Direction Of 
 The Instrument May Be Discovered Without Injury To The Eyes. By 
 This Means The Sun Can Be Studied From Day To Day,  And Its Spots Or 
 The Transits Of Mercury And Venus Shown To Any Number Of Spectators. 
   
   
 First Covering The Eyes With Very Dark Or Smoked Glasses,  Erect 
 A Disk Of Pasteboard Four Inches In Diameter Between You And The 
 Sun; Close One Eye; Stand Near It,  And The Whole Sun Is Obscured. 
 Withdraw From It Till The Sun's Rays Just Shoot Over The Edge Of 
 The Disk On Every Side. Measure The Distance From The Eye To The 
 Disk. You Will Be Able To Determine The Distance Of The Sun By 
 The Rule Of Three: Thus,  As Four Inches Is To 860,000 Miles,  So 
 Is Distance From Eye To Disk To Distance From Disk To The Sun. 
 Take Such Measurements At Sunrise,  Noon,  And Sunset,  And See The 
 Apparently Differing Sizes Due To Refraction. 
   
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 44 
   
   
 [Page 97] 
 Vi. 
   
 The Planets,  As Seen From Space. 
   
 "He Hangeth The Earth Upon Nothing."--_Job_ Xxvi. 7. 
   
 [Page 98] 
 "Let A Power Be Delegated To A Finite Spirit Equal To The Projection 
 Of The Most Ponderous Planet In Its Orbit,  And,  From An Exhaustless 
 Magazine,  Let This Spirit Select His Grand Central Orb. Let Him With 
 Puissant Arm Locate It In Space,  And,  Obedient To His Mandate,  There 
 Let It Remain Forever Fixed. He Proceeds To Select His Planetary 
 Globes,  Which He Is Now Required To Marshal In Their Appropriate 
 Order Of Distance From The Sun. Heed Well This Distribution; For 
 Should A Single Globe Be Misplaced,  The Divine Harmony Is Destroyed 
 Forever. Let Us Admit That Finite Intelligence May At Length Determine 
 The Order Of Combination; The Mighty Host Is Arrayed In Order. 
 These Worlds,  Like Fiery Coursers,  Stand Waiting The Command To 
 Fly. But,  Mighty Spirit,  Heed Well The Grand Step,  Ponder Well 
 The Direction In Which Thou Wilt Launch Each Wailing World; Weigh 
 Well The Mighty Impulse Soon To Be Given,  For Out Of The Myriads 
 Of Directions,  And The Myriads Of Impulsive Forces,  There Comes 
 But A Single Combination That Will Secure The Perpetuity Of Your 
 Complex Scheme. In Vain Does The Bewildered Finite Spirit Attempt 
 To Fathom This Mighty Depth. In Vain Does It Seek To Resolve The 
 Stupendous Problem. It Turns Away,  And While Endued With Omnipotent 
 Power,  Exclaims,  'Give To Me Infinite Wisdom,  Or Relieve Me From 
 The Impossible Task!'"-0. M. Mitchel,  Ll. D. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
 [Page 99] 
 Vi. 
   
 _The Planets,  As Seen From Space_ 
   
 If We Were To Go Out Into Space A Few Millions Of Miles From Either 
 Pole Of The Sun,  And Were Endowed With Wonderful Keenness Of Vision, 
 We Should Perceive Certain Facts,  Viz: That Space Is Frightfully 
 Dark Except When We Look Directly At Some Luminous Body. There Is 
 No Air To Bend The Light Out Of Its Course,  No Clouds Or Other 
 Objects To Reflect It In A Thousand Directions. Every Star Is A 
 Brilliant Point,  Even In Perpetual Sunshine. The Cold Is Frightful 
 Beyond The Endurance Of Our Bodies. There Is No Sound Of Voice In 
 The Absence Of Air,  And Conversation By Means Of Vocal Organs Being 
 Impossible,  It Must Be Carried On By Means Of Mind Communication. 
 We See Below An Unrevolving Point On The Sun That Marks Its Pole. 
 Ranged Round In Order Are The Various Planets,  Each With Its Axis 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 45 
 Pointing In Very Nearly The Same Direction. All Planets,  Except 
 Possibly Venus,  And All Moons Except Those Of Uranus And Neptune, 
 Present Their Equators To The Sun. The Direction Of Orbital And 
 Axial Revolution Seen From Above The North Pole Would Be Opposite 
 To That Of The Hands Of A Watch. 
   
   
 The Speed Of This Orbital Revolution Must Be Proportioned To The 
 Distance From The Sun. The Attraction Of The Sun Varies Inversely 
 As The Square Of The Distance. [Page 100] It Holds A Planet With A 
 Certain Power; One Twice As Far Off,  With One-Fourth That Power. 
 This Attraction Must Be Counterbalanced By Centrifugal Force; Great 
 Force From Great Speed When Attraction Is Great,  And Small From Less 
 [Page 101] Speed When Attractive Power Is Diminished By Distance. 
 Hence Mercury Must Go 29.5 Miles Per Second--Seventy Times As Fast 
 As A Rifle-Ball That Goes Two-Fifths Of A Mile In A Second--Or Be 
 Drawn Into The Sun; While Neptune,  Seventy-Five Times As Far Off, 
 And Hence Attracted Only 1/5626 As Much,  Must Be Slowed Down To 3.4 
 Miles A Second To Prevent Its Flying Away From The Feebler 
 Attraction Of The Sun. The Orbital Velocity Of The Various Planets 
 In Miles Per Second Is As Follows: 
   
   Mercury  29.55  |  Jupiter  8.06 
   Venus    21.61  |  Saturn   5.95 
   Earth    18.38  |  Uranus   4.20 
   Mars     14.99  |  Neptune  3.36 
   
 Hence,  While The Earth Makes One Revolution In Its Year,  Mercury 
 Has Made Over Four Revolutions,  Or Passed Through Four Years; The 
 Slower Neptune Has Made Only 1/164 Of One Revolution. 
   
 The Time Of Axial Revolution Which Determines The Length Of The 
 Day Varies With Different Planets. The Periods Of The Four Planets 
 Nearest The Sun Vary Only Half An Hour From That Of The Earth, 
 While The Enormous Bodies Of Jupiter And Saturn Revolve In Ten 
 And Ten And A Quarter Hours Respectively. This High Rate Of Speed, 
 And Its Resultant,  Centrifugal Force,  Has Aided In Preventing These 
 Bodies From Becoming As Dense As They Would Otherwise Be--Jupiter 
 Being Only 0.24 As Dense As The Earth,  And Saturn Only 0.13. This 
 Extremely Rapid Revolution Produces A Great Flattening At The Poles. 
 If Jupiter Should Rotate Four Times More Rapidly Than It Does,  It 
 Could Not Be Held Together Compactly. As It Is,  The Polar Diameter 
 Is Five Thousand Miles Less Than The Equatorial: The Difference 
 In Diameters Produced By The [Page 102] Same Cause On The Earth, 
 Owing To The Slower Motion And Smaller Mass,  Being Only Twenty-Six 
 Miles. The Effect Of This Will Be More Specifically Treated 
 Hereafter. 
   
 The Difference In The Size Of The Planets Is Very Noticeable. If 
 We Represent The Sun By A Gilded Globe Two Feet In Diameter,  We 
 Must Represent Vulcan And Mercury By Mustard-Seeds; Venus,  By A 
 Pea; Earth,  By Another; Mars,  By One-Half The Size; Asteroids,  By 
 The Motes In A Sunbeam; Jupiter,  By A Small-Sized Orange; Saturn, 
 By A Smaller One; Uranus,  By A Cherry; And Neptune,  By One A Little 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 46 
 Larger. 
   
 Apply The Principle That Attraction Is In Proportion To The Mass, 
 And A Man Who Weighs One Hundred And Fifty Pounds On The Earth 
 Weighs Three Hundred And Ninety-Six On Jupiter,  And Only Fifty-Eight 
 On Mars; While On The Asteroids He Could Play With Bowlders For 
 Marbles,  Hurl Hills Like Milton's Angels,  Leap Into The Fifth-Story 
 Windows With Ease,  Tumble Over Precipices Without Harm,  And Go 
 Around The Little Worlds In Seven Jumps. 
   
   
 The Seasons Of A Planet Are Caused By The Inclination Of Its Axis 
 To The Plane Of Its Orbit. In Fig. 39 The Rotating Earth Is Seen 
 At A,  With Its Northern Pole Turning In Constant Sunlight,  And 
 Its Southern Pole In Constant Darkness; Everywhere South Of The 
 Equator Is More Darkness Than Day,  And Hence Winter. Passing On 
 To B,  The World Is Seen Illuminated Equally On Each Side Of The 
 Equator. Every Place Has Its Twelve Hours' Darkness And Light At 
 Each Revolution. But At C--The Axis Of The Earth Always Preserving 
 The Same Direction--The Northern Pole Is Shrouded In Continual 
 Gloom. Every Place [Page 105] North Of The Equator Gets More 
 Darkness Than Light,  And Hence Winter. 
   
 The Varying Inclination Of The Axes Of The Different Planets Gives 
 A Wonderful Variety To Their Seasons. The Sun Is Always Nearly 
 Over The Equator Of Jupiter,  And Every Place Has Nearly Its Five 
 Hours Day And Five Hours Night. The Seasons Of Earth,  Mars,  And 
 Saturn Are So Much Alike,  Except In Length,  That No Comment Is 
 Necessary. The Ice-Fields At Either Pole Of Mars Are Observed To 
 Enlarge And Contract,  According As It Is Winter Or Summer There. 
 Saturn's Seasons Are Each Seven And A Half Years Long. The Alternate 
 Darkness And Light At The Poles Is Fifteen Years Long. 
   
 But The Seasons Of Venus Present The Greatest Anomaly,  If Its Assigned 
 Inclination Of Axis (75 Deg.) Can Be Relied On As Correct,  Which Is 
 Doubtful. Its Tropic Zone Extends Nearly To The Pole,  And At The 
 Same Time The Winter At The Other Pole Reaches The Equator. The 
 Short Period Of This Planet Causes It To Present The South Pole To 
 The Sun Only One Hundred And Twelve Days After It Has Been Scorching 
 The One At The North. This Gives Two Winters,  Springs,  Summers,  And 
 Autumns To The Equator In Two Hundred And Twenty-Five Days. 
   
 If Each Whirling World Should Leave Behind It A Trail Of Light To 
 Mark Its Orbit,  And Our Perceptions Of Form Were Sufficiently Acute, 
 We Should See That These Curves Of Light Are Not Exact Circles,  But 
 A Little Flattened Into An Ellipse,  With The Sun Always In One 
 Of The Foci. Hence Each Planet Is Nearer To The Sun At One Part 
 Of Its Orbit Than Another; That Point Is Called The Perihelion, 
 And The Farthest Point Aphelion. This Eccentricity Of Orbit,  Or 
 Distance Of The Sun From The Centre,  Is Very Small. [Page 106] In 
 The Case Of Venus It Is Only .007 Of The Whole,  And In No Instance 
 Is It More Than .2,  Viz.,  That Of Mercury. This Makes The Sun Appear 
 Twice As Large,  Bright,  And Hot As Seen And Felt On Mercury At Its 
 Perihelion Than At Its Aphelion. The Earth Is 3,236,000 Miles Nearer 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 47 
 To The Sun In Our Winter Than Summer. Hence The Summer In The 
 Southern Hemisphere Is More Intolerable Than In The Northern. But 
 This Eccentricity Is Steadily Diminishing At A Uniform Rate,  By 
 Reason Of The Perturbing Influence Of The Other Planets. In The Case 
 Of Some Other Planets It Is Steadily Increasing,  And,  If It Were To 
 Go On A Sufficient Time,  Might Cause Frightful Extremes Of 
 Temperature; But Lalande Has Shown That There Are Limits At Which It 
 Is Said,  "Thus Far Shalt Thou Go,  And No Farther." Then A 
 Compensative Diminution Will Follow. 
   
 Conceive A Large Globe,  To Represent The Sun,  Floating In A Round 
 Pond. The Axis Will Be Inclined 7-1/2 Deg. To The Surface Of The Water, 
 One Side Of The Equator Be 7-1/2 Deg. Below The Surface,  And The Other 
 Side The Same Distance Above. Let The Half-Submerged Earth Sail 
 Around The Sun In An Appropriate Orbit. The Surface Of The Water 
 Will Be The Plane Of The Orbit,  And The Water That Reaches Out 
 To The Shore,  Where The Stars Would Be Set,  Will Be The Plane Of 
 The Ecliptic. It Is The Plane Of The Earth's Orbit Extended To 
 The Stars. 
   
 The Orbits Of All The Planets Do Not Lie In The Same Plane,  But 
 Are Differently Inclined To The Plane Of The Ecliptic,  Or The Plane 
 Of The Earth's Orbit. Going Out From The Sun's Equator,  So As To 
 See All The Orbits Of The Planets On The Edge,  We Should See Them 
 Inclined To That Of The Earth,  As In Fig. 40. 
   
   
 If The Earth,  And Saturn,  And Pallas Were Lying In [Page 107] The 
 Same Direction From The Sun,  And The Outer Bodies Were To Start In A 
 Direct Line For The Sun,  They Would Not Collide With The Earth On 
 Their Way; But Saturn Would Pass 4,000,000 And Pallas 50,000,000 
 Miles Over Our Heads. From This Same Cause We Do Not See Venus And 
 Mercury Make A Transit Across The Disk Of The Sun At Every 
 Revolution. 
   
   
 Fig. 41 Shows A View Of The Orbits Of The Earth And Venus Seen 
 Not From The Edge But From A Position Somewhat Above. The Point E, 
 Where Venus Crosses The Plane Of The Earth's Orbit,  Is Called The 
 Ascending Node. If The Earth Were At B When Venus Is At E,  Venus 
 Would Be Seen On The Disk Of The Sun,  Making A Transit. The Same 
 Would Be True If The Earth Were At D,  And Venus At The Descending 
 Node F. 
   
 This General View Of The Flying Spheres Is Full Of Interest. [Page 
 108] While Quivering Themselves With Thunderous Noises,  All Is 
 Silent About Them; Earthquakes May Be Struggling On Their Surfaces, 
 But There Is No Hint Of Contention In The Quiet Of Space. They Are 
 Too Distant From One Another To Exchange Signals,  Except,  Perhaps, 
 The Fleet Of Asteroids That Sail The Azure Between Mars And Jupiter. 
 Some Of These Come Near Together,  Continuing To Fill Each Other's 
 Sky For Days With Brightness,  Then One Gradually Draws Ahead. They 
 Have All Phases For Each Other--Crescent,  Half,  Full,  And Gibbous. 
 These Hundreds Of Bodies Fill The Realm Where They Are With 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 48 
 Inexhaustible Variety. Beyond Are Vast Spaces--Cold,  Dark,  Void Of 
 Matter,  But Full Of Power. Occasionally A Little Spark Of Light 
 Looms Up Rapidly Into A World So Huge That A Thousand Of Our Earths 
 Could Not Occupy Its Vast Bulk. It Swings Its Four Or Eight Moons 
 With Perfect Skill And Infinite Strength; But They Go By And Leave 
 The Silence Unbroken,  The Darkness Unlighted For Years. 
 Nevertheless,  Every Part Of Space Is Full Of Power. Nowhere In Its 
 Wide Orbit Can A World Find A Place; At No Time In Its Eons Of 
 Flight Can It Find An Instant When The Sun Does Not Hold It In 
 Safety And Life. 
   
 _The Outlook From The Earth._ 
   
 If We Come In From Our Wanderings In Space And Take An Outlook From 
 The Earth,  We Shall Observe Certain Movements,  Easily Interpreted 
 Now That We Know The System,  But Nearly Inexplicable To Men Who 
 Naturally Supposed That The Earth Was The Largest,  Most Stable, 
 And Central Body In The Universe. 
   
 We See,  First Of All,  Sun,  Moon,  And Stars Rise In The East,  Mount 
 The Heavens,  And Set In The West. As I [Page 109] Revolve In My 
 Pivoted Study-Chair,  And See All Sides Of The Room--Library,  Maps, 
 Photographs,  Telescope,  And Windows--I Have No Suspicion That It Is 
 The Room That Whirls; But Looking Out Of A Car-Window In A Depot At 
 Another Car,  One Cannot Tell Which Is Moving,  Whether It Be His Car 
 Or The Other. In Regard To The World,  We Have Come To Feel Its 
 Whirl. We Have Noticed The Pyramids Of Egypt Lifted To Hide The Sun; 
 The Mountains Of Hymettus Hurled Down,  So As To Disclose The Moon 
 That Was Behind Them To The Watchers On The Acropolis; And The 
 Mighty Mountains Of Moab Removed To Reveal The Stars Of The East. 
 Train The Telescope On Any Star; It Must Be Moved Frequently,  Or The 
 World Will Roll The Instrument Away From The Object. Suspend A 
 Cannon-Ball By A Fine Wire At The Equator; Set It Vibrating North 
 And South,  And It Swings All Day In Precisely The Same Direction. 
 But Suspend It Directly Over The North Pole,  And Set It Swinging 
 Toward Washington; In Six Hours After It Is Swinging Toward Rome,  In 
 Italy; In Twelve Hours,  Toward Siam,  In Asia; In Nineteen Hours, 
 Toward The Sandwich Islands; And In Twenty-Four,  Toward Washington 
 Again,  Not Because It Has Changed The Plane Of Its Vibration,  But 
 Because The Earth Has Whirled Beneath It,  And The Torsion Of The 
 Wire Has Not Been Sufficient To Compel The Plane Of The Original 
 Direction To Change With The Turning Of The Earth. The Law Of 
 Inertia Keeps It Moving In The Same Direction. The Same Experimental 
 Proof Of Revolution Is Shown In A Proportional Degree At Any Point 
 Between The Pole And The Equator. 
   
 But The Watchers On The Acropolis Do Not Get Turned Over So As To 
 See The Moon At The Same Time Every Night. [Page 110] We Turn Down 
 Our Eastern Horizon,  But We Do Not Find Fair Luna At The Same Moment 
 We Did The Night Before. We Are Obliged To Roll On For Some Thirty 
 To Fifty Minutes Longer Before We Find The Moon. It Must Be Going In 
 The Same Direction,  And It Takes Us Longer To Get Round To It Than 
 If If It Were Always In The Same Spot; So We Notice A Star Near The 
 Moon One Night--It Is 13 Deg. West Of The Moon The Next Night. The Moon 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 49 
 Is Going Around The Earth From West To East,  And If It Goes 13 Deg. In 
 One Day,  It Will Take A Little More Than Twenty-Seven Days To Go The 
 Entire Circle Of 360 Deg.. 
   
   
 [Page 111] 
 In Our Outlook We Soon Observe That We Do Not By Our Revolution 
 Come To See The Same Stars Rise At The Same Hour Every Night. Orion 
 And The Pleiades,  Our Familiar Friends In The Winter Heavens,  Are 
 Gone From The Summer Sky. Have They Fled,  Or Are We Turned From 
 Them? This Is Easily Understood From Fig. 42. 
   
 When The Observer On The Earth At A Looks Into The Midnight Sky 
 He Sees The Stars At E; But As The Earth Passes On To B,  He Sees 
 Those Stars At E Three Minutes Sooner Every Night; And At Midnight 
 The Stars At F Are Over His Head. Thus In A Year,  By Going Around 
 The Sun,  We Have Every Star Of The Celestial Dome In Our Midnight 
 Sky. We See Also How The Sun Appears Among The Successive 
 Constellations. When We Are At A,  We See The Sun Among The Stars 
 At G; But As We Move Toward B,  The Sun Appears To Move Toward H. 
 If We Had Observed The Sun Rise On The 20th Of August,  1876,  We 
 Should Have Seen It Rise A Little Before Regulus,  And A Little 
 South Of It,  In Such A Relation As Circle 1 Is To The Star In Fig. 
 43. By Sunset The Earth Had Moved Enough To Make The Sun Appear 
 To Be At Circle 2,  And By The Next Morning At Circle 3,  At Which 
 Time Regulus Would Rise Before The Sun. Thus The Earth's Motion 
 Seems To Make The Sun Traverse A Regular Circle Among The Stars 
 Once A Year: But It Is Not The Sun That Moves. 
   
   
 There Are Certain Stars That Have Such Irregular,  Uncertain,  Vagarious 
 Ways That They Were Called Vagabonds,  Or Planets,  By The Early 
 Astronomers. Here Is The Path Of Jupiter In The Year 1866 (Fig. 
 44). These Bodies Go Forward For Awhile,  Then Stop,  Start Aside, 
 Then Retrograde,  [Page 112] And Go On Again. Some Are Never Seen Far 
 From The Sun,  And Others In All Parts Of The Ecliptic. 
   
   
 First See Them As They Stand To-Day,  As In Fig. 45. The Observer 
 Stands On The Earth At A. It Has Rolled Over So Far That He Cannot 
 See The Sun; It Has Set. But Venus Is Still In Sight; Jupiter Is 
 45 Deg. Behind Venus,  And Saturn Is Seen 90 Deg. Farther East. When A Has 
 Rolled A Little Farther,  If He Is Awake,  He Will See Mars Before 
 He Sees The Sun; Or,  In Common Language,  Venus Will Set After, 
 And Mars Rise Before The Sun. All These Bodies At Near And Far 
 Distances Seem Set In The Starry Dome,  As The Different Stars Seem 
 In Fig. 42,  P. 110. 
   
   
 The Mysterious Movements Of Advance And Retreat Are Rendered 
 Intelligible By Fig. 46. The Planet Mercury Is At A,  And,  Seen From 
 The Earth,  B Is Located At _A_,  [Page 113] On The Background Of The 
 Stars It Seems To Be Among. It Remains Apparently Stationary At _A_ 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 50 
 For Some Time,  Because Approaching The Earth In Nearly A Straight 
 Line. Passing D To C,  It Appears To Retrograde Among The Stars To 
 _C_; Remains Apparently Stationary For Some Time,  Then,  In Passing 
 From C To E And A,  Appears To Pass Back Among The Stars To _A_. The 
 Progress Of The Earth,  Meanwhile,  Although It Greatly Retards The 
 Apparent Motion From A To C,  Greatly Hastens It From C To A. 
   
   
 It Is Also Apparent That Mercury And Venus,  Seen From The Earth, 
 Can Never Appear Far From The Sun. They Must Be Just Behind The 
 Sun As Evening Stars,  Or Just Before It As Heralds Of The Morning. 
 Venus Is Never More Than 47 Deg. From The Sun,  And Mercury Never More 
 Than 30 Deg.; Indeed,  It Keeps So Near The Sun That Very Few People 
 Have Ever Seen The Brilliant Sparkler. Observe How Much Larger The 
 Planet Appears Near The Earth In Conjunction At D Than In Opposition 
 At E. Observe Also What Phases It Must Present,  And How Transits 
 Sometimes Take Place. 
   
 [Page 114] 
 The Movement Of A Superior Planet,  One Whose Orbit Is Exterior 
 To The Earth,  Is Clear From Fig. 47. When The Earth Is At A And 
 Mars At B,  It Will Appear Among The Stars At C. When The Earth Is 
 At D,  Mars Having Moved More Slowly To E,  Will Have Retrograded 
 To F. It Remains There While The Earth Passes On,  In A Line Nearly 
 Straight,  From Mars To G; Then,  As The Earth Begins To Curve Around 
 The Sun,  Mars Will Appear To Retraverse The Distance From F To 
 C,  And Beyond. The Farther The Superior Planet Is From The Earth 
 The Less Will Be The Retrograde Movement. 
   
   
 The Reader Should Draw The Orbits In Proportion,  And,  Remembering 
 The Relative Speed Of Each Planet,  Note The Movement Of Each In 
 Different Parts Of Their Orbits. 
   
 To Account For These Most Simple Movements,  The Earlier Astronomers 
 Invented The Most Complex And Impossible Machinery. They Thought The 
 Earth The Centre,  And That The Sun,  Moon,  And Stars Were Carried 
 About It,  As Stoves Around A Person To Warm Him. They Thought These 
 Strange Movements Of The Planets Were Accomplished By Mounting Them 
 On Subsidiary Eccentric Wheels In The Revolving Crystal Sphere. 
 All That Was [Page 115] Needed To Give Them A Right Conception Was A 
 Sinking Of Their World And Themselves To An Appropriate Proportion, 
 And An Enlargement Of Their Vision,  To Take In From An Exalted 
 Stand-Point A View Of The Simplicity Of The Perfect Plan. 
   
 Experiments. 
   
 Fix A Rod,  Or Tube,  Or Telescope Pointing At A Star In The Cast 
 Or West,  And The Earth's Revolution Will Be Apparent In A Moment, 
 Turning The Tube Away From The Star. Point It At Stars About The 
 North Pole,  And Those On One Side Will Be Found Going In An Opposite 
 Direction From Those On The Other,  And Very Much Slower Than Those 
 About The Equator. Anyone Can Try The Pendulum Experiment Who Has 
 Access To Some Lofty Place From Which To Suspend The Ball. It Was 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 51 
 Tried In Bunker Hill Monument A Few Years Ago,  And Is To Be Tried 
 In Paris,  In The Summer Of 1879,  With A Seven-Hundred-Pound Pendulum 
 And A Suspending Wire Seventy Yards Long. The Advance And Retrograde 
 Movements Of Planets Can Be Illustrated By Two Persons Walking 
 Around A Centre And Noticing The Place Where The Person Appears 
 Projected On The Wall Beyond. 
   
        
   
   Procession Of Stars And Souls. 
   
   "I Stood Upon The Open Casement, 
      And Looked Upon The Night, 
    And Saw The Westward-Going Stars 
      Pass Slowly Out Of Sight. 
   
   "Slowly The Bright Procession 
      Went Down The Gleaming Arch, 
    And My Soul Discerned The Music 
      Of The Long Triumphal March; 
   
   "Till The Great Celestial Army, 
      Stretching Far Beyond The Poles, 
    Became The Eternal Symbol 
      Of The Mighty March Of Souls. 
   
 [Page 116] 
   "Onward,  Forever Onward, 
      Red Mars Led On His Clan; 
    And The Moon,  Like A Mailed Maiden, 
      Was Riding In The Van. 
   
   "And Some Were Bright In Beauty, 
      And Some Were Faint And Small, 
    But These Might Be,  In Their Great Heights, 
      The Noblest Of Them All. 
   
   "Downward,  Forever Downward, 
      Behind Earth's Dusky Shore, 
    They Passed Into The Unknown Night-- 
      They Passed,  And Were No More. 
   
   "No More! Oh,  Say Not So! 
      And Downward Is Not Just; 
    For The Sight Is Weak And The Sense Is Dim 
      That Looks Through Heated Dust. 
   
   "The Stars And The Mailed Moon, 
      Though They Seem To Fall And Die, 
    Still Sweep In Their Embattled Lines 
      An Endless Reach Of Sky. 
   
   "And Though The Hills Of Death 
      May Hide The Bright Array, 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 52 
    The Marshalled Brotherhood Of Souls 
      Still Keeps Its Onward Way. 
   
   "Upward,  Forever Upward, 
      I See Their March Sublime, 
    And Hear The Glorious Music 
      Of The Conquerors Of Time. 
   
   "And Long Let Me Remember 
      That The Palest Fainting One 
    May To Diviner Vision Be 
      A Bright And Blazing Sun." 
   
                            Thomas Buchanan Read. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
 [Page 117] 
 Vii. 
   
 Shooting-Stars,  Meteors,  And Comets. 
   
 "The Lord Cast Down Great Stones From Heaven Upon Them Unto Azekah, 
 And They Died."--_Joshua_ X. Ii. 
   
 [Page 118] 
   
   
   
   
   
 [Page 119] 
 Vii. 
   
 _Shooting-Stars,  Meteors,  And Comets._ 
   
 Before Particularly Considering The Larger Aggregations Of Matter 
 Called Planets Or Worlds As Individuals,  It Is Best To Investigate 
 A Part Of The Solar System Consisting Of Smaller Collections Of 
 Matter Scattered Everywhere Through Space. They Are Of Various 
 Densities,  From A Cloudlet Of Rarest Gas To Solid Rock; Of Various 
 Sizes,  From A Grain's Weight To Little Worlds; Of Various Relations 
 To Each Other,  From Independent Individuality To Related Streams 
 Millions Of Miles Long. When They Become Visible They Are Called 
 Shooting-Stars,  Which Are Evanescent Star-Points Darting Through 
 The Upper Air,  Leaving For An Instant A Brilliant Train; Meteors, 
 Sudden Lights,  Having A Discernible Diameter,  Passing Over A Large 
 Extent Of Country,  Often Exploding With Violence (Fig. 48),  And 
 Throwing Down Upon The Earth Aerolites; And Comets,  Vast Extents 
 Of Ghostly Light,  That Come We Know Not Whence And Go We Know Not 
 Whither. All These Forms Of Matter Are Governed By The Same Laws 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 53 
 As The Worlds,  And Are An Integral Part Of The Solar System--A 
 Part Of The Unity Of The Universe. 
   
   
 Everyone Has Seen The So-Called Shooting-Stars. They Break Out 
 With A Sudden Brilliancy,  Shoot A Few Degrees With Quiet Speed, 
 And Are Gone Before We Can Say,  "See There!" The Cause Of Their 
 Appearance,  The [Page 120] Conversion Of Force Into Heat By Their 
 Contact With Our Atmosphere,  Has Been Already Explained. Other Facts 
 Remain To Be Studied. They Are Found To Appear About Seventy-Three 
 Miles Above The Earth,  And To Disappear About Twenty Miles Nearer 
 The Surface. Their Average Velocity,  Thirty-Five,  Sometimes Rises To 
 One Hundred Miles A Second. They Exhibit Different Colors,  According 
 To Their Different Chemical Substances,  Which Are Consumed. The 
 Number Of Them To Be Seen On Different Nights Is Exceedingly 
 Variable; Sometimes Not More [Page 121] Than Five Or Six An Hour, 
 And Sometimes So Many That A Man Cannot Count Those Appearing In A 
 Small Section Of Sky. This Variability Is Found To Be Periodic. 
 There Are Everywhere In Space Little Meteoric Masses Of Matter,  From 
 The Weight Of A Grain To A Ton,  And From The Density Of Gas To Rock. 
 The Earth Meets 7,500,000 Little Bodies Every Day--There Is 
 Collision--The Little Meteoroid Gives Out Its Lightning Sign Of 
 Extinction,  And,  Consumed In Fervent Heat,  Drops To The Earth As Gas 
 Or Dust. If We Add The Number Light Enough To Be Seen By A 
 Telescope,  They Cannot Be Less Than 400,000,000 A Day. Everywhere We 
 Go,  In A Space As Large As That Occupied By The Earth And Its 
 Atmosphere,  There Must Be At Least 13,000 Bodies--One In 20,000,000 
 Cubic Miles--Large Enough To Make A Light Visible To The Naked Eye, 
 And Forty Times That Number Capable Of Revealing Themselves To 
 Telescopic Vision. Professor Peirce Is About To Publish,  As The 
 Startling Result Of His Investigations,  "That The Heat Which The 
 Earth Receives Directly From Meteors Is The Same In Amount Which It 
 Receives From The Sun By Radiation,  And That The Sun Receives 
 Five-Sixths Of Its Heat From The Meteors That Fall Upon It." 
   
   
 [Page 121] 
 In 1783 Dr. Schmidt Was Fortunate Enough To Have A Telescopic View 
 Of A System Of Bodies Which Had Turned Into Meteors. These Were Two 
 Larger Bodies Followed By Several Smaller Ones,  Going In Parallel 
 Lines Till They Were Extinguished. They Probably Had Been Revolving 
 About Each Other As Worlds And Satellites Before Entering Our 
 Atmosphere. It Is More Than Probable That The Earth Has Many Such 
 Bodies,  Too Small To Be Visible,  Revolving Around It As Moons. 
   
   
 _Aerolites._ 
   
 Sometimes The Bodies Are Large Enough To Bear The Heat,  And The 
 Unconsumed Centre Comes To The Earth. [Page 123] Their Velocity Has 
 Been Lessened By The Resisting Air,  And The Excessive Heat 
 Diminished. Still,  If Found Soon After Their Descent,  They Are Too 
 Hot To Be Handled. These Are Called Aerolites Or Air-Stones. There 
 Was A Fall In Iowa,  In February,  1875,  From Which Fragments 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 54 
 Amounting To Five Hundred Pounds Weight Were Secured. On The Evening 
 Of December 21st,  1876,  A Meteor Of Unusual Size And Brilliancy 
 Passed Over The States Of Kansas,  Missouri,  Illinois,  Indiana,  And 
 Ohio. It Was First Seen In The Western Part Of Kansas,  At An 
 Altitude Of About Sixty Miles. In Crossing The State Of Missouri It 
 Began To Explode,  And This Breaking Up Continued While Passing 
 Illinois,  Indiana,  And Ohio,  Till It Consisted Of A Large Flock Of 
 Brilliant Balls Chasing Each Other Across The Sky,  The Number Being 
 Variously Estimated At From Twenty To One Hundred. It Was 
 Accompanied By Terrific Explosions,  And Was Seen Along A Path Of Not 
 Less Than A Thousand Miles. When First Seen In Kansas,  It Is Said To 
 Have Appeared As Large As The Full Moon,  And With A Train From 
 Twenty-Five To One Hundred Feet Long. Another,  Very Similar In 
 Appearance And Behavior,  Passed Over A Part Of The Same Course In 
 February,  1879. At Laigle,  France,  On April 26th,  1803,  About One 
 O'clock In The Day,  From Two To Three Thousand Fell. The Largest Did 
 Not Exceed Seventeen Pounds Weight. One Fell In Weston,  Connecticut, 
 In 1807,  Weighing Two Hundred Pounds. A Very Destructive Shower Is 
 Mentioned In The Book Of Joshua,  Chap. X. Ver. 11. 
   
 These Bodies Are Not Evenly Distributed Through Space. In Some 
 Places They Are Gathered Into Systems Which Circle Round The Sun 
 In Orbits As Certain As Those Of The [Page 124] Planets. The Chain 
 Of Asteroids Is An Illustration Of Meteoric Bodies On A Large Scale. 
 They Are Hundreds In Number--Meteors Are Millions. They Have Their 
 Region Of Travel,  And The Sun Holds Them And The Giant Jupiter By 
 The Same Power. The Power That Cares For A World Cares For A 
 Sparrow. If Their Orbit So Lies That A Planet Passes Through It,  And 
 The Planet And The Meteors Are At The Point Of Intersection At The 
 Same Time,  There Must Be Collisions,  And The Lightning Signs Of 
 Extinction Proportioned To The Number Of Little Bodies In A Given 
 Space. 
   
 It Is Demonstrated That The Earth Encounters More Than One Hundred 
 Such Systems Of Meteoric Bodies In A Single Year. It Passes Through 
 One On The 10th Of August,  Another On The 11th Of November. In 
 A Certain Part Of The First There Is An Agglomeration Of Bodies 
 Sufficient To Become Visible As It Approaches The Sun,  And This Is 
 Known As The Comet Of 1862; In The Second Is A Similar Agglomeration, 
 Known As Temple's Comet. It Is Repeating The Same Thing To Say That 
 Meteoroids Follow In The Train Of The Comets. The Probable Orbit 
 Of The November Meteors And The Comet Of 1866 Is An Exceedingly 
 Elongated Ellipse,  Embracing The Orbit Of The Earth At One End And 
 A Portion Of The Orbit Of Uranus At The Other (Fig. 51). That Of 
 The August Meteors And The Comet Of 1862 Embraces The Orbit Of 
 The Earth At One End,  And Thirty Per Cent. Of The Other End Is 
 Beyond The Orbit Of Neptune. 
   
   
 In January,  1846,  Biela's Comet Was Observed To Be Divided. At 
 Its Next Return,  In 1852,  The Parts Were 1,500,000 Miles Apart. 
 They Could Not Be Found On Their Periodic Returns In 1859,  1865, 
 And 1872; But It [Page 125] Should Have Crossed The Earth's Orbit 
 Early In September,  1872. The Earth Itself Would Arrive At The Point 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 55 
 Of Crossing Two Or Three Months Later. If The Law Of Revolution 
 Held,  We Might Still Expect To Find Some Of The Trailing Meteoroids 
 Of The Comet Not Gone By On Our Arrival. It Was Shown That The Point 
 Of The Earth That Would Strike Them Would Be Toward A Certain Place 
 In The Constellation Of Andromeda,  If The Remains Of The Diluted 
 Comet Were Still There. The Prediction Was Verified In Every 
 Respect. At The Appointed Time,  Place,  [Page 126] And Direction,  The 
 Streaming Lights Were In Our Sky. That These Little Bodies Belonged 
 To The Original Comet None Can Doubt. By The Perturbations Of 
 Planetary Attraction,  Or By Different Original Velocities,  A Comet 
 May Be Lengthened Into An Invisible Stream,  Or An Invisible Stream 
 Agglomerated Till It Is Visible As A Comet. 
   
 _Comets._ 
   
 Comets Will Be Most Easily Understood By The Foregoing Considerations. 
 They Are Often Treated As If They Were No Part Of The Solar System; 
 But They Are Under The Control Of The Same Laws,  And Owe Their 
 Existence,  Motion,  And Continuance To The Same Causes As Jupiter And 
 The Rest Of The Planets. They Are Really Planets Of Wider Wandering, 
 Greater Ellipticity,  And Less Density. They Have Periodic Times 
 Less Than The Earth,  And Fifty Times As Great As Neptune. They 
 Are Little Clouds Of Gas Or Meteoric Matter,  Or Both,  Darting Into 
 The Solar System From Every Side,  At Every Angle With The Plane 
 Of The Ecliptic,  Becoming Luminous With Reflected Light,  Passing 
 The Sun,  And Returning Again To Outer Darkness. Sometimes They 
 Have No Tail,  Having A Nucleus Surrounded By Nebulosity Like A 
 Dim Sun With Zodiacal Light; Sometimes One Tail,  Sometimes Half A 
 Dozen. These Follow The Comet To Perihelion,  And Precede It Afterward 
 (Fig. 52). The Orbits Of Some Comets Are Enormously Elongated; One 
 End May Lie Inside The Earth's Orbit,  And The Other End Be As Far 
 Beyond Neptune As That Is From The Sun. Of Course Only A Small 
 Part Of Such A Curve Can Be Studied By Us: The Comet Is Visible 
 Only When Near The Sun. The Same Curve Around The Sun May Be An 
 Orbit That Will Bring It Back Again,  [Page 127] Or One That Will 
 Carry It Off Into Infinite Space,  Never To Return. One Rate Of Speed 
 On The Curve Indicates An Elliptical Orbit That Returns; A Greater 
 Rate Of Speed Indicates That It Will Take A Parabolic Orbit,  Which 
 Never Returns. The Exact Rate Of Speed Is Exceedingly Difficult To 
 Determine; Hence It Cannot Be Confidently Asserted That Any Comet 
 Ever Visible Will Not Return. They May All Belong To The Solar 
 System; But Some Will Certainly Be Gone Thousands Of Years Before 
 Their Fiery Forms Will Greet The Watchful Eyes Of Dwellers On The 
 Earth. A Comet That Has An Elliptic Orbit May Have It Changed To 
 [Page 128] Parabolic By The Accelerations Of Its Speed,  By 
 Attracting Planets; Or A Parabolic Comet May Become Elliptic,  And So 
 Permanently Attracted To The System By The Retardations Of 
 Attracting Bodies. A Comet Of Long Period May Be Changed To One Of 
 Short Period By Such Attraction,  Or _Vice Versa_. 
   
   
 The Number Of Comets,  Like That Of Meteor Streams,  Is Exceedingly 
 Large. Five Hundred Have Been Visible To The Naked Eye Since The 
 Christian Era. Two Hundred Have Been Seen By Telescopes Invented 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 56 
 Since Their Invention. Some Authorities Estimate The Number Belonging 
 To Our Solar System By Millions; Professor Peirce Says More Than 
 Five Thousand Millions. 
   
 _Famous Comets._ 
   
 The Comet Of 1680 Is Perhaps The One That Appeared In A.D. 44,  Soon 
 After The Death Of Julius Caesar,  Also In The Reign Of Justinian, 
 A.D. 531,  And In 1106. This Is Not Determined By Any Recognizable 
 Resemblance. It Had A Tail 70 Deg. Long; It Was Not All Arisen When 
 Its Head Reached The Meridian. It Is Possible,  From The Shape Of 
 Its Orbit,  That It Has A Periodic Time Of Nine Thousand Years,  Or 
 That It May Have A Parabolic Orbit,  And Never Return. Observations 
 Taken Two Hundred Years Ago Have Not The Exactness Necessary To 
 Determine So Delicate A Point. 
   
 On August 19th,  1682,  Halley Discovered A Comet Which He Soon Declared 
 To Be One Seen By Kepler In 1607. Looking Back Still Farther,  He 
 Found That A Comet Was Seen In 1531 Having The Same Orbit. Still 
 Farther,  By The Same Exact Period Of Seventy-Five Years,  He Found 
 That It Was The Same Comet That Had Disturbed [Page 129] The 
 Equanimity Of Pope Calixtus In 1456. Calculations Were Undertaken As 
 To The Result Of All The Accelerations And Retardations By The 
 Attractions Of All The Planets For The Next Seventy-Five Years. 
 There Was Not Time To Finish All The Work; But A Retardation Of Six 
 Hundred And Eighteen Days Was Determined,  With A Possible Error Of 
 Thirty Days. The Comet Actually Came To Time Within Thirty-Three 
 Days,  On March 12th,  1759. Again Its Return Was Calculated With More 
 Laborious Care. It Came To Time And Passed The Sun Within Three Days 
 Of The Predicted Time,  On The 16th Of November,  1835. It Passed From 
 Sight Of The Most Powerful Telescopes The Following May,  And Has 
 Never Since Been Seen By Human Eye. But The Eye Of Science Sees It 
 As Having Passed Its Aphelion Beyond The Orbit Of Neptune In 1873, 
 And Is Already Hastening Back To The Warmth And Light Of The Sun. It 
 Will Be Looked For In 1911; And There Is Good Hope Of Predicting, 
 Long Before It Is Seen,  The Time Of Its Perihelion Within A Day. 
   
 _Biela's Lost Comet._--This Was A Comet With A Periodic Time Of 
 Six Years And Eight Months. It Was Observed In January,  1846,  To 
 Have Separated Into Two Parts Of Unequal Brightness. The Lesser 
 Part Grew For A Month Until It Equalled The Other,  Then Became 
 Smaller And Disappeared,  While The Other Was Visible A Month Longer. 
 At Disappearance The Parts Were 200,000 Miles Asunder. On Its Next 
 Return,  In 1852,  The Parts Were 1,500,000 Miles Apart; Sometimes 
 One Was Brighter And Sometimes The Other; Which Was The Fragment 
 And Which Was The Main Body Could Not Be Recognized. They Vanished 
 In September,  1852,  And Have Never Been Seen Since. Three Revolutions 
 Have Been Made Since That Time,  But No [Page 130] Trace Of It Could 
 Be Discovered. Probably The Same Influence That Separated It Into 
 Parts,  Separated The Particles Till Too Thin And Tenuous To Be Seen. 
 There Is Ground For Believing That The Earth Passed Through A Part 
 Of It,  As Before Stated Under The Head Of Meteors. 
   
 _The Great Comet Of_ 1843 Passed Nearer The Sun Than Any Known 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 57 
 Body. It Almost Grazed The Sun. If It Ever Returns,  It Will Be In 
 A.D. 2373. 
   
 _Donati's Comet Of_ 1858.--This Was One Of The Most Magnificent 
 Of Modern Times. During The First Three Months It Showed No Tail, 
 But From August To October It Had Developed One Forty Degrees In 
 Length. Its Period Is About Two Thousand Years. Every Reader Remembers 
 The Comet Of The Summer Of 1875. 
   
 _Encke's Comet._--This Comet Has Become Famous For Its Supposed 
 Confirmation Of The Theory That Space Was Filled With A Substance 
 Infinitely Tenuous,  Which Resisted The Passage Of This Gaseous 
 Body In An Appreciable Degree,  And In Long Ages Would So Retard 
 The Motion Of All The Planets That Gravitation Would Draw Them 
 All One By One Into The Sun. We Must Not Be Misled By The Term 
 Retardation To Suppose It Means Behind Time,  For A Retarded Body 
 Is Before Time. If Its Velocity Is Diminished,  The Attraction Of 
 The Sun Causes It To Take A Smaller Orbit,  And Smaller Orbits Mean 
 Increased Speed--Hence The Supposed Retardation Would Shorten Its 
 Periodic Time. This Comet Was Thought To Be Retarded Two And A 
 Half Hours At Each Revolution. If It Was,  It Would Not Prove The 
 Existence Of The Resisting Medium. Other Causes,  Unknown To Us, 
 Might Account For It. Subsequent And More Exact Calculations Fail 
 To Find Any Retardations In At Least Two Revolutions Between 1865 
 And [Page 131] 1871. Indications Point To A Retardation Of One And A 
 Half Hours Both Before And Since. But Such Discrepancy Of Result 
 Proves Nothing Concerning A Resisting Medium,  But Rather Is An 
 Argument Against Its Existence. Besides,  Faye's Comet,  In Four 
 Revolutions Of Seven Years Each,  Shows No Sign Of Retardation. 
   
 The Truth May Be This,  That A Kind Of Atmosphere Exists Around The 
 Sun,  Perhaps Revealed By The Zodiacal Light,  That Reaches Beyond 
 Where Encke's Comet Dips Inside The Orbit Of Mercury,  And Thus 
 Retards This Body,  But Does Not Reach Beyond The Orbit Of Mars, 
 Where Faye's Comet Wheels And Withdraws. 
   
 _Of What Do Comets Consist?_ 
   
 The Unsolved Problems Pertaining To Comets Are Very Numerous And 
 Exceedingly Delicate. Whence Come They? Why Did They Not Contract To 
 Centres Of Nebulae? Are There Regions Where Attractions Are Balanced, 
 And Matter Is Left To Contract On Itself,  Till The Movements Of 
 Suns And Planets Adds Or Diminishes Attractive Force On One Side, 
 And So Allows Them To Be Drawn Slowly Toward One Planet,  And Its 
 Sun,  Or Another? There Is Ground For Thinking That The Comet Of 
 1866 And Its Train Of Meteors,  Visible To Us In November,  Was Thus 
 Drawn Into Our System By The Planet Uranus. Indeed,  Leverrier Has 
 Conjecturally Fixed Upon The Date Of A.D. 128 As The Time When It 
 Occurred; But Another And Closer Observation Of Its Next Return, 
 In 1899,  Will Be Needed To Give Confirmation To The Opinion. Our 
 Sun's Authority Extends At Least Half-Way To The Nearest Fixed Star, 
 One Hundred Thousand Times Farther Than The Orbit Of The Earth. 
 Meteoric And Cometary Matter Lying [Page 132] There,  In A Spherical 
 Shell About The Solar System,  Balanced Between The Attraction Of 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 58 
 Different Suns,  Finally Feels The Power That Determines Its Destiny 
 Toward Our Sun. It Would Take 167,000,000 Years To Come Thence To 
 Our System. 
   
 The Conditions Of Matter With Which We Are Acquainted Do Not Cover 
 All The Ground Presented By These Mysterious Visitors. We Know 
 A Gas Sixteen Times As Light As Air,  But Hydrogen Is Vastly Too 
 Heavy And Dense; For We See The Faintest Star Through Thousands Of 
 Miles Of Cometary Matter; We Know That Water May Become Cloudy Vapor, 
 But A Little Of It Obscures The Vision. Into What More Ethereal, 
 And We Might Almost Say Spiritual,  Forms Matter May Be Changed We 
 Cannot Tell. But If We Conceive Comets To Be Only Gas,  It Would 
 Expand Indefinitely In The Realms Of Space,  Where There Is No Force 
 Of Compression But Its Own. We Might Say That Comets Are Composed 
 Of Small Separate Masses Of Matter,  Hundreds Of Miles Apart; And, 
 Looking Through Thousands Of Miles Of Them,  We See Light Enough 
 Reflected From Them All To Seem Continuous. Doubtless That Is Sometimes 
 The Case. But The Spectroscope Shows Another State Of Things: It 
 Reveals In Some Of These Comets An Incandescent Gas--Usually Some 
 Of The Combinations Of Carbon. The Conclusion,  Then,  Naturally Is 
 That There Are Both Gas And Small Masses Of Matter,  Each With An 
 Orbit Of Its Own Nearly Parallel To Those Of All The Others,  And 
 That They Afford Some Attraction To Hold The Mass Of Intermingled And 
 Confluent Gas Together. Our Best Judgment,  Then,  Is That The Nucleus 
 Is Composed Of Separate Bodies,  Or Matter In A Liquid Condition, 
 Capable Of Being Vaporized By The Heat Of The Sun,  And Driven Off, 
 [Page 133] As Steam From A Locomotive,  Into A Tail. Indications Of 
 This Are Found In The Fact That Tails Grow Smaller At Successive 
 Returns,  As The Matter Capable Of Such Vaporization Becomes 
 Condensed. In Some Instances,  As In That Of The Comet Of 1843,  The 
 Head Was Diminished By The Manufacture Of A Tail. On The Other Hand, 
 Professor Peirce Showed That The Nucleus Of The Comets Of 1680, 
 1843,  And 1858 Must Have Had A Tenacity Equal To Steel,  To Prevent 
 Being Pulled Apart By The Tidal Forces Caused By Its Terrible 
 Perihelion Sweep Around The Sun. 
   
 It Is Likely That There Are Great Varieties Of Condition In Different 
 Comets,  And In The Same Comet At Times. We See Them But A Few Days 
 Out Of The Possible Millions Of Their Periodic Time; We See Them 
 Only Close To The Sun,  Under The Spur Of Its Tremendous Attraction 
 And Terrible Heat. This Gives Us Ample Knowledge Of The Path Of 
 Their Orbit And Time Of Their Revolution,  But Little Ground For 
 Judgment Of Their Condition,  When They Slowly Round The Uttermost 
 Cape Of Their Far-Voyaging,  In The Terrible Cold And Darkness, 
 To Commence Their Homeward Flight. The Unsolved Problems Are Not 
 All In The Distant Sun And More Distant Stars,  But One Of Them 
 Is Carried By Us,  Sometimes Near,  Sometimes Far Off; But Our 
 Acquaintance With The Possible Forms And Conditions Of Matter Is 
 Too Limited To Enable Us To Master The Difficulties. 
   
 _Will Comets Strike The Earth?_ 
   
 Very Likely,  Since One Or Two Have Done So Within A Recent Period. 
 What Will Be The Effect? That Depends On Circumstances. There Is 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1 (Creative Processes) Pg 59 
 Good Reason To Suppose We Passed Through The Tail Of A Comet In 
 1861,  And The Only [Page 134] Observable Effect Was A Peculiar 
 Phosphorescent Mist. If The Comet Were Composed Of Small Meteoric 
 Masses A Brilliant Shower Would Be The Result. But If We Fairly 
 Encountered A Nucleus Of Any Considerable Mass And Solidity,  The 
 Result Would Be Far More Serious. The Mass Of Donati's Comet Has 
 Been Estimated By M. Faye To Be 1/20000 Of That Of The Earth. If 
 This Amount Of Matter Were Dense As Water,  It Would Make A Globe 
 Five Hundred Miles In Diameter; And If As Dense As Professor Peirce 
 Proved The Nucleus Of This Comet To Be,  Its Impact With The Earth 
 Would Develop Heat Enough To Melt And Vaporize The Hardest Rocks. 
 Happily There Is Little Fear Of This: As Professor Newcomb Says,  "So 
 Small Is The Earth In Comparison With Celestial Space,  That If One 
 Were To Shut His Eyes And Fire At Random In The Air,  The Chance Of 
 Bringing Down A Bird Would Be Better Than That Of A Comet Of Any 
 Kind Striking The Earth." Besides,  We Are Not Living Under A 
 Government Of Chance,  But Under That Of An Almighty Father,  Who 
 Upholdeth All Things By The Word Of His Power; And No World Can Come 
 To Ruin Till He Sees That It Is Best. 
   
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 2 (The Planets As Individualss) Pg 60 
   
 "Through Faith We Understand That The Worlds [Plural] Were Framed 
 By The Word Of God,  So That Things Which Were Seen Were Not Made 
 Of Things Which Do Appear."--_Heb._ Xi. 3. 
   
 [Page 136] 
 "O Rich And Various Man! Thou Palace Of Sight And Sound,  Carrying 
 In Thy Senses The Morning,  And The Night,  And The Unfathomable 
 Galaxy; In Thy Brain The Geometry Of The City Of God; In Thy Heart 
 The Power Of Love,  And The Realms Of Right And Wrong. An Individual 
 Man Is A Fruit Which It Costs All The Foregoing Ages To Form And 
 Ripen. He Is Strong,  Not To Do But To Live; Not In His Arms,  But 
 In His Heart; Not As An Agent,  But As A Fact."--Emerson. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
 [Page 137] 
 Vii. 
   
 _The Planets As Individuals._ 
   
 How Many Bodies There May Be Revolving About The Sun We Have No 
 
 
 
 Chapter 2 (The Planets As Individualss) Pg 61 
 Means To Determine Or Arithmetic To Express. When The New Star 
 Of The American Republic Appeared,  There Were But Six Planets 
 Discovered. Since Then Three Regions Of The Solar System Have Been 
 Explored With Wonderful Success. The Outlying Realms Beyond Saturn 
 Yielded The Planet Uranus In 1781,  And Neptune In 1846. The Middle 
 Region Between Jupiter And Mars Yielded The Little Planetoid Ceres 
 In 1801,  Pallas In 1802,  And One Hundred And Ninety Others Since. 
 The Inner Region Between Mercury And The Sun Is Of Necessity Full 
 Of Small Meteoric Bodies; The Question Is,  Are There Any Bodies 
 Large Enough To Be Seen? 
   
 The Same Great Genius Of Leverrier That Gave Us Neptune From The 
 Observed Perturbations Of Uranus,  Pointed Out Perturbations In 
 Mercury That Necessitated Either A Planet Or A Group Of Planetoids 
 Between Mercury And The Sun. Theoretical Astronomers,  Aided By The 
 Fact That No Planet Had Certainly Been Seen,  And That All Asserted 
 Discoveries Of One Had Been By Inexperienced Observers,  Inclined 
 To The Belief In A Group,  Or That The Disturbance Was Caused By 
 The Matter Reflecting The Zodiacal Light. 
   
 When The Total Eclipse Of The Sun Occurred In 1878,  [Page 138] 
 Astronomers Were Determined That The Question Of The Existence Of An 
 Intra-Mercurial Planet Should Be Settled. Maps Of All The Stars In 
 The Region Of The Sun Were Carefully Studied,  Sections Of The Sky 
 About The Sun Were Assigned To Different Observers,  Who Should 
 Attend To Nothing But To Look For A Possible Planet. It Is Now 
 Conceded That Professor Watson,  Of Ann Arbor,  Actually Saw The 
 Sought-For Body. 
   
   
   
   
 Vulcan. 
   
 The God Of Fire; Its Sign [Symbol],  His Hammer. 
   
 Distance From The Sun,  13,000,000 Miles. Orbital Revolution,  About 
 20 Days. 
   
   
   
   
 Mercury. 
   
 The Swift Messenger Of The Gods; Sign [Symbol],  His Caduceus. 
   
 Distance From The Sun,  35,750,000 Miles. Diameter,  2992 Miles. 
 Orbital Revolution,  87.97 Days. Orbital Velocity,  1773 Miles Per 
 Minute. Axial Revolution,  24h. 5m. 
   
 Mercury Shines With A White Light Nearly As Bright As Sirius; Is 
 Always Near The Horizon. When Nearly Between Us And The Sun,  As 
 At D (Fig. 46,  P. 113),  Its Illuminated Side Nearly Opposite To 
 Us,  We,  Looking From E,  See Only A Thin Crescent Of Its Light. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 2 (The Planets As Individualss) Pg 62 
 When It Is At Its Greatest Angular Distance From The Sun,  As A Or 
 C,  We See It Illuminated Like The Half-Moon. When It Is Beyond The 
 Sun,  As At E,  We See Its Whole Illuminated Face Like The Full-Moon. 
   
 The Variation Of Its Apparent Size From The Varying Distance Is 
 Very Striking. At Its Extreme Distance From The Earth It Subtends 
 An Angle Of Only Five Seconds; Nearest To Us,  An Angle Of Twelve 
 Seconds. Its Distance From The Earth Varies Nearly As One To Three, 
 And Its Apparent Size In The Inverse Ratio. 
   
 [Page 139] 
 When Mercury Comes Between The Earth And The Sun,  Near The Line 
 Where The Planes Of Their Orbits Cut Each Other By Reason Of Their 
 Inclination,  The Dark Body Of Mercury Will Be Seen On The Bright 
 Surface Of The Sun. This Is Called A Transit. If It Goes Across 
 The Centre Of The Sun It May Consume Eight Hours. It Goes 100,000 
 Miles An Hour,  And Has 860,000 Miles Of Disk To Cross. The Transit Of 
 1818 Occupied Seven And A Half Hours. The Transits For The Remainder 
 Of The Century Will Occur: 
   
   November 7th   1881  |  November 10th   1894 
   May 9th        1891  |  November 4th    1901 
   
   
   
   
 Venus. 
   
 Goddess Of Beauty; Its Sign [Symbol],  A Mirror. 
   
 Distance From The Sun,  66,750,000 Miles. Diameter,  7660 Miles. 
 Orbital Velocity,  1296 Miles Per Minute. Axial Revolution,  23h. 
 21m. Orbital Revolution,  224.7 Days. 
   
 This Brilliant Planet Is Often Visible In The Daytime. I Was Once 
 Delighted By Seeing Venus Looking Down,  A Little After Mid-Day 
 Through The Open Space In The Dome Of The Pantheon At Rome. It 
 Has Never Since Seemed To Me As If The Home Of All The Gods Was 
 Deserted. Phoebus,  Diana,  Venus And The Rest,  Thronged Through 
 That Open Upper Door At Noon Of Night Or Day. Arago Relates That 
 Bonaparte,  Upon Repairing To Luxemburg When The Directory Was About 
 To Give Him A _Fete_,  Was Much Surprised At Seeing The Multitude 
 Paying More Attention To The Heavens Above The Palace Than To Him 
 Or His Brilliant Staff. Upon Inquiry,  He Learned That These Curious 
 Persons Were Observing With Astonishment A Star Which They Supposed 
 To Be That Of The Conqueror Of Italy. The Emperor Himself Was Not 
 Indifferent When [Page 140] His Piercing Eye Caught The Clear Lustre 
 Of Venus Smiling Upon Him At Mid-Day. 
   
 This Unusual Brightness Occurs When Venus Is About Five Weeks Before 
 Or After Her Inferior Conjunction,  And Also Nearest Overhead By 
 Being North Of The Sun. This Last Circumstance Occurs Once In Eight 
 Years,  And Came On February 16th,  1878. 
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 2 (The Planets As Individualss) Pg 63 
 Venus May Be As Near The Earth As 22,000,000 Miles,  And As Far 
 Away As 160,000,000. This Variation Of Its Distances From The Earth 
 Is Obviously Much Greater Than That Of Mercury,  And Its Consequent 
 Apparent Size Much More Changeable. Its Greatest And Least Apparent 
 Sizes Are As Ten And Sixty-Five (Fig. 53). 
   
   
 When Copernicus Announced The True Theory Of The Solar System,  He 
 Said That If The Inferior Planets Could Be Clearly Seen They Would 
 Show Phases Like The Moon. When Galileo Turned The Little Telescope 
 He Had Made On Venus,  He Confirmed The Prophecy Of Copernicus. 
 Desiring To Take Time For More Extended Observation,  And Still Be 
 Able To Assert The Priority Of His Discovery,  He Published The 
 Following Anagram,  In Which His Discovery Was Contained: 
   
 [Page 141] 
   "Haec Immatura A Me Jam Frustra Leguntur O. Y." 
  (These Unripe Things Are Now Vainly Gathered By Me.) 
   
 He First Saw Venus As Gibbous; A Few Months Revealed It As Crescent, 
 And Then He Transposed His Anagram Into: 
   
   "Cynthiae Figuras Aemulatur Mater Amorum." 
  (The Mother Of Loves Imitates The Phases Of Cynthia.) 
   
 Many Things That Were Once Supposed To Be Known Concerning Venus Are 
 Not Confirmed By Later And Better Observations. Venus Is Surrounded 
 By An Atmosphere So Dense With Clouds That It Is Conceded That 
 Her Time Of Rotation And The Inclination Of Her Axis Cannot Be 
 Determined. She Revealed One Of The Grandest Secrets Of The Universe 
 To The First Seeker; Showed Her Highest Beauty To Her First Ardent 
 Lover,  And Has Veiled Herself From The Prying Eyes Of Later Comers. 
   
 Florence Has Built A Kind Of Shrine For The Telescope Of Galileo. 
 By It He Discovered The Phases Of Venus,  The Spots On The Sun, 
 The Mountains Of The Moon,  The Satellites Of Jupiter,  And Some 
 Irregularities Of Shape In Saturn,  Caused By Its Rings. Galileo 
 Subsequently Became Blind,  But He Had Used His Eyes To The Best 
 Purpose Of Any Man In His Generation. 
   
   
   
   
 The Earth. 
   
 Its Sign [Symbol]. 
   
 Distance From The Sun,  92,500,000 Miles. Diameter,  Polar,  7899 
 Miles; Equatorial,  7925-1/2 Miles. Axial Revolution,  23h. 56m. 
 4.09s.; Orbital,  365.86. Orbital Velocity Per Minute,  1152.8 Miles. 
   
 Let Us Lift Ourselves Up A Thousand Miles From The Earth. We See It 
 As A Ball Hung Upon Nothing In Empty Space. As The Drop Of Falling 
 Water Gathers Itself [Page 142] Into A Sphere By Its Own Inherent 
 
 
 
 Chapter 2 (The Planets As Individualss) Pg 64 
 Attraction,  So The Earth Gathers Itself Into A Ball. Noticing 
 Closely,  We See Forms Of Continents Outlined In Bright Relief,  And 
 Oceanic Forms In Darker Surfaces. We See That Its Axis Of Revolution 
 Is Nearly Perpendicular To The Line Of Light From The Sun. One-Half 
 Is Always Dark. The Sunrise Greets A New Thousand Miles Every Hour; 
 The Glories Of [Page 143] The Sunset Follow Over An Equal Space, 
 180 Deg. Behind. We Are Glad That The Darkness Never Overtakes The 
 Morning. 
   
   
 _The Aurora Borealis._ 
   
 While East And West Are Gorgeous With Sunrise And Sunset,  The North 
 Is Often More Glorious With Its Aurora Borealis. We Remember That 
 All Worlds Have Weird And Inexplicable Appendages. They Are Not 
 Limited To Their Solid Surfaces Or Their Circumambient Air. The 
 Sun Has Its Fiery Flames,  Corona,  Zodiacal Light,  And Perhaps A 
 Finer Kind Of Atmosphere Than We Know. The Earth Is 
 [Page 144] 
 Not Without Its Inexplicable Surroundings. It Has Not Only Its 
 Gorgeous Eastern Sunrise,  Its Glorious Western Sunset,  High Above 
 Its Surface In The Clouds,  But It Also Has Its More Glorious Northern 
 Dawn Far Above Its Clouds And Air. The Realm Of This Royal Splendor 
 Is As Yet An Unconquered World Waiting For Its Alexander. There Are 
 Certain Observable Facts,  Viz.,  It Prevails Mostly Near The Arctic 
 Circle Rather Than The Pole; It Takes On Various Forms--Cloud-Like, 
 Arched,  Straight; It Streams Like Banners,  Waves Like Curtains In 
 The Wind,  Is Inconstant; Is Either The Cause Or Result Of Electric 
 Disturbance; It Is Often From Four Hundred To Six Hundred Miles 
 Above The Earth,  While Our Air Cannot Be Over One Hundred Miles. 
 It Almost Seems Like A Revelation To Human Eyes Of Those Vast, 
 Changeable,  Panoramic Pictures By Which The Inhabitants Of Heaven 
 Are Taught. 
   
   
 Investigation Has Discovered Far More Mysteries Than It Has Explained. 
 It Is Possible That The Same Cause That Produces Sun-Spots Produces 
 Aurora In All Space,  Visible In All Worlds. If So,  We Shall See 
 More Abundant Auroras At The Next Maximum Of Sun-Spot,  Between 
 1880-84. 
   
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 3 (The Delicate Balance Of Forces) Pg 65 
 _The Delicate Balance Of Forces._ 
   
 A Soap-Bubble In The Wind Could Hardly Be More Flexible In Form 
 And Sensitive To Influence Than Is The Earth. On The Morning Of 
 May 9th,  1876,  The Earth's Crust At Peru Gave A Few Great Throbs 
 Upward,  By The Action Of Expansive Gases Within. The Sea Fled, 
 And Returned In Great Waves As The Land Rose And Fell. Then These 
 Waves Fled Away Over The Great Mobile Surface,  And In Less Than 
 Five Hours They Had Covered A Space Equal To Half Of Europe. The 
 Waves Ran Out To The Sandwich Islands,  Six [Page 145] Thousand 
 Miles,  At The Rate Of Five Hundred Miles An Hour,  And Arrived There 
 Thirty Feet High. They Not Only Sped On In Straight Radial Lines, 
 But,  Having Run Up The Coast To California,  Were Deflected Away Into 
 
 
 
 Chapter 3 (The Delicate Balance Of Forces) Pg 66 
 The Former Series Of Waves,  Making The Most Complex Undulations. 
 Similar Beats Of The Great Heart Of The Earth Have Sent Its Pulses 
 As Widely And Rapidly On Previous Occasions. 
   
 The Figure Of The Earth,  Even On The Ocean,  Is Irregular,  In Consequence 
 Of The Greater Preponderance Of Land--And Hence Greater Density--In The 
 Northern Hemisphere. These Irregularities Are Often Very Perplexing 
 In Making Exact Geodetic Measurements. The Tendency Of Matter To 
 Fly From The Centre By Reason Of Revolution Causes The Equatorial 
 Diameter To Be Twenty-Six,  Miles Longer Than The Polar One. By This 
 Force The Mississippi River Is Enabled To Run Up A Hill Nearly 
 Three Miles High At A Very Rapid Rate. Its Mouth Is That Distance 
 Farther From The Centre Of The Earth Than Its Source,  When But 
 For This Rotation Both Points Would Be Equally Distant. 
   
 If The Water Became More Dense,  Or If The World Were To Revolve 
 Faster,  The Oceans Would Rush To The Equator,  Burying The Tallest 
 Mountains And Leaving Polar Regions Bare. If The Water Should Become 
 Lighter In An Infinitesimal Degree,  Or The World Rotate More Slowly, 
 The Poles Would Be Submerged And The Equator Become An Arid Waste. 
 No Balance,  Turning To 1/1000 Of A Grain,  Is More Delicate Than 
 The Poise Of Forces On The World. Laplace Has Given Us Proof That 
 The Period Of The Earth's Axial Rotation Has Not Changed 1/100 
 Of A Second Of Time In Two Thousand Years. 
   
 [Page 146] 
 _Tides._ 
   
 But There Is An Outside Influence That Is Constantly Acting Upon 
 The Earth,  And To Which It Constantly Responds. Two Hundred And 
 Forty Thousand Miles From The Earth Is The Moon,  Having 1/81 The 
 Mass Of The World. Its Attractive Influence On The Earth Causes The 
 Movable And Nearer Portions To Hurry Away From The More Stable And 
 Distant,  And Heap Themselves Up On That Part Of The Earth Nearest 
 The Moon. Gravitation Is Inversely As The Square Of The Distance; 
 Hence The Water On The Surface Of The Earth Is Attracted More Than 
 The Body Of The Earth,  Some Parts Of Which Are Eight Thousand Miles 
 Farther Off; Hence The Water Rises On The Side Next The Moon. But 
 The Earth,  As A Whole,  Is Nearer The Moon Than The Water On The 
 Opposite Side,  And Being Drawn More Strongly,  Is Taken Away From 
 The Water,  Leaving It Heaped Up Also On The Side Opposite To The 
 Moon. 
   
 A Subsidiary Cause Of Tides Is Found In The Revolution Of The Earth 
 And Moon About Their Common Centre Of Gravity. Revolution About 
 An Axis Through The Centre Of A Sphere Enlarges The Equator By 
 Centrifugal Force. Revolution About An Axis Touching The Surface 
 Of A Flexible Globe Converts It Into An Egg-Shaped Body,  With The 
 Longer Axis Perpendicular To The Axis Of Revolution. In Fig. 56 The 
 Point Of Revolution Is Seen At The Centre Of Gravity At G; Hence, 
 In The Revolution Of Earth And Moon As One,  A Strong Centrifugal 
 Force Is Caused At D,  And A Less One At C. This Gives Greater Height 
 To The Tides Than The Attraction Of The Moon Alone Could Produce. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 3 (The Delicate Balance Of Forces) Pg 67 
   
 [Page 147] 
   
 If The Earth Had No Axial Revolution,  The Attractive Point Where 
 The Tide Rises Would Be Carried Around The Earth Once In Twenty-Seven 
 Days By The Moon's Revolution About The Earth. But Since The Earth 
 Revolves On Its Axis,  It Presents A New Section To The Moon's Attraction 
 Every Hour. If The Moon Were Stationary,  That Would Bring Two High 
 Tides In Exactly Twenty-Four Hours; But As The Moon Goes Forward, 
 We Need Nearly Twenty-Five Hours For Two Tides. 
   
 The Attractive Influence Of The Sun Also Gives Us A Tide Four-Tenths 
 As Great As That Of The Moon. When These Two Influences Of The Sun 
 And Moon Combine,  As They Do,  In Conjunction--When Both Bodies 
 Are On One Side Of The Earth; Or In Opposition,  Sun And Moon Being 
 On Opposite Sides Of The Earth--We Have Spring Or Increased Tides. 
 When The Moon Is In Its First Or Third Quarter,  _I. E._,  When A 
 Line From The Moon To The Earth Makes A Right Angle With One From 
 The Sun To The Earth,  These Influences Antagonize One Another, 
 And We Have The Neap Or Low Tides. 
   
 It Is Easy To See That If,  When The Moon Was Drawing Its Usual 
 Tide,  The Sun Drew Four-Tenths Of The Water In A Tide At Right 
 Angles With It,  The Moon's Tide Must Be By So Much Lower. Because 
 Of The Inertia Of The Water [Page 148] It Does Not Yield Instantly 
 To The Moon's Influence,  And The Crest Of The Tide Is Some Hours 
 Behind The Advancing Moon. 
   
 The Amount Of Tide In Various Places Is Affected By Almost Innumerable 
 Influences,  As Distance Of Moon At Its Apogee Or Perigee; Its Position 
 North,  South,  Or At The Equator; Distance Of Earth From Sun At 
 Perihelion And Aphelion; The Position Of Islands; The Trend Of 
 Continents,  Etc. All Eastern Shores Have Far Greater Tides Than 
 Western. As The Earth Rolls To The East It Leaves The Tide-Crest 
 Under The Moon To Impinge On Eastern Shores,  Hence The Tides Of 
 From Seventy-Five To One Hundred Feet In The Bay Of Fundy. Lakes And 
 Most Seas Are Too Small To Have Perceptible Tides. The Spring-Tides 
 In The Mediterranean Sea Are Only About Three Inches. 
   
 This Constant Ebb And Flow Of The Great Sea Is A Grand Provision For 
 Its Purification. Even The Wind Is Sent To The Sea To Be Cleansed. 
 The Sea Washes Every Shore,  Purifies Every Cove,  Bay,  And River 
 Twice Every Twenty-Four Hours. All Putrescible Matter Liable To 
 Breed A Pestilence Is Carried Far From Shore And Sunk Under Fathoms 
 Of The Never-Stagnant Sea. The Distant Moon Lends Its Mighty Power 
 To Carry The Burdens Of Commerce. She Takes All The Loads That 
 Can Be Floated On Her Flowing Tides,  And Cheerfully Carries Them 
 In Opposite Directions In Successive Journeys. 
   
 It Must Be Conceded That The Profoundest Study Has Not Mastered 
 The Whole Philosophy Of Tides. There Are Certain Facts Which Are 
 Apparent,  But For An Explanation Of Their True Theory Such Men As 
 Laplace,  Newton,  And Airy Have Labored In Vain. There Are Plenty 
 Of Other Worlds Still To Conquer. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 3 (The Delicate Balance Of Forces) Pg 68 
   
   
 [Page 150] 
   
 [Page 151] 
 The Moon. 
   
 New Moon,  [Symbol]; First Quarter,  [Symbol]; Full Moon,  [Symbol]; 
 Last Quarter,  [Symbol]. 
   
 Extreme Distance From The Earth,  259,600 Miles; Least,  221,000 
 Miles; Mean,  240,000 Miles. Diameter,  2164.6 Miles [2153,  Lockyer]. 
 Revolution About The Earth,  29-1/2 Days. Axial Revolution,  Same 
 Time. 
   
 When The Astronomer Herschel Was Observing The Southern Sky From 
 The Cape Of Good Hope,  The Most Clever Hoax Was Perpetrated That 
 Ever Was Palmed Upon A Credulous Public. Some New And Wonderful 
 Instruments Were Carefully Described As Having Been Used By That 
 Astronomer,  Whereby He Was Enabled To Bring The Moon So Close That 
 He Could See Thereon Trees,  Houses,  Animals,  And Men-Like Human 
 Beings. He Could Even Discern Their Movements,  And Gestures That 
 Indicated A Peaceful Race. The Extent Of The Hoax Will Be Perceived 
 When It Is Stated That No Telescope That We Are Now Able To Make 
 Reveals The Moon More Clearly Than It Would Appear To The Naked 
 Eye If It Was One Hundred Or One Hundred And Fifty Miles Away. 
 The Distance At Which A Man Can Be Seen By The Unaided Eye Varies 
 According To Circumstances Of Position,  Background,  Light,  And 
 Eye,  But It Is Much Inside Of Five Miles. 
   
 Since,  However,  The Moon Is Our Nearest Neighbor,  A Member Of Our 
 Own Family In Fact,  It Is A Most Interesting Object Of Study. 
   
 A Glance At Its Familiar Face Reveals Its Unequal Illumination. 
 All Ages And Races Have Seen A Man In The Moon. All Lovers Have 
 Sworn By Its Constancy,  And Only Part Of Them Have Kept Their Oaths. 
 Every Twenty-Nine Or Thirty Days We See A Silver Crescent In The 
 West,  And Are Glad If It Comes Over The Right Shoulder--So [Page 
 152] Much Tribute Does Habit Pay To Superstition. The Next Night It 
 Is Thirteen Degrees Farther East From The Sun. We Note The Stars It 
 Occults,  Or Passes By,  And Leaves Behind As It Broadens Its Disk, 
 Till It Rises Full-Orbed In The East When The Sun Sinks In The West. 
 It Is Easy To See That The Moon Goes Around The Earth From West To 
 East. Afterward It Rises Later And Smaller Each Night,  Till At 
 Length,  Lost From Sight,  It Rises About The Same Time As The Sun, 
 And Soon Becomes The Welcome Crescent New Moon Again. 
   
 The Same Peculiarities Are Always Evident In The Visible Face Of 
 The Moon; Hence We Know That It Always Presents The Same Side To 
 The Earth. Obviously It Must Make Just One Axial To One Orbital 
 Revolution. Hold Any Body Before You At Arm's-Length,  Revolve It 
 One-Quarter Around You Until Exactly Overhead. If It Has Not Revolved 
 
 
 
 Chapter 3 (The Delicate Balance Of Forces) Pg 69 
 On An Axis Between The Hands,  Another Quarter Of The Surface Is 
 Visible; But If In Going Up It Is Turned A Quarter Over,  By The 
 Hands Holding It Steady,  The Same Side Is Visible. Three Causes 
 Enable Us To See A Little More Than Half The Moon's Surface: 1. The 
 Speed With Which It Traverses The Ellipse Of Its Orbit Is Variable. 
 It Sometimes Gets Ahead Of Us,  Sometimes Behind,  And We See Farther 
 Around The Front Or Back Part. 2. The Axis Is A Little Inclined To 
 The Plane Of Its Orbit,  And Its Orbit A Little Inclined To Ours; 
 Hence We See A Little Over Its North Pole,  And Then Again Over 
 The South Pole. 3. The Earth Being Larger,  Its Inhabitants See 
 A Little More Than Half-Way Around A Smaller Body. These Causes 
 Combined Enable Us To See 576/1000 Of The Moon's Surface. Our Eyes 
 Will Never See The Other Side Of The Moon. If,  Now,  Being Solid, 
 Her Axial Revolution Could [Page 153] Be Increased Enough To Make 
 One More Revolution In Two Or Three Years,  That Difference Between 
 Her Axial And Orbital Revolution Would Give The Future Inhabitants 
 Of The Earth A View Of The Entire Circumference Of The Moon. Yet If 
 The Moon Were Once In A Fluid State,  Or Had Oceans On The Surface, 
 The Enormous Tide Caused By The Earth Would Produce Friction Enough, 
 As They Moved Over The Surface,  To Gradually Retard The Axial 
 Revolution Till The Two Tidal Elevations Remained Fixed Toward And 
 Opposite The Earth,  And Then The Axial And Orbital Revolutions Would 
 Correspond,  As At Present. In Fact,  We Can Prove That The Form Of 
 The Moon Is Protuberant Toward The Earth. Its Centre Of Gravity Is 
 Thirty-Three Miles Beyond Its Centre Of Magnitude,  Which Is The Same 
 In Effect As If A Mountain Of That Enormous Height Rose On The Earth 
 Side. Hence Any Fluid,  As Water Or Air,  Would Flow Round To The 
 Other Side. 
   
 The Moon's Day,  Caused By The Sun's Light,  Is 29-1/2 Times As Long 
 As Ours. The Sun Shines Unintermittingly For Fifteen Days,  Raising A 
 Temperature As Fervid As Boiling Water. Then Darkness And Frightful 
 Cold For The Same Time Succeed,  Except On That Half Where The Earth 
 Acts As A Moon. The Earth Presents The Same Phases--Crescent,  Full, 
 And Gibbous--To The Moon As The Moon Does To Us,  And For The Same 
 Causes. Lord Rosse Has Been Enabled,  By His Six-Foot Reflector,  To 
 Measure The Difference Of Heat On The Moon Under The Full Blaze 
 Of Its Noonday And Midnight. He Finds It To Be No Less Than Five 
 Hundred Degrees. People Not Enjoying Extremes Of Temperature Should 
 Shun A Lunar Residence. The Moon Gives Us Only 1/6180000 As Much 
 Light As The Sun. A Sky Full Of Moons Would Scarcely Make Daylight. 
   
 [Page 154] 
   
 There Are No Indications Of Air Or Water On The Moon. When It Occults 
 A Star It Instantly Shuts Off The Light And As Instantly Reveals 
 It Again. An Atmosphere Would Gradually Diminish And Reveal The 
 Light,  And By Refraction [Page 155] Cause The Star To Be Hidden In 
 Much Less Time Than The Solid Body Of The Moon Would Need To Pass 
 Over It. If The Moon Ever Had Air And Water,  As It Probably Did, 
 They Are Now Absorbed In The Porous Lava Of Its Substance. 
   
 _Telescopic Appearance._ 
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 3 (The Delicate Balance Of Forces) Pg 70 
   
 Probably No One Ever Saw The Moon By Means Of A Good Telescope 
 Without A Feeling Of Admiration And Awe. Except At Full-Moon,  We 
 Can See Where The Daylight Struggles With The Dark Along The Line 
 Of The Moon's Sunrise Or Sunset. This Line Is Called The Terminator. 
 It Is Broken In The Extreme,  Because The Surface Is As Rough As 
 Possible. In Consequence Of The Small Gravitation Of The Moon,  Utter 
 Absence Of The Expansive Power Of Ice Shivering The Cliffs,  Or The 
 Levelling Power Of Rains,  Precipices Can Stand In Perpendicularity, 
 Mountains Shoot Up Like Needles,  And Cavities Three Miles Deep 
 Remain Unfilled. The Light Of The Sun Falling On The Rough Body 
 Of The Moon,  Shown In Section (Fig. 59),  Illuminates The Whole 
 Cavity At _A_,  Part Of The One At _B_,  Casts A Long Shadow From The 
 Mountain At _C_,  And Touches The Tip Of The One At _D_,  Which Appears 
 To A Distant Observer As A Point Of Light Beyond The Terminator, 
 As The Moon Revolves The Conical Cavity,  _A_ Is Illuminated On 
 The Forward Side Only; The Light Creeps Down The Backward Side 
 Of Cavity _B_ To The Bottom; Mountain _C_. Comes Directly Under 
 The Sun And Casts No Shadow,  And Mountain _D_ Casts Its Long Shadow 
 Over The Plain. Knowing The Time Of Revolution,  And Observing The 
 Change Of [Page 156] Illumination,  We Can Easily Measure The Height 
 Of Mountain And Depth Of Crater. An Apple,  With Excavations And 
 Added Prominences,  Revolved On Its Axis Toward The Light Of A 
 Candle,  Admirably Illustrates The Crescent Light That Fills Either 
 Side Of The Cavities And The Shadows Of The Mountains On The Plain. 
 Notice In Fig. 58 The Crescent Forms To The Right,  Showing Cavities 
 In Abundance. 
   
   
 The Selenography Of One Side Of The Moon Is Much Better Known To 
 Us Than The Geography Of The Earth. Our Maps Of The Moon Are Far 
 More Perfect Than Those Of The Earth; And The Photographs Of Lunar 
 Objects By Messrs. Draper And De La Rue Are Wonderfully Perfect, 
 [Page 157] And The Drawings Of Padre Secchi Equally So (Fig. 60). 
 The Least Change Recognizable From The Earth Must Be Speedily 
 Detected. There Are Frequently Reports Of Discoveries Of Volcanoes 
 On The Moon,  But They Prove To Be Illusions. The Moon Will Probably 
 Look The Same To Observers A Thousand Years Hence As It Does To-Day. 
   
 This Little Orb,  That Is Only 1/81 Of The Mass Of The Earth,  Has 
 Twenty-Eight Mountains That Are Higher Than Mont Blanc,  That "Monarch 
 Of Mountains," In Europe. 
   
 _Eclipses._ 
   
   
 It Is Evident That If The Plane Of The Moon's Orbit Were To Correspond 
 With That Of The Earth,  As They All Lie In The Plane Of The Page 
 (Fig. 61),  The Moon Must Pass Between The Centres Of The Earth 
 And Sun,  And Exactly Behind The Earth At Every Revolution. Such 
 Successive And Total Darkenings Would Greatly Derange All Affairs 
 Dependent On Light. It Is Easily Avoided. Venus Does [Page 158] Not 
 Cross The Disk Of The Sun At Every Revolution,  Because Of The 
 Inclination Of The Plane Of Its Orbit To That Of The Earth (See Fig. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 3 (The Delicate Balance Of Forces) Pg 71 
 41,  P. 107). So The Plane Of The Orbit Of The Moon Is Inclined To 
 The Orbit Of The Earth 5 Deg. 8' 39"; Hence The Full-Moon Is Often Above 
 Or Below The Earth's Shadow,  And The Earth Is Below Or Above The 
 Moon's Shadow At New Moon. It Is As If The Moon's Orbit Were Pulled 
 Up One-Quarter Of An Inch From The Page Behind The Earth,  And 
 Depressed As Much Below It Between The Earth And The Sun. The Point 
 Where The Orbit Of The Moon Penetrates The Plane Of The Ecliptic Is 
 Called A Node. If A New Moon Occur When The Line Of Intersection Of 
 The Planes Of Orbits Points To The Sun,  The Sun Must Be Eclipsed; If 
 The Full-Moon Occur,  The Moon Must Be Eclipsed. In Any Other 
 Position The Sun Or Moon Will Only Be Partially Hidden,  Or No 
 Eclipse Will Occur. 
   
 If The New Moon Be Near The Earth It Will Completely Obscure The 
 Sun. A Dime Covers It If Held Close To The Eye. It May Be So Far 
 From The Earth As To Only Partially Hide The Sun; And,  If It Cover 
 The Centre,  Leave A Ring Of Sunlight On Every Side. This Is Called 
 An Annular Eclipse. Two Such Eclipses Will Occur This Year (1879). 
 If The Full-Moon Passes Near The Earth,  Or Is At Perigee,  It Finds 
 The Cone Of Shadow Cast By The Earth Larger,  And Hence The Eclipse 
 Is Greater; If It Is Far From The Earth,  Or Near Apogee,  The Earth's 
 Shadow Is Smaller,  And The Eclipse Less,  Or Is Escaped Altogether. 
   
 There Is A Certain Periodicity In Eclipses. Whenever The Sun,  Moon, 
 And Earth Are In A Line,  As In The Total Eclipse Of July 29th, 
 1878,  They Will Be In The Same Position After The Earth Has Made 
 About Eighteen Revolutions,  [Page 159] And The Moon Two Hundred And 
 Sixteen--That Is,  Eighteen Years After. This Period,  However,  Is 
 Disregarded By Astronomers,  And Each Eclipse Calculated By Itself To 
 The Accuracy Of A Second. 
   
 How Terrible Is The Fear Of Ignorance And Superstition When The Sun 
 Or Moon Appear To Be In The Process Of Destruction! How Delightful 
 Are The Joys Of Knowledge When Its Prophesies In Regard To The 
 Heavenly Bodies Are Being Fulfilled! 
   
   
   
   
 Mars. 
   
 The God Or War; Its Sign [Symbol],  Spear And Shield. 
   
 Mean Distance From The Sun,  141,000,000 Miles. Diameter,  4211 Miles. 
 Revolution,  Axial,  24h. 37m. 22.7s.; Orbital,  686.98 Days. Velocity 
 Per Minute,  899 Miles. Satellites,  Two. 
   
   
 At Intervals,  On An Average Of Two Years One Month And Nineteen 
 Days,  We Find Rising,  As The Sun Goes Down,  The Reddest Star In 
 The Heavens. Its Brightness Is Exceedingly Variable; Sometimes 
 It Scintillates,  And Sometimes It Shines With A Steady Light. Its 
 Marked Peculiarities Demand A Close Study. We Find It To Be Mars, 
 The Fiery God Of War. Its Orbit Is Far From Circular. At Perihelion 
 
 
 
 Chapter 3 (The Delicate Balance Of Forces) Pg 72 
 It Is 128,000,000 Miles From The Sun,  And At Aphelion 154,000,000; 
 Hence Its Mean Distance Is About 141,000,000. So Great A Change 
 In Its Distance From The Sun Easily Accounts For The Change In 
 Its Brilliancy. Now,  If Mars And The Earth Revolved In Circular 
 Orbits,  The One 141,000,000 Miles From The Sun,  And The Other 
 92,000,000,  They Would Approach At Conjunction Within 49,000,000 
 Miles Of Each Other,  And At Opposition Be 233,000,000 Miles Apart. 
 But Mars At Perihelion May Be Only 128,000,000 Miles From The Sun, 
 And Earth At [Page 160] Aphelion May Be 94,000,000 Miles From The 
 Sun. They Are,  Then,  But 34,000,000 Miles Apart. This Favorable 
 Opportunity Occurs About Once In Seventy-Nine Years. At Its Last 
 Occurrence,  In 1877,  Mars Introduced To Us His Two Satellites,  That 
 Had Never Before Been Seen By Man. In Consequence Of This Greatly 
 Varying Distance,  The Apparent Size Of Mars Differs Very Much (Fig. 
 62). Take A Favorable Time When The Planet Is Near,  Also As Near 
 Overhead As It Ever Comes,  So As To Have As Little Atmosphere As 
 Possible To Penetrate,  And Study The Planet. The First Thing That 
 Strikes The Observer Is A Dazzling Spot Of White Near The Pole Which 
 Happens To Be Toward Him,  Or At Both Poles When The Planet Is So 
 Situated That They Can Be Seen. When The North Pole Is Turned Toward 
 The Sun The Size Of The Spot Sensibly Diminishes,  And The Spot At 
 The South Pole Enlarges,  And _Vice Versa_. Clearly They Are 
 Ice-Fields. Hence Mars Has Water,  And Air To Carry It,  And Heat To 
 Melt Ice. It Is Winter At The South Pole When Mars Is Farthest From 
 The Sun; Therefore The Ice-Fields Are Larger Than At The North Pole. 
 It Is Summer At The South Pole When Mars Is Nearest The Sun. Hence 
 Its Ice-Fields Grow Smaller [Page 161] Than Those Of The North Pole 
 In Its Summer. This Carrying Of Water From Pole To Pole,  And Melting 
 Of Ice Over Such Large Areas,  Might Give Rise To Uncomfortable 
 Currents In Ocean And Air; But Very Likely An Inhabitant Of Earth 
 Might Be Transported To The Surface Of Mars,  And Be No More 
 Surprised At What He Observed There Than If He Went To Some Point Of 
 The Earth To Him Unknown. Day And Night Would Be Nearly Of The Same 
 Length; Winter Would Linger Longer In The Lap Of Spring; Summer 
 Would Be One Hundred And Eighty-One Days Long; But As The Seas Are 
 More Intermingled With The Land,  And The Divisions Of Land Have Less 
 Of Continental Magnitude,  It May Be Conjectured That Mars Might Be A 
 Comfortable Place Of Residence To Beings Like Men. Perhaps The 
 Greatest Surprise To The Earthly Visitor Would Be To Find Himself 
 Weighing Only Four-Tenths As Much As Usual,  Able To Leap Twice As 
 High,  And Lift Considerable Bowlders. 
   
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 4 (Satellites Of Mars) Pg 73 
 The Night Of August 11th,  1877,  Is Famous In Modern Astronomy. 
 Mars Has Been A Special Object Of Study In All Ages; But On That 
 Evening Professor Hall,  Of Washington,  Discovered A Satellite Of 
 Mars. On The 16th It Was Seen Again,  And Its Orbital Motion Followed. 
 On The Following Night It Was Hidden Behind The Body Of The Planet 
 When The Observation Began,  But At The Calculated Time--At Four 
 O'clock In The Morning--It Emerged,  And Established Its Character As 
 A True Moon,  And Not A Fixed Star Or Asteroid. Blessings,  However, 
 Never Come Singly,  For Another Object Soon Emerged Which Proved 
 To Be An Inner Satellite. This Is Extraordinarily Near [Page 162] 
 
 
 
 Chapter 4 (Satellites Of Mars) Pg 74 
 The Planet--Only Four Thousand Miles From The Surface--And Its 
 Revolution Is Exceedingly Rapid. The Shortest Period Hitherto Known 
 Is That Of The Inner Satellite Of Saturn,  22h. 37m. The Inner 
 Satellite Of Mars Makes Its Revolution In 7h. 39m.--A Rapidity So 
 Much Surpassing The Axial Revolution Of The Planet Itself,  That It 
 Rises In The West And Sets In The East,  Showing All Phases Of Our 
 Moon In One Night. The Outer Satellite Is 12,579 Miles From Mars, 
 And Makes Its Revolution In 30h. 18m. Its Diameter Is Six And A 
 Quarter Miles; That Of The Inner One Is Seven And A Half Miles. This 
 Can Be Estimated Only By The Amount Of Light Given. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 5 (Asteroids) Pg 75 
 Already Discovered (1879),  192. Distances From The Sun,  From 200,000,000 
 To 315,000,000 Miles. Diameters,  From 20 To 400 Miles. Mass Of All, 
 Less Than One-Quarter Of The Earth. 
   
 The Sense Of Infinite Variety Among The Countless Number Of Celestial 
 Orbs Has Been Growing Rapidly Upon Us For Half A Century,  And Doubtless 
 Will Grow Much More In Half A Century To Come. Just As We Paused 
 In The Consideration Of Planets To Consider Meteors And Comets, 
 At First Thought So Different,  So Must We Now Pause To Consider A 
 Ring Of Bodies,  Some Of Which Are As Small In Comparison To Jupiter, 
 The Next Planet,  As Aerolites Are Compared To The Earth. 
   
 In 1800 An Association Of Astronomers,  Suspecting That A Planet 
 Might Be Found In The Great Distance Between Mars And Jupiter, 
 Divided The Zodiac Into Twenty-Four Parts,  And Assigned One Part To 
 Each Astronomer For A Thorough Search; But,  Before Their Organization 
 Could Commence Work,  Piazzi,  An Italian Astronomer Of Palermo,  [Page 
 163] Found In Taurus A Star Behaving Like A Planet. In Six Weeks It 
 Was Lost In The Rays Of The Sun. It Was Rediscovered On Its 
 Emergence,  And Named Ceres. In March,  1802,  A Second Planet Was 
 Discovered By Olbers In The Same Gap Between Mars And Jupiter,  And 
 Named Pallas. Here Was An Embarrassment Of Richness. Olbers 
 Suggested That An Original Planet Had Exploded,  And That More Pieces 
 Could Be Found. More Were Found,  But The Theory Is Exploded Into 
 More Pieces Than A Planet Could Possibly Be. Up To 1879 One Hundred 
 And Ninety-Two Have Been Discovered,  With A Prospect Of More. 
 Between 1871-75 Forty-Five Were Discovered,  Showing That They Are 
 Sought For With Great Skill. In The Discovery Of These Bodies,  Our 
 American Astronomers,  Professors Watson And Peters,  Are Without 
 Peers. 
   
 Between Mars And Jupiter Is A Distance Of Some 339,000,000 Miles. 
 Subtract 35,000,000 Miles Next To Mars And 50,000,000 Miles Next 
 To Jupiter,  And There Is Left A Zone 254,000,000 Miles Wide Outside 
 Of Which The Asteroids Never Wander. If Any Ever Did,  The Attraction 
 Of Mars Or Jupiter May Have Prevented Their Return. 
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 5 (Asteroids) Pg 76 
 Since The Orbits Of Mars And Jupiter Show No Sign Of Being Affected 
 By These Bodies For A Century Past,  It Is Probable That Their Number 
 Is Limited,  Or At Least That Their Combined Mass Does Not Approximate 
 The Size Of A Planet. Professor Newcomb Estimates That If All That 
 Are Now Discovered Were Put Into One Planet,  It Would Not Be Over 
 Four Hundred Miles In Diameter; And If A Thousand More Should Exist, 
 Of The Average Size Of Those Discovered Since 1850,  Their Addition 
 Would Not Increase The Diameter To More Than Five Hundred Miles. 
   
 [Page 164] 
 That All These Bodies,  Which Differ From Each Other In No Respect 
 Except In Brilliancy,  Can Be Noted And Fixed So As Not To Be Mistaken 
 One For Another,  And Instantly Recognized Though Not Seen For A 
 Dozen Years,  Is One Of The Highest Exemplifications Of The Accuracy 
 Of Astronomical Observation. 
   
   
   
   
 Jupiter. 
   
 The King Of The Gods; Sign [Symbol],  The Bird Of Jove. 
   
 Distance From The Sun,  Perihelion,  457,000,000 Miles; Aphelion, 
 503,000,000 Miles. Diameter,  Equatorial,  87,500 Miles; Polar,  82,500 
 Miles. Volume,  1300 Earths. Mass,  213 Earths. Axial Revolution,  9h. 
 55m 20s. Orbital Revolution,  11 Years 317 Days. Velocity,  483.6 
 Miles Per Minute. 
   
   
 Jupiter Rightly Wears The Name Of The "Giant Planet." His Orbit 
 Is More Nearly Circular Than Most Smaller Planets. He Could Not 
 Turn Short Corners With Facility. We Know Little Of His Surface. 
 His Spots And Belts Are [Page 165] Changeable As Clouds,  Which They 
 Probably Are. Some Spots May Be Slightly Self-Luminous,  But Not The 
 Part Of The Planet We See. It Is Covered With An Enormous Depth Of 
 Atmosphere. Since The Markings In The Belts Move About One Hundred 
 Miles A Day,  The Jovian Tempests Are Probably Not Violent. It Is, 
 However,  A Singular And Unaccountable Fact,  As Remarked By Arago, 
 That Its Trade-Winds Move In An Opposite Direction From Ours. 
 Jupiter Receives Only One Twenty-Seventh As Much Light And Heat From 
 The Sun As The Earth Receives. Its Lighter Density,  Being About That 
 Of Water,  Indicates That It Still Has Internal Heat Of Its Own. 
 Indeed,  It Is Likely That This Planet Has Not Yet Cooled So As To 
 Have Any Solid Crust,  And If Its Dense Vapors Could Be Deposited On 
 The Surface,  Its Appearance Might Be More Suggestive Of The Sun Than 
 Of The Earth. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 6 (Satellites Of Jupiter) Pg 77 
 In One Respect Jupiter Seems Like A Minor Sun--He Is Royally Attended 
 By A Group Of Planets: We Call Them Moons. This System Is A Favorite 
 Object Of Study To Everyone Possessing A Telescope. Indeed,  I Have 
 Known A Man Who Could See These Moons With The Naked Eye,  And Give 
 
 
 
 Chapter 6 (Satellites Of Jupiter) Pg 78 
 Their Various Positions Without Mistake. Galileo First Revealed 
 Them To Ordinary Men. We See Their Orbits So Nearly On The Edge 
 That The Moons Seem To Be Sliding Back And Forth Across And Behind 
 The Disk,  And To Varying Distances On Either Side. Fig. 64 Is The 
 Representation Of Their Appearance At Successive Observations In 
 November,  1878. Their Motion Is So Swift,  And The Means Of Comparison 
 By One Another And The Planet So Excellent,  That They Can Be Seen 
 To Change Their Places,  [Page 166] Be Occulted,  Emerge From Shadow, 
 And Eclipse The Planet,  In An Hour's Watching. 
   
   
                 Elements Of Jupiter's Satellites. 
  +-------------------------------------------------------------+ 
  |               | Mean Distance |                  |          | 
  |               | From Jupiter. | Sidereal Period. | Diameter.| 
  |               |---------------+------------------+----------| 
  |               |     Miles.    |  Days Hrs. Min.  |  Miles.  | 
  |   I. Io       |     260,000   |    1   18   28   |   2,352  | 
  |  Ii. Europa   |     414,000   |    3   13   43   |   2,099  | 
  | Iii. Ganymede |     661,000   |    7    3   59   |   3,436  | 
  |  Iv. Callisto |   1,162,000   |   16   18    5   |   2,929  | 
  +-------------------------------------------------------------+ 
   
 It Is Seen By The Above Table That All These Moons Are Larger Than 
 Ours,  One Larger Than Mercury,  And The Asteroids Are Hardly Large 
 Enough To Make Respectable Moons For Them. They Differ In Color: 
 I. And Ii. Have A Bluish Tinge; Iii. A Yellow; And Iv. Is Red. 
 The Amount Of Light Given By These Satellites Varies In The Most 
 Sudden And Inexplicable Manner. Perhaps It May Be Owing To The 
 Different Distributions Of Land And Water On Them. The Mass Of All 
 Of Them Is .000171 Of Jupiter. 
   
 [Page 167] 
 If The Jovian System Were The Only One In Existence,  It Would Be 
 A Surprising Object Of Wonder And Study. A Monster Planet,  85,000 
 Miles In Diameter,  Hung On Nothing,  Revolving Its Equatorial Surface 
 Forty-Five Miles A Minute,  Holding Four Other Worlds In Steady 
 Orbits,  Some Of Them At A Speed Of Seven Hundred Miles A Minute, 
 And The Whole System Carried Through Space At Five Hundred Miles 
 A Minute. Yet The Discovery Of All This Display Of Power,  Skill, 
 And Stability Is Only Reading The Easiest Syllables Of The Vast 
 Literature Of Wisdom And Power. 
   
   
   
   
 Saturn. 
   
 The God Or Time; Sign [Symbol],  His Scythe. 
   
 Mean Distance From The Sun,  881,000,000 Miles. Diameter,  Polar, 
 66,500 Miles; Equatorial,  73,300 Miles. Axial Revolution,  10h. 
 14m. Periodic Time,  29t Years. Moons,  Eight. 
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 6 (Satellites Of Jupiter) Pg 79 
 The Human Mind Has Used Saturn And The Two Known Planets Beyond 
 For The Last 200 Years As A Gymnasium. It Has Exercised Itself 
 In Comprehending Their Enormous Distances In Order To Clear Those 
 Greater Spaces,  To Where The Stars Are Set; It Has Exercised Its 
 Ingenuity At Interpreting Appearances Which Signify Something Other 
 Than They Seem,  In Order That It May No Longer Be Deluded By Any 
 Sunrises Into A Belief That The Heavenly Dome Goes Round The Earth. 
 That A Wandering Point Of Light Should Develop Into Such Amazing 
 Grandeurs Under The Telescope,  Is As Unexpected As That Every Tiny 
 Seed Should Show Peculiar Markings And Colors Under The Microscope. 
   
   
 There Are Certain Things That Are Easy To Determine,  Such As Size, 
 Density,  Periodic Time,  Velocity,  Etc.; But Other Things Are Exceedingly 
 Difficult To Determine. It Requires Long Sight To Read When The 
 Book Is Held [Page 168] 800,000,000 Miles Away. Only Very Few,  If 
 More Than Two,  Opportunities Have Been Found To Determine The Time 
 Of Saturn's Rotation. On The Evening Of December 7th,  1870, 
 Professor Hall Observed A Brilliant White Spot Suddenly Show Itself 
 On The Body Of This Planet. It Was As If An Eruption Of White Hot 
 Matter Burst Up From The Interior. It Spread Eastward,  And Remained 
 Bright Till January,  When It Faded. No Such Opportunity For Getting 
 A Basis On Which To Found A Calculation Of The Time Of The Rotation 
 Of Saturn Has Occurred Since Sir William Herschel's Observations; 
 And,  Very Singularly,  The Two Times Deduced Wonderfully 
 Coincide--That Of Herschel Being 10h. 16m.,  That Of Mr. Hall Being 
 10h. 14m. 
   
 [Page 169] 
 The Density Of Saturn Is Less Than That Of Water,  And Its Velocity 
 Of Rotation So Great That Centrifugal Force Antagonizes Gravitation 
 To Such An Extent That Bodies Weigh On It About The Same As On The 
 Earth. All The Fine Fancies Of The Habitability Of This Vaporous 
 World,  All The Calculations Of The Number Of People That Could 
 Live On The Square Miles Of The Planet And Its Enormous Rings, 
 Are Only Fancy. Nothing Could Live There With More Brains Than A 
 Fish,  At Most. It Is A World In Formative Processes. We Cannot Hear 
 The Voice Of The Creator There,  But We Can See Matter Responsive 
 To The Voice,  And Moulded By His Word. 
   
 _Rings Of Saturn._ 
   
 The Eye And Mind Of Man Have Worked Out A Problem Of Marvellous 
 Difficulty In Finding A True Solution Of The Strange Appearance 
 Of The Rings. Galileo Has The Immortal Honor Of First Having Seen 
 Something Peculiar About This Planet. He Wrote To The Duke Of Tuscany, 
 "When I View Saturn It Seems _Tricorps_. The Central Body Seems The 
 Largest. The Two Others,  Situated,  The One On The East,  And The 
 Other On The West,  Seem To Touch It. They Are Like Two Supporters, 
 Who Help Old Saturn On His Way,  And Always Remain At His Side." 
 Looking A Few Years Later,  The Rings Having Turned From View,  He 
 Said,  "It Is Possible That Some Demon Mocked Me;" And He Refused 
 To Look Any More. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 6 (Satellites Of Jupiter) Pg 80 
   
 Huyghens,  In March,  1655,  Solved The Problem Of The Triform Appearance 
 Of Saturn. He Saw Them As Handles On The Two Sides. In A Year They 
 Had Disappeared,  And The Planet Was As Round As It Seemed To Galileo 
 In 1612. He Did Not,  However,  Despair; And In October,  [Page 170] 
 1656,  He Was Rewarded By Seeing Them Appear Again. He Wrote Of 
 Saturn,  "It Is Girdled By A Thin Plain Ring,  Nowhere Touching, 
 Inclined To The Ecliptic." 
   
 Since That Time Discoveries Have Succeeded One Another Rapidly. 
 "We Have Seen By Degrees A Ring Evolved Out Of A Triform Planet, 
 And The Great Division Of The Ring And The Irregularities On It 
 Brought To Light. Enceladus,  And Coy Mimas,  Faintest Of Twinklers, 
 Are Caught By Herschel's Giant Mirrors. And He,  Too,  First Of Men, 
 Realizes The Wonderful Tenuity Of The Ring,  Along Which He Saw 
 Those Satellites Travelling Like Pearls Strung On A Silver Thread. 
 Then Bond Comes On The Field,  And Furnishes Evidence To Show That 
 We Must Multiply The Number Of Separate Rings We Know Not How Many 
 Fold. And Here We Reach The Golden Age Of Saturnian Discovery, 
 When Bond,  With The Giant Refractor Of Cambridge,  And Dawes,  With 
 His 6-1/3-Inch Munich Glass,  First Beheld That Wonderful Dark 
 Semi-Transparent Ring,  Which Still Remains One Of The Wonders Of 
 Our System. But The End Is Not Yet: On The Southern Surface Of 
 The Ring,  Ere Summer Fades Into Autumn,  Otto Struve In Turn Comes 
 Upon The Field,  Detects,  As Dawes Had Previously Done,  A Division 
 Even In The Dark Ring,  And Measures It,  While It Is Invisible To 
 Lassell's Mirror--A Proof,  If One Were Needed,  Of The Enormous 
 Superiority Possessed By Refractors In Such Inquiries. Then We 
 Approach 1861,  When The Ring Plane Again Passes Through The Earth, 
 And Struve And Wray Observe Curious Nebulous Appearances."[*] 
   
   
   
 Our Opportunities For Seeing Saturn Vary Greatly. As The Earth At 
 One Part Of Its Orbit Presents Its South Pole [Page 171] To The Sun, 
 Then Its Equator,  Then The North Pole,  So Saturn; And We,  In The 
 Direction Of The Sun,  See The South Side Of The Rings Inclined At An 
 Angle Of 27 Deg.; Next The Edge Of The Rings,  Like A Fine Thread Of 
 Light; Then The North Side At A Similar Inclination. On February 
 7th,  1878,  Saturn Was Between Aquarius And Pisces,  With The Edge Of 
 The Ring To The Sun. In 1885,  The Planet Being In Taurus,  The South 
 Side Of The Rings Will Be Seen At The Greatest Advantage. From 1881 
 Till 1885 All Circumstances Will Combine To Give Most Favorable 
 Studies Of Saturn. Meanwhile Study The Picture Of It. The Outer Ring 
 Is Narrow,  Dark,  Showing Hints Of Another Division,  Sometimes More 
 Evident Than At Others,  As If It Were In A State Of Flux. The Inner, 
 Or Second,  Ring Is Much Brighter,  Especially On The Outer Edge,  And 
 Shading Off To The Dusky Edge Next To The Planet. There Is No Sign 
 Of Division Into A Third Dusky Innermost Ring,  As Was Plainly Seen 
 By Bond. This,  Too,  May Be In A State Of Flux. 
   
 The Markings Of The Planet Are Delicate,  Difficult Of Detection, 
 And Are Not Like Those Stark Zebra Stripes That Are So Often 
 Represented. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 6 (Footnote) Pg 81 
 [Footnote *: Lockyer.] 
 
 
 
 Chapter 6 (Satellites Of Jupiter) Pg 82 
   
 The Distance Between The Planet And The Second Ring Seems To Be 
 Diminished One-Half Since 1657,  And This Ring Has Doubled Its Breadth 
 In The Same Time. Some Of This Difference May Be Owing To Our Greater 
 Telescopic Power,  Enabling Us To See The Ring Closer To The Planet; 
 But In All Probability The Ring Is Closing In Upon The Central 
 Body,  And Will Touch It By A.D. 2150. Thus The Whole Ring Must 
 Ultimately Fall Upon The Planet,  Instead Of Making A Satellite. 
   
 We Are Anxious To Learn The Nature Of Such A Ring. [Page 172] 
 Laplace Mathematically Demonstrated That It Cannot Be Uniform And 
 Solid,  And Survive. Professor Peirce Showed It Could Not Be Fluid, 
 And Continue. Then Professor Maxwell Showed That It Must Be Formed 
 Of Clouds Of Satellites Too Small To Be Seen Individually,  And Too 
 Near Together For The Spaces To Be Discerned,  Unless,  Perhaps,  We 
 May Except The Inner Dark Ring,  Where They Are Not Near Enough To 
 Make It Positively Luminous. Indeed,  There Is Some Evidence That The 
 Meteoroids Are Far Enough Apart To Make The Ring Partially 
 Transparent. 
   
 We Look Forward To The Opportunities For Observation In 1882 With 
 The Brightest Hope That These Difficult Questions Will Be Solved. 
   
 _Satellites Of Saturn._ 
   
 The First Discovered Satellite Of Saturn Seen By Huyghens Was In 
 1655,  And The Last By The Bonds,  Father And Son,  Of Cambridge, 
 In 1848. These Are Eight In Number,  And Are Named: 
   
                    Distant From Saturn's Centre. 
      I. Mimas              119,725 Miles. 
     Ii. Enceladus          153,630   " 
    Iii. Tethys             190,225   " 
     Iv. Dione              243,670   " 
      V. Rhea               340,320   " 
     Vi. Titan              788,915   " 
    Vii. Hyperion           954,160   " 
   Viii. Japetus          2,292,790   " 
   
 Titan Can Be Seen By Almost Any Telescope; I.,  Ii.,  And Iii.,  Only 
 By The Most Powerful Instrument. All Except Japetus Revolve Nearly 
 In The Plane Of The Ring. Like The Moons Of Jupiter,  They Present 
 Remarkable And Unaccountable Variations Of Brilliancy. An Inspection 
 [Page 173] Of The Table Reveals Either An Expectation That Another 
 Moon Will Be Discovered Between V. And Vi.,  And About Three More 
 Between Vii. And Viii.,  Or That These Gaps May Be Filled With Groups 
 Of Invisible Asteroids,  As The Gap Between Mars And Jupiter. This 
 Will Become More Evident By Drawing Saturn,  The Rings,  And Orbits Of 
 The Moons All As Circles,  On A Scale Of 10,000 Miles To The Inch. 
 Saturn Will Be In The Centre,  70,000 Miles In Diameter; Then A Gap, 
 Decreasing Twenty-Nine Miles A Year To The First Ring,  Of,  Say, 
 10,000 Miles; A Dark Ring 9000 Miles Wide; Next The Brightest Ring 
 18,300 Miles Wide; Then A Gap Of 1750 Miles; Then The Outer Ring 
 10,000 Miles Wide; Then The Orbits Of The Satellites In Order. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 6 (Satellites Of Jupiter) Pg 83 
   
 If The Scenery Of Jupiter Is Magnificent,  That Of Saturn Must Be 
 Sublime. If One Could Exist There,  He Might Wander From The Illuminated 
 Side Of The Rings,  Under Their Magnificent Arches,  To The Darkened 
 Side,  See The Swift Whirling Moons; One Of Them Presenting Ten Times 
 The Disk Of The Earth's Moon,  And So Very Near As To Enable Him 
 To Watch The Advancing Line Of Light That Marks The Lunar Morning 
 Journeying Round That Orb. 
   
   
   
   
 Uranus. 
   
 Sign [Symbol]; The Initial Of Herschel,  And Sign Of The World. 
   
 Distance From The Sun,  1,771,000,000 Miles. Diameter,  31,700 Miles. 
 Axial Revolution Unknown. Orbital,  84 Years. Velocity Per Minute, 
 252 Miles. Moons,  Four. 
   
 Uranus Was Presented To The Knowledge Of Man As An Unexpected Reward 
 For Honest Work. It Was First Mistaken By Its Discoverer For A Comet, 
 A Mere Cloud Of Vapor; But It Proved To Be A World,  And Extended The 
 [Page 174] Boundaries Of Our Solar System,  In The Moment Of Its 
 Discovery,  As Much As All Investigation Had Done In All Previous 
 Ages. 
   
 Sir William Herschel Was Engaged In Mapping Stars In 1781,  When He 
 First Observed Its Sea-Green Disk. He Proposed To Call It _Georgium 
 Sidus_,  In Honor Of His King; But There Were Too Many Names Of The 
 Gods In The Sky To Allow A Mortal Name To Be Placed Among Them. It 
 Was Therefore Called Uranus,  Since,  Being The Most Distant Body Of 
 Our System,  As Was Supposed,  It Might Appropriately Bear The Name 
 Of The Oldest God. Finding Anything In God's Realms Of Infinite 
 Riches Ought Not To Lead Men To Regard That As Final,  But As A 
 Promise Of More To Follow. 
   
 This Planet Had Been Seen Five Times By Flamsteed Before Its Character 
 Was Determined--Once Nearly A Century Before--And Eight Times By 
 Le Monnier. These Names,  Which Might Easily Have Been Associated 
 With A Grand Discovery,  Are Associated With Careless Observation. 
 Eyes Were Made Not Only To Be Kept Open,  But To Have Minds Behind 
 Them To Interpret Their Visions. Herschel Thought He Discovered Six 
 Moons Belonging To Uranus,  But Subsequent Investigation Has Limited 
 The Number To Four. Two Of These Are Seen With Great Difficulty By 
 The Most Powerful Telescopes. 
   
 If The Plane Of Our Moon's Orbit Were Tipped Up To A Greater 
 Inclination,  Revolving It On The Line Of Nodes As An Axis Until 
 It Was Turned 85 Deg.,  The Moon,  Still Continuing On Its Orbit In That 
 Plane,  Would Go Over The Poles Instead Of About The Equator,  And 
 Would Go Back To Its Old Path When The Plane Was Revolved 180 Deg.; 
 But Its Revolution Would Now Be From East To West,  Or [Page 175] 
 Retrograde. The Plane Of The Moons Of Uranus Has Been Thus Inclined 
 
 
 
 Chapter 6 (Satellites Of Jupiter) Pg 84 
 Till It Has Passed 10 Deg. Beyond The Pole,  And The Moons' Motions Are 
 Retrograde As Regards Other Known Celestial Movements. How Uranus 
 Itself Revolves Is Not Known. There Are More Worlds To Conquer. 
   
   
   
   
 Neptune. 
   
 God Of The Sea; Sign [Symbol],  His Trident. 
   
 Distance From The Sun,  2,775,000,000 Miles. Diameter,  34,500 Miles. 
 Velocity Per Minute,  201.6 Miles. Axial Revolution Unknown. Orbital, 
 164.78 Years. One Moon. 
   
 Men Sought For Neptune As The Heroes Sought The Golden Fleece. 
 The Place Of Uranus Had Been Mapped For Nearly One Hundred Years 
 By These Accidental Observations. On Applying The Law Of Universal 
 Gravitation,  A Slight Discrepancy Was Found Between Its Computed 
 Place And Its Observed Place. This Discrepancy Was Exceedingly 
 Slight. In 1830 It Was Only 20"; In 1840,190"; In 1884,  2'. Two 
 Stars That Were 2' Apart Would Appear As One To The Keenest Unaided 
 Eye,  But Such An Error Must Not Exist In Astronomy. Years Of Work 
 Were Given To Its Correction. Mr. John C. Adams,  Of Cambridge, 
 England,  Finding That The Attraction Of A Planet Exterior To Uranus 
 Would Account For Its Irregularities,  Computed The Place Of Such 
 A Hypothetical Body With Singular Exactness In October,  1841; But 
 Neither He Nor The Royal Astronomer Airy Looked For It. Another 
 Opportunity For Immortality Was Heedlessly Neglected. Meanwhile, 
 M. Leverrier,  Of Paris,  Was Working At The Same Problem. In The 
 Summer Of 1846 Leverrier Announced The Place Of The Exterior Planet. 
 The Conclusion Was In Striking Coincidence With That Of Mr. [Page 
 176] Clark. Mr. Challis Commenced To Search For The Planet Near The 
 Indicated Place,  And Actually Saw And Mapped The Star August 4th, 
 1846,  But Did Not Recognize Its Planetary Character. Dr. Galle,  Of 
 Berlin,  On The 23d Of September,  1846,  Found An Object With A 
 Planetary Disk Not Plotted On The Map Of Stars. It Was The 
 Sought-For World. It Would Seem Easy To Find A World Seventy-Six 
 Times As Large As The Earth,  And Easy To Recognize It When Seen. The 
 Fact That It Could Be Discovered Only By Such Care Conveys An 
 Overwhelming Idea Of The Distance Where It Moves. 
   
   
 The Effect Of These Perturbations By An Exterior Planet Is Understood 
 From Fig. 66. Uranus And Neptune Were In Conjunction,  As Shown, 
 In 1822. But In 1820 It Had Been Found That Uranus Was Too Far 
 From The Sun,  And Too Much Accelerated. Since 1800,  Neptune,  In 
 His Orbit From F To E,  Had Been Hastening Uranus In His Orbit D 
 From C To B,  And Also Drawing It Farther From The Sun. After 1822, 
 Neptune,  In Passing From E To D,  Had Been Retarding Uranus In His 
 Orbit From B To A. 
   
 We Have Seen It Is Easy To Miss Immortality. There Is Still Another 
 Instance. Lalande Saw Neptune On May 8th And 10th,  1795,  Noted That 
 
 
 
 Chapter 6 (Satellites Of Jupiter) Pg 85 
 It Had Moved A Little,  And That The Observations Did Not Agree; 
 But,  Supposing The First Was Wrong,  Carelessly Missed The Glory 
 Of Once More Doubling The Bounds Of The Empire Of The Sun. 
   
 [Page 177] 
 It Is Time To Pause And Review Our Knowledge Of This System. The 
 First View Reveals A Moon And Earth Endowed With A Force Of Inertia 
 Going On In Space In Straight Lines; But An Invisible Elastic Cord Of 
 Attraction Holds Them Together,  Just Counterbalancing This Tendency 
 To Fly Apart,  And Hence They Circle Round Their Centre Of Gravity. 
 The Revolving Earth Turns Every Part Of Its Surface To The Moon In 
 Each Twenty-Four Hours. By An Axial Revolution In The Same Time 
 That The Moon Goes Round The Earth,  The Moon Holds The Same Point 
 Of Its Surface Constantly Toward The Earth. If We Were To Add One, 
 Two,  Four,  Eight Moons At Appropriate Distances,  The Result Would 
 Be The Same. There Is,  However,  Another Attractive Influence--That 
 Of The Sun. The Sun Attracts Both Earth And Moon,  But Their Nearer 
 Affection For Each Other Keeps Them From Going Apart. They Both, 
 Revolving On Their Axes And Around Their Centre Of Gravity,  Sweep 
 In A Vastly Wider Curve Around The Sun. Add As Many Moons As Has 
 Jupiter Or Saturn,  The Result Is The Same--An Orderly Carrying 
 Of Worlds Through Space. 
   
 There Lies The Unsupported Sun In The Centre,  Nearer To Infinity 
 In All Its Capacities And Intensities Of Force Than Our Minds Can 
 Measure,  Filling The Whole Dome To Where The Stars Are Set With 
 Light,  Heat,  And Power. It Holds Five Small Worlds--Vulcan,  Mercury, 
 Venus,  Earth,  And Mars--Within A Space Whose Radius It Would Require 
 A Locomotive Half A Thousand Years To Traverse. It Next Holds Some 
 Indeterminate Number Of Asteroids,  And The Great Jupiter,  Equal In 
 Volume To 13,000 Earths. It Holds Saturn,  Uranus,  And Neptune,  And 
 All Their Variously Related Satellites And Rings. The Two Thoughts 
 That Overwhelm Us Are Distance And Power. The Period Of [Page 178] 
 Man's Whole History Is Not Sufficient For An Express Train To 
 Traverse Half The Distance To Neptune. Thought Wearies And Fails In 
 Seeking To Grasp Such Distances; It Can Scarcely Comprehend One 
 Million Miles,  And Here Are Thousands Of Them. Even The Wings Of 
 Imagination Grow Weary And Droop. When We Stand On That Outermost Of 
 Planets,  The Very Last Sentinel Of The Outposts Of The King,  The 
 Very Sun Grown Dim And Small In The Distance,  We Have Taken Only One 
 Step Of The Infinite Distance To The Stars. They Have Not Changed 
 Their Relative Position--They Have Not Grown Brighter By Our 
 Approach. Neptune Carries Us Round A Vast Circle About The Centre Of 
 The Dome Of Stars,  But We Seem No Nearer Its Sides. In Visiting 
 Planets,  We Have Been Only Visiting Next-Door Neighbors In The 
 Streets Of A Seaport Town. We Know That There Are Similar Neighbors 
 About Sirius And Arcturus,  But A Vast Sea Rolls Between. As We Said, 
 We Stand With The Outermost Sentinel; But Into The Great Void Beyond 
 The King Of Day Sends His Comets As Scouts,  And They Fly Thousands 
 Of Years Without For One Instant Missing The Steady Grasp Of The 
 Power Of The Sun. It Is Nearer Almightiness Than We Are Able To 
 Think. 
   
 If We Cannot Solve The Problems Of The Present Existence Of Worlds, 
 
 
 
 Chapter 6 (Satellites Of Jupiter) Pg 86 
 How Little Can We Expect To Fathom The Unsoundable Depths Of Their 
 Creation And Development Through Ages Measureless To Man! Yet The 
 Very Difficulty Provokes The Most Ambitious Thought. We Toil At 
 The Problem Because It Has Been Hitherto Unsolvable. Every Error 
 We Make,  And Discover To Be Such,  Helps Toward The Final Solution. 
 Every Earnest Thinker Who Climbs The Shining Worlds As Steps To 
 A Higher Thought Is Trying To Solve The Problem God Has Given Us 
 To Do. 
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 7 (The Nebular Hypothesis.) Pg 87 
 "And The Earth Was Without Form,  And Void; And Darkness Was Upon 
 The Face Of The Deep."--_Genesis_ I. 2. 
   
 [Page 180] 
                                 "A Dark 
     Illimitable Ocean,  Without Bound, 
     Without Dimension,  Where Length,  Breadth,  And Height, 
     And Time,  And Place Are Lost."--Milton. 
   
 "It Is Certain That Matter Is Somehow Directed,  Controlled,  And 
 Arranged; While No Material Forces Or Properties Are Known To Be 
 Capable Of Discharging Such Functions."--Lionel Beale. 
   
 "The Laws Of Nature Do Not Account For Their Own Origin."--John 
 Stuart Mill. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
 [Page 181] 
 Ix. 
   
 _The Nebular Hypothesis._ 
   
 The Method By Which The Solar System Came Into Its Present Form 
 Was Sketched In Vast Outline By Moses. He Gave Us The Fundamental 
 Idea Of What Is Called The Nebular Hypothesis. Swedenborg,  That 
 Prodigal Dreamer Of Vagaries,  In 1734 Threw Out Some Conjectures Of 
 The Way In Which The Outlines Were To Be Filled Up; Buffon Followed 
 Him Closely In 1749; Kant Sought To Give It An Ideal Philosophical 
 Completeness; As He Said,  "Not As The Result Of Observation And 
 Computation," But As Evolved Out Of His Own Consciousness; And 
 Laplace Sought To Settle It On A Mathematical Basis. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 7 (The Nebular Hypothesis.) Pg 88 
   
 It Has Been Modified Greatly By Later Writers,  And Must Receive 
 Still Greater Modifications Before It Can Be Accepted By The Best 
 Scientists Of To-Day. It Has Been Called "The Grandest Generalization 
 Of The Human Mind;" And If It Shall Finally Be So Modified As To Pass 
 From A Tentative Hypothesis To An Accepted Philosophy,  Declaring 
 The Modes Of A Divine Worker Rather Than The Necessities Of Blind 
 Force,  It Will Still Be Worthy Of That High Distinction. 
   
 Let It Be Clearly Noted That It Never Proposes To Do More Than To 
 Trace A Portion Of The Mode Of Working Which Brought The Universe 
 From One Stage To Another. It Only Goes Back To A Definite Point, 
 Never To Absolute Beginning,  Nor To Nothingness. It Takes Matter 
 From [Page 182] The Hand Of The Unseen Power Behind,  And Merely 
 Notes The Progress Of Its Development. It Finds The Clay In The 
 Hands Of An Intelligent Potter,  And Sees It Whirl In The Process Of 
 Formation Into A Vessel. It Is Not In Any Sense Necessarily 
 Atheistic,  Any More Than It Is To Affirm That A Tree Grows By Vital 
 Processes In The Sun And Dew,  Instead Of Being Arbitrarily And 
 Instantly Created. The Conclusion Reached Depends On The Spirit Of 
 The Observer. Newton Could Say,  "This Most Beautiful System Of The 
 Sun,  Planets,  And Comets Could Only Proceed From The Counsel And 
 Dominion Of An Intelligent And Powerful Being!" Still It Is Well To 
 Recognize That Some Of Its Most Ardent Defenders Have Advocated It 
 As Materialistic. And Laplace Said Of It To Napoleon,  "I Have No 
 Need Of The Hypothesis Of A God." 
   
 The Materialistic Statement Of The Theory Is This: That Matter 
 Is At First Assumed To Exist As An Infinite Cloud Of Fire-Mist, 
 Dowered With Power Latent Therein To Grow Of Itself Into Every 
 Possibility Of World,  Flower,  Animal,  Man,  Mind,  And Affection, 
 Without Any Interference Or Help From Without. But It Requires 
 Far More Of The Divine Worker Than Any Other Theory. He Must Fill 
 Matter With Capabilities To Take Care Of Itself,  And This Would 
 Tax The Abilities Of The Infinite One Far More Than A Constant 
 Supervision And Occasional Interference. Instead Of Making The 
 Vase In Perfect Form,  And Coloring It With Exquisite Beauty By 
 An Ever-Present Skill,  He Must Endow The Clay With Power To Make 
 Itself In Perfect Form,  Adorn Itself With Delicate Beauty,  And 
 Create Other Vases. 
   
 The Nebular Hypothesis Is Briefly This: All The Matter Composing 
 All The Bodies Of The Sun,  Planets,  And Satellites Once Existed 
 In An Exceedingly Diffused State; [Page 183] Rarer Than Any Gas With 
 Which We Are Acquainted,  Filling A Space Larger Than The Orbit Of 
 Neptune. Gravitation Gradually Contracted This Matter Into A 
 Condensing Globe Of Immense Extent. Some Parts Would Naturally Be 
 Denser Than Others,  And In The Course Of Contraction A Rotary 
 Motion,  It Is Affirmed,  Would Be Engendered. Rotation Would Flatten 
 The Globe Somewhat In The Line Of Its Axis. Contracting Still More, 
 The Rarer Gases,  Aided By Centrifugal Force,  Would Be Left Behind As 
 A Ring That Would Ultimately Be Separated,  Like Saturn's Ring,  From 
 The Retreating Body. There Would Naturally Be Some Places In This 
 Ring Denser Than Others; These Would Gradually Absorb All The Ring 
 
 
 
 Chapter 7 (The Nebular Hypothesis.) Pg 89 
 Into A Planet,  And Still Revolve About The Central Mass,  And Still 
 Rotate On Its Own Axis,  Throwing Off Rings From Itself. Thus The 
 Planet Neptune Would Be Left Behind In The First Sun-Ring,  To Make 
 Its One Moon; The Planet Uranus Left In The Next Sun-Ring,  To Make 
 Its Four Moons From Four Successive Planet-Rings; Saturn,  With Its 
 Eight Moons And Three Rings Not Made Into Moons,  Is Left In The 
 Third Sun-Ring; And So On Down To Vulcan. 
   
 The Outer Planets Would Cool Off First,  Become Inhabitable,  And, 
 As The Sun Contracted And They Radiated Their Own Heat,  Become 
 Refrigerated And Left Behind By The Retreating Sun. Of Course The 
 Outer Planets Would Move Slowly; But As That Portion Of The Sun 
 Which Gave Them Their Motion Drew In Toward The Centre,  Keeping 
 Its Absolute Speed,  And Revolving In The Lessening Circles Of A 
 Contracting Body,  It Would Give The Faster Motion Necessary To 
 Be Imparted To Earth,  Mercury,  And Vulcan. 
   
 The Four Great Classes Of Facts Confirmatory Of This Hypothesis 
 Are As Follows: 1st. All The Planets Move [Page 184] In The Same 
 Direction,  And Nearly In The Same Plane,  As If Thrown Off From One 
 Equator; 2d. The Motions Of The Satellites About Their Primaries Are 
 Mostly In The Same Direction As That Of Their Primaries About The 
 Sun; 3d. The Rotation Of Most Of These Bodies On Their Axes,  And 
 Also Of The Sun,  Is In The Same Direction As The Motion Of The 
 Planets About The Sun; 4th. The Orbits Of The Planets,  Excluding 
 Asteroids,  And Their Satellites,  Have But A Comparatively Small 
 Eccentricity; 5th. Certain Nebulae Are Observable In The Heavens 
 Which Are Not Yet Condensed Into Solids,  But Are Still Bright Gas. 
   
 The Materialistic Evolutionist Takes Up The Idea Of A Universe Of 
 Material World-Stuff Without Form,  And Void,  But So Endowed As To 
 Develop Itself Into Orderly Worlds,  And Adds To It This Exceeding 
 Advance,  That When Soil,  Sun,  And Chemical Laws Found Themselves 
 Properly Related,  A Force In Matter,  Latent For A Million Eons In 
 The Original Cloud,  Comes Forward,  And Dead Matter Becomes Alive 
 In The Lowest Order Of Vegetable Life; There Takes Place,  As Herbert 
 Spencer Says,  "A Change From An Indefinite,  Incoherent Homogeneity, 
 Into A Definite,  Coherent Heterogeneity,  Through Continuous 
 Differentiation And Integration." The Dead Becomes Alive; Matter 
 Passes From Unconsciousness To Consciousness; Passes Up From Plant 
 To Animal,  From Animal To Man; Takes On Power To Think,  Reason, 
 Love,  And Adore. The Theistic Evolutionist May Think That The Same 
 Process Is Gone Through,  But That An Ever-Present And Working God 
 Superintends,  Guides,  And Occasionally Bestows A New Endowment 
 Of Power That Successively Gives Life,  Consciousness,  Mental, 
 Affectional,  And Spiritual Capacity. 
   
 Is This World-Theory True? And If So,  Is Either Of The [Page 185] 
 Evolution Theories True Also? If The First Evolution Theory Is True, 
 The Evolved Man Will Hardly Know Which To Adore Most,  The Being That 
 Could So Endow Matter,  Or The Matter Capable Of Such Endowment. 
   
 There Are Some Difficulties In The Way Of The Acceptance Of The 
 Nebular Hypothesis That Compel Many Of The Most Thorough Scientists 
 
 
 
 Chapter 7 (The Nebular Hypothesis.) Pg 90 
 Of The Day To Withhold Their Assent To Its Entirety. The Latest,  And 
 One Of The Most Competent Writers On The Subject,  Professor Newcomb, 
 Who Is A Mathematical Astronomer,  And Not An Easy Theorist,  Evolving 
 The System Of The Universe From The Depth Of His Own Consciousness, 
 Says: "Should Any One Be Sceptical As To The Sufficiency Of These 
 Laws To Account For The Present State Of Things,  Science Can Furnish 
 No Evidence Strong Enough To Overthrow His Doubts Until The Sun 
 Shall Be Found To Be Growing Smaller By Actual Measurement,  Or The 
 Nebulae Be Actually Seen To Condense Into Stars And Systems." In 
 One Of The Most Elaborate Defences Of The Theory,  It Is Argued That 
 The Hypothesis Explains Why Only One Of The Four Planets Nearest 
 The Sun Can Have A Moon,  And Why There Can Be No Planet Inside Of 
 Mercury. The Discovery Of The Two Satellites To Mars And Of The 
 Planet Vulcan Makes It All The Worse For These Facts. 
   
 Some Of The Objections To The Theory Should Be Known By Every Thinker. 
 Laplace Must Have The Cloud "Diffused In Consequence Of Excessive 
 Heat," Etc. Helmholtz,  In Order To Account For The Heat Of The 
 Contracting Sun,  Must Have The Cloud Relatively Cold. How He And 
 His Followers Diffused The Cloud Without Heat Is Not Stated. 
   
 The Next Difficulty Is That Of Rotation. The Laws [Page 186] Of 
 Science Compel A Contraction Into One Non-Rotating Body--A Central 
 Sun,  Indeed,  But No Planets About It. Laplace Cleverly Evades The 
 Difficulty By Not Taking From The Hand Of The Creator Diffused Gas, 
 But A Sun With An Atmosphere Filling Space To The Orbit Of Neptune, 
 And _Already In Revolution_. He Says: "It Is Four Millions To One 
 That All Motions Of The Planets,  Rotations And Revolutions,  Were At 
 Once Imparted By An Original Common Cause,  Of Which We Know Neither 
 The Nature Nor The Epoch." Helmholtz Says Of Rotation,  "The 
 Existence Of Which Must Be Assumed." Professor Newcomb Says That The 
 Planets Would Not Be Arranged As Now,  Each One Twice As Far From The 
 Sun As The Next Interior One,  And The Outer Ones Made First,  But 
 That All Would Be Made Into Planets At Once,  And The Small Inner 
 Ones Quite Likely To Cool Off More Rapidly. 
   
 It Is A Very Serious Difficulty That At Least One Satellite Does 
 Not Revolve In The Right Direction. How Neptune Or Uranus Could 
 Throw Their Moons Backward From Its Equator Is Not Easily Accounted 
 For. It Is At Least One Parthian Arrow At The System,  Not Necessarily 
 Fatal,  But Certainly Dangerous. 
   
 A Greater Difficulty Is Presented By The Recently Discovered Satellites 
 Of Mars. The Inner One Goes Round The Planet In One-Third Part Of 
 The Time Of The Latter's Revolution. How Mars Could Impart Three 
 Times The Speed To A Body Flying Off Its Surface That It Has Itself, 
 Has Caused Several Defenders Of The Hypothesis To Rush Forward 
 With Explanations,  But None With Anything More Than Mere Imaginary 
 Collisions With Some Comet. It Is To Be Noticed That Accounting For 
 Three Times The Speed Is Not Enough; For As Mars Shrunk Away From 
 The [Page 187] Ring That Formed That Satellite,  It Ought Itself To 
 Attain More Speed,  As The Sun Revolves Faster Than Its Planets,  And 
 The Earth Faster Than Its Moon. In Defending The Hypothesis,  Mitchel 
 Said: "Suppose We Had Discovered That It Required More Time For 
 
 
 
 Chapter 7 (The Nebular Hypothesis.) Pg 91 
 Saturn Or Jupiter To Rotate On Their Axes Than For Their Nearest 
 Moon To Revolve Round Them In Its Orbit; This Would Have Falsified 
 The Theory." It Is Also Asserted That The Newly Discovered Planet 
 Vulcan Makes An Orbital In Less Time Than The Sun Makes An Axial 
 Revolution. 
   
 In Regard To One Martial Moon,  Professor Kirkwood,  On Whom Proctor 
 Conferred The Highest Title That Could Be Conferred,  "The Modern 
 Kepler," Says: "Unless Some Explanation Can Be Given,  The Short Period 
 Of The Inner Satellite Will Be Doubtless Regarded As A Conclusive 
 Argument Against The Nebular Hypothesis." If Gravitation Be Sufficient 
 To Account For The Various Motions Of The Heavenly Bodies,  We Have 
 A Perplexing Problem In The Star Known As 1830 Groombridge,  Now 
 In The Hunting Dogs Of Bootes. It Is Thought To Have A Speed Of 
 Two Hundred Miles Per Second--A Velocity That All The Known Matter 
 In The Universe Could Not Give To The Star By All Its Combined 
 Attraction. Neither Could All That Attraction Stop The Motion Of 
 The Star,  Or Bend It Into An Orbit. Its Motion Must Be Accounted 
 For On Some Hypothesis Other Than The Nebular. 
   
 The Nebulae Which We Are Able To Observe Are Not Altogether Confirmatory 
 Of The Hypothesis Under Consideration. They Have The Most Fantastic 
 Shapes,  As If They Had No Relation To Rotating Suns In The Formative 
 Stages. There Are Vast Gaps In The Middle,  Where They Ought To Be 
 Densest. Mr. Plumer,  In The _Natural Science Review_,  [Page 188] 
 Says,  In Regard To The Results Of The Spectroscopic Revelations: "We 
 Are Furnished With Distinct Proof That The Gases So Examined Are Not 
 Only Of Nearly Equal Density,  But That They Exist In A Low State Of 
 _Tension. This Fact Is Fatal To The Nebular Theory._" 
   
 In The Autumn Of 1876 A Star Blazed Out In Cygnus,  Which Promised 
 To Throw A Flood Of Light On The Question Of World-Making. Its 
 Spectrum Was Like Some Of The Fixed Stars. It Probably Blazed Ont 
 By Condensation From Some Previously Invisible Nebula. But Its 
 Brilliancy Diminished Swiftly,  When It Ought To Have Taken Millions 
 Of Years To Cool. If The Theory Was True,  It Ought To Have Behaved 
 Very Differently. It Should Have Regularly Condensed From Gas To A 
 Solid Sun By Slow Process. But,  Worst Of All,  After Being A Star 
 Awhile,  It Showed Unmistakable Proofs Of Turning Into A Cloud-Mist--A 
 Star Into A Nebula,  Instead Of _Vice Versa_. A Possible Explanation 
 Will Be Considered Under Variable Stars. 
   
 Such Are A Few Of The Many Difficulties In The Way Of Accepting 
 The Nebular Hypothesis,  As At Present Explained,  As Being The True 
 Mode Of Development Of The Solar System. Doubtless It Has Come 
 From A Hot And Diffused Condition Into Its Present State; But When 
 Such Men As Proctor,  Newcomb,  And Kirkwood See Difficulties That 
 Cannot Be Explained,  Contradictions That Cannot Be Reconciled By 
 The Principles Of This Theory,  Surely Lesser Men Are Obliged To 
 Suspend Judgment,  And Render The Scotch Verdict Of "Not Proven." 
 Whatever Truth There May Be In The Theory Will Survive,  And Be 
 Incorporated Into The Final Solution Of The Problem; Which Solution 
 Will Be A Much Grander Generalization Of The Human Mind Than The 
 Nebular Hypothesis. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 7 (The Nebular Hypothesis.) Pg 92 
   
 [Page 189] 
 Of Some Things We Feel Very Sure: That Matter Was Once Without 
 Form And Void,  And Darkness Rested On The Face Of The Mighty Deeps; 
 That,  Instead Of Chaos,  We Have Now Cosmos And Beauty; And That 
 There Is Some Process By Which Matter Has Been Brought From One 
 State To The Other. Whether,  However,  The Nebular Hypothesis Lays 
 Down The Road Travelled To This Transfiguration,  We Are Not Sure. 
 Some Of It Seems Like Solid Rock,  And Some Like Shifting Quicksand. 
 Doubtless There Is A Road From That Chaos To This Fair Cosmos. 
 The Nebular Hypothesis Has Surveyed,  Worked,  And Perfected Many 
 Long Reaches Of This Road,  But The Rivers Are Not Bridged,  The 
 Chasms Not Filled,  Nor The Mountains Tunnelled. 
   
 When Men Attempt To Roll The Hypothesis Of Evolution Along The 
 Road Of The Nebular Hypothesis Of Worlds,  And Even Beyond To The 
 Production Of Vegetable And Animal Life,  Mind And Affection,  The 
 Gaps In The Road Become Evident,  And Disastrous. 
   
 A Soul That Has Reached An Adoration For The Supreme Father Cares 
 Not How He Has Made Him. Doubtless The Way God Chose Was The Best. 
 It Is As Agreeable To Have Been Thought Of And Provided For In The 
 Beginning,  To Have Had A Myriad Ages Of Care,  And To Have Come 
 From The Highest Existent Life At Last,  As To Have Been Made At 
 Once,  By A Single Act,  Out Of Dust. The One Who Is Made Is Not To 
 Say To The Maker,  "Why Hast Thou Formed Me In This Or That Manner?" 
 We Only Wish The Question Answered In What Manner We Were Really 
 Made. 
   
 Evolution,  Without Constant Superintendence And Occasional New 
 Inspiration Of Power,  Finds Some Tremendous Chasms In The Road 
 It Travels. These Must Be Spanned By The Power Of A Present God 
 Or The Airy Imagination [Page 190] Of Man. Dr. Mccosh Has Happily 
 Enumerated Some Of These Tremendous Gaps Over Which Mere Force 
 Cannot Go. Given,  Then,  Matter With Mechanical Power Only,  What Are 
 The Gaps Between It And Spirituality? 
   
 "1. Chemical Action Cannot Be Produced By Mechanical Power. 
   
 "2. Life,  Even In The Lowest Forms,  Cannot Be Produced From Unorganized 
 Matter. 
   
 "3. Protoplasm Can Be Produced Only By Living Matter. 
   
 "4. Organized Matter Is Made Up Of Cells,  And Can Be Produced Only 
 By Cells. Whence The First Cell? 
   
 "5. A Living Being Can Be Produced Only From A Seed Or Germ. Whence 
 The First Vegetable Seed? 
   
 "6. An Animal Cannot Be Produced From A Plant. Whence The First 
 Animal? 
   
 "7. Sensation Cannot Be Produced In Insentient Matter. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 7 (The Nebular Hypothesis.) Pg 93 
   
 "8. The Genesis Of A New Species Of Plant Or Animal Has Never Come 
 Under The Cognizance Of Man,  Either In Pre-Human Or Post-Human Ages, 
 Either In Pre-Scientific Or Scientific Times. Darwin Acknowledges 
 This,  And Says That,  Should A New Species Suddenly Arise,  We Have 
 No Means Of Knowing That It Is Such. 
   
 "9. Consciousness--That Is,  A Knowledge Of Self And Its 
 Operations--Cannot Be Produced Out Of Mere Matter Or Sensation. 
   
 "10. We Have No Knowledge Of Man Being Generated Out Of The Lower 
 Animals. 
   
 "11. All Human Beings,  Even Savages,  Are Capable Of Forming Certain 
 High Ideas,  Such As Those Of God And Duty. The Brute Creatures 
 Cannot Be Made To Entertain These By Any Training. 
   
 [Page 191] 
 "With Such Tremendous Gaps In The Process,  The Theory Which Would 
 Derive All Things Out Of Matter By Development Is Seen To Be A 
 Very Precarious One. 
   
 The Truth,  According To The Best Judgment To Be Formed In The Present 
 State Of Knowledge,  Would Seem To Be About This: The Nebular Hypothesis 
 Is Correct In All The Main Facts On Which It Is Based; But That Neither 
 The Present Forces Of Matter,  Nor Any Other Forces Conceivable To 
 The Mind Of Man,  With Which It Can Possibly Be Endowed,  Can Account 
 For All The Facts Already Observed. There Is A Demand For A Personal 
 Volition,  For An Exercise Of Intelligence,  For The Following Of A 
 Divine Plan That Embraces A Final Perfection Through Various And 
 Changeful Processes. The Five Great Classes Of Facts That Sustain 
 The Nebular Hypothesis Seem Set Before Us To Show The Regular Order 
 Of Working. The Several Facts That Will Not,  So Far As At Present 
 Known,  Accord With That Plan,  Seem To Be Set Before Us To Declare 
 The Presence Of A Divine Will And Power Working His Good Pleasure 
 According To The Exigencies Of Time And Place. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 8 (The Stellar System) Pg 94 
 "The Heavens Number Out The Glory Of The Strong God."--David. 
   
 [Page 194] 
 Richter Says That "An Angel Once Took A Man And Stripped Him Of 
 His Flesh,  And Lifted Him Up Into Space To Show Him The Glory Of 
 The Universe. When The Flesh Was Taken Away The Man Ceased To Be 
 Cowardly,  And Was Ready To Fly With The Angel Past Galaxy After 
 
 
 
 Chapter 8 (The Stellar System) Pg 95 
 Galaxy,  And Infinity After Infinity,  And So Man And Angel Passed 
 On,  Viewing The Universe,  Until The Sun Was Out Of Sight--Until 
 Our Solar System Appeared As A Speck Of Light Against The Black 
 Empyrean,  And There Was Only Darkness. And They Looked Onward, 
 And In The Infinities Of Light Before,  A Speck Of Light Appeared, 
 And Suddenly They Were In The Midst Of Rushing Worlds. But They 
 Passed Beyond That System,  And Beyond System After System,  And 
 Infinity After Infinity,  Until The Human Heart Sank,  And The Man 
 Cried Out: 'End Is There None Of The Universe Of God?' The Angel 
 Strengthened The Man By Words Of Counsel And Courage,  And They Flew 
 On Again Until Worlds Left Behind Them Were Out Of Sight,  And Specks 
 Of Light In Advance Were Transformed,  As They Approached Them,  Into 
 Rushing Systems; They Moved Over Architraves Of Eternities,  Over 
 Pillars Of Immensities,  Over Architecture Of Galaxies,  Unspeakable In 
 Dimensions And Duration,  And The Human Heart Sank Again And Called 
 Ont: 'End Is There None Of The Universe Of God?' And All The Stars 
 Echoed The Question With Amazement: 'End Is There None Of The Universe 
 Of God?' And This Echo Found No Answer. They Moved On Again Past 
 Immensities Of Immensities,  And Eternities Of Eternities,  Until 
 In The Dizziness Of Uncounted Galaxies The Human Heart Sank For 
 The Last Time,  And Called Out: 'End Is There None Of The Universe 
 Of God?' And Again All The Stars Repeated The Question,  And The 
 Angel Answered: 'End Is There None Of The Universe Of God. Lo, 
 Also,  There Is No Beginning.'" 
   
   
 [Page 195] 
 X. 
   
 _The Open Page Of The Heavens._ 
   
 The Greeks Set Their Mythological Deities In The Skies,  And Read 
 The Revolving Pictures As A Starry Poem. Not That They Were The 
 First To Set The Blazonry Of The Stars As Monuments Of Their Thought; 
 We Read Certain Allusions To Stars And Asterisms As Far Back As 
 The Time Of Job. And The Pleiades,  Arcturus,  And Orion Are Some Of 
 The Names Used By Him Who "Calleth All The Stars By Their Names, 
 In The Greatness Of His Power." Homer And Hesiod,  750 B.C.,  Allude 
 To A Few Stars And Groups. The Arabians Very Early Speak Of The 
 Great Bear; But The Greeks Completely Nationalized The Heavens. 
 They Colonized The Earth Widely,  But The Heavens Completely; And 
 Nightly Over Them Marched The Grand Procession Of Their Apotheosized 
 Divinities. There Hercules Perpetually Wrought His Mighty Labors 
 For The Good Of Man; There Flashed And Faded The Changeful Star 
 Algol,  As An Eye In The Head Of The Snaky-Haired Medusa; Over Them 
 Flew Pegasus,  The Winged Horse Of The Poet,  Careering Among The 
 Stars; There The Ship Argo,  Which Had Explored All Strange Seas 
 Of Earth,  Nightly Sailed In The Infinite Realms Of Heaven; There 
 Perseus Perpetually Killed The Sea-Monster By Celestial Aid,  And 
 Perpetually Won The Chained Andromeda For His Bride. Very Evident 
   
   
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 8 (The Stellar System) Pg 96 
 Was Their Recognition Of Divine Help: Equally Evident Was [Page 196] 
 Their Assertion Of Human Ability And Dominion. They Gathered The 
 Illimitable Stars,  And Put Uncountable Suns Into The Shape Of The 
 Great Bear--The Most Colossal Form Of Animal Ferocity And 
 Strength--Across Whose Broad Forehead Imagination Grows Weary In 
 Flying; But They Did Not Fail To Put Behind Him A Representative Of 
 Themselves,  Who Forever Drives Him Around A Sky That Never Sets--A 
 Perpetual Type That Man's Ambition And Expectation Correspond To 
 That Which Has Always Been Revealed As The Divine. 
   
 The Heavens Signify Much Higher Power And Wisdom To Us; We Retain The 
 Old Pictures And Groupings For The Convenience Of Finding Individual 
 Stars. It Is Enough For The Astronomer That We Speak Of A Star As 
 Situated Right Ascension 13' 45",  Declination 88 Deg. 40'. But For 
 Most People,  If Not All,  It Is Better To Call It Polaris. So We 
 Might Speak Of A Lake In Latitude 42 Deg. 40',  Longitude 79 Deg. 22',  But 
 It Would Be Clearer To Most Persons To Say Chatauqua. For Exact 
 Location Of A Star,  Right Ascension And Declination Must Be Given; 
 But For General Indication Its Name Or Place In A Constellation 
 Is Sufficiently Exact. The Heaven Is Rather Indeterminably Laid 
 Out In Irregular Tracts,  And The Mythological Names Are Preserved. 
 The Brightest Stars Are Then Indicated In Order By The Letters Of 
 The Greek Alphabet--Alpha (A),  Beta (B),  Gamma (G),  Etc. After 
 These Are Exhausted,  The Roman Alphabet Is Used In The Same Manner, 
 And Then Numbers Are Resorted To; So That The Famous Star 61 Cygni 
 Is The 111th Star In Brightness In That One Constellation. An 
 Acquaintance With The Names,  Peculiarities,  And Movements Of The 
 Stars Visible At Different Seasons Of The Year Is An Unceasing 
 Source Of Pleasure. It [Page 197] Is Not Vision Alone That Is 
 Gratified,  For One Fine Enough May Hear The Morning Stars Sing 
 Together,  And Understand The Speech That Day Uttereth Unto Day,  And 
 The Knowledge That Night Showeth Unto Night. One Never Can Be Alone 
 If He Is Familiarly Acquainted With The Stars. He Rises Early In The 
 Summer Morning,  That He May See His Winter Friends; In Winter,  That 
 He May Gladden Himself With A Sight Of The Summer Stars. He Hails 
 Their Successive Rising As He Does The Coming Of His Personal 
 Friends From Beyond The Sea. On The Wide Ocean He Is Commercing With 
 The Skies,  His Rapt Soul Sitting In His Eyes. Under The Clear Skies 
 Of The East He Hears God's Voice Speaking To Him,  As To Abraham,  And 
 Saying,  "Look Now Toward The Heavens,  And Tell The Number Of The 
 Stars,  If Thou Be Able To Number Them." 
   
 A General Acquaintance With The Stars Will Be First Attempted; 
 A More Particular Knowledge Afterward. Fig. 67 (Page 201) Is A 
 Map Of The Circumpolar Region,  Which Is In Full View Every Clear 
 Night. It Revolves Daily Round Polaris,  Its Central Point. Toward 
 This Star,  The Two End Stars Of The Great Dipper Ever Point,  And 
 Are In Consequence Called "The Pointers." The Map May Be Held Toward 
 The Northern Sky In Such A Position As The Stars May Happen To Be. 
 The Great Bear,  Or Dipper,  Will Be Seen At Nine O'clock In The 
 Evening Above The Pole In April And May; West Of The Pole,  The 
 Pointers Downward,  In July And August; Close To The North Horizon 
 In October And November; And East Of The Pole The Pointers Highest, 
 
 
 
 Chapter 8 (The Stellar System) Pg 97 
 In January And February. The Names Of Such Constantly Visible Stars 
 Should Be Familiar. In Order,  From The End Of The Tail Of The Great 
 Bear,  We Have Benetnasch Ae,  Mizar Z,  Little Alcor Close To It, 
 [Page 198] Alioth,  E Megrez,  D At The Junction,  Has Been Growing 
 Dimmer For A Century,  Phad,  G Dubhe And Merak. It Is Best To Get 
 Some Facility At Estimating Distances In Degrees. Dubhe And Merak, 
 "The Pointers," Are Five Degrees Apart. Eighteen Degrees Forward Of 
 Dubhe Is The Bear's Nose; And Three Pairs Of Stars,  Fifteen Degrees 
 Apart,  Show The Position Of The Bear's Three Feet. Follow "The 
 Pointers" Twenty-Nine Degrees From Dubhe,  And We Come To The 
 Pole-Star. This Star Is Double,  Made Of Two Suns,  Both Appearing As 
 One To The Naked Eye. It Is A Test Of An Excellent Three-Inch 
 Telescope To Resolve It Into Two. Three Stars Beside It Make The 
 Curved-Up Handle Of The Little Dipper Of Ursa Minor. Between The Two 
 Bears,  Thirteen Degrees From Megrez,  And Eleven Degrees From Mizar, 
 Are Two Stars In The Tail Of The Dragon,  Which Curves About To 
 Appropriate All The Stars Not Otherwise Assigned. Follow A Curve Of 
 Fifteen Stars,  Doubling Back To A Quadrangle From Five To Three 
 Degrees On A Side,  And Thirty-Five Degrees From The Pole,  For His 
 Head. His Tongue Runs Out To A Star Four Degrees In Front. We Shall 
 Find,  Hereafter,  That The Foot Of Hercules Stands On This Head. This 
 Is The Dragon Slain By Cadmus,  And Whose Teeth Produced Such A Crop 
 Of Sanguinary Men. 
   
 The Star Thuban Was Once The Pole-Star. In The Year B.C. 2300 It 
 Was Ten Times Nearer The Pole Than Polaris Is Now. In The Year 
 A.D. 2100 The Pole Will Be Within 30' Of Polaris; In A.D. 7500, 
 It Will Be At A Of Cepheus; In A.D. 13,500,  Within 7 Deg. Of Vega; In 
 A.D. 15,700,  At The Star In The Tongue Of Draco; In A.D. 23,000, 
 At Thuban; In A.D. 28,000,  Back To Polaris. This Indicates No Change 
 In The Position Of The Dome [Page 199] Of Stars,  But A Change In The 
 Direction Of The Axis Of The Earth Pointing To These Various Places 
 As The Cycles Pass. As The Earth Goes Round Its Orbit,  The Axis, 
 Maintaining Nearly The Same Direction,  Really Points To Every Part 
 Of A Circle Near The North Star As Large As The Earth's Orbit,  That 
 Is,  185,000,000 Miles In Diameter. But,  As Already Shown,  That 
 Circle Is Too Small To Be Discernible At Our Distance. The Wide 
 Circle Of The Pole Through The Ages Is Really Made Up Of The 
 Interlaced Curves Of The Annual Curves Continued Through 25,870 
 Years. The Stem Of The Spinning Top Wavers,  Describes A Circle,  And 
 Finally Falls; The Axis Of The Spinning Earth Wavers,  Describes A 
 Circle Of Nearly 28,000 Years,  And Never Falls. 
   
 The Star G Draconis,  Also Called Etanin,  Is Famous In Modern Astronomy, 
 Because Observations On This Star Led To The Discovery Of The 
 _Aberration Of Light_. If We Held A Glass Tube Perpendicularly Out 
 Of The Window Of A Car At Rest,  When The Rain Was Falling Straight 
 Down,  We Could See The Drops Pass Directly Through. Put The Car 
 In Motion,  And The Drops Would Seem To Start Toward Us,  And The 
 Top Of The Tube Must Be Bent Forward,  Or The Drops Entering Would 
 Strike On The Backside Of The Tube Carried Toward Them. So Our 
 Telescopes Are Bent Forward On The Moving Earth,  To Enable The 
 Entered Light To Reach The Eye-Piece. Hence The Star Does Not Appear 
 Just Where It Is. As The Earth Moves Faster In Some Parts Of Its 
 
 
 
 Chapter 8 (The Stellar System) Pg 98 
 Orbit Than Others,  This Aberration Is Sometimes Greater Than At 
 Others. It Is Fortunate That Light Moves With A Uniform Velocity, 
 Or This Difficult,  Problem Would Be Still Further Complicated. 
 The Displacement Of A Star From This Course Is About 20".43. 
   
 [Page 200] 
 On The Side Of Polaris,  Opposite To Ursa Major,  Is King Cepheus, 
 Made Of A Few Dim Stars In The Form Of The Letter K. Near By Is 
 His Brilliant Wife Cassiopeia,  Sitting On Her Throne Of State. 
 They Were The Graceless Parents Who Chained Their Daughter To A 
 Rock For The Sea-Monster To Devour; But Perseus,  Swift With The 
 Winged Sandals Of Mercury,  Terrible With His Avenging Sword,  And 
 Invincible With The Severed Head Of Medusa,  Whose Horrid Aspect Of 
 Snaky Hair And Scaly Body Turned To Stone Every Beholder,  Rescues 
 The Maiden From Chains,  And Leads Her Away By The Bands Of Love. 
 Nothing Could Be More Poetical Than The Life Of Perseus. When He 
 Went To Destroy The Dreadful Gorgon,  Medusa,  Pluto Lent Him His 
 Helmet,  Which Would Make Him Invisible At Will; Minerva Loaned 
 Her Buckler,  Impenetrable,  And Polished Like A Mirror; Mercury 
 Gave Him A Dagger Of Diamonds,  And His Winged Sandals,  Which Would 
 Carry Him Through The Air. Coming To The Loathsome Thing,  He Would 
 Not Look Upon Her,  Lest He,  Too,  Be Turned To Stone; But,  Guided 
 By The Reflection In The Buckler,  Smote Off Her Head,  Carried It 
 High Over Libya,  The Dropping Blood Turning To Serpents,  Which 
 Have Infested Those Deserts Ever Since. 
   
   
 The Human Mind Has Always Been Ready To Deify And Throne In The 
 Skies The Heroes That Labor For Others. Both Perseus And Hercules 
 Are Divine By One Parent,  And Human By The Other. They Go Up And 
 Down The Earth,  Giving Deliverance To Captives,  And Breaking Every 
 Yoke. They Also Seek To Purge Away All Evil; They Slay Dragons, 
 Gorgons,  Devouring Monsters,  Cleanse The Foul Places Of Earth, 
 And One Of Them So Wrestles With Death As To Win A Victim From His 
 Grasp. Finally,  By [Page 201] An Ascension In Light,  They Go Up To 
 Be In Light Forever. They Are Not Ideally Perfect. They Right Wrong 
 By Slaying Wrong-Doers,  Rather Than By Being Crucified Themselves; 
 They Are Just Murderers; But That Only Plucks The Fruit From The 
 Tree Of Evil. They Never Attempted To Infuse A Holy Life. They 
 Punished Rather Than Regenerated. It Must Be Confessed,  Also,  That 
 They Were Not Sinless. But They Were The Best Saviors The Race Could 
 Imagine,  And Are Examples Of That Perpetual Effort Of The Human Mind 
 To Incarnate A Divine Helper Who Shall Labor And Die For The Good Of 
 Men. 
   
 [Page 202] 
   
 _Equatorial Constellations._ 
   
 If We Turn Our Backs On Polaris On The 10th Of November,  At 10 
 O'clock In The Evening,  And Look Directly Overhead,  We Shall See 
 The Beautiful Constellation Of Andromeda. Together With The Square 
 Of Pegasus,  It Makes Another Enormous Dipper. The Star A Alpheratz 
 Is In Her Face,  The Three At The Left Cross Her Breast. B And The 
 
 
 
 Chapter 8 (The Stellar System) Pg 99 
 Two Above Mark The Girdle Of Her Loins,  And G Is In The Foot. Perseus 
 Is Near Enough For Help; And Cetus,  The Sea-Monster,  Is Far Enough 
 Away To Do No Harm. Below,  And East Of Andromeda,  Is The Ram Of 
 The Golden Fleece,  Recognizable By The Three Stars In An Acute 
 Triangle. The Brightest Is Called Arietis,  Or Hamel. East Of This 
 Are The Pleiades,  And The V-Shaped Hyades In Taurus,  Or The Bull. 
 The Pleiades Rise About 9 O'clock On The Evening Of The 10th Of 
 September,  And At 3 O'clock A.M. On June 10th. 
   
 [Page 203] 
   
 Fig. 69 Extends East And South Of Our Last Map. It Is The Most 
 Gorgeous Section Of Our Heavens. (See The Notes To The Frontispiece.) 
 Note The Triangle,  26 Deg. On A Side,  Made By Betelguese,  Sirius,  And 
 Procyon. A Line From Procyon To Pollux Leads Quite Near To Polaris. 
 Orion Is The Mighty Hunter. Under His Feet Is A Hare,  Behind Him 
 Are Two Dogs,  And Before Him Is The Rushing Bull. The Curve Of 
 Stars To The Right Of Bellatrix,  G,  Represents His Shield Of The 
 Nemean Lion's Hide. The Three Stars Of His Belt Make A Measure 
 3 Deg. Long; The Upper One,  Mintaker,  Is Less Than 30' South Of The 
 Equinoctial. The Ecliptic Passes Between Aldebaran And The Pleiades. 
 Sirius Rises About 9 O'clock P.M. On The 1st Of December,  And About 
 4 O'clock A.M. On The 16th Of August. Procyon Rises About Half An 
 Hour Earlier. 
   
 [Page 204] 
   
 Fig. 70 Continues Eastward. Note The Sickle In The Head And Neck 
 Of The Lion. The Star B Is Denebola,  In His Tail. Arcturus Appears 
 By The Word Bootes,  At The Edge Of The Map. These Two Stars Make 
 A Triangle With Spica,  About 35 Deg. On A Side. The Geometric Head Of 
 Hydra Is Easily Discernible East Of Procyon: The Star G In The 
 Virgin Is Double,  With A Period Of 145 Years. Z Is Just Above The 
 Equinoctial. There Is A Fine Nebula Two-Thirds Of The Way From D To 
 Ae,  And A Little Above The Line Connecting The Two. Coma Berenices 
 Is A Beautiful Cluster Of Faint Stars. Spica Rises At 9 O'clock On 
 The 10th Of February,  At 5 O'clock A.M. On The 6th Of November. 
   
 [Page 205] 
   
 Fig. 71 Represents The Sky To The Eastward And Northward Of The 
 Last. A Line Drawn From Polaris And Benetnasch Comes East Of Arcturus 
 To The Little Triangle Called His Sons. Bootes Drives The Great 
 Bear Round The Pole. Arcturus And Denebola Make A Triangle With 
 A,  Also Called Cor Coroli,  In The Hunting Dogs. This Triangle,  And 
 The One Having The Same Base,  With Spica For Its Apex,  Is Called 
 The "Diamond Of The Virgin." Hercules Appears Head Down--A In The 
 Face,  B,  G,  D; In His Shoulders,  P; And Ae; In The Loins,  T In The 
 Knee,  The Foot Being Bent To The Stars At The Right. The Serpent's 
 Head,  Making An X,  Is Just At The Right Of The G Of Hercules,  And 
 The Partial Circle Of The Northern Crown Above. The Head Of Draco 
 Is Seen At B On The Left Of The Map. Arcturus Rises At 9 O'clock 
 About The 20th Of February,  And At 5 A.M. On The 22d Of October; 
 Regulus 3h. 35m. Earlier. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 8 (The Stellar System) Pg 100 
   
 [Page 206] 
   
 Fig. 72 Portrays The Stars Eastward And Southward. Scorpio Is One 
 Of The Most Brilliant And Easily Traced Constellations. Antares,  A, 
 In The Heart,  Is Double. In Sagittarius Is The Little Milk-Dipper, 
 And West Of It The Bended Bow. Vega Is At The Top Of The Map. Near 
 It Observe Z,  A Double,  And E,  A Quadruple Star. The Point To Which 
 The Solar System Is Tending Is Marked By The Sign Of The Earth 
 Below P; Herculis. The Serpent,  West Of Hercules,  And Coiled Round 
 Nearly To Aquila,  Is Very Traceable. In The Right-Hand Lower Corner 
 Is The Centaur. Below,  And Always Out Of Our Sight,  Is The Famous 
 A Centauri. The Diamond Form Of The Dolphin Is Sometimes Called 
 "Job's Coffin." The Ecliptic Passes Close [Page 207] To B Of 
 Scorpio,  Which Star Is In The Head. Antares,  In Scorpio,  Rises At 9 
 O'clock P.M. On May 9th,  And At 5 O'clock A.M. On January 5th. 
   
   
 In Fig. 73 We Recognize The Familiar Stars Of Pegasus,  Which Tell 
 Us We Have Gone Quite Round The Heavens. Note The Beautiful Cross 
 In The Swan. B In The Bill Is Named Albireo,  And Is A Beautiful 
 Double To Almost Any Glass. Its Yellow And Blue Colors Are Very 
 Distinct. The Place Of The Famous Double Star 61 Cygni Is Seen. The 
 First Magnitude Star In The Lower Left-Hand Corner Is Fomalhaut,  In 
 The Southern Fish. A Pegasi Is In The Diagonal Corner From Alpharetz, 
 In Andromeda. The Star Below Altair Is B Aquilae,  And Is Called 
 Alschain; The One Above Is G Aquilae,  Named Tarazed. This Is Not 
 A Brilliant Section Of The Sky. Altair Rises At 9 O'clock On The 
 29th Of May,  And At 6 O'clock A.M. On The 11th Of January. 
   
 Fig. 74 Gives The Stars That Are Never Seen By Persons North Of 
 The Earth's Equator. In The Ship Is Brilliant Canopus,  And The 
 Remarkable Variable Ae. Below It Is The Beautiful Southern Cross, 
 Near The Pole Of The Southern Heavens. Just Below Are The Two First 
 Magnitude Stars Bungala,  A,  And Achernar,  B,  Of The Centaur. Such 
 A Number Of Unusually Brilliant Stars Give The Southern Sky An 
 Unequalled Splendor. In The Midst Of Them,  As If For Contrast, 
 Is The Dark Hole,  Called By The Sailors The "Coal-Sack," Where 
 Even The Telescope Reveals No Sign Of Light. Here,  Also,  Are The 
 Two Magellanic Clouds,  Both Easily Discernible By The Naked Eye; 
 The Larger Two Hundred Times The Apparent Size Of The Moon,  Lying 
 Between The Pole And Canopus,  And The Other Between Achernar And 
 The Pole. The Smaller Cloud Is Only One-Fourth The Size Of The 
 Other. Both Are Mostly Resolvable Into Groups Of Stars From The 
 Fifth To The Fifteenth Magnitude. 
   
 [Page 209] 
 For Easy Out-Door Finding Of The Stars Above The Horizon At Any 
 Time,  See Star-Maps At End Of The Book. 
   
 _Characteristics Of The Stars._ 
   
 Such A Superficial Examination Of Stars As We Have Made Scarcely 
 Touches The Subject. It Is As The Study Of The Baptismal Register, 
 
 
 
 Chapter 8 (The Stellar System) Pg 101 
 Where The Names Were Anciently Recorded,  Without Any Knowledge 
 Of Individuals. The Heavens Signify Much More To Us Than To The 
 Greeks. We Revolve Under A Dome That Investigation Has Infinitely 
 Enlarged From Their Estimate. Their Little Lights Were Turned By 
 Clumsy Machinery,  Held Together By Material Connections. Our Vast 
 Worlds Are Connected By A Force So Fine That It Seems To Pass Out 
 Of The Realm Of The Material Into That Of The Spiritual. Animal 
 Ferocity Or A Human Hercules Could Image Their Idea Of Power. Ours 
 Finds No Symbol,  But Rises To The Almighty. Their Heavens Were Full 
 Of Fighting Orions,  Wild Bulls,  Chained Andromedas,  And Devouring 
 Monsters. Our Heavens Are Significant Of Harmony And Unity; All 
 Worlds Carried By One Force,  And All Harmonized Into Perfect Music. 
 All Their Voices Blend Their Various Significations Into A Personal 
 Speaking,  Which Says,  "Hast Thou Not Heard That The Everlasting 
 God,  The Lord,  The Creator Of The Ends Of The Earth,  Fainteth Not, 
 Neither Is Weary?" There Is No Searching Of His Understanding. 
 Lift Up Your Eyes On High,  And Behold Who Hath Created All These 
 Things,  That Brought Out Their Host By Number,  That Calleth Them 
 All By Their Names In The Greatness Of His Power; For That He Is 
 Strong In Power Not One Faileth. 
   
 [Page 210] 
 _Number._ 
   
 We Find About Five Thousand Stars Visible To The Naked Eye In The 
 Whole Heavens,  Both North And South. Of These Twenty Are Of The 
 First Magnitude,  Sixty-Five Of The Second,  Two Hundred Of The Third, 
 Four Hundred Of The Fourth,  Eleven Hundred Of The Fifth,  And Three 
 Thousand Two Hundred Of The Sixth. We Think We Can Easily Number 
 The Stars; But Train A Six-Inch Telescope On A Little Section Of The 
 Twins,  Where Six Faint Stars Are Visible,  And Over Three Thousand 
 Luminous Points Appear. The Seventh Magnitude Has 13,000 Stars; 
 The Eighth,  40,000; The Ninth,  142,000. There Are 18,000,000 Stars 
 In The Zone Called The Milky Way. When Our Eyes Are Not Sensitive 
 Enough To Be Affected By The Light Of Far-Off Stars The Tastimetre 
 Feels Their Heat,  And Tells Us The Word Of Their Maker Is True--"They 
 Are Innumerable."[*] 
   
 [Footnote *: _Telescopic Work._--Look At The Hyades And Pleiades 
 In Taurus. Notice The Different Colors Of Stars In Them Both. Find 
 The Cluster Praesepe In Fig. 70,  Just A Trifle Above A Point Midway 
 Between Procyon And Regulus. It Is Equally Distant From Procyon And 
 A Point A Little Below Pollux. Sweep Along The Milky Way Almost 
 Anywhere,  And Observe The Distribution Of Stars; In Some Places 
 Perfect Crowds,  In Others More Sparsely Scattered. Find With The 
 Naked Eye The Rich Cluster In Perseus. Draw A Line From Algol To 
 A Of Perseus (Fig. 67); Turn At Right Angles To The Right,  At A 
 Distance Of Once And Four-Tenths The First Line A Brightness Will 
 Be Seen. The Telescope Reveals A Gorgeous Cluster.] 
   
 _Double And Multiple Stars._ 
   
 If We Look Up During The Summer Months Nearly Overhead At The Star 
 E Lyra,  East Of Vega (Fig. 72),  We Shall See With The Naked Eye 
 
 
 
 Chapter 8 (The Stellar System) Pg 102 
 That The Star Appears A Little [Page 211] Elongated. Turn Your 
 Opera-Glass Upon It,  And Two Stars Appear. Turn A Larger Telescope 
 On This Double Star,  And Each Of The Components Separate Into Two. 
 It Is A Double Double Star. We Know That If Two Stars Are Near In 
 Reality,  And Not Simply Apparently So By Being In The Same Line Of 
 Sight,  They Must Revolve Around A Common Centre Of Gravity,  Or Rush 
 To A Common Ruin. Eagerly We Watch To See If They Revolve. A Few 
 Years Suffice To Show Them In Actual Revolution. Nay,  The Movement 
 Of Revolution Has Been Decided Before The Companion Star Was 
 Discovered. Sirius Has Long Been Known To Have A Proper Motion,  Such 
 As It Would Have If Another Sun Were Revolving About It. Even The 
 Direction Of The Unseen Body Could Always Be Indicated. In February, 
 1862,  Alvan Clark,  Artist,  Poet,  And Maker Of Telescopes (Which 
 Requires Even Greater Genius Than To Be Both Poet And Artist), 
 Discovered The Companion Of Sirius Just In Its Predicted Place. As A 
 Matter Of Fact,  One Of Mr. Clark's Sons Saw It First; But Their Fame 
 Is One. The Time Of Revolution Of This Pair Is Fifty Years. But One 
 Companion Does Not Meet The Conditions Of The Movements. Here Must 
 Also Be One Or More Planets Too Small Or Dark To Be Seen. The Double 
 Star X In The Great Bear (See Fig. 70) Makes A Revolution In 
 Fifty-Eight Years. 
   
 Procyon Moves In An Orbit Which Requires The Presence Of A Companion 
 Star,  But It Has As Yet Eluded Our Search. Castor Is A Double Star; 
 But A Third Star Or Planet,  As Yet Undiscovered,  Is Required To 
 Account For Its Perturbations. Men Who Discovered Neptune By The 
 Perturbations Of Uranus Are Capable Of Judging The Cause Of The 
 Perturbations Of Suns. We Have Spoken Of [Page 212] The Whole Orbit 
 Of The Earth Being Invisible From The Stars. The Nearest Star In Our 
 Northern Hemisphere,  61 Cygni,  Is A Telescopic Double Star; The 
 Constituent Parts Of It Are Forty-Five Times As Far From Each Other 
 As The Earth Is From The Sun,  Yet It Takes A Large Telescope To Show 
 Any Distance Between The Stars.[*] 
   
 [Footnote *: _Telescopic Work._--Only Such Work Will Be Laid Out 
 Here As Can Be Done By Small Telescopes Of From Two To Four Inch 
 Object-Glasses. The Numbers In Fig. 75 Correspond To Those Of The 
 Table. 
   
  -------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 |   |            |             |Dist. Of|Magni-|                     | 
 |No.|     Name.  |     Fig.    | Parts. |Tudes.|       Remarks.      | 
 |---|------------|-------------|--------|------|---------------------| 
 | 1.| E Lyrae     |      72     | 1' 56" |      |Quadruple.           | 
 | 2.| Z Lyrae     |      72     |    44  |5 & 6 |Topaz And Green.     | 
 | 3.| B Cygni    |      73     |  34-1/2|3 & 6 |Yellow And Blue.     | 
 | 4.| 61 Cygni   |      73     |    20  |5 & 6 |Nearest Star But One.| 
 | 5.| Mizar      |      67     |    14  |3 & 4 |Both White.          | 
 | 6.| Polaris    |      67     |  18-1/2|2 & 9 |Test Object Of Eye   | 
 |   |            |             |        |      | And Glass.          | 
 | 7.| R Orionis  |Frontispiece.|     7  |5 & 8 |Yellow And Blue.     | 
 | 8.| B Orionis  |      "      |     9  |1 & 8 | Rigel.              | 
 | 9.| D    "     |      "      |    10  |2 & 8 | Red And White.      | 
 |10.| Th   "     |      "      |        |      |Septuple.            | 
 
 
 
 Chapter 8 (The Stellar System) Pg 103 
 |11.| L    "     |      "      |     5  |      |White And Violet.    | 
 |12.| S    "     |      " A,  B.|    11  |4 & 10|Octuple.             | 
 |13.| Castor     |      69     |   5-1/2|2 & 3 |White.               | 
 |14.| Pollux     |      69     |        |Triple|Orange,  Gray,  Lilac. | 
 |15.| G Virginis |      70     |     5  |3 & 3 |Both Yellow.         | 
  -------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 ] 
   
 When G Virginis Was Observed In 1718 By Bradley,  The Component 
 Parts Were 7" Asunder. He Incidentally Remarked In His Note-Book 
 That The Line Of Their Connection Was Parallel To The Line Of The 
 Two Stars Spica,  Or A And D Virginis. By 1840 They Were Not More 
 Than 1" Apart,  And The Line Of Their Connection Greatly Changed. 
 The Appearance Of The Star Is Given In Fig. 75 (15),  Commencing 
 At The Left,  For The Years 1837 '38 '39 '40 '45 '50 '60 And '79. 
 Also A Conjectural [Page 213] Orbit,  Placed Obliquely,  And The 
 Position Of The Stars At The Times Mentioned,  Commencing At The Top. 
 The Time Of Its Complete Revolution Is One Hundred And Fifty Years. 
   
   
 The Meaning Of These Double Stars Is That Two Or More Suns Revolve 
 About Their Centre Of Gravity,  As The Moon And Earth About Their 
 Centre. If They Have Planets,  As Doubtless They Have,  The Movement 
 Is No More Complicated Than The Planets We Call Satellites Of Saturn 
 Revolving About Their Central Body,  And Also About The Sun. Kindle 
 Saturn And Jupiter To A Blaze,  Or Let Out Their Possible Light,  And 
 Our System Would Appear A Triple Star In The Distance. Doubtless, 
 In The Far Past,  Before These Giant Planets Were Cooled,  It So 
 Appeared. 
   
 We Find Some Stars Double,  Others Triple,  Quadruple,  Octuple,  And 
 Multiple. It Is An Extension Of The Same Principles That Govern 
 Our System. Some Of These Suns Are So Far Asunder That They Can 
 Swing Their Neptunes Between Them,  With Less Perturbation Than 
 Uranus And Neptune Have In Ours. Light All Our Planets,  And There 
 Would Be A Multiple Star With More Or Less Suns Seen, 
 [Page 214] 
 According To The Power Of The Instrument. Perhaps The Octuple Star 
 S In Orion Differs In No Respect From Our System,  Except In The 
 Size And Distance Of Its Separate Bodies,  And Less Cooling,  Either 
 From Being Younger,  Or From The Larger Bodies Cooling More Slowly. 
 Suns Are Of All Ages. Infinite Variety Fills The Sky. It Is As 
 Preposterous To Expect That Every System Or World Should Have Analogous 
 Circumstances To Ours At The Present Time,  As To Insist That Every 
 Member Of A Family Should Be Of The Same Age,  And In The Same State 
 Of Development. There Are Worlds That Have Not Yet Reached The 
 Conditions Of Habitability By Men,  And Worlds That Have Passed 
 These Conditions Long Since. Let Them Go. There Are Enough Left, 
 And An Infinite Number In The Course Of Preparation. Some Are Fine 
 And Lasting Enough To Be Eternal Mansions. 
   
 _Colored Stars._ 
   
 In The Cloudy Morning We Get Only Red Light,  But The Sun Is White. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 8 (The Stellar System) Pg 104 
 So Aldebaran And Betelguese May Be Girt By Vapors,  That Only The 
 Strong Red Rays Can Pass. Again,  An Iron Moderately Heated Gives 
 Out Dull Red Light; Becoming Hotter,  It Emits White Light. Sirius, 
 Regulus,  Vega,  And Spica May Be White From Greater Intensity Of 
 Vibration. Procyon,  Capella,  And Polaris Are Yellow From Less Intensity 
 Of Vibration. Again,  Burn Salt In A White Flame,  And It Turns To 
 Yellow; Mix Alcohol And Boracic Acid,  Ignite Them,  And A Beautiful 
 Green Flame Results; Alcohol And Nitrate Of Strontia Give Red Flame; 
 Alcohol And Nitrate Of Barytes Give Yellow Flame. So The Composition 
 Of A Sun,  Or The Special Development Of Anyone Substance Thereof 
 At Any Time,  May Determine The Color Of A Star. 
   
 [Page 215] 
 The Special Glory Of Color In The Stars Is Seen In The Marked Contrasts 
 Presented In The Double And Multiple Stars. The Larger Star Is 
 Usually White,  Still In The Intensity Of Heat And Vibration; The 
 Others,  Smaller,  Are Somewhat Cooled Off,  And Hence Present Colors 
 Lower Down The Scale Of Vibration,  As Green,  Yellow,  Orange,  And 
 Even Red. 
   
 That Stars Should Change Color Is Most Natural. Many Causes Would 
 Produce This Effect. The Ancients Said Sirius Was Red. It Is Now 
 White. The Change That Would Most Naturally Follow Mere Age And 
 Cooling Would Be From White,  Through Various Colors,  To Red. We Are 
 Charmed With The Variegated Flowers Of Our Gardens Of Earth,  But 
 He Who Makes The Fields Blush With Flowers Under The Warm Kisses Of 
 The Sun Has Planted His Wider Gardens Of Space With Colored Stars. 
 "The Rainbow Flowers Of The Footstool,  And The Starry Flowers Of 
 The Throne," Proclaim One Being As The Author Of Them All. 
   
 _Clusters Of Stars._ 
   
 From Double And Multiple We Naturally Come To Groups And Clusters. 
 Allusion Has Been Made To The Hyades,  Pleiades,  Etc. Everyone Has 
 Noticed The Milky Way. It Seems Like Two Irregular Streams Of Compacted 
 Stars. It Is Not Supposed That They Are Necessarily Nearer Together 
 Than The Stars In The Sparse Regions About The Pole. But The 18,000,000 
 Suns Belonging To Our System Are Arranged Within A Space Represented 
 By A Flattened Disk. If One Hundred Lights,  Three Inches Apart, 
 Are Arranged On A Hoop Ten Feet In Diameter,  They Would Be In A 
 Circle. Add A Thousand Or Two More The Same Distance Apart,  Filling 
 Up The Centre,  And [Page 216] Extending A Few Inches On Each Side Of 
 The Inner Plane Of The Hoop: An Eye In The Centre,  Looking Out 
 Toward The Edge,  Would See A Milky Way Of Lights; Looking Out Toward 
 The Sides Or Poles,  Would See Comparatively Few. It Would Seem As If 
 This Oblate Spheroidal Arrangement Was The Result Of A Revolution Of 
 All The Suns Composing The System. Jupiter And Earth Are Flattened 
 At The Poles For The Same Reason. 
   
   
   
 In Various Parts Of The Heavens There Are Small Globular Well-Defined 
 Clusters,  And Clusters Very Irregular In Form,  Marked With Sprays 
 Of Stars. There Is A Cluster Of This Latter Class In Hercules, 
 
 
 
 Chapter 8 (The Stellar System) Pg 105 
 Just Under The S,  In Fig. 72. "Probably No One Ever Saw It With A 
 Good Telescope Without A Shout Of Wonder." Here Is A Cluster Of The 
 Former Class Represented In Fig. 77. "The Noble Globular Cluster, 
 O Centauri Is Beyond All Comparison The Richest And Largest Object 
 Of The Kind In The Heavens. Its Stars Are Literally Innumerable; 
 And As Their Total Light,  When Received By The Naked Eye,  Affects 
 It Hardly More Than A Star Of The Fifth To Fourth 
 [Page 217] 
 Magnitude,  The Minuteness Of Each Star May Be Imagined." 
   
 There Are Two Possibilities Of Thought Concerning These Clusters. 
 Either That They Belong To Our Stellar System,  And Hence The Stars 
 Must Be Small And Young,  Or They Are Another Universe Of Millions 
 Of Suns,  So Far Way That The Inconceivable Distances Between The 
 Stars Are Shrunken To A Hand's-Breadth,  And Their Unbearable Splendor 
 Of Innumerable Suns Can Only Make A Gray Haze At The Distance At 
 Which We Behold Them. The Latter Is The Older And Grander Thought; 
 The Former The Newer And Better Substantiated. 
   
 _Nebulae._ 
   
 The Gorgeous Clusters We Have Been Considering Appear To The Eye 
 Or The Small Telescope As Little Cloudlets Of Hazy Light. One After 
 Another Were Resolved Into Stars; And The Natural Conclusion Was, 
 That All Would Yield And Reveal Themselves To Be Clustered Suns, 
 When We Had Telescopes Of Sufficient Power. But The Spectroscope, 
 Seeing Not Merely Form But Substance Also,  Shows That Some Of Them 
 Are Not Stars In Any Sense,  But Masses Of Glowing Gas. Two Of These 
 Nebulae Are Visible To The Naked Eye: One In Andromeda (See Fig. 
 68),  And One Around The Middle Star Of The Sword Of Orion,  Shown 
 In Fig.78. A Three-Inch Telescope Resolves Th Orionis Into The 
 Famous Trapezium,  And A Nine-Inch Instrument Sees Two Stars More. 
 The Shape Of The Nebula Is Changeable,  And Is Hardly Suggestive Of 
 The Moulding Influence Of Gravitation. It Is Probably Composed Of 
 Glowing Nitrogen And Hydrogen Gases. Nebulae Are Of All Conceivable 
 Shapes--Circular,  Annular,  Oval,  Lenticular,  [Page 218] Conical, 
 Spiral,  Snake-Like,  Looped,  And Nameless. Compare The Sprays Of The 
 Crab Nebulae Above Z Tauri,  Seen In Fig. 79,  And The Ring Nebula, 
 Fig. 80. This Last Possibly Consists Of Stars,  And Is Situated,  As 
 Shown In Fig. 81,  Midway Between B And G Lyrae. 
   
   
 When Herschel Was Sweeping The Heavens With His Telescope,  And 
 Saw But Few Stars,  He Often Said To His Assistant,  "Prepare To 
 Write; The Nebulae Are Coming." They Are Most Abundant Where The 
 Stars Are Least So. A Zone About The Heavens 30 Deg. Wide,  With The 
 Milky Way In The Centre,  Would Include One-Fourth Of The Celestial 
 Sphere; But Instead Of One-Fourth,  We Find Nine-Tenths 
 [Page 219] 
 Of The Stars In This Zone,  And But One-Tenth Of The Nebulae. 
   
 These Immense Masses Of Unorganized Matter Are Noticed To Change 
 Their Forms,  Vary Their Light Greatly,  But Not Quickly; They Change 
 Through The Ages. "God Works Slowly." He Takes A Thousand Years 
 
 
 
 Chapter 8 (The Stellar System) Pg 106 
 To Lift His Hand Off. 
   
   
 There Are Many Unsolved Problems Connected With These Strange Bodies. 
 Whether They Belong To Our System,  Or Are Beyond It,  Is Not Settled; 
 The Weight Of Evidence Leans To The First View. 
   
 [Page 220] 
 _Variable Stars._ 
   
   
 Our Sun Gives A Variable Amount Of Light,  Changing Through A Period 
 Of Eleven Years. Probably Every Star,  If Examined By Methods 
 Sufficiently Delicate And Exact,  Would Be Found To Be Variable. 
 The Variations Of Some [Page 221] Stars Are So Marked As To 
 Challenge Investigation. B Lyrae (Fig. 81) Has Two Maxima And Minima 
 Of Light. In Three Days It Rises From Magnitude 4-1/2 To 3-1/2; In A 
 Week Falls To 4,  And Rises To 3-1/2; And In Three Days More Drops To 
 4-1/2: It Makes All These Changes In Thirteen Days; But This Period 
 Is Constantly Increasing. The Variations Of One Hundred And 
 Forty-Three Stars Have Been Well Ascertained. 
   
   
 Mira,  Or The Wonderful,  In The Whale (Fig. 68),  Is Easily Found When 
 Visible. Align From Capella To The Pleiades,  And As Much Farther, 
 And Four Stars Will Be Seen,  Situated Thus: 
   
   
 The Right-Hand One Is Mira. For Half A Month It Shines As A Star 
 Of The Second Magnitude. Then For Three Months It Fades Away,  And 
 Lost To Sight; Going Down Even To The Eleventh Magnitude. But After 
 Five Months Its Resurrection Morning Mes; And In Three Months 
 More--Eleven Months In All--Our Wonderful Is In Its Full Glory 
 In The Heavens. It Its Period And Brilliancy Are Also Variable. 
 The Star Megrez,  D In The Great Bear,  Has Been Growing Dim [Page 
 222] For A Century. In 1836 Betelguese Was Exceedingly Variable,  And 
 Continued So Till 1840,  When The Changes Became Much Less 
 Conspicuous. Algol (Fig. 68) Has Been Already Referred To. This 
 Slowly Winking Eye Is Of The Second Magnitude During 2d. 14h. Then 
 It Dozes Off Toward Sleep For 4h. 24m.,  When It Is Nearly Invisible. 
 It Wakes Up During The Same Time; So That Its Period From Maximum 
 Brilliancy To The Same State Again Is 2d. 20h. 48m. Its Recognizable 
 Changes Are Within Five Or Six Hours. As I Write,  March 25th,  1879, 
 Algol Gives Its Minimum Light At 9h. 36m. P.M. It Passes Fifteen 
 Minima In 43d. 13m. There Will Therefore Be Another Minimum May 7th, 
 At 9h. 49m. Its Future Periods Are Easy To Estimate. Perhaps It Has 
 Some Dark Body Revolving About It At Frightful Speed,  In A Period Of 
 Less Than Three Days. The Period Of Its Variability Is Growing 
 Shorter At An Increasing Rate. If Its Variability Is Caused By A 
 Dark Body Revolving About It,  The Orbit Of That Body Is Contracting, 
 And The Huge Satellite Will Soon,  As Celestial Periods Are Reckoned, 
 Commence To Graze The Surface Of The Sun Itself,  Rebound Again And 
 Again,  And At Length Plunge Itself Into The Central Fire. Such An 
 Event Would Evolve Heat Enough To Make Algol Flame Up Into A Star Of 
 
 
 
 Chapter 8 (The Stellar System) Pg 107 
 The First Magnitude,  And Perhaps Out-Blaze Sirius Or Capella In Our 
 Winter Sky. 
   
 None Of The Causes For These Changes We Have Been Able To Conjecture 
 Seem Very Satisfactory. The Stars May Have Opaque Planets Revolving 
 About Them,  Shutting Off Their Light; They May Rotate,  And Have 
 Unequally Illuminated Sides; They May Revolve In Very Elliptical 
 Orbits,  So As To Greatly Alter Their Distance From Us; They May 
 Be So Situated In Regard To Zones Of Meteorites As [Page 223] To 
 Call Down Periodically Vast Showers; But None Or All Of These 
 Suppositions Apply To All Cases,  If They Do To Any. 
   
 _Temporary,  New,  And Lost Stars._ 
   
 Besides Regular Movements To Right And Left,  Up And Down,  To And 
 From Us--Changes In The Intensity Of Illumination By Changes Of 
 Distance--Besides Variations Occurring At Regular And Ascertainable 
 Intervals,  There Are Stars Called _Temporary_,  Shining Awhile And 
 Then Disappearing; _New_,  Coming To A Definite Brightness,  And So 
 Remaining; And _Lost_,  Those Whose First Appearance Was Not Observed, 
 But Which Have Utterly Disappeared. 
   
 In November,  1572,  A New Star Blazed Out In Cassiopeia. Its Place 
 Is Shown In Fig. 67,  Ch G Being The Stars 
   
   D    * 
    G Ch 
   
 In The Seat Of The Chair,  And D Being The First One In The Back. 
 This Star Was Visible At Noonday,  And Was Brighter Than Any Other 
 Star In The Heavens. In January,  1573,  It Was Less Bright Than 
 Jupiter; In April It Was Below The Second Magnitude,  And The Last 
 Of May It Utterly Disappeared. It Was As Variable In Color As In 
 Brilliancy. During Its First Two Months,  The Period Of Greatest 
 Brightness,  It Was Dazzling White,  Then Became Yellow,  And Finally 
 As Red As Mars Or Aldebaran,  And So Expired. 
   
 A Bright Star Was Seen Very Near To The Place Of The _Pilgrim_, 
 As The Star Of 1572 Was Called,  In A.D. 945 And 1264. A Star Of 
 The Tenth Magnitude Is Now Seen Brightening Slowly Almost Exactly 
 In The Same Place. It Is Possible That This Is A Variable Star 
 Of A Period Of About Three Hundred And Ten Years,  And Will Blaze 
 Out Again About 1885. 
   
 But We Have Had,  Within A Few Years,  Fine Opportunities [Page 224] 
 To Study,  With Improved Instruments,  Two New Stars; On The Evening 
 Of May 12th,  1866,  A Star Of The Second Magnitude Was Observed In 
 The Northern Crown,  Where No Star Above The Fifth Magnitude Had Been 
 Twenty-Four Hours Before. In Argelander's Chart A Star Of The Tenth 
 Magnitude Occupies The Place. May 13th It Had Declined To The Third 
 Magnitude,  May 16th To The Fourth,  May 17th To The Fifth,  May 19th 
 To The Seventh,  May 31st To The Ninth,  And Has Since Diminished To 
 The Tenth. The Spectroscope Showed It To Be A Star In The Usual 
 Condition; But Through The Usual Colored Spectrum,  Crossed With 
 
 
 
 Chapter 8 (The Stellar System) Pg 108 
 Bright Lines,  Shone Four Bright Lines,  Two Of Which Indicated 
 Glowing Hydrogen. Here Was Plenty Of Proof That An Unusual Amount Of 
 This Gas Had Given This Sun Its Sudden Flame. As The Hydrogen Burned 
 Out The Star Grew Dim. 
   
 Two Theories Immediately Presented Themselves: First,  That Vast 
 Volumes Had Been Liberated From Within The Orb By Some Sudden Breaking 
 Up Of The Doors Of Its Great Deeps; Or,  Second,  This Star Had 
 Precipitated Upon Itself,  By Attraction,  Some Other Sun Or Planet, 
 The Force Of Whose Impact Had Been Changed Into Heat. 
   
 Though We See The Liberated Hydrogen Of Our Sun Burst Up With Sudden 
 Flame,  It Can Hardly Be Supposed That Enough Could Be Liberated 
 At Once To Increase The Light And Heat One Hundred-Fold. 
   
 In Regard To The Second Theory,  It Is Capable Of Proof That Two 
 Suns Half As Large As Ours,  Moving At A Velocity Of Four Hundred 
 And Seventy-Six Miles Per Second,  Would Evolve Heat Enough To Supply 
 The Radiation Of Our Sun For Fifty Million Years. How Could It Be 
 Possible For A Sun Like This Newly Blazing Orb To Cool Off To Such A 
 [Page 225] Degree In A Month? Besides,  There Would Not Be One Chance 
 In A Thousand For Two Orbs To Come Directly Together. They Would 
 Revolve About Each Other Till A Kind Of Grazing Contact Of Grinding 
 Worlds Would Slowly Kindle The Ultimate Heat. 
   
 It Is Far More Likely That This Star Encountered An Enormous Stream 
 Of Meteoric Bodies,  Or Perhaps Absorbed A Whole Comet,  That Laid 
 Its Million Leagues Of Tail As Fuel On The Central Fire. Only Let 
 It Be Remembered That The Fuel Is Far More Force Than Substance. 
 Allusion Has Already Been Made To The Sudden Brightening Of Our 
 Sun On The First Day Of September,  1859. That Was Caused,  No Doubt, 
 By The Fall Of Large Meteors,  Following In The Train Of The Comet 
 Of 1843,  Or Some Other Comet. What The Effect Would Have Been,  Had 
 The Whole Mass Of The Comet Been Absorbed,  Cannot Be Imagined. 
   
 Another New Star Lately Appeared In Cygnus,  Near The Famous Star 
 61--The First Star In The Northern Hemisphere Whose Distance Was 
 Determined. It Was First Seen November 24th,  1876,  As A Third Magnitude 
 Star Of A Yellow Color. By December 2d It Had Sunk To The Fourth 
 Magnitude,  And Changed To A Greenish Color. It Had Then Three Bright 
 Hydrogen Lines,  The Strong Double Sodium Line,  And Others,  Which 
 Made,  It Strongly Resemble The Spectrum Of The Chromosphere Of Our 
 Sun. An Entirely Different Result Appeared In The Fading Of These 
 Two Stars. In The Case Of The Star In The Crown,  The Extraordinary 
 Light Was The First To Fade,  Leaving The Usual Stellar Spectrum. In 
 The Case Of The Star In Cygnus,  The Part Of The Spectrum Belonging 
 To Stellar Light Was The First To Fade,  Leaving The Bright Lines; 
 That Is,  The Gas Of One Gave Way To Regular Starlight,  And The 
 Starlight [Page 226] Of The Other Having Faded,  The Regular Light Of 
 The Glowing Gas Continued. By Some Strange Oversight,  No One Studied 
 The Star Again For Six Months. In September And November,  1877,  The 
 Light Of This Star Was Found To Be Blue,  And Not To Be Starlight At 
 All. It Had No Rainbow Spectrum,  Only One Kind Of Rays,  And Hence 
 Only One Color. Its Sole Spectroscopic Line Is Believed To Be That 
 
 
 
 Chapter 8 (The Stellar System) Pg 109 
 Of Glowing Nitrogen Gas. We Have Then,  Probably,  In The Star Of 
 1876,  A Body Shining By A Feeble And Undiscernible Light,  Surrounded 
 By A Discernible Immensity Of Light Of Nitrogen Gas. This Is Its 
 Usual Condition; But If A Flight Of Meteors Should Raise The Heat Of 
 The Central Body So As To Outshine The Nebulous Envelope,  We Should 
 Have The Conditions We Discovered In November,  1876. But A Rapid 
 Cooling Dissipates The Observable Light Of All Colors,  And Leaves 
 Only The Glowing Gas Of One Color. 
   
 _Movements Of Stars._ 
   
 We Call The Stars _Fixed_,  But Motion And Life Are Necessary To All 
 Things. Besides The Motion In The Line Of Sight Described Already, 
 There Is Motion In Every Other Conceivable Direction. We Knew Sirius 
 Moved Before We Had Found The Cause. We Know That Our Sun Moves 
 Back And Forth In His Easy Bed One-Half His Vast Diameter,  As The 
 Larger Planets Combine Their Influence On One Side Or The Other. 
   
 The Sun Has Another Movement. We Find The Stars In Hercules Gradually 
 Spreading From Each Other. Hercules's Brawny Limbs Grow Brawnier 
 Every Century. There Can Be But One Cause: We Are Approaching That 
 Quarter Of The Heavens. (See [Symbol],  Fig. 72.) We Are Even [Page 
 227] Able To Compute The Velocity Of Our Approach; It Is Four Miles 
 A Second. The Stars In The Opposite Quarter Of The Heavens In Argo 
 Are Drawing Nearer Together. 
   
 This Movement Would Have No Effect On The Apparent Place Of The 
 Stars At Either Pole,  If They Were All Equally Distant; But It 
 Must Greatly Extend Or Contract The Apparent Space Between Them, 
 Since They Are Situated At Various Distances. 
   
 Independent Of This,  The Stars Themselves Are All In Motion,  But So 
 Vast Is The Distance From Which We Observe Them That It Has Taken 
 An Accumulation Of Centuries Before They Could Be Made Measurable. 
 A Train Going Forty Miles An Hour,  Seen From A Distance Of Two 
 Miles,  Almost Seems To Stand Still. Arcturus Moves Through Space 
 Three Times As Fast As The Earth,  But It Takes A Century To Appear 
 To Move The Eighth Part Of The Diameter Of The Moon. There Is A 
 Star In The Hunting Dogs,  Known As 1830 Groombridge,  Which Has A 
 Velocity Beyond What All The Attraction Of The Matter Of The Known 
 Universe Could Give It. By The Year 9000 It May Be In Berenice's 
 Hair. 
   
 Some Stars Have A Common Movement,  Being Evidently Related Together. 
 A Large Proportion Of The Brighter Stars Between Aldebaran And 
 The Pleiades Have A Common Motion Eastward Of About Ten Seconds 
 A Century. All The Angles Marked By A,  B,  G,  Ch Orionis Will Be 
 Altered In Different Directions; L Is Moving Toward G. L And E 
 Will Appear As A Double Star. In A.D. 50,000 Procyon Will Be Nearer 
 Ch Orionis Than Rigel Now Is,  And Sirius Will Be In Line With A And 
 Ch Orionis. All The Stars Of The Great Dipper,  Except Benetnasch 
 And Dubhe,  Have A Common Motion Somewhat In The Direction [Page 228] 
 Of Thuban (Fig. 67),  While The Two Named Have A Motion Nearly 
 Opposite. In 36,000 Years The End Of The Dipper Will Have Fallen Out 
 
 
 
 Chapter 8 (The Stellar System) Pg 110 
 So That It Will Hold No Water,  And The Handle Will Be Broken Square 
 Off At Mizar. "The Southern Cross," Says Humboldt,  "Will Not Always 
 Keep Its Characteristic Form,  For Its Four Stars Travel In Different 
 Directions With Unequal Velocities. At The Present Time It Is Not 
 Known How Many Myriads Of Years Must Elapse Before Its Entire 
 Dislocation." 
   
 These Movements Are Not In Fortuitous Or Chaotic Ways,  But Are 
 Doubtless In Accordance With Some Perfect Plan. We Have Climbed 
 Up From Revolving Earth And Moon To Revolving Planets And Sun, 
 In Order To Understand How Two Or Ten Suns Can Revolve About A 
 Common Centre. Let Us Now Leap To The Grander Idea That All The 
 Innumerable Stars Of A Winter Night Not Only Loan,  But Must Revolve 
 About Some Centre Of Gravity. Men Have Been Looking For A Central 
 Sun Of Suns,  And Have Not Found It. None Is Needed. Two Suns Can 
 Balance About A Point; All Suns Can Swing About A Common Centre. 
 That One Unmoving Centre May Be That City More Gorgeous Than Eastern 
 Imagination Ever Conceived,  Whose Pavement Is Transparent Gold, 
 Whose Walls Are Precious Stones,  Whose Light Is Life,  And Where 
 No Dark Planetary Bodies Ever Cast Shadows. There Reigns The King 
 And Lord Of All,  And Ranged About Are The Far-Off Provinces Of His 
 Material Systems. They All Move In His Sight,  And Receive Power 
 From A Mind That Never Wearies. 
   
   
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 9 (The Worlds And The Word) Pg 111 
 "The Worlds Were Framed By The Word Of God."--_Heb._ Xi.,  3. 
   
 [Page 230] 
   "Mysterious Night! When Our First Parent Knew Thee 
   From Report Divine,  And Heard Thy Name, 
   Did He Not Tremble For This Lovely Frame, 
   This Glorious Canopy Of Light And Blue? 
   Yet,  'Neath A Curtain Of Translucent Dew, 
   Bathed In The Rays Of The Great Setting Flame, 
   Hesperus,  With All The Host Of Heaven,  Came, 
   And Lo! Creation Widened In Man's View. 
   Who Could Have Thought Such Darkness Lay Concealed 
   Within Thy Beams,  O Sun! Oh Who Could Find, 
   Whilst Fruit And Leaf And Insect Stood Revealed, 
   That To Such Countless Worlds Thou Mad'st Us Blind! 
   Why Do We Then Shun Death With Anxious Strife? 
   If Light Conceal So Much,  Wherefore Not Life?" 
     Blanco White. 
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 9 (The Worlds And The Word) Pg 112 
   
   
   
 [Page 231] 
 Xi. 
   
 _The Worlds And The Word._ 
   
 Men Have Found The Various Worlds To Be Far Richer Than They Originally 
 Thought. They Have Opened Door After Door In Their Vast Treasuries, 
 Have Ascended Throne After Throne Of Power,  And Ruled Realms Of 
 Increasing Extent. We Have No Doubt That Unfoldings In The Future 
 Will Amaze Even Those Whose Expectations Have Been Quickened By 
 The Revealings Of The Past. What If It Be Found That The Word Is 
 Equally Inexhaustible? 
   
 After Ages Of Thought And Discovery We Have Come Out Of The Darkness 
 And Misconceptions Of Men. We Believe In No Serpent,  Turtle,  Or 
 Elephant Supporting The World; No Atlas Holding Up The Heavens; 
 No Crystal Domes,  "With Cycles And Epicycles Scribbled O'er." What 
 If It Be Found That One Book,  Written By Ignorant Men,  Never Fell 
 Into These Mistakes Of The Wisest! Nay,  More,  What If Some Of The 
 Greatest Triumphs Of Modern Science Are To Be Found Plainly Stated 
 In A Book Older Than The Writings Of Homer? If Suns,  Planets,  And 
 Satellites,  With All Their Possibilities Of Life,  Changes Of Flora 
 And Fauna,  Could Be All Provided For,  As Some Scientists Tell Us, 
 In The Fiery Star-Dust Of A Cloud,  Why May Not The Same Author 
 Provide A Perpetually Widening River Of Life In His Word? As We 
 Believe He Is Perpetually Present In His Worlds,  We Know He Has 
 [Page 232] Promised To Be Perpetually Present In His Word,  Making It 
 Alive With Spirit And Life. 
   
 The Wise Men Of The Past Could Not Avoid Alluding To Ideas The Falsity 
 Of Which Subsequent Discovery Has Revealed; But The Writers Of The 
 Bible Did Avoid Such Erroneous Allusion. Of Course They Referred 
 To Some Things,  As Sunrise And Sunset,  According To Appearance; 
 But Our Most Scientific Books Do The Same To-Day. That The Bible 
 Could Avoid Teaching The Opposite Of Scientific Truth Proclaims 
 That A Higher Than Human Wisdom Was In Its Teaching. 
   
 That Negative Argument Is Strong,  But The Affirmative Argument Is 
 Much Stronger. The Bible Declares Scientific Truth Far In Advance 
 Of Its Discovery,  Far In Advance Of Man's Ability To Understand 
 Its Plain Declarations. Take A Few Conspicuous Illustrations: 
   
 The Bible Asserted From The First That The Present Order Of Things 
 Had A Beginning. After Ages Of Investigation,  After Researches In 
 The Realms Of Physics,  Arguments In Metaphysics,  And Conclusions 
 By The Necessities Of Resistless Logic,  Science Has Reached The 
 Same Result. 
   
 The Bible Asserted From The First That Creation Of Matter Preceded 
 Arrangement. It Was Chaos--Void--Without Form--Darkness; Arrangement 
 
 
 
 Chapter 9 (The Worlds And The Word) Pg 113 
 Was A Subsequent Work. The World Was Not Created In The Form It 
 Was To Have; It Was To Be Moulded,  Shaped,  Stratified,  Coaled, 
 Mountained,  Valleyed,  Subsequently. All Of Which Science Utters 
 Ages Afterward. 
   
 The Bible Did Not Hesitate To Affirm That Light Existed Before 
 The Sun,  Though Men Did Not Believe It,  And Used It As A Weapon 
 Against Inspiration. Now We Praise Men For Having Demonstrated 
 The Oldest Record. 
   
 [Page 233] 
 It Is A Recently Discovered Truth Of Science That The Trata Of 
 The Earth Were Formed By The Action Of Water,  And The Mountains 
 Were Once Under The Ocean. It Is An Idea Long Familiar To Bible 
 Readers: "Thou Coverest The Earth With The Deep As With A Garment. 
 The Waters Stood Above The Mountains. At Thy Rebuke They Fled; At 
 The Voice Of Thy Thunder They Hasted Away. The Mountains Ascend; 
 The Valleys Descend Into The Place Thou Hast Founded For Them." 
 Here Is A Whole Volume Of Geology In A Paragraph. The Thunder Of 
 Continental Convulsions Is God's Voice; The Mountains Rise By God's 
 Power; The Waters Haste Away Unto The Place God Prepared For Them. 
 Our Slowness Of Geological Discovery Is Perfectly Accounted For By 
 Peter. "For Of This They Are _Willingly Ignorant_,  That By The Word 
 Of God There Were Heavens Of Old,  And Land Framed Out Of Water,  And 
 By Means Of Water,  Whereby The World That Then Was,  Being Overflowed 
 By Water,  Perished." We Recognize These Geological Subsidences, 
 But We Read Them From The Testimony Of The Rocks More Willingly 
 Than From The Testimony Of The Word. 
   
 Science Exults In Having Discovered What It Is Pleased To Call An 
 Order Of Development On Earth--Tender Grass,  Herb,  Tree; Moving 
 Creatures That Have Life In The Waters; Bird,  Reptile,  Beast,  Cattle, 
 Man. The Bible Gives The Same Order Ages Before,  And Calls It God's 
 Successive Creations. 
   
 During Ages On Ages Man's Wisdom Held The Earth To Be Flat. Meanwhile, 
 God Was Saying,  Century After Century,  Of Himself,  "He Sitteth Upon 
 The Sphere Of The Earth" (Gesenius). 
   
 Men Racked Their Feeble Wits For Expedients To Uphold [Page 234] The 
 Earth,  And The Best They Could Devise Were Serpents,  Elephants,  And 
 Turtles; Beyond That No One Had Ever Gone To See What Supported 
 Them. Meanwhile,  God Was Perpetually Telling Men That He Had Hung 
 The Earth Upon Nothing. 
   
 Men Were Ever Trying To Number The Stars. Hipparchus Counted One 
 Thousand And Twenty-Two; Ptolemy One Thousand And Twenty-Six; And 
 It Is Easy To Number Those Visible To The Naked Eye. But The Bible 
 Said,  When There Were No Telescopes To Make It Known,  That They 
 Were As The Sands Of The Sea,  "Innumerable." Science Has Appliances 
 Of Enumeration Unknown To Other Ages,  But The Space-Penetrating 
 Telescopes And Tastimeters Reveal More Worlds--Eighteen Millions 
 In A Single System,  And Systems Beyond Count--Till Men Acknowledge 
 That The Stars Are Innumerable To Man. It Is God's Prerogative "To 
 
 
 
 Chapter 9 (The Worlds And The Word) Pg 114 
 Number All The Stars; He Also Calleth Them All By Their Names." 
   
 Torricelli's Discovery That The Air Had Weight Was Received With 
 Incredulity. For Ages The Air Had Propelled Ships,  Thrust Itself 
 Against The Bodies Of Men,  And Overturned Their Works. But No Man 
 Ever Dreamed That Weight Was Necessary To Give Momentum. During 
 All The Centuries It Had Stood In The Bible,  Waiting For Man's 
 Comprehension: "He Gave To The Air Its Weight" (Job Xxviii. 25). 
   
 The Pet Science Of To-Day Is Meteorology. The Fluctuations And 
 Variations Of The Weather Have Hitherto Baffled All Attempts At 
 Unravelling Them. It Has Seemed That There Was No Law In Their 
 Fickle Changes. But At Length Perseverance And Skill Have Triumphed, 
 And A Single Man In One Place Predicts The Weather And Winds [Page 
 235] For A Continent. But The Bible Has Always Insisted That The 
 Whole Department Was Under Law; Nay,  It Laid Down That Law So 
 Clearly,  That If Men Had Been Willing To Learn From It They Might 
 Have Reached This Wisdom Ages Ago. The Whole Moral Law Is Not More 
 Clearly Crystallized In "Thou Shalt Love The Lord Thy God With All 
 Thy Heart,  And Thy Neighbor As Thyself," Than All The Fundamentals 
 Of The Science Of Meteorology Are Crystallized In These Words: "The 
 Wind Goeth Toward The South (Equator),  And Turneth About (Up) Unto 
 The North; It Whirleth About Continually,  And The Wind Returneth 
 Again According To His Circuits (Established Routes). All The Rivers 
 Run Into The Sea; Yet The Sea Is Not Full: Unto The Place From 
 Whence The Rivers Come,  Thither They Return Again" (Eccles. I. 6, 
 7). 
   
 Those Scientific Queries Which God Propounded To Job Were Unanswerable 
 Then; Most Of Them Are So Now. "Whereon Are The Sockets Of The 
 Earth Made To Sink?" Job Never Knew The Earth Turned In Sockets; 
 Much Less Could He Tell Where They Were Fixed. God Answered This 
 Question Elsewhere. "He Stretcheth The North (One Socket) Over 
 The Empty Place,  And Hangeth The Earth Upon Nothing." Speaking 
 Of The Day-Spring,  God Says The Earth Is _Turned_ To It,  As Clay 
 To The Seal. The Earth's Axial Revolution Is Clearly Recognized. 
 Copernicus Declared It Early; God Earlier. 
   
 No Man Yet Understands The Balancing Of The Clouds,  Nor The Suspension 
 Of The Frozen Masses Of Hail,  Any More Than Job Did. 
   
 Had God Asked If He Had Perceived The _Length_ Of The Earth,  Many 
 A Man To-Day Could Have Answered Yes. But The Eternal Ice Keeps 
 Us From Perceiving The _Breadth_ [Page 236] Of The Earth,  And Shows 
 The Discriminating Wisdom Of The Question. 
   
 The Statement That The Sun's Going Is From The End Of The Heaven, 
 And His Circuit To The Ends Of It,  Has Given Edge To Many A Sneer 
 At Its Supposed Assertion That The Sun Went Round The Earth. It 
 Teaches A Higher Truth--That The Sun Itself Obeys The Law It Enforces 
 On The Planets,  And Flies In An Orbit Of Its Own,  From One End Of 
 Heaven In Argo To The Other In Hercules. 
   
 So Eminent An Astronomer And So True A Christian As General Mitchell, 
 
 
 
 Chapter 9 (The Worlds And The Word) Pg 115 
 Who Understood The Voices In Which The Heavens Declare The Glory Of 
 God,  Who Read With Delight The Word Of God Em Bodied In Worlds,  And 
 Who Fed Upon The Written Word Of God As His Daily Bread,  Declared, 
 "We Find An Aptness And Propriety In All These Astronomical 
 Illustrations,  Which Are Not Weakened,  But Amazingly Strengthened, 
 When Viewed In The Clear Light Of Our Present Knowledge." Herschel 
 Says,  "All Human Discoveries Seem To Be Made Only For The Purpose 
 Of Confirming More Strongly The Truths That Come From On High,  And 
 Are Contained In The Sacred Writings." The Common Authorship Of 
 The Worlds And The Word Becomes Apparent; Their Common Unexplorable 
 Wealth Is A Necessary Conclusion. 
   
 Since The Opening Revelations Of The Past Show An Unsearchable 
 Wisdom In The Word,  Has That Word Any Prophecy Concerning Mysteries 
 Not Yet Understood,  And Events Yet In The Future? There Are Certain 
 Problems As Yet Insolvable. We Have Grasped Many Clews,  And Followed 
 Them Far Into Labyrinths Of Darkness,  But Not Yet Through Into 
 Light. 
   
 We Ask In Vain,  "What Is Matter?" No Man Can [Page 237] Answer. We 
 Trace It Up Through The Worlds,  Till Its Increasing Fineness,  Its 
 Growing Power,  And Possible Identity Of Substance,  Seem As If The 
 Next Step Would Reveal Its Spirit Origin. What We But Hesitatingly 
 Stammer,  The Word Boldly Asserts. 
   
 We Ask,  "What Is Force?" No Man Can Answer. We Recognize Its Various 
 Grades,  Each Subordinate To The Higher--Cohesion Dissolvable By 
 Heat; The Affinity Of Oxygen And Hydrogen In Water Overcome By 
 The Piercing Intensity Of Electric Fire; Rivers Seeking The Sea 
 By Gravitation Carried Back By The Sun; Rock Turned To Soil,  Soil 
 To Flowers; And All The Forces In Nature Measurably Subservient To 
 Mind. Hence We Partly Understand What The Word Has Always Taught 
 Us,  That All Lower Forces Must Be Subject To That Which Is Highest. 
 How Easily Can Seas Be Divided,  Iron Made To Swim,  Water To Burn, 
 And A Dead Body To Live Again,  If The Highest Force Exert Itself 
 Over Forces Made To Be Mastered. When We Have Followed Force To 
 Its Highest Place,  We Always Find Ourselves Considering The Forces 
 Of Mind And Spirit,  And Say,  In The Words Of The Scriptures,  "God 
 Is Spirit." 
   
 We Ask In Vain What Is The End Of The Present Condition Of Things. 
 We Have Read The History Of Our Globe With Great Difficulty--Its 
 Prophecy Is Still More Difficult. We Have Asked Whether The Stars 
 Form A System,  And If So,  Whether That System Is Permanent. We 
 Are Not Able To Answer Yet. We Have Said That The Sun Would In 
 Time Become As Icy Cold And Dead As The Moon,  And Then The Earth 
 Would Wander Darkling In The Voids Of Space. But The End Of The 
 Earth,  As Prophesied In The Word,  Is Different: "The Heavens Will 
 Pass Away With [Page 238] A Rushing Noise,  And The Elements Will Be 
 Dissolved With Burning Heat,  And The Earth And The Works Therein 
 Will Be Burned Up." The Latest Conclusions Of Science Point The Same 
 Way. The Great Zones Of Uncondensed Matter About The Sun Seem To 
 Constitute A Resisting Medium As Far As They Reach. Encke's Comet, 
 Whose Orbit Comes Near The Sun,  Is Delayed. This Gives Gravitation 
 
 
 
 Chapter 9 (The Worlds And The Word) Pg 116 
 An Overwhelming Power,  And Hence The Orbit Is Lessened And A 
 Revolution Accomplished More Quickly. Faye's Comet,  Which Wheels 
 Beyond The Track Of Mars,  Is Not Retarded. If The Earth Moves 
 Through A Resisting Substance,  Its Ultimate Fall Into The Sun Is 
 Certain. Whether In That Far Future The Sun Shall Have Cooled Off, 
 Or Will Be Still As Hot As To-Day,  Peter's Description Would 
 Admirably Portray The Result Of The Impact. Peters Description, 
 However,  Seems Rather To Indicate An Interference Of Divine Power At 
 An Appropriate Time Before A Running Down Of The System At Present 
 In Existence,  And A Re-Endowment Of Matter With New Capabilities. 
   
 After Thousands Of Years,  Science Discovered The True Way To Knowledge. 
 It Is The Baconian Way Of Experiment,  Of Trial,  Of Examining The 
 Actual,  Instead Of Imagining The Ideal. It Is The Acceptance Of The 
 Scriptural Plan. "If A Man Wills To Do God's Will,  He Shall Know." 
 Oh Taste And See! In Science Men Try Hypotheses,  Think The Best They 
 Can,  Plan Broadly As Possible,  And Then See If Facts Sustain The 
 Theory. They Have Adopted The Scriptural Idea Of Accepting A Plan, 
 And Then Working In Faith,  In Order To Acquire Knowledge. Fortunately, 
 In The Work Of Salvation The Plan Is Always Perfect. But,  In Order 
 To Make The Trial Under The Most Favorable Circumstances,  There 
 Must Be Faith. The Faith Of [Page 239] Science Is Amazing; Its 
 Assertions Of The Supersensual Are Astounding. It Affirms A Thousand 
 Things That Cannot Be Physically Demonstrated: That The Flight Of A 
 Rifle-Ball Is Parabolic; That The Earth Has Poles; That Gages Are 
 Made Of Particles; That There Are Atoms; That An Electric Light 
 Gives Ten Times As Many Rays As Are Visible; That There Are Sounds 
 To Which We Are Deaf,  Sights To Which We Are Blind; That A Thousand 
 Objects And Activities Are About Us,  For The Perception Of Which We 
 Need A Hundred Senses Instead Of Five. These Faiths Have Nearly All 
 Led To Sight; They Have Been Rewarded,  And The World's Wealth Of 
 Knowledge Is The Result. The Word Has Ever Asserted The 
 Supersensuous,  Solicited Man's Faith,  And Ever Uplifted Every True 
 Faith Into Sight. Lowell Is Partly Right When He Sings: 
   
  "Science Was Faith Once; Faith Were Science Now, 
   Would She But Lay Her Bow And Arrows By, 
   And Aim Her With The Weapons Of The Time." 
   
 Faith Laid Her Bow And Arrows By Before Men In Pursuit Of Worldly 
 Knowledge Discovered Theirs. 
   
 What Becomes Of The Force Of The Sun That Is Being Spent To-Day? 
 It Is One Of The Firmest Rocks Of Science That There Can Be No 
 Absolute Destruction Of Force. It Is All Conserved Somehow. But 
 How? The Sun Contracts,  Light Results,  And Leaps Swiftly Into All 
 Encircling Space. It Can Never Be Returned. Heat From Stars Invisible 
 By The Largest Telescope Enters The Tastimeter,  And Declares That 
 That Force Has Journeyed From Its Source Through Incalculable Years. 
 There Is No Encircling Dome To Reflect All This Force Back Upon 
 Its Sources. Is It Lost? Science,  In Defence Of Its Own Dogma, 
 Should [Page 240] Assign Light A Work As It Flies In The Space Which 
 We Have Learned Cannot Be Empty. There Ought To Be A Realm Where 
 Light's Inconceivable Energy Is Utilized In Building A Grander 
 
 
 
 Chapter 9 (The Worlds And The Word) Pg 117 
 Universe,  Where There Is No Night. Christ Said,  As He Went Out Of 
 The Seen Into The Unseen,  "I Go To Prepare A Place For You;" And 
 When John Saw It In Vision The Sun Had Disappeared,  The Moon Was 
 Gone,  But The Light Still Continued. 
   
 Science Finds Matter To Be Capable Of Unknown Refinement; Water 
 Becomes Steam Full Of Amazing Capabilities: We Add More Heat,  Superheat 
 The Steam,  And It Takes On New Aptitudes And Uncontrollable Energy. 
 Zinc Burned In Acid Becomes Electricity,  Which Enters Iron As A Kind 
 Of Soul,  To Fill All That Body With Life. All Matter Is Capable 
 Of Transformation,  If Not Transfiguration,  Till It Shines By The 
 Light Of An Indwelling Spirit. Scripture Readers Know That Bodies 
 And Even Garments Can Be Transfigured,  Be Made Astrapton (Luke Xxiv. 
 4),  Shining With An Inner Light. They Also Look For New Heavens And 
 A New Earth Endowed With Higher Powers,  Fit For Perfect Beings. 
   
 When God Made Matter,  So Far As Our Thought Permits Us To Know, 
 He Simply Made Force Stationary And Unconscious. Thereafter He 
 Moves Through It With His Own Will. He Can At Any Time Change These 
 Forces,  Making Air Solid,  Water And Rock Gaseous,  A World A Cloud, 
 Or A Fire-Mist A Stone. He May At Some Time Restore All Force To 
 Consciousness Again,  And Make Every Part Of The Universe Thrill 
 With Responsive Joy. "Then Shall The Mountains And The Hills Break 
 Forth Before You Into Singing,  And All The Trees Of The Field Clap 
 Their Hands." One Of These Changes Is To Come To The Earth. [Page 
 241] Amidst Great Noise The Heaven Shall Flee,  The Earth Be Burned 
 Up,  And All Their Forces Be Changed To New Forms. Perhaps It Will 
 Not Then Be Visible To Mortal Eyes. Perhaps Force Will Then Be Made 
 Conscious,  And The Flowers Thereafter Return Our Love As Much As 
 Lower Creatures Do Now. A River And Tree Of Life May Be Consciously 
 Alive,  As Well As Give Life. Poets That Are Nearest To God Are 
 Constantly Hearing The Sweet Voices Of Responsive Feeling In Nature. 
   
               "For His Gayer Hours 
   She Has A Voice Of Gladness And A Smile, 
   And Eloquence Of Beauty; And She Glides 
   Into His Darker Musings With A Mild 
   And Gentle Sympathy,  That Steals Away 
   Their Sharpness Ere He Is Aware." 
   
 Prophets Who Utter God's Voice Of Truth Say,  "The Wilderness And 
 The Solitary Place Shall Be Glad For Holy Men,  And The Desert Shall 
 Rejoice And Blossom As The Rose. It Shall Blossom Abundantly And 
 Rejoice,  Even With Joy And Singing." 
   
 Distinguish Clearly Between Certainty And Surmise. The Certainty Is 
 That The World Will Pass Through Catastrophic Changes To A Perfect 
 World. The Grave Of Uniformitarianism Is Already Covered With Grass. 
 He That Creates Promises To Complete. The Invisible,  Imponderable, 
 Inaudible Ether Is Beyond Our Apprehension; It Transmits Impressions 
 186,000 Miles A Second; It Is Millions Of Times More Capable And 
 Energetic Than Air. What May Be The Bounds Of Its Possibility None 
 Can Imagine,  For Law Is Not Abrogated Nor Designs Disregarded As 
 We Ascend Into Higher Realms. Law Works Out More Beautiful Designs 
 
 
 
 Chapter 9 (The Worlds And The Word) Pg 118 
 With More Absolute Certainty. Why [Page 242] Should There Not Be A 
 Finer Universe Than This,  And Disconnected From This World 
 Altogether--A Fit Home For Immortal Souls? It Is A Necessity. 
   
 God Filleth All In All,  Is Everywhere Omnipotent And Wise. Why 
 Should There Be Great Vacuities,  Barren Of Power And Its Creative 
 Outgoings? God Has Fixed The Stars As Proofs Of His Agency At Some 
 Points In Space. But Is It In Points Only? Science Is Proud Of Its 
 Discovery That What Men Once Thought To Be Empty Space Is More 
 Intensely Active Than The Coarser Forms Of Matter Can Be. But In 
 The Long Times Which Are Past Job Glanced At Earth,  Seas,  Clouds, 
 Pillars Of Heaven,  Stars,  Day,  Night,  All Visible Things,  And Then 
 Added: "Lo! These Are Only The Outlying Borders Of His Works. What 
 A Whisper Of A Word We Hear Of _Him!_ The Thunder Of His Power 
 Who Can Comprehend?" 
   
 Science Discovers That Man Is Adapted For Mastery In This World. 
 He Is Of The Highest Order Of Visible Creatures. Neither Is It 
 Possible To Imagine An Order Of Beings Generically Higher To Be 
 Connected With The Conditions Of The Material World. This Whole 
 Secret Was Known To The Author Of The Oldest Writing. "And God 
 Blessed Them,  And God Said Unto Them: Be Fruitful,  And Multiply, 
 And Replenish The Earth,  And Subdue It: And Have Dominion Over 
 The Fish Of The Sea,  And Over The Fowl Of The Air,  And Over Every 
 Living Thing That Moveth Upon The Earth." The Idea Is Never Lost 
 Sight Of In The Sacred Writings. And While Every Man Knows He Must 
 Fail In One Great Contest,  And Yield Himself To Death,  The Later 
 Portions Of The Divine Word Offer Him Victory Even Here. The Typical 
 Man Is Commissioned To Destroy Even Death,  And Make Man A Sharer 
 In The Victory. [Page 243] Science Babbles At This Great Truth Of 
 Man's Position Like A Little Child; Scripture Treats It With A 
 Breadth Of Perfect Wisdom We Are Only Beginning To Grasp. 
   
 Science Tells Us That Each Type Is Prophetic Of A Higher One. The 
 Whale Has Bones Prophetic Of A Human Hand. Has Man Reached Perfection? 
 Is There No Prophecy In Him? Not In His Body,  Perhaps; But How His 
 Whole Soul Yearns For Greater Beauty. As Soon As He Has Found Food, 
 The Savage Begins To Carve His Paddle,  And Make Himself Gorgeous With 
 Feathers. How Man Yearns For Strength,  Subduing Animal And Cosmic 
 Forces To His Will! How He Fights Against Darkness And Death,  And 
 Strives For Perfection And Holiness! These Prophecies Compel Us To 
 Believe There Is A World Where Powers Like Those Of Electricity And 
 Luminiferous Ether Are Ever At Hand; Where Its Waters Are Rivers 
 Of Life,  And Its Trees Full Of Perfect Healing,  And From Which All 
 Unholiness Is Forever Kept. What We Infer,  Scripture Affirms. 
   
 Science Tells Us There Has Been A Survival Of The Fittest. Doubtless 
 This Is So. So In The Future There Will Be A Survival Of The Fittest. 
 What Is It? Wisdom,  Gentleness,  Meekness,  Brotherly Kindness,  And 
 Charity. Over Those Who Have These Traits Death Hath No Permanent 
 Power. The Caterpillar Has No Fear As He Weaves His Own Shroud; For 
 There Is Life Within Fit To Survive,  And Ere Long It Spreads Its 
 Gorgeous Wings,  And Flies In The Air Above Where Once It Crawled. Man 
 Has Had Two States Of Being Already. One Confined,  Dark,  Peculiarly 
 
 
 
 Chapter 9 (The Worlds And The Word) Pg 119 
 Nourished,  Slightly Conscious; Then He Was Born Into Another--Wide, 
 Differently Nourished,  And Intensely [Page 244] Conscious. He Knows 
 He May Be Born Again Into A Life Wider Yet,  Differently Nourished, 
 And Even Yet More Intensely Conscious. Science Has No Hint How A 
 Long Ascending Series Of Developments Crowned By Man May Advance 
 Another Step,  And Make Man Isaggelos--Equal To Angels. But The 
 Simplest Teaching Of Scripture Points Out A Way So Clear That A 
 Child Need Not Miss The Glorious Consummation. 
   
 When Uranus Hastened In One Part Of Its Orbit,  And Then Retarded, 
 And Swung Too Wide,  Men Said There Must Be Another Attracting World 
 Beyond; And,  Looking There,  Neptune Was Found. So,  When Individual 
 Men Are So Strong That Nations Or Armies Cannot Break Down Their 
 Wills; So Brave,  That Lions Have No Terrors; So Holy,  That Temptation 
 Cannot Lure Nor Sin Defile Them; So Grand In Thought,  That Men 
 Cannot Follow; So Pure In Walk,  That God Walks With Them--Let Us 
 Infer An Attracting World,  High And Pure And Strong As Heaven. The 
 Eleventh Chapter Of Hebrews Is A Roll-Call Of Heroes Of Whom This 
 World Was Not Worthy. They Were Tortured,  Not Accepting Deliverance, 
 That They Might Obtain A Better Resurrection. The World To Come 
 Influenced,  As It Were,  The Orbits Of Their Souls,  And When Their 
 Bodies Fell Off,  Earth Having No Hold On Them,  They Sped On To 
 Their Celestial Home. The Tendency Of Such Souls Necessitates Such 
 A World. 
   
 The Worlds And The Word Speak But One Language,  Teach But One Set 
 Of Truths. How Was It Possible That The Writers Of The Earlier 
 Scriptures Described Physical Phenomena With Wonderful Sublimity, 
 And With Such Penetrative Truth? They Gazed Upon The Same Heaven 
 That Those Men Saw Who Ages Afterward Led The World In Knowledge. 
 These Latter Were Near-Sighted,  And Absorbed [Page 245] In The 
 Pictures On The First Veil Of Matter; The Former Were Far-Sighted, 
 And Penetrated A Hundred Strata Of Thickest Material,  And Saw The 
 Immaterial Power Behind. The One Class Studied The Present,  And Made 
 The Gravest Mistakes; The Other Pierced The Uncounted Ages Of The 
 Past,  And Uttered The Profoundest Wisdom. There Is But One 
 Explanation. He That Planned And Made The Worlds Inspired The Word. 
   
 Science And Religion Are Not Two Separate Departments,  They Are 
 Not Even Two Phases Of The Same Truth. Science Has A Broader Realm 
 In The Unseen Than In The Seen,  In The Source Of Power Than In The 
 Outcomes Of Power,  In The Sublime Laws Of Spirit Than In The Laws 
 Of Matter; And Religion Sheds Its Beautiful Light Over All Stages 
 Of Life,  Till,  Whether We Eat Or Whether We Drink,  Or Whatsoever 
 We Do,  We May Do All For The Glory Of God. Science And Religion 
 Make Common Confession That The Great Object Of Life Is To Learn 
 And To Grow. Both Will Come To See The Best Possible Means,  For 
 The Attainment Of This End Is A Personal Relation To A Teacher 
 Who Is The Way,  The Truth,  And The Life. 
   
   
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 10 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 120 
 The Ultimate Force. 
   
 "In The Beginning Was The Word,  And The Word Was With God,  And The 
 Word Was God. The Same Was In The Beginning With God. All Things 
 Became By Him,  And Without Him Was Not Anything Made That Was Made 
 And By Him All Things Stand Together." 
   
 [Page 248] 
  "O Thou Eternal One; Whose Presence Blight 
   All Space Doth Occupy--All Motion Guide-- 
   Thou From Primeval Nothingness Didst Call 
   First Chaos,  Then Existence. Lord,  On Thee 
   Eternity Had Its Foundation: All 
   Sprung Forth From Thee--Of Light,  Joy,  Harmony, 
   Sole Origin: All Life,  All Beauty Thine. 
   Thy Word Created All,  And Doth Create; 
   Thy Splendor Fills All Space With Rays Divine; 
   Thou Art And Wert,  And Shalt Be Glorious,  Great; 
   Life-Giving,  Life-Sustaining Potentate, 
   Thy Chains The Unmeasured Universe Surround-- 
   Upheld By Thee,  By Thee Inspired With Breath." 
                                      Derzhavin. 
   
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 121 
 The Universe Is God's Name Writ Large. Thought Goes Up The Shining 
 Suns As Golden Stairs,  And Reads The Consecutive Syllables--All 
 Might,  And Wisdom,  And Beauty; And If The Heart Be Fine Enough And 
 Pure Enough,  It Also Reads Everywhere The Mystic Name Of Love. Let 
 Us Learn To Read The Hieroglyphics,  And Then Turn To The Blazonry 
 Of The Infinite Page. That Is The Key-Note; The Heavens And The Earth 
 Declaring The Glory Of God,  And Men With Souls Attuned Listening. 
   
 To What Voices Shall We Listen First? Stand On The Shore Of A Lake 
 Set Like An Azure Gem Among The Bosses Of Green Hills. The Patter 
 Of Rain Means An Annual Fall Of Four Cubic Feet Of Water On Every 
 Square Foot Of It. It Weighs Two Hundred And Forty Pounds To The 
 Cubic Foot,  One Hundred Million Tons On The Surface Of A Little 
 Sheet Of Water Twenty Miles Long By Three Wide. Now,  All That Weight 
 Of Falling Rain Had To Be Lifted,  A Work Compared To Which Taking 
 Up Mountains And Casting Them Into The Sea Is Pastime. All That 
 Water Had To Be Taken Up Before It Could Be Cast Down,  And Carried 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 122 
 Hundreds Of Miles Before It Could Be There. You Have Heard Niagara's 
 Thunder; Have Stood Beneath The Falling Immensity; Seen It Ceaselessly 
 Poured From An Infinite Hand; Felt That You Would Be Ground To Atoms 
 If You Fell Into That Resistless Flood. Well,  All That Infinity Of 
 [Page 250] Water Had To Be Lifted By Main Force,  Had To Be Taken Up 
 Out Of The Far Pacific,  Brought Over The Rocky Mountains; And The 
 Mississippi Keeps Bearing Its Wide Miles Of Water To The Gulf,  And 
 Niagara Keeps Thundering Age After Age,  Because There Is Power 
 Somewhere To Carry The Immeasurable Floods All The Time The Other 
 Way In The Upper Air. 
   
 But This Is Only The Alpha Of Power. Professor Clark,  Of Amherst, 
 Massachusetts,  Found That Such A Soft And Pulpy Thing As A Squash 
 Had So Great A Power Of Growth That It Lifted Three Thousand Pounds, 
 And Held It Day And Night For Months. It Toiled And Grew Under The 
 Growing Weight,  Compacting Its Substance Like Oak To Do The Work. 
 All Over The Earth This Tremendous Power And Push Of Life Goes 
 On--In The Little Star-Eyed Flowers That Look Up To God Only On 
 The Alpine Heights,  In Every Tuft Of Grass,  In Every Acre Of Wheat, 
 In Every Mile Of Prairie,  And In Every Lofty Tree That Wrestles 
 With The Tempests Of One Hundred Winters. But This Is Only The B 
 In The Alphabet Of Power. 
   
 Rise Above The Earth,  And You Find The Worlds Tossed Like Playthings, 
 And Hurled Seventy Times As Fast As A Rifle-Ball,  Never An Inch 
 Out Of Place Or A Second Out Of Time. But This Is Only The C In 
 The Alphabet Of Power. 
   
 Rise To The Sun. It Is A Quenchless Reservoir Of High-Class Energy. 
 Our Tornadoes Move Sixty Miles An Hour,  Those Of The Sun Twenty 
 Thousand Miles An Hour. A Forest On Fire Sends Its Spires Of Flame 
 One Hundred Feet In Air,  The Sun Sends Its Spires Of Flame Two 
 Hundred Thousand Miles. All Our Fires Exhaust The Fuel And Burn 
 Out. If The Sun Were Pure Coal,  It Would Burn Out In Five Thousand 
 Years; And Yet This Sea Of Unquenchable [Page 251] Flame Seethes And 
 Burns,  And Rolls And Vivifies A Dozen Worlds,  And Flashes Life Along 
 The Starry Spaces For A Million Years Without Any Apparent 
 Diminution. It Sends Out Its Power To Every Planet,  In The Vast 
 Circle In Which It Lies. It Fills With Light Not Merely A Whole 
 Circle,  But A Dome; Not Merely A Dome Above,  But One Below,  And On 
 Every Side. At Our Distance Of Ninety-Two And A Half Millions Of 
 Miles,  The Great Earth Feels That Power In Gravitation,  Tides, 
 Rains,  Winds,  And All Possible Life--Every Part Is Full Of Power. 
 Fill The Earth's Orbit With A Circle Of Such Receptive 
 Worlds--Seventy Thousand Instead Of One--Everyone Would Be As Fully 
 Supplied With Power From This Central Source. More. Fill The Whole 
 Dome,  The Entire Extent Of The Surrounding Sphere,  Bottom,  Sides, 
 Top,  A Sphere One Hundred And Eighty-Five Million Miles In Diameter, 
 And Everyone Of These Uncountable Worlds Would Be Touched With The 
 Same Power As One; Each Would Thrill With Life. This Is Only The D 
 Of The Alphabet Of Power. And Glancing Up To The Other Suns,  One 
 Hundred,  Five Hundred,  Twelve Hundred Times As Large,  Double, 
 Triple,  Septuple,  Multiple Suns,  We Shall Find Power Enough To Go 
 Through The Whole Alphabet In Geometrical Ratio; And Then In The 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 123 
 Clustered Suns,  Galaxies,  And Nebulae,  Power Enough Still 
 Unrepresented By Single Letters To Require All Combinations Of The 
 Alphabet Of Power. What Is The Significance Of This Single Element 
 Of Power? The Answer Of Science To-Day Is "Correlation," The 
 Constant Evolution Of One Force From Another. Heat Is A Mode Of 
 Motion,  Motion A Result Of Heat. So Far So Good. But Are We Mere 
 Reasoners In A Circle? Then We Would Be Lost Men,  Treading Our Round 
 Of Death In A Limitless Forest. What Is The Ultimate? Reason [Page 
 252] Out In A Straight Line. No Definition Of Matter Allows It To 
 Originate Force; Only Mind Can Do That. Hence The Ultimate Force Is 
 Always Mind. Carry Your Correlation As Far As You Please--Through 
 Planets,  Suns,  Nebulae,  Concretionary Vortices,  And Revolving 
 Fire-Mist--There Must Always Be Mind And Will Beyond. Some Of That 
 Willpower That Works Without Exhaustion Must Take Its Own Force And 
 Render It Static,  Apparent. It May Do This In Such Correlated 
 Relation That That Force Shall Go On Year After Year To A Thousand 
 Changing Forms; But That Force Must Originate In Mind. 
   
 Go Out In The Falling Rain,  Stand Under The Thunderous Niagara, 
 Feel The Immeasurable Rush Of Life,  See The Hanging Worlds,  And 
 Trace All This--The Carried Rain,  The Terrific Thunder With God's Bow 
 Of Peace Upon It,  And The Unfailing Planets Hung Upon Nothing--Trace 
 All This To The Orb Of Day Blazing In Perpetual Strength,  But Stop 
 Not There. Who _Made_ The Sun? Contrivance Fills All Thought. _Who_ 
 Made The Sun? Nature Says There Is A Mind,  And That Mind Is Almighty. 
 Then You Have Read The First Syllables,  Viz.,  Being And Power. 
   
 What Is The Continuous Relation Of The Universe To The Mind From 
 Which It Derived Its Power? Some Say That It Is The Relation Of 
 A Wound-Up Watch To The Winder. It Was Dowered With Sufficient 
 Power To Revolve Its Ceaseless Changes,  And Its Maker Is Henceforth 
 An Absentee God. Is It? Let Us Have Courage To See. For Twenty 
 Years One Devotes Ten Seconds Every Night To Putting A Little Force 
 Into A Watch. It Is So Arranged That It Distributes That Force 
 Over Twenty-Four Hours. In That Twenty Years More Power Has Been 
 Put Into That Watch Than A Horse Could Exert At Once. But Suppose 
 [Page 253] One Had Tried To Put All That Force Into The Watch At 
 Once: It Would Have Pulverized It To Atoms. But Supposing The 
 Universe Had Been Dowered With Power At First To Run Its Enormous 
 Rounds For Twenty Millions Of Years. It Is Inconceivable; Steel 
 Would Be As Friable As Sand,  And Strengthless As Smoke,  In Such 
 Strain. 
   
 We Have Discovered Some Of The Laws Of The Force We Call Gravitation. 
 But What Do We Know Of Its Essence? How It Appears To Act We Know A 
 Little,  What It Is We Are Profoundly Ignorant. Few Men Ever Discuss 
 This Question. All Theories Are Sublimely Ridiculous,  And Fail To 
 Pass The Most Primary Tests. How Matter Can Act Where It Is Not, 
 And On That With Which It Has No Connection,  Is Inconceivable. 
   
 Newton Said That Anyone Who Has In Philosophical Matters A Competent 
 Faculty Of Thinking,  Could Not Admit For A Moment The Possibility 
 Of A Sun Reaching Through Millions Of Miles,  And Exercising There 
 An Attractive Power. A Watch May Run If Wound Up,  But How The 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 124 
 Watch-Spring In One Pocket Can Run The Watch In Another Is Hard 
 To See. A Watch Is A Contrivance For Distributing A Force Outside 
 Of Itself,  And If The Universe Runs At All On That Principle,  It 
 Distributes Some Force Outside Of Itself. 
   
 Le Sage's Theory Of Gravitation By The Infinitive Hail Of Atoms 
 Cannot Stand A Minute,  Hence We Come Back As A Necessity Of Thought 
 To Herschel's Statement. "It Is But Reasonable To Regard Gravity 
 As A Result Of A Consciousness And A Will Existent Somewhere." 
 Where? I Read An Old Book Speaking Of These Matters,  And It Says 
 Of God,  He Hangeth The Earth Upon Nothing; He Upholdeth Constantly 
 All Things By The Word Of His Power. [Page 254] By Him All Things 
 Consist Or Hold Together. It Teaches An Imminent Mind; An Almighty, 
 Constantly Exerted Power. Proof Of This Starts Up On Every Side. 
 There Is A Recognized Tendency In All High-Class Energy To 
 Deteriorate To A Lower Class. There Is Steam In The Boiler,  But It 
 Wastes Without Fuel. There Is Electricity In The Jar,  But Every 
 Particle Of Air Steals Away A Little,  Unless Our Conscious Force Is 
 Exerted To Regather It. There Is Light In The Sun,  But Infinite 
 Space Waits To Receive It,  And Takes It Swift As Light Can Leap. We 
 Said That If The Sun Were Pure Coal,  It Would Burn Out In Five 
 Thousand Years,  But It Blazes Undimmed By The Million. How Can It? 
 There Have Been Various Theories: Chemical Combustion,  It Has 
 Failed; Meteoric Impact,  It Is Insufficient; Condensation,  It Is Not 
 Proved; And If It Were,  It Is An Intermediate Step Back To The 
 Original Cause Of Condensation. The Far-Seeing Eyes See In The Sun 
 The Present Active Power Of Him Who First Said,  "Let There Be 
 Light," And Who At Any Moment Can Meet A Saul In The Way To Damascus 
 With A Light Above The Brightness Of The Sun--Another Noon Arisen On 
 Mid-Day; And Of Whom It Shall Be Said In The Eternal State Of 
 Unclouded Brightness,  Where Sun And Moon Are No More,  "The Glory Of 
 The Lord Shall Lighten It,  And The Lamb Is The Light Thereof." 
   
 But Suppose Matter Could Be Dowered,  That Worlds Could Have A 
 Gravitation,  One Of Two Things Must Follow: It Must Have Conscious 
 Knowledge Of The Position,  Exact Weight,  And Distance Of Every 
 Atom,  Mass,  And World,  In Order To Proportion The Exact Amount Of 
 Gravity,  Or It Must Fill Infinity With An Omnipresent Attractive 
 Power,  Pulling In Myriads Of Places At Nothing; In [Page 255] A Few 
 Places At Worlds. Every World Must Exert An Infinitely Extended 
 Power,  But Myriads Of Infinities Cannot Be In The Same Space. The 
 Solution Is,  One Infinite Power And Conscious Will. 
   
 To See The Impossibility Of Every Other Solution,  Join In The Long 
 And Microscopic Hunt For The Ultimate Particle,  The Atom; And If 
 Found,  Or If Not Found,  To A Consideration Of Its Remarkable Powers. 
 Bring Telescopes And Microscopes,  Use All Strategy,  For That Atom 
 Is Difficult To Catch. Make The First Search With The Microscope: 
 We Can Count 112,000 Lines Ruled On A Glass Plate Inside Of An 
 Inch. But We Are Here Looking At Mountain Ridges And Valleys,  Not 
 Atoms. Gold Can Be Beaten To The 1/340000 Of An Inch. It Can Be 
 Drawn As The Coating Of A Wire A Thousand Times Thinner,  To The 
 1/340000000 Of An Inch. But The Atoms Are Still Heaped One Upon 
 Another. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 125 
   
 Take Some Of The Infusorial Animals. Alonzo Gray Says Millions 
 Of Them Would Not Equal In Bulk A Grain Of Sand. Yet Each Of Them 
 Performs The Functions Of Respiration,  Circulation,  Digestion, 
 And Locomotion. Some Of Our Blood-Vessels Are Not A Millionth Of 
 Our Size. What Must Be The Size Of The Ultimate Particles That 
 Freely Move About To Nourish An Animal Whose Totality Is Too Small 
 To Estimate? A Grain Of Musk Gives Off Atoms Enough To Scent Every 
 Part Of The Air Of A Room. You Detect It Above,  Below,  On Every 
 Side. Then Let The Zephyrs Of Summer And The Blasts Of Winter Sweep 
 Through That Room For Forty Years,  Bearing Out Into The Wide World 
 Miles On Miles Of Air,  All Perfumed From The Atoms Of That Grain 
 Of Musk,  And At The End Of The Forty Years The Weight Of Musk Has 
 Not Appreciably Diminished. [Page 256] Yet Uncountable Myriads On 
 Myriads Of Atoms Have Gone. 
   
 Our Atom Is Not Found Yet. Many Are The Ways Of Searching For It 
 Which We Cannot Stop To Consider. We Will Pass In Review The Properties 
 With Which Materialists Preposterously Endow It. It Is Impenetrable 
 And Indivisible,  Though Some Atoms Are A Hundred Times Larger Than 
 Others. Each Has Definite Shape; Some One Shape,  And Some Another. 
 They Differ In Weight,  In Quantity Of Combining Power,  In Quality 
 Of Combining Power. They Combine With Different Substances,  In 
 Certain Exact Assignable Quantities. Thus One Atom Of Hydrogen 
 Combines With Eighty Of Bromine,  One Hundred And Sixty Of Mercury, 
 Two Hundred And Forty Of Boron,  Three Hundred And Twenty Of Silicon, 
 Etc. Hence Our Atom Of Hydrogen Must Have Power To Count,  Or At 
 Least To Measure,  Or Be Cognizant Of Bulk. Again,  Atoms Are Of 
 Different Sorts,  As Positive Or Negative To Electric Currents. 
 They Have Power To Take Different Shapes With Different Atoms In 
 Crystallization; That Is,  There Is A Power In Them,  Conscious Or 
 Otherwise,  That The Same Bricks Shall Make Themselves Into Stables 
 Or Palaces,  Sewers Or Pavements,  According As The Mortar Varies. 
 "No,  No," You Cry Out; "It Is Only According As The Builder Varies 
 His Plan." There Is No Need To Rehearse These Powers Much Further; 
 Though Not One-Tenth Of The Supposed Innate Properties Of This 
 Infinitesimal Infinite Have Been Recited--Properties Which Are 
 Expressed By The Words Atomicity,  Quantivilence,  Monad,  Dryad, 
 Univalent,  Perissad,  Quadrivalent,  And Twenty Other Terms,  Each 
 Expressing Some Endowment Of Power In This In Visible Atom. Refer 
 To One More Presumed Ability,  An Ability [Page 257] To Keep 
 Themselves In Exact Relation Of Distance And Power To Each Other, 
 Without Touching. 
   
 It Is Well Known That Water Does Not Fill The Space It Occupies. 
 We Can Put Eight Or Ten Similar Bulks Of Different Substances Into 
 A Glass Of Water Without Greatly Increasing Its Bulk,  Some Actually 
 Diminishing It. A Philosopher Has Said That The Atoms Of Oxygen 
 And Hydrogen Are Probably Not Nearer To Each Other In Water Than 
 One Hundred And Fifty Men Would Be If Scattered Over The Surface 
 Of England,  One Man To Four Hundred Square Miles. 
   
 The Atoms Of The Luminiferous Ether Are Infinitely More Diffused, 
 And Yet Its Interactive Atoms Can Give Four Hundred Millions Of 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 126 
 Light-Waves A Second. And Now,  More Preposterous Than All,  Each 
 Atom Has An Attractive Power For Every Other Atom Of The Universe. 
 The Little Mote,  Visible Only In A Sunbeam Streaming Through A 
 Dark Room,  And The Atom,  Infinitely Smaller,  Has A Grasp Upon The 
 Whole World,  The Far-Off Sun,  And The Stars That People Infinite 
 Space. The Sage Of Concord Advises You To Hitch Your Wagon To A 
 Star. But This Is Hitching All Stars To An Infinitesimal Part Of 
 A Wagon. Such An Atom,  So Dowered,  So Infinite,  So Conscious,  Is 
 An Impossible Conception. 
   
 But If Matter Could Be So Dowered As To Produce Such Results By 
 Mechanism,  Could It Be Dowered To Produce The Results Of Intelligence? 
 Could It Be Dowered With Power Of Choice Without Becoming Mind? 
 If Oxygen And Hydrogen Could Be Made Able To Combine Into Water, 
 Could The Same Unformed Matter Produce In One Case A Plant,  In 
 Another A Bird,  In A Third A Man; And In Each Of These Put Bone, 
 Brain,  Blood,  And Nerve In [Page 258] Proper Relations? Matter Must 
 Be Mind,  Or Subject To A Present Working Mind,  To Do This. There 
 Must Be A Present Intelligence Directing The Process,  Laying The 
 Dead Bricks,  Marble,  And Wood In An Intelligent Order For A Living 
 Temple. If We Do Put God Behind A Single Veil In Dead Matter,  In All 
 Living Things He Must Be Apparent And At Work. If,  Then,  Such A 
 Thing As An Infinite Atom Is Impossible,  Shall We Not Best 
 Understand Matter By Saying It Is A Visible Representation Of God's 
 Personal Will And Power,  Of His Personal Force,  And Perhaps 
 Knowledge,  Set Aside A Little From Himself,  Still Possessed Somewhat 
 Of His Personal Attributes,  Still Responsive To His Will. What We 
 Call Matter May Be Best Understood As God's Force,  Will,  Knowledge, 
 Rendered Apparent,  Static,  And Unweariably Operative. Unless Matter 
 Is Eternal,  Which Is Unthinkable,  There Was Nothing Out Of Which The 
 World Could Be Made,  But God Himself; And,  Reverently Be It Said, 
 Matter Seems To Retain Fit Capabilities For Such Source. Is Not This 
 The Teaching Of The Bible? I Come To The Old Book. I Come To That 
 Man Who Was Taken Up Into The Arcana Of The Third Heaven,  The Holy 
 Of Holies,  And Heard Things Impossible To Word. I Find He Makes A 
 Clear,  Unequivocal Statement Of This Truth As God's Revelation To 
 Him. "By Faith," Says The Author Of Hebrews,  "We Understand The 
 Worlds Were Framed By The Word Of God,  So That Things Which Are Seen 
 Were Not Made Of Things Which Do Appear." In Corinthians,  Paul 
 Says--But To Us There Is But One God,  The Father,  Of Whom [As A 
 Source] Are All Things; And One Lord Jesus Christ,  By Whom [As A 
 Creative Worker] Are All Things. So In Romans He Says--"For Out Of 
 Him,  And Through Him,  And To Him Are All Things,  To Whom Be Glory 
 Forever. Amen." 
   
 [Page 259] 
 God's Intimate Relation To Matter Is Explained. No Wonder The Forces 
 Respond To His Will; No Wonder Pantheism--The Idea That Matter Is 
 God--Has Had Such A Hold Upon The Minds Of Men. Matter,  Derived 
 From Him,  Bears Marks Of Its Parentage,  Is Sustained By Him,  And 
 When The Divine Will Shall Draw It Nearer To Himself The New Power 
 And Capabilities Of A New Creation Shall Appear. Let Us Pay A Higher 
 Respect To The Attractions And Affinities; To The Plan And Power 
 Of Growth; To The Wisdom Of The Ant; The Geometry Of The Bee; The 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 127 
 Migrating Instinct That Rises And Stretches Its Wings Toward A 
 Provided South--For It Is All God's Present Wisdom And Power. Let 
 Us Come To That True Insight Of The Old Prophets,  Who Are Fittingly 
 Called Seers; Whose Eyes Pierced The Veil Of Matter,  And Saw God 
 Clothing The Grass Of The Field,  Feeding The Sparrows,  Giving Snow 
 Like Wool And Scattering Hoar-Frost Like Ashes,  And Ever Standing On 
 The Bow Of Our Wide-Sailing World,  And Ever Saying To All Tumultuous 
 Forces,  "Peace,  Be Still." Let Us,  With More Reverent Step,  Walk 
 The Leafy Solitudes,  And Say: 
   
                        "Father,  Thy Hand 
   Hath Reared These Venerable Columns: Thou 
   Did'st Weave This Verdant Roof. Thou Did'st Look Down 
   Upon The Naked Earth,  And Forthwise Rose 
   All These Fair Ranks Of Trees. They In Thy Sun 
   Budded,  And Shook Their Green Leaves In Thy Breeze. 
   
                "That Delicate Forest Flower, 
   With Scented Breath And Looks So Like A Smile, 
   Seems,  As It Issues From The Shapeless Mould, 
   An Emanation Of The Indwelling Life, 
   A Visible Token Of The Unfolding Love 
   That Are The Soul Of This Wide Universe."--Bryant. 
   
 [Page 260] 
 Philosophy Has Seen The Vast Machine Of The Universe,  Wheel Within 
 Wheel,  In Countless Numbers And Hopeless Intricacy. But It Has 
 Not Had The Spiritual Insight Of Ezekiel To See That They Were 
 Everyone Of Them Full Of Eyes--God's Own Emblem Of The Omniscient 
 Supervision. 
   
 What If There Are Some Sounds That Do Not Seem To Be Musically 
 Rhythmic. I Have Seen Where An Avalanche Broke From The Mountain Side 
 And Buried A Hapless City; Have Seen The Face Of A Cliff Shattered 
 To Fragments By The Weight Of Its Superincumbent Mass,  Or Pierced 
 By The Fingers Of The Frost And Torn Away. All These Thunder Down 
 The Valley And Are Pulverized To Sand. Is This Music? No,  But It 
 Is A Tuning Of Instruments. The Rootlets Seize The Sand And Turn 
 It To Soil,  To Woody Fibre,  Leafy Verdure,  Blooming Flowers,  And 
 Delicious Fruit. This Asks Life To Come,  Partake,  And Be Made Strong. 
 The Grass Gives Itself To All Flesh,  The Insect Grows To Feed The 
 Bird,  The Bird To Nourish The Animal,  The Animal To Develop The 
 Man. 
   
 Notwithstanding The Tendency Of All High-Class Energy To Deteriorate, 
 To Find Equilibrium,  And So Be Strengthless And Dead,  There Is, 
 Somehow,  In Nature A Tremendous Push Upward. Ask Any Philosopher, 
 And He Will Tell You That The Tendency Of All Endowed Forces Is 
 To Find Their Equilibrium And Be At Rest--That Is,  Dead. He Draws 
 A Dismal Picture Of The Time When The Sun Shall Be Burned Out, 
 And The World Float Like A Charnel Ship Through The Dark,  Cold 
 Voids Of Space--The Sun A Burned-Out Char,  A Dead Cinder,  And The 
 World One Dismal Silence,  Cold Beyond Measure,  And Dead Beyond 
 Consciousness. The Philosopher Has Wailed A Dirge Without [Page 261] 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 128 
 Hope,  A Requiem Without Grandeur,  Over The World's Future. But 
 Nature Herself,  To All Ears Attuned,  Sings Paeans,  And Shouts To Men 
 That The Highest Energy,  That Of Life,  Does Not Deteriorate. 
   
 Mere Nature May Deteriorate. The Endowments Of Force Must Spend 
 Themselves. Wound-Up Watches And Worlds Must Run Down. But Nature 
 Sustained By Unexpendable Forces Must Abide. Nature Filled With 
 Unexpendable Forces Continues In Form. Nature Impelled By A Magnificent 
 Push Of Life Must Ever Rise. 
   
 Study Her History In The Past. Sulphurous Realms Of Deadly Gases 
 Become Solid Worlds; Surplus Sunlight Becomes Coal,  Which Is Reserved 
 Power; Surplus Carbon Becomes Diamonds; Sediments Settle Until 
 The Heavens Are Azure,  The Air Pure,  The Water Translucent. If 
 That Is The Progress Of The Past,  Why Should It Deteriorate In The 
 Future? 
   
 There Is A System Of Laws In The Universe In Which The Higher Have 
 Mastery Over The Lower. Lower Powers Are Constitutionally Arranged 
 To Be Overcome; Higher Powers Are Constitutionally Arranged For 
 Mastery. At One Time The Water Lies In Even Layers Near The Ocean's 
 Bed,  In Obedience To The Law Or Power Of Gravitation. At Another 
 Time It Is Heaved Into Mountain Billows By The Shoulders Of The 
 Wind. Again It Flies Aloft In The Rising Mists Of The Morning, 
 Transfigured By A Thousand Rain Bows By The Higher Powers Of The 
 Sun. Again It Develops The Enormous Force Of Steam By The Power Of 
 Heat. Again It Divides Into Two Light Flying Airs By Electricity. 
 Again It Stands Upright As A Heap By The Power Of Some Law In The 
 Spirit Realm,  Whose Mode Of Working We Are Not Yet Large Enough 
 [Page 262] To Comprehend. The Water Is Solid,  Liquid,  Gaseous On 
 Earth,  And In Air According To The Grade Of Power Operating Upon It. 
   
 The Constant Invention Of Man Finds Higher And Higher Powers. Once 
 He Throttled His Game,  And Often Perished In The Desperate Struggle; 
 Then He Trapped It; Then Pierced It With The Javelin; Then Shot It 
 With An Arrow,  Or Set The Springy Gases To Hurl A Rifle-Ball At 
 It. Sometime He May Point At It An Electric Spark,  And It Shall 
 Be His. Once He Wearily Trudged His Twenty Miles A Day,  Then He 
 Took The Horse Into Service And Made Sixty; Invoked The Winds, 
 And Rode On Their Steady Wings Two Hundred And Forty; Tamed The 
 Steam,  And Made Almost One Thousand; And If He Cannot Yet Send His 
 Body,  He Can His Mind,  One Thousand Miles A Second. It All Depends 
 Upon The Grade Of Power He Uses. Now,  Hear The Grand Truth Of Nature: 
 As The Years Progress The Higher Grades Of Power Increase. Either 
 By Discovery Or Creation,  There Are Still Higher Class Forces To 
 Be Made Available. Once There Was No Air,  No Usable Electricity. 
 There Is No Lack Of Those Higher Powers Now. The Higher We Go The 
 More Of Them We Find. Mr. Lockyer Says That The Past Ten Years Have 
 Been Years Of Revelation Concerning The Sun. A Man Could Not Read 
 In Ten Years The Library Of Books Created In That Time Concerning 
 The Sun. But Though We Have Solved Certain Problems And Mysteries, 
 The Mysteries Have Increased Tenfold. 
   
 We Do Not Know That Any New And Higher Forces Have Been Added To 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 129 
 Matter Since Man's Acquaintance With It. But It Would Be Easy To 
 Add Any Number Of Them,  Or Change Any Lower Into Higher. That Is The 
 [Page 263] Meaning Of The Falling Granite That Becomes Soil,  Of The 
 Pulverized Lava That Decks The Volcano's Trembling Sides With 
 Flowers; That Is The Meaning Of The Grass Becoming Flesh,  And Of All 
 High Forces Constitutionally Arranged For Mastery Over Lower. Take 
 The Ore From The Mountain. It Is Loose,  Friable,  Worthless In 
 Itself. Raise It In Capacity To Cast-Iron,  Wrought-Iron,  Steel,  It 
 Becomes A Highway For The Commerce Of Nations,  Over The Mountains 
 And Under Them. It Becomes Bones,  Muscles,  Body For The Inspiring 
 Soul Of Steam. It Holds Up The Airy Bridge Over The Deep Chasm. It 
 Is Obedient In Your Hand As Blade,  Hammer,  Bar,  Or Spring. It Is 
 Inspirable By Electricity,  And Bears Human Hopes,  Fears,  And Loves 
 In Its Own Bosom. It Has Been Raised From Valueless Ore. Change It 
 Again To Something As Far Above Steel As That Is Above Ore. Change 
 All Earthly Ores To Highest Possibility; String Them To Finest 
 Tissues,  And The New Result May Fit God's Hand As Tools,  And Thrill 
 With His Wisdom And Creative Processes,  A Body Fitted For God's 
 Spirit As Well As The Steel Is Fitted To Your Hand. From This World 
 Take Opacity,  Gravity,  Darkness,  Bring In More Mind,  Love,  And God, 
 And Then We Will Have Heaven. An Immanent God Makes A Plastic World. 
   
 When Man Shall Have Mastered The Forces That Now Exist,  The Original 
 Creator And Sustainer Will Say,  "Behold,  I Create All Things New." 
 Nature Shall Be Called Nearer To God,  Be More Full Of His Power. 
 To The Long-Wandering Aeneas,  His Divine Mother Sometimes Came To 
 Cheer His Heart And To Direct His Steps. But The Goddess Only Showed 
 Herself Divine By Her Departure; Only When He Stood In Desolation 
 Did The Hero Know He Had [Page 264] Stood Face To Face With Divine 
 Power,  Beauty,  And Love. Not So The Christian Scholars,  The 
 Wanderers In Nature's Bowers To-Day. In The First Dawn Of Discovery, 
 We See Her Full Of Beauty And Strength; In Closer Communion,  We Find 
 Her Full Of Wisdom; To Our Perfect Knowledge,  She Reveals An 
 Indwelling God In Her; To Our Ardent Love,  She Reveals An Indwelling 
 God In Us. 
   
 But The Evidence Of The Progressive Refinements Of Habitation Is No 
 More Clear Than That Of Progressive Refinement Of The Inhabitant: 
 There Must Be Some One To Use These Finer Things. An Empty House Is 
 Not God's Ideal Nor Man's. The Child May Handle A Toy,  But A Man 
 Must Mount A Locomotive; And Before There Can Be New Jerusalems 
 With Golden Streets,  There Must Be Men More Avaricious Of Knowledge 
 Than Of Gold,  Or They Would Dig Them Up; More Zealous For Love 
 Than Jewels,  Or They Would Unhang The Pearly Gates. The Uplifting 
 Refinement Of The Material World Has Been Kept Back Until There 
 Should Appear Masterful Spirits Able To Handle The Higher Forces. 
 Doors Have Opened On Every Side To New Realms Of Power,  When Men 
 Have Been Able To Wield Them. If Men Lose That Ability They Close 
 Again,  And Shut Out The Knowledge And Light. Then Ages,  Dark And 
 Feeble,  Follow. 
   
 Some Explore Prophecy For The Date Of The Grand Transformation 
 Of Matter By The Coming Of The Son Of Man,  For A New Creation. A 
 Little Study Of Nature Would Show That The Date Cannot Be Fixed. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 130 
 A Little Study Of Peter Would Show The Same Thing. He Says,  "What 
 Manner Of Persons Ought Ye To Be,  In All Holy Conversation And 
 Godliness,  Looking For And Hastening The Coming [Page 265] Of The 
 Day Of God,  Wherein The Heavens Being On Fire Shall Be Dissolved, 
 And The Elements Shall Melt With Fervent Heat? Nevertheless We, 
 According To His Promise,  Look For A New Heaven And A New Earth." 
   
 The Idea Is,  That The Grand Transformation Of Matter Waits The 
 Readiness Of Man. The Kingdom Waits The King. The Scattered Cantons 
 Of Italy Were Only Prostrate Provinces Till Victor Emanuel Came, 
 Then They Were Developed Into United Italy. The Prostrate Provinces 
 Of Matter Are Not Developed Until The Man Is Victor,  Able To Rule 
 There A Realm Equal To Ten Cities Here. Every Good Man Hastens The 
 Coming Of The Day Of God And Nature's Renovation. Not Only Does 
 Inference Teach That There Must Be Finer Men,  But Fact Affirms 
 That Transformation Has Already Taken Place. Life Is Meant To Have 
 Power Over Chemical Forces. It Separates Carbon From Its Compounds 
 And Builds A Tree,  Separates The Elements And Builds The Body, 
 Holds Them Separate Until Life Withdraws. More Life Means Higher 
 Being. Certainly Men Can Be Refined And Recapacitated As Well As 
 Ore. In Ovid's "Metamorphoses" He Represents The Lion In Process Of 
 Formation From Earth,  Hind Quarters Still Clay,  But Fore Quarters, 
 Head,  Erect Mane,  And Blazing Eye--Live Lion--And Pawing To Get 
 Free. We Have Seen Winged Spirits Yet Linked To Forms Of Clay, 
 But Beating The Celestial Air,  Endeavoring To Be Free; And We Have 
 Seen Them,  Dowered With New Sight,  Filled With New Love,  Break 
 Loose And Rise To Higher Being. 
   
 In This Grand Apotheosis Of Man Which Nature Teaches,  Progress 
 Lias Already Been Made. Man Has Already Outgrown His Harmony With 
 The Environment Of Mere Matter. He Has Given His Hand To Science,  And 
 Been Lifted Up Above The Earth Into The Voids Of Infinite Space. He 
 [Page 266] Has Gone On And On,  Till Thought,  Wearied Amidst The 
 Infinities Of Velocity And Distance,  Has Ceased To Note Them. But He 
 Is Not Content; All His Faculties Are Not Filled. He Feels That His 
 Future Self Is In Danger Of Not Being Satisfied With Space,  And 
 Worlds,  And All Mental Delights,  Even As His Manhood Fails To Be 
 Satisfied With The Materiel Toys Of His Babyhood. He Asks For An 
 Author And Maker Of Things,  Infinitely Above Them. He Has Seen 
 Wisdom Unsearchable,  Power Illimitable; But He Asks For Personal 
 Sympathy And Love. Paul Expresses His Feeling: Every Creature--Not 
 The Whole Creation--Groaneth And Travaileth In Pain Together Until 
 Now,  Waiting For The Adoption--The Uplifting From Orphanage To 
 Parentage--A Translation Out Of Darkness Into The Kingdom Of God's 
 Dear Son. He Hears That A Man In Christ Is A New Creation: Old 
 Things Pass Away,  All Things Become New. There Is Then A Possibility 
 Of Finding The Author Of Nature,  And The Father Of Man. He Begins 
 His Studies Anew. Now He Sees That All Lines Of Knowledge Converge 
 As They Go Out Toward The Infinite Mystery; Sees That These 
 Converging Lines Are The Reins Of Government In This World; Sees The 
 Converging Lines Grasped By An Almighty Hand; Sees A Loving Face And 
 Form Behind; Sees That These Lines Of Knowledge And Power Are His 
 Personal Nerves,  Along Which Flashes His Will,  And Every Force In 
 The Universe Answers Like A Perfect Muscle. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 131 
   
 Then He Asks If This Personality Is As Full Of Love As Of Power. 
 He Is Told Of A Tenderness Too Deep For Tears,  A Love That Has The 
 Cross For Its Symbol,  And A Dying Cry For Its Expression: Seeking 
 It,  He Is A New Creation. He Sees More Wondrous Things In The Word 
 Than In The [Page 267] World. He Comes To Know God With His Heart, 
 Better Than He Knows God's Works By His Mind. 
   
 Every Song Closes With The Key-Note With Which It Began,  And The 
 Brief Cadence At The Close Hints The Realms Of Sound Through Which 
 It Has Tried Its Wings. The Brief Cadence At The Close Is This: 
 All Force Runs Back Into Mind For Its Source,  Constant Support, 
 And Uplifts Into Higher Grades. 
   
 Mr. Grove Says,  "Causation Is The Will,  Creation Is The Act,  Of God." 
 Creation Is Planned And Inspired For The Attainment Of Constantly 
 Rising Results. The Order Is Chaos,  Light,  Worlds,  Vegetable Forms, 
 Animal Life,  Then Man. There Is No Reason To Pause Here. This Is 
 Not Perfection,  Not Even Perpetuity. Original Plans Are Not 
 Accomplished,  Nor Original Force Exhausted. In Another World,  Free 
 From Sickness,  Sorrow,  Pain,  And Death,  Perfection Of Abode Is 
 Offered. Perfection Of Inhabitant Is Necessary; And As The Creative 
 Power Is Everywhere Present For The Various Uplifts And Refinements 
 Of Matter,  It Is Everywhere Present With Appropriate Power For 
 The Uplifting And Refinement Of Mind And Spirit. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
 [Page 269] 
 Summary Of Latest Discoveries And Conclusions. 
   
 _Movements On The Sun._--The Discovery And Measurement Of The Up-Rush, 
 Down-Rush,  And Whirl Of Currents About The Sunspots,  Also Of The 
 Determination Of The Velocity Of Rotation By Means Of The Spectroscope, 
 As Described (Page 53),  Is One Of The Most Delicate And Difficult 
 Achievements Of Modern Science. 
   
 _Movement Of Stars In Line Of Sight_ (Page 51).--The Following 
 Table Shows This Movement Of Stars,  So Far As At Present Known: 
   
  --------------------------------------------------------------- 
 |        Aproaching.           ||          Receding.            | 
 |------------------------------||-------------------------------| 
 |  Map. |   Name.   |   Rate   ||  Map.  |   Name.   |  Rate    | 
 |       |           | Per Sec. ||        |           | Per Sec. | 
 |-------|-----------|----------||--------|-----------|----------| 
 |Fig. 71|Arcturus   | 55 Miles ||Fig. 69 |Sirius     | 20 Miles | 
 | "   72|Vega       | 50   "   ||Fr'piece|Betelguese | 22   "   | 
 | "   73|A Cygni    | 39   "   ||    "   |Rigel      | 15   "   | 
 | "   69|Pollux     | 49   "   ||Fig. 69 |Castor     | 25   "   | 
 | "   67|Dubhe      | 46   "   || "   70 |Regulus    | 15   "   | 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 132 
  --------------------------------------------------------------- 
   
 _Sun's Appearance._--This Was Formerly Supposed To Be An Even, 
 Regular,  Dazzling Brightness,  Except Where The Spots Appeared. 
 But The Sun's Surface Is Now Known To Be Mottled With What Are 
 Called Rice Grains Or Willow Leaves. But The Rice Grains Are As 
 Large As The Continent Of America. The Spaces Between Are Called 
 Pores. They Constitute An Innumerable Number Of Small Spots. This 
 Appearance Of The General Surface Is Well Portrayed In The Cut 
 On Page 92. 
   
 _Close Relation Between Sun And Earth._-Men Always Knew That The 
 Earth Received Light From The Sun. They Subsequently Discovered 
 That The Earth Was Momentarily Held By The Power [Page 270] Of 
 Gravitation. But It Is A Recent Discovery That The Light Is One Of 
 The Principal Agents In Chemical Changes,  In Molecular Grouping And 
 World-Building,  Thus Making All Kinds Of Life Possible (P. 30-36). 
 The Close Connection Of The Sun And The Earth Will Be Still Farther 
 Shown In The Relation Of Sun-Spots And Auroras. One Of The Most 
 Significant Instances Is Related On Page 19,  When The Earth Felt The 
 Fall Of Bolides Upon The Sun. Members Of The Body No More Answer To 
 The Heart Than The Planets Do To The Sun. 
   
 _Hydrogen Flames._--It Has Been Demonstrated That The Sun Flames 
 200,000 Miles High Are Hydrogen In A State Of Flaming Incandescence 
 (Page 85). 
   
 _Sun's Distance._--The Former Estimate,  95,513,794 Miles,  Has Been 
 Reduced By Nearly One-Thirtieth. Lockyer Has Stated It As Low As 
 89,895,000 Miles,  And Proctor,  In "Encyclopaedia Britannica," At 
 91,430,000 Miles,  But Discovered Errors Show That These Estimates 
 Are Too Small. Newcomb Gives 92,400,000 As Within 200,000 Miles 
 Of The Correct Distance. The Data For A New Determination Of This 
 Distance,  Obtained From The Transit Of Venus,  December 8th,  1874, 
 Have Not Yet Been Deciphered; A Fact That Shows The Difficulty 
 And Laboriousness Of The Work. Meanwhile It Begins To Be Evident 
 That Observations Of The Transit Of Venus Do Not Afford The Best 
 Basis For The Most Perfect Determination Of The Sun's Distance. 
   
 Since The Earth's Distance Is Our Astronomical Unit Of Measure,  It 
 Follows That All Other Distances Will Be Changed,  When Expressed 
 In Miles,  By This Ascertained Change Of The Value Of The Standard. 
   
 _Oxygen In The Sun._--In 1877 Professor Draper Announced The Discovery 
 Of Oxygen Lines In The Spectrum Of The Sun. The Discovery Was Doubted, 
 And The Methods Used Were Criticised By Lockyer And Others,  But 
 Later And More Delicate Experiments Substantiate Professor Draper's 
 Claim To The Discovery. The Elements Known To Exist In The Sun 
 Are Salt,  Iron,  Hydrogen,  [Page 271] Magnesium,  Barium,  Copper, 
 Zinc,  Cromium,  And Nickel. Some Elements In The Sun Are Scarcely,  If 
 At All,  Discoverable On The Earth,  And Some On The Earth Not Yet 
 Discernible In The Sun. 
   
 _Substance Of Stars._--Aldebaran (_Frontispiece_) Shows Salt,  Magnesium, 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 133 
 Hydrogen,  Calcium,  Iron,  Bismuth,  Tellurium,  Antimony,  And Mercury. 
 Some Of The Sun's Metals Do Not Appear. Stars Differ In Their Very 
 Substance,  And Will,  No Doubt,  Introduce New Elements To Us Unknown 
 Before. 
   
 The Theory That All Nebulae Are Very Distant Clusters Of Stars Is 
 Utterly Disproved By The Clearest Proof That Some Of Them Are Only 
 Incandescent Gases Of One Or Two Kinds. 
   
 _Discoveries Of New Bodies._--Vulcan,  The Planet Nearest The Sun 
 (Page 138). The Two Satellites Of Mars Were Discovered By Mr. Hall, 
 U. S. Naval Observatory,  August 11th,  1877 (Page 161). "The Outer 
 One Is Called Diemas; The Inner,  Phobus. 
   
 Sir William Herschel Thought He Discovered Six Satellites Of Uranus. 
 The Existence Of Four Of Them Has Been Disproved By The Researches Of 
 Men With Larger Telescopes. Two New Ones,  However,  Were Discovered 
 By Mr. Lassell In 1846. 
   
 _Saturn's Rings_ Are Proved To Be In A State Of Fluidity And Contraction 
 (Page 171). 
   
 _Meteors And Comets._--The Orbits Of Over One Hundred Swarms Of 
 Meteoric Bodies Are Fixed: Their Relation To,  And In Some Cases 
 Indentity With,  Comets Determined. Some Comets Are Proved To Be 
 Masses Of Great Weight And Solidity (Page 133). 
   
 _Aerolites._-Some Have A Texture Like Our Lowest Strata Of Rocks. 
 There Is A Geology Of Stars And Meteors As Well As Of The Earth. M. 
 Meunier Has Just Received The Lalande Medal From The Paris Academy 
 For His Treatise Showing That,  So Far As Our Present Knowledge Can 
 Determine,  Some Of These Meteors Once Belonged To A Globe Developed 
 In True Geological Epochs,  And Which Has Been Separated Into Fragments 
 By Agencies With Which We Are Not Acquainted. 
   
   
 _The Horizontal Pendulum._--This Delicate Instrument Is [Page 272] 
 Represented In Fig. 82. It Consists Of An Upright Standard,  Strongly 
 Braced; A Weight,  _M_,  Suspended By The Hair-Spring Of A Watch,  B D, 
 And Held In A Horizontal Position By Another Watch-Spring,  A C. The 
 Weight Is Deflected From Side To Side By The Slightest Influence. 
 The Least Change In The Level Of A Base Thirty-Nine Inches Long That 
 Could Be Detected By A Spirit-Level Is 0".1 Of An Arc--Equal To 
 Raising One End 1/2068 Of An Inch. But The Pendulum Detects A 
 Raising Of One End 1/36000000 Of An Inch. To Observe The Movements 
 Of The Pendulum,  It Is Kept In A Dark Room,  And A Ray Of Light Is 
 Directed To The Mirror,  _M_,  And Thence Reflected Upon A Screen. 
 Thus The Least Movement May Be Enormously Magnified,  And Read And 
 Measured By The Moving Spot On The Screen. It Has Been Discovered 
 That When The Sun Rises It Has Sufficient Attraction To Incline This 
 Instrument To The East; When It Sets,  To Incline It To The West. The 
 Same Is True Of The Moon. When Either Is Exactly Overhead Or 
 Underfoot,  Of Course There Is No Deflection. The Mean Deflection 
 Caused By The Moon At Rising Or Setting Is 0".0174; By The Sun, 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 134 
 0".008. Great Results Are Expected From This Instrument Hardly Known 
 As Yet: Among Others,  Whether Gravitation Acts Instantly Or Consumes 
 Time In Coming From The Sun. This Will Be Shown By The Time Of The 
 Change Of The Pendulum From East To West When The Sun Reaches The 
 Zenith,  And _Vice Versa_ When It Crosses The Nadir. The Sun Will Be 
 Best Studied Without Light,  In The Quiet And Darkness Of Some Deep 
 Mine. 
   
 [Page 273] 
 _Light Of Unseen Stars._--From Careful Examination,  It Appears 
 That Three-Fourths Of The Light On A Fine Starlight Night Comes 
 From Stars That Cannot Be Discerned By The Naked Eye. The Whole 
 Amount Of Star Light Is About One-Eightieth Of That Of The Full 
 Moon. 
   
 _Lateral Movements Of Stars_,  Page 226-28. 
   
 _Future Discoveries_--_A Trans-Neptunian Planet._--Professor Asaph 
 Hall Says: "It Is Known To Me That At Least Two American Astronomers, 
 Armed With Powerful Telescopes,  Have Been Searching Quite Recently For 
 A Trans-Neptunian Planet. These Searches Have Been Caused By The Fact 
 That Professor Newcomb's Tables Of Uranus And Neptune Already Begin 
 To Differ From Observation. But Are We To Infer From These Errors Of 
 The Planetary Tables The Existence Of A Trans-Neptunian Planet? It 
 Is Possible That Such A Planet May Exist,  But The Probability Is,  I 
 Think,  That The Differences Are Caused By Errors In The Theories Of 
 These Planets. * * * A Few Years Ago The Remark Was Frequently Made 
 That The Labors Of Astronomers On The Solar System Were Finished,  And 
 That Henceforth They Could Turn Their Whole Attention To Sidereal 
 Astronomy. But To-Day We Have The Lunar Theory In A Very Discouraging 
 Condition,  And The Theories Of Mercury,  Jupiter,  Saturn,  Uranus, 
 And Neptune All In Need Of Revision; Unless,  Indeed,  Leverrier's 
 Theories Of The Last Two Planets Shall Stand The Test Of Observation. 
 But,  After All,  Such A Condition Of Things Is Only The Natural 
 Result Of Long And Accurate Series Of Observations,  Which Make 
 Evident The Small Inequalities In The Motions,  And Bring To Light 
 The Errors Of Theory." 
   
 Future Discoveries Will Mostly Reveal The Laws And Conditions Of 
 The Higher And Finer Forces. Already Professor Loomis Telegraphs 
 Twenty Miles Without Wire,  By The Electric Currents Between Mountains. 
 We Begin To Use Electricity For Light,  And Feel After It For A 
 Motor. Comets And Auroras Show Its Presence Between Worlds,  And 
 In The Interstellar Spaces. Let Another Newton Arise. 
   
 [Page 274] 
                Some Elements Of The Solar System 
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
 |           |        |            |     Mean Dist.    |         |        | 
 |           |        |            |     From Sun.     |         |        | 
 |           |        |            |-------------------|  Mean   |Density.| 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 135 
 |           |        |            | Earth's|          |Diameter |[Earth] | 
 |   Name.   | Sign.  |   Masses.  |  Dist. | Millions |In Miles.|  = 1.  | 
 |           |        |            |  As 1. | Of Miles.|         |        | 
 |-----------|--------|------------|--------|----------|---------|--------| 
 | Sun       |[Symbol]|    Unity   |        |          | 860,000 | 0.255  | 
 | Mercury   |[Symbol]|1/5000000(?)|  0.387 |    35-3/4|   2,992 | 1.21   | 
 | Venus     |[Symbol]|  1/425000  |  0.723 |    66-3/4|   7,660 | 0.85   | 
 | Earth     |[Symbol]|  1/326800  |  1.    |    92-1/3|   7,918 | 1.     | 
 | Mars      |[Symbol]|  1/2950000 |  1.523 |   141    |   4,211 | 0.737  | 
 | Asteroids |  (No.) |            |        |          |         |        | 
 | Jupiter   |[Symbol]|   1/1047   |  5.203 |   480    |  86,000 | 0.243  | 
 | Saturn    |[Symbol]|   1/3501   |  9.538 |   881    |  70,500 | 0.133  | 
 | Uranus    |[Symbol]|  1/22600   | 19.183 |  1771    |  31,700 | 0.226  | 
 | Neptune   |[Symbol]|  1/19380   | 30.054 |  2775    |  34,500 | 0.204  | 
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
   
  ------------------------------------------------------------- 
 |           |               | Gravity  |           |          | 
 |           |     Axial     |    At    |           | Orbital  | 
 |           |    Revolu-    | Surface. |  Periodic | Velocity | 
 |   Name.   |     Tion      | [Earth]  |    Time.  | In Miles | 
 |           |               |   = 1    |           | Per Sec. | 
 |-----------|---------------|----------|-----------|----------| 
 | Sun       | 25 To 26d     |  27.71   |           |          | 
 | Mercury   | 24h 5m(?)     |   0.46   |   87.97d  |  29.55   | 
 | Venus     | 23h 21m(?)    |   0.82   |  224.70d  |  21.61   | 
 | Earth     | 23h 56m 4s    |   1.     |  365.26d  |  18.38   | 
 | Mars      | 24h 37m 22.7s |   0.39   |  686.98d  |  14.99   | 
 | Asteroids |               |          |           |          | 
 | Jupiter   |  9h 55m 20s   |   2.64   |  11.86yrs |   8.06   | 
 | Saturn    |    10h 14m    |   1.18   |  29.46yrs |   5.95   | 
 | Uranus    |    Unknown.   |   0.90   |  84.02yrs |   4.20   | 
 | Neptune   |    Unknown.   |   0.89   | 164.78yrs |   3.36   | 
  ------------------------------------------------------------- 
   
 [Page 275] 
               Explanation Of Astronomical Symbols. 
   
                      Signs Of The Zodiac 
   
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 136 
    0. [Symbol] Aries     0 Deg.  |   Vi. [Symbol] Libra        180 Deg. 
    I. [Symbol] Taurus   30   |  Vii. [Symbol] Scorpio      210 
   Ii. [Symbol] Gemini   60   | Viii. [Symbol] Sagittarius  240 
  Iii. [Symbol] Cancer   90   |   Ix. [Symbol] Capricornus  270 
   Iv. [Symbol] Leo     120   |    X. [Symbol] Aquarius     300 
    V. [Symbol] Virgo   150   |   Xi. [Symbol] Pisces       330 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
  [Symbol]  Conjunction.      |          S.  Seconds Of Time. 
  [Symbol]  Quadrature.       |            Deg.  Degrees. 
  [Symbol]  Opposition.       |           '  Minutes Of Arc. 
  [Symbol]  Ascending Node.   |           "  Seconds Of Arc. 
  [Symbol]  Descending Node.  |       R. A.  Right Ascension. 
        H.  Hours.            | Decl. Or D.  Declination. 
        M.  Minutes Of Time.  |    N. P. D.  Dist. From North Pole. 
   
                Other Abbreviations Used In The Almanac. 
   
 S.,  South,  _I.E._,  Crosses The Meridian; M.,  Morning; A,  Afternoon; 
 Gr. H. L. N.,  Greatest Heliocentric Latitude North,  _I.E._,  Greatest 
 Distance North Of The Ecliptic,  As Seen From The Sun. [Symbols] 
 Inf.,  Inferior Conjunction; Sup.,  Superior Conjunction. 
   
               Greek Alphabet Used Indicating The Stars. 
   
       A,  Alpha.    | Ae,  Eta.    | N,  Nu.       | T,  Tau. 
       B,  Beta.     | Th,  Theta.  | X,  Xi.       | U,  Upsilon. 
       G,  Gamma.    | I,  Iota.    | O,  Omicron.  | Ph,  Phi. 
       D,  Delta.    | K,  Kappa.   | P,  Pi.       | Ch,  Chi. 
       E,  Epsilon.  | L,  Lambda.  | R,  Rho.      | Ps,  Psi. 
       Z,  Zeta.     | M,  Mu.      | S,  Sigma.    | O,  Omega. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
 [Page 276] 
 Chautauqua Outline For Students. 
   
 As An Aid To Comprehension,  Every Student Should Draw Illustrative 
 Figures Of The Various Circles,  Planes,  And Situations Described. 
 (For Example,  See Fig. 45,  Page 112.) As An Aid To Memory,  The 
 Portion Of This Outline Referring To Each Chapter Should Be Examined 
 At The Close Of The Reading,  And This Mere Sketch Filled Up To A 
 Perfect Picture From Recollection. 
   
 I. _Creative Processes._--The Dial-Plate Of The Sky. Cause Or Different 
 Weights--On Sun,  Moon. Two Laws Of Gravity. Inertia. Fall Of Earth 
 To Sun Per Second. Forward Motion. Elastic Attraction. Perturbation 
 Of Moon; Of Jupiter And Saturn. Oscillations Of Planets. 
   
 Ii. _Light._--From Condensation. Number Of Vibrations Of Red; Violet. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 137 
 Thermometer Against Air. Aerolite Against Earth. Two Bolides Against 
 The Sun. Large Eye. Velocity Of Light. Prism. Color Means Different 
 Vibrations. Music Of Light. Light Reports Substance Of Stars. Force 
 Of; Bridge,  Rain,  Dispersion,  Intensities,  Reflection,  Refraction, 
 Decomposition. 
   
 Iii. _Astronomical Instruments._--Refracting Telescope. Reflecting; 
 Largest. Spectroscope. Spectra Of Sun,  Hydrogen,  Sodium,  Etc. E 
 Made G By Approach; C By Departure. Stars Approach And Recede. 
   
 Iv. _Celestial Measurements._-Place And Time By Stars. Degrees, 
 Minutes,  Seconds. Mapping Stars. Mural Circle. Slow Watch. Hoosac 
 Tunnel. Fine Measurements. Sidereal Time. Spider-Lines. Personal 
 Equation. Measure Distance--Height. Ten-Inch Base Line. Parallax 
 Of Sun,  Stars. Longitude At Sea. Distance Of Polaris,  A Centauri, 
 61 Cygni. Orbits Of Asteroids. 
   
 V. _The Sun._--World On Fire. Apparent Size From Planets. Zodiacal 
 Light. Corona. Hydrogen--How High? Size. How Many Earths? Spots: 
 1. Motion; 2. Edges; 3. Variable; 4. Periodic; 5. Cyclonic; 6. 
 Size; 7. Velocities. What The Sun Does. Experiments. 
   
 Vi. _The Planets From Space._--North Pole. Speed. Sizes. Axial 
 Revolution. Man's Weight On. Seasons. Parallelism Of Axis. Earth 
 Near [Page 277] Sun In Winter. Plane Of Ecliptic. Orbits Inclined 
 To. Earth Rotates. Proof. Sun's Path Among Stars. Position Of 
 Planets. Motion--Direct,  Retrograde. Experiments. 
   
 Vii. _Meteors._--Size; Number; Cause Of; Above Earth; Velocity; 
 Colors; Number In Space; Telescopic View Of. Aerolites: Systems 
 Of; How Many Known. Comets: Orbits; Number Of Comets; Halley's; 
 Biela's Lost; Encke's. Resisting Medium. Whence Come Comets? Composed 
 Of What? Amount Of Matter In. [Symbol]. 
   
 Viii. _The Planets._--How Many? Uranus Discovered? Neptune? Asteroids? 
 Vulcan? Distance From Sun. Periodic Time. Mercury: Elements; Shapes, 
 As Seen From Earth; Transits. Venus: Elements; Seen By Day; How 
 Near Earth? How Far From? Phases; Galileo. Earth: Elements; In 
 Space; Aurora; Balance Of Forces. Tides: Main And Subsidiary Causes; 
 Eastern Shores; Mediterranean Sea. Moon: Elements; Hoax; Moves East; 
 See One Side; Three Causes Help To See More Than Half. Revolution: 
 Why Twenty-Nine And A Half Days: Heat--Cold; How Much Light? Craters 
 And Peaks Lighted; Measured. Eclipses--Why Not Every New And Full 
 Moon? Periodicity. Mars: Elements; How Near Earth? How Far From? 
 Apparent Size; Ice-Fields; Which End Most? Satellites--Asteroids: 
 How Found? When? By Whom? How Many? Jupiter: Elements; Trade-Winds; 
 How Much Light Received? Own Heat. Satellites: How Many? Colors. 
 Saturn: Elements; Habitability; Rings; Flux; Satellites. Uranus: 
 Elements; Discoverer; Seen By; Moon's Motion. Neptune: Elements; 
 Discovered By; How? Review System. 
   
 Ix. _The Nebular Hypothesis._--State It; Facts Confirmatory. 
 Objections--1. Heat; 2. Rotation; 3. Retrograde; 4. Martial Moons; 
 5. Star Of 1876. Evolution: Gaps In; Conclusion. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 138 
   
 X. _The Stellar System._-Motto. Man Among Stars; Open Page; Starry 
 Poem; Stars Located; Named. Thuban. Etanin. Constellations: Know 
 Them; Number Of Stars; Double; E Lyrae,  Sirius,  Procyon,  Castor, 
 61 Cygni,  G Virginis. Colored Stars; Change Color. Clusters: Two 
 Theories. Nebulae: Two Visible; Composed Of; Shapes; Where? Variable 
 Stars. Sun. B Lyrae,  Mira,  Betelguese,  Algol; Cause. Temporary; 
 1572. New Star Of 1866: Two Theories. Star Of 1876. Movements Of 
 Stars; Sirius; Sun; 1830 Groombridge. Stars Near Pleiades: Orion, 
 Great Dipper,  Southern Cross. Centre Of Gravity. 
   
 Xi. _The Worlds And The Word._--Rich. Number. Erroneous Allusions. 
 Truth Before Discovery: 1. A Beginning; 2. Creation Before Arrangement; 
 3. Light Before Sun; 4. Mountains Under Water; 5. Order Of 
 Development; [Page 278] 6. Sphere Of Earth; 7. How Upheld; 8. Number 
 Of Stars; 9. Weight Of Air; 10. Meteorology; 11. Queries To Job; 12. 
 Sun To End Of Heaven; 13. View Of Mitchell; 14. Herschel. What Is 
 Matter? Force? End Of Earth. Way To Knowledge. Work Of Light. 
 Transfiguration Of Matter. Uniformitarianism. A Whisper Of Him. Man 
 For Mastery. Each A Type Of Higher. Survival Of Fittest. Uranus. 
 Worlds And Word One Language. 
   
 Xii. _The Ultimate Force._--Universe Shows Power: 1. Rain; Niagara; 
 2. Vegetable Growth; 3. Worlds Carried; 4. Sun; Fill Dome With Worlds; 
 5. Double Suns; 6. Galaxies. Correlation. What Ultimate? Mind And 
 Will. What Continuous Relation? Watch. Theories Of Gravitation: 
 Newton's,  Le Sage's,  Bible's. High-Class Energy Deteriorates. Search 
 For Atoms: 1. Microscope; 2. Gold; 3. Infusoria; 4. Musk. Properties 
 Of Atoms: 1. Impenetrable; 2. Indivisible; 3. Shape; 4. Quality; 5. 
 Crystallization; 6. Not Touch Each Other; 7. Active; 8. Attractive; 
 9. Intelligent. Whose? Relation Of Matter To God; Rock To Soil. 
 Push Upward. Highest Has Mastery. Man Advances By Highest. Matter 
 Recapacitated. Refined Habitations. Inhabitants. All Force Leads 
 Back To Mind. Personal And Infinite. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
 [Page 279] 
 Glossary Of Astronomical Terms And Index. 
   
 Abbreviations Used In Astronomies,  275. 
 Aberration Of Light (_A Wandering Away_),  An Apparent 
   Displacement Of A Star,  Owing To The Progressive Motion Of Light 
   Combined With That Of The Earth And Its Orbit,  199. 
 Aerolite (_Air-Stone_),  122. 
 Air,  Refraction Of The,  40. 
 Algol,  The Variable Star,  222. 
 Almanac,  Nautical,  71; Explanation Of Signs Used,  275. 
 Alphabet,  Greek,  275. 
 Altitude,  Angular Elevation Of A Body Above The Horizon. 
 Angle,  Difference In Directions Of Two Straight Lines That Meet. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 139 
 Annular (_Ring-Shaped_) Eclipses,  158; Nebulae,  218,  220. 
 Aphelion,  The Point In An Orbit Farthest From The Sun. 
 Apogee,  The Point Of An Orbit Which Is Farthest From The Earth. 
 Apsis,  Plural _Apsides_,  The Line Joining The Aphelion And 
   Perihelion Points; Or The Major Axis Of Elliptical Orbits. 
 Arc,  A Part Of A Circle. 
 Ascension,  Right,  The Angular Distance Of A Heavenly Body From 
   The First Point Of Aries,  Measured On The Equator. 
 Asteroids (_Star-Like_),  162; Orbits Of Interlaced,  74. 
 Astronomical Instruments,  43. 
 Astronomy,  Use Of,  57. 
 Atom,  Size Of,  255; Power Of,  256. 
 Aurora Borealis,  143. 
 Axis,  The Line About Which A Body Rotates. 
 Azimuth,  The Angular Distance Of Any Point Or Body In The Horizon 
   From The North Or South Points. 
 Bailey's Beads,  Dots Of Light On The Edge Of The Moon Seen In A 
   Solar Eclipse,  Caused By The Moon's Inequalities Of Surface. 
 Base Line,  68. 
 Biela's Comet,  129. 
 Binary System,  A Double Star,  The Component Parts Of Which 
   Revolve Around Their Centre Of Gravity. 
 Bode's Law Of Planetary Distances Is No Law At All,  But A Study 
   Of Coincidences. 
 Bolides,  Small Masses Of Matter In Space. They Are Usually 
   Called Meteors When Luminous By Contact With Air,  120. 
 [Page 280] 
 Celestial Sphere,  The Apparent Dome In Which The Heavenly Bodies 
   Seem To Be Set; Appears To Revolve,  3. 
 Centre Of Gravity,  The Point On Which A Body,  Or Two Or More 
   Related Bodies,  Balances. 
 Centrifugal Force (_Centre Fleeing_). 
 Chromolithic Plate Of Spectra Of Metals,  To Face 50. 
 Circumpolar Stars,  Map Of North,  201. 
 Colors Of Stars,  214. 
 Colures,  The Four Principal Meridians Of The Celestial Sphere 
   Passing From The Pole,  One Through Each Equinox,  And One Through 
   Each Solstice. 
 Comets,  126; Halley's,  128; Biela's Lost,  129; Encke's,  130; 
   Constitution Of,  131; Will They Strike The Earth? 133. 
 Conjunction. Two Or More Bodies Are In Conjunction When They 
   Are In A Straight Line (Disregarding Inclination Of Orbit) With The 
   Sun. Planets Nearer The Sun Than The Earth Are In Inferior 
   Conjunction When They Are Between The Earth And The Sun; Superior 
   Conjunction When They Are Beyond The Sun. 
 Constellation,  A Group Of Stars Supposed To Represent Some Figure: 
   Circumpolar,  201; Equatorial,  For December,  202; For January,  203; 
   April,  204; June,  205; September,  206; November,  207; Southern 
   Circumpolar,  208. 
 Culmination,  The Passage Of A Heavenly Body Across The Meridian 
   Or South Point Of A Place; It Is The Highest Point Reached In Its 
   Path. 
 Cusp,  The Extremities Of The Crescent Form Of The Moon Or An 
   Interior Planet. 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 140 
 Declination,  The Angular Distance Of A Celestial Body North Or South 
   From The Celestial Equator. 
 Degree,  The 1/360 Part Of A Circle. 
 Direct Motion,  A Motion From West To East Among Stars. 
 Disk,  The Visible Surface Of Sun,  Moon,  Or Planets. 
 Distance Of Stars,  70. 
 Double Stars,  210. 
 Earth,  Revolution Of,  109; In Space,  142; Irregular Figure,  145. 
 Eccentricity Of An Ellipse,  The Distance Of Either Focus From Centre 
   Divided By Half The Major Axis. 
 Eclipse (_A Disappearance_),  157. 
 Ecliptic,  The Apparent Annual Path Of The Sun Among The Stars; 
   Plane Of,  106. 
 Egress,  The Passing Of One Body Off The Disk Of Another. 
 Elements,  The Quantities Which Determine The Motion Of A Planet: 
   Data For Predicting Astronomical Phenomena; Table Of Solar,  274. 
 Elements,  Chemical,  Present In The Sun,  270. 
 Elongation,  The Angular Distance Of A Planet From The Sun. 
 Emersion,  The Reappearance Of A Body After It Has Been Eclipsed Or 
   Occulted By Another. 
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 Equator,  Terrestrial,  The Great Circle Half-Way Between The Poles Of 
   The Earth. When The Plane Of This Is Extended To The Heavens, 
   The Line Of Contact Is Called The Celestial Equator. 
 Equinox,  Either Of The Points In Which The Sun,  In Its Apparent 
   Annual Course Among The Stars,  Crosses The Equator,  Making Days 
   And Nights Of Equal Length. 
 Evolution,  Materialistic,  182; Insufficient,  189. 
 Fizeau Determines The Velocity Of Light,  23. 
 Forces,  Delicate Balance Of,  144. 
 Galileo,  Construction Of His Telescope,  43. 
 Geocentric,  A Position Of A Heavenly Body As Seen Or Measured From 
   The Earth's Centre. 
 Geodesy,  The Art Of Measuring The Earth Without Reference To The 
   Heavenly Bodies. 
 God,  Relation Of,  To The Universe,  258. 
 Gravitation,  Laws Of,  6; Extends To The Stars,  13; Theories Of,  253. 
 Gravity On Different Bodies,  6,  274. 
 Helical,  Rising Or Setting Of A Star,  As Near To Sunrise Or Sunset 
   As It Can Be Seen. 
 Heliocentric,  As Seen From The Centre Of The Sun. 
 Hoosac Tunnel,  Example Of Accuracy,  62. 
 Horizontal Pendulum,  272. 
 Immersion,  The Disappearance Of One Body Behind Another,  Or In 
   Its Shadow. 
 Inclination Of An Orbit,  The Angle Between Its Plane And The Plane 
   Of The Ecliptic. 
 Inferior Conjunction,  When An Interior Planet Is Between The Earth 
   And The Sun. 
 Jupiter,  Apparent Path Of,  In 1866,  112; Elements Of,  164; 
   Satellites Of,  165; Positions Of Satellites,  166; Elements Of Satellites, 
   166; The Jovian System,  167. 
 Kepler's Laws--1st,  That The Orbits Of Planets Are Ellipses,  Having 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 141 
   The Sun Or Central Body In One Of The Foci; 2d,  The Radius-Vector 
   Passes Over Equal Spaces In Equal Times; 3d,  The Squares Of The 
   Periodic Times Of The Planets Are In Proportion To The Cubes Of 
   Their Mean Distances From The Sun. 
 Latitude,  The Angular Distance Of A Heavenly Body From The Ecliptic. 
 Light,  The Child Of Force,  17; Number Of Vibrations Of,  18,  25; 
   Velocity Of,  22; Undulatory And Musical,  26; Chemical Force Of,  30; 
   Experiments With,  37; Approach And Departure Of A Light-Giving 
   Body Measured,  51; Aberration Of,  199. 
 Limb,  The Edge Of The Disk Of The Moon,  Sun,  Or A Planet. 
 Longitude. If A Perpendicular Be Dropped From A Body To The 
   Ecliptic,  Its Celestial Longitude Is The Distance Of The Foot Of The 
   Perpendicular From The Vertical Equinox,  Counted Toward The East; 
   Mode Of Ascertaining Terrestrial,  72. 
 Magellanic Clouds,  208. 
 [Page 282] 
 Mars,  159; Snow Spots Of,  160; Satellites Of,  161. 
 Mass,  The Quantity Of Matter A Body Contains. 
 Mean Distance Of A Planet,  Half The Sum Of The Aphelion And 
   Perihelion Distances. 
 Measurements,  Celestial,  57. 
 Mercury,  138. 
 Meridian,  Terrestrial,  Of A Place,  A Great Circle Of The Heavens 
   Passing Through The Poles,  The Zenith,  And The North And South Points 
   Of The Horizon; Celestial,  Any Great Circle Passing From One Pole 
   To The Other. 
 Meteors,  119; Swarm Of,  Meeting The Earth,  118; Explosion Of,  120; 
   Systems Of,  123; Relation Of,  To Comets,  124. 
 Micrometer,  Any Instrument For The Accurate Measurement Of Very 
   Small Distances Or Angles. 
 Mind,  Origin Of Force,  252; Continuous Relation Of,  To The 
   Universe,  252. 
 Milky Way,  210,  215. 
 Mira,  The Wonderful,  221. 
 Moon,  The,  151; Greatest And Least Distance From The Earth,  10; 
   Telescopic Appearance Of,  155. 
 Mural Circle,  61. 
 Nadir,  The Point In The Celestial Sphere Directly Beneath Our Feet, 
   Opposite To Zenith. 
 Nebulae,  217. 
 Nebular Hypothesis,  Not Atheistic,  182; Stated,  182; Confirmatory 
   Facts,  183; Objections To,  185. 
 Neptune,  Elements Of,  175. 
 Node,  The Point In Which An Orbit Intersects The Ecliptic,  Or 
   Other Plane Of Reference; Ascending,  Descending,  Line Of,  107. 
 Occultation,  The Hiding Of A Star,  Planet,  Or Satellite By The 
   Interposition Of A Nearer Body Of Greater Angular Magnitude. 
 Opposition. A Superior Planet Is In Opposition When The Sun, 
   Earth,  And The Planet Are In A Line,  The Earth Being In The Middle. 
 Orbit,  The Path Of A Planet,  Comet,  Or Meteor Around The Sun,  Or Of 
   A Satellite Around A Primary; Inclination Of,  106; Earth's,  Seen 
   From The Stars,  70. 
 Outline For Students,  276. 
 Parallax,  The Difference Of Direction Of A Heavenly Body As Seen 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 142 
   From Two Points,  As The Centre Of The Earth And Some Point Of Its 
   Surface,  69. 
 Parallels,  Imaginary Circles On The Earth Or In The Heavens Parallel 
   To The Equator,  Having The Poles For Their Centre. 
 Perigee,  Nearest The Earth; Said Of A Point In An Orbit. 
 Perihelion,  The Point Of An Orbit Nearest The Sun. 
 Periodic Time,  Time Of A Planet's,  Comet's,  Or Satellite's 
   Revolution. 
 Personal Equation,  65. 
 Perturbation,  The Effect Of The Attractions Of The Planets Or Other 
 [Page 283] 
   Bodies Upon Each Other,  Disturbing Their Regular Motion; Of Saturn 
   And Jupiter,  11; Of Asteroids,  13; Of Uranus And Neptune,  176. 
 Phases,  The Portions Of The Illuminated Half Of The Moon Or 
   Interior Planet,  As Seen From The Earth,  Called Crescent,  Full,  And 
   Gibbous. 
 Photosphere Of The Sun,  89. 
 Planet (_A Wanderer_),  As Seen From Space,  99; Speed Of,  101; 
   Size Of,  102; Movements Retrograde And Direct,  112. 
 Pointers,  The,  197. 
 Pole,  North,  Movement Of,  198. 
 Poles,  The Extremities Of An Imaginary Line On Which A Celestial 
   Body Rotates. 
 Quadrant,  The Fourth Part Of The Circumference Of A Circle,  Or 90 Deg.. 
 Quadrature,  A Position Of The Moon Or Other Body When 90 Deg. From 
   The Sun. 
 Radiant Point,  That Point Of The Heavens From Which Meteors Seem 
   To Diverge,  118. 
 Radius-Vector,  An Imaginary Line Joining The Sun And A Planet Or 
   Comet In Any Part Of Its Orbit. 
 Rain,  Weight Of,  249. 
 Reflecting Telescope,  44. 
 Refracting Telescope,  43. 
 Refraction,  A Bending Of Light By Passing Through Any Medium,  As 
   Air,  Water,  Prism. 
 Retrograde Motion,  The Apparent Movement Of A Planet From East 
   To West Among The Stars. 
 Revolution,  The Movement Of Bodies About Their Centre Of Gravity. 
 Rotation,  The Motion Of A Body Around Its Axis. 
 Satellites,  Smaller Bodies Revolving Around Planets And Stars. 
 Saturn,  Elements Of,  167; Revolution Of,  168; Rings Of,  169; 
   Decreasing,  171; Nature Of,  171; Satellites Of,  172. 
 Seasons,  Of The Earth,  102; Of Other Planets,  105. 
 Selenography (_Lunography_),  A Description Of The Moon's 
   Surface. 
 Signs Of The Zodiac,  The Twelve Equal Parts,  Of 30 Deg. Each,  Into 
   Which The Zodiac Is Divided. 
 Solar System,  View Of,  100,  177. 
 Solstices,  Those Points Of The Ecliptic Which Are Most Distant From 
   The Equator. The Sun Passes One About June 21st,  And The Other 
   About December 21st,  Giving The Longest Days And Nights. 
 Spectroscope,  46. 
 Spectrum Of Sun And Metals,  50. 
 Stars,  Chemistry Of,  28; Distance Of,  70-73; Mode Of Naming,  196; 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 143 
   Number Of,  210; Double And Multiple,  210; Colored,  214; Clusters 
   Of,  215; Variable,  220; Temporary,  New,  And Lost,  223; Movements 
   Of Lateral,  226; In Line Of Sight,  269. 
 Stationary Points,  Places In A Planet's Orbit At Which It Has No 
   Motion Among The Stars. 
 [Page 284] 
 Stellar System,  The,  195. 
 Summary Of Recent Discoveries,  269. 
 Sun,  Fall Of Two Meteoric Bodies Into,  19; Light From Contraction 
   Of,  20; As Seen From Planets,  79; Corona,  81; Hydrogen Flames Of,  84; 
   Condition Of,  89; Spots,  90; Experiments,  95; Apparent Path Among 
   The Stars,  111; Power Of,  250. 
 Symbols Used In Astronomy,  275. 
 Telescope,  Refracting,  43; Reflecting,  44; Cambridge Equatorial,  46. 
 Telescopic Work,  Clusters,  210; Double Stars,  212. 
 Temporary Stars,  223. 
 Terminator,  The Boundary-Line Between Light And Darkness On The 
   Moon Or A Planet. 
 Tides,  146. 
 Transit,  The Passage Of An Object Across Some Fixed Line,  As The 
   Meridian,  Or Between The Eye Of An Observer And An Apparently 
   Larger Object,  As That Of Mercury Or Venus Over The Disk Of The 
   Sun,  And The Satellites Of Jupiter Over Its Disk; Of A Star,  65. 
 Ultimate Force,  The,  249. 
 Uranus,  Elements Of,  173; Moons Of,  Retrograde,  174; Perturbed By 
   Neptune,  176. 
 Variable Stars,  220. 
 Venus,  139. 
 Vernier,  A Scale To Measure Very Minute Distances. 
 Vertical Circle,  One That Passes Through The Zenith And Nadir Of 
   The Celestial Sphere. The Prime Vertical Circle Passes Through The 
   East And West Points Of The Horizon. 
 Vulcan,  Discovery Of,  137. 
 Worlds,  The,  And The Word,  Teach The Same Truth,  231-245. 
 Year,  The,  Length Of,  On Any Planet,  Is Determined By The Periodic 
   Time. 
 Zenith,  The Point In The Celestial Sphere Directly Overhead. 
 Zodiac,  A Belt 18 Deg. Wide Encircling The Heavens,  The Ecliptic Being 
   The Middle. In This Belt The Larger Planets Always Appear. In 
   The Older Astronomy It Was Divided Into Twelve Parts Of 30 Deg. 
   Each,  Called Signs Of The Zodiac. 
 Zodiacal Light,  80. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
 To Find The Stars In The Sky. 
   
 Detach Any Of The Following Maps,  Appropriate To The Time Of Year, 
 Hold It Between You And A Lantern Out-Of-Doors,  And You Have An 
 Exact Miniature Of The Sky. Or,  Better,  Cut Squares Of Suitable 
 
 
 
 Chapter 11 (The Ultimate Force) Pg 144 
 Sizes From The Four Sides Of A Box; Put A Map Over Each Aperture; 
 Provide For Ventilation,  And Turn The Box Over A Lamp Or Candle 
 Out-Of-Doors. Use An Opera Glass To Find The Smaller Stars,  If 
 One Is Accessible. 
   
 Position.--January 20th,  At 10 O'clock; February 4th,  At 9 O'clock; 
 
 
 Publication Date: May 31st 2014 https://www.bookrix.com/-azbdcf75988b535