Signs — Names — Nature — Motions — Form — Magnitude — Distance
— Suspension — Idolatrous worship of the Sun — The Sun an
Emblem of Christ.
On the fourth day, “God said, Let there be lights
in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the
night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for
days, and years: and let them be for lights in the
firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and
it was so. 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. And God set them in the firmament of
the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over
the day and over the night, and to divide the light from
the darkness.” The light which had hitherto been scattered
and confused, was now collected and formed into several
luminaries, and so rendered more glorious and of greater
utility.
A sensible and pious author observes, that not only the two
great lights, which were made after a special manner to
rule the day and the night, but, in general, all the lights
in the firmament of the heaven, are said to be for signs
and for seasons; or, as some render the words, “for signs
of the seasons.” And indeed this seems to be the meaning of
the inspired writer. As for the manner of expression, “for
signs and for seasons,” it is very common in the Hebrew, as
well as in many other languages, and is a figurative way of
speech, expressing those things disjunctively, which must
by the understanding be joined together. First, these
lights are said to be for signs, and then the
things are mentioned which they are to signify, namely, the
seasons, the days, and the
years: whereas, if we understand the word
signs in an indefinite sense, and not confined to
what follows, we are through the whole text left in great
uncertainty; seeing that there are signs appointed
in
the heaven for some purpose or other, but not
knowing for what. Besides, if we must take all the parts of
the text disjunctively, then “the lights in the firmament”
must be taken for seasons, and for days,
and for years, as well as for signs. But
we know, that the celestial bodies are not themselves
seasons, and days, and years,
but only signs of them, by such particular motions
and aspects, as God, according to the laws of nature, has
ordained them. Neither can I see reason to believe, that
every motion or position of the heavenly bodies has a
special signification in it: though serving in general to
display the wisdom and power of God, in their regular
courses. The sun, indeed, which is called the greater
light, is said to rule the day, as it is by
the appearance of his light, increasing and decreasing,
that we measure the length of the day; and the moon
likewise to rule the night, partly on the like
account. Thus likewise the sun’s course (if we may so call
it) is a determining sign of the beginning and ending of
the year, and of its various seasons. And in general, the
sun, the moon, and the other lights, are necessary signs of
the seasons of sowing, reaping, planting, and are useful in
navigation, as well as other arts.
Costard, in his History of Astronomy, makes some critical
remarks on the name of this greater light. He says, The sun
is, by the Greeks, called Ἡλιος:
which is nothing more than the Hebrew word אל
El, modelled after the Greek
manner of pronunciation, and signifies Lord; the
first idolatrous worship being paid to this planet. In the
Hebrew language it is called שמש
Shemesh, and in the Chaldee שמשא
Shimsha, from שמש
Shamesh, to minister, on account of its
administering light and heat to this world. From this
property of communicating heat, it is also called המה
Hammah. By the Phœnician idolaters it seems to
have been called בעל
Baal, or בעל שמים
Baal-Shamim, the Lord of Heaven. And on
account of the supposed swiftness of its diurnal motion
from east to west, it had a chariot dedicated to it at
Sidon, an ancient town of Phœnicia. Such a chariot is still
seen on the coins of that place. This superstition was
likewise imitated by the idolatrous Jews: for we read of
the horses which the kings of Judah had
given, or dedicated, to the sun. By the
Chaldeans it seems to have been called בל
Bel, and by the Assyrians פל
Pul; and, with the addition, sometimes of אב
ab, or אף
ap, i.e. father, אף-פל
Ap-Pul, or Father-Lord; from whence the
Greeks formed their Απολλων,
another name given by them to the sun. The name of
this luminary, among the Romans, was sol; given
more probably, on account of his scorching heat in the
summer, or from his determining the length of the year by
his course, than because he appeared solus, alone,
according to the derivation given by Macrobius.
The nature of the sun is a subject which has not
only excited the most diligent inquiry
among men of scientific knowledge, but
the opinions
concerning it have passed through a variety of
vicissitudes. The sun being evidently the source of light
and heat, was by the ancients considered to be a globe of
fire. But Dr. Herschell’s discoveries, by means of his
immensely large telescopes, tend to prove, that what we
call the sun is only the atmosphere of
that luminary: “that this atmosphere consists of various
elastic fluids, which are more or less
transparent; that as the clouds surrounding our earth are
probably decompositions of some of the elastic fluids
belonging to the atmosphere itself, so we may suppose that
in the vast atmosphere of the sun similar decompositions
may take place, but with this difference, that the
decompositions of the elastic fluids of the sun are of a
phosphoric nature, and are attended by lucid
appearances, by giving out light.” The body of the sun this
celebrated astronomer considers as hidden generally from
us, by means of this luminous atmosphere; that what are
called maculæ, or spots on the sun, are
real openings in this atmosphere, through which the
opaque body of the sun becomes visible; that this
atmosphere itself is not fiery nor hot,
but is the instrument which God designed to act on the
caloric or latent heat; and that heat is only produced by
the solar light acting on and combining with the caloric or
matter of fire contained in the air, and other substances
which are heated by it.
This indefatigable investigator of the heavenly phenomena
shows, by many substantial proofs, drawn from natural
philosophy, that heat is produced by the sun’s
rays only when they act on a calorific medium; and that
they cause the production of heat by uniting with the
matter of fire which is contained in the substances that
are heated,—as the collision of flint and steel will
inflame a magazine of gunpowder, by uniting with its latent
fire, and bring the whole into action. This point is
capable of a very clear elucidation. “On the tops of
mountains, and at heights to which the clouds seldom reach
to shelter them from the direct rays of the sun, we always
find regions of ice and snow. Now if the sun’s rays
themselves conveyed all the heat we find on the earth, it
would of course be hottest in situations similar to the
tops of mountains, where their course is least interrupted.
But all those who have ascended in balloons confirm the
coldness of the upper regions of the atmosphere; and,
therefore, since even on the earth the heat of the
situation depends on the facility with which the medium
yields to the impression of the sun’s rays, we have only to
admit, that, on the sun itself, the fluids composing its
atmosphere, and the matter on its surface, are of such a
nature as not to be capable of any excessive heat from its
own rays. It is also a well known fact, that the focus of
the largest burning lens thrown into the air, will occasion
no heat in the place where it has been kept for a
considerable time, although its powers of exciting heat,
when proper bodies are exposed to it, should
be sufficient to melt or fuse the
most refractory metals.”
That the sun is a luminous, and not an igneous body, has
met with the general consent of modern philosophers; an
opinion to which every new discovery in philosophy gives
additional support.
The telescope, said to have been invented by the children
of a spectacle-maker at Middleburgh, in the year 1590, but
first brought to such a degree of perfection by Galileo as
to make any considerable discoveries in the celestial
regions, has led to the most important results in the
science of astronomy. Among which are the spots in
the sun’s disk, by whose motion from west to east the sun
is perceived to revolve upon his own axis in 25 days, 14
hours, 8 minutes. This revolution of the sun round his own
axis is probably not the only motion which this luminary
experiences. There is great reason to believe that he has
another motion, either rectilinear, or round some
indefinitely remote centre of attraction. In this last
course, he carries along with him, through space, the
entire system of planets, satellites, and comets; in the
same manner in which each planet draws his satellites along
with him in his motion round the sun. He communicates light
and heat to at least twenty opaque bodies, which revolve
round him, at different distances, in ellipses that differ
but little from circles.
From the motion of the spots, which is sometimes straight
and sometimes curved, we learn that the sun’s axis is not
perpendicular to the plane of his ecliptic, but inclined to
it, or the plane of the earth’s annual orbit, so as to form
an angle of about 83 degrees. Christopher Scheiner, a most
diligent observer of these spot’s in the sun’s disk,
published a treatise concerning them in A.D. 1626. These
spots are sometimes seen to increase to a very large size,
and to continue for a considerable time. In the year 1779,
there was a spot on the sun’s disk which was large enough
to be seen with the naked eye: it was divided into two
parts, and must have been 50,000 miles in diameter: this,
and other phenomena of the same kind, may be accounted for
from some natural change of the atmosphere. For if some of
the fluids which enter into its composition be of a shining
brilliancy, while others are merely transparent, then any
temporary cause removing the lucid fluid, will permit us to
see the body of the sun through the transparent ones. Dr.
Herschell supposes that the spots in the sun are mountains
on its surface, which, considering the great attraction
exerted by this luminary upon bodies placed at its surface,
and the slow revolution it has about its axis, he thinks
may be more than 300 miles in height, and yet not be
rendered unstable by the centrifugal force.
[There appears to be a discrepancy between this
last statement—“Dr. Herschell supposes that the spots in
the sun are mountains on his surface;”—and the
statement made a few paragraphs preceding—“that what are
called maculæ, or spots on the sun, Dr.
Herschell thought to be real openings
in his atmosphere, through which the
opake body of the sun becomes visible.” These statements must
have been made at different periods of his observations
on the sun, which continued about fifteen years. The last
statement was, doubtless, Dr. Herschell’s mature opinion.
As this seems to be a settled question among
philosophers; and as it has induced the enlightened world
to regard the sun as a habitable globe, it will
not be out of place to enlarge a little on this point.
The spots on the sun’s surface has led to the conclusion
above, and also to a determination of the motion of the
sun around his own axis. They appear to have been
observed, for the first time, in A.D. 1610, by Fabricius
and Harriot; the first in Germany, the second in England.
It is uncertain which noticed them first; but it is
certain the discovery was original with both.
After the observations of these two fortunate persons
were known, the attention of the scientific was directed
to this phenomenon. Scheiner supposed the spots to be
planets which revolved very near the sun. In
process of unwearied observations, it was ascertained
that these spots changed their positions. Sometimes two
would blend together, and thus run into each other.
Sometimes one large one would divide into two or three
smaller ones. They were observed to dilate, and contract;
and to have umbræ, or shades attending them.
From these phenomena Galileo and others supposed the
solar spots were schoria floating on the burning
liquid matter, of which they supposed the sun
composed. M. de la Hire, and La Lande supposed them to be
eminences which occasionally rose above the rolling tides
of fire, as islands rise above the sea. All these
theories were on the supposition that the sun was an
igneous body, in a high state of combustion, by which
means he dispenses heat and light to the surrounding
planets.
Dr. Wilson,
Professor of
practical astronomy in the University of Glasgow, was the
first to conjecture that these spots were
depressions rather than elevations. This was
about the year 1769. The Doctor rendered this conjecture
very probable, by his close and lucid observations and
illustrations.
These spots attracted the attention of the celebrated Dr.
Herschell in 1779, who continued to observe them closely
until 1794, and by means of his immensely large and
powerful telescopes, he clearly established Dr. Wilson’s
conjectures, that these spots are openings in the
luminous surface of the sun, through which his opake body
appears.
Dr. Herschell regards the real body of the sun to be an
opake nucleus, fit for the habitation of
intellectual creatures: that he has an atmosphere suited
in density and height to his own magnitude: that in the
higher regions of this atmosphere there are two
sets of clouds surrounding the sun, which are permanently
and essentially luminous, being phosphoric in
their nature. The lower set of these clouds, which are
next the sun, are less bright, and more dense
than the upper set. They are designed to serve as a
curtain to the sun’s body, to prevent a too
great intensity of light at his real surface; the higher
set of clouds, which are visible to us, being the
principal source, or rather agent, of light.
It is plain from the foregoing theory, that we
never see the real body of the sun, except when we see
the spots on his surface: that what we commonly call the
sun, are only those bright, luminous phosphorescent
clouds, which permanently surround his body, and which
give light outwards to the planets, and also
inwards to his own inhabitants.
It will be obvious also to any one, that the inhabitants
of the sun cannot see any heavenly body, as the
stars, and planets; because they are inclosed by those
clouds, which are impenetrable to vision. They may catch
a glimpse of a passing star through these openings as we
do of the sun’s body.
It is highly probable (see our paper on light,
attached to our author’s chapter on the same,) that these
luminous phosphoric clouds do not actually emit
light, or heat; but only excite them at the
surfaces of the different planets. That is: it is very
probable there is a matter of light or a
luminiferous ether, diffused through all
existing matter, as caloric is, which is excited by
these clouds, and thus becomes
visible, which is light, as latent caloric is
excited, and becomes sensible, by becoming free.
Indeed it is very probable that the matter of heat
and light is the same, and that heat and light are
only different modifications of the action of
the same substance, excited in a different, or higher
degree.]
The sun has two apparent motions, namely, the
diurnal and annual. By the former he appears to
move round the earth in twenty-four hours: and by the
latter he appears to traverse that circle in the heavens,
called the ecliptic, in the course of a year. These
motions, are, however, only apparent: the sun does not
travel round the earth in twenty four hours: he does not
change his place in the heavens at different seasons of the
year. His apparent motions are occasioned by the earth’s
real motions. The sun’s apparent diurnal motion is
occasioned by the earth’s real rotation about its axis: and
the sun’s apparent annual motion is caused by the earth’s
real motion in her orbit, through the whole of which she
travels in a little less than 365 days, and 6 hours.
The fixed stars appear every twenty-four hours to make an
entire revolution about the earth. The sun makes the same
apparent circuit; but the apparent diurnal motion of the
sun is evidently slower than that of the fixed stars. This
appearance is occasioned by the daily rotation of the earth
on its axis; for while it is turning once on its axis it
advances in its orbit a whole degree; therefore it must
make more than a complete rotation before it can come into
the same position with the sun that it had the preceding
day. In the same way, as when both hands of a watch set off
together at any hour, as twelve o’clock, the minute hand
must travel more than the whole circle before it can
overtake the hour hand: hence the difference between solar
and sidereal days, which it is important to understand in
explaining the equation of time.
Though the sun appears to us merely as a circular disk, yet
he is a spheroid, higher under his equator than
about his poles. The deception arises from this; that all
the parts of his surface are equally luminous, and
consequently there is nothing which can suggest to us, at
the great distance he is from the earth, that the central
parts are more prominent than the sides, although in
reality, they are nearer by half a million of miles.
This luminous body is supposed to be 886,473 English miles
in diameter, about 2,700,000 in circumference, in solid
bulk 24,000,000 times as big as the moon, and 1,384,462
times as big as the earth, and its superficies in square
miles, about 2,236,603,000,000. This magnitude of
the sun may appear exaggerated; for our eyes can discover
nothing so large as the earth which we inhabit; and as to
this alone we compare the sun, so we are tempted to believe
the testimony of sense rather than our reason. But what
confirms this prodigious size, is his visible magnitude,
notwithstanding the vastly remote point which he occupies
in space. And, concerning this subject, no doubt can
remain, if we admit the calculations of astronomers, which
are made on principles indubitably correct.
The sun does not appear large; but this is owing to his
distance from the earth, which is 95,513,794
miles: this is so prodigious, that a cannon-ball, which is
known to move at the rate of eight miles in a minute, would
be something more than twenty-two years in going from the
earth to the sun. If a spectator were placed as near to any
of the fixed stars as we are to our sun, he would see our
sun as small as we see a common star, divested of its
circumvolving planets; and in numbering the stars he would
reckon it one of them. But the earth’s orbit being an
ellipse, the sun is not always at an equal distance from
it. When he is in his apogee, that is, furthest from the
earth, the sun is full two millions of miles further from
us than when he is in his perigee, or nearest the earth:
nevertheless, we feel greater heat than when he is in our
winter. The difference of temperature between summer and
winter does not depend chiefly upon our nearness to the
sun, but upon the following causes. 1. In summer, the solar
rays strike upon the earth more perpendicularly than in
winter, and therefore they act with greater force than when
they strike it obliquely. 2. The rays of the sun coming
more perpendicularly in summer than in winter, have less of
the atmosphere to pass through. 3. In the summer, the sun
continues a longer time above the horizon than below it;
and consequently there is time for the earth to accumulate
a greater portion of heat than in the days of winter. We
know, in the longest days, that the sun to us is above the
horizon 16 hours; whereas, in the shortest days, it is not
more than 8 hours visible.114
The miraculous suspension of the natural powers of the heavenly
bodies, as recorded in the book of Joshua, shows
that they are upheld, controlled, and directed in their
operations, by a Being who is infinitely wise and powerful.
To account for this miracle, and to ascertain the
manner in which it was wrought, has employed the
pens of the ablest divines and
astronomers, especially of the last two centuries.
For the elucidation of this important fact, I shall
transcribe the view which Dr. Adam Clarke has given of it,
which he considers to be strictly philosophical, consonant
to the Pythagorean, Copernican, or Newtonian system, which
is the system of the universe, laid down in the writings of
Moses.
He assumes, as a thoroughly demonstrated truth, that the
sun is in the centre of the system, moving only
round his own axis, and the common centre of the gravity of
the planetary system, while all the planets revolve round
him; and that his influence is the cause of the
diurnal and annual revolutions of the
earth.
“Joshua’s address is in a poetic form in the original, and
makes the two following hemistichs:
שמש בגבעין דום
וירח בעמק אילון
Shemesh, be-Gibêon dom:
Vyareach, beèmek Aiyalon.
Sun! upon Gibêon be dumb:
And the moon on the vale of Aiyalon.
“The effect of this command is related in the following
words: וידם השמש וירח עמד
vayiddom ha-Shemesh
ve-Yareach
âmad; And the sun was dumb, or
silent, and the moon stood still. And it is added,
And the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and
hasted not to go down about a whole day.
“I consider, that the word דום
dom, refers to the
withholding or restraining this
influence, so that the cessation of the earth’s motion
might immediately take place. The desire of Joshua was,
that the sun might not sink below the horizon; but as
it appeared now to be over Gibeon, and the
moon to be over the valley of Ajalon, he prayed
that they might continue in these positions till the battle
should be ended; or, in other words, that the day should be
miraculously lengthened out.115
“Whether Joshua had a correct philosophical notion of the
true system of the universe, is a subject that need not
come into the present inquiry; but whether he
spoke with strict propriety on this occasion, is a
matter of importance, because he must be considered as
acting under the Divine influence, in requesting
the performance of such a stupendous miracle: and we may
safely assert, that no man in his right mind would have
thought of offering such a petition, had he not felt
himself under some Divine afflatus. Leaving, therefore, his
philosophical knowledge out of the question, he certainly
spoke as if he had known that the solar influence was the
cause of the earth’s rotation, and therefore, with
the strictest philosophic propriety, he requested, that
that influence might be for a time restrained, that the
diurnal motion of the earth might be arrested, through
which alone, the sun could be kept above the horizon, and
the day be prolonged. His mode of expression evidently
considers the sun as the great ruler or
master in the system; and all the planets, (or at
least the earth) moving in their respective orbits
at his command. He therefore desires him, (in the
name and by the authority of his Creator) to suspend his
mandate with respect to the earth’s motion, and
that of his satellite, the moon. Had he said, Earth,
stand thou still—the cessation of whose diurnal motion
was the effect of his command, it could not have
obeyed him; as it is not even the secondary cause
either of its annual motion round the sun, or its diurnal
motion round its own axis. Instead of doing so, he speaks
to the sun, the cause (under God) of all these
motions, as his great archetype did, when, in the storm on
the sea of Tiberias, he rebuked the wind first,
and then said to the waves, Peace, be still! Σιωπα, πεφιμωσο,
be silent! be dumb! And
the effect of this command was, a cessation of the
agitation in the sea, because the wind
ceased to command it, that is, to exert its
influence upon the waters.
“The terms in this command are worthy of particular note:
Joshua does not say to the sun, Stand still, as if
he had conceived him to be running his race
round the earth; but, be silent, or
inactive; that is, as I understand it,
restrain thy influence; no longer act upon the
earth, to cause it to revolve round its axis; a mode of
speech which is certainly consistent with the strictest
astronomical knowledge: and the writer of the account,
whether Joshua himself, or the author of the Book of
Jasher, in relating the consequence of this
command, is equally accurate, using a word widely
different, when he speaks of the effect, the
retention of the solar influence had on the moon: in the
first case, the sun was silent, or
inactive, דום
dom; in the latter, the moon stood
still, עמד
âmad. The standing still of the moon, or
its continuance above the horizon, would be the natural
effect of the cessation of the solar influence, which
obliged the earth to discontinue her diurnal rotation,
which, of course, would arrest the moon; and thus both
it and the sun were kept above the horizon, probably for
the space
of a whole day. As to the address to the
moon, it is not conceived in the same terms as
that to the sun, and for the most obvious
philosophical reason: all that is said is simply, and
the moon on the vale of Ajalon, which may be thus
understood: ‘Let the sun restrain his influence, or be
inactive, as he appears now upon Gibeon, that the
moon may continue as she appears now over the vale of
Ajalon.’ It is worthy of remark, that every word in this
poetic address is apparently selected with the greatest
caution and precision.
“At the conclusion of the 13th verse, a different
expression is used when it is said, So, the sun stood
still, it is not דום
dom, but עמד
âmad; ויעמד השמש
vai-yaâmod ha-shemesh,
which expression, thus varying from that in the
command of Joshua, may be considered as implying, that in
order to restrain his influence, which I have
assumed to be the cause of the earth’s motion, the
sun himself became inactive, that is, ceased to
revolve round his own axis; which revolution is, probably,
one cause, not only of the revolution of the earth, but of
all the other planetary bodies in our system, and might
have effected all the planets at the time in question: but
this neither could, nor did produce any disorder in nature;
and the delay of a few hours in the whole planetary
motions, dwindles away into an imperceptible point in the
thousands of years of their revolutions. I need scarcely
add, that the command of Joshua to the sun, is to
be understood as a prayer to God (from whom the
sun derived his being and continuance) that the effect
might be what is expressed in the command; and therefore it
is said, verse 14, ‘that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man,
for the Lord fought for Israel.’”
How glorious an object is the sun! too dazzling for mortal
eye long to gaze on: the brightest visible emblem of its
adorable Creator. This luminary rejoices to run his
prescribed course, makes our day joyful, and without his
reviving beams we should dwell in perpetual darkness. He,
as the great source of day, distributes light and life
through all nature. Seeds, in the bosom of the earth, feel
his vegetative presence, and unfold themselves. By his
diffusive influence he causes the vital juice to ascend in
the tubes of trees, plants, and vegetables; and clothes
them with their various and beautiful foliage. He nourishes
the young fruits, gives them their fine tints, and brings
them to maturity. At his approach, millions of insects
awake into life, shine, collect themselves, and sport in
his rays. Animals partake of his benefits, and without his
animating beams they would sink into insensibility and
death: even in caves and dens of the earth, his visitation
gives life. His heat has a pleasing effect on all the
juices and fluids in the human body, which, without his
directive or impulsive energy, would soon become stagnant
and useless. He is, by the Divine wisdom and goodness, placed
at such a proper distance from us, that, were he
much nearer, the blood would boil in our veins, and our bodies
soon be either dissolved or calcined: or, were he at a much
greater distance, we should become torpid, and presently be
congealed to statues of ice. The very bowels of the earth
partake of his influence, thus producing many valuable and
useful metals. He penetrates the highest mountains, though
composed of stones and rocks. He darts his beams even into
the depths of the ocean, where the watery tribes live and
play at his command.
“—— O Sun;
Soul of surrounding worlds! in whom best seen
Shines out thy Maker!——
’Tis by thy secret, strong, attractive force,
As with a chain indissoluble bound,
Thy system rolls entire.——
Informer of the planetary train!
Without whose quick’ning glance their cumbrous orbs
Were brute unlovely mass, inert, and dead,
And not, as now, the green abodes of life!
As the sun is the greatest visible glory in the natural
world, so it is selected by the pen of Divine inspiration
as the brightest emblem of the Supreme Being—“The Lord God
is a sun.” This great luminary has been considered by the
Heathen as the representative of the Deity, and as such
received religious adoration. According to Mr. Bryant’s
system of Ancient Mythology, the worship of fire is nearly
as old as the flood, having been propagated by the
posterity of Ham, in Egypt, who called themselves
Ammonians, and carried this worship with them wherever they
went, erecting their puratheia, or fire-temples,
in all their settlements. It is stated, that fire was the
primitive, or at least the principal object of idolatrous
worship, and common to all idolaters from the first
apostasy at Babel. For the original institution of this
sacred fire among the Chaldeans, we must go back to Nimrod,
concerning whom the Alexandrian Chronicon asserts, that
“the Assyrians called Nimrod, Ninus; this man taught the
Assyrians to worship fire.” From the Greeks we may trace it
backwards to the Ur of the Chaldeans; on which the learned
Classius remarks, that “Ur is the name of a city wherein
the sacred fire was conserved and worshipped by the
Chaldeans, whence it was called Ur, which
otherwise signifies fire.” Plutarch confesses that
the Romans, in the days of Numa, borrowed their worship of
fire from the Greeks at Athens and Delphi. Numa built a
temple of an orbicular form, to represent, as Plutarch
interprets, the system of the heavens; which temple was the
conservatory of a holy and perpetual fire, kindled at first
by the reflections of the sun-beams, and placed in the
centre of the building; the astronomy of that early period
placing the sun in the centre of the world. Fire has such
an affinity to light, that the same word has sometimes
comprehended them both. The Ur of the
Chaldeans was fire; the Horus of
the Egyptians was light: and the reason is plain,
because fire and light are united at the body of the sun,
and by him diffused over the world. If, therefore, we
consider fire as called into action by the sun, and bear in
mind that the ancient Pythagoreans used the same term ΠΥΡ
to denote both fire and the sun,116
we shall get at the root of most of the heathen mythologic
divinity.
So universal was the attachment to this fire, that
Macrobius undertook to reduce the names of all the heathen
deities to the one object of the sun and its attributes. He
says, “The Egyptians consecrated a lion in that part of the
heavens where the heat of the sun is most powerful, because
that animal seems to derive his nature from the sun,
excelling all other creatures in fire and force, as the sun
exceeds the other lights of heaven. His eyes, likewise, are
bright and fiery, as the sun with a bright and fiery aspect
surveys the world. The Lybians represented their Jupiter
Hammon, which was the setting sun, with the horns of a ram,
with which that animal exerts its strength, as the sun acts
by its rays. The worship of Egypt abundantly shows, that
the bull is to be referred to the sun; which is plain from
the worship of a bull at Heliopolis, the city of the sun;
and of the bull Apis at Memphis, where it was an emblem of
the sun; and of the other bull called Pacis, consecrated in
the magnificent temple of Apollo at Hermunthis.”117
Wheresoever fire was worshipped in the puratheia of
antiquity after the manner of Numa, we may suppose that
there the true solar system prevailed, which places the
solar fire in the centre; and that this was really the
universal opinion of the most ancient Heathens. This
doctrine agrees with the name which they gave to the sun in
his physical capacity, calling him cor cœli,
the heart of the heaven;118
which illustration and
allusion is probably of very great antiquity, because it
cannot with any propriety be applied to the more modern
Ptolemaic hypothesis. The analogy is very striking; for
as the heart is the centre of the animal system, so is
the sun in the centre of our world: as the heart is the
fountain of the blood, so is the sun the source of light
and fire: as the heart is the life of the body, so is
the sun the life and heat of animated nature, and the
first mover of the mundane system: when the heart ceases
to beat, the circuit of life is at an end; and if the
sun should cease to act, a total stagnation would take
place throughout the whole frame of nature. Macrobius,
pursuing this analogy, says, “We have before observed,
that the sun is called the fountain of the ethereal
fire; therefore the sun is in the heavens, what the
heart is in animals.” Since the circulation of the blood
has been known, this analogy has been taken up with
advantage by the celebrated Hervey himself, who, first
of all the moderns, explained to us with sufficient
accuracy this branch of natural philosophy.
He observes,
that the heart of animals is the foundation of life, the
chief ruler of all things in the animal system, the sun
of the microcosm, from which flows all its strength and
vigor. The philosophers of antiquity called the sun the
heart of the microcosm; the moderns call the heart the
sun of the microcosm. There must be something very
striking in the analogy which is thus convertible, and
has been taken up at both ends by such different
persons, at such remote periods of time.
The savage philosophy of America seems to have comprehended
in it the relation, which we have already noticed, between
the animal system and the frame of nature. Acosta, in his
History of the Indies, reports, that in the human
sacrifices of the Mexicans, the high priest pulled out the
heart with his hands, which he showed smoking to the sun,
to whom he offered this heat and fume of the heart, and
presently he turned towards the idol, and cast the heart at
his face. A very highly esteemed correspondent in Ceylon
writes, There is a cast of people inhabiting this island
who live wild in the woods, and worship fire as an emblem
of purity; they are called Vandals, and several English
officers have met a premature death by intruding near the
holy fire, which is under a tamarind tree.
With the Persians fire was an object of worship from the
earliest times, under the name of Amanus, and
Mithas; and it is retained as such at this day by
the Geberrs, Gaurs, Guebres, or Ghebers, a sect of Indian
philosophers. Pottinger says, “At the city of Yezd, in
Persia, which is distinguished by the appellation of the
Darûb Abadut, or seat of Religion, the Guebres are
permitted to have an Atush Kudu, or Fire Temple (which,
they assert, has had the sacred fire in it since the days
of Zoroaster), in their own compartment of the city; but
for this indulgence they are indebted to the avarice, not
the tolerance of the Persian government, which taxes them
at twenty-five rupees each man.” Hanway informs us, that
the Ghebers suppose the throne of the Almighty is seated in
the sun, and hence their worship of that luminary. “As to
fire,” says Grose, “the Ghebers place the spring-head of it
in that globe of fire, the sun, by them called Mithras, or
Mihir, to which they pay the highest reverence, in
gratitude for the manifold benefits flowing from his
ministerial omniscience. But they are so far from
confounding the subordination of the servant with the
majesty of the Creator, that they not only attribute no
sort of sense or reasoning to the sun or fire, in any of
its operations, but consider it as a purely passive blind
instrument, directed and governed by the immediate
impression on it of the will of God; but they do not even
give that luminary, all glorious as it is, more than the
second rank among his works, reserving the first for the
stupendous production of the Divine power, the mind of
man.” The temples are generally built over
subterraneous fires. Rabbi Benjamin
observes, “Early in the
morning, they (the Parsees or Ghebers of Ouham) go in
crowds to pay their devotions to the sun, to whom upon all
the altars are spheres consecrated, made by magic,
resembling the circles of the sun; and, when the sun rises,
these orbs seem to be inflamed, and turn round with a great
noise. Every one has a censer in his hands, and offers
incense to the sun.”
It is not a little surprising that the descendants of
faithful Abraham, taken into covenant with God, should fall
under the influence of this idolatrous worship! The
apostasy of the Israelites in the wilderness from the true
God to the golden calf, was occasioned by a previous
attachment to the sacred rites of the Egyptian idolatry.
And the calves which were afterwards set up in Dan and
Bethel, were probably derived from the same source. The
Israelites were not only cautioned against this worship,
but, if the charge of idolatry brought against an Israelite
was proved by unequivocal facts and competent witnesses, it
affected his life. Such was the progress of this idolatrous
worship among this people at one period, that Josiah, king
of Judah, took away out of the temple of the Lord the
horses, and burned the chariots, which the kings, his
predecessors, had consecrated to the sun. Job, in allusion
to this vile worship, says, “If I beheld the sun when it
shined, or the moon walking in brightness; if my heart hath
been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:119
this also were an iniquity to
be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the
God that is above.” Ezekiel, in a vision, saw “at the
door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and
the altar, about five and twenty men, with their backs
toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward
the east: and they worshipped the sun toward the east,”
in imitation of the Egyptians, Persians, and other
Eastern nations.
While the heathen have thus paid idolatrous worship to the
sun, some persons, believing in the truth of revealed
religion, have entertained strange notions concerning this
luminary. It is remarkable, observes a polite writer, that
whilst some of the ancients imagined the sun to be
the seat of future blessedness, from Psal. xix, 14, “He set
his tabernacle in the sun,” a Mr. Swinden, among the
moderns, endeavors to prove that hell is seated in
the sun, chiefly pleading that this is the grand repository
of fire; that its horrible face, viewed by a telescope,
suits the description given of the burning lake; and that
being in the centre of the system, it might be
properly said that wicked men were cast down into
it. But these are mere hypotheses, and unworthy of
serious consideration.
Notwithstanding this idolatrous worship of the sun, there
is a sober and religious use to be made of this luminary;
for being the greatest visible glory in the natural world
it is selected as the brightest emblem of the Supreme
Being—“The Lord God is a sun.” An object thus illustrious
and useful in the regular and
wise economy of nature, is
mentioned in the sacred volume as a metaphor fraught with
truths of infinite moment, imparting wisdom to the simple,
and instruction to the ignorant. He admirably represents
the unity, glory, and bounty of God.
Viewing our sun in all his paramount qualities to every
material object in nature, how is he eclipsed and surpassed
by the Sun of Righteousness, of whose splendor, grace, and
energy this is but a faint emblem, and from whom issues, in
bright and gentle beams, all the light, life, joy, and hope
received and enjoyed in the Christian world. The one is the
most magnificent creature among the vast variety of objects
which surround us, but the other is the source of all that
is excellent, attractive, and beneficial, in the whole
range of material causes and effects, as well as in the
nature, extent, and perpetuity of the kingdom of grace. The
material sun runs its course from day to day, with
unwearied regularity, activity, and ardor, and thus
completes its circuit according to its original
destination. And did not our adorable Saviour also finish
the great career of our redemption, after he held performed
all those miracles, and published his own everlasting
gospel, which are the sublime and interesting themes of the
sacred writers, by offering himself on the consecrated
altar a sacrifice for the sins of mankind? The former
diffuses light, vitality, vegetation, and felicity through
the whole mass of animated nature in our planetary system.
And does not the other likewise dissipate the ignorance
which darkens the intellectual regions, enlighten our minds
in all saving knowledge, and produce in the human heart
every grace and virtue?
Were our natural sun to withdraw his beams, or absent
himself from the centre of our system for any given time,
the planets would start out of their orbits; darkness,
black as night, would instantly spread itself over the
whole mass, and “chaos come again.” And if the glorious
Luminary of the moral world were to hide his face behind a
thick cloud of gathering vengeance and judicial desertion,
this would introduce into the soul alarming fears and
tumultuous passions, which would exist in a state of
opposition and conflict. Those who have been brought out of
the darkness of ignorance, wickedness and misery, into the
light of knowledge, holiness and happiness, by Christ, who
is the light of the world, should be careful to walk in the
light of his countenance all the days of their life. Does
not the earth return the fructifying warmth of the sun, and
all his genial effects, in a profusion of verdure, foliage,
and flowers? Do not all the irrational tribes joyfully
greet his rising every morning, and bask in his presence
through the day with great delight? All the orbs which
revolve round him, and are preserved and cherished in their
respective spheres by his ministry, pay him perpetual
homage by maintaining invariable harmony and order. And
being thus taught by natural objects, what is due
for the reception of so many mercies, surely it is an
unquestionable
duty that we guard against every thing which
would prevent us doing the will of our best benefactor.
Christian believers, rich in the bloom of holiness, and
ripening for the harvest of glory, are said to be “clothed
with the sun.” It is the gracious promise, on which all
their hopes and wishes confidently rely, that the
“righteous shall” ultimately “shine as the sun in the
kingdom of their Father.”120
Thus it is written, “The path
of the just is as the shining light, that shines more
and more unto the perfect day.” In the path of the just
there is a progress from a less to a greater light: it
does not only grow clearer, but increases in clearness
till it is light in perfection; advancing from the break
of day to the sun rising, and then to the brightness of
noon-day.
“Jesus,
let all thy lovers shine,
illustrious as the sun,
And bright with borrow’d rays divine,
Their glorious circuit run.
Beyond the reach of mortals, spread
Their light where’er they go;
And heavenly influences shed,
On all the world below.
As giants, may they run their race,
Exulting in their might:
As burning luminaries, chase
The gloom of hellish night.
As the bright Sun of Righteousness,
Their healing wings display;
And let their lustre still increase
Unto the perfect day.”
Names — Dimensions — Motions — Seasons — Phases — Harvest
Moon — Moon’s Surface — Aërial Stones — Eclipses — Moonlight —
Epithets — Religious Improvement.
The moon is called a great light, but
less than the sun. Moses does not here speak
philosophically, according to her bulk, but to the
proportion of light she affords us, which is more than all
the planets in the solar system and all the fixed stars put
together.
“He smooth’d the rough-cast moon’s imperfect mould,
And comb’d her beamy locks with sacred gold;
Be thou, said he, Queen of the mournful night,—
And as he spoke, she rose o’erclad wish light,
With thousand stars attending on her train.”
The moon is not a primary planet, but only a satellite, or
secondary planet, attendant on our earth, round which she
revolves, and along with which she is carried round the
sun.
“The moon,” says Dr. O. Gregory, “is a dark, or opake body,
shining principally with the light she receives from the
sun. If she shone by a light of her own, we should feel a
sensible warmth from her rays; but it is a light reflected
from the sun with which she shines, and is so exceedingly
weak and languid, that the greatest
burning glass will not
collect enough to make any sensible degree of heat. This
has been accounted for, and those who have gone through the
computation assert that the light of the full moon is
ninety thousand times less than day-light.” The ancients
early discovered, that the moon had no light of its own,
but shone with that which it reflected from the sun. This,
after Thales, was the sentiment of Anaxagoras and
Empedocles, who thence accounted not only for the mildness
of its splendor, but the imperceptibility of its heat,
which our experiments confirm.
In the Hebrew language the moon is called ירה
Yarah, or, more strictly speaking, says Parkhurst,
the lunar light, or flux of light, reflected
from the moon’s body, or orb. That this is
the true sense of the word is evident from several passages
of Scripture, one of which is, “For the precious (produce)
נרש ירחים
put forth by—what? Not the orbs
of the moon surely (for the orb is but one), but
by the fluxes or streams of light
reflected from it, which are not only several but
various, according to the moon’s different phases
and aspects in regard to the sun and the earth. And this
may lead us to the radical idea of the word ירח;
for as יחר
and אחר,
יחד
and אתד
&c., are very nearly related to each other respectively,
so likewise I conjecture that ירח
is to ארה,
in sense as well as in sound, and
consequently that it signifies to go in a track or
in a constant customary road or way; and this
affords us a good descriptive name of the lunar
light; for, Behold, says Bildad in
Job, chap. xxv, 5, even to the ירח
or lunar light ולא יאהיל
and he (God) hath not pitched a
tent (for it); as he has for the שמש
or solar
light. No! The lunar stream has fixed
station from whence it issues, but together with the
orb which reflects it, and which like a human
traveller moves now a quicker, now a slower pace,
is continually performing its appointed journey,
and proceeding in a constant, though regularly
irregular track.”
The Greeks called the moon μηνη,
which may be considered as a derivative from μην.
Parkhurst says, This word may be derived either from μηνη,
the moon, by the phases
of which the month is reckoned, or else it may be deduced
from the Hebrew מנה
manah, to number,
compute, as being computed by the lunar phases.
And it is probable that the first computations of
time were made by the revolutions of the moon. It
is obvious to remark, that not only these two Greek words,
but also the Latin mensis, a month, and the
English moon, month, are ultimately
derived from the same Hebrew מנה.
Leigh observes, that “the
Hebrews call the moon and a month by the same name, because
the moon is renewed every month. The Greeks also call σεληνη,
from σελας,
because it every day renews its light.” Parkhurst on the
word σεληνη
says, “The Greek etymologists, and particularly Plato, deduce
it from σελας νεον,
new light, because its light is continually renewed.”
But the learned Goguet says; “The Greeks gave to the
moon the name selene, which comes from
the Phœnician word
(לן
or לון
namely) which
signifies to pass the night; whence also we may
observe is plainly derived the Latin name of the moon,
luna.” From lun with the termination
a, comes luna, and this name is given to
the planet from her changing or appearing under
different phases.
As to the dimensions of the moon, according to the
most accurate calculations, her diameter is 2,175 miles,
the circumference 6,831 miles, the surface contains
14,898,750 square miles, and its solidity 5,408,246,000
cubical ones. Her bulk is equal to about a fiftieth part of
our earth, and her mean distance from the earth is about
240,000 miles.
The motions of the moon are most of them very
irregular. The only equable motion she has, is her
revolution on her own axis. The time in which she moves
round her axis is about 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, 5
seconds; and her revolution through an elliptical orbit is
performed in the same time as her rotation on her axis,
moving about 2,290 miles every hour. Her revolution round
her axis exactly in the same time that she goes round the
earth, is the reason she always turns the same face towards
us: she has only one day and one night in the course of a
month. From a long series of observations, it has been
ascertained that the moon makes a complete revolution in 27
days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, 5 seconds; this is called the
periodical month; but, if we refer to the time passed from
new moon to new moon again, the month consists of 29 days,
12 hours, and 44 minutes, which is called the synodical
month. This difference is occasioned by the earth’s annual
motion in its orbit. Thus, if the earth had no motion, the
moon would make a complete round in 27 days, 7 hours, 43
minutes, and 5 seconds; but while the moon is describing
her journey the earth has passed through nearly a twelfth
part of its orbit, which the moon must also describe before
the two bodies come again into the same position that they
before held with respect to the sun: this takes up so much
more time as to make her synodical month equal to 29 days,
12 hours, and 44 minutes. The motions of the hour and
minute hands of a watch may serve to give some idea of the
periodical and synodical revolutions of the moon; for when
the minute hand has performed a complete revolution, it has
yet some distance to go to obtain a coincidence with the
hour hand, similar to that which it had the preceding hour.
We have observed that the same face is turned towards us
during the whole of the moon’s revolution, and that the
other half of her surface is never visible to us. This
arises from the two motions we have noticed, which, with
regard to our view of the moon, appear to counteract each
other. Her revolution round the earth is performed towards
the east; while the revolution upon her own axis
is performed towards the west: so that, one of
these motions turns as much of her face from us, as the
other turns towards us. And from the moon’s axis being
inclined to the plane of her orbit,
sometimes one of
her poles is inclined towards the earth, and sometimes the
other: in consequence of which, we see more or less of her
polar regions in different periods of her revolution. When
the moon is in perigee, or nearest distance from
the earth, her motion is quickest; and when in
apogee, or most remote distance, her motion is
slowest.
The length of the day is equal to our lunar month, for all
that time is included in one revolution round her axis. Her
days and nights, therefore, will constantly be of the same
length, or almost fifteen of our days each. The year will
be exactly the same with our year; because, being an
attendant on the earth, she must go round the sun in the
same time as that does. Her difference of seasons will be
much less than on our earth, having only a small
inclination of her axis of six degrees and a half; so that
the variation between her summer’s heat and her winter’s
cold must be comparatively inconsiderable. Hence there will
be only thirteen degrees of Torrid Zone, on some parts most
opposite the sun, and thirteen degrees of Frigid Zone on
those contiguous to her poles; which consequently must
leave seventy-seven degrees for what we should call her
Temperate Zones, both in the north and south parts from her
Equator. Our earth, unquestionably, performs the office of
a moon to the moon, waxing and waning regularly, but
appearing thirteen times as large, and, of course,
affording her thirteen times as much light as she does to
us. When she changes to us, the earth appears full to her;
when she is in her first quarter to us, the earth is in its
third quarter to her; and vice versâ. To the moon
the earth seems to be the largest body in the universe, and
must indeed be a most magnificent sight.
On the supposition that the moon is inhabited, it may be
observed, that those who are placed about the middle of the
surface, or face next to us, will constantly see our earth
over their heads, and increasing and decreasing in light,
like as the moon itself appears to us. Those who are
situated near the borders, whether on the right or left, or
upon the top or bottom, will also constantly have the same
appearance in the opposite part of the horizon. But those
who live on the side of the moon which is not presented to
us, will know nothing of our earth, or at least, they will
never have an opportunity of seeing this large and
wonderful moon, without travelling perhaps more than 1,500
of our miles on the surface of that luminary. To those who
live on this side of the moon, or travel to it on any
account, as we may pass from the northern into the southern
hemisphere of our globe, the earth, indeed, when at full to
them, will appear to be more than three times as broad as
the moon does to us, and to communicate, as has been
already mentioned, about thirteen times as much light to
her, as she does to us when at the full.
The moon, possessing no native light, shines entirely by
light received from the sun, and which is reflected to us
from her surface.
That half of her which is towards
the sun is enlightened, and the other half is dark and
invisible: hence, when she is between us and the sun, she
disappears, because her dark side is then towards us.
Whilst making her revolution round the heavens, she
undergoes a continual change of appearance. She is
sometimes on our meridian at midnight, and therefore in
that part of the heavens which is opposite to the sun; when
she appears with a face completely circular, which is
called a full moon. As she moves eastward, a part
of her dark side comes forward on the western side, and, in
a little more than seven days, reaches to the meridian, at
about six in the morning, having the appearance of a
semi-circle, with the convex side turned towards the sun:
this crescent gradually becomes more slender, till, about
fourteen days after the full moon, being so near the sun,
and in a line between that luminary and our earth, she is
rendered invisible to us, from the superior splendor of
that orb of light. About four days after this
disappearance, she may be seen in the evening, a little to
the eastward of the sun, in the form of a fine crescent,121
as before, but having her
convex side turned from the sun. Travelling still
towards the east, the crescent becomes wider; and when
advanced to the meridian, about six in the evening, she
again bears the appearance of a bright semi-circle, with
the same difference that we observed of the crescent,
that is, its convex side is now turned from the
sun. Advancing still more eastward, the semi-circular
moon widens into an oval shape, till at last, in about
twenty-nine days and a half from the last opposition to
the sun, she is again in the same situation, and appears
a full moon.
The following account of the harvest moon, so
called, taken from the Pantalogia, will no doubt be
acceptable to the reader.—It is remarkable that the moon,
during the week in which she is full about the time of
harvest, rises sooner after sun-setting than she does in
any other full moon week in the year. By this means, she
affords an immediate supply of light after sun-set, which
is very beneficial for the harvest and gathering in the
fruits of the earth; and hence this full moon is
distinguished from all the others in the year, by calling
it the harvest-moon.
To conceive the reason of this phenomenon, it may first be
considered, that the moon is always opposite to the sun
when she is full; that she is full in the signs Pisces and
Aries in our harvest months, those being the signs opposite
to Virgo and Libra, the signs occupied by the sun about the
same season; and because those parts of the ecliptic rise
in a shorter space of time than others, as may easily be
shown and illustrated by the celestial globe: consequently,
when the moon is about her full in harvest, she rises with
less difference of time, or more immediately after sun-set,
than when she is full at other seasons of the year.
In our winter, the moon is in Pisces and Aries about the
time of her first quarter, when she rises about noon; but
her rising is not then noticed, because the sun is above
the horizon. In spring, the moon is in Pisces and Aries
about the time of her change; at which time, as she gives
no light, and rises with the sun, her rising cannot be
perceived. In summer, the moon is in Pisces and Aries about
the time of her last quarter; and then, as she is on the
decrease, and rises not till midnight, her rising usually
passes unobserved. But in autumn, the moon is in Pisces and
Aries at the time of her full, and rises soon after sun-set
for several evenings successively; which makes her regular
rising very conspicuous at that time of the year.
HARVEST MOONS.
| L |
M |
L |
M |
L |
M |
L |
M |
| 1790 |
1798 |
1807 |
1816 |
1826 |
1835 |
1844 |
1853 |
| 1791 |
1799 |
1808 |
1817 |
1827 |
1836 |
1845 |
1854 |
| 1792 |
1800 |
1809 |
1818 |
1828 |
1837 |
1846 |
1855 |
| 1793 |
1801 |
1810 |
1819 |
1829 |
1838 |
1847 |
1856 |
| 1794 |
1802 |
1811 |
1820 |
1830 |
1839 |
1848 |
1857 |
| 1795 |
1803 |
1812 |
1821 |
1831 |
1840 |
1849 |
1858 |
| 1796 |
1804 |
1813 |
1822 |
1832 |
1841 |
1850 |
1859 |
| 1797 |
1805 |
1814 |
1823 |
1833 |
1842 |
1851 |
1860 |
| |
1806 |
1815 |
1824 |
1834 |
1843 |
1852 |
1861 |
| |
|
|
1825 |
When the moon is viewed through a good telescope, there
appear vast cavities and asperities on various parts of her
face, some of them extremely resembling deep caverns and
vallies, and others mountains.
“Turn’d to the sun direct, her spotted disk
Shows mountains rise, umbrageous vales descend,
And caverns deep, as optic tube descries.”
The cavities, it is conjectured, do not contain water;
hence it is concluded that there can be no extensive seas
and oceans, like those which cover a great part of our
earth. It is, however, imagined that there may be springs
and rivers.
The moon seems, as a
learned author has observed, in almost every respect to be
a body similar to our earth, to have its surface
diversified by hill and dale, mountains and vallies, rivers
and lakes. With regard to a lunar atmosphere, the existence
of which has long been a subject of much dispute, it is now
generally admitted.122
The irregularity of the
moon’s surface, arising from hills and vallies, renders
her more capable of reflecting the sun’s rays to us.
Though philosophers have differed widely in their ideas
concerning the materials of the moon’s mountains, some
from their brilliancy even supposing them to be rocks of
diamonds, there is no diversity of opinion as to their
use. If smooth and polished, like a mirror, or covered
with water, she would not reflect and distribute the
light received from the sun. In some positions she would
show us his image no larger than a single point, and
with a lustre that would injure our sight: but roughened
by these hills and vallies, her surface returns the
sun’s light to us in an equable and pleasant manner, and
enables us to examine her with ease and precision.
That the moon is a planet similar to our earth, is a
sentiment very early adopted. Orpheus is the most ancient
author, whose opinion on this subject has come down to us.
Proclus presents us with three verses of that philosopher,
wherein he positively asserts, that the moon was another
earth, having in it mountains, vallies, &c. Pythagoras,
who followed Orpheus in many of his opinions, taught
likewise, that the moon was an earth like ours, replete
with animals, whose nature he presumed not to describe,
though he was persuaded they were of a more noble and
elegant kind than ours, and not liable to the same
infirmities. Stobæus gives us the opinion of Democritus
about the nature of the moon, and the cause of those spots
which we see upon its disk. That great philosopher
imagined, that “those spots were no other than shades,
formed by the excessive height of the lunar mountains,”
which intercepted the light from the lower parts of that
planet, where the valleys formed themselves into what
appeared to us as shades or spots. Plutarch went further,
alleging, that there were embosomed in the moon, vast seas
and profound caverns: he says, those deep and extensive
shades which appear upon the disk of that planet, must be
occasioned by the vast seas it contains, which are
incapable of reflecting so vivid a light, as the more solid
and opake parts; “or by caverns extremely wide and deep,
wherein the rays of the sun are absorbed,” whence those
shades and that obscurity which we call the spots of the
moon. And Zenophanes said, that those immense
cavities were
inhabited by another race of men, who lived there just as
we do upon earth.
“And oft I think, fair planet of the night,
That in thy orb the wretched may have rest.”
[The height of the moon’s atmosphere is supposed to be
1.622 miles; or a little more than a mile and a half.
The observations on the moon have been so accurate, and
so often repeated, by means of the best glasses, that the
map of the moon is now considered nearly
perfect. On this map is laid down the position of
spots, cavities, and
mountains, representing their size,
height, depth, and
peculiarities. They are very numerous.
Some of these mountains are full five miles
high. They descend in height, from the highest to
small elevations.
Several astronomers, particularly Herschell, has
distinctly observed and described volcanos in
the moon, actually flaming; and others in an
expiring state. Craters of extinct
volcanos are visible, and so numerous as to indicate very
clearly, that volcanic action was once very extensive and
powerful in the moon.
Some of the cavities are more than three
miles and a half deep, and sixteen broad at the
surface. Ferguson’s Astronomy, additional chapters by
Dr. Brewster.]
That stones have fallen from the clouds or from
much higher regions, is a fact which has recently
been very closely investigated, and also fully
demonstrated. A table, constructed by M. Izarn, a foreign
chemist, exhibits a variety of facts of this kind, from
which the following is an extract.
|
Substances. |
Places where they fell. |
Period of their fall. |
|
Shower of stones. |
At Rome. |
Under Tullus Hostilius. |
|
Shower of stones. |
At Rome. |
Consuls, C. Martius, and M. Torquatus. |
|
A very large stone. |
Near the river Negos, Thrace. |
Second year of the 78th Olympiad. |
|
Three large stones. |
In Thrace. |
Year before J.C. 452. |
|
Stone of 72 lbs. |
Near Larissa, Macedonia. |
January, 1706. |
|
About 1,200 stones; one 120 lbs. Another of 60 lbs. |
Near Padua, in Italy. |
In 1510. |
|
Another of 59 lbs. |
On Mount Vasier, Provence. |
November 27, 1627. |
|
Two large stones, weighing 20 lbs. |
Liponas, in Bresse. |
September, 1753. |
|
A stony mass. |
Niort, Normandy. |
In 1750. |
|
A stone of 7½ lbs. |
At Luce, in Le Maine. |
September 13, 1768. |
|
A stone. |
At Aire, in Artois. |
In 1768. |
|
A stone. |
In Le Contenin. |
In 1768. |
|
Extensive shower of stones. |
Environs of Agen. |
July 24, 1790. |
|
About 12 stones. |
Sienna, Tuscany. |
July, 1794. |
|
A large stone of 56 lbs. |
Wold Cottage, Yorkshire. |
December 13, 1795. |
|
A stone of 10 lbs. |
In Portugal. |
February 19, 1796. |
|
A stone of 120 lbs. |
Salé, Department of the Rhone. |
March 17, 1798. |
|
Shower of stones. |
Benares, East Indies. |
December 19, 1798. |
|
Shower of stones. |
At Plann, near Tabor, Bohemia. |
July 3, 1753. |
|
Mass of iron, 70 cubic feet. |
America. |
April 5, 1800. |
|
Mass of do. 14 quintals. |
Abakauk, Siberia. |
Very old. |
|
Shower of stones. |
Barboutan, near Roquefort. |
July, 1789. |
|
Large stone, 260 lbs. |
Ensisheim, Upper Rhine. |
November 7, 1492. |
|
Two stones, 200 and 300 lbs. |
Near Verona. |
In 1762. |
|
A stone of 20 lbs. |
Sales, near Ville Franche. |
March 12, 1798. |
|
Several do. from 10 to 17 lbs. |
Near L’Aigle, Normandy. |
April 26, 1803. |
The stones generally appear luminous in their descent,
moving in oblique directions, with very great velocities,
and commonly with
a hissing noise. They are
frequently heard to explode, or burst, and seem to fly in
pieces, the larger parts falling first. They often strike
the earth with such force, as to sink several inches below
the surface. They are always different from the surrounding
bodies, but is every case are similar to one another, being
semi-metallic, coated with a thin black encrustation. They
bear strong marks of recent fusion. Chemists have found, on
examining these stones, that they very nearly agree in
their nature and composition, and in the proportions of
their component parts.
Their specific gravities are generally about three or four
times that of water, being heavier than common stones. From
the above account, it is reasonable to conclude, that they
have all the same origin. I believe it is generally agreed
among philosophers, that all these aërial stones,
chemically analysed, evince the same properties; and that
no stone, found on our earth, possesses exactly similar
properties, nor in the same proportions: this is an
extraordinary circumstance, and deserves particular notice.
At the sitting of the Society of Natural History at Halle,
July 6, 1816, M. Chladni submitted to the inspection of the
members present, a collection of meteoric stones, or stones
fallen from the atmosphere; and to the exhibition, he added
his own observations on their nature and formation. Dr.
Kæstner, taking up the subject in the same point of view
which M. Chladni had given of it, admitted that these
stones are not natives of this earth, but of other
celestial bodies; to which he added, that the chemical
analysis of them proves, that many of the same substances
as are found in our mountains, and among the solids of our
globe, are also component parts of the solids and mountains
of other globes; certainly of those celestial bodies which
are nearest to us; and probably of the others which form
our planetary system.
That these stones are projected from lunar volcanos, very
strong reasons have been assigned to prove. As 1. Volcanos
in the moon have been observed by means of the telescope.
2. The lunar volcanos are very high, and the surface of
that globe suffers frequent changes, as appears by the late
observations of Schroëter. 3. If a body be projected from
the moon to a distance greater than that of the point of
equilibrium, between the attraction of the earth and the
moon, it will, on the known principles of gravitation, fall
to the earth. 4. That a body may be projected from the
lunar volcanos beyond the moon’s influence, is not only
possible, but very probable; for on calculation it is
found, that four times the force usually given to a twelve
pounder, will be quite sufficient for this purpose: it is
to be observed, that the point of equilibrium is much
nearer; and that a projectile from the moon will not be so
much retarded as one from the earth, both on account of the
moon’s rarer atmosphere, and its less attractive force.123
Of all the phenomena of the heavens, there are none which
engage the attention of mankind more than eclipses
of the sun and moon; and to those who are unacquainted with
the principles, nothing can appear more extraordinary than
the accuracy, even to a second of time, with which they are
predicted. Eclipses of the sun are occasioned by the shadow
of the intervening new moon falling on the earth, and those
of the moon are caused by the shadow of the earth falling
on the full moon, the earth at the full moon being always
in a direction between the sun and moon.
It is ascertained that, for an eclipse of the sun to be
annular, the most favorable circumstances will be when the
sun is in perigee, and the moon in apogee; and, for an
eclipse to be total, the most favorable case is when the
sun is in apogee, and the moon in perigee. The motion of
the moon being much swifter than that of the earth, and the
motions of both being directed from west to east, an
eclipse of the sun must always begin in the western edge of
the sun; and as the moon is a great deal less than the
earth, her shadow forms a cone, the section of which is
much less than the earth, so that a small portion of the
earth only can, at any time, be involved in the shadow at
one time. Hence it is, that an eclipse of the sun is not
perceived, at the same instant, in every part of the
hemisphere that is turned towards the sun, and that, in
some parts, it will not be seen at all. For instance, a
friend of mine, writing from Ceylon in the month of May,
(1817,) says, “On the 16th of this month, we had a fine
sight of an eclipse of the sun about noon: I think about
3-4ths of the surface were covered.” But in this country we
had no solar eclipse at the same time. Again, in different
situations, different parts of the sun’s disk will appear
eclipsed; but, on the contrary, an eclipse of the moon is
perceived, at the same moment, in every part of the earth
where this planet is visible, and appears every where to
occupy the same portion of her disk. Hence, eclipses of the
sun are much less frequent in any particular place than
eclipses of the moon.
If the nodes of the moon constantly corresponded with the
same points in the heavens, the eclipses of the sun or moon
might be expected in the same months, and even on the same
days; but as the nodes shift backwards, or contrary to the
earth’s annual motion, about 19½ degrees in a year, the
same node will come round about nineteen days sooner every
year than in the preceding. From the time, therefore, when
the ascending node passes by the sun, as seen from the
earth, there will be only 173 days before the descending
node passes by him. If, then, at any time of the year, we
have eclipses about either of the nodes, their return may
be expected in about 173 days, in or near the other.
It may be further observed, that, after the sun, moon, and
nodes, have been once in a line of conjunction, they will
return nearly to the same state again in 228 lunations, or
eighteen years and ten days; so that the same node which
was in conjunction with the
sun and moon at the beginning of
the first of these lunations, will be within less than half
a degree of the line of conjunction with the sun and moon
again, when the last of these lunations is completed. In
that time, therefore, there will be a regular period of
eclipses for many ages.
These things being properly considered, it will not be
difficult to conceive how astronomers are able to foretell
the exact time when any phenomenon of this kind will
happen; for, as an eclipse can only take place at the time
of a new or full moon, the principal requisites are, to
determine the number of mean conjunctions and oppositions
that will happen every year, and the true places of the sun
and moon in their orbits at each of those times. And, if
from this, when proper calculations have been made, it
appears that the two luminaries are within the proper
limits of the node, there will be an eclipse. To facilitate
these operations, we have astronomical tables ready
computed, by which the places of the heavenly bodies, and
every other particular required, may be easily found for
any given instant of time.124
With delight we reflect on the invaluable benefits which
this lesser light confers on our globe. She
sometimes appears visible in the presence of the sun; but
how faint and pale is her shining! God has appointed her to
rule the night, and give light to men. How
cheerless and uncomfortable would our nights be, were we
destitute of the light which this faithful and inseparable
companion of our earth dispenses! How strange are her
eclipses, occasioned by the earth interposing and shading
her face! but, they are highly useful in astronomical,
geographical, and chronological calculations. How salutary,
too, is her attractive influence, which sways the ocean,
and actuates the world of waters; causing the swelling of
the tides, and perpetuating the regular returns of ebb and
flow; by which the liquid element itself is preserved from
putrefaction, and the surrounding continents from infection
and disease.
A moonlight night has led the greatest poets in every age
to vie with each other in attempting to describe its beauty
and use. Among all the treasures of modern poetry, I know
not one superior, for pleasing imagery, and variety of
numbers, to that of Milton:
“Now came still evening on, and twilight grey
Had in her sober livery all things clad.
——————Now glowed the firmament
With living sapphires: Hesperus, that led
The starry host, rode brightest, till the Moon,
Rising in clouded majesty, at length,
Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light.
And o’er the dark her silver mantle threw.”
Homer, in the eighth book of the Iliad, gives us a
description of a fine moonlight night, which is esteemed a
master-piece of nocturnal painting. Milton’s pencil leaves
off where that of Homer begins:
“As when the Moon, refulgent lamp of night,
O’er heaven’s clear azure sheds her sacred light;
When not a breath disturbs the deep serene,
And not a cloud o’ercasts the solemn scene;
Around her throne the vivid planets roll,
And stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole;
O’er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed,
And tip with silver every mountain’s head;
Then shine the vales; the rocks in prospect rise;
A flood of glory bursts from all the skies;
The conscious swains rejoicing in the sight,
Eye the blue vault, and bless the useful light.”
The wise Son of Sirach, although his writings are not
admitted into the sacred canon, deserves to be heard on
this subject. He says, “The Lord made the moon also to
serve in her season, for a declaration of times, and a sign
of the world. From the moon is the sign of feasts, a light
decreaseth in her perfection. The month is called after her
name, increasing wonderfully in her changing, being an
instrument of the armies above, shining in the firmament of
heaven; the beauty of heaven, the glory of the stars, an
ornament giving light to the highest places of the Lord. At
the commandment of the Holy One they will stand in their
order, and never faint in their watches.” This is
paraphrased with great elegance and spirit by Mr. Broome:
“By thy command the moon, as day-light fades,
Lifts her broad circle in the deep’ning shades;
Arrayed in glory, and enthroned in light,
She breaks the solemn terrors of the night;
Sweetly inconstant in her varying flame,
She changes still, another, yet the same!
Now in decrease, by slow degrees she shrouds
Her fading lustre in a vale of clouds;
Now of increase, her gathering beams display
A blaze of light, and give a paler day;
Ten thousand stars adorn her glittering train,
Fall when she falls, and rise with her again;
And o’er the deserts of the sky unfold
Their burning spangles of sidereal gold:
Through the wide heavens she moves serenely bright,
Queen of the gay attendants of the night:
Orb above orb in sweet confusion lies,
And with a bright disorder paints the skies.”
Many striking epithets have been given to this refulgent
lamp of the night, some of which are noticed by Nichols in
his Conference with a Theist. Tully asserts, that the moon
was called Diana, because she made a day of the
night, whilst all other stars did not make a twilight.
Æschylus, a tragic poet, born at Athens 397 before the
Christian era, calls her πρεσβυϛον αϛρων,
the ancient, the
governess, or mother of the stars. Apollinaris, bishop of
Hierapolis, in Phrygia, about A.D. 171, denominates her,
νυχιων βασιλεια αταρπων,
the queen of the nightly paths.
Tynesius, who flourished
A.C. 400, styles her, ποιμην νυχιων θεων,
the princess of the nocturnal gods: which is
consonant to Horace’s lucidum cœli decus—syderum regina.
Virgil likewise calls her, astrorum decus, the ornament of
the stars. Seneca terms her, obscuri dea clara mundi, the
bright goddess of the obscure world; and also clarumque
cœli sydus et noctis decus, the bright star of heaven, and
the grace of the night. Statius, who lived at Rome in the
reign of Domitian, in his Thebais, terms her, arcanæ
moderatrix Cynthia noctis, the moon the governess of silent
night. “Fair as the moon,” was an ancient manner of
describing beauty, and, it is said, still prevails in the
East.
Among the ancients, observes Mr. Butler, the moon was an
object of prime respect. By the Hebrews, she was more
regarded than the sun, and they were more inclined to
worship her as a deity. The new moons, or first
days of every month, were observed as festivals among them,
which were celebrated with sound of trumpets,
entertainments, and sacrifice. The moon was the goddess of
the Phœnicians, whom they worshipped under the name
Ashtoreth, or Astarte. The moon is sometimes in Scripture
styled, the “queen of heaven.” She is likewise styled, “the
goddess of the Zidonians,” and “the abomination of the
Zidonians,” as she was worshipped very much in Zidon, or
Sidon, a famous city of the Phœnicians, situated upon the
eastern coast of the Mediterranean. Solomon, who had many
wives that were foreigners, was prevailed upon by them to
introduce the worship of this goddess into Israel, and he
built her a temple on the mount of Olives, which, on
account of this and other idols, is called “the mount of
corruption.”125 Milton says,
“There stood
Her temple on th’ offensive mountain, built
By that uxorious king, whose heart, though large,
Beguil’d by fair idolatresses, fell,
To idols foul.”
The full moon was held favorable for any
undertaking by the Spartans; and no motives could induce
them to enter upon an expedition, march an army, or attack
an enemy, till the full of the moon. It is usual
with the modern Arabians to begin their journeys at the
new moon; a practice which, indeed, appears to be
very ancient. When the Shunammite proposed going to Elisha,
her husband dissuaded her by observing that it was neither
new moon nor sabbath.
1. The moon is an emblem of the church of
God, which receives its light from Christ as the moon does
from the sun. Especially, of the Jewish dispensation, which
consisted much in the observation of new moons, its solemn
feasts being governed by them. The Jewish dispensation was
a veiled and shadowy one: Christ and the blessings of the
covenant of grace were revealed in dark promises, obscure
prophecies, types and ceremonies, which were all
significant figures of that grace which should be
displayed, with fulness and evidence, under the Christian
dispensation. The Jewish economy exhibits such marks of
imperfection, as show the necessity of some new revelation
to supply its defects. Its rites and precepts seem to be
particularly suited to the condition, capacity, temper and
genius of that particular people, for whom they were first
formed, but not to be calculated for general use. It
consisted chiefly of external performances, such as
washings, sacrifices, and oblations, which could not purify
the conscience, nor, indeed, satisfy the reason of man. The
provision for sin, by way of atonement, was partial, and
not thoroughly effectual: for some sins no sacrifice was
admitted; and though sacrifice, where it was appointed,
might atone for ceremonial impurity, yet the inward guilt
and defilement still remained, and the justice of God was
not satisfied. Yet the observance of these was enjoined in
a very awful manner. The omission of what was prescribed by
these laws, or even a defect in observing the minute
circumstances of them, was made a capital crime, or
rendered the delinquents liable to be cut off from the
congregation. The Apostle styles the whole code of these
laws, “a yoke of bondage;“ and says, that, previous to the
coming of Christ, the Jews were in bondage under what he
terms “the beggarly elements of the world.”
There were indeed wise reasons for such a dispensation: to
keep the Jews a distinct people, and preserve them from
idolatry, while they were continually employed in the
service of God; to remind them of their obligations to
purity, inward and outward holiness; and, as a
schoolmaster, to bring them to Christ; the law being a type
and shadow of that “truth and grace which came by Jesus
Christ,” who was “the end of the law for righteousness.” On
which account, the law of Moses was not perpetual, but a
temporary institution: thus the Apostle reasons, “There is
verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for
the weakness and unprofitableness thereof; for,” as he says
in another place, “the law could not in any wise make the
comers thereunto perfect.” He calls the law, “a shadow of
good things to come.” The Levitical ceremonies led the
Jewish church into the knowledge of the promised Messiah,
and what he was to do, suffer, purchase, and apply. Hence
the words of St. Peter, “Of which salvation the prophets
have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of
the grace that should come unto you: searching what or what
manner of time the Spirit
of Christ which was in them did
signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of
Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was
revealed, that not to themselves, but unto us they did
minister the things which are now reported unto you by them
that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost
sent down from heaven.” The Christian dispensation is
attended with greater clearness. We have a far more
comprehensive knowledge of the glorious Redeemer, in his
person, natures, offices, and blessings; of the spiritual
nature of his kingdom, and the way of salvation through
faith in him, than what the Jews had. Thus the Apostle
says, “But we all with open face beholding as in a glass
the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image,
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
In the Revelation, we have this representation given of the
Christian church: “And there appeared a great wonder in
heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under
her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” An
author, quoted by Dr. A. Clarke, gives the following
elucidation of this passage.—That the woman here represents
the true church of Christ, most commentators are agreed. In
other parts of the Apocalypse, the pure church of Christ is
evidently pourtrayed by a woman. In chapter xix, verse 7, a
great multitude are represented as saying, “Let us be glad
and rejoice, and give honor to him; for the marriage of the
Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself
ready.” In chapter xxi, 9, an angel talks with St. John,
saying, “Come hither, I will show thee the bride,
the Lamb’s wife.” That the Christian Church is meant will
appear also from her being “clothed with the sun,” a
striking emblem of Jesus Christ, the Sun of Righteousness,
the light and glory of the Church; for the countenance of
the Son of God is, as “the sun shineth in his strength.”
The woman has the “moon under her feet.” Bishop Newton
understands this of the Jewish typical worship; and,
indeed, the Mosaic system of rites and ceremonies could not
have been better represented. The moon is the less light,
ruling over the night, and deriving all its illumination
from the sun: in like manner, the Jewish dispensation was
the bright moonlight night of the world, and possessed a
portion of the glorious light of the gospel. At the rising
of the sun the night is ended, and the lunar light no
longer necessary as the sun which enlightens her shines
full upon the earth: exactly in the same way has the whole
Jewish system of types and shadows been superseded by the
birth, life, crucifixion, death, resurrection, ascension,
and intercession of Jesus Christ. Upon the head of the
woman is “a crown of twelve stars;” a very significant
representation of the twelve apostles, who were
the first founders of the Christian church; and by whom the
gospel was preached in a great part of the Roman empire
with astonishing success.
2. The phenomenon of the moon is mutability. This
beautiful luminary, whose gentle beams render the summer
evenings still more agreeable, and in the winter nights
cheer the abodes of solitude, and aid the midnight
traveller, is perpetually changing. In this, and in nothing
but this, observes Mr. Basely, she is invariable, and a
perfect index to all within her orbit. This should teach
us, says Mr. Browne, that there is not any thing permanent
in the present scene. Mutability is engraved in legible
characters upon every earthly object. Every thing is in
motion, and assuming a different appearance, whilst
vicissitude and change wait on the affairs of mortals. Such
is the fluctuating state of the present world, whether we
view kingdoms in general, or the personal concerns of men
in particular.
But while these things are fortuitous as to man, we should
reflect that they are under the direction and control of a
Divine providence. The prosperous issue of all our designs
and enterprises depends entirely on the sovereign disposer
of events. “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in
vain that build it; except the Lord keep the city, the
watchman waketh but in vain.” “A man’s heart deviseth his
way; but the Lord directeth his steps;” the result of his
designs and projects being under the dominion and direction
of God. Whether his undertaking shall succeed or fail,
belongs alone to the Most High to determine. Let as arrange
our worldly concerns in the most prudent and politic
manner, so that there shall appear the greatest probability
of success, yet God has the ordering of the event. Solomon
has long since observed, that, amongst the many vanities
under the sun, one is, “the race is not to the swift, nor
the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise,
nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to
men of skill: but time and chance happeneth to them all.”
Some unforeseen circumstance may interrupt our pursuit, and
disappoint our expectation. So great is the uncertainty
which attends all human affairs, and all future events are
concealed in such thick darkness, that we can never
positively affirm that this or the other scheme, however
wisely laid, cannot be frustrated, or that it is impossible
the success should be otherwise than as we calculate. No
man knows what shall be on the morrow; the only thing we
know previously is, that every event shall be as God is
pleased to settle it.
This consideration, that it is not by our own choice and
foresight, but the will and wisdom of God, our affairs are
directed and determined, we should apply to ourselves. We
are not competent to mark out our own ways, nor can we
seriously imagine that matters should be arranged exactly
according to our imperfect views and secret inclinations;
but we should refer ourselves to his guidance who cannot
err, and willingly acquiesce in his providential decisions:
saying, “I know, oh Lord, that the way of man is not in
himself: it
is not in man that walketh to
direct his own steps.” We are commanded by the Apostle
James to say, “If the Lord will, we shall live, and do
this, or that.” And Solomon’s advice is, “Trust in the Lord
with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own
understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he
shall direct thy paths.” Concerning all our lawful designs,
enterprises, and projects, we may pray, “Establish thou the
work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands
establish thou it.”
Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter — Displaying Divine
Power, Wisdom, Goodness, Faithfulness — Religious
Improvement.
The Divine Architect appointed the sun and moon the places
of their rising, the circuits they were to run, and where
they were to go down: he marked out the line in which they
were to move through all the different climates of the
earth. They instantly obeyed his all-powerful word, and
have ever since acted faithfully to his command. In their
operations, they measure out our days and nights,
distinguish between different periods of time, and produce
the several seasons of the year.
“With what an awful world-revolving power
Were first th’ unwieldy planets launched along
Th’ illimitable void! Thus to remain
Amid the flux of many thousand years,
That oft has swept the toiling race of men
And all their labored monuments away,
Firm, unremitting, matchless in their course;
To the kind tempered change of night and day,
And of the seasons ever stealing round,
Minutely faithful.”
God is the supreme ruler in the kingdom of nature, and the
constant changes of day and night, summer and winter,
seed-time and harvest, are appointed and regulated by his
providential influence. This wonderful and stupendous
system, consisting of matter, is preserved by motion.
Deprive it of motion, and, as a system, it must expire.
Who, then, breathed into this amazing combination of things
acting together, the life of motion? What power impelled
the planets to move, since motion is not a property of the
matter of which they are composed? Did not annual
observation familiarize it to us (to speak
unphilosophically), who that observes the sun going in
appearance further from us during six months in succession,
and all that time decreasing in light and heat, could ever
think that he would again return to us? What hinders his
projection into boundless space, till he should appear no
larger than a star, or get beyond the reach of our powers
of vision? What,
but the immediate control of God!
for this is a work superior to all created strength, and
only to be effected by almighty energy.126
When we have seen that glorious lamp of heaven, the great
ruler of the day, gone so far from us that we scarcely knew
how to stand before the cold, how has his return revived
and cheered us, visiting the frozen earth with his friendly
beams, infusing a genial warmth into every creature, and
inspiring us with the pleasing hope of once more enjoying
those various fruits of the earth, which are the liberal
gifts of an indulgent Providence! It is the Divine Being
who commands the sun to rise, who, “coming out of his
chamber” in the east, rejoices as a strong man to run a
race. Again, he bids this glorious orb to withdraw, and
obscure his beauty behind thick clouds, or sink below the
western ocean; when, behold, the day is covered with
darkness, and night succeeds. At his sovereign command, the
glowing summer recedes, and winter approaches with chilling
aspect. “He sends his snow like wool, and scattereth his
hoar frost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like
morsels: who can stand before his cold?” He then recalls
the solar influence, scatters the inauspicious clouds,
thaws the frozen ridges of the field; the corn springs up
and flourishes, and the heart of man rejoices with the
pleasing hope of a plenteous harvest. Thus does the
almighty Creator, and beneficent Governor of the world,
order and regulate the constant succession of the seasons;
his Providence over-rules and directs the whole movement,
and nothing can come to pass without his superintendence.
Reason, as well as supernatural revelation, asserts the
reality of a Divine providence. The happiest inquirers into
the phenomena of nature have discovered that every thing is
made with the justest proportion, and that the whole
machine is directed according to the most exact rules: but
they have also perceived a power above and beyond the
energy of natural principles, and which could not possibly
be accounted for any other way than by admitting an
immediate act or influence of the supreme Being. In the
revolving of the celestial orbs, we observe an exact
agreement with the established laws of mechanism: but, yet,
there is a force demonstrable in them which is altogether
immechanical; and, consequently, immediately issuing from
God himself.
The remarks made by Dr. A. Clarke on this point, will, it
is presumed, gratify the intelligent reader. “The
double motion of a primary planet, namely, its
annual revolution and diurnal rotation,
is one of the greatest wonders the science of astronomy
presents to our view.—The laws which regulate the latter of
these motions are so completely hid from man,
notwithstanding his present great extension of philosophic
research, that the times which the planets employ in their
rotations can only be determined by
observation. How
is it that two motions, so essentially different from each
other, should be in the same body, at the same time,
without one interfering at all with the other?—No
astronomer, since the foundation of the world, has been
able to demonstrate that the earth’s motion in the heavens
is at all accelerated or retarded by the diurnal rotation;
or, on the other hand, that the earth’s motion on its axis
experiences the least irregularity from the annual
revolution.”
The rotation of the earth round its own axis, from west to
east, once in 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4 seconds, is the cause
of the distinction between day and night, by bringing the
different parts of the earth’s surface successively into,
and from under the solar rays. And the revolution of the
earth round the sun, from any equinox or solstice to the
same point again, in 365 days, 48 minutes, 48 seconds,
produces the agreeable vicissitudes of the seasons, and
measures the length of our year. For though the revolution
is that of the earth, yet both the hours of the day and
night, the different lengths of the days and nights, and
the seasons of the year, cannot be determined but by the
heavenly bodies. Thus the earth has a two-fold motion, like
a chariot-wheel; for while it goes forward on its annual
journey, it is still in its diurnal motion turning upon its
own centre. But it differs from the motion of a
chariot-wheel in this: that its hourly motion in its orbit
is 75,222 miles; and that by the motion upon its axis, the
inhabitants on the equator are carried after the rate of
1,042 miles an hour, and those upon the parallel of London
580 miles.
The Dr. proceeds, “How wonderful is this contrivance! and
what incalculable benefits result from it! The
uninterrupted and equable diurnal rotation of the earth
gives us day and night in their succession, and the annual
revolution causes all the varied scenery of the year. If
one motion interfered with the other, the return of the day
and night would be irregular; and the change of seasons
attended with uncertainty to the husbandman. These two
motions are, therefore, harmoniously impressed upon the
earth, that the gracious promise of the great Creator might
be fulfilled, ’While the earth remaineth, seed-time and
harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day
and night, shall not cease.’
“The double motion of a secondary planet is still more
singular than that of its primary; for (taking the moon for
an example) besides its particular revolution round the
earth, which is performed in 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes,
4½ seconds; it is carried round the sun with the earth once
a year. Of all the planetary motions, with which we have a
tolerable acquaintance, that of the moon is the most
intricate: upwards of twenty equations are necessary, in
the great majority of cases, to reduce her mean to her true
place; yet not one of them is derivable from the
circumstance that she accompanies the earth in its
revolution round the sun. They
depend on the different distances
of the earth from the sun in its annual revolution, the
position of the lunar nodes, and various other causes, and
not on the annual revolution itself, a motion which, of all
others, might be expected to cause greater irregularities
in her revolution round the earth than could be produced on
that of the latter by the planetary attractions. Who can
form an adequate conception of that influence of the earth
which thus draws the moon with it round the sun, precisely
in the same manner as if it were a part of the earth’s
surface, notwithstanding the intervening distance of about
240,000 miles; and, at the same time, leaves undisturbed
the moon’s proper motion round the earth? And what
beneficent purposes are subserved by this harmony? In
consequence of it, we have the periodical returns of new
and full moon; and the ebbing and flowing of the sea, which
depend on the various lunar phases, with respect to the sun
and earth, (as if demonstrable from each of these phases
being continually contemporaneous with the particular
phenomenon of the tides,) always succeed each other with a
regularity necessarily equal to that of the causes which
produce them. Thus we see that God is continually present,
supporting all things by his energy, and that, while his
working is manifest, his ways are past finding out.”
Thomson, in his descriptive, philosophical, moral, and
religious poem, admirably well delineates the revolving
seasons.
“These, as they change, Almighty Father, these
Are but the varied God. The rolling year
Is full of thee. Forth in the pleasing spring
Thy
beauty walks. Thy
tenderness and love
Wide flush the fields; the softening air is balm;
Echo the mountains round; the forest smiles;
And every sense, and every heart is joy.
Then comes Thy
glory in the summer-months,
With light and heat refulgent. Then Thy sun
Shoots full perfection through the swelling year:
And oft Thy
voice in dreadful thunder speaks;
And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve,
By brooks and groves, in hollow-whispering gales.
Thy
bounty shines in Autumn unconfin’d,
And spreads a common feast for all that lives.
In Winter awful Thou!
with clouds and storms
Around Thee
thrown, tempest o’er tempest roll’d.
Majestic darkness! on the whirlwind’s wing,
Riding sublime, Thou
bidst the world adore,
And humblest nature with Thy
northern blast.
Mysterious round! what skill, what force divine,
Deep felt, in these appear! a simple train,
Yet so delightful mix’d, with such kind art,
Such beauty and beneficence combin’d;
Shade, unperceiv’d, so softening into shade;
And all so forming an harmonious whole;
That, as they still succeed, they ravish still.”
He who governs the whole frame of nature, and directs and
regulates these successive changes, must possess almighty
power, without which, he would be infinitely
inadequate to the task. He who made the celestial orbs of
such a prodigious bulk, and whirls them round with an
almost incredible swiftness, causing the
regular
return of day and night, summer
and winter, what can he not do? None among the mighty host
of heaven, or among the inhabitants of the earth, can
resist his power, or stay his arm when lifted up. He who
created all things out of nothing, could, if he pleased,
extinguish the lights of heaven, and shake the solid earth
to atoms. How easily, then, can he stop our breath, break
the slender thread of life, dissolve our feeble frame, or
hurl guilty and impenitent sinners into the pit of
destruction! He who brought darkness for the space of three
days upon the Egyptians, and a dreadful tempest of forty
days and forty nights upon the inhabitants of the old
world, can make the days of the ungodly darkness, and their
nights full of horror. He can strike them with “the arrow
that flieth by day,” his swift pointed lightning; or with
the pestilential vapors of the night, which “walk in
darkness,” and give the deadly stroke unseen.
“Lord, when my thoughtful soul surveys
Fire, air, and earth, and stars and seas,
I call them all thy slaves;
Commissioned by my father’s will,
Poison shall cure, or balm shall kill;
Vernal suns or zephyr’s breath,
May burn or blast the plants to death,
That sharp December saves.
What can winds or planets boast
But a precarious power?
The sun is all in darkness lost,
Frost shall be fire, and fire be frost,
When he appoints the hour.”
Shall not, then, such a frail creature as man, think and
speak of this omnipotent Being with the greatest reverence
and profound humility? Oh God, fill the minds of all men
with just and enlarged views of thy majesty and greatness!
for thou killest, and thou makest alive; thou woundest, and
thou healest: neither is there any that can deliver out of
thy hand.
Divine wisdom also shines forth in the regular and
uninterrupted succession of the seasons. “The Lord by
wisdom hath founded the earth, and by understanding
established the heavens.” Not only the different magnitudes
of the heavenly orbs, but their particular distances, and
the harmonious laws by which they move, do loudly proclaim,
that he who formed, ranges, and actuates them all, must be
infinitely wise. Without looking into boundless space,
where shine many thousand globes of light, or fixed stars,
supposed to be suns like our own, and to have planets
revolving round them, we may discover luminous displays of
Divine wisdom in our own system, in the constant succession
of the seasons, that may justly excite our wonder and
adoration. How wise must he be who has so exactly
proportioned the different magnitudes of the earth and the
sun, and placed them at a proper distance from each other!
Is not equal wisdom discovered in that equable, steady,
swift, and complicate
motion of the earth, by which the
delightful and necessary succession of the seasons return?
It is the wisdom of God that at first arranged the motion
of the celestial bodies, and that preserves them in their
rapid and yet regular progressions and rotations, with so
much order and harmony. “How manifold, oh Lord, are thy
works! in wisdom hast thou made them all. Thy understanding
is infinite, for thou tellest the number of the stars, and
callest them all by their names.”
The goodness of God to the inhabitants of the
earth, is also displayed in the revolving seasons. When the
almighty Creator took a survey of all the works his hands
had made, he saw that they were good; not only conformable
to eternal reason, but proper to answer the end for which
he designed them. And this goodness manifested in the
formation of the world, is not more clearly discovered in
any thing than in the return of day and night, heat and
cold, summer and winter. We are pleased with the light in
the morning, but it is after we have rested well in the
night: when a few hours are spent, we grow weary of the
light, and wish for the return of the silence and darkness
of the nocturnal season. After a long cold winter, we
joyfully welcome the approach of summer; but when scorched
a few months with its heat, and ready to faint, the return
of winter is not so unpleasant to us as it appeared more
early in the spring. But whatever effect these successions
may have upon us, it is certain they are very beneficial.
The light of the day is advantageous for managing the toils
and business of life; and the coolness and stillness of the
night are as suitable for rest and sleep. The summer’s heat
is necessary for ripening the fruits of the earth, and
hastening the harvest: but the winter’s cold and hoary
frost are subservient to prepare the earth for the seed,
and render it fertile. Nay, this dreary season is
serviceable both to man and beast; it tends to remove
distempers contracted in the summer’s unwholesome air, and
gives a new spring and vigor to nature. How great, then, is
the Divine goodness in preserving the constant and regular
revolution of these seasons, so pleasant and beneficial to
mankind! “Oh that men would praise the Lord for his
goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of
men.”
We cannot but perceive the faithfulness of God in
continuing these seasons, according to his promise, to this
period. We still see day succeeding day, and year
succeeding year: this covenant made with mankind is
inviolably kept. The husbandman cultivates his land,
ploughs up the furrows, casts in the seeds, in hope of the
ensuing harvest, when he expects that his expense, labor,
and patience, will be recompensed with a rich and large
increase. But should God, in anger, open the bottles of
heaven, pour down the rain in torrents, cause swelling
floods to arise, and, rolling with alarming impetuosity
forward, to sweep away at once the fruit of
all his toil, how
great must be his grief and astonishment! Such were the
consternation and confusion that seized mankind at the time
of the flood. The husbandman had tilled his land, thrown
his seed into the ground; he saw it with pleasure springing
up, and promised himself a plentiful harvest: when quickly,
all the flood-gates of heaven were opened, all the
fountains of the great deep were broken up, and a rapid
current overflowed the springing corn, swept away numerous
flocks of cattle, overthrew the habitations of the people,
and drowned man and beast to the very tops of the
mountains! But in this general ruin, Noah found favor with
God, and he and his family were preserved in the Ark. When
the waters had abated, and the earth became dry, this pious
patriarch, being much affected with the awful judgment
inflicted upon mankind, especially with the distinguishing
mercies conferred upon himself and family, offered
sacrifice, in testimony of his gratitude, to his great
Deliverer, who was well-pleased with it. And on this, he
made a covenant with him, and with all his posterity, in
which he promises that he will not again curse the ground
for man’s sake, nor any more smite every living thing, but
that, “while the earth remaineth,” the successive seasons
of the year shall be continued. The awful disobedience of
the inhabitants of the old world rendered it necessary to
inflict so dreadful a judgment; but as soon as it had
subsided, God promised never to punish mankind again so
universally. And, in token of his faithfulness, he set the
rainbow in the cloud, to be a sign of his covenant, which
has not been broken, but faithfully kept even to this day.
However the Almighty may contend in anger with particular
nations or provinces, he will no more do so with mankind in
general.
How happy is the situation of our native isle! There are
few countries, if any, that exceed it. The climate is
temperate; neither days nor nights are ever of immoderate
length; the summer and winter are neither extremely hot,
nor excessively cold; the seed-time and harvest are
generally favorable, and the produce of the land is
plenteous. The inhabitants of some countries endure a long
and severe winter, seeing not the sun for many weeks: nay,
there are some places where it rises not for several
months; but these parts are not inhabited in the winter
season. In other countries, the inhabitants are scorched
with the rays of a vertical sun, and wish in vain for the
cooling winter’s snow. Some know not what is meant by the
heat of summer, and others are as ignorant of the cold of
winter. Some see the sun, but comparatively feel not his
warming influence; while others are penetrated with his
burning rays all the year. But the people of this country
have moderate summer, heat sufficient for ripening the most
useful fruits, and winter that may be well endured. The
days are not so hot in the summer, but the nights are
sufficiently cool for allaying the
heat; and they
are long enough in winter for managing the business that is
requisite to be done. Some warmer climates produce more
delicious fruits: but no country under the canopy of the
heavens does more abound with all the substantial supports
of life; not only equal to our own consumption, but
frequently to enable us to assist our neighbors. Happy are
the people that are in such a case: yea, thrice happy are
they whose God is Jehovah. All his works praise him: may we
join the grand chorus, and bless his holy name. Surely, if
the works of creation were attentively viewed, and
seriously considered, they would not only be truly admired,
but their glorious Author would be sincerely regarded,
diligently worshipped, and practically obeyed.
The following table has been ascribed to the illustrious
astronomer, Dr. Herschell. It is constructed upon a
philosophical consideration of the attraction of the sun
and moon in their several positions respecting the earth,
and confirmed by the experience of many years: actual
observation will, without trouble, suggest to the observer
what kind of weather will most probably follow the moon’s
entrance into any of her quarters; and that so near the
truth, that in very few instances will it be found to fail.
|
New or Full Moon. |
Summer. |
Winter. |
|
If it be new or full moon, or the moon enters into the
first or last quarters at the hour of 12 |
Very rainy. |
Snow and rain. |
|
Between hours of 2 and 4 |
Changeable. |
Fair and mild. |
|
4 - 6 |
Fair. |
Fair. |
|
6 - 8 |
Fair, if wind N.W.
Rainy, if S. or S.W. |
Fair and frosty, if N. or N.E.
Rainy, if S. or S.W. |
|
8 - 10 |
Ditto. |
Ditto. |
|
10 and Midnight |
Fair. |
Fair and frosty. |
|
Midnight and 2 |
Ditto. |
Hard frost, unless wind S. or S.W. |
|
2 - 4 |
Cold, with frequent showers. |
Snow and Stormy. |
|
4 - 6 |
Rain. |
Ditto. |
|
6 - 8 |
Wind and rain. |
Stormy. |
|
8 - 10 |
Changeable. |
Cold, rain if W. snow if E. |
|
10 and Noon |
Frequent showers. |
Cold with high wind. |
Hence, the nearer the time of the moon’s entrance, at full
and change, or quarters, is to midnight (that is, within
two hours before or after midnight), the more fair weather
is in summer, but the nearer to noon the less fair. Also,
the moon’s entrance, at full, change, and quarters, during
six of the afternoon hours, viz. from four to ten, may be
followed by fair weather; but this is mostly dependant on
the wind. The same entrance, during all the hours after
midnight except the two first, is unfavorable to fair
weather; the like, nearly, may be observed in winter.127
It is an easy and excellent method of conveying
instruction, and impressing it upon the heart, to take
occasion from natural objects to raise the mind to things
spiritual and divine. The day and
night, and their
alternate changes, may suggest such thoughts as the
following, to a serious mind engaged in meditation.
What a glorious creature is light! How beneficial to this
world! How useful, nay, how necessary for managing those
employments which could not be done in the night! How
unwise, then, is he who postpones the necessary business of
the day till night overtake him?—So beneficial, so
requisite, is the light of life in the important work of
human salvation. Does God allow men a day, a gracious
season, and the light of his word, for the good of their
souls? Of what extreme folly shall they be guilty, if they
neglect the necessary business till the night of death
come, and they drop into the grave, where there is neither
work, nor wisdom, nor device! Now is the day of grace, and
God is favoring them with the light of reason and
revelation. May he give them wisdom to improve these
advantages, to his glory, and their own happiness! They
know not how soon their sun may set, and the night of death
come upon them. If it should be before their everlasting
interest is secured, they will be lost for ever. Oh Lord,
teach us so to number our days, that we may apply our
hearts to wisdom!
Night comes on apace; I must soon undress, and lie down to
sleep. And it cannot be long before I must put off this
body, lie down in the grave and sleep in the dust. What
shall I do that my soul may not be found naked, but be
clothed and adorned with the glorious robes of
righteousness? Jesus, to whom shall I go but to thee, for
thou hast the words of eternal life!—How awful, and full of
horror, is this approaching darkness! If the imperfection
of man did not require the rest of sleep, surely it would
be a pleasant thing always to dwell in the light. Will it
not then, be unspeakably delightful to abide in the light
of God’s countenance, to see the Divine Majesty with a
strong and open eye? and to behold his unutterable glories
without any fear of being deprived of the beatific vision,
or of returning night? But oh! how dismal must that place
of darkness be where the light never shines! where the
miserable inhabitants never see one beam of Divine light,
one ray from God’s reconciled face! where the grossest
darkness reigns for ever, without the least hope of
returning day! and where nothing remains for them, but a
black, a horrible, an eternal night!
“Is light so grateful to the human sense?
Created light? a faint, refracted ray?
One, distant sun? the shadow, but, of God!
Dark adumbration of the Deity?
Oh! what is heav’n! that day of endless light?
Where saints shall from th’ essential fountain drink
Of radiance! in God’s full, paternal shine?
Ah! what is Hell? of ever-absent day,
A night all hopeless!—and all endless too!”
The successive changes of day and night may suggest what is
frequently the condition of good people in this world.
Their day of prosperity is sometimes followed with a night
of adversity; and
then, when sorrow and weeping
have endured for a night, light and joy spring up in the
morning.—Is the light of the day pleasing? rejoice in it
with trembling, for the night is advancing. Is the darkness
of the night solemn and awful? rejoice in hope that the day
is approaching. Hence be instructed, oh my soul, in the
concerns of thy eternal welfare. Are prosperity, health,
and relatives, agreeable? rejoice in them as one that
rejoices not: these must have an end; and adversity,
sickness, and death, will come. Are losses, affliction, and
pain, not joyous, but grievous? mourn as one that weeps
not: ease, health, and gladness, are in prospect, and will
continue for ever. And how happy and glorious will that
world be, where light and joy shall never cease! But how
dreadful is that abode where darkness, despair, and anguish
shall never end!
The succession of cold and heat, winter and summer, will
always suggest pious and useful reflections in retirement.
How pleasing it is to see the sun return, and to feel his
cheering rays, after a long, cold, and tempestuous winter!
So it is delightful to the humble penitent sinner, after a
long season of darkness and sorrow, when the Sun of
Righteousness arises with his reviving influences, and God
lifts upon him the smiles of his reconciled countenance.
All misery, and clouds of doubt and fear, are then
dispersed, and heavenly light breaks into the soul, and
fills it with gladness. And does the want of the light of
God cause the serious Christian to mourn and weep, and
taste no sweetness in any of the comforts of life? How
extremely miserable, then, must a person be, who is driven
to an everlasting distance from the presence of God, and
from the glorious Sun of Righteousness; only to see his
glory very remote, but never to feel the reviving beams of
his love; and to be punished in hell, far “from the
presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power.”
Mercury — Venus — The Earth — Mars — Ceres — Pallas — Juno
— Vesta — Jupiter — Saturn — Georgium Sidus — Comets —
Fixed Stars — Religious Improvement.
Moses, after stating that God created the sun and the moon,
says, “he made the stars also.” A learned author explains
it, “he made the lesser light, with the stars, to rule the
night.” It is very probable that the whole solar
system was created in six days: but as the design of
the sacred historian was to relate what especially belongs
to our globe and its inhabitants, he therefore passes by
the planetary system, leaving it simply included in the
plural word, שמים
shamayim, heavens. In a
work of this nature, it is proper to take a concise view of
all the planets, their number, distances, magnitudes,
revolutions, &c.
Wandering Stars, says Baseley, is one of the many
appellations by which our solar system has been sometimes
designated. And the figure it makes in the heavens is not
unaptly expressed by the phraseology. For we distinguish
the planets from the fixed stars by the lustre of the
former, which is only from that side which faces the sun,
and by their motion, which is seldom, and then but
apparently, interrupted. Their brightness seems more
uniform, has the cast of reflected rather than direct
illumination, and is altogether free from scintillation or
twinkling. Their connection with the globe we inhabit is
more perceptible, and their relative situation to one
another less stationary. Their distance from us is not so
remote, and more susceptible of calculation. The latter
occupy a certain region situated in our neighborhood
between us and the former.
The planets are opake bodies, and nearly spherical. Being
opake in themselves, they become visible only by reflecting
the light, which they receive from the sun. The laws by
which they are governed were discovered by Kepler, who
demonstrated that they must necessarily revolve in
elliptical, and not in circular orbits. Astronomers have
divided them into classes: the primary planets are
Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, Ceres, Pallas, Juno,
Vesta, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Georgium Sidus; and the
second class includes the satellites which belong to some
of the primary planets, such as the Moon, the attendant on
the Earth, the four moons or satellites that revolve about
Jupiter, the seven that attend Saturn, and the six that
wait on the Georgium Sidus.
Mercury is the smallest of the seven primary
planets, and nearest to the sun; he appears as a small
star, and emits a very vivid white light. He was called by
the Greeks Στιλβων,
plainly alluding to his brightness. Costard observes, “ברק אור
Bark-oor, ברק אורי
Bark-oori, or, changing the letter ב
into מ
as letters of the same organ frequently are, מרק אורי
Mark-oori, we have in another dialect, with a
Latin termination us, another name of this planet,
Mercurius; and from whence comes Mercury, as he is
called by us.” This planet never goes to a greater distance
from the sun than about 27° 50ʹ; so that he appears only a
little after sunset, and again a little before sunrise; he
is never longer in setting after the sun than an hour and
fifty minutes nor does he ever rise more than an hour and
fifty minutes before that luminary: he is then about as far
as the moon appears to be from the sun on the second day
after the change. His mean distance from the sun says Dr.
O. Gregory, is to that of the earth from the sun as 387 to
1,000: hence his distance is about thirty-seven millions of
miles. To an inhabitant of Mercury, the sun appears almost
three times broader than we see him from the earth; because
the planet is almost three times nearer to the sun than the
earth. Whence also the solar disk, seen from Mercury, is
seven times greater than the
disk as it appears to us, and
Mercury has seven times more light than the earth.
“——Mercury the first,
Near bordering on the day, with speedy wheel
Flies swifter on, inflaming where he comes
With seven-fold splendor.”
The diameter of this planet is more than one-third of the
diameter of the earth, or 3,180 miles. Hence his surface is
about 1/7th; and his magnitude 1/16th of that of the earth.
His period of revolution round the sun is 87 days, 23
hours, 14 minutes, 33 seconds, which is his year, and falls
short of three of our months: hence he moves in his orbit
round the sun at the rate of more than 95,000 miles in an
hour. According to some astronomers, it has not been
ascertained by observation, whether Mercury turns upon his
own axis, and therefore it cannot be certainly affirmed
that he has the vicissitude of day and night, neither the
return of summer and winter: because they depend upon the
inclination of the axis of his rotation, which is unknown,
to the plane of the orbit which he describes about the sun;
though there is very little doubt entertained on the
subject. But Schroëter affirms that he “has distinguished
spots and mountains, which he has assiduously followed,
till he has arrived at the subsequent conclusions: that the
apparent diameter of the planet is about 6ʺ; that it does
not present any sensible ellipticity; that the mountains it
contains are proportionably larger than those of Venus and
the Earth; that the highest are, as in these two bodies, in
the southern hemisphere; that the angle which the equator
makes with its orbit is very considerable; that the
difference of days and seasons ought to be much greater in
Mercury than it is on the earth; that its atmosphere, like
that of Venus, is very dense; and lastly, that its rotation
about its axis is 24 hours, 5 minutes, 30 seconds.”
When examined by means of a telescope magnifying about 200 or
300 times, he appears equally luminous throughout his whole
surface, without the least dark spot. He exhibits the same
difference of phases with the moon, being alternately
horned, gibbous, and shining almost with a round face,
though not entirely full because his enlightened side is
never turned directly toward us; but at all times perfectly
well defined without any ragged edge, and completely
bright; and, like the moon, the crescent is always turned
toward the sun. Mercury has no inferior planet known to us,
and if that be actually the case, a spectator on his body
will want the argument taken from the horned phases of the
planets, to establish the true system of the world. But
though we do not see any planets inferior to Mercury, it
does by no means follow that there are none: for we seldom
see Mercury himself, he being buried in the rays of the
sun; and a planet much nearer the sun could never be seen
from the earth. The first observation that was ever made
of a transit, was by Gassendi, who saw Mercury on the sun,
A.M. November 7, 1631. Since his time there have occurred
seventeen other transits of this planet, the last of which
was at his ascending node on the 9th of November, 1802. The
ascending and descending nodes are in the 16° of Taurus,
and 16° of Scorpio. Other transits are expected in the
years 1822, 1832, 1835, 1845, and 1848.
Venus, the second planet from the sun in the order
of the system, is the most beautiful star in the heavens,
being easily distinguished by her brightness and whiteness,
which exceeds that of all the other planets, and is so
considerable, that in a dusky night she projects a sensible
shadow. Concerning her name, Costard remarks, “From the
Chaldee הן
Han, or Hen, which signifies gratia,
decor, elegantia,
with the Æolic digamma Ϝ, comes Fen, or Ven,
and with the additional termination us, Venus; the
name by which this planet was known among the Romans, and
by which, from them, it has been transmitted to us.” The
mean distance of Venus from the sun is about 69,000,000
miles; her diameter is 7,630 miles; she performs her
revolution round the sun in 224 days, 16 hours, 41 minutes,
27 seconds; her diurnal motion on her axis, according to
some observations accurately made by Schroëter, is
performed in 23 hours, 21 minutes; and she moves at the
rate of 81,398 miles an hour.
This planet constantly attends the sun, and never departs
from him more than forty-seven degrees, and consequently is
never seen at midnight, nor in opposition to that luminary;
being visible only for three or four hours in a morning or
evening, according as she is before or after the sun. Venus
is a morning star when she appears westward of the
sun, for she then rises before him, and is among poets
called Phosphorus or Lucifer——
“——Fair morning star,
That leads on dawning day to yonder world,
The seat of man.”
but when eastward of the sun, she is an evening
star, shining after he is set, and then the poets give
her the name Hesperus or Vesper.
“——Her lovely beams adorn
As well the dewy eve, as opening morn.”
She is in each situation, alternately, between nine and ten
months, or about 290 days. Pythagoras is said to have first
discovered that Hesperus and Phosphorus were one and the
same star. “From the name Phosphorus,” says Costard, “it
seems as if this is the same star that in Isaiah is called
הילל בן שהר
Helal-ben-shahar, or Helal, son of
the morning; a name given it on account of its
remarkable brightness. If so, that is the oldest record of
a planet that occurs in any author whatever now extant:
this was about the year before Christ 710.”
Venus is frequently seen in the day-time, when in the
inferior part of her orbit, at about forty degrees distant
from the sun.
“No stars besides their radiance can display
In Phœbus’ presence the dread Lord of day;
Ev’n Cynthia’s self, though regent of the night,
Is quite obscur’d by his emergent light;
But Venus
only, as if more divine,
With Phœbus dares in partnership to shine.”
To quiet the minds of some superstitious people, greatly
alarmed at the appearance of Venus in the day-time, Dr.
Halley wrote a small piece, published in the Philosophical
Transactions (No. 349) to show that this was nothing
extraordinary, and might be expected every eight years.
Venus, when viewed through a good telescope, is rarely seen
to shine with a full face, but has phases just like those
of the moon, being now gibbous, now horned, &c., and
her illuminated part constantly turned towards the sun,
looking toward the east when a morning star, and toward the
west when an evening star. M. de la Hire, in 1700, through
a telescope of sixteen feet, discovered mountains in Venus,
which he found to be larger than those in the moon. These
observations have recently been confirmed by M. Schroëter,
who, in the year 1780, commenced a course of observations
on this planet, the results of which were published in the
Philosophical Transactions for 1792.
Venus, as well as Mercury, is sometimes seen to transit the
sun’s disk, in form of a dark round spot; but these
transits seldom happen. The first that was ever observed,
was seen by our countryman Jeremiah Horrox, at Hool, an
obscure village fifteen miles north of Liverpool: his
account of which was published by Hevelius at Dantzic in
1661, under the title, “Venus in sole visa, anno 1631,
November 24.” Mr. Horrox’s friend, William Crabtree,
according to his direction, saw this transit at the same
time, at Manchester. Two have occurred in the last century,
namely, one June 6th, 1761, seen by many astronomers, which
excited particular attention by a dissertation published by
Dr. Halley in the Philosophical Transactions (No. 348) in
which he proposed finding, from that transit, the sun’s
parallax, and thence the distance of the earth from the
sun: and the other, June 3d, 1769, at 10h. 10ʹ,
according to M. de la Lande, and consequently invisible at
Paris and London; but by comparing together two
observations made, one at Mexico, and the other to the
north of Petersburgh, we perceive the sun’s parallax, was
determined with great precision. The transits of Venus,
occurring between the years 1631 and 2110, according to the
calculations of persons most eminent in astronomical
science, are as follow:
|
1631 |
December 6 |
|
1639 |
December 4 |
|
1761 |
June 5 |
|
1769 |
June 3 |
|
1874 |
December 8 |
|
1882 |
December 6 |
|
2004 |
June 7 |
|
2109 |
December 10 |
The Earth is the next planet in order; called by
the Greeks Γη,
and by the poets Γαια,
from γαω
to generate, produce, which, says Parkhurst,
is from the Hebrew, גאה
to grow as a plant,
because it produces, or is the mother of all terrestrial
things; or in the poetic language of the Orphic hymn to the
earth,
——“Brings forth her various fruits,
With throes maternal.”
The word used by Moses is הארץ
haarets, translated earth, whence in the
Anglo-Saxon, eard and eord; Danish jord,
jorden;
Dutch erd
and aerd;
and Teutonic erd,
erde.
The distance of the earth from the sun is about 95,000,000
miles: her orbit round the sun is 597,000,000 miles, and
she performs her revolution round the sun, from any equinox
or solstice to the same point again, in 365 days, 5 hours,
49 minutes, 57 seconds; of course, her hourly motion in her
orbit is 68,000 miles. Her diameter is 7,964 miles, her
circumference is 25,000 miles, and the time of rotation
upon her axis, from west to east, is 23 hours, 56 minutes,
4 seconds: by which the inhabitants upon the equator are
carried after the rate of 1,042 miles an hour, and those
upon the parallel of London, 580 miles, as we have already
noticed. The annual and diurnal motion of the earth is thus
described by Milton:
“She from the West her silent course advances
With inoffensive pace, that spinning sleeps
On her soft axle, while she paces even,
And bears us soft with the smooth air along.”
From this circumstance arises the apparent diurnal
revolution of all the heavenly bodies from east to west.
“The motion of the earth,” says an intelligent writer, “has
so long ceased to be a disputed question, that the
arguments on each side are nearly forgotten; and those who
do not scruple to adopt the hypothesis of the earth’s
motions, are often less acquainted with the arguments on
which it is supported, than they would have been in former
times, when their opinions must have been the subjects of
fierce contention.” La Place observes, “that if the earth
be at rest, and the stars move, the velocity of these
latter must be immense; and yet all the purposes thereof
might have been answered by a moderate motion of the earth
alone. The moon’s distance from the earth is 240,000 miles;
of course, the length of the tract which it traverses, if
it moves round the earth in 24 hours, is about 1,500,000;
that is, at the rate of 62,500 miles an hour, instead of
2,290 miles, which is really the case: consequently, in
each second of time, the moon, known to be the slowest of
all the heavenly bodies, must move more than seventeen
miles. Again, the sun’s mean distance from the earth is
about 95,000,000 miles; consequently, the diurnal path of
that luminary, if it revolve about our globe in twenty-four
hours, must be 580,000,000: and therefore, in a single
second, the beat of a clock, he must move nearly 7,000
miles. Upon the same principle; that is, supposing the
earth to be the centre of the system, and not the sun, the
planet Mars, in a second of time, must travel at the rate
of more than 10,000 miles, Jupiter 36,000, and Saturn
62,000. And, lastly, the fixed stars being yet indefinitely
more remote from the earth than the sun or Saturn, their
motion in or near the equator must be vastly swifter than
this. If the earth does not move round the sun, the sun
must move with the moon round the earth; now; the distance
of the sun to that of the moon is nearly 400 to 1, and the
period of the moon being about twenty-eight days, the sun’s
period should be, by the law above mentioned, full 600
years, whereas, it is, in fact, but a single year. This
consideration was, of itself, thought of weight enough to
determine the controversy between the two opinions, and to
establish the motion of the earth in its orbit for ever.”
That the shape of the earth was an extended plane, and the
visible horizon its utmost bounds, was the opinion of the
ancients. But that it is globular, a little raised at the
equator, and flattened at the poles, being about
thirty-seven miles shorter than at the equator, so as
nearly to resemble an orange, is demonstrable on the most
evident and unquestionable principles. 1. All the
appearances of the heavens, both at land and at sea, are
the same as they would be if the earth were a globe.
Mariners first begin to lose sight of the lower parts of
objects, and then gradually of the higher parts; also,
persons on shore first discover the masts before the hull
of approaching vessels, and on leaving a port the masts are
seen when the hull is out of sight, which must be owing to
the convexity of the water between the eye and the object,
otherwise the largest and most conspicuous parts would have
been visible the longest.
“Behold, when the glad ship shoots from the port
Upon full sail, the hulk first disappears,
And then the lower, then the higher sails;
At length the summit of the towering mast
Alone is seen; nor less, when from the ship
The longing sailor’s eye in hope of shore:
For then, from the top-mast, though more remote
Than either deck, the shore is first beheld.”128
2. Navigators sailing round the globe, as Magellan, Drake,
Lord Anson, Cook, and others, have steered their course
directly south and west till they came to the Magellanic
sea, and from thence to the north and west, till they
returned to their port from the east; and all the phenomena
which should naturally arise from the earth’s rotundity,
happened to them. Beside, their method of sailing was also
founded upon this hypothesis, which could not have
succeeded so happily, if the earth
had been of any other figure. 3. In all lunar eclipses, the
shadow of the earth falling upon the moon is always
circular; and a body can be no other than a globe, which in
all situations casts a circular shadow. It is true, the
surface of the earth is not an exact geometrical globe: but
what the earth loses of its sphericity by its inequalities,
as writers on this subject have remarked, is very
inconsiderable: the highest mountains bearing so little
proportion to its bulk, as scarcely to be equivalent to the
minutest protuberance on the surface of an orange, or a
grain of dust to a common globe.
“These inequalities to us seem great;
But to an eye that comprehends the whole,
The tumor, which to us so monstrous seems,
Is as a grain of sparkling sand that clings
To the smooth surface of a sphere of glass;
Or as a fly upon the convex dome
Of a sublime, stupendous edifice.”
It is not so easy as some imagine, says a German
philosopher and divine, to determine exactly the size of
the earth. It is true, there is but one longitude; but
there are two latitudes, the north and the south. Both of
these begin at the equator; the one extends northward, the
other southward, as far as the arctic and antarctic poles.
But, no one has yet been able to reach either pole. The
mountains of ice in Greenland and the Northern Sea, have
always obstructed the passage to the north pole: and
immense fields, mountains, and islands of ice, have
rendered the passage to the south pole impossible. Thanks,
however, to the geometricians, we can at present know very
nearly the size of our globe. According to the most exact
calculations, the surface of the earth is 199,512,595
square miles. The seas and unknown parts of the earth, by a
measurement of the best maps, contain 160,522,026 square
miles. The inhabited parts contain about 38,990,559 square
miles, in the following proportion: Europe—4,456,065;
Asia—10,768,823; Africa—9,654,807; America—14,110,874:
Hence it appears that scarcely one-third of the globe is
habitable. It has been calculated, that there might be at
least three thousand millions of men upon the
earth at once: but in reality there are no more than about
a thousand and eighty millions: of which there
are, in Asia—650 millions; in Africa—150; in America—150;
in Europe—130.
The path traversed by the earth, which, in astronomical
language, is called its orbit, is the apparent path of the
sun: it is called the ecliptic, because eclipses,
both solar and lunar, always happen in this circle—also
via solis, or the sun’s path, because the sun
never departs from it; and, therefore, at any time to
denote the sun’s place in the heavens, astronomers have
divided the whole circle of the earth’s motion in 360 equal
parts, which they term degrees, and every thirty
of these a sign, of which there are
twelve. In this
circle the sun advances nearly one degree every twenty-four
hours, and thirty degrees every month; thus passing through
the whole 360 degrees in a year. The signs are called by
different names, and, with regard to their situations and
corresponding seasons and months, they stand in the
following order:
Northern Signs; so denominated as being north of the
Equator.
|
Spring. |
Aries ♈, the Ram, part of March and April.
Taurus ♉, the Bull, April and May.
Gemini ♊, the Twins, May and June. |
| |
|
Summer. |
Cancer ♋, the Crab, June and July.
Leo ♌, the Lion, July and August.
Virgo ♍, the Virgin, August and September. |
Southern Signs; so called as being south of the
Equator.
|
Autumn. |
Libra ♎, the Balance, September and October.
Scorpio ♏, the Scorpion, October and November.
Sagittarius ♐, the Archer, November and December. |
| |
|
Winter. |
Capricornus ♑, the Goat, December and January.
Aquarius ♒, the Water-bearer, January and February.
Pisces ♓, the Fishes, February and March. |
The order of the signs is thus poetically described by Dr.
Watts.
“The Ram, the Bull, the heavenly Twins,
And next the Crab the Lion shines,
The Virgin and the Scales:
The Scorpion, Archer, and Sea-goat,
The Man that holds the Water-pot,
And Fish with glittering tails.”
Dr. Long observes, that ♈ represents the horns of the ram;
♉ the head and horns of the bull; ♊ the figure of gemini,
the twins joining hands and feet; the character cancer ♋
represents the changes of the sun’s declination from north
to south, by two lines or figures drawn so as to point two
contrary ways; ♌ is the tail of the lion; ♍ was originally
the three ears of corn which Virgo held; ♎ is the beam of
the balance; ♏ was at first the picture of the scorpion; ♐
the arrow of the Archer; ♑ represents capricorn, the
goat-fish; ♒ is a natural representation of the water’s
undulating surface; ♓ is the picture of two fishes tied
together back to back.
The figures of the twelve signs are supposed by Dr.
Jennings, and other astronomers, to be Egyptian
hieroglyphics, by which they designed to exhibit some
remarkable natural occurrence in each month, as the sun
passed through these signs. Thus the first three months,
beginning from the vernal equinox, were remarkable for the
production of those animals which they most valued, namely,
sheep, kine, and goats. The lambs came first, which are
represented by their parent, the Ram; next the calves,
represented by the Bull; and the kids, which commonly come
in pairs, and which, therefore, gave the name to Gemini,
the third constellation;
which was not at first
represented by Two Boys, but by Two Beasts; as referring to
the fruitfulness of goats, in producing twin kids
about the time when the sun was in that constellation.
When, in the fourth month, the sun is arrived at the summer
solstice, he discontinues his progress towards the north
pole, and begins to go back again to the southward; this
retrograde motion the Egyptians expressed by the Crab,
which is said to go backwards. The excessive heat that
usually follows in the next month, is signified by the
Lion; an animal remarkable for his strength and fierceness;
or, as others observe, when that animal, driven by thirst
from the desert, made his appearance on the banks of the
Nile. Nothing could be more proper than the symbol for the
harvest: namely, the Virgin reaper or gleaner with an ear
of corn in her hand. The seventh constellation, when the
sun arrives at the autumnal equinox, is expressed by the
Balance or Scales, in equilibrio, because the days and
nights, being then of the same length, seemed to indicate
an equilibrium like that instrument. October is often a
sickly season, when the surfeits acquired in the hot months
of the summer produce their fatal effects; the symbol is
therefore the Scorpion, who wounds with a sting in his
tail, as he recedes; or, according to others, when certain
regular winds brought forth a burning vapor like the poison
of the scorpion. The diversion of hunting, which is chiefly
followed after the fall of the leaf, is designated by
Sagittarius, or the archer. The Goat, which is an animal
that delights to browse up hill and to climb the highest
rocks, is the emblem of the winter solstice, when the sun
begins to ascend from the southern tropic, and is
continually mounting higher and higher for the ensuing half
year. Aquarius, or the Water-bearer, fitly represents the
rains, or snows, of the winter. And the Two Fishes in a
band, had, it is imagined, reference to the prime fishing
season, which began in February.
The names given to our months originated as follows:
The name given to the month of January by the
Romans was taken from Janus, one of their
divinities, to whom they gave two faces; because on the one
side, the first day of this month looked towards the new
year, and on the other towards the old one. It was called
wolf-monat by our Saxon ancestors, on account of
the danger they then experienced from wolves. Some
etymologists derive February from Februa,
an epithet given to Juno, as the goddess of purification;
while others attribute the origin of the name to
Februa, a feast held by the Romans in this month,
in behalf of the manes of the deceased. The Saxons named
February sprout kele, on account of the sprouts of
the cole-wort which began to appear in this month. Among
the Romans, March, from Mars, was the first month,
and marriages made in this month were accounted unhappy.
The Saxons called March lent-monat, or
length-moneth, “because the days did first begin,
in length, to
exceed the
nights.”—April is derived from Aprilis,
of aperio, I open; because the earth, in this
month, begins to open her bosom for the production of
vegetables. The Saxons called this month
oster-monat, from the goddess Eoster, or because
the winds were found to blow generally from the east in
this month.—May is so called from Maia,
the mother of Mercury, to whom sacrifices were offered by
the Romans on the first of this month; or, according to
some, from respect to the senators and nobles of Rome, who
were named Majores, as the following month was
termed Junius, in honor of the youth of Rome. The Saxons
called May, tri-milki, because, in that month,
they began to milk their kine three times in the day.—The
Saxons called June weyd-monat, because their
beasts did then weyd or feed in the meadows.—The
word July is derived from the Latin
Julius, the surname of C. Cæsar, the dictator, who
was born in it. Mark Antony first gave to this month the
name of July, which was before called Quintilis,
as being the fifth month in the year, in the old Roman
calender established by Romulus. July was called by the
Saxons, hew-monat, or hey-monat, because
therein they usually mowed, and made their
hay-harvest.—Sextilis was the ancient Roman name
for September, it being the sixth month from
March. The Emperor Augustus changed this name, and gave it
his own, because in this month Cæsar Augustus took
possession of his first consulship, celebrated three
triumphs, reduced Egypt under the power of the Roman
people, and put an end to all civil wars. “The Saxons
called August arn-monat (more rightly
barn-monat,) intending thereby the then filling of
their barnes with corne.” September is composed of
septem, seven, and the termination ber,
like lis in Aprilis, Quintilis,
Sextilis. This rule will also apply to the three
following months, Octo-ber. Novem-ber, Decem-ber. Our Saxon
ancestors called it Gerst-monat, “for that barley
which that moneth commonly yielded was anciently called
gerst.”—October was called Domitianus in
the time of Domitian: but, after his death, by the decree
of the senate, it took the name of October, every one
hating the name and memory of so detestable a tyrant. It
was called wyn-monat, or wine month, by the
Saxons—The Saxons called November wint-monat, or
wind-month, on account of the prevalence of high winds in
this month.—December was called
winter-monat by the Saxons; but, after they were
converted to Christianity, it received the name of
heligh-monat, or holy month.129
The names of our days are of Heathen origin. The seven
planets were anciently looked on as presiding over the
affairs of the world, and to take it by turns each one hour
at a time, according to the following order: Saturn first,
then Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and last of
all, the Moon. Hence they denominated
each day of the
week from the planet whose turn it was to preside the first
hour of the nychthemeron, a term compounded of νυξ,
night, and ἡμερα,
day, which implies both
night and day, and is divided into twenty-four parts,
called hours. Thus, assigning the first hour of
Saturday to Saturn, the second will fall to Jupiter, the
third to Mars, and so the twenty-second of the same
nychthemeron will fall to Saturn again, and therefore the
twenty-third to Jupiter, and the last to Mars: so that on
the first hour of the next day, it will fall to the Sun to
preside; and by the like manner of reckoning, the first
hour of the next will fall to the Moon, of the next to
Mars, of the next to Mercury, of the next to Jupiter, and
the next to Venus: hence the days of the week came to be
distinguished by the Latin names of Dies Saturni,
Solis,
Lunæ,
Martis,
Mercurii,
Jovis,
and Veneris.
The ancient Saxons had a great many idols, seven of which
were appropriated to the seven days of the week, because of
some worship that was offered to each idol on its
respective day. The northern nations substituted, for the
Roman Divinities, such of their own as most nearly
resembled them in their peculiar attributes, and hence the
derivation of the names now in use. These were Seater, the
Sun, the Moon, Tuisco, Woden, Thor, Friga: hence among us
the names of Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, and Friday. For, as Saturday, Sunday, and Monday,
plainly denote the day of Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon; so
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, denote the day of
Tuisco, Woden, Thor, and Friga, which are the Saxon names
respectively answering to Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and
Venus. Verstegan, in his “Restitution of Decayed
Intelligence,” describes the Saxon deities who presided
over each day of the week, and gives plates of the idols,
pp. 74-85.
How amazing it is that this ponderous globe should be
suspended in the fluid air, without any visible support,
and upheld only by the sovereign will of its almighty
Creator! His power, who “hangeth the earth upon nothing,”
is inconceivably great; and the revolutions of this globe
produce the most beneficial effects. The daily rotation of
the earth causes the uniform succession of light and
darkness; and its annual motion occasions the difference of
the length of the days and nights, and the beautiful
diversity of the seasons. Many pious Christians, who read
the Scriptures to great personal advantage, but who are
unacquainted with the science of astronomy, are apt to
doubt the truth of the astronomical principles concerning
the shape and motion of the earth, because, as Dr. O.
Gregory judiciously observes, they think them contrary to
divine revelation. Such persons would do well to consider
for what purpose the Holy Scriptures were written, whether
as a measure of faith, or as a rule to regulate our
philosophical notions? Gassendus, though he does not give a
direct answer to the question,
has made the following very
pertinent observations on the subject. “There are,” says
he, “two sacred volumes, the one written, called the Bible;
the other Nature, or the World; God having manifested
himself by two lights, the one of revelation, and the other
of demonstration; accordingly the interpreters of the
former are divines; of the latter mathematicians. As to
matters of natural knowledge, the mathematicians are to be
consulted; and as to objects of faith, the prophets; the
former being no less interpreters, or apostles, from God to
men than the latter. And as the mathematician would be
judged to wander out of his province, if he should pretend
to controvert, or set aside any article of faith from
principles of geometry; so it must be granted, the divines
are no less out of their limits, when they venture to
pronounce on a point of natural knowledge, beyond the reach
of any not versed in geometry and optics, merely from Holy
Scripture, which does not pretend to teach any thing of the
matter.”
Mars is the first of the four superior planets in
order from the sun, his orbit being immediately beyond that
of the earth. He was called by the Greeks Αρης,
the supposed god of war, which, says Parkhurst, comes from
the Hebrew עריץ
violent, destructive. Costard
remarks, “This planet, I suppose, was called ערע
Ara, ערץ
Aretz, Αρης,
and, in another
dialect, מערץ
Ma-aretz, or Mars, in a
softer pronunciation, from his strong glowing
brightness.” He is distinguished from the other
planets by the red and fiery appearance, of his disk:
whether his ruddy troubled color arises from a natural
disposition to reflect the red rays of light best, or from
a thick atmosphere attending it, is rather uncertain; but
it is generally attributed to the density of his
atmosphere.
“In larger circuit rolls the orb of Mars,
Guiltless of stern debate, and wasteful wars,
As some have erring taught: he journies on,
Impell’d and nourish’d by the attractive sun;
Like us, his seasons and his days he owes
To the vast bounty which from Phœbus flows.”
His figure, like that of the earth, is an oblate spheroid.
His mean distance from the sun is 145,000,000 miles, and he
travels round that common centre of gravity in about 687 of
our days, or 1 year, 321 days, 22 hours, 18 minutes, 27
seconds, which is nearly equal to two of our years; and
therefore his velocity in his orbit is at the rate of
55,000 miles an hour. He has likewise a rotation upon his
axis, which is performed in 1 day, 39 minutes, 22 seconds.
This was discovered by means of spots seen on his surface.
Dr. Hook, in 1665, observed several spots, which, having a
motion, he concluded that the planet revolved upon its
axis. In 1666, M. Cassini saw several spots in the two
hemispheres of Mars, which, by continuing his observations
very diligently, he found to move from east to west, and to
return in the space of 24 hours, 40 minutes, to their
former situation. Whence both the motion and period,
or
natural day of this planet, were determined. In 1781, Dr.
Herschell observed the spots of Mars very minutely, from
the motion of which he has found his rotation upon his axis
to be performed in 24 hours, 39 minutes, 21-2/3 seconds;
and he says that there cannot be more than two seconds of
uncertainty in this result. The different seasons will take
place on this planet very much like what they are known to
do upon our earth, with this difference, that the seasons
there will be almost as long again as with us, on account
of the time he takes in moving round the sun being nearly
twice as long as our year. The diameter of Mars being 4,135
miles, he is about 2/11, or less than a fifth, and more
than a sixth part as large as the earth; and if any moon
attend him, she must be very small, for it has not yet been
discovered by the best telescopes of our most eminent
astronomers; if without a moon, walking his round in
perpetual solitude, he must consequently want that division
of time, which, from the moon’s revolution round the earth,
is called a month.
From the greater distance of Mars in his orbit than our
earth is, the inhabitants there will scarcely see Mercury,
unless it be when he appears on the sun’s face, and passes
over him like a dark spot, in the same manner as he
sometimes does to us. Venus will to them appear somewhat
similar to the appearances of Mercury to our earth, the
apparent distance from the sun being nearly the same to
them as Mercury is to us. Our earth to them, also, will be
an inferior planet, or within his orbit, being nearer to
the sun, in a way similar to what Venus appears to us, and
will alternately be a morning or evening star; and our
moon, which will always be seen to accompany her, when in a
position to have the benefit of the sun’s light, will not
be seen at a greater distance, than about a semi-diameter
of the sun or moon from it.
This planet being half as far again from the sun as our
earth is, his light and heat are not half so much as our
own. When in opposition to the sun, he is found to be five
times nearer to us than when in conjunction; and,
therefore, he appears so much bigger and brighter at one
time than another. In 1719, his apparent magnitude and
brightness were so much increased, that, by the uninformed,
he was taken for a new star.
The telescopic appearance of Mars is very variable. This
planet exhibits larger and more remarkable spots than any
of the others. The belts and cloudy appearances are found
to change their shape and arrangement frequently. The
predominant brightness of the polar regions leads to the
supposition that those parts of his surface, like the poles
of the earth, are intensely frozen, or always covered with
snow; and Dr. Herschell imagines that the changes in
brightness are connected with the summer and winter seasons
on that planet. The phases of Mars were first discovered by
Galileo. Having his light from the sun, and revolving round
it, he has an
increase and decrease like the
moon. At his quadratures, he appears gibbous, but never
horned, like Venus, Mercury, and the Moon; which shows,
that his orbit includes that of the earth, and that it is
from the sun that he receives his light.
Between the orbit of Mars and that of Jupiter, the smaller
planetary bodies, lately discovered, revolve.
Ceres was discovered on the 1st of January, 1801,
by M. Piazzi, astronomer at Palermo, in the island of
Sicily. When viewed through a good telescope, it is of a
ruddy color, appears to be of the size of a star of the
eighth magnitude, and surrounded with a dense atmosphere.
Her mean distance from the sun is 260,000,000 miles; and
her revolution is performed in 4 years, 7 months, 10 days.
Dr. Herschell and Schroëter differ very much as to the
magnitude of this planet; the former says the diameter is
only 160 miles, but the latter makes it more than ten times
greater, or 1,624 miles. Pallas was discovered on
the 28th of March, 1802, by Dr. Olbers, of Bremen. Its mean
distance from the sun 270,000,000 miles; its diameter 80
miles; and it performs its revolution in about 4 years, 280
days. Juno was discovered on the 1st of September,
1804, by M. Harding, of Lilienthal. Its mean distance from
the sun is 290,000,000 miles; and its diameter is 119
miles, and the time of revolution round the sun 5 years,
181 days. Vesta was discovered by Dr. Olbers, on
the 29th of March, 1807. It is nearer to Mars than either
of the other newly discovered planets; and the revolution
through its orbit is performed in less time. The size of
this planet is not known. Its light is more intense, pure,
and white, than any of the other three.
A century and half ago it was conjectured, says a very
intelligent author, that there must be a planet between the
orbits of Jupiter and Mars, on account of the distance
subsisting between those two planets. The discovery of
Ceres confirmed this happy conjecture; but the opinion
which it seemed to establish respecting the harmony of the
solar system, appeared to be completely overturned by the
discovery of Pallas and Juno. Dr. Olbers, willing to find a
theory that should account for the facts newly ascertained,
imagined that these small celestial bodies were merely the
fragments of a larger planet, which had burst asunder by
some internal convulsion, and that several more might yet
be discovered between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. He
therefore concluded, that though the orbits of all these
fragments might be differently inclined to the ecliptic,
yet, as they must have all diverged from the same point,
they ought to have two common points of re-union, or two
nodes in opposite regions of the heavens, through which all
the planetary fragments must sooner or later pass. One of
these nodes Dr. Olbers found to be in Virgo, and the other
in the Whale; and it was actually in the latter of these
regions that M. Harding discovered the planet Juno. With
the intention, therefore, of
detecting other fragments of the
supposed planet, Dr. Olbers examined, thrice every year,
all the little stars in the opposite constellation of the
Virgin and the Whale, till his labors were crowned with
success, by the discovery of a new planet in the
constellation of Virgo, to which he gave the name of Vesta.
The existence of four planets between the orbits of Mars
and Jupiter, (continues the same author,) revolving round
the sun at nearly the same distances, and differing from
all the other planets in their diminutive size, and in the
form and position of their orbits, is acknowledged to be
one of the most singular phenomena in the history of
astronomy. The discordance of these phenomena with the
regularity of the planetary distances, and with the general
harmony of the system, naturally suggests the opinion, that
the inequalities in this part of the system were produced
by some great convulsion, and that the four planets, as we
have already hinted, are the fragments of a large celestial
body, which once existed between Mars and Jupiter. To
suppose them independent planets, as they must necessarily
be if they did not originally form one, their diminutive
size, the great eccentricity and inclination of their
orbits, and their numerous intersections, when projected on
the plane of the ecliptic, are phenomena absolutely
inexplicable on every principle of science, and subversive
of that harmony and order which before the discovery of
these bodies, seemed to pervade the planetary system.
Admitting, however, the hypothesis that these planetary
bodies, are the remains of a larger body, which circulated
round the sun, nearly in the orbit of the greatest
fragment, the system resumes its order, and we discover a
regular procession in the distances of the planets, and a
general harmony in the form and position of their orbits.
But, independently of analogical reasoning, the elements of
the new planets furnish several direct arguments, drawn
from the eccentricity and inclination of their orbits, and
from the position of their perihelia and nodes; and all
concurring to show, that the four new planets have diverged
from one point, and have, therefore, been originally
combined in a larger body.
Jupiter is the largest of all the planetary
bodies, and, next to Venus the brightest. He was called by
the Greeks Ζευς,
which is from ζεω,
to be hot, or,
says Parkhurst, immediately from the Hebrew זי
to shine, compounded, perhaps, with יש
substance, q.d. the shining substance; a
name very justly given to this planet, on account of his
strong and clear light.
——“In distant skies
Revolves the mighty magnitude of Jove,
With kingly state, the rival of the sun.”
His mean distance from the sun is 490,000,000 miles, and
his diameter is 89,170 miles, or more than 11 times that of
the earth, and therefore his magnitude is 1,400 times
greater than our earth;
of course, as the surface of a
globe increases according to the square of its diameter,
our earth will, to the inhabitants of Jupiter, appear 121
times less than this noble planet appears to us. His
revolution round the sun, from east to west, is performed
in 11 years, 315 days, 14 hours, 39 minutes, 2 seconds,
which is nearly twelve of our years; and his motion in his
orbit is 29,000 miles an hour. He performs his diurnal
rotation upon his axis in 9 hours, 55 minutes, 33 seconds,
by which motion his equatorial parts are carried round at
the amazing rate of 26,000 miles an hour, which is about
twenty-five times the velocity of the like parts of our
earth. He has, of course, a rapid succession of days, as
the poet observes,
“In ample compass Jove conducts his sphere,
And later finishes his tedious year;
Yet swiftly on his axle turn’d, regains
The frequent aid of day to warm his plains.”
The axis of Jupiter is nearly perpendicular to his orbit,
so that he has no sensible change of seasons. This is not
the work of chance, as Dr. O. Gregory observes, but wisely
ordered by the Divine Architect; for if the axis of this
planet were inclined any considerable number of degrees, so
many degrees round each pole would be almost six years
together in darkness. And as each degree of a great circle
on this planet contains more than 700 miles, it is natural
to conceive, that vast tracts of land would be rendered
uninhabitable by any considerable inclination of his axis.
The appearance of this planet, through a telescope, opens a
vast field for interesting inquiry. His surface is not
equally bright, but variegated with certain bands, or
belts, of a dusky appearance: they run parallel to each
other, and are continued round the body of the planet. They
are not regular or constant in their appearance: sometimes
only one is seen; at other times six or eight. The breadth
of them is likewise variable; one belt is sometimes
becoming narrow, while another, in its neighborhood, grows
broader as if one had flowed into the other: in these
cases, an oblique belt has been observed to be between
them, as if for the purpose of establishing a
communication. Sometimes, one or more spots are formed
between the belts, which increase till the whole is united
in a large dusky belt. There are also bright spots to be
discovered on Jupiter’s surface; these are rather more
permanent than the belts, and re-appear after unequal
intervals of time. The remarkable spot, by whose motion the
rotation of Jupiter upon his own axis was first
ascertained, disappeared in the year 1694, and was not seen
again till 1708, when it re-appeared exactly in the same
place, and has been occasionally seen ever since.
Jupiter is enlightened by four moons, or satellites, each
of them larger than that with which we are supplied, and
which revolve at different distances from that planet. In
the solar system the moons, or satellites, revolve round
their respective primary planets as
centres, in the
same manner as the primary planets revolve round the sun.
By means of Jupiter’s satellites, a method has been
obtained for demonstrating that the motion of light is
progressive, and not instantaneous, as was formerly
supposed; which discovery is important to the interests of
science. M. Huygens, in his Treatise on Light, concludes
from these eclipses, that light transmits itself about
600,000 times faster than sound.
Distances and Revolutions of Jupiter’s Satellites.
|
|
|
Revolution. |
|
Satellite |
Distance. |
d. |
h. |
m. |
|
1st |
250,000 |
1 |
18 |
36 |
|
2d |
401,000 |
3 |
13 |
15 |
|
3d |
648,000 |
7 |
3 |
59 |
|
4th |
1,128,000 |
16 |
18 |
30 |
They are thus referred to by Mallet:
“About him round four planetary moons,
On earth with wonder all night long beheld,
Moon above moon, his fair attendants dance.”
To a spectator placed on the surface of Jupiter, each of
the satellites would put on the phases of the moon; but as
the distance of any of them from Jupiter is but small, when
compared with the distance of that planet from the sun, the
satellites are therefore illuminated by the sun very nearly
in the same manner with the primary itself; hence they
appear to us always round, having constantly the greatest
part of their enlightened half turned towards the earth:
and indeed they are so small, that were they to put on the
phases of the moon, these phases could scarcely be
discerned through the best telescopes. When the satellites
pass through their inferior semicircles, they may cast a
shadow upon their primary, and thus cause an eclipse of the
sun to his inhabitants; and in some situations this shadow
may be observed going before or following the satellite. On
the other hand, in passing through their superior
semicircles, the satellites may be eclipsed in the same
manner as our moon by passing through the shadow of
Jupiter: and this is actually the case with the first,
second, and third; but the fourth, by reason of the extent
of its orbit, passes sometimes above or below the shadow,
as is the case with our moon.
These satellites were first discovered on the 7th of
January, 1610, by the celebrated Galileo, who called them
Medician Stars, in honor of the family of the
Medici, dukes of Tuscany, his patrons. These satellites,
revolving about Jupiter at different distances, from west
to east, when viewed through a telescope, make a beautiful
appearance. As our moon revolves round the earth,
enlightening the nights, by reflecting the light she
receives from the sun; so these satellites, revolving round
Jupiter, may also be supposed to enlighten the nights of
that planet.
Saturn is a very conspicuous planet, though he
shines with a pale and feeble light, very unlike that of
Jupiter and the other
planets. He was called by the
Greeks φαινων.
“From the account given by Diodorus Siculus,” says Costard,
“it seems as if the Chaldeans called this planet by some name
not widely different from this of the Greeks. In the language
of Chaldea, the verb פנא
phana, or פנה
phanah, signifies convertere se,
divertere se,
declinare.
And whatever vanishes, or
disappears, very properly declines, or
turns aside, from our view. This planet,
therefore, was most probably called פן
_phen_, or פין
phain, and, with a Greek termination, φαινων,
on account of his withdrawing himself, by reason of
his distance. And this conjecture is yet further confirmed
from his name in another dialect, or among another people.
For from סתר
sater, latuit, abscondit se,
with the paragogic ן
nun which is not unusual in the
formation of Eastern words, comes the word סתרן
Saturn, and with the Latin termination us,
Saturnus.”
His mean distance from the sun is 900,000,000 miles,
consequently his motion in his orbit is proportionably
slow; and his annual revolution round the sun, from west to
east, being so much longer likewise than that of the other
planets, he takes 29 years, 164 days, 7 hours, 21 minutes,
50 seconds, which is almost thirty of our years,
to accomplish it, in his orbit travelling with a velocity
of 22,000 miles an hour. His diameter is 79,000 miles; and
his magnitude is about 1,000 times that of the earth. The
time of rotation upon his axis is 10 hours, 17 minutes.
“Still further off, scarce warm’d by Phœbus’ ray,
Through his wide orbit, Saturn wheels away;
How great the change, could we be wafted there!
How slow the seasons! and how long the year!”
There is a singular and curious appendage to Saturn,
namely, a thin, broad, opake ring, encompassing the body of
the planet, without touching it; like the horizon of an
artificial globe; it appears to be suspended round the
planet, and to keep its place without any immediate
connection with it. The distance of this prodigious circle
from the body of the planet is usually stated to be about
21,000 miles.
The dimensions of the ring, or of the two rings with the
space between them, Dr. Herschell has given as follows:
|
|
Miles. |
|
Inner diameter of the smaller ring |
146,345 |
|
Outside diameter of ditto |
184,393 |
|
Inner diameter of the larger ring |
190,248 |
|
Outside diameter of ditto |
204,883 |
|
Breadth of the inner ring |
20,000 |
|
Breadth of the outer ring |
7,200 |
|
Breadth of the vacant space, or dark zone |
2,839 |
It puts on different appearances to us, sometimes being
seen quite open, or as a wide oval, and at others, only as
a single line. When our eye is in the plane of the ring, or
looking at it directly on the
edge, it is invisible to us; and
it is in this situation twice in each revolution of the
planet; that is, once in about fifteen years: at these
times, he appears quite round, for nine or ten months
together. The ring was invisible to us on the 15th of June,
1803, and, since that time, gradually increased in light
and breadth for about seven years: and, after which, has
again decreased, till, as before, after an interval of
fifteen years, in the present year 1818, the ring is again
edgewise to us, and invisible. With telescopes of great
magnifying power, two belts or stripes have been discovered
on Saturn; they appear parallel to the ring, and are
supposed to be permanent. Of what component materials this
ring is composed, or by what means it is suspended, we as
yet remain ignorant: but of its use, it is supposed to
supply light and heat to the planet, agreeably to the
observation of a poet who has evinced an extensive
acquaintance with philosophy.
“Muse! raise thy voice, mysterious truth to sing,
How o’er the copious orb a lucid ring,
Opake and broad, is seen its arch to spread,
Round the big globe at stated periods led;
Perhaps (its use unknown) with gather’d heat
To aid the regions of that gelid seat,
The want of nearer Phœbus to supply,
And warm with reflex beams his summer sky;
Else might the high-plac’d world, expos’d to frost,
Lie waste, in one eternal winter lost.”
Besides the ring, Saturn is also furnished with seven
attendant moons, or satellites, which move around him at
different distances, in a way similar to those of Jupiter.
Distances and Revolutions of Saturn’s Satellites.
|
|
|
Revolution. |
|
Satellite |
Distance. |
d. |
h. |
m. |
s. |
|
1st |
172,000 |
1 |
21 |
18 |
26 |
|
2d |
217,000 |
2 |
17 |
44 |
51 |
|
3d |
315,000 |
4 |
12 |
25 |
11 |
|
4th |
705,000 |
15 |
22 |
41 |
14 |
|
5th |
2,126,000 |
79 |
7 |
53 |
42 |
|
6th |
137,000 |
1 |
8 |
53 |
9 |
|
7th |
107,000 |
0 |
22 |
37 |
30 |
The sixth and seventh satellites were discovered by Dr.
Herschell in 1787 and 1788: they are nearer to Saturn than
any of the other five; but, to prevent confusion, they have
been called the 6th and 7th. The 5th satellite has been
observed by Dr. Herschell to turn once round its axis,
exactly in the time in which it revolves round Saturn: in
this respect it resembles our moon. Their distance from us
is so far, as not to be easily visible, even with a good
telescope, unless the air be exceedingly clear.
It was for ages that astronomical science limited the solar
system to six planets, and Saturn was considered as its
utmost extent. Vitruvius, speaking of the planet Saturn,
says, that star “is near
the extremity of the world, and
touches the frozen regions of heaven.” He did not
understand the extent of our planetary system.
It is to the indefatigable application of Dr. Herschell
that we are indebted for the discovery of a new planet,
which is the fourth of the superior ones then known, and,
being at twice the distance of Saturn from the sun, has
quadrupled the bounds formerly assigned to the solar
system. This planet was discovered on the 13th of March,
1781, and is called by different names: the discoverer
bestowed upon it that of Georgium Sidus, in honor
of our present venerable and beloved sovereign; by the
French it is called Herschell, and by the
Italians, Uranus. This important discovery is very
deservedly noticed by the Poet Laureat, in his Ode entitled
“Carmen Seculare for the year 1800.”
“Mathesis with upliftedeye,
Tracing the wonders of the sky,
Beholds new constellations rise,
New systems crown the argent skies;
Views with new lustre round the glowing pole,
Wide his stupendous orb the Georgian Planet roll.”
On the 11th January, 1787, Dr. Herschell discovered the
second and fourth satellites which attend his own planet
the Georgium Sidus; and in the following years, previously
to 1791, he observed four others revolving round the same
body. Though this celebrated astronomer was the first who
discovered the Georgium Sidus to be one of the planets of
the solar system, yet no doubt can be entertained of its
having been before observed and considered as a fixed star.
Flamsteed in 1690, Mayer in 1756, and Monnier in 1769,
determined the places of three stars which cannot now be
found. And M. La Place, according to his theory of Jupiter
and Saturn, has found that the Georgium Sidus was
exactly in those three points at those very times.
These truly singular occurrences leave no doubt of the
identity of these three stars with the new planet. The
lines which Mallet applied to Saturn are now, with a little
alteration, more applicable to the Georgium Sidus, or
Herschell planet.
“Last, outmost Herschell walks his frontier round,
The boundary of worlds; with his pale moons,
Faint-glimmering through the darkness night has thrown,
Deep-dy’d and dead, o’er this chill globe forlorn:
An endless desert, where extreme of cold
Eternal sits, as in his native seat,
On wintry hills of never-thawing ice;
Such Herschell’s earth.”
His mean distance from the sun is about 1,800,000,000
miles, and he performs his revolution from west to east
round the sun in 83 years, 294 days, 8 hours, 39 minutes;
and in his orbit he moves with a velocity of 15,846 miles
an hour. His diameter is 4½ times larger than that of the
earth, being more than 35,000 miles; and his magnitude is
80½ times larger than that of the earth. The orbit in which
he revolves is nineteen times further from the sun
than the earth’s orbit; consequently he has 361 times less
light and heat from the sun than we have. Notwithstanding
this, his proportion of light is considerable; for having
been calculated, it is found to be equal to the effect of
284 of our full moons. When the sky is very serene and
clear, and the moon absent, this planet may be perceived
with the naked eye, unassisted by a telescope: and it
appears as a star of the fifth magnitude, with a blueish
white light, and a brilliancy between that of Venus and the
Moon.
The want of light arising from the great distance of this
planet from the sun, is supplied by six satellites, which
revolve at different distances round their primary.
Distances and Revolutions of the Satellites of the Georgium
Sidus.
|
|
|
Revolution. |
|
Satellite |
Distance. |
d. |
h. |
m. |
s. |
|
1st |
226,450 |
5 |
21 |
25 |
0 |
|
2d |
293,053 |
8 |
17 |
0 |
0 |
|
3d |
342,784 |
10 |
23 |
0 |
0 |
|
4th |
392,514 |
13 |
11 |
0 |
0 |
|
5th |
785,028 |
38 |
1 |
49 |
0 |
|
6th |
1,570,057 |
107 |
7 |
35 |
10 |
All these satellites, it has been said, perform their
revolutions in their orbits contrary to the order of the
signs; that is, their real motion is retrograde, but
probably, as suggested by Dr. Hutton, this is an optical
illusion.130
As the indefatigable Dr.
Herschell has already discovered six satellites
belonging to this planet, does not its immense distance
from the sun leave some ground for conjecture, that
there may remain some undiscovered, and that his
attendants are as numerous, if not more so, than those
of Saturn?
Characters used for the Sun, Moon, and Planets.
|
☉ |
The Sun |
|
☽ |
The Moon |
|
☿ |
Mercury |
|
♀ |
Venus |
|
⊕ |
The Earth |
|
♂ |
Mars |
|
♃ |
Jupiter |
|
♄ |
Saturn |
|
♅ |
Herschell, or
Georgium Sidus. |
The mark which characterises the planet Herschell is the
initial of the discoverer’s name, intersected by a cross
bar to represent a cross, by which to denote that the
discovery of the planet took place after the birth of
Christ.
Astronomy produces calculations concerning the magnitudes,
distances, and revolutions of the planets, and their
respective satellites,
which, to the uninformed, appear
absurd, chimerical, and presumptuous; while, probably, they
laugh at such notions as were received among men, when even
the wisest of them were weak enough to believe, that the
earth was an immense plain, situated in the centre of the
universe; that the vault of heaven was of crystal; and that
the sun was no other than a plate of red hot iron, about as
large as the Peloponnessus. The following thoughts,
communicated by my much esteemed friend Thomas Exley, A. M.
may assist such persons to entertain more favorable
sentiments of the science of astronomy, and also serve to
enlarge their views of the Supreme Being.
“Many persons who have not had the advantages of proper
instruction in mathematical science, cannot be persuaded
that it is in the power of man to ascertain the distances
of the sun, moon, and planets, and, of course, pay little
regard to the assertions of astronomers on this subject.
Sometimes, they are bold enough to say the thing is
impossible, because no one has ever been to any of those
bodies. Let such persons consider, that it is not necessary
to go to a remote object in order to measure its distance;
for that purpose, it will be sufficient to know the length
of a line at the place of the spectator, and the
inclination of this line to two others directed from its
extremities to the object; for, on the length of this line,
and the position of the two others, depends the distance of
the object from the ends of that line.
“Thus, if I wish to know the distance of a neighboring
tower, or other object beyond a river, or in some other way
inaccessible; I measure any convenient line terminating in
my station, and by some instrument proper for measuring
angles, I ascertain the position of my measured line to the
lines connecting its extreme points and the object. On
these data depends the distance, and from this line and
these angles accurately measured, the exact distance may be
with great ease truly found. It is on similar principles
that astronomers investigate the distances of the heavenly
bodies. They take as the given or measured line, which may
be called the base, some line on the earth, the
semi-diameter for instance, as being the most convenient.
The angle formed, or rather contained by two lines drawn
from the sun or planet to the ends of the semi-diameter of
the earth, is called the parallax, because it shows the
difference of the apparent situation of the object as seen
from the extremities of the semi-diameter, that is, it
measures the arc of a great circle in the heavens contained
between its two apparent places. Hence to ascertain its
parallax, or difference of the apparent place when the
object is viewed from the other end of the semi-diameter,
becomes a problem of great importance in astronomy; for
this being truly discovered, the distance of the planet
will be obtained with the utmost exactitude. If any other
line besides the semi-diameter of the earth, whose length
and position are
known, be used as a base, and the
parallax in respect of this line be found, the same
conclusions will follow. The chief difficulty in this
affair arises from the smallness of the angle to be
measured, which is a consequence of the greatness of the
distance in respect of the earth’s semi-diameter. Several
ingenious methods have been proposed and employed by
astronomers to discover the distances of the sun and
planets, but nothing serves this purpose so well as the
transits of Venus over the sun’s disk. At certain periods,
which can be foretold by astronomers, this planet passes
exactly between us and the sun, and is seen as a dark round
spot for some hours, moving in a line across the sun’s face
or disk. The observer should be furnished with a good
chronometer, or pendulum clock with seconds, to note the
time of the transit; and good instruments, to take the
apparent diameters of the sun and Venus, and her greatest
distance from the sun’s limb while passing over his disk:
from these observations, and the known phenomena of the
motions of the earth and Venus, the parallax may be found.
But if two observers, at very distant places of the earth
properly chosen, make these observations, the parallax may
be obtained with much greater ease and nicety; because the
distance of the apparent tracks of Venus across the sun as
seen from the two places, and also the difference of the
time of the passage, arises from the parallax of Venus and
that of the sun. The two last transits, which happened in
the years 1761 and 1769, were carefully observed for this
purpose; and it is to the results of these observations
that the present astronomers are indebted for their more
accurate knowledge of the distances of the planets, and the
dimensions of the solar system.
“It should be observed, that if the parallax, and
consequently the distance of any one of the planets by any
means becomes known, the same is easily obtained for each
of the other planets, from the relation which has been
clearly discovered to subsist between the periodical times
of revolution of the planets round the sun, and their
distances from that central luminary. Astronomers have most
decidedly proved that the square of the time in which any
planet revolves is to the square of the time in which any
other revolves, as the cube of the distance of the first,
is to the cube of the distance of the other; and since all
the times are known from observation, if the distance of
any one be determined, there is no difficulty at all to
find the distances of all the other planets from the sun.
“It has also been matter of great surprise to the
unlearned, that astronomers should pretend to tell the
magnitudes of the sun and planets. But this is no difficult
problem when the distance is known. The apparent
diameter is readily found from observation, and on this and
the distance depends the true diameter. If the
apparent diameters of two objects be equal, the true diameter
of the one will be greater as it
is more remote; and the apparent diameter of any object
will increase as the distance of it from the observer
diminishes. From this every one sees, that a knowledge of
the distance of the object is an indispensible element for
finding its bulk; and, according to the accuracy of the
measure of the distance, will be that of the measure of the
magnitude, provided the apparent distance be truly taken;
and this, in the present improved state of our instruments,
presents no obstacle. There can be no doubt but that
astronomers are very near the truth in the numbers which
they now give us for expressing the distances and
magnitudes of the sun and planets.
“The telescope has been of singular use to the astronomer;
it has shown him many phenomena of the heavenly bodies,
concerning which he would otherwise have been totally
ignorant. It is by the assistance of this noble instrument
that we have attained to the knowledge of the rotations of
the sun and planets, the phases of Venus and Mercury,
Saturn’s ring, and many other particulars exceedingly
interesting. The telescope has discovered several planets
which otherwise would have revolved in their courses
unknown and unnoticed by the inhabitants of this globe; it
has informed us that several of the planets have moons
moving round them, as our moon revolves round the earth;
besides, it has presented to our view an innumerable
multitude of fixed stars which without this assistance we
should never have seen.
“It is no wonder that great efforts have been made to
improve this excellent instrument; these efforts have been
attended with great success, and what may be further done
in this respect we cannot tell; however, there is a limit
to the improvements of the telescope, for after it has
attained a certain degree of magnifying power, the motes
and vapors in the atmosphere would be so magnified as to
occupy its whole field of view, and thus render it a
useless incumbrance.”
Who can contemplate the power which produced the solar
system, at once so magnificent, beautiful, and delightful,
without astonishment and admiration? The planets are kept
in a regular motion, and retained in an invariable course
round the sun, by the power of this luminary’s attraction
or gravity. These bodies have a projectile force, being
propelled forwards in a right line, which is the nature of
all simple motion; but the sun’s attraction combining with
their own projectile force, withdraws them from their
rectilineal courses, and preserves the most perfect harmony
in the system. This wonderful mechanism was originally
impressed on the system by its infinitely wise and
omnipotent Creator; to which primary impulse it has with
undeviating uniformity adhered, having never suffered in
its operations from the greatest distance of space, or
intervals of time!
Surely no power less than that which at first gave
existence and modification to matter, is equal to the
government of the world.
The solar orb and the planetary
bodies could no more subsist in their present form and
order, without a Divine, supporting, and directing hand,
than they could at the beginning make themselves. What is
that general law or force called gravitation,
without which the whole frame of nature would soon be
dissolved? Is it not a power constantly issuing from the
Deity, and which if he should suspend but for one moment,
the whole creation would sink into ruins? How inconceivably
great and operative must that power be, that is present
throughout the universe, with all the heavenly orbs to
preserve them in their courses; and on this earth, with
every creature, and every particle of matter, to preserve
its present form!
In addition to the planets and their satellites, there are
Comets, which revolve round the sun, and,
consequently, are a part of the solar system. They have
often a long tail, in appearance resembling hair, issuing
from that side which is turned away from the sun. Comets
are popularly divided into three kinds, namely, bearded,
tailed, and hairy: but this arrangement seems to apply
rather to the different circumstances of the same comet,
than to the phenomena of several. Thus, when a comet is
eastward of the sun, and moves with him, it is said to be
bearded, because the light precedes it in the manner of a
beard: but when it is westward of him, it is said to be
tailed, because the train of light follows it in the manner
of a tail: and, lastly, when the sun and comet are
diametrically opposite, the earth being between them, the
train is hid behind the body of the comet, excepting the
extremities, which being broader than the body of the
comet, appear round it like a border of hair
(coma), from which circumstance it is said to be
hairy, and is denominated a comet.
Without attending to the variety of opinions which
philosophers and astronomers have entertained concerning
the nature and use of comets, we may affirm, that they have
been considered as alarming phenomena, displayed by the
Divine Being to warn mankind of the near approach of some
dreadful calamity, such as wars, pestilence, and famine.
This opinion prevailed during the dark ages between the
decline of the Roman empire, and the dawn of the
Reformation. To this apprehension some of our modern poets
have alluded in strong and descriptive language. Young
says,
“Hast thou ne’er seen the comet’s flaming light?
Th’ illustrious stranger passing, terror sheds
On gazing nations, from his fiery train
Of length enormous; takes his ample round
Through depths of ether; coasts unnumber’d worlds
Of more than solar glory; doubles wide
Heaven’s mighty cape; and then revisits earth,
From the long travel of a thousand years.”
Milton uses still greater strength of language when he
compares his hero to a comet:
“Incensed with indignation, Satan stood
Unterrified, and like a comet burn’d
That fines the length of Ophiucus huge
In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war.”
Similar ideas are finely expressed by Savage:
“In fancy’s eye encount’ring armies glare,
And sanguine ensigns wave unfurled in air!
Hence the deep vulgar deem impending fate,
A monarch ruined, or unpeopled state.
Thus comets, dreadful visitants! arise,
To them wild omens, science to the wise,
These mark the comet to the sun incline,
While deep red flames around its centre shine!
While its fierce rear a winding trail displays,
And lights all ether with a sweeping blaze!
Or when, compell’d, it flies the torrid zone,
And shoots by worlds unnumbered and unknown;
By worlds, whose people, all aghast with fear,
May view that minister of vengeance near.”
Notwithstanding the present improved state of astronomical
science, it is evident that the philosophy of comets is
very imperfect. Kepler, though in other respects a very
great genius, and to whose useful labors astronomy is
deeply indebted, indulged in the most extravagant
conjectures; he imagined that the planets were large
animals, swimming round the sun: and that the comets were
animals still more huge and monstrous, which had been
generated in the celestial spaces. Jean Bodin, a learned
Frenchman of the 16th century, entertained an opinion, if
possible, still more absurd and ridiculous. He maintained
that the comets are spirits, which having lived on the
earth innumerable ages, and being at last arrived on the
confines of death, celebrated their last triumph, or are
recalled to the firmament like shining stars! Mr. Whiston
was of opinion, that comets are so many hells, appointed in
their orbits alternately to carry the damned into the
confines of the sun, there to be scorched by its violent
heat, and then to return with them beyond the orb of
Saturn, there to starve them in those cold and dismal
regions. Thus
“Born in an age more curious than devout;
More fond to fix the place of heaven or hell,
Than studious this to shun, or that secure.”131
James Bernoulli, in his Systema Cometarum, says, that
comets are no other than the satellites of some very
distant planet, which is itself invisible to us on account
of its vast distance, as are also the satellites, unless
when they are in that part of their orbits which is nearest
the earth. Comets, according to Des Cartes, were formerly
fixed stars: but which becoming gradually covered with
maculæ, and at length wholly deprived of their light,
cannot keep their places, but are carried off by the
vortices of the circumjacent stars; and in proportion to
their magnitude and solidity, moved in such a manner as to
be brought nearer the orb of Saturn; and thus, coming
within reach of the sun’s light, are rendered visible.
Aristotle, Seneca, Plutarch, and others, testify, that the
Pythagoreans, and the whole Italian sect, maintained, that
a comet was a kind of planet or wandering star, which
appeared again after a long interval of time. Hippocrates
Chius was of the same opinion as Aristotle informs us.
Democritus held also the same opinion, as Seneca tells us
in his “Natural Questions;” book vii, chap. 3, “For,” says
he, “Democritus, the most curious and subtle of all the
ancients, suspected that there were many more stars which
moved, meaning by this expression the comets; but he
neither established their number, or their names, the
courses of the five planets not having as yet been
discovered.” Again, Seneca assures us, that Apollonius
Myndius, one of the most skilful philosophers in the search
of natural causes, asserted, that the Chaldeans reckoned
comets among the other wandering stars, and that they knew
their courses. Apollonius himself maintained, that a comet
was a star of its own kind, as the sun and moon are, but
that its course was not yet known; that by its motions it
mounts very high in the heavens, and only appears when it
descends into the lower part of its orbit. And Seneca
himself embraces this opinion in the following truly
philosophical words: “I cannot believe,” says he, “that a
comet is a fire suddenly kindled, but that it ought to be
ranked among the eternal works of nature. A comet has its
proper place, and is not easily moved from thence; it goes
its course, and is not extinguished, but runs off from us.
But you will say, if it were a wandering star it would keep
in the zodiac. But who can set one boundary to all the
stars? Who can restrain the works of the Divinity to a
narrow compass? For each of
those bodies, which you imagine
to be the only ones that have motion, have very different
circles; why, therefore, may there not be some that have
peculiar ways of their own, wherein they recede far from
the rest? But that their courses may be known, it is
necessary to have a collection of all the ancient
observations about comets; for their appearances are so
rare, that their orbits are not yet determined; nor can we
as yet find whether they have their periods, or whether
they return again in a certain order.”—“The time will
come,” continues he, “wherein these things which are now
hid from us will be discovered; which observation, and the
diligence of after ages, will find out. For it is not one
age that is sufficient for so great matters: the time will
be when posterity will wonder that we were ignorant of
things so plain; one will arise who will demonstrate in
what regions of space the comets wander, why they recede so
far from the other planets; how great and what sort of
bodies they are.”132
The period, predicted by
Seneca, in the first century of the Christian era, is
not yet arrived. “After all that has been done and
written on the subject of comets,” says a late writer,
“we must confess, that our knowledge of these wandering
bodies is still very imperfect.” “It appears to me,”
says La Lande, “that almost every thing depends on
comets. The only thing that I recommend to my
correspondents, is to look after and attend to comets:
the knowledge of comets is alone wanting to complete the
science of astronomy.”
Several ages elapsed before this prediction of Seneca
seemed likely to be fulfilled. Tycho Brahé was the first
who attempted to restore the comets to their proper rank in
creation. Having diligently observed the comet of 1577, and
finding that it had no sensible diurnal parallax, he very
properly determined its true place to be among the other
revolving bodies in the planetary regions, as appears by
his book De Cometa, 1577. And Sir Isaac Newton, from his
amazing discoveries, gives the following theory of comets:
“They are,” says he, “compact, solid, fixed, and durable
bodies; in fact, a kind of planets, which move in very
oblique and eccentric orbits, every way with the greatest
freedom; persevering in their motions even against the
course and direction of the planets: and their tail is a
very thin and slender vapor, emitted by the head or nucleus
of the comet, ignited or heated by the sun.”
Various conjectures have been formed concerning the nature
of the tails of comets. Dr. Hamilton, of Dublin, in the
second of his Philosophical Essays, urges several
objections against the Newtonian hypothesis: he remarks,
that, since the tail of a comet, though exceedingly rare,
meets with no resistance in its rapid motion round the sun
(except so slight a one as can only cause a very small
condensation on that side of it which moves foremost, and
thereby may make it a little brighter than the other side),
it cannot
possibly move in a medium denser
and heavier than itself, and therefore cannot be raised up
from the sun by the superior gravity of such a medium. And
since the stars seen through all parts of a comet’s tail
appear in their proper places, and with their usual colors,
he infers that the rays of light suffer no refraction in
passing through the tail; therefore, since bodies reflect
and refract light by one and the same power, he concludes
that the matter of a comet’s tail has not the power of
refracting or reflecting light, and is, of consequence, a
lucid or self shining substance. Also from what astronomers
say of the splendor of comets’ tails, it is manifest they
do not shine with such a dull light as would be reflected
to us by the clouds or vapors at so great a distance, but
with a brisker though a glimmering light, such as would
arise from a very thin, volatile, burning matter. Dr.
Halley, speaking of the great streams of light in the
remarkable aurora borealis seen in 1716, says, “they so
much resembled the long tails of comets, that at first
sight they might be taken for such:” and afterwards, “this
light seems to have a great affinity to that which the
effluvia of electric bodies emit in the dark.”
Dr. Hamilton
improves upon these hints: and since, as he shows, the
tails of comets, the aurora borealis, and the electric
fluid, agree remarkably, not only in their appearance, but
also in such properties as we can observe of each of them,
he concludes that they are substances of the same nature.
And, because the electric matter, from its vast subtility
and velocity, seems capable of making great excursions from
the planetary system, he imagines that the several comets,
in their long excursions from the sun in all directions,
may overtake this matter; and by attracting it to
themselves may come back replete with it, and being again
heated by the sun, may disperse it among the planets, and
so keep up a circulation of this matter, which there is
reason to think is necessary in our system.133
Comets, descending from the remote parts of the system with
great rapidity become visible to us in the lower parts of
their orbits; and after a short stay, go off again to vast
distances, and disappear. They move about the sun in very
eccentric ellipses; and the velocity with which they seem
to move is variable in every part of their path round the
sun; when near to which they appear to move with great
swiftness, and, when very remote, their motion is slow.
They are opake bodies, but of a much greater density than
the earth; for some of them are heated in every period to
such a degree, as would vitrify or dissipate any substance
known to us. Sir Isaac Newton computed the heat of the
comet, which appeared in the year 1680, when nearest the
sun, to be 2,000 times hotter than red hot iron, and that,
being thus heated, it must retain its heat till it comes
round again, although its period should be more than 20,000
years; and it is computed to be only 575.
The number of the comets is much greater than that of the
planets belonging to our system. From the beginning of the
Christian era, till now, there have appeared about five
hundred. Before that time, we have accounts of about one
hundred others. But, when it is considered that there may
have been many that have not been seen, from being too near
the sun, from appearing in moon-light, from being in the
other hemisphere, or from being too small, or from not
being recorded, the number is probably much greater. Miss
Herschell, by means of the telescope, has, within the last
twenty years, discovered several comets. The orbits of
about one hundred comets have been calculated with
sufficient accuracy for ascertaining their identity on any
future appearance.
Many of these orbits are inclined to the
plane of the ecliptic in large angles, and many of them
approach much nearer the sun than the earth does. Their
motions are also different from those of the planets, some
of them being direct and others retrograde, nearly half the
number moving each way. The different motions of the
comets, and the various inclinations of their orbits to the
plane of the ecliptic, must not be regarded as the work of
chance, but as calculated to answer beneficial purposes, or
avoid baneful consequences; for if these orbits had been
nearly coincident with that of the earth, both bodies might
have arrived at the common point of intersection of their
orbits at the same time; in which case a derangement of
both motions must, at least, have been the necessary
result.134
But, according to all the
observations that have been made respecting their
present distribution and direction, there is not the
least reason to apprehend any such consequence.
The following table contains a list of the last
twenty-three of the principal comets that have been
observed, with the time of passing their perihelia, and
their nearest approach to the sun.
|
Years. |
Passage
of the
Perihelion. |
Nearest distance
from the Sun
in
English Miles. |
Direction of
their Motion. |
|
1790 |
January |
15 |
71 |
millions |
Retrograde. |
|
1790 |
January |
28 |
101 |
” |
Direct. |
|
1790 |
May |
21 |
75 |
” |
Retrograde. |
|
1792 |
January |
13 |
122 |
” |
Retrograde. |
|
1792 |
December |
27 |
91 |
” |
Retrograde. |
|
1793 |
November |
4 |
38 |
” |
Retrograde. |
|
1793 |
November |
18 |
142 |
” |
Direct. |
|
1795 |
December |
15 |
23 |
” |
Direct. |
|
1796 |
April |
2 |
149 |
” |
Retrograde.
|
|
1797 |
July |
9 |
50 |
” |
Retrograde. |
|
1798 |
April |
4 |
46 |
” |
Direct. |
|
1798 |
December |
31 |
73 |
” |
Retrograde. |
|
1799 |
September |
7 |
79 |
” |
Retrograde. |
|
1799 |
December |
25 |
25 |
” |
Retrograde. |
|
1801 |
August |
8 |
22 |
” |
Retrograde. |
|
1802 |
September |
9 |
103 |
” |
Direct. |
|
1804 |
February |
13 |
101 |
” |
Direct. |
|
1805 |
November |
18 |
35 |
” |
Direct. |
|
1805 |
December |
31 |
84 |
” |
Direct. |
|
1806 |
December |
28 |
102 |
” |
Retrograde. |
|
1807 |
September |
18 |
61 |
” |
Direct. |
|
1811 |
August |
20 |
25 |
” |
Direct. |
|
1815 |
April |
26 |
121 |
” |
Direct. |
But of all the comets, the periods of three only are known
with any degree of certainty, being found to return at
intervals of 75, 129, and 575 years; and of these, that
which appeared in 1680 is the most remarkable. This comet,
at its greatest distance, is about 11,200 millions of miles
from the sun, while its least distance from the centre of
the sun is about 490,000 miles; being less than one third
part of the sun’s semi-diameter from his surface. In that
part of its orbit which is nearest the sun, it flies with
the amazing velocity of 880,000 miles in an hour; and the
sun, as seen from it, appears 100 degrees in breadth,
consequently 40,000 times as large as he appears to us. The
astonishing distance that this comet runs out into empty
space, naturally suggests to our imagination the vast
distance between our sun and the nearest of the fixed
stars, of whose attractions all the comets must keep clear,
to return periodically and go round the sun. How wonderful
that, though this body travelled almost two thousand times
faster than a cannon ball, yet it drew after it a tail of
fire, or of phosphoric gas, eight millions of miles in
length! How amazing to consider, that this stupendous body,
traversing the immensity of the creation with such
rapidity, and at the same time wheeling about in that line
which its great Creator prescribed to it, should move with
such inconceivable velocity, and at the same time with such
exact regularity! How spacious must the universe be, that,
gives such bodies as these full play, without suffering the
least disorder or confusion by it! With what a glorious
exhibition must those beings be entertained, who can look
into this great theatre of nature, and see myriads of these
tremendous objects wandering through those immeasurable
depths of æther, and running their appointed courses! Our
eyes may hereafter be strong enough to command this
magnificent prospect, and our understandings able to find
out the several uses of these immense parts of the
universe. In the mean time, they are most suitable objects
for our imagination to contemplate,
that we may form
more extensive notions of infinite wisdom and power, and
learn to think humbly of ourselves, and of all the little
works of human invention.135
The Fixed Stars are objects of peculiar interest,
and are so denominated, because they are observed always to
preserve the same distance from each other; and are
distinguished from the planets by their twinkling, which
seems to depend on the atmosphere; for we are assured, that
where the air is exceedingly pure and dry, the stars appear
with a light altogether free from scintillation. All the
heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, and stars, appear to move
round the earth, in circles parallel to the equinoctial,
once in the compass of twenty-four hours; though these
apparent motions are almost entirety to be
accounted for by the real motions of the earth:
but by far the greater number of them never change their
relative situations, each (so long as an observer continues
in the same place) rising and setting at the same interval
of time, and at the same points of the horizon;—these are
called the fixed stars.
The fixed stars, as appears from several considerations,
are placed at immense distances from us. Mr. Exley, in a
friendly communication, says, “It should be noticed, that
the distances of the fixed stars have never yet been
discovered; not indeed so much for want of a method, as for
want of a base line sufficiently large for this
admeasurement. The diameter of the earth’s orbit is about
one hundred and ninety millions of miles; and the fixed
stars, viewed from the opposite ends of this extensive base
line or diameter, have no sensible parallax, but all appear
in the very same situations, and of the same magnitudes;
and as this is the greatest line to the extremities of
which we can have access, it is very probable we shall ever
remain in ignorance of the true distances of the fixed
stars. One thing, however, is fully ascertained by the
observations which have been made to find the parallax of
the stars, which is, that they are so immensely distant
from our planetary regions, that the whole solar system,
consisting of the sun and planets, with their satellites,
and the comets, would, if viewed from the nearest fixed
star, appear as crowded into one single point of space,
which is also known from other observations. How
astonishingly extensive is the view of the universe which
such observations furnish!”
Our earth is at so great a distance from the sun, that if
seen from thence, it would appear no bigger than a point,
although its diameter is 7,954 miles. Yet that distance is
so small, compared with the earth’s remote situation from
the fixed stars, that if the orbit in which the earth moves
round the sun were the circumference of a globe, that
globe, seen from the nearest star, would likewise appear no
bigger than a point, although, it is at least 190,000,000
miles in diameter. For the earth in going round the
sun is 190,000,000 miles nearer to some of the stars at one
time of the year than at another, and yet their apparent
magnitudes, situations, and distances from one another
still remain the same; and being viewed through a telescope
which magnifies above 200 times, they still appear as mere
points: which proves them to be at least 400,000 times
further from us than we are from the sun.
It is not to be imagined, that all the stars are placed in
one concave surface, so as to be equally distant from us;
but that they are scattered at immense distances from one
another through unlimited space. So that there may be as
great a distance between any two neighboring stars, as
between our sun and those which are nearest to him.
Therefore an observer, who is nearest any fixed star, will
look on it alone as a real sun; and consider the rest as so
many shining points, placed apparently at equal distances
from him in the firmament. The star nearest to us, or the
largest in appearance, is Sirius, or the Dog Star, and
astronomers have calculated from indubitable principles,
that its distance from us is considerably more than two
millions of millions of miles! The apparent magnitude of
Sirius has been computed at 27,000 times less than the sun,
and, therefore, supposing their magnitudes equal, is 27,000
times more distant. If so, as our earth is ninety-five
millions of miles from the sun, that multiplied by
twenty-seven thousand, will give two millions of millions,
and an addition of 565 thousand millions, for the distance
of this star from the sun.136
Our earth, in moving round
the sun, is 195,000,000 miles nearer to this star in one
part of its orbit, than in the opposite one; and yet the
magnitude of the star appears not to be in the least
altered or affected by it. A cannon-ball flying from
thence at the rate of 400 miles in an hour, would not
reach us in 732,000 years! The distance of the star γ
Draconis appears, by Dr. Bradley’s
observations, to be at least 400,000 times that of the
sun, and the distance of the nearest fixed star not less
than 80,000 diameters of the earth’s annual orbit; that
is, the distance of the earth from the former is = to
400,000 × 95,000,000 = 38,000,000,000,000, and the
latter not less than 7,600,000,000,000. As these
distances are much too great to be comprehended by the
human imagination, we shall, perhaps, obtain a better
idea of them by comparing them with the velocity of some
moving body, by which they may, in some way, be
estimated. The swiftest motion we know of is that of
light, which passes from the sun to the earth in about
eight minutes, or, at the rate of 200,000 miles nearly
in a second of time: and yet even light would be more
than six years in traversing the first space, and a year
and a quarter nearly, in passing from the nearest fixed
star to the earth. Again, a cannon ball, moving with its
initial or greatest velocity of about ten miles in a
minute, would be more than seven millions of years in
passing from the star γ
Draconis to the
earth. The celebrated M. Huygens carried his thoughts so
far upon this subject, as to believe that there might be
stars at such inconceivable distances from our earth,
that their light, though it is known to travel at the
rate of 12,000,000 miles in a minute, has not yet
reached us, since the creation of the world!
“How distant some of the nocturnal suns!
So distant, says the sage, ‘twere not absurd
To doubt, if beams, set out at nature’s birth,
Are yet arrived at this so foreign world;
Though nothing half so rapid as their flight.”
And Mr. Addison observes, that this thought of Mr. Huygens
is far from being extravagant, when we consider that the
universe is the work of infinite power, prompted by
infinite goodness, having an infinite space wherein to
exert itself, so that our imaginations can set no bounds to
it.
The magnitudes of the stars appear to be very different
from one another; which difference may probably arise,
partly from a diversity in their real magnitude, but
chiefly, no doubt, from their different distances. Hence it
is, that the fixed stars have been divided, for the sake of
distinction, into six orders or classes. Those which appear
largest, are considered as stars of the first magnitude;
the next to them in lustre, stars of the second magnitude;
and so on, through the different gradations, to the
smallest that are visible to the naked eye, which are said
to be of the sixth magnitude. This distribution having been
made long before the invention of telescopes, the stars
which cannot be seen without the assistance of these
instruments, are distinguished by the name of telescopic
stars. Bayer, besides accurately distinguishing the
relative size and situation of each star, marked the stars
in each constellation with the letters of the Greek and
Roman alphabets, setting the first Greek letter to the
first or principal star in each constellation, to the
second in order; then, when the Greek alphabet was gone
over, he passed to a, b, c, of
the Roman, and so on. This useful method of noting and
describing the stars has been adopted by all astronomers
since the time of Bayer; and they have further enlarged it,
by adding the ordinal numbers 1, 2, 3, &c., when any
constellation contains more stars than can be marked by the
two alphabets.
As it would be impossible to furnish names for all the
fixed stars, and retain those names in the memory; it
became necessary not only to ascertain their exact relative
situations, but to invent some method by which the
principal part of the stars which can be seen may be known,
without having recourse to a separate name for each.
Ancient astronomers formed a commodious plan of arranging
the fixed stars in constellations under names and figures
of various
personages, celebrated in
antiquity, and even of birds, beasts, fishes, &c. This
division of the heavens into constellations is obviously
very ancient; for some of them are mentioned by Hesiod and
Homer, both of whom probably flourished nearly 1000 years
before the Christian era. Arcturus, Orion, and the
Pleiades, are twice mentioned in the book of Job: and in
the prophecy of Amos, composed about 400 years before
Christ, the seven stars and Orion are
mentioned. As the knowledge of the stars became more
extensive, the number of the constellations was increased;
and at the same time more stars were introduced into each
constellation. Such of the stars as were not comprehended
under any constellations, were by the ancient astronomers,
called unformed stars. The modern astronomers have reduced
not these unformed stars only, but many other stars, into
new figures; and it is probable that other constellations
will still continue to be invented.137
With respect to the number of fixed stars, there have been
several accounts, given by different persons, at various
times. The celebrated Hipparchus, of Rhodes, 120 years
before Christ, formed a catalogue of 1,022 stars; to which
Ptolemy added four more. Ulug Beigh, the grandson of
Tamerlane, formed a catalogue of 1,017 stars. Tycho Brahé’s
catalogue only extended to 777; but he took care to
ascertain all their places. Kepler’s catalogue amounted to
1,163, which Ricciolus enlarged to 1,468. Bayerus extended
his catalogue further than any of his predecessors, having
described the places of 1,725. Hevelius increased the
catalogue to 1,888. Flamsteed enlarged these catalogues to
the number of about 3,000. But by means of the telescope,
which affords us a glimpse of infinite space, and presents
to our view myriads of worlds, and systems of worlds, by
which it is filled, the number of the stars is
astonishingly increased. Galileo found eighty stars in the
space of the belt of Orion’s sword, and F. de Rheita
observed more than 2,000 in the whole constellation of
Orion, of which not more than seventy or eighty can ever be
seen without glasses. Dr. Hook reckoned seventy-eight stars
in the single constellation of the Pleiades; and F. de
Rheita, with a better telescope, discovered 188: whereas we
cannot reckon above seven or eight seen by the naked eye.
At the present period, the positions of 60,000 fixed stars
have been exactly recorded, and they are generally arranged
according to the size they appear; 20 of the largest are
called stars of the first
magnitude; 65 are of the second
magnitude; 205 of the third; 485 of the fourth; 648 of the
fifth; and about 1,500 of the sixth magnitude; the
remainder, being invisible to the naked eye, are called
telescopic stars.
Where the stars are in great abundance, Dr. Herschell
supposes they form primaries and secondaries, that is, suns
revolving about suns, as planets revolve about the sun in
our system. He considers that this must be the case in what
is called the milky way, the stars being there in
prodigious quantity. Of this he gives the following proof:
on August 22, 1792, he found that in forty-one minutes of
time, not less than 258,000 stars had passed through the
field of view in his telescope! Dr. Chalmers observes, If
we ask the number of suns and of systems—the unassisted eye
of man can take in a thousand, and the best telescope which
the genius of man has constructed can take in eighty
millions. Thus, by the help of telescopes, we discover a
vast multitude of stars which are invisible to the naked
eye; and the better the glasses are, still the more become
visible; so that we can set no limits either to their
number, or to their distances.
“Myriads beyond with blended rays inflame
The milky way, whose stream of vivid light,
Poured from innumerable fountains round,
Flows trembling, wave on wave, from sun to sun,
And whitens the long path to heaven’s extreme:
Distinguished tract!“
From an attentive examination of the stars with good
telescopes, many that appear only single to the naked eye,
are found to consist of two, three, or more stars. The late
Dr. Maskelyne observed the α
Herculis to be a
double star, and other astronomers have discovered many
more to be double. Dr. Herschell has found 700; of these
about forty had been observed before. The following will
serve as a specimen, and afford the observer a few objects
for his attention. α
Herculis is a beautiful
double star: the two bodies are apparently unequal: the
largest is red, and the smallest of a blueish color
inclining to green. γ
Andromedæ, double, very
unequal: the larger of a reddish white color; the smaller a
fine bright sky blue, inclining to green. β
Lyræ, quadruple, unequal white, but three out of the four
inclined to red. ε
Bootis, double, very
unequal, larger, of a reddish color; the smaller is blue,
or of a faint lilac color. α
Lyræ, double,
very unequal; the larger is a fine brilliant white, the
smaller dusky.
New stars sometimes appear, while others disappear. Several
stars mentioned by ancient astronomers are not now to be
found: several are now visible to the naked eye, which are
not mentioned in ancient catalogues; and some stars have
suddenly appeared, and again after a considerable interval
vanished. Fortunio Liceti, a celebrated physician, who died
in 1656, in Padua, published a treatise, entitled, “De
novis Astris et Cometis.” In it he gives us
an ample account
of the several new stars spoken of by the ancients, among
which he mentions that remarkable one which appeared A.D.
389, near the Eagle. It was as bright as the planet Venus,
for the space of three weeks, but afterwards entirely
disappeared. In the ninth century, the Arabian astronomers,
Massahala, Haly, and Albumazar, observed a new star in the
15th degree of Scorpio, whose light equalled that of the
moon in her first octant: it was visible for four months.
Cyprianus Leovitius relates, that in the reign of the
emperor Otho, A.D. 946, a new star was seen between the
constellations of Cepheus and Cassiopeia; and also that
another was seen A.D. 1264, very near the same part of the
heavens, which had no proper motion. One of the most
celebrated of the new stars is that discovered by Cornelius
Jansen, November 8, 1572, in the chair of Cassiopeia: it
exceeded Sirius in brilliancy, and Jupiter in apparent
magnitude; it gradually decayed; and, after sixteen months,
disappeared. On the 13th of August, 1596, David Fabricius
observed a new star in the neck of the Whale, and it
disappeared after October in the same year, but was
supposed to be again discovered in the year 1637. In the
year 1600, William Jansen discovered a changeable star in
the neck of the Swan. It was seen by Kepler, who wrote a
treatise upon it, and determined its place to be 16° 18ʹ
♒, and 55° 30ʹ or 32ʹ north latitude.
Ricciolus saw it in 1616, 1621, and 1624. Cassini saw it
again in 1655; it increased till 1660; then decreased, and
at the end of 1661 it disappeared. In November, 1665, it
appeared again, and disappeared in 1681. In 1715 it
appeared, as it does at present, and is of the sixth
magnitude. In 1686, Kircher observed χ
in the Swan, to be a changeable star in the neck of that
constellation; and, from twenty years’ observations, the
period of the return of the same phases was found to be 405
days. In 1604, Kepler discovered a new star near the heel
of Serpentarius, so very brilliant that it exceeded every
fixed star, and even Jupiter, in apparent magnitude. For
more recent discoveries, see Dr. Herschell’s paper, “On the
proper Motion of the Sun and the Solar System, with an
account of the several changes that have happened among the
fixed stars since the time of Mr. Flamsteed,” vol. lxxiii,
of the Philosophical Transactions, or the fifteenth of the
Abridgment.
All the stars seem to have a common and general motion
about the pole of the ecliptic, at the rate of a degree in
seventy-two years; this is occasioned by the precession of
the equinoctial points. In consequence of this apparent
motion, the constellations change their positions in regard
to the equinoctial points. Hence it is, that the
constellation Aries now is in the sign Taurus, and Taurus
occupies the sign Gemini. It has been the common opinion
that the fixed stars have no real motion, but the accurate
observations of modern astronomers show, that some of them
have a
motion peculiar to themselves, by which they slowly change
their places. Thus Arcturus is found to approach the
ecliptic about four minutes in 100 years; and its distance
from a small star near it has been sensibly changed during
the last century. Sirius seems to recede from the ecliptic
about two minutes per century. Similar motions have been
observed in Aldebaran, Rigel, the eastern shoulder of
Orion, the Goat, the Eagle, &c. Other stars have been
observed to have a motion in different directions. Perhaps
all the stars have similar motions, which are performed by
certain fixed laws in spaces, which, though very large in
reality, yet, because of their immense distance, subtend at
the earth angles so very small, as in some cases to be
quite imperceptible, while in other cases they may be
observed, as in the stars above-mentioned; and on this
rational supposition the appearance and disappearance, and
variations in magnitude, of some stars may be accounted
for.
The fixed stars do not appear to be all regularly
disseminated through the heavens, but the greater part of
them are collected into clusters; and it requires a large
magnifying power, with a great quantity of light, to
distinguish separately the stars which compose these
clusters. With a small magnifying power, and small quantity
of light, they only appear as minute whitish spots, much
like small light clouds, and thence they are called nebulæ.
The number of nebulæ was formerly imagined to be about 103;
but Dr. Herschell, early in the year 1784, had discovered
469 more, and since then has given a catalogue of 2,000
nebulæ which he has discovered. The most careful and
accurate observations give great reason to conclude, that
they all consist of large masses or clusters of stars at
prodigious distances from our system. Dr. Herschell is of
opinion the starry heaven is replete with these nebulæ, and
that each of them is a distinct and separate system
independent of the rest. The milky way he supposes to be
that particular nebulæ in which our sun is placed; and, in
order to account for the appearance it exhibits, he
supposes its figure to be much more extended towards the
apparent zone of illumination, than in any other direction;
which is a supposition that he thinks allowable, from the
observations he has made on the figures of other nebulæ.
That there are other worlds, beside our earth, inhabited by
rational beings, endued with bodily constitutions adapted
to the nature and economy of the respective planets for
which they are destined, is a conjecture that approaches
the nearest to certainty. There is scarcely any doubt now
remaining amongst philosophers, that our moon is a
habitable globe. The most accurate observations that have
been made with the most powerful telescopes, have confirmed
the opinion. The surface of the moon seems to be
diversified by high mountains, large valleys, and small and
larger collections of water; consequently she resembles our
earth; and there can be
no doubt that our earth serves as
a moon to the moon, whose inhabitants, comparing it with
the sun, may well say,
——“gives us his blaze again
Void of its flame, and sheds a softer day;“
which similarity existing between them, is a presumptive
proof that the moon, like our earth, is a commodious
habitation for creatures endowed with capacity for knowing
and adoring their beneficent Creator. By a very correct
analogy we are led to infer, says a learned author, that
all the planets and their satellites or
attendant moons, are inhabited; for matter seems
only to exist for the sake of intelligent beings. And Dr.
Herschell’s discoveries have, by the general consent of
philosophers, added, besides the Georgian planet, a new
habitable world to our system, which is the
Sun.
To an attentive mind it will appear highly probable, that
the planets of our system, and their moons, are much of the
same nature with our earth, and destined for the like
purposes; for they are solid opaque globes, capable of
supporting animals and vegetables. Some of them are bigger,
some less, and others about the size of our earth. They
move round the sun, as the earth does, in a shorter or
longer time, according to their respective distances from
him: and have, where it would not be inconvenient, regular
returns of summer and winter, spring and autumn. They have
warmer and colder climates, as the various productions of
our earth require: and, in such as afford a possibility of
discovering it, we observe a regular motion round their
axis like that of our earth, causing an alternate return of
day and night; which is necessary for labor, rest, and
vegetation, and that all their surfaces may be exposed to
the rays of the sun.
Can a person who attends to the vast magnitude of the three
planets, Jupiter, Saturn, and Herschell or the Georgium
Sidus, and compares the systems of moons together which
belong to them, bring himself to think, that an infinitely
wise Creator should dispose of all his animals and
vegetables here, leaving the other planets destitute of
living and rational creatures? To suppose that he had any
view to our benefit in creating these moons, and giving
them their motions round their respective primaries; to
imagine, that he intended these vast bodies for any
advantage to us, when he well knew, that they could not be
seen but by a few astronomers looking through telescopes;
and that he gave to the planets regular returns of day and
night, and different seasons to all where they would be
convenient, but of no manner of service to us, except only
what immediately concerns our own planet, the earth; to
imagine, I say, that, he did all this on our account,
would, I presume, be charging him with having done much in
vain: and be as absurd, as to fancy that he has created a
little sun, and a planetary system within the shell of our
earth, and intended them for our use.
“As well might the minutest emmet say,
That Caucasus was raised to pave his way
The snail, that Lebanon’s extended wood
Was destin’d only for his walk and food.
The vilest cockle, gaping on the coast,
That rounds the ample seas, as well may boast,
The craggy rock projects above the sky,
That he in safety at its foot may lie;
And the whole ocean’s confluent waters swell,
Only to quench his thirst, and move and blanch his shell.”
These considerations amount to little less than a positive
proof, that all the planets are inhabited: for if they are
not, why all this care in furnishing them with so many
moons, to supply those with light which are at the greater
distances from the sun? Do we not see, that the further a
planet is from the sun, the greater apparatus it has for
that purpose? Such of the planets as are most remote from
the sun, and therefore enjoy least of his light, have that
deficiency made up by several moons, which constantly
accompany, and revolve about them, as our moon revolves
round our earth. So that if the more distant planets have
the sun’s light in less proportion by day than we, they
have an addition made to it morning and evening by one or
more of their moons, and a greater proportion of light
during the night. We know that the earth goes round the
sun, and turns round upon its own axis, to produce the
vicissitudes of summer and winter by the former, and of day
and night by the latter motion, for the benefit of its
inhabitants: may we not then fairly conclude, by parity of
reason, that the end or design of all the other planets is
the same? And is not this agreeable to the beautiful
harmony which exists throughout the works of nature? Surely
it is! and it raises in us the most magnificent ideas of
the supreme Being, who is every where, and at all times
present; displaying his power, wisdom, and goodness, among
all his creatures; and distributing happiness to
innumerable beings of various ranks!
When we consider the infinite power and goodness of God;
the latter inclining, the former enabling him to make
creatures suited to all states and circumstances; that
matter exists only for the sake of intelligent beings; and
that wherever we see it, we always find it pregnant with
life, or necessarily subservient thereto; the numberless
species, the astonishing diversity of animals in earth,
air, water, and even on other animals; every blade of
grass, every tender leaf, every natural fluid, swarming
with life; and every one of these enjoying such
gratifications as the nature and state of each requires:
when we reflect also, that some centuries ago, till
experience undeceived us, a great part of the earth was
judged uninhabitable; the Torrid Zone, by reason of
excessive heat, and the two Frigid Zones because of their
intolerable cold; it seems highly probable, that these
numerous and large masses of the planets are not destitute
of beings capable of contemplating with wonder, and
acknowledging with gratitude, the wisdom, symmetry, and
beauty
of the creation. It is an undoubted truth, that wherever
God exerts his power, there also he manifests his wisdom
and goodness.
From what we know of our own system, it may be reasonably
concluded, that all the rest are with equal wisdom
contrived, situated, and provided with accommodations for
rational inhabitants. Taking a survey of the system to
which we belong; the only one accessible to us; from thence
we are the better enabled to judge of the nature and end of
the other systems of the universe. For although there is
almost an infinite variety in the parts of the creation
which we have opportunities of examining, yet there is a
general analogy running through and connecting all the
parts into one scheme, one design, one whole!
The stars, being at such immense distances from the sun,
cannot possibly receive from him so strong a light as they
seem to have; nor any brightness sufficient to make them
visible to us. For the sun’s rays must be scattered and
dissipated before they reach such remote objects, that they
can never be transmitted back to our eyes, so as to render
these objects visible by reflection.
“I launch into the trackless deeps of space,
Where, burning round, ten thousand suns appear
Of elder beam, which ask no leave to shine
Of our terrestrial star, nor borrow light
From the proud regent of our scanty day.”
The stars, therefore, shine with their own native and
unborrowed lustre, as the sun does; and since each
particular star, as well as the sun, is confined to a
particular portion of space, it is plain, that the stars
are of the same nature with the sun.
It is not probable that the Almighty, who always acts with
infinite wisdom, and does nothing in vain, should create so
many suns, fit for so many important purposes, and place
them at such distances from one another, without proper
objects near enough to be benefited by their influences.
Whoever imagines they were created only to give a faint
glimmering light to the inhabitants of this globe, must
have a very superficial knowledge of astronomy, and a mean
opinion of the Divine wisdom: since, by a much less
exertion of creating power, God could have given to our
earth considerably more light by one single additional
moon. Since the fixed stars are prodigious globes of light
and heat, like our sun, and at inconceivable distances from
one another, as well as from us, it is reasonable to
conclude they are made for the same purposes that the sun
is; each to bestow light, heat, and produce vegetation, on
a certain number of inhabited planets, kept by gravitation
within the sphere of its activity.
Instead then of one sun, and one world only, in the
universe, as the unskilful in astronomy imagine, that
science discovers to us such an inconceivable number of
suns, systems, and worlds, dispersed through boundless
space, that if our sun, with all the
planets, moons,
and comets belonging to it, were annihilated, they would
with difficulty be missed, by an eye that could take in the
whole creation; the space they possess being comparatively
so small that it would scarce be a sensible blank in the
universe, although Herschell, or the Georgium Sidus, the
most remote of our planets, revolves about the sun in an
orbit whose mean distance from the sun is 1,822,575,228
miles, and some of our comets make excursions to an amazing
distance beyond the bounds of that planet: and yet, they
are incomparably nearer to the sun than to any of the
stars; as is evident from their keeping clear of the
attractive power of all the stars, and returning
periodically by the virtue of the sun’s attraction.
“In the immensity of God’s creation,” says a learned
author, “we may readily conceive one system of heavenly
bodies, and others beyond them, and others still in endless
progression, through the whole vortex of space! Every
star in the vast abyss of nature being a
sun, with its peculiar and numerous attendant
worlds. Thus there may be systems of systems, in endless
gradation, up to the throne of God!”
“Oh, for a telescope His Throne
to reach!
Tell me ye learn’d on earth, or blest above!
Where your great Master’s orb? His planets where?
* * * * * * * * * On nature’s Alps I stand
And see a thousand firmaments beneath!
A thousand systems as a thousand grains!
Each of these Stars
is a religious house;
I saw their altars smoke, their incense rise,
And heard Hosannas ring through ev’ry sphere;
A seminary fraught with future gods!
Oh, what a root! Oh, what a branch is here!
Oh, what a Father! What a family!
Worlds, systems, and creations!——And creations
In one agglomerated cluster hung,
Great Vine! on Thee;
on Thee
the cluster hangs;
The filial cluster! infinitely spread
In glowing globes, with various being fraught;
And drinks (nectareous draught!) immortal life!“
What an august! what an amazing conception, if human
imagination can conceive it, does this give of the works of
the Creator! Thousands of thousands of suns, multiplied
without end, and ranged all around us, at immense distances
from each other, attended by ten thousand times ten
thousand worlds, all in rapid motion, yet calm, regular,
and harmonious, invariably keeping the paths prescribed
them; and these worlds peopled with myriads of intelligent
creatures, formed for endless progression in perfection and
felicity. If so much power, wisdom, goodness, and
magnificence, is displayed in the material creation, which
is the least considerable part of the universe, how great,
how wise, how good must He be, who made and governs the
whole!138
The persuasion that rational beings inhabit other worlds,
has a powerful tendency to excite our curiosity.
“Ye sparkling isles of light that stud the sea
Of empyrean ether! Ye abodes
Of unknown myriads, spirits, or in bands
Held of corporeal frame! Fain would my soul
A thirst for knowledge unreveal’d to man,
Question your habitants, and fain would hear
A voice responsive from your distant bourn.
Tell, tell me who possess your radiant climes;
What are their forms, their faculties, their hopes,
Their fears, if subject or to hope or fear?
What fond pursuits, what animating toils
Diversify existence with delight?
Rove they in course aërial unconfined
From sphere to sphere, with interchange of joy
Heightening their mutual bliss; or dwell they fix’d,
Each in his native solitary orb,
Unconscious of the lot of neighboring worlds?
What homage, what returns of grateful love
Yield they to Him who made them? Stand they fast
In undecaying blessedness, secure
From risk of loss: or tread they yet the stage
Of perilous probation? Hath sin won
Conquests through disobedience o’er those hosts
In your bright regions yawn the gates of Death?
Falls he, who falls, for ever?—Power supreme
Pardon the aspiring thoughts that would presume
To pierce the veil which shrowds from mortal eye
The wonders of thy realms! Enough, to know
That Thou art Lord! Thy universal love
Pervades Creation; on each living form
Showers down its proper happiness; and, when guilt
Wakes thy reluctant vengeance, stays the bolt
Of wrath, and pales its mitigated fire!”139
Stars are the hieroglyphics used to express both rulers and
teachers; therefore they may with great propriety be
applied to the pastors of the church. The Jews, says Dr.
Doddridge, are said to have called their teachers
stars. They are represented under that emblem in
the Revelation, where St. John, speaking of our Lord, says,
“He had in his right hand seven stars;” and the allegorical
explanation is, “The seven stars which thou sawest in my
right hand are the angels (or ministers) of the seven
churches,” namely, in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira,
Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea. By αγγελοι,
angels, we are to understand the
messengers or persons whom God sent to preside
over these churches. “Angel of the church,” in this place,
says a learned author, answers exactly to that officer of
the synagogue among the Jews, called שליח ציבור
sheliach tsibbor, the messenger of the church,
whose business it was to read, pray, and
teach, in the synagogue. The ministers of the
gospel bear this allegorical designation.
1. Because, like stars in the firmament, they are placed in
a high situation in the church. Eliphaz says,
“Behold the height of the stars, how high they are!” The
sacred office is the highest that men can occupy, both in
point of rank and importance; and therefore the views,
dispositions, and deportment of ministers, should accord
with it. They should not be sordid in their
attachments, nor
grovelling in their pursuits. A predilection for lucrative
places, and worldly honors, is inconsistent with the
sanctity of their character, and the design of their
profession. As they are in a station above others, so their
minds should have a high elevation, contemplating spiritual
and divine things, with intense application, and holy
delight. The glories of the new Jerusalem, and the
felicities of the celestial Paradise, are subjects which
should engross their thoughts, and be exhibited in their
official ministrations. They should look on all debasing
pleasures, fleeting honors, and perishing riches, as things
vastly below the dignity of their character, and contrary
to the objects of their professional engagements. They have
higher considerations to excite their solicitude, and more
important affairs to employ their powers, than to spend
their time in things, which neither can afford them any
rational satisfaction, nor are of long duration. St. James
calls their attention to what is of most interest to them,
where he says, that “he who converteth a sinner from the
error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall
hide a multitude of sins.” Success is the most valuable
remuneration, and should actuate ministers both in their
private studies, and their public labors.
2. Because of the beneficial effects of their
ministerial labors, being useful to men, in affording them
light, direction, and comfort; and, consequently, the need
the church has of them. Gospel ministers are as necessary
to the moral world, during the present state of things, as
the sun, moon, and stars are in the universe. A church
without such helps, would be like a firmament deprived of
globular lights. Ministers, with the bright rays of
heavenly doctrine, dispel the darkness of ignorance, chase
away the clouds of error, scatter the mists of prejudice,
disperse the fogs of vice, from the human mind. As stars
engage the attention, and draw the eyes of persons toward
heaven, presenting in themselves astonishing displays of
the infinite perfections of wisdom, power, and goodness: so
it is the work of ministers to endeavor to excite people to
the contemplation of Divine things—to behold through the
medium of the sacred Writings, the mediatorial character of
Christ, the results of his passion, the prevalence of his
intercession, the happiness of his subjects, and the
glories of his kingdom. As the stars serve for guides to
seafaring men, while traversing the untrodden paths of the
swelling ocean; so these symbolical stars are guides to
those who embark in the vessel of the church, directing her
course, through the inconstant sea of this tumultuous and
fluctuating world, to the harbor of everlasting rest. And
as an extraordinary star in the east directed the wise men
to Bethlehem, where Christ was born; so it devolves upon
ministers, as stars of the church, to conduct inquiring
sinners to Jesus, who is able and willing to save them from
their sins, and bless them with holiness
and eternal life. They may with propriety adopt the language
of an old poet:——
“Oh that his light and influence
Would work effectually in me
Another new Epiphany,
Exhale and elevate me hence:
That as my calling doth require,
Star-like I may to others shine;
And guide them to that Sun divine,
Whose day-light never shall expire.”
3. All the light that ministers communicate to mankind, or
to the members of the church, is derived from Christ, the
Sun of Righteousness, as the light of the planets is from
the natural sun. The pastors of the church have neither
light nor grace of themselves: they receive all from the
“Father of lights,” in whose light only they can see light;
and it pleased him that in Christ should “all fulness
dwell.” Both ministers and people must be enlightened with
emanations from him, or remain in darkness. St. Paul
frankly acknowledges, “By the grace of God I am what I am.”
Without him, the most eminent minister would be like a dark
lamp. Hence they have no reason to be proud of their
qualifications; for they have received all their gifts and
graces from Christ. Their fitness for the ministerial work
is not to be ascribed either to their natural powers, the
force of a superior genius, a liberal education, intense
study, or even to goodness and piety, but to the gratuitous
bounty of God only. So likewise, whatever success in the
exercise of those gifts and graces they may have had, it
flowed not from such sources, but from Christ. “I have
planted,” says St. Paul, “and Apollos watered; but God gave
the increase.” The largest planets are inconsiderable in
comparison of the sun, which is the great natural fountain
of light and heat. The holy prophets are nothing when
brought into contrast with Jesus Christ. And John the
Baptist, though superior to all his predecessors, conscious
of his own vast inferiority, confessed, “He it is who
coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s
latchet I am not worthy to unloose.”—As the planets shine
with no other light than that derived from the sun; so
ministers are to be resplendent only with the radiance of
Divine truth, received from the eternal Fountain of
illumination. They are not to shine with the glimmering
light of fallable reason, the sparks of human wisdom, the
glow-worm rays of vain philosophy; not with the subtlety of
Aristotle, the penetration of Cartes, the eloquence of
Cicero, the speculations of Plato, the propositions of
Euclid; but with the correct and comprehensive knowledge of
the Scripture, which is “given by inspiration of God, and
is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
and for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God
may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
In a lower sense, it must be
acknowledged, that human learning is of considerable use,
affording ministers certain qualifications for their work.
The knowledge of the languages, moral and natural
philosophy, sacred and profane history, mathematical
science, the art of speaking, particularly those branches
of logic which teach us to range our thoughts in a right
method, to form propositions distinctly, and to draw just
conclusions from acknowledged premises: I say, the
knowledge of these different branches of literature and
science, may very much assist ministers to discover and
defend the truth, and refute its adversaries with their own
weapons. But they must derive all their peculiar lustre and
excellence from the volume of Divine inspiration, whence,
as chosen instruments, they can make people wise to
salvation.
4. Ministers are like the stars of heaven, because of the
difference that is among them, in respect of gifts and
ability. The stars differ from one another in situation,
magnitude, influence, and glory. “There is one glory of the
sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the
stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.”
The gradation extends from stars of the first to those of
the sixth magnitude. Some are so dazzling, that they appear
with a peculiar splendor among the shining beauties of the
night: others are obscure and nebulous; and there are many
which can only be seen with the help of telescopes. The
stars of the moral hemisphere are not all enlightened, “by
the Day-spring from on high,” with the same degree of
intellectual and Divine radiance. They have not all the
same gifts, nor gifts in the same measure. Profound
knowledge, excellency of speech, solidity and firmness of
judgment, prudence and dexterity of conduct, are not
usually the portion of one, but distributed among several
ministers. One excels in a talent for preaching, another is
eminent for utterance and power in prayer, and another is
distinguished by wisdom and stability for government. Paul
was sublime and cogent in reasoning; Apollos was copious,
eloquent, and mighty in the Scriptures; John soars high in
mysteries, and yet excels in sweetness; Isaiah is pompous
and magnificent in his style; David charms and surprises us
at the same time, with his ecstatic raptures and poetic
strains. In the largest assembly of ministers there are not
two alike, far less equal in all things. Some, like stars
of the first magnitude, shine with great brilliancy: others
have rays which are weak and obscure. Some are prudent, but
not eloquent. Some have the gift of preaching, but are not
remarkable for prudence and moderating their passions. Some
have the art of affecting the passions: others have the
skill of enlightening the mind, and informing the judgment.
Some, appearing as if formed in a finer mould, have a
talent of politeness and address, in their intercourse with
people of character. Some, like skillful physicians, know
how to deal with afflicted souls, and relieve wounded
consciences. Some are sons of thunder,
while others are
sons of consolation. Though every minister should have a
competency of each of these gifts, yet some excel in one,
and some in another. Thus “there are diversities of gifts,
but the same Spirit;” and God, in diversifying his gifts,
makes his manifold wisdom appear. The Christians at Corinth
not understanding this, or too emulous for the first-rate
talent, without sufficiently regarding Divine agency, which
can render the meanest useful, became clamorous, and their
indecorous conduct is held up to all succeeding ages, with
the censure they deservedly merited. However, to calm their
perturbation, he says, “Therefore let no man glory in men.
For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or
Cephas; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.”
5. While some stars disappear, others arise that were not
previously observed. “Your fathers, where are they? and the
prophets, do they live forever?” Many, “of whom the world
was not worthy,” who were bold to suffer for the name of
Christ, not only the spoiling of their goods, the loss of
liberty, and banishment from their native country, but even
death itself, have rested from their labors and
afflictions, and are now enjoying a glorious reward. The
Lord also sometimes raises up extraordinary lights, for
asserting and propagating the truth, when his church is
overwhelmed with the dark clouds of heresy and
superstition. Of this Moses, Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha, as
well as many other prophets, whom the Lord called in an
extraordinary manner, were remarkable instances, in the Old
Testament: and, in the New Testament, John the Baptist, and
the apostles of Christ, whose voices were heard, and whose
rays extended to the ends of the earth. When the Christian
church was covered with the dark superstition and idolatry
of antichrist, God raised up some eminent lights, from time
to time, to diffuse the pure doctrines of the Gospel, and
lead the people out of mystic Babylon. Such were John
Wickliffe in England, John Huss and Jerome of Prague in
Bohemia; and, a hundred years afterwards, Luther in
Germany, Zuinglius in Switzerland, Calvin in France and
Geneva, and John Knox in Scotland, whom Beza calls the
apostle of the Scots. Then did the Gospel run, and was
glorified, like a mighty torrent carrying before it not
only cities and provinces, but whole nations and kingdoms.140
Actuated by zeal for
religion, says a clergyman of the Establishment,
“Wickliffe, Jerome, and Huss, roused the slumbering
clergy to opposition. The zeal of Luther and his
associates alarmed all Germany, and shook the Papal
throne itself. Gilpin alone, in a dark period,
evangelized a large part of the northern counties of
England. Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, by their steady
perseverance unto death, illuminated the British Isles.
The zeal of Whitefield and the two Wesleys has, even in
our day, made England,
Scotland, Ireland, and
America, experience very important consequences.”
Missionaries actuated by primitive zeal, and sent out by
different societies to preach the Gospel among Heathen
nations, like burning luminaries are chasing away the
darkness of ignorance, gross superstition, and degrading
idolatry, and, on their ruins, establishing the kingdom
of Christ, and the reign of truth, peace, righteousness,
and benevolence, in the earth.
6. Ministers, considered as stars placed in the moral
firmament, should shine with purity of doctrine, fervency
of zeal, and holiness of life, both in the summer of
prosperity, and in the winter of adversity. 1st. In the
solemn assemblies of God’s people. Jerome says,
Our pulpit should be as Mount Tabor, where we should
converse with Moses and the Prophets, Christ and his
Apostles, minding that we have to do with a holy God, and
with the immortal souls of people, which must be shortly
either in heaven or hell. 2d. Amongst their
flocks, by an innocent, instructive, and pious
conversation, giving them no encouragement, by their
example, to sin; but alluring them to better worlds, and
pointing out the way thither. Their whole life should be a
transcript of the holy life of the blessed Jesus, a living
epistle in which the people may read the way wherein they
ought to walk. 3d. In their families. A minister
should be “one that ruleth well his own house,” properly
presiding over and governing his own family: “for if a man
know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care
of the church of God?” Eli’s conduct brought heavy
judgments on himself and family, and a great scandal on the
church.
Theory of the earth.
[Such intimations and analogies as can be drawn from
nature may, with propriety, be applied to the explanation
of natural phenomena, in the absence of direct and
satisfactory proof. Allowing this assumption, we conclude
that the intimations and analogies in nature are
sufficiently strong and clear to authorize a belief,
that all heavenly bodies are similar in their great
constitutional principles, and designs, and that our
earth may be taken as a fair and satisfactory sample of
them all.
The only probable departure from this strong analogy in
the heavenly bodies, seems to be this: the suns,
or centres of systems, have a peculiar
collection of phosphorescent clouds, which are designed
to be the great exciting causes, or dispensers, of light
to the planets which move round them. The planets have
not these phosphorescent clouds.
This does not interfere with the general
analogies between the heavenly bodies; and establishes
the strict analogies between the planets of all
systems; and the suns, or centres of all systems.
From all this we conclude, that a theory of our
earth which is satisfactory, will also be deemed
satisfactory in regard to the other heavenly bodies. We
therefore lay down, as authorized by the intimations and
analogies of nature, the following positions.
1. There is a general analogy between the
constitutional principles and designs of the heavenly
bodies; i.e. the suns and their planets.
2. That the sun, or center of each system, with all
the planets and satellites revolving about it, were
created simultaneously, as it regards their
substances.
3. That they were created at their relative distances
from the centre which they now preserve.
4. That they were stationary when first created,
having no motion either on their axis, or in their
orbits.
5. That the materials of each body, when first
created, were solid, frozen, and lifeless.
6. That the materials of each body were created in
their simple, uncombined, or elementary states.
7. That it is most probable these elementary
materials were promiscuous in the mass, without regard to
specific gravity, or any other principle or law.
8. That the arrangement of the materials of which our
earth is composed was effected by the operation of the
laws of nature, as they are called, which were
simultaneously impressed upon the matter of the Solar
System, and is continued impressed, by the direct agency
of the Divine Being.
9. That this reference of the commencement, and
continuance of the energies of the laws of nature,
directly to the Almighty, is both philosophical and
scriptural; and is noted by Moses in these words: “And
the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters (or
deep.”)
Reasoning from these data, let us now see whether the
phenomena of the structure and arrangement of our planet
are explicable to a satisfactory degree.
1. Immediately upon the impress of the laws of nature, by
the direct effort of the Divine Being, the whole mass
would commence revolving on its own axis, and moving
around its centre in its orbit. At the same time a
quickening impulse would be felt, from the operation of
the laws of nature, which would impart life and animation
to the mass. The first effect of this impulse would be to
call the caloric, light, and electricity into
action throughout the body. This would raise its
temperature instantly, and call into action all the other
powerful agents, as soon as formed: such as the acids,
alkalis, &c.
2. There will be no difficulty, to those who know the
power of these agents, in believing that the
consequence of their united action would be an immediate
fusion of the whole mass. This would establish a
state of chemical mobility; i.e. the various
materials, owing to their fusion, would be at liberty to
combine, according to the laws of chemical
affinity; and to take their relative positions, according
to the laws of gravitation.
3. The result of this process would be binary, and
ternary, and other combinations. Oxygen would enter into
combination with the bases of the various acids, and thus
form the acids; and with the various metals and thus form
oxides; and the acids and oxides would unite and thus
form other compounds, commonly called salts.
4. As such combinations as these would commence forming first,
water and air would be
gradually and subsequently formed, by the three gasses,
oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, escaping from the mass
and rising to the surface, where the oxygen combining
with the hydrogen would form water; and with the nitrogen
would form air.
5. It is evident that the very small specific gravity of
the gases would cause them to escape from the interior
parts of the earth, rapidly, and to accumulate at the
surface in immense quantities. The consequence of this
would be, an immense amount of water would be
generated at the earth’s surface; but the oxidizable
bodies in the interior of the mass would not, all of
them, be completely saturated with oxygen.
6. The condition of the earth, at this stage of the
action, would be an inconceivably high state of ignition,
specially in the interior, and a rapid chemical action
still going on; the combinations still forming, and the
bodies thus formed arranging themselves. In a very little
time the various classes of bodies would have obtained,
generally, their natural relative positions, according to
their specific gravities; and all the combinable
elements, in the same neighborhood, having combined, a
state of comparative rest would ensue of course.
7. In the mean time, large quantities of different
substances would be held in solution by the acids,
alkalis, and water, whose solvent powers would be very
much increased by the presence of intense heat.
8. If we examine the whole mass at this stage of the
natural process, we will find it is in a condition to
crystallize whenever it can be reduced
to a sufficiently low temperature to admit of
crystallization. We know that the reduction of
temperature would commence at the surface, where the
caloric would be conducted upwards through the waters,
and would fly off into the celestial spaces. Of course,
the first crystallized depositions would take place
at the junction of the waters with the oxides or
earths, in a state of fusion, on which the lower stratum
of water was resting.
9. This first deposition would extend all around the
globe, as the waters entirely invested the
earth, and would lay the foundation of the primitive
family of rocks, which are well known to be
crystalline in their structure, and the result of
chemical action. It is, however, evident that there were
occasional tremendous agitations, and concussions during
the deposition of the primitive rocks, which altered the
state of the fluids, and caused successive, and,
sometimes, alternating strata to deposit.
10. The period of the deposition of the primitive rocks
continued until the elevations on the earth’s surface
were uncovered, became dry, and were subject to the
disintegrating, and rending powers of the elements: at
which time some marine animals, and some vegetables,
adapted to warm and moist climates, were created. The
consequence of this state of things would be that
fragments of rocks, and marine animal and vegetable
remains would be found in the composition of the strata
deposited at this period, and subsequently. The family of
rocks thus deposited is called transition rocks.
11. This is the proper place to institute an inquiry into
the origin of these primitive elevations or
mountains.
12. It will be very obvious, that a mass of materials
thrown into chemical action, and raised to a very high
temperature, as explained above, would naturally, and
necessarily be upheaved at different points on its
surface, by the gases, and other bodies escaping from the
interior. And though the general softness of the mass
would cause these elevations to sink back again at
first, upon the escape of the gaseous bodies
upheaving them; yet, when the surface of the earth, which
would cool by coming into contact with the water, would
thus begin to become solid, the elevations would
maintain themselves, and consolidate, and thus lay
the foundations of the irregularities which,
subsequently, would rise into mountains, and mountain
chains, and sink into vallies, by the combined action of
the internal heat, and the occasional rapid rise and
subsidence of the waters, which would alter the shape and
appearance of the mountains, and deepen the vallies.
13. But it becomes very natural to inquire into the cause
of the rapid rise, and subsidence of the waters at
particular times; which will also explain the cause of
the distinctions so obvious in the nature and ages of the
different families of rocks.
14. It will be recollected that the interior parts of the
earth are in a state of high ignition, and an immense
quantity of water surrounds the globe, the crust of which
is consolidating. By the natural pressure of the water,
by an occasional eruption of gas from the interior, and
by percolation, &c., the water would have access to
the interior materials in a heated state. In this case
there would be an immense production of steam, and
decomposition of water, which would of course produce an
earthquake, until it broke forth in a volcano under the
waters. In this case an elevation would be
produced on the surface, and, in all probability, a
cavity in the interior from whence the elevated
materials came.
15. These phenomena would happen in quick succession, and
very extensively in the first period of the world; and
every time they happened, they would reduce the
quantity of water at the surface, by admitting some into
the interior cavities; and by decomposing much; the
oxygen and hydrogen of which would enter into other
combinations.
16. This will account for the rise and subsidence of the
waters, the formation of vallies, and mountains, and the
alterations in the fluids, so as to deposit the different
strata in succession.
17. During this process above, cavities sufficiently
numerous and capacious, filled with water, would be
formed in the earth to relieve the surface, in a great
measure. But it seems pretty evident that the waters thus
retired into those cavities were occasionally thrown back
on the earth, by the same means with which earthquakes
and volcanos are produced; and thus tremendous currents
would ensue, which would successively bury the vegetable
materials in the adjoining lakes, out of which the coal
basins are formed; and also bury those immense forests of
trees, with the bones of animals, and fishes also, which
have been so clearly and satisfactorily described by
geologists.
18. Each successive deluge, in proportion to its power
and extent, would alter the quantity and quality of the
materials held in solution, and thus cause a
corresponding deposition subsequently. Hence, as
remarked above, the distinction in the strata, and the
alternations of different substances successively.
19. It may not be amiss here to say, it is very probable,
that many deluges preceded the formation of man, produced
on the same principles as the deluge of Noah, though for
different purposes, according to the wishes of the Divine
Being.
20. To what has been said above, it is only necessary to
add, that all depositions, or formations of rocks took
place at the bottom of the ocean, or waters
which held the materials in solution, or suspended; and
that this ocean maintained its dominion for long periods
together, in comparative tranquility, and during such
times the different rock formations were deposited. The
marine animals would multiply, die, and their exuviæ
quietly fall to the bottom: at the same time carbonate of
lime would be copiously deposited from the sea waters,
and thus would consolidate into a stratum of rock, the
thickness of which would bear some proportion to the
length of the period of its deposition. If this stratum
remained in its place, upon the retiring of the
sea, it would appear at the surface at first; until it
was covered with mould, and the ruins of other rocks
disintegrated into earth, or soil. But if it were
upheaved by the force of the internal fire, it
would become a limestone mountain, containing
the organic remains as they were first quietly deposited.
The same may be said of primitive mountains, or any other
kind.
21. The transition rocks, the formation of which
was barely noticed above, (No. 10) were deposited
successively in strata, indicating their relative ages by
the increase of rocky fragments, and fossil remains in
their composition, from the oldest of the family to the
newest: and also by the gradual change in their
structure, which is more crystalline in the oldest, and
becomes less so in the newest, owing to the decrease of
chemical action, and the increase of mechanical
deposition.
22. From the fossil remains in the different strata of
the transition rocks, we have good evidence of successive
deluges, which swept away the animals existing at the
time, and buried their remains which are now found in a
fossil state; and others succeeded them. This will
account for particular animals being peculiar to
particular strata of rocks.
23. During the transition period the chemical action
ceased almost entirely, and the succeeding family of
rocks, i.e. the secondary, was deposited
mechanically, their materials being merely
suspended in the waters. This class, therefore,
is not crystalline in its structure, and is nearly
horizontal in position and contains greater quantities of
fossil remains, both of animals and vegetables. These
remains are, also, the relics of beings more delicately
organized, and approach much nearer to the genera and
species of animals now existing.
24. During the deposition of this class of rocks, and
also of the tertiary class which succeeded it,
the sea retired far from the up-lands, and well nigh into
its permanent beds. The up-lands would, by the
disintegrating power of the elements, be worn away at
their surface, and thus afford the matter of soil, which
would naturally be carried down towards the final retreat
of the sea, by the waters, and be deposited
in the vallies,
and low countries. The same process would furnish
fragments of rocks in abundance, and of all kinds, which
would be rolled down the declivities of the up-lands, and
become more or less rounded, and thus be found entering
into the rocks of the secondary and tertiary classes; or
in beds of sand and gravel, or in the channels of rivers
in the form of pebbles. If these fragments were
thrown together in sufficient quantities, and a suitable
cement deposited among them they would consolidate and
form pudding-stone, or breccia marble; such as
the Potomac marble, of which the columns in the Capitol
at Washington City are made.
25. It is very evident that this process would deposit
the heavier fragments, and materials nearest the
highlands whence they originated; and carry the finer and
richer matter further away towards the sea, and deposit
it nearer the mouths of the rivers. This is well known to
be the case, as in the Mississippi. Here the phenomena
are doubtless, from the mouth, along all its tributaries
to their sources.
26. While these successive depositions were making,
modified by tremendous eruptions from the force of
subterranean fire, the same agent of these modifications
would produce another very striking phenomena. The
immense quantity of matter thrown from the interior to
the surface in a melted state, would either shoot up in
the form of cones, or columns, and by cooling crystallize
and consolidate; or would flow in its melted state over
the surface of the upper rocks, and thus cover them. This
is the case with a class of rocky substances which may be
called by the general name of basalt. Sometimes
when the force below was not sufficient to protrude the
melted matter through the superincumbent rocks, it drove
it in between the strata, or shot it up
through some of the strata; frequently upheaving
the rocks on one side of the protruding body, or
depressing them on the other. In this case the injected
matter constitutes what is called a fault,
shaft, or dike, by miners.
27. It is not improbable, nay, it is pretty certain, that
many of these basaltic ejections took place under the
ancient chaotic abyss of waters, and have become visible
by the retiring of the sea.
28. In this theory we have a satisfactory explanation of
the formation of metallic veins, and the
dispersion of metallic grains in sands, and
soil. The metals being in a pure state, or nearly so, in
the bowels of the earth when projected upwards
by the force of subterranean power, would be
injected into the rocks in the direction of the
operating force. Hence they are found in veins in solid
rocks, running in all directions, and descending to
unknown depths. Sometimes the whole of the vein appears
to be insulated by the rock. In this case, the
whole mass was fused, at least partly, and when
the force ceased to act, it would consolidate around the
injected metal, leaving no trace of its injection.
Sometimes the metallic vein evidently entered the rock
from above. In this case the metal in a
melted state was thrown to the surface, and
meeting with a chasm, ran into it and consolidated
into a vein. When the metal was raised from below in
a state of fusion in conjunction with an immense mass of
rocky matter in a state of fusion, they would appear at
the surface mixed throughout. When this rocky mass
yielded to the disintegrating
power of the elements, the
particles of the metal and rock would be carried off
together into the lower positions, and be found in the
form of dust, in the secondary, or lower
countries.
29. The shape of the earth, in regard to which it is said
the polar diameter is less than the equatorial, would be
the same on the above theory, as it has been shown to be,
on the supposition that the earth was in a soft state by
the solvent powers of water, as commonly supposed.
30. It is a matter of peculiar pleasure to the Christian
philosopher, to observe the strong tendency in the
Science of Geology, to confirm the account of the
creation of the world, as given by Moses in the Bible. By
a careful comparison of the account of Moses with well
established geological positions, it will be found that
they agree expressly, in the order
and nature
of the events. This is a
splendid evidence in favor of revelation. There can be no
doubt, but, that if the phenomena of nature, and the
teachings of the Bible were better understood, more
striking and unexpected agreements would be found.
Religion and Science will one day be inseparable.
Remarks.
1. It will be necessary for the reader to peruse the
above theory very attentively, in order to form a correct
judgment of it, as it is merely an outline, very
briefly drawn up, yet it is hoped, pretty clearly.
Whether it be well calculated to explain the great
leading geological phenomena which we observe, the reader
will determine for himself. It was not drawn up in
view of such explanation, but was constructed by
induction from those well ascertained phenomena.
It was drawn up out of view of any ultimate
object, or system, previously embraced, and is
even different from the writer’s previous
opinions, before he had diligently compared all the facts
within his reach. It is therefore entitled to the merit
of having been drawn up with a sincere desire to attain
to truth on this interesting subject, and not to support
a favorite theory.
2. Upon examination it will be found to reconcile, in a
great measure, the Vulcanian and
Neptunian theories which have so long divided
the principal writers on Geology. It will be found that
both fire and water were concerned in
producing the great geological phenomena. It cannot be
doubted but that subterranean force commenced
the irregularities on our earth’s surface, and continued
the action, probably with occasional intermissions, in
upheaving the mountains, and mountain chains: but as this
was commenced, and principally accomplished,
under the ancient sea, there can be no doubt but
that the water has had a powerful and extensive agency in
modifying the structure and composition of mountain, and
moderate elevations. And while we have every reason to
believe the force of subterranean fire was the principal
agent in rending, dislocating, and confusing the rock
formations of the crust of our earth; we have no less
reason to acknowledge the agency of water in depositing
the various strata; contributing to the disintegration of
the exposed uplands; and carrying down the
alluvion which form the fertile tracts of
vallies, and low countries; and the sand bars, and banks
at the outlets, of rivers, bays, gulfs, &c.
3. This view will be more clearly explained by examining
the shape of continents, islands, and countries,
which will be found to correspond, pretty nearly with the
shape of the mountain ranges in each. That is: the
length of a continent, island, or country will
be found to be in the direction of the mountain
range; and the breadth across the mountain
range.
4. This would be the shape which would naturally result
from the transition, secondary, and tertiary formations
arising principally from the disintegration of the
materials of the mountain range. This is evident from a
single reflection: if a conical body stood in
the midst of a plain, and was equally exposed to a power
which wore it away, the portions thus torn from the body
would roll down the declivity towards the base of the
cone, and would occupy a circle, generally speaking, of
the plane at the base equidistant from the body. In the
same manner the wasting away of the primitive elevations
would deposit the detritus equidistant from the foot of
the range.
5. It will be obvious, however, that the conformity of a
country, in shape, to the mountain ranges which
run through it, will be more or less modified by
adventitious circumstances. If one side of the mountain
range was originally more precipitous than the other: or
if some tremendous collection or current of water lashed
or swept one side, and not the other, the shape of the
country would be modified; but not so much as to destroy
the general conformity in shape. The above remarks will
be confirmed by an inspection of accurately drawn maps.
6. Finally: Some formations are entirely owing to the
agency of water; as sand banks, bars, shoals, &c.,
and some entirely owing to the action of fire, as the
deposites of lava; the upheaving of volcanic mountains,
even in the memory of man. These are
adventitious formations, and do not even
modify a general theory.]
279