The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1831-1858, 1832-09-05
SCENERY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

III new wolK recently published in Lon
don, entitled Saturday Evening, BY the au
thor OF Natural History of Enthusiasm" We
hnh the following fine sketch of some of Tho
beautiful and sublime scenery oil the solnl
system:
The degree of power and facility in con
ccIvlng OF distance which the mind Mcguire.
10y It's acquaintance with the sur!are r. tho
earth, may, without any very extreme etfarr
or at least such an effort as fortunes ana
pnralyzcs the mental faculty, he extended
TO The distances of the planets Of our own
system. Not, indeed, as if even The short.
est of these distances could he held be.
fore the mind 10 its component parts
or.correc;ly ieckoned for if compelled 10
divide a hundred millions of miles into such
portions as we can distinctly think of sepa-
rarely and then 10 add part to part until all
were numbered still retaining hold of our
starting point, we should find ourselves Ut
terly exhausted and breathless, long before
one Of those millions had been completed.
Nevertheless mental traject from world Ia
world may, in some sort, he accomplished
The glass brings, for example, the disc oil
Jupiter before us; so that we may fix the
eve on this side or on the other of this cloud
beled surface: we clearly distinguish the
forms of these wreaths of lurid vapor or
we catch the transit of one of his moons s.
follow the speck of shadow in his hasty
course along the equator of the stupendous
planet, very much in the same way in which
we watch the shadow of cloud. as it moves
across the bosom of distant sunny HILL
Although the road thither battles us in the
attempt to mete it out into portions. we can
Just imagine ourselves to have achieved the
passage, and to set upon the vast rotund and
can family conceive of the scene that would
there present itself, where, athwarl prodg-
ious vallies, leach capacious enough TO re-
ceive an Atlantic, or through which the waves
of all our oceans might quietly flow, as
the Ganges glides on its hed) the deep shad-
ows of overhanging mountains are fitting
with giddy haste, from side to side, while
the sun PUSHES through the ample skies, to
accomplish his five hours Of day. Or we
remain at our post of observation through
the brief moments of night, and are dizzy
while we gaze upon the shining multitude
of moons and stars that, bursting up from
the horizon, chase each other with visible
celebrity, from east TO west like a routed
host, holly followed Ivy the foe. The same
force of conception which has carried the
IIIlUl lIUlU llIC OIOll Vi JuplLCIs Will u duS-
port it to that of Saturn, where is seen a
somhre splendo7, suffused on all sides, less,
apparently, from the distant and diminished
sun, than from the broad surface of the adj
iacent rings, which almost blend night and
day, by oyeishadowing the one and ilumin-
ating the other. Or taking once again an
adventurous flight, further than before, we
reach the outermost limit of our system, and
stand upon that vast and solitary planet,
which, as if guardian of the whole, slowly
walks the rounds of the solar skies, while
it fulfils its term of fourscore years and
more. The sun has now shrnnk almost TO
a comparison with the stars; or looks only
like the chiefest and most resplendent of
them so that the mild twilight of that noon
not quite excludes their rival radiance
Here indeed the power of distinct concep-
ton of space and distance falteTs. But we
remain awhile at the remote stage we have
reached. and pass along the circuit Of that
farthest planet of the solar system, we may
gain obscurely an idea of the solitariness OF
orr system in the starry heavens. 1t is pos
sihe that the diameter Of that orbit, which
is scarcely traversed within the longest term
of human life, affords just sensible paral-
lax for the measurement of the distances of
the nearest stars, so that an intelligent
means is afforded for computing the breadth
of that fearful gulf that divides the sun and
his planets from the coasts of other sys-
TENS. Thus, instead Of the ignorance or
uncertain coniectures which here on earth
oblige us to rest satisfied Tor dissatisfiedl
with vague conception of the distance of
system from system. there, in that Georgian
planet, perhaps the astounding reality is re-
duced to figures; and it is automatically
shown that this outer circle of our system,
vast as it is, circumscribes a space that
would not I've discernible otherwise than as
a point, from even the nearest of the neigh
boring stars : so that, though our sun would
he seen thence, as those stars are seen by
us, the apparent disc of its little sparkling
light would include sun and planets togeth-
err, as one blended radiance. 1t is thus,
where facts are far greater than imagina-
ton, that in proportion as we ascertain those
facts, or exchange imagination for know
ledge, the mind is so much the more filled
with amazement or awe. From the extreme
boundary of the solar system, could we
gain that outpost of observation, we should
look with more dstinctness of perception
into the abyss, in the centre of which the
sun. WIFI MS pifDttS, 10 ouoPShhC" nHi
there, it is probable, Il much brighter lustye
may shed itself from the starry heavens,
and perhaps, Eyes, it must be believed) in
Vulnerable stars, which from the earth are
not at all perceptiblc, or discerned only by
the highest powers of art, are Individually
seen and those luminous streams, too, and
many nehulous splenGors, which hang as
wreahs or folded curtains OF light, across
our skies, show themselves to be what they
are, crowded hosts Of worlds, thick and
numberless as the sparks that rush up from
the fiercey blown furnace. Perhaps at the
very verge of our system, the hours OF day
may seem dull and sombre; while the night
flames out with a radiance that darts from
every span and interstice of the sky, like
tae Iretted roof Of plane. which the ostenta-
ton Of the artist has overloaded with spark
ling ornaments of gold. Nay, sober truth
aud calculation ohlge US to believe that, If
we could reach spot nearer to the confines
of the more denscly occupied fields space,
und be exempt from all atmospheric obscur-
atons, the entire surface of heaven would
seem to be evenly and thlckly studded with
the stellar glory, in its many gradations OF
magnitude.
The invisible material creation, it is prob
able, vastly outnumbers the visible and il
may justly he thought that the worlds made
known to us by their inherent splendor, are,
TO the unseen, only in the proportion OF the
chiefs of an army TO the thousands that I'LL