Liberty advocate., 1841-09-09
From the Philadelphia Public Ledger.
I II E SU n.

t HE SUN.
Thou sun of this great world, beth
/ Eye and soul. MlLroN.
This G lorious Iuminary was yorshiPped
by many nations OF antiquity, as deity,
especially by the Persians, on account Of
his benign and powerful influence in
warming, illuminating and viviIylng the
earth; in regulating the seasons, aud pre-.
sewing animated nature from destruc.
tion. But the knowledge the ancienS
had Of this powerful king Of day." was
very limited, when compared to the woa-
derui discoveries which science and art
have enabled the moderns to make
Though Astronomy was studied at a vc-
ry early age of the world, and ii we cred
1t Josephus, by the antedluvIans, yet it
was not TIL recent period, that the mag
nltudeS, the numbers, the distances, the
denSIlIes, and other phenomena Of the
heaven y bodies have been ascertaIncd.
The suns distance from the earth is
50, 100000 miles a distance so great,
that II locomotive started from that lu>
mlnary towards the earth, when Columbus
discovered America, l432) had travelled
with greater Celerlty than the one which
brought President Tyler's late message
TO the Ledger, say thirty miles an hour,
it would not have arrived yet A cannon
ball, at the velocity of 500 miles an hour
would require more than 81 years 10 tra
verse this space but the "swit winged
arrows of light" perform the journey in
l-2 minutes.
The suns distance is obtained by means
of lis horizontal paralIax, a problem the.
oretically considered, easily solved but
as the base line is only the semI-dialne
ter Of the earth 1896 miles) the angel Of
parallax is difficult to find Correctly
DR.. HALEY suggested an excellent meth
cd to find this paraIlax, by means OF the
translts o, Venus across the suns disc
By the last transit, Q,769) The paraIIaX
was ascertaned TO be 8 l-2 seconds, which
gives the suns distance as above. La
Place and other eminent astronomers, con
slider the distance so near the truth, that
the true distance cannot be less than "a
millions, or more than 81 millions.
The suns magnitude is immense. HIS
diameter is $4,000 miles, SO that he
would not only Till The orbit Of the moon,
but would extend 100000 miles beyond it
in every direction, If 100000 globes
such as the earth were put together, the
enormous heap would be only as large as
the sun and If IA fragment as large as the
earth was detached from this "grea,
source of day. it would be no more mss
ed than pebble oi an onuce weight would
be missed from heap of pebbles weighing
SO tons.
The density of the sun is much less
than The density of the earth. Its speclf-
ic gravity is not much more than that OF
water, whereas The specific gravity Of the
earth is more than five times that OF wa.
ter so that $4,000 globes such as the
earth would welgn the sun.
The sun turns on his own axis ia twen.
" five days, len hours this has been
known by means oi dark spots which Of
ten appear on his disc. Some OF these
spots have been seen so large, that tea
worlds such as we lnhablt, could be pa-
ced side by side on hem.
The sun, (besldes motion round the
common centre gravity has also motion
through absolute space OF $4,000 miles an
hour. His destination is towards the
constellation Hercules, carrying the etr,h
aud 28 Other words, aud hundreds of
comets, along with him in his sublime
career
The orbits Of all the planets and com
cts in the solar system arc hence contln-
ualy changing their ETHEREAL locality, if
may so express it, and We ourselves,
though innunerabe ages of eternity, will
never occupy the sane spot OF Gods un
iverse which we occupied an hour ago.
We are not yet well informed Of the
phy sicaI constitution Of the sun, Sir Isaac
Newton aud the philosophers Of his day,
considered him an immense globe Of fire
or molten matter, in constant state Of
ehulltion but the this theory Of late is
rejected. The HerschelsI and other EN-
inent astronomers assert that the sun is
Opaque body like the earth, diversified
with hill anI dale, and the abode Of mil
lions Of millions oI intelligent beings that
the suns atmosphere IS about 1000 miles
high on The top OF which floats a stratum
of luminous clouds, which emit both light
aud heat, and that the dark spots which
appear and disappear, are proportions ol