Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1847-02-18
THE REVELATIONS OF AS
TRONOMY.
From the North British Review.
CONCLUSION.

CONCLUSION.
HAVING thus surveyed the various forms
of matter which compose the sidereal uni
verse, we are naturally led to inquire wheth-
er our own solar system is at rest in space,
moving only i'll its individual parts, or re-
wolves along with other systems about some
remote but unknown centre. DIR. HALEY
conceived it possible that there might be "A
common centre round which the whole star
ry armament revolved, but Tobias Mayer
rendered it probable by the discovery of the
proper motions of a number of stars. As
i'll a wood, he says, the trees to which we APP
proach separate from each other in apparent
distance, while those which remain behind
appear to become close and closer so should
the stars separate in that quarter of the heav
ems TO which our system is moving while in
that which tits leaving, they should approach
nearer to another. Sir William Herschel
found that the proper motion of41 stars out
So were such as indicated an advance -four
system towards point i'll the constellation
Herculis in r. Ascension 1862 50 30, and
North Polar distance 400 20. The cele-
brated Swedish astronomer, NJ Argelander
of Abo, extending the inquiry to 800 stars,
was led to the same conclusion, and places
the point to which we are moving in 2579
40 of r. Ascension, and 2So 40 Z" of
North Defamation. Hence it is the opinion
of many astronomers that the solar system
is advancing at the rate of onc-tcnth Of q
second annually, or of IL in 36, 200 years, so
that if this motion is round a centre, it will
require 365 4 10000 - 13, I40 900, or thir-
teen millions of years to complete revolu-
ton.
1t is impossible to bring to close a sur
vey of the solar and sidereal systems, with
out forming some notion, however indequate,
of the structure and uses of such vast col
lections of matter, such assembages of gi-
gantc globes occupying every corner of uni
versal space. We see these bodies shining
with the brightness of our sun, and with
light of the same composition and charac-
ter we recognize the immensely of their
size we perceive them all in motion, and
we cannot therefore doubt that they are por-
tons of systems, if not perfectly similar, at
least in general analogous with our own.-
Bat what, asks the anxious inquirer, is the
structure and the object of our own? Let
us view it from distance, dsentangled from
the clouds of prejudice and error in which
we are involved, and forgetting that we are
earth-born let us take a position in midway
space, and consider the deductions which
our knowledge will entltle us to draw Ev-
cry planet of our system has its year and its
day, and its oblate form while many of
them have their moons to enlighten them,
and exhibit on their surface the indications
of past and of present change. Each of them
is heated and lighted by the sun, and consti-
tuting as they do group of similar objects,
we cannot but conclude, that however vari-
Gus be their sizes, their motions, and their
appendages, they must yet have the same
general constitution, and perform the same
functions. Hence we are compelled to be-
lieve that the primary planets, at least, are
bodies like the earth, composed of land and
sea, and are the theatres of animal and in
tellectual life, The variety which charac-
terizes the works of creation, even when
their nature and functions are the same
the very variety in the general aspect of the
! planets leads us to believe that an analogous
variety will exist in the different worlds OF
our system, and that the beings which form
the irrational and intellectual races may be
endowed with forms, and organs, and facul-
ties, very different from our own. But what
ever this difference may be, we can scarce
ly doubt that those glorious combinations o.
matter which form the Solar system were III
tended for the support of animal and vcge
table life.
If we now transfer ourselves from our owl
planetary home to commanding position a
mong the sidereal abodes, the same analoge'
which have guided us must guide us STILL
| If ua do NOT daScrv cvStan,c of urinary anf
secondary planets, we discover self-luminou!
bodies like our sun in binary aud ternar!
combination with other bodies, whose nature
and character we are not capable of ascer
tanning. If we cannot measure their da,
and their year, we see periodical motions
which begin and complete their round, ant
we see recurrent changes which indicate
phenomena similar to those with which W.
have been familiar and if God has fitted
up for living occupants the huge globes o
our own portion of his universe we are EN-
titled to ascribe the functions of suns anC
planets to all the similar globes with which
/ he has adorned the sidereal eXpanse.
In order to learn, then, what is the con
stltution, and what has been or may be thu
probable history of the various worlds in GU
armament, we must study the constitution
and the physical history of our own, ant
hold as it were, its mirror up to universe
: nature. The men of limited reason, whC
{ believed that the Earth was created AM
launched into its ethereal course when MAJ
was summoned to its occupation, must hav
) either denied altogether the existence ofou
solar system, or have regarded all its planet
l as coeval with their own, and as but the min
listers to its convenience. Science, howev
2 er, has now corrected this error, and liberia
Y ted the pious mind from its embarrassments
The paleontologist-the student of ancien
e iie,-has demonstrated, by evidence not t.
: be disputed, that the Earth had been inhat
e tied by animals and adorned with plants dun
d ing unreasonable cycles of time anteceden
}. to the creation of man,--that when the vo
$ cano, the earthquake, and the flood had de
d ; etroved and hurled them uobler forms {