The Arkansas banner., 1849-10-09
Correspondence of the Buffalo Republic.
 ANEW IDEA.
BosToN, Augnst 20.

A new idea is mofe of rarity now a-days than new book; aye, than big and yolumnous new book. Messrs. Crosby SE Nichols have just issAed ittle black book--a book, the whole contents of which would not occupy more than two columns of tine Republic, |" minion type soiId, ' and which yet tains rot only new but very grand idea. There are some readers who will pronounce it ianciful but others will see in the airy scadoldng t presents, the means of climbing 10 sublime coptempIaious of truth, or rather what the reason readily accepts of likely to be truth.
 The broehnrs, which l would introduce to the readers, is entitled {" The Stars and the Earth or Thoughts upon Space, Time and Eternity y--from the third London Edition" The writer Bases his sPeculations upon that we'll known proposition, that luminous body, arising al a certain distance from an observer cannot be perceived in the very same instant of time in which it becomes luminous, but that period of time, although infinitely short, psssess through the space between the object and our eyes. For instance, as light travels only two hundred and thirteen thousand miles in a second and as the moon k 2l0 900 miles distant 1t follows that the moon rises above the horizon second and quarter before il becomes visible to us.
 The sun oi our system being ninety five millions of miles distant, about eight minutes elapse, after the first ray from the outermost edge of it's disk reaches above the horizon, before fl passes into our eyes. 1t requires hily-two minutes for the light from the planet Jupiter to reach us, and two hours for that from urans. For the light from the fixed stars to reach us, it requires much longer period ray of light requires before t reaches the earth from star ol the first magnitude, from three to twelve years and from one of the seventh magnitude, lS0 yeaTs and from one of the twelfth magnitude 1000 years Thus see the star Cenaur as it was three years ago; Vega, as it was about twelve years ago; and star of the twelfth magnitude as it shone four thousand years ago
 Having presented the admitted propositions, the writer proceeds logically to evolve an inference, one ot the most sublime, and al the time most OI missing from the familiar illustration of the electric telegraph, that 1t does not contradict the laws of thought and of possibility--that we may be enabled to move from one to another with speed far suIpas- sing the raPidtv of light, he says:
 now continue in the supposition that have hitherto made myself perfectly understood hy the reader, that the idea ot possibility, which have lad down, has as little 10 do with dreams as Il has on the other hand with the question of practicable ity. With tbIs idea we may maintain that it is possibe--t. c. not in contradiction with the laws of thought-tha, man may travel to star in given time; and that he may effect this provided with so powerful telescope as to be able to overcome every gwen dstsnce, and every light and shadow in ihe object 10 be examined With ihis supposition and with the aid of knowledge oi the nostion and dis lance oi every given fixed star, (to be attained by the study ot astronomy) Il will be possible to recall sensibIli,y to very eyes actual and true representation Of every moment Of history that has passed. IL, for instance, we wish To see Luther before the Council at Worms we must transport ourselves m a second 10 fixed star from which the light requires about three hundred years Cor so much the more or less) Tn order 10 reach the earth Thence the earth will appear in the same slate and with the same persons moving upon it. as it actually was at the tune of the Reformation.
 ''To the view of an observer from another fixed star, our Saviour appears now upon earth, perform ing his miracles and ascending into heaven; and thus every moment which has passed during the lapse of centures, down to the present time, may be actually recalled so as 10 be present.
 "Once the universe encloses the pictures of the past, like an ndestrnctbe aLd incorrnptible record containing the purest and closest truth And as sound propagates itself in the air, wave after wave and lhe stroke of the bell CT the roar of the cannon IS only heard by those who slaBd nearest. in the same moment when the clapper strikes the bell or the powder explodes, but each more distant specta tor remarks still greater interval between the ight and the sound, until the human no longer able to perceive The sound on account of the disance or to take still clearer example, as thunder and light. mug are m reaty simultaneous, but in the storm the distant thunder follows al the interval oi some min utes after the fash-so, in like manner according to our ideas the picture of every occurrence propa- gate themselves into the distant ether upon the wings Of ii,e ray of light and although they become weaker and smaller. yet in immeasurabie distance they stli have color and form; and, as everything possessing color and form IS visible, so must those pictures also be sad to be visible, however mposs- l ble Il may be for the human eye 10 perceive Il. " Thus that record which spreads Il out further and further Tn the universe, by the vibration of the
 light, really and actually exists and is visible but 10 1 eyes more powerful than those of man.
 1.-The pictures of all secret deeds which have ever been transacted remaln indissoiuble and indelibc | reaching from one sun beyond another. Not only upon the floor of the chamber Is the blood spot oi murder ndeiibIy fixed, but the deed glances farther l into the spacious heaven.
 " Al this moment Is seen, in one Of the stars the
 image of the cradle from which Gaspar Hauser Was taken, 10 be enclosed in living tomb for so many yeaIsin another star giances the flash of the shot which killed Charles XII. But what need Is there to refer to individual instances It would be easy to carry it out in the smaller details; but leave this to the fancy of the reader and only request that
 he will not seorn these images childish. "As we imagined, an observer from a star of the 1 twelfth magnitude capable Of approaching the earth m an hour, We will now once suppose that he eao fly through the space in a second; or like the electromagnetic power, ia au iinmeAsurably short | time.
 He would now live through the period of four thousand years, with all their events completely and as exactly 10 d moment of lime as he dId before iu ' the space of an honT.
 1.-The human mind, it is true, grows giddy a; tue l thought of such consecutive train oi images and events, but we can easily attribute 10 the higher or the highest spirit the power oi dstlngu lshlng and compfehendng with accuracy every ihdIVldaal wave l in this astonishing stream.
 "Hence the noiion that the Deity makes use of no measurement of time is become clear and inlei- glble to us.
 "When it is written, Before God thousand years are as one day. it Is mere empy wold, un- less the idea is rendered pefeepnbie 10 our But when, as we have done by sensible and actual snpposions, we are enabled 10 show that it possl- bic for being simply endowed with higher degree Of human power 10 live through the history of four thousand years in second We think we have ina- teTially contributed 10 render intesble the phlin- sophlca statement that hme Is nothing existing loi itself, bat only The form and repository, withoui which caniot imagine its contents, ylz the series of consecutive events" I"
 have quoted enough 10 satisfy you that this is no ordinary production. As an English critic re- marks of II: Limited is the space o thls pues' cation, il contains fund of deep thought, which larger works on astronomical subjects have seldom | developed, 1t is most logically written. Step by step, from undefnable premises, does the wTItei