The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1849-09-21
Correspondence Of the Buffalo Republia.I
Anew idea.


BOsToN, August 90 1919
A new idea is more of a rarity NOWADAYS Than
a new book aye, than big and voIuminous nevT
book. Messrs. Crosby g. Nichols have Just issued
a little black bOok-a book, the whole contents Of
which would not occupy more than two columns
Of the Republic, minion type solid,' and which
yet contains not only new but very grand idea.
There are some readers who will pronounce titan
ciiul but others will see IN the airy scaolding it
presents the means of climbing TO sublime eOntem-
patOns Of truth, rather what the reason readily
accepts of likely to be truth.
! The brochure, which would introduce to the
readers, is entitled The Stars and the Earth, or
Thoughts upon Space, Time and Etenity-from
the third London Edition." The writer bases his
speculations upon that well-knoWn proposition
that luminous body, arising at a certain distance
from an observer cannot be perceived in the very
same instant of time in whichit becomes luminous
but that period Of time, although infinitely short
passes 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 is 100000 miles distant it follows
that the moon rises above the horizon second
and quarter before it becomes visible tous
The sun of our system being ninety-five millions
of miles distant, about eight minutes eapse after
the first ray from the Outermost edge Of its disk
reaches above the horizon, before it passes into our
eyes. 1t requires ffty-two minutes for the light
from the planet Jupiter to reach u.s. and two hours
for that from Uranus. For the light from the Fixed
stars TO reach u.s. it requires a much longer period
ray of light requires, before it Teaehes' the earth
from star Of the first magnitude, from three to
twelve years; and from one of the seventh magni-
tude, $50 years and from one of the twelfth mag
nitude, 1000 years. Thus we see the star in Gem
taur as it was three years ago; Vega, as it was
about twelve years ago and a 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 of the most sublime and at the same time most
Ineligible, among the guesses of science. Pre-
missing from the familiar illustration of the electric
Il - 4 Nsnm I'LL Z
thought and of possibility-that we may be enabled
TO move from one to another with speed far sur
passing the rapidity Of light, he says:
''I now continue in the superstition that have
hitherto made myself perfectly understood by tho
reader, that she idea Of possibility, which have
laid down, has as little to do with dreams It has,
on the other hand, with the question Of practical
biity. With this idea we may maintain that il is
possible e. not in contradiction with the laws Of
thought-that man may travel to a star in given
time; and that he may effect this, provided with
powerful telescope as to be able TO overcome every
| given distance, and every light and shadow in the
object TO be examined. With this suppOsltiOn, and
/ with the aid of knowledge of the position and
distance Of every given fixed star, Ito be attained
by the study Of astronomy it will be possible to
recall sensibly 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 in a second to a fixed star, from which
the light requires about three hundred years Cor
muh the more or less) in order to reach the earth
Thence the earth will appear in the same state, and
with the same persons moving upon It, as il acti-
ally was at the time 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 centuries, down to the present time may
be actually recalled so as TO be present.
| Once the universe encOses the pictures of the
past like indesrucble and inCoFTuptible record,
| containing the unrest and closest fFufh And aG
sound propagates itself in the air. wave after wave
and the stroke of the bell the of the cannon
is only heard by those who stand nearest, in the
same moment when the clapper strikes the bell or
the powder expOdes, but each more distant specta-
tor remarks still greater interval between the
light and the sound, until the human ear is no
longer able 10 perceive the sound account of the
distance; or to take a still clearer example, as
thunder and lightning are in reality simultaneous,
but in the storm the distant thunder follows ut the
interval of some minutes after the flash-so in like
manner, according to eur ideas the picture of every
occurrence propagate. themselves into the distant
ether, upon the wings of the ray of light and al
though they become weaker and smaller, yet in
Unreasonable distance they still have color and
form; and, as everything possessing color and form
is visible so those pictures also be said TO be
visible, however impossible it may be for the hui
| man eye to perceive 1t
"Thus that record which spreads it out further
and further in the universe, by the vibration of the
light really and actually exists and is visible, but
. 10 eyes more powerful than those of man.
. "The pictures of all secret deeds which have
= ever been transacted remain indissOlube and IN
. delIble, reaching from one sun beyond another
> Not only upon the floor of the chamber is the blood
spot of murder ndeibly fixed, but the deed glanees
!. | farther into the spacious heaven.
2 "At this moment is seen, in one of the stars the
, image of the cradle from which Caspar Hauser was
TAKEN TO be enclosed in living tomb for SO many
years-in another star gances 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 scorn these images as childish.
81 As we imagined, an observer from a star of the
twelfth magnitude capable of approaching the
earth in an hour, we will now once more suppose
that he can fly through the space in a second or
like the electric magnetic power, in an immeasura-
bly, short time.
i" He would now live through the period of four
thousand years, with all their events completely
and as exactly in moment of time as he did be-
, fore in the space of an hour.
The human mind, 1t is true, grows giddy at the
thought Of such consecutive train of images and
I events but we can easily attribute to the higher
or tile highest spirit the power Of disting gushing
and compromising with accuracy every individ,
ual wave in this astonishing stream.
Hence the notion that the Deity makes use Of
no measurement of time is become clear and intel
2 ligible to US.
When it is written, Before God a thousan,
years are as one day. it is mere empty word un
less the idea is rendered peTceptible to our senses
- But when, as we have done by sensible and aetua
suggestions, we ara enabled to show thar il Is nos
. sibe for being simplyendowed with a. higher de
: gree OF human power to live through the history o.
Z four thousand years in a second we think we have
: materially contributed TO render ntelligible The
philosophical statement that time is nothing exist
! ing for itself, but only the form and repository
= without which we cannot imagine its contents, VIZ
= the series of consecutive events"
1t l have quoted enough to satisfy you that this
or no ordinary production. As an Enghsn eriuc re
IS marks Of it Limited + the space OF this pub
Of location, it contains fund q deep thought %nlei
u, larger works on astronomical subjects have seldom
= developed It is most logically written. Step b
y. step, from undefnable premises, does the write
ID prove his point until the omniselsnee Of the ON
81 great Deity is made apparent 20 our mental vision
,ot and in an extraordinary, new, and clearer light