Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu], Hawaii) 1844-1864, 1857-01-24
HONOLULU, H. l., JANUARY 3D. 1857
What the Ancients Thoughf---Their Curious
Xolions.

$oiIonss
| The ancient Greek philosophers had some wild
ideas about astronomy. The science was regard
ed by the early Greeks as a mere speculation and
" the very coinage of the bran," till The return of
Thales from Egypt, when that philosopher taught
in the schools that the earth was of globuar
form, that eclipses might be calculated, and the
sphere divided into zones arctic and antarctic cir
cles, &c. Thales was succeeded by his pupils,
Anaxlmander, Anaximenes and Pythagoras, who,
becoming teachers in their turn and again dele
eating their office to their disciples, propagated
some of the widest theories that ever falsi6ed an
infant science.
Thus, Anaximander believed the stars TO be
balls composed of fire and air, and fixed in revolv
ing spheres; the earth he supposed TO occupy the
centre OF the universe, and in assigning to each Of
the heavenly bodies lis "place and function" " he
stated that the sun twenty-eight times larger
than the earth, and occupied the highest station in
the heavens; that the moon held the next, and the
planets and fixed stars the next and lowest. Anaxi
menes considered the earth level plain, and the
heavens a solid cOncave sphere, from which the
sun and moon depended like circular plates of fire,
and whereon the stars were fastened, like the
brass headed nails which represented gaslights in
the D!orama of London by night. Philolaus of
Cortona. asserted that the sun was disc of glass,
rejecting the umlniferous ether of the world.
Pamenides accounted for the stability Of the earth
by alleging that no reason could be assigned why
It should fall TO side rather than another; and
Iheophrastus gravely disputed the wondrous work
manship Of the universe, by stating that the two
hemispheres were badly joined together, and that
the tract of stars known TO us as the Milky WAY,
was only the light which filtered through the open
ing. AnaxagOras, an lonan philosopher, taught
that the sun was mass of hot iron or heated
stones, somewhat bigger than the peninsula of Pc
IopOnnesus thus g this brave o'erhanging firIna-
ment, this majestcal roof fretted with golden fire."
was vault OF stone built all around us, and kept
from falling in upon our heads by the rapidity of
It's circular motion; that the comets were wander
ing stars, and that the prevented from ad-
vancing beyond the tropics by the resistance of
dense atmosphere which forced him to retrace his
course.
Pliny reasons that the sun must considerable ex-
ceed Mount Ida in breadth, and asserts that the
differences observable in the color of planets are to
be ascri5cd, not to their altitude but to their rela-
tive vicinities Thus cold planet turns its neigh
bors pale, and hot planet reddens all those which
are carried within the influence of its vapors
Again, he urges that shooting stars do not really
fall, bnt fluid thrown off from others by
the force of their fire, as the oil is precptated
from burning lamp; and that thunder is a celes-
tial fame discharged from the planet Jupiter as
the burnt part Of wood is cast off with loud noise
of cracking" Hence may be traced the notion
that thunderbolts are darted by Jove from his ce-
lestal seat. PythagoraS originated that music of
the spheres of which Lorenzo speaks to Jessica:
There's the smallest orb which thou behOldest,
But in his motion like angel sings,
Suli quiring TO the young eye d cherubm.
Mised by fancifuI and poetic analogy, he sup
posed the planets to emit sounds propOrtionate to
their respective distances and to the rate of their
revolutions, as the tone of string is regulated by
the number of its vibrations. This concert was
of course, too melodious for grosser sense md
LII 81 l. g
mony." He also taught that the moon was an in
hablted globe like the earth.