The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1857-06-18
PROF. MITcHELLs LECTURE ON COMETS

lne second lecture OF Professor Mitchell
at Smith & Nixon's Hall, on Thursday eve.
ming, 2lst inst, was attended by an audi
ence composed Of the most intellectual of
our citizens, all OF whom were no doubt
entertained aud instructed by his able dis
course, which for more than an hour and n
half was listened to with profound attention.
In observing the orbits Of the planets, in
essaying to un'avel the mysteries of the
starry heavens, the lecturer experienced the
sublilnity of his vocation, and in tracing the
courses Of Comets through their immense
cycles, until they again appeared after roll
ing years, he felt that he was entering the
vestibule of the temple Of God. He was
lost, and every one must be, in the vastness
of the plan Of creation, when he reflected
on the boundlessness Of space, and the won
ders of the planetary system. Neptune, the
sentinel of that system, is three thousand
millions Of miles from the sun, and eighty
thousand times deeper sunk in space than is
our earth from the central sun.
1t would be supposed that comets NOV
ing, as they do, irrcgularly through space
and with such tremendous velocity, would
come in contact with some of the fixed
stars; but tho reason that they do not is
apparent, when we remembered that the
nearest of those are SO far removed from
the earth as to require two years for their
light to.reach u.s. while the light from the
most distant comets comes to us in two days.
There is no end no limit to the universal
mind and plan; and although wo know
that the planets and stars are kept in their
places by the law of gravitation, we are ig-
norant Of what that gravitation itselfis. It
is, said the lecturer, nothing more than the
tho expression Of the will of God, the pow
er of the right hand of Deity, as lie holds
the universe together.
The mind that contemplates the heavens
feels its Immortality knows it lives and
thinks, and rises upward and upward, with
no bar to its progress but Divinity ITSELF
Notwithstanding all that labor, and study,
and research have done in six thousand
years, science as yet stands but on the
threshold of knowledge. We know even
now comparatively nothing of the heavens.
Every star that we can sec, may be CEN
tral system Of planets, with its asteroids,
moons and comets.
Comets have ever puzzled the scientific
world, because they arc subject, apparently,
TO no law, such as the planets are they
come from regions Of impenetrable space,
moving with varied degrees of velocity and
in every direction. Newton thought the
comet of 1880 came near enough to the
sun to be heated ten thousand times hotter
than red-hot iron, and that it would reqnire
one million of years to cool; but this was
mere speculation.
Some comets seemed gaseous, some fluid,
and some solid like our Earth, as was
proved by their having caused a partial
eclipse OF the sun and occullations of the
stars in, passing between them and the eve.
Ihe lecturer had examined number of
comets and found them all nebuous; and
observed the planets through them without
much diminution Of their light.
Comets have appeared differently at diff:
ferent periods. A great many years past
one had seemed rs large and brilliant as the
sun itself, and aDother, two and half cen.
turies ago, the size of the moon.
Singular and various effects were pro-
.duced upon Comets by the. sun. One that
Herschel had observed first, appeared flmy,
then brighter as it neareds..he sun, then
radiating light, grew very splendid, and f.
nallys passed out Of vision. Ontits reap
pearance, it was brilliant in the centre, and
seemed to have space or medium about
it, and nebulous matter outside of that.
Newton fEst observed that the comet Of
1859 shot out from its nucleous in two
days an immense stream of light or tail,
which must, have been one hundred and
twenty millions ofales long. The comet
Of 1911 showed faotuaions of radiance /;
light would hash from one extreme, to the
other, which induced Herschel to believe
that this simple effect was caused by. elec.
tricity; that the sun. and the comets were
charged with the same kind of electricity,
anil that the later consequently .re.
pella By tho pfmes This view Basafter-
wards found fo %, CORRECT, - So 81 4 4
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