The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-01-20

Professor Mitchell on the Planetary systena'
The Academy of Music again filled last evening, on
the OF the second lecture In the course OF asro
nomy being delivered by Professor Mitchell Of the Cncn-
Observatory and every seat occupied precisely
at half past seven. Mr. Bradsh after announcing that
the next lecture would take place on Friday next, nsro
| duced Professor Mitchell, TO the audience.
The Professor after apoogsng for his probable incom-
potency make himself fully heard all over the house,
consequence of bad cold said that he had attempted
previously exhibit the train of reasoning oy wnicn tne
mind of man passed through an investigation OF tho
great laws which govern the physical universe. While
the wonders of the heavens the question
naturally arose are these worlds governed by any awY
! II did not follow that there must be law. Who could
| predict the coming Of the wind the changes
| of temperatureY True, there might be laws go
yerping these but, yet, the mind Of man could not
comprehend them We're they certain then, that there
were any laws governing the phenomena Of the vast
space9 Yes the laws Of notion and
the mighty law OF universal gravaton. He would direct
their attention to examination of special system.
There revolving worlds around central sum- ADD
among these was our planet and It's revolving moon
Was the mind Of able 10 solve the great problem
4 the planetary systemg Could it 60 back to the past
OF these bodies and predict their future coursey
Yes II had been done and II could be done and he pro.
posed to exhibit some OF the peculiar trmphs OF the MAD
Of man this great investigation. First, he would con.
slider the law OF gray aon compared with the laws OF
motion The law Of gravton is every particle OF matter
the unyer sc every other particle Of matter with
force which varies directly the mass OF the attracting
body, and inversely with the square of the distance
With knowledge OF the laws OF motion and OF gravitf-
ton became possible for the mind of man 10 bring TO
lis aid the marvellous machinery for The purpose oi con-
Quoting this great investIgasionhe infnessna anaiy
| sis With data for of the revolving worlds we
could determine It's exact locality at any time in the past
future. Suppose the sun 70 be assigned pace in
space with given quantity OF matter, us distance from
a planet is known and the weight OF the planet is as
sumed Give 10 the planet an mpulsve force, whose IN
tensy known, seized by the attracting power Of the
SUM- II from the straight Inc which IL would have
kent ana crculates in an orbit around the SUM- The
character of this orbit is controlled by the direction of
the sun whether II be circular eiptica paraboa or
hyper Ii there other planet 10 the system the
planet would follow the same track century after
tury repeating the identical orbit Starting from
the the direction OF the SUMS equator at SO 900 900
OF miles the orbit Of the nearest planet Mer
cury at 0O0so0 miles the orbit of Venus;
o5 700 600 the earths orbit at 142 600 900
cross the orbit of the planet Mars; ut $50 900 600
reach the wondrous asteroids, multiplying under the
intnitessima gaze of the modern telescope; at 1885,,
,000 Geo miles reach the orbit Of the planet
Jupiter, with its four moons. Still deeper into space,
at the distance Of 100000 900, the wondrous
Saturn, filling The MIND with aInazement At 800 0e0 900
of miles to Uranus, and doubling this distance
stand upon the outskirts Of mighty system and
the latest discovered though the rstthe great Sent
mel planet.
How were all these located in spaceG How were these
orbits construceaY What the quantities of
which belonged to them? How did they influence each
other9 Were they revolving harmonously, or were
they producing dcordance petur5atons, troubles and
| changes, tenung ultimately To destruction These
problems had solved If the bad no eject upon
the earth and moon the earth beng the only with the
noon The same track would be always pursued but the
earth was at point in the moons orbit dragged
ward the and at another point away from IT, that
the earth staggered in its course, producing double
curvature. Thus the earhs orbit was enlarged as il
neal ell the sum- aud the raptity Of its revolution
In the peiheon portion Of It's orbit the earth llkews
attracted the moon with more powerful influence, and
thus the moon pcrpetualiy changing its orbit But
when the es tn gets back to It's perhen that point has
advanced, and the has to allow for all these
changes spite Of which be masters the problem With
The addition Of each planet the problem more complex;
yet il bad been II had been discovered BY the
combined observations of past and of the present.
that tie revolving in her croft With swfer yelo
city than she had thousands Of years ago and approach
ing nearer and nearer the earth. How could
count for this ? II she any other planet Is resist
ed-we know not when may be--but it must TO
pass this approach continues that they will be launched
into Tie sun and be destroyed forever Yet there had lived
who had solved this probem and La Place by the
mighty power Of bis genius and by the strength Of his
analysis announced TO the world the solution stating tina,
| il was owing TO the law Of universal gravitatou.
All the planets combined To change the figure Of the
earshs orbit yet the periodic time OF the earth the
same now 1t always had been and would be. The
1guTe Of the eaths orbit changing and in the
OF five hundred thousand years would become exactly
circular. The increased velocity of the due u
this fact because the earth, growing further from thu
sun, sei2es the moon away from the sun. When tn,
earths orbit becomes exactly circular it stops, and slowly
begins 20 contract again, and thus expanding aud con
tracing IN perioos OF time tremendous that the min(
Of man cannot By possibility grasp them, and Ike
mighty pendulum hung up IN the heavens beating for VI
iuhness NAL dlnzens OF earth the solemn seconds
nifty Itself (Arplause) Could man doubt the immortat
o. lis soul with these evidences OF limiabe exsteu ,e
We could net stop in considering this wonderful pr gres
until we reached the idea Of Omnpoence itself Man hat
the right TO investigate this matter and God had let do
this wonorous chain, link after link whereby man nigh
rise upward and upward, and still nearer 10 til,
throne OF Gods omnipoieut power. (Sensation.)
There was not solitary fixed orbit in the whole
heavens ard If they we're ali expanding contracting an.
changing could TO pass that the planets could By
any possibility, be destroyed? Now, there point
the rbt which remained fixed 1t was perpetualy
advancing in the direction of the planet In the
The earth 600 years wond pass away before this pon
would circle round the sum- In Jupiter would be $4,000
years in Saturn 200 900 years We, these changes did no
affect the planets materially, and might continue withou
damage The changing of the nodes would have nothin
u do with the We'll being of the planet We find, by in
vestsatoD that these changes in the orbit have limit
and that the change in the inclination OF the orbit should
pass certain limit destruction must certainly folio "
0uniscepce had fixed the limit and these mighty planets
miles and miles away, were controlled by law.
low was 1t with regard to the masses of the planets
their magnitude and dstanceY They varied materially
II Jupiter could be made TO revolve in the orbit Venus
obstruction would ensue for Omniscence had given 10 al
the worlds the precise position in which they b,
placed. It had been found, in watching jupiter an,
Saturn, that the periodic time of these bodies ha,
been changing Five d Jupiers periods would be sxtl
years. and five Of Saturns periods would be about tn
same time, but not exactly Now when they both cam
together near the same point the attracted the other
and by this little variation the evils which would other
wise result were preventedsuch the wisdom Of tn,
Creator. Let profane man exclam, 81 could have
created better universc but science taught that
the best; His wondrous is perfected: ia al
its completely there is equilibrium How il possible
that these wopdrous changes requiring &c years
in working out, had been traced the law of universal
gravistionY Yet II had been done. Again, there
uot fear that the equatorial projection Of the earth would
increase until the whole mass should fly asunder9 No
for might be by the appearance OF the water
revolsng The Of the plane would remain
liked after the maximum velocity had been reached
Science had looked out upon the perturbatons Of tn
planet Uranus, and standing upon the narrow basis
nBnilessma ana had said, behold there is anohe
world; and the telescope pointed to the spot an,
there the world
Personal Intelligence.
Rev II. s. Dickson, ci this city, preached for the Oh
School prehy the HAN OF the House of Represen
a,iyee in Harrisburg, Pa, Sunday the 10th inst AMI