Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1869-05-19
MONTPELIEI2. VT, WEDNESDAY, MAY 10. 1869.

round il in less than some months yet it whirls
through Gs 600 miles Of space, while an ordinary
walker PAGES four miles And it is mere speck
when compared with the mighty worlds that we
see around us. We have all heard of the suns
spots In March 1897, some of an unusually re-
markable character became apparent, and one Of
them wns found 10 cover place Of not less than
$3.50, 900 square miles The sun rises and
sets, and we treat his existence and his apparent
journey from East to West very much as a mat
ter Of course, but what can be the extent Of that
globe upon which such space is with difficulty
visible Imagine 3ji 1886 worlds like this upon
which we live rolled into one, and we have some
conception Of the suns size Or, 10 put the mat
ter differently, If the earth were 10 be suddenly
increased so as 10 equal the sun IN magnitude,
its bulk would take in the whole orbit of the
moon and extend 200 900 miles beyond Yet
when compared with other Of the heavenly bodies
the sun is small.
To realize this we must sti extend the limits
ofour Imagination. Without entering into the de-
tails Of recent enquiries, take the distance be-
tween the sun and the earth 10 be % O0O, 900
miles, which light travelling at the rate Of 1872
700 miles in a second of time, passes over in little
more than eight minutes Now let us traverse
a small portion of space and step from earth 10
Mars-from Mars TO Jupiter-from Jupiter to
Saturn--lrom Saturn 10 Uranus-from Uranus to
Neptune. We are now 900 900 900 miles away.
The world We have reached is only 200 times
larger than the earth but the sun has become
like a small star and his light takes fous hours
fN roach Xof 4. t.,..
Neptune journeys round the sun in an orbit OF
more than 5000 600 miles, and yet IL there
are any residents upon his suriace-and why
should there not be 2-the heavens present 10
them the same appearance as they do to us.
There in the distance burns the Dog star, there
circles the Great Bear while the Southern Gross,
Orion, the beautiful Pleiadcs and all the other
consultations, are as familiar to the Neptunian
astronomer as to US. Three thousand millions Of
miles is too small distance to effect any appar-
ent difference in the relative positions Of the other
heavenly bodies Let US then glance at them.
The nearest Of the fixed stars is in the Constel-
alton Centaur that is twenty-one million five
hundred and eighty thousand millions of miles
away, and light takes three and one-half years in
passing from it to us 4 star known as 81 in the
Swan is tlty-fye millions and eighty-three thou
sand five hundred millions Of miles distant, and
its light reaches us in something more than nine
years. Sirius, the Dog star, whose brilliancy is
known to all ofus, is away in space not less than
one hundred and thirty millions four hundred
and thirty-fye millions Of miles, and his light
comes to us in twenty-one and-a-half years. Then
if we 20 70 the nearest nebua we reach distance
Of two hundred and sixty thousand eight hum
dred and seventy millions OF millions Of miles ;
whence light reaches us only in l3 ,3l2 years
llerschel considered that the most powerful in
struments at our disposal have enabled the hu-
man eye to pierce into depths Of space from which
light takes at the least $500 900 years to reach
us But that is not the limit Of creation nor the
final bound of magnitude. All reason, all evi-
dence initiates against such an idea. Let US i'm
agine that we are whirled away from the earth
with velocity which would suffice to take us to
the sun in eight minutes and that we should
never tire in the terrific journey till at the end
Of three and half million years we found rest
ing place upon world at the extreme boundary
of present vision We should still gaze into
/ space and see other worlds, and other suns blaz-
ing from another remote distance, circling in their
orbits and obeying the great laws which govern
all things. The mind cannot realize this, but
mayhap the soul will Who knows2
In the meantime, having shown my seeptcal
friend this view of things outside the circle of his
ordinary life, | leave him to comparison with
Hans Schnapps; and on another occasion will
perhaps ask him to go with me in an opposite di