The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1870-08-03
A Startling Possibility.

- r.H.
The sun is beginning to be an OBJ
ject of great anxiety to many scientific
men. Spots on that orb are not at
all uncommon, as may be ascertained
by any one who will take the trouble
to look at it through a bit of smoked
glass. But these phenomena have of
late assumed an appearance which as
tonishes astronomers, and is calculat-
ed to alarm that class which fancies it
i detect portent of the future in the
heavens. There are great CULTS now
to be seen in the sun, eaca much
larger than this earth which we think
of so much consequence in the uni
verse. They increase at a prodigious
rate, and sometimes seem destined to
work convulsion similar to hat which
has undoubtedly overtaken other solar
systems. Suns as vast rs that which
lights and warns this world
have been shattered to pieces, or dis
appeared, and only the philosopher in
his rowing glance Over the sky has dc
tected the change. The inhabitants
of other planets would not notice the
disappearance oftlIe planet we Inhabit,
any more than we can see a speck of
sand carried of by the wind on the
sea-shore.
1t is not mere theory, but and an
asserted fact, that the sun is always in
highly fluid condition,-as one recent
writer describes. it, "a hurricane Of
flame, the disturbance of which might,
perhaps, be best represented to u
imaginations by the occasional ex-
plosion of n planet OF two of %nitro-gly-
cerine." 1t is, moreover, subject to
magnetic FORMS" produced, as many
suppose, by the movements of the
planets around it. The great dis
turbance which is now going on was
predicted monthsago by scientific men.
That We are much more concerned in
the event than many people suppose,
is quite certain. Self-restraining mag
netic instruments have revealed the
fact that whenever a spot breaks out
on the sun, the earth thrills under a
mysterious magnetic influence. In
N case, a few years ago, it is upon
record that Geographic machinery was
set on fire and the "pen of Bain's tele-
graph was followed by a fame" at
the very instant a sudden burst of
light showed itself in the sun. SIN
the telegraph-station at Washington
and Philadelphia, the signal-menr re
ccivcd strong electric shocks In
fact, the electric condition of the earth
was changed, though by what precise
agency none can fully explain. We
are at once lost in a region of c%onjec-
ture, and can only feel that the fate
which was foretold of old for the earth
may at any moment overtake it. The
forces are all in existence by which,
in the solemn language of Holy Writ,
"the Heavens shall pass away with a
great noise, and the elements shall
melt with fervent heat the earth also,
and the works that are therein, shall
be,burned up" Etf
Once in every eleven years the sun
exhibits, the ~stupendous phenomena
which are at present engaging the at
tention of. philosophers. In 1859,
''chasms and abysses," similar to those
which are now reported, were seen by
many observers. Their recurrence
was predicated for 1870. Great dis
turbances in the world have usually
accompanied these outbreaks, though
why it should SO happen is another of
the unfathomable mysteries of the
universe. -In=184S, there were mag
netic storms, and we had the French
revolution Again in 1859 they ec-
CURED, and we saw wars and rumors
of wars in Europe. The electric con
dition of the atmosphere is thought to
exert a greater influence upon the
minds of men and na'ions han many
are willing to believe, or than any one
is able to explain: The t~elegraphs
denote the changed condition of the
earth, but they cannot indicate the ex-
tent of the change. In the language
of the astronomer, whose description
of the sun we have just quoted, ''the
pens of all our telegraphic wires may
some day trace in flame a handwriting
more ominous of human destiny than
was the handwriting which. during
Belshazzar's feast, traced a warning on
the wall Of the fall Of the Babylonian
dynasty. p-N. Y. Times.
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