The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-03-04
a FEW FACTS ABOUT THE sun.

The sun is the most magnificent object
in nature. It occupies the center of our
planetary system, and without it ami
mated existence and organic life would
be impossible. Lord Byron, in poem
entitled Darkness relates dream in
which the bright orb of day becomes
extinguished, and the earth starts forth
on an endless voyage through intermin-
able night, and illimitable space. The
horrors which ensue are depicted in
fearful manner and piled mountain high
with the hand of master, and finally
the last surviving son of Adam dies of
starvation. II Byon had dreamed the
true condition of things, he would not
have allowed any one sufficient time to
become hungry enough to starve. In
less than two days from the time of the
SUMS extinction, every atom of moisture
In the atmosphere would be precipitat-
ed from the air in deluges of rain and
piles OF snow. Now, IL is fact of sci
ence that heat cannot exist in our atmos-
phsre without moisture--without it air
has no power to hold or contlne heat.
Hence after the atmosphere had lost its
moisture, there would such a biting frost
set in as compared to which the coolest
weather in the frigid zones would be
like the hottest day that ever scorched
the equatorial sands. Consequently,
even II the crew that Byron's dream
launched forth on that shoreless voyage
had have taken the precaution to pro-
vide themselves with barks sufficiently
staunch to have withstood the terrific
storms which they should have had to
encounter for the first few hours, no
amount of previous fOrethought and
care in the way of furs, feather beds,
heating-irons, and other warming appa-
ratus. could have saved them from the
bitter cold that would have wrought
quicker destruction by far than starya-
ton. And right here let us stop to
think what a mercifhl provision of our
Creator is that by which our atmosphere
is constantly supplied with sufficient
moisture to give It a controlling infu-
ence over heat. Were it not for this
wise condition of things, every night
would place us in contact with such de-
0rec of cold as is never felt on the high
eat peak of the Himalaya's-a tempera-
ture of perhaps nearly 250e below the
zero of our Thermometers
II the sun were simply erti'gutshed,
the planets would continue their revo-
buttons the same as before, except that
thew would have to move in darkness
aud cold; but If the sun We're annihil-
ated. each would then start forth from
its orbit into infinite space in the dlrec-
ton It then happened to be moving, and
nerhaus wander on, centuries after cen
turtles, in that awful abyss that separates
ma from the stars, without making any
sensible approach to them. q
Nothing is so well calculated to bring
A man into disrepute with himself, to
take away from him his self-importance
and conceit, as that expansion of ideas
which a study of the grand things in the
natural world brings to him. Nothing
will more clearly reveal to him his utter
impotence and insignificance. fla man
thinketh he knoweth all things to per
lection, let him open the Book of Na-
ture and recognize by careful inquiry
and study that Infinite Power that for
ages has been accomplishing omnipoten'
results, let him behold those forces
which to-day are working out the plans
ofthe Creator, let him discover on every
page records of that Infinite Intelligence
that saw the end from the beginning
and then, filed with admiration, with
wonder, with reverence and with awe
Let him remember how mean and ihsig'
nificant are his own powers OF mind
and in the future never again think o.
himself more highly than he ought
Perhaps no one object in nature can giv'
ma snch enlarged ideas Of omnipoten
power, wisdom and goodness as a study
of the sun. We shall have moro to 50!
abont it in future article.
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