Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1871-08-11
u0ursCIEvTIFrC .uE.r WORN.

Sdr0W once called on DR.. WOlastOn, desir-
ing to be shown over his laboratories, in
which science had been enriched by so
many important discoveries, the doctor led
him into little study, pointed to table
on which was an old tea-tray containing
few watch-glasses, test papers, a small bal
ance, and blowppe, and said: "There is
all the laboratory l have" Now, how was
this possibleY How could this meagre APP
paratus, which a schoolboy would find in
sufficient servo TO suggest and establish
SOME Of the highest and most fundamental
truths of chemistry9 Does not the explana-
tion at once suggest itself, that the true
field in which the leader of scientific
thought works is his own mind A great
man uses the things which he sees to sug-
gest to him ideal existences, and in his ca
pacity of creating such as are consistent
with all the known facts of the universe,
his fame and distinction are grounded.
Nothing could be farther from the TRUTH
than to suppose that science accords with
Mr.. GradgrlnA's demand for "facts, farts
nothing but facts" On the contrary, Prof.
Tyndall long ago defined science as "the
art Of seeing the INVISIBLE and, in re-
cent brilliant lesture, has happily shown
that its progress depends largely on the
fullest possible use Of the Imagination.
Let us illustrate this. Suppose that we
see something red-say brick or rose
The fact is familiar and unsuggestivo to the
common mind. Red is red, and there is
nothing more to be said about it. Not so
to the man of science. He conceives an
ethereal medium spread abroad over the
universe, medium so thin and subtle as
TO penetrate all things and contain their in
conceivably minute atoms AS the air con
tains the specks of dust that we see floating
in the sunbeams. lie conceivcs these atoms
to he in a state of varied and inccssant vi
bration, exciting innumerable delicate
waves in the elastic cther-waves which
cross each other in all directions, and
spread their spheres of agitation out into
space with amazing rapidity. Among the
largest of these waves, though $4,000 Of
them are necessary to extend an inch in
length, are those whose successive shocks
on the nerve of the eye produce the sensa-
ton of red light. Small as they are, they
can be transmitted to us from the moon in
less time than is required to read this SEN
tence. In single second they extend the
radius of their sphere 49,, 900 miles, or r.
l65, 10000 inches. If we multiply this by
$4,000, we shall obtain the number of waves
of red light in 1872, 900 miles. The result is
474, ,l39, $50, ,000, 600. Hence, when Prof Tyn-
dali says II see something red" he means,
as he tells us, "My eye is now in receipt of
four hundred and seventy-iour millions
of millions of impulses per second 10
see violet light, nearly twice as many mu.i
be received. The other colors are inter
mediate between these.
The philosopher who clearly conceive,
light as series of waves, who loves to
watch them interpeuetrate and combine in
his imagination, secs many new and uneN-
pected phenomena rise before his mental
vision. For example. he observes the crest
of one wave sometimes fill up the holloA
of another, giving an entire absence Of All
tation as result of two opposite inpu ,e.
Now he is on the track of a disc very.
Here, he reasons, is something which we
know nothing OF in colors. If the wave
theory be true, two rays of light may br :,
tOulbIutu dA 10 pIOulct ueS~. ne
translates his ideas of waves neutraliling
each other back into the common 90 OPP
tions of light he resorts TO calculate . .ld
finds what kinds of light ought to pro lace
such n result, and how the eye niu> be
placed to perceive it. Then he tries TIA, cN-
pertinent. Here is a luminous body .he
eye sees it plainly; cover it and set a., an
nt ba .ha
first both suddenly vanish darkness is
the result "the interference OF light" is
henceforth fixed fact. Thus does the
wave theory direct us to sights (which no
eye had previously seen, and which no
mind had previously imagined; the fancy
sails buoyantly through the illimtable
oceans of ether, discovering strange and
unknown lands, which invariably prove to
be "solid shores of fact; and we believe
that a conception which gifts us with such
a power of presciencc, and never disap-
points us, must be more than "a mere fig
ment of scientific fancy"
1t will be directly to our purpose to con-
slider the best account which has come
down to US of how Sir Isaac Newton made
his greatest discovery, namely, the uni
versatility of gravitation. 1t must be re-
membered that gravitation itself H. e.,
weight was no new thing, but one iaml-
lar to mankind from time immemorial.
Pembcrton, who received his information
from Newton himself, says, in the preface
to his "Niew Of Sir Isaac Newton's PhlO-
sophy":
"As he sat alone in garden, he fell into
speculation on the power Of gravity;
that, rs this power is not found sensbly
diminished at the remotcst distance from
the centre of the earth to which we can rise,
neither at the tops of the loftiest buildings,
nor even ON the SUBMITS of the highest
mountains, it appeared to him reasonable
to conclude that this power must extend
much farther than was usually thought
Why not rs high as the moon? said he
to himself
Here was stretch of the imagination
lie conceived the moon as falling continu-
ally toward the earth, but kept in her elli-
ptical orbit by AN assumed primitive force,
which, if unchecked by her weight, would
cause her to move on from the earth in q
straight line, tangent to her present orbit,
Observe that this primitive force is AN alb
solute necessity of the theory, aud is as
purely imaginary as the luminiferous
ether. SO, of course is the moons fall
which necessitates it. Now for the next
step. If the moons revolution about the
earth is partially due to its weight, its fall
ing, why not extend the principle to other
revolving bodies9 We may thus conceive
the earth itself, and all the planets, as con-
/ tinually falling toward the sun. What Il
new idea of weight 1t had been formerly
looked upon as an influence peculiar to the
earth. Now the sun is brought in. Why
may not all bodies exercise the same intlu-
encef The earth, sun, moon, all the planets,
| and indeed nll the innnmerahle stars NAV