The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-05-03
BY JOHN A. CALHOUN.

One of the objections of conservatism tc
modern progress is that railroads, steam.
boats and telegraphs are making our world
smaller. When the most widely separated
peoples can talk with each other at light
ming speed, it really seems, at first thought,
as though there was something in the
objection. Now that the merchant packs
his trunk and starts to Shanghai with as
little ceremony as he would few years ago
have done to New York, it really seems as
though it was getting to be quite small
affair; this ponderous globe of ours.
1t has not been long since it was believed
to be the centre of the universe; around
which the whole frame of nature moved.
To the ancisnts nothing seemed so stable
as our earth. Its towering mountains, its
wide extended plains, its dark forests, its
wide rivers, and vast oceans were the very
emblems of immutability. The earth was
the centre, and for it all nature was created
and existed. Calico gave the world the
telescope, and at once instead of the earth
being the centre and chief of the system,
it became one ofitssmallest bodies, quietly
keeping its place il the grand procession
of planets around is central sum- Instead
of the sun being slpended in our immedi-
ate neighborhood, il has been transformed
into world of bhzing fire-cloud, COM
pared with which or earth is but an atom
in size. Later we have learned that the
stars which gem the midnight skies, SEEM
ingly but specks, ar, suns; many Of them
larger than ours itsel. Not stopping here
the next sublime deduction is that our sun
is as unstable as the tarth; that it with all
its retinue Of planets performing majes-
tic sweep around SOM distant centre, pos
sibly the central residence of that Deity
who created and guilds the whole Wan
dering among these gnnd conceptions, we
forget our little earth and lose ourselves in
the thoughts of the infnity of the universe
The idea that all thiswas created for the
use Of our little worlo seems incredible,
but turn to that drop OF water, magnify it,
and it too teens with lie. Here, too then
is iufinity; from the aninalcule to the sun,
all is life and motion; everything has it's
place, its especial nilsson and the failure
of anything to keep that place destroys the
harmony of nature. ''From natures
chain whatever link yol strike; tenth or
ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike. -
Men have weighed the planets and COM
puted their distances, butwhen they reach
out into the mighty space and Try to COM
pute the distance to the learest stars, rea-
son reels and is lost in the attempt. When
we think of bodies so ia away that the
light. which meets the ey of the astrono-
mer, started on its mission ages ago, We
abandon all attempts to comprehend the
mighty space or grasp intiity.
We turn to our own littleball; fully con-
yinced of the insignificant Of our hopes
| and fears, our anxieties ant our struggles,
only to learn that the samehand that peo-
pied space with suns, ever watches over
the SPARROW fall and guideahs upright in
heart.
What Calico has done 70 the world of
astronomy, Hugh Miller hasdone for our
| ideas of our own planets. stone mason
in quarry, studying those TRANCE fossil
| forms with which he meets, aid investigat-
ing their history, has done br our earth
conceptions of time as much as the tele-
scope has done for our connections of the
infinity of space. Geology nd its birth
place in quarry: it has grown up in a
| steady fight with all the old ,orld ideas.
The same spirit that confined ialileo in a
dungeon for asserting that thesarth NOV
ed, has been equally anxious crush the
Scotch geologist and the ides that he
| taught; but as in the former cae, SO in the
last, it has closed its efforts b. accepting
the lessons taught. Science sometimes
wiser than the church, but eaa make the
same mistake when they regarocach other
as foes. God has given the world two
books. One, the record of recitation, is
open to be read of all; the othe, the book
of nature is written on the rock strata OF
our globe, upon the masses of .ravel and
sand carried miles away from tl,ir native
places, upon the brilliant sun anethe beau
tiful stars, and it is given to but ew to get
into their hands the key to uno& it's les
sons. When the buried records nature
are disentombed and truly lead the two
| twin books of nature and revelatin will be
found to be of the same workmanship
The mistake our modern scien SITS and
theologians make is in regarding ach 9th
er foes. When they learn to DRIP their
antipathy and work in concert, muh more
progress will be made by each.
Change is written upon all thing earth
ly, and even among the stars, changs seem