The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1875-09-03
MUSINGS ON SCIENCE AND ART
rHE DIsTANr woRLps.
NUMBER ONE.
BY o. P. MASON.

tering specks worlds? and if worlds, |
are they inhabited ?n To the curious
and reflective mind perhaps no question |
elicits more interest, and perhaps no
subject in this enlightened age-this |
age of science and literature, this age |
wherein old religious notions are falling
like grass before the mowers scythe,
this age wherein superstition is crum-
bling before the powerful hand of sci
ence and investigation-afford better !
food for reflection. AS to absolute
knowledge on the subject, of course we
can have none, but in absence of abso-
lutte knowledge, science has revealed
through her investigations facts and
conclusions which may be not only in
teresting to the intelligent reader, but
may also be beneficial, in engendering
more exalted ideas of the attributes of
Deity and the ultimate destiny of man.
We may, through the light of science,
be better able to appreciate the benevo-
lence of the Great Architect, more fully
comprehend His wisdom, and philoso-
phize more nationally upon the causes
of His wonderful works and their ulti-
mate purposes and ends.
1t must at once be perceived that this
subject is one of peculiar interest, and
it becomes more so when viewed from
the standpoint of astronomy, where it
becomes easy of solution and perfectly
apparent to the intelligent student. But
to the groveling mind, unaccustomed to
unfold its pinions and gather sweets
from natures exhaustless store, or one
who is unwilling to labor for the ad-
vancement of knowledge, or sees no
beauty, no grandeur, no sublimity in
the works of nature, and only so much
in the arts as will teach him to convert
labor into gold, the reward offered for
the labor of investigating this subject
may indeed be too paltry and insignifi
cant. There are many minds, however,
that can lay aside the mere sordid feel
ings of gain, and, loosing the fetters
which bind them to the baser things of
earth, soar upon the bright wings of
science through the boundless regions
of infinitude and contemplate nature, in
hergrand display of unnumbered worlds,
rolling their trackless rounds from year
to year, obedient to the eternal mandate
of the Great Creator.
"Are distant worlds inhabited ?" The
arguments here offered are not the vaga-
ries of wild imagination, unfOunded
by reason; neither are they sketches
painted by an over-drawn fancy, but
are deductions and conclusions, drawn
by common sense and analogy from
facts long established and we'll authen-
ticated, one proposition of which is that
''like causes under like circumstances
produce like effects"
The astronomer, by his instruments
and mathematical calculations, will tell
you the size, orbits and revolutions of
the planets, and the various phenomena
which attend them; will measure the
distance of the one from the other, and
foretell the exact moment that they will
be in given part of their orbit; tell OF
an eclipse of the sun or moon, or the
transit of any planet across the SUMS
disc; tell you when such eclipse Oh
transit will begin, and when it will endi
whether an eclipse will be total or par
tial, and in what parts of the earth it
will be visible and invisible; tell you the
exact moment that a star will rise, and
when set. Aye hewill mark the course
of the fiery-tailed comet as he wanders
through the trackless universe, as has
been done in several instances; and
though upon his brilliant charger he
rushes through the heunfathomable depths
of immensity for millions upon millions
of miles, and for many years be lost tc
human view, his return is so accurately
calculated by astronomers that we may
know just when and in what part of the
; heavens to look for him; for to the as.
tronomer, the future is as the present
and the past; hehas measured the comets
speed, his weight, and his orbit.
Let us now notice some of those bodie:
as viewed by the light of this science
which always proves itself by mathe'
maticaI calculation and fixed rulesi The
sun is a great luminous body situated ii
the center of our system of worlds, anC
is estimated to be in diameter abou
eighty thousand miles, Il give figures il
round numbers for convenience, max
ing his magnitude nearly one and hal
millioHs times larger than this earth
What sublime spectacle A stupendou'
orb of lurid flame, one and a half mill
ions times the size of our globe, sus
pended in theimmensity of the universe
with naught to rest upon save the diyin,
will of the eternal God. Should it no
: strike the beholder with awe and rever
ence, and awake the soul to a just sens'
f of responsibility to that Being who mad,
and preserves it there? 1t was one,
supposed that this great luminary wa
motionless; but now it is well settlet
that it revolves upon its own axis
, This is known from the fact that whel
viewed by the telescope, certain darl
spots seen upon him first appear upol
the eastern edge, then gradually com
forward to the center, increasing in size
then pass on, increasing as they dissp
pear, when, after being absent for SOM