The New York herald., 1879-11-24
THE RELIGION OF ASTRONOMY.


TUIE BY PROFESSOR PROCTOR.
Professor Richard A. Proctor delivered last night
at Chickering Hall sacred lecture on 1.-The Religion
of Astronomy" He began by showing how inti-
mately ancient superstitions were connected with
observations of astronomical phenomena. He
showed how these superstitions gradually do
stroyed by the advancing light Of science. but in
| their place was substituted much more religious
veneration and awe for the Omnipotent Creator.
The ancient astronomers were regarded in the
light of priests and prophets by people.
and thus obtained immense control over their
| minds and actions. This control. he said. would
have been easy for astronomers retain they had
| not been honest. Our comnonest observances had
an astronomical origin. The present day with us is
Sunday. the very name OF which indicates its der.
walton. Formerly every day in the week
| was influenced by the different heavenly bodies.
| Thus the sun stood for Sunday. the moon
for Monday. Mars for Tuesday. Mercury for wednes
day, Jupiter for Thursday. Venus for Friday and
Saturn for Saturday. In this same order the planets
p! were supposed to have control the different
| hours of the day. Some time must have elapsed
before began to take notice of the year. but the
week must have been vely early noticed. the diff
ferent phases of the moon divided naturally into
four weeks. Each planet. at first regarded as god.
came to be looked upon under the influence OF
thousand years had been regarded unfortunate
day for starting Journeys. and this supersti-
ton had great influence at the present
day. During the with the King of Dahomey
English vessel had been prepared all ready to sail
Thursday night but the authorities thought best to
delay her departure day rather than have the
ship start Friday with tho idea in the minds Of
all the sailors that some great misfortune would
happen to her. The planet Saturn. gloomy, slow
moving orb. also regarded unucky. and to do
any work on Saturn's day was thought to be unfor-
tunate. This was the beginning Of the ancient
ancient sacrifices were in connection with astro-
nomical phenomena. Thus the Passover
celebrated at the time when the passes the
Equator, at its rising node from north to south
similar celebration might have been expected in the
fall. when the sun again crossed the line. and thus
we fnd that the hfteenth day Of the seventh month
similarly celebrated 1t natural enough for
the Jews, who lived so long among the Egyptians,
Moses. however carefully Kept from the people the
astronomical character of the fessts. aud them
purely religious significance.
THE PLANETS AND THEIR DOMAINS.
posed to have tho only voltional power. while the
garded as their domains. Near the North Pole
the constellation Dragon. spreading nearly
equinoxes the ancients observed that it was grad.
ually changing its place. Hence the old tradition Of
carrying with it onethird Of its inhabitants Then
there was the hgure OF Hercules or Adam. with his
foot placed on the head Of the Dragon.
Then the second Adam, represented by Ser
pentarius stranglng the serpents. Then there
the ship Argo. which undoubtedly represented the
ark. A little further the figure of man bear
ing sacrifice and placing it on the altar From this
altar there were number OF bright stars in the
Milky Way. rising Manilius describes. 'just like
smoke from altar" In this part of the Milky
Way. too. there the rainbow represented by the
bow of Sagittarius. In old times. therefore, there
was not SO much religion Of astronomy that in
many nations astronomy itself was considered a
lgion. II in olden times man could say that the
6oolo thA nnp AP nnA h4ue
much moro were we able at present to
affirm it. considering the vsster truths
enlarged in considering enormous spaces and vast
periods of time. Thus the earth was In volume only
ceedng Jupiter in volume the sun. which ad-
mirably symbolized tho power and the muniHcence
Of the great Being. working in and all through all
things The sun. (which seems quiescent, really
the centre of enormous activity. Outside Of it
the corona, which astronomers had traced to dis
tance OF 10000,000 miles. This was another symbol
of the Almighty 1t showed how little could
really perceive of the SUMS glory and how much
more hidden from the ordinary view,
could little comprehend the infnity OF the Al
| mighty.
vastness of time was no less wonderful than the
| immensity Of space presented by astronomy. The
periods that astronomers had to deal with were not
indeed, infinite but compared to our ideas OF time
| they practically infinite. From the time
when the eartn was hrst formed to the present Mr..
Proctor calculated that ut least five hundred million
| years had passed. Other bodies such Ms the moon
and Mars were in q. state OF planetary old
|
state Of the earth twenty -fve hundred million
years hence. AS the smaller planets told Of very
sn1 ssrx tss rmota mas. Ths
| period of Jupiter, from its hrst formation to the
time at which he would be capable Of supporting
tain appearances of Saturn such the rings around
him. showed that he was even younger than Jupiter
power 81 reasoning could fail to recognize . pur-
pose in the creation Tho great danger lay in at.
coa no hope to solve the
| problem OF the planets 1t was sufficient that We
these things. As to the purposes that underlay
them it was useless to pretend to speak. The sun
and the system circing around Il was the ono
| said to understand. Beyond this the
| stella depths. the stars all being in
instance Il it presented the same Inherent iustre
as the surface of our sun. must be fully eight thou
sand times greater in volume. or six hundred stars
| measured by the astronomer Secch about three
hundred appeared to be Of higher order than our
sun, $50 about the character and the remainder
smaller than the sun. In order to have idea of
the distance between these suns regard should be
had tc the comets wnich pass from star 20 star IN IN
years In regard to distance our sun. exceeding the
earth by l.250oO0 miles. was " the merest point
compared with the orbit OF his most distant planet,
| Neptune. The space OF 5000. 600 miles was
nothing compared to tho distance that separated
the the nearest of his fellows. Then there
were an immense number OF stars all separated by
these distances and hey oud them other
galaxies aud systems. the universe continually
Widening and widening. just as with the naked eye
could but small portion OF the stars discov-
cradle by teescopic means man had no right to
suppose that any instrument that he could make
with his puny hands could fathon the depths Of the
universe. In the same way higher and higher orders
| OF time presented themselves. until the mind was
lost in contemplation. Man should not reject the
idea OF infinite purpose working through all things
for the that he could not measure them with
his puny intellect.
Pyramid will take place at three r. NJ. not at eight
was nisprinted. This hour has been selected for
the convenience OF school teachers and pupils.
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| InTNEn THE ISIANn CHOIR