San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1880-01-10
Tn Q Sngc OF San Marcos Ex-
plores lho Sua-Julcs Verne
Outdone.
IRE sd At tho ssen gsrfsst at San Marcos.
Sept. asth. 1879. Reported BY the su- &,
thor for tho FRks Pass.

| Sept. asth. 1879. Reported BY tho su-
thor for tho FRks Plrss.l
To-day is Sunday, therefore I deem
it proper to give lecture on the sun.
Have come to tho conclusion that
there is more truths in poetry, (the
Bible includod) about astronomy and
geology than in all modern astronom.
ical aud geological text books. There
foro I choose for my text on the sun
he following strophe from the
song of the angels in Goetho's Faust:
"Dsr Aublluk siebt don Eugsln stasrks.
Da keinsr dich ergruenden mag"
Have so much esteem for Goethe's
inspired works. that if it had read in
Faust, "da keiner dioh ergruenden
kann," never would have uuderta.
ken the heroulean labor to solve the
mysteries of the sun.
The sun is believed by most people
to be wild eternal ocean of fire. As
tronomers envelope the sun in an in
comprehensive photosphere or orona
According to careful observations Of
the sun for tho last twenty years, the
heat and the height of the flames is
computed; the order of the periods of
the sun.spots is known but on the
nature of the spots and the production
of the flames is nothing known. The
spots are inoomprehensible because
under the known laws of nature, all
solid or fluid dark elements would be
in the neighborhood of the white glow.
ing sunfames, converted into white
glowing gases
believe the laws of nature in the
whole universe the same; but nobody
will doubt that there is on the sun.
elements. combinations of felements and
laws we do not know, Practically we
can know but little of the sun, but
with comparisons and reasonable
theories we can come him nearer.
If for instance large town like Lon.
don, Berlin or New York in q dry sea-
son and strong wind would be set on
fire at q hundred different places, with
out preparation to quench the fire ;
said town would be converted in "a
hours into dark and smoking pile of
ruins. But if the combustible mater
ial of such town. would be carefully
burnt on the streets and public places
the light would shine for several
months. If tho flames of the sun were
produced in spots or lines, the theory
would have been advanced long ago.
the fires of the sun to be artificial.
If the best pyrotechnicers and archi-
tects would receive an order to produce
an artificial moon, on mountain 5 or
10000 feet high the thing could be
accomplished in a few years; but to
make an artificial sun nobody would
undertake.
There is only one theory to compre-
hend the structure of the sun, that
is, when it is supposed that the sun is
hollow, and possesses solid shell with
an atmosphere composed of elements
or combinations of elements, which are
no heat conductors whatever. Thon
the height of the sunAames, the. dark
spots in the white glowing fire, and
many other things are comprehend.
BILE. is possible. that people can
live between those sunfames. if they
keep without the reach of the fire ;
even when the sun has no spots, there
may be room for one or o hundred
thousand nations on the surface of the
sun because it is reasonable to sup
pose, in order to have control over the
fires, that the gases produced in the in
terror of the sun are elected on the
surface of the sun from small orifces
which widen as they advance thunder
ing into space, until the heat is absorb.
ed by the planets. am we'll aware,
that moisture and water so esrential to
mans existence on earth are heat con-
ductors but we have instances in nat.
ural history that some animal organism
can live without moisture ; and small
change in the human organism would
make it independendent of water. All
animal organisms live on the product
Of moisture but L believe that those
intelligent atoms which constitute the
elements and build nature, are so sim
ply constructed that they do not,
eat drink or propagate in their eternal
life; and the same may be said
Of those higher order Of
beings which inhsbit, build
apl regulate the universe. Itis 10
conformity With the scriptures that
the surface Of the earth is a nursery
I Eor sle r,-r.1ucfion of such hr0her h.