Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1880-04-23
ASTRONOMY.
LECTURE, NC. 8.
BIZ n. A. CUTTING, PHI. d.
TgESUN.

to us the largest are the first TO attract
attention. and hence the Sun and the
moon coms In for the largest share OF
observation by those not professed
astronomers. Almost every nation OF
antiquity worshipped both Sun and
Moon and many tribes in Africa and
South America, as well as our North
American Indians, worship the Sun ut
the present time. To those who wor-
ship "a higher power, as God the
nature of light by which any celestial
body becomes visible to US, the heat
which it receives or gives out, the
nature of the material of which it is
composed, together with the changes
on their surface, are all sources OF
speculation which often excite human
curiosity to the highest degree. In
this lecture while we do not ignore
the wonderful creations of our planet,
CIR the peculiar contrasts we are able
to make with our sister worlds, we
turn our attention to the Respondent
orb which shines over our heads and
occupies the centre Of our Solar Sys-
tenn a group of worlds of which the
Earth is one. Our planetary system
owes its existence and life to this Sun.
It is truly the heart of its gigantic
organism, and maintains its interior
economy in a perfection that is only
given by God made laws. Under the
impulse of the forces, which emanate
from it, the earth and all the planets
gravitate around it, receiving in their
eternal courses the elements of light,
heat, and magnetism, which doubtless
on each planet, as.upon the earth, have
under the laws God has created, the
power of warming into activity numer-
Gus wonderful living mechanisms.
While the attraction of this magnifi-
cent body is their support in space,
and the fire that warns them, it is
also the lamp that lights them, and
the fertile source that pours out the
treasures of existence. 1t is the Sun
that permits the Earth to float In the
heavens, held by an invisible network
of attractions. 1t is this Sun that
while it guides it on its way, distri-
butes its seasons, and its years. tits this
Sun that clothes our land in snow to
protect it from the great frosts of win
ter, and the same Sun that prepares
the spring time, and brings our crops
to maturity. 1t is this glorious body
that awakenS US in the morning, and
with its first peep above yonder
mountains, gives us all the splendor
of day, and with it the hustle of life.
The wind watts the commerce of
nations over the mighty deep, but the
heat of the Sun has set the wind in
motion. The descending streams give
us power to grind grain, prepare lum.
Der for market, or run our factories !;
but it was because the Sun gathered
up the vapor from the ocean and
land, which fell upon the hills and
nursed the springs into rivulets which
united make our water powers. The
expansive force of steam propelS our
engines ; but the power that operates
them is treasured up by sunlight, in
the primeval forests.
The animal exerts o muscular force.
but he gets bis power from the vegeta-
BILE, and the Vegetable derives it from
the Sun, whose rays determine its
growth 1t is again this Sun that
sustains the vital principle of the air
upon which we ore dependent. Lastly
and collectively we owe it not only
the stability of the world, but the col
lective life of all that exists either
animal or vegetable and after the
power of existence, it gives us our
brain power; the capability OF
thought, not only enabling us to hold
converse with other intelligences, but
to contemplate in awe and veneration
! the hand above and around us that
sustaips the Sun, and by his God
| made laws enable us to gain so much
from 1t.
"Blest power of sunshine: genial day,
What balm, what life Is in thy ray.
To feel thee Is such real bliss,
| That had the world no JOY but this,
To sit In sunshine calm and sweet
1t were world too exquisite
For man to leave 1t for the gloom
The deep, cold shadow of the tombi"
While it gives us Imagination
whose Imagination is large enough to
comprehend this immense globe oil
incandescept heat, many thousand
times hotter than any heat of earth
and near q million and a. half times
larger than our globe.
Eight hundred sixty thousand miles
In diameter, diameter so vast that
If its centre was placed at the centre
of the earth, not only the whole space
between us and the moon would be
filled, but the moon itself would be
two hundred thousand miles beneath
its Surface-no man can fully compre.
bend it.
But what Is the nature of the body
whose action is so universal
Early astronomers supposed it q
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