Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1880-05-19
For the Freeman.
Our Earth as a Planet.
LECTURE No. 5.
BY HIRAM A. CUTTING, PHI. d.

now, in this age of steam, we think it
great journey to travel around it. AS we
come to the consideration of our world as
a planet in space, and compare this speck
of earth with what there is in space bt
yond, we are overwhelmed with th'
immensity Of the work. When we think
Of eighteen miles per second, which is tn
velocity of our earth in its orbit aronn
the sun, which gives us our year, with 1t
ever varying seasons, it is fact tha
Strikes the mind of one not versed in tn
mathematics of the spheres, as incompre
hensibe; and when we think of the thre'
hundred and sixty.fiye days of this revolt.
lion. that the earth revolves upon its AK
every twenty-four hours, giving us da'
and night; and further, that the equatoria
circumference of the earth is twenty iv'
thousand miles, and the consequent eqato
rial velocity of its surface is over on
thousand four hundred miles per hour. We
can but exclaim that truly the power thai
upholds such immensity is Almighty,
s But 10 the observer who glances over Il
I Dor ton Of its surface it might seem
Stable world. He sees rich and fertil,
plain, watered by rivers and watercourse'
which have during a long series of years
pursued the same uniform and Tranquil
course. A traveller in China, he contem
4 plates the walls and monuments of great
bites, which, he is told, have a history St
far back in time as to be lost in the night
of ages; thus with his own eyes be sees
the work of uncounted centuries.
As a naturalist he examines mountain
or other geological formation, and finds
them all, as he finds the hills valleys and
streams, just as described by history OF
tradition. No one making such observa
tions would at first suspect that any seri
ous change had ever occurred to disturb
those scenes or change the surface OF the
Surrounding country. Nevertheless, those
places have not always presented the as
pect of to-day. In common with every
q place on earth, they have had their con,
vusons of nature; in reality, entire phys
ical revolutions. We read almost every
y dav of fierce tornadoes, devastating
i floods, or terrible earthquakes that convert
the beautiful plains into marshes, destroy
towns or change the entire topography OF
q the section Smaller changes also have
many times great effect, as the fall of an
avalanche may block up a river and cause
4 it to overflow the surrounding country.
Il and cover the fertile soil with stones and
gravel, or bury it in several feet of mud.
81 The Bible tells us, and no one doubts
that as reliable history, that two thousand
four hundred years ago Ninevah flourish
ed in all its grandeur, yet it is now buried
in oblivion, and its site overwhelmed with
sand Old Tyre, two thousand, four hun,
dred and fifty years ago was the queen OF
cities and mistress of the sea. Its site
is now a bare rock in the sea, where fish
ermen spread their nets.
Two thousand years ago. according to
history and tradition, Greenland was
fertile country, supporting large popula
lion, and Iceland was covered with a dense
forest of birch and fir; but the gulf
Stream, by filling the bottom of the ocean
with minute particles of sand brought
from southern seas has turned the great
current of warm water eastward, leaving
# Greenland and Iceland in the frozen waters
81 OF the north, and almost uninhabitable.
s8 From these facts we become cognizant
of continuous change-it settles down into
our minds that very far back in time there
was q very different condition of things.
and that far down the vista of the future
there may be, in fact will be,vast changes {;
and from what we know let us, in the
language of the psalmist, "Get wisdom,
4 get understanding, and forget it not
D After all this it may be thought to be a
# great step from what we know of God,
8 and the changes produced by His laws, to
try to follow out His steps in the creation
81 of our universe, and more especially OF
our world; yet such is often done, and it
does man good to try and follow the ON
npotent and obey His commind as given
by the inspired words of Solomon, when
he says: Wisdom is the principal thing
therefore get wisdom; and with all thy
gettings, get understanding.
81 As we turn our telescope into the region
of space, we see, of course, innumerable
stars not visible to the naked eye, but
never do we see the outside limit of space
d If it is limited we cannot see where. IF ii
is not we cannot comprehend how it Can
be without limit Beyond the utmos
limit of telescope vision, God only knows
what is there; but as the telescope has
shown US nnumerable stars beyond tbt
ken of mortal eye, so, could we improve
our instruments, or look with the eye o
God, we have every reason 10 suppose tha
we should still see cluster upon cluster o
worlds. Amid those clusters of stars ir
open spaces we sometimes find luminou
fields They are where system Of world
might be expected, yet it is simply lumin
osty, or ire mist. In other words, it i
chaos. In other places we see amid thi
mist aggregations or points of create
density, which La Place considered tn
nucleus Of coming worlds. In other
there was a division into rings.
We see in our system the planet Suturl
slrrounied by rings, dense enough to re
feet tight. and to cast II shadow, yet nc
dense enough to blot out the light of
br HI star beyond, though they much OBJ
scure such. These may break up into ad
ditonal satellites for Saturn, and the fir
mist may be new systems in process G
c.eation, and it is supposed they are. IL
PAGES theory was here explained will
diagrams. This supposes the fire mis-
at first to be vaporized material. from heat
and the worlds or suns first formed wou
be extremely hot. Our sun is so now