Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-07-01
Nancaster fntflhgencer.
The Wonderful Star.

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The Wonderful Star.
Nav be it is tie Star of Bethlehem.
Canon Farrar in his life Of Christ says
that star was a comet, which the ancient
authors record as then having appeared
in the sky, where too were gathered to-
gether in close communion a notable
number of planets. We are told that
now for the first time since then have so
many planets appeared together in one
quarter of the heavens, and comet
again keeps them company. Jupiter,
Venus, Mars and Saturn shine together
in the East, and the strange celestial
visitor adds itself to the wonders of the
sky. The coincidence is striking, if
true; and will fix upon the comet.
while it shines by night, the
strong interest of all the people. 1t is
with us through all the hours of dark
ness because it moves within " the circle
of perpetual apparition around the
polar star and the stars about it that
never set to us in this northern hemi-
sphere. When it approached this circle
from the south it seemed to set after it
had risen to our view; but it soon got
SO far to the north as to be within the
sky space of which we cannot lose the
sight in our diurnal revolution.
The astronomers will have no excuse
of the want of opportunity for Observa-
tiOn for their failure to satisfy the keen
interest of the world about all things
pertaining to the comet but while they
are getting their glasses to work and
their heads into agreement, compion
people may he excused for using their
own eyes and noodles to see and think
for themselves which they will
especially decline to do, since the wise
men are SO slow and discordant about
this star which may be even our own
star of Bethlehem.
We are quite willing to give to our
fancy and thought free range in comet
ology, while it has no laws to bind us,
and to encourage our readers to think
for themselves what this comet and all
comets really are. We and they can see
rs deeply into 4 milestone as anybody,
wise or simple, and pcrchance into a
comet as well. And, with DIR. FahneS-
stock, who has sent to us the
extracts from " Worlds Within
Worlds,' we are struck with the plausi-
bility of the theory there advanced as to
the nature and motion of comets. The
question that naturally occurs in view
ing any part of the creation of AL
mighty and Omniscient power is, I" what
is its use.'' Things are not vainly
made but the wise astronomers do not
explain to us why comets are, when
they tell us that they are light and un-
substantial things that travel through
space with tremendous speed around i'm :
mense orbits under the attraction and
repulsi0n of our sun. If our sun at
tracts them how does it also repel them :?
Why, when they rush up to it with in
conceivable velocity do they not rush
into it a.? What repalS them rs they
reach their apparent destination and
sends them back witt, the speed with
which they came?
And as they 90 back So swiftly through
space, for even seventeen hundred years
rs they say the comet of 1907 does before
it completes again the circuit Of its orbit
are they not hurled far away beyond the
limits of our own solar system ? And if
SO why are they not drawn to the sun of
another system, and how can they have an
orbit solely controlled by our luminary :?
We do not pretend to know anything
about the matter We are writing of ; but
since we are persuaded that nobody else
knows anything, we feel under no
obligations to ha modes. and
to be silent in the presence
of the wise. Free speech is a
privilege in all know nothing associa-
tions, notably exercised in the churches,
and apparently as justiliablc among the
astronomers.
The suggestion that comets are celes-
tial messengers through the solar sys-
TENS, sent out to keep the electrical
forces of the universe in equilibrium, is
very plausible and attractive one. 1t at
once suStains the nationality of their be-
ing and explains their motion. 1t supplies
for them use and causes us tOrecOgniZe
them rs Il worthy part of creation. 1t
tells why they are drawn towards and
repelled by the sun. 1t is of the
essence of electricity TO attract as we'll rs
to relel, 1t being of two kinds which are
insensibly interchanged. The comet
comes to lis from so immense distance
as Of itself to demonstrate that it comes
from system outside our own. 1t comes
thence, laden with the electricity of that
system, into one having superabund-
ance of Il different kind /; approaching
its sun, the electrical conditions are
equalized and the messenger is repelled
under the electrical law which causes
like to repel like; Just as unlikes at
tract. Nature is in constant cOmmo-
tion, equalizing its electrical conditions
and wherefore should there not be need
of natural appliance for restoring
equality in the electrical forces of the
solar system? and what is there unlike
ly in the assumption that the comet
travels between the systems to this end !?
Nothing, that we can see with the naked
eye of uninstructed sense though, per-
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