The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1883-03-08
TWO DOLLARS PER ANNUM
NO.47


Wehave spoken recently of a new and very
remarkable theory accounting for the move
ment OF The planets as due 10 the action of
that subtlest OF known forces, Lpht-lioht
that travels with velocity of 1900 earIIes
second-light to which all life turns itself as
to Creator, and which may be but one form
or manifestation Of the universal Ghost. Yet
again, may not light also be the result rather
than The cause Of that awful movement in
which no less than hundred million of suns
participate? Will the new theory account
only Tor the axial rotation of stars satellites
and fail to explain the secret of the WRITINGS
OF nebul@, the rockct-arcs of comets, the
swarmlngs OF sun-galaxies, the huge transla-
ton OF systems through space?
Ihere Is no rest In nature-r1O rest even for
the bones OF the dead sleeping in the narrow
streets OF our cemeteries. Every atom OF stone
or metal vibrates with secret movement of
It's own Water and air and fire slumber not
the face OF the sky changes forever; the forms
OF the clouds meyer repeat themselves. Be-
meath our own changing flesh, invisible archi-
tects cease not to toll at their coral building of
oone the substances OF the very brain with
which We think are being perpetually worn
out and replaced the protoplasm of our blood
exhausted and renewed. Never does the la
Dor oI lOrm-creatlOn pause tor an instant
Goa s test Is more anthropomOrphic fancy;
WEAKNESS cometh not to Him nor sleep.'
Who, asks the Bhagavad Gita, knoWeth the
point at which lite begins, or the moment of
Its ending? We never behold either the be-
ginning or the end only the middle appears
10 us--a passing manifestation. For there is
no beginning no ending each human life is
not a work competed or begun; it is only one
vibration OF an everlasting force The power
thus manifested has never commenced to act,
never will cease 10 be-even when all the suns
now blazing In violet immensely shall have
been burnt out.
There is no rest What we call fixed stars
are moving with rapidity that the human
mind Is lmpotent To conceive-with velocity
compared to which that of the proiectile
launched by rided cannon is absolute inertia.
Our own earth must travel nearly 600,000000
miles a year, $50, 900 miles day Arcturus
Is rushing through the immensitle sat speed
OF 0,4O0,UOO miles day; and we have already
spoken OF one strange astral sphere, star of
the seventh magnitude, mo. $780, Groom
bridget which shoots through space at the rate
OF twenty-one millions OF miles in twenty
four hours. Natures calm is q fiction. The
infinite night roars with the parturition of
nebul@ pregnant with solar systems-rages
with The agonies of dying suns; and all the
whle that mOnstrous belt OF blazing spheres
TO Which our own system belongs is changing
shape like smoke, is rolling up like a scroll, Is
tearing It's seethlng way through unknown
leeps OF darkness with The rapidity OF light
we, like the creatures Wrig-
5llng within drop of water beneath micro
scope, may not feel the huge vibrations OF Il
arger universe may not be conscious OF sounds
90 vast for our tiny brains to comprehend
N. D. Times Democrat.