New-York tribune., 1884-01-02
TIE RED SUNSETS.

II was the habit Of the ancients to regard all
unusual natural phenomena as prophetic, or as
| harbingers in some way Of coming events.
| IIeclcr, in his curious book on "The Epidcmic5
of the Middle Ages" has collected a great many
| Illustrations Of this custom, and he himself has
made an ingenious effort to substanGatc theory
of his own that epidcmics are intimately con-
ncctcd with strange tclluric phenomena. In the
period of which he treats the red sunsets which
| have for so many weeks attracted attention in
widely separated parts of the world would un-
doubtcdly have been looked upon with awe and
apprehcnson and men would have persuaded
themselves that some dreadful catastrophe was
at hand
The demolition and abandonment of the
gcoccntric theory have done away with all
that kind of fear. Modern science is fettcrcd
by no superstitions 1t is not called upon to in
vent hypothesis which shall make Nature the
mere scryitor of man. 1t understands that the
universe is vast, and this earth Il speck in it,
and man not much more than . creature OF the
hour one of the countless ephcmerds that
spring into life, and are active little while,
and then pass away. But modern Science is not
always comprehcnded of men. They think,
many Of them, that it has fathOmcd the secrets
of Nature, that it has solved all the problems
of the Cosmos, that it has nothing more to
learn. Whereas in sober truth Science is still
on the threshold of knowledge; still grOpcS for
assurance as to fundamental principles; still
has to content itself with provisional theories,
which may be quite wrong; still seeks in vain
for confirmation of many OF its bOldcSt cOnccp-
tons. Sir George Cornewall Lewis, in lee
turc too little known, pointed out the extent to
which the majority of men take their opinions
on trust In regard to scientific opinions this
habit is very strong in these days, and it Is not
perhaps sufficiently remembered that many of
the hypothcscs commonly accepted are really
no more than working theories, which scientists
themselves would be the last to treat as demon
stratcd truths.
Then it is that when a phenomenon Such as
these red sunsets occurs, the public turns it
over to Science, and expects prompt and suf-
fcing explanation. Whoever has followed the
discussion of the red sunsets, however, must
have realized by this time that the limitations
of modern science are narrow, and that though
even scientific men do not like to acknowledge
ignorance perhaps, yet the only absolutely
truthful answer that can be given to questions
as to the rigin of the phenomenon is: Il don't
know! For that is the simple and obvious
fact. We have ceased to believe that red sun
sets prognosticate war or peStilenCe, or the
death of great men, or the rise or downfall of
dynastieS, but we know no more than our an
ccstors did the real cause of these occurrences.
Our scientists suggest all manner of explana-
tiOns, but none of them are more than cOnjcc-
lures and some of them lack the merit even of
plausibllity And so we founder amid theories
of metcOric dust, cOsmic dust, volcanic dust,
comctary bodies, vapOr, and so forth, but we
do not know the origin of the red sunsets we
admire, and perhaps the greatest advance in
this direction of which we can boast lies in the
fact that we are no longer afraid of unusual
phenomena, and have learned that strange
things may happen without portcnding either
good or evil to the human ce.