Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1884-04-06

Decay Of the Astronomical supersti'
tons OF our Fathers.


New York Tribune.
Ii was the habit of the ancients to re-
gard all unusual natural phenomena as
prophetic, or as harbingers III some way
of coming events. Hecker, ia his curl
Gus book on The Epidemios of the
Middle Ages" has collected a great ma
ny illustrations of this custom, and he
himself has made an ingenious effort to
substantiate a theory of his own that
epidemlcs are intimately connected with
strange tellurlc phenomena. In the pe-
rod of which he treats the red sunsets
which have for so many weeks attracted
attention IN widely separated parts of
| the world would undoubtedly have been
looked upon with awe and apprehension,
and men would have persuaded them
selves that some dreadful catastrophe
was at hand.
The demolition and abandonment Of
the geometric theory have done away
with all that kind of fear Modern sci
ence Is fettered 10y no superstitions. 1t
Is not called upon to invent hypstheses
vitor of man. 1t understands that the
| universe lis vast. and this earth mere
speck in it. and man not much more
countless ephemerids that spring into
life and are active little while, and
then pass away. But modern science is
not always comprehended of men,
They think, many of them, that it has
fathomed the secrets of Natu- that it
has solved all the problems Oh the Cos
mos; that it has nothing more to learn.
Whereas. in sober truth. science Is still
Ia. shrA.hnlA of tnnxr ta1. sftIl
grSpes 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 boldest
conceptions. Sir George Cornwell Lew
is. III lecture too little known, pointed
out the extent TO which 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 hypothesis commonly
accepted are really no more than work
ing theories, which scientists themselves
would be the last to treat as demon
strated truths.
Then 1t is that. when phenomenon
| such as these red sunsets occurs, the
\
poets a prompt and suificing explana-
ton. Whoever has followed tue dis
cussion of the red sunsets. however,
must have realized ty this time that
| the limitations of modern science are
narrow. and that, though even scientific
| men do not like to acknowledge ignor-
ance perhaps, yet the only absolutely
truthful answer that can be given TO
questions AS To the origin of the phe-
nomenon is: =" don't know" For that
is the simple and obvious fact. We
have ceased TO believe that red sunsets
prognosticate war or pestllence, or the
death of great men. or the rise or
downfall of dynasties; but We know no
more than our ancestors did the real
cause of these occurrences. Our scien.
lists suggest all manner of explana-
tons. but none of them are more than
coniectures, and some of them lack the
merit even OF piausibillty. And So We
founder amid theories of meteoric dust.
cosmJc dus:. yoisanle dust, cometary
bodies, vapors, and SO forth, bat We do
not know the origin Of the red sunsets
We admire, and perhaps the greatest ad-
vance IN this direction OF when 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 port sndiug either
good or evil To the human race.