Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1888-10-25
HEAVENLY WONDERS.


HEAVENLY WONDERS.
How They Have been Revealed by the
Progress In Astronomy.
Looking back to the year 1900 we are
astonished at the change. The COM
paratively simple science of the heaven
ly bodies known to our predecessors
almost perfect, SO far as it went. in
curious of what lay beyond its grasp,
has developed into a body of manifold
powers and parts. each with its separate
mode and means of growth, full of
strong vitality, but animated BY rest
less and unsatisfied spirit, haunted by
the sense of problems unsolved, and
tormented by conscious impotence to
sound the immensities it perpetually
confronts.
knowledge might then be said to be
bounded by the solar system; but even
the solar system presented itself under
an aspect strangely different from that
1t now wears. 1t consisted of the sun,
seven planets and twice as many satel-
htcs, all circling tremendously in obedi-
ence to universal law, by the COM
pensating action of which the indefinite
stability of their mutual relations was
secured. The occasional incursiO n Of
a comet or the periodical presence of a
single such wanderer, chained by
planetary or solar attraction to prevent
escape to outer space, availed nothing
to impair the symmetry of the majestic
spectacle.
Now, not alone have the ascertained
limits of the system been widened by
1000, 1000, 900 of miles. with the addition
of one more giant planet and six satel
lites to the ancient classes of its mem
bers, but compleXity has been giver
to its constitution battling description
or thought. Two hundred and seventy
planetary bodies bridge the gap be-
tween Jupiter and Mars, the complete
investigation of the movements OF any
one of which would Overtask the ener.
gies of lifetime. Meteorites. stran.
gers apparently TO the fundamental or
dering of the solar household. swarm,
nevertheless, by millions in every Granny
of its space, returning at regular inter-
walls like the comets so singularly asso.
ciated with them. and sweeping across
it with hyperbolic velocit les. brought
perhaps, from some distant star. And
each of these cosmical grains of dust
has theory far more complex than
that of Jupiter; it bears within it the
secret of its origin, and fulfils func-
ton in the universe. The sun itself is
no longer a semi-fabulous, freight
globe, but the vast scene of the play of
forces as yet imperfectly known to us,
Offering boundless field for the most
arduous and inspiring researches.
Among the plane is, the widest variety
in physical habitudes is seen to prevail,
and each is recognized as world apart,
inviting inquiries which, to be effective,
must necessarily be special and de-
tailed. Even our own moon threatens
to break loose from the trammels OF
calculation and commit errors which sap
the very foundation of the lunar
theory and suggest the formidable
necessity for its revision. Nay, the
steadfast earth has forfeited the inn
plicit confidence placed in it as time.
keeper, and questions relating to the
stability of the earth's axis and the
constancy of the earth's rate of rota
ton are among those which it be-
hoOves the future to answer. Every.
where there is multiformity and change
stimulating a curiosity which the rapid
development of methods of research
offers the possibility of at least partially
gratifying.
Outside the solar system the problems
which demand practical solution are
all but infinite in number and extent.
And these have all arisen and crowded
upon our thoughts in less than one
hundred years. For sidereal science
became recognized branch of astron-
omy only through Herschel's discovery
of the revolutions of double stars in
1902. Yet already it may be, and has
been called, 1.-The astronomy of the
future" so rapidly has the develop
ment of a keen and universal interest
attended and stimulated the growth OF
power to investigate this sublime sub
ject. What has been done is little-is
scarcely a beginning; yet it is much ir
comparison with the total blank of
century past. And our knowledge
will. we are easily persuaded, appear
in turn the merest ignorance to those
who come after us. Yet il is not to be
despised, since by it we reach up crop.
ing fingers to touch the hem of the gar
ment of the Most High Sidereay Hes.
;enger.
SHORT-SIGHTED PEOPLE,