Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-24
palpitations spread all about him In space
the waves of planetary vitality"

| palpitations spread all about him In spacs
the waves of planetary Vitality"
The Source of Life and Power.
If he stopped for an instant, If he varied
in his brightness, if his calorifo energy be-
came more violent, OF if its emission were
suddenly paralyzed, all humanity would be
struck to the heart, and all personal activ-
ity ceasing, we would hopelessly await the
universal death agony. As certainly a.
that power which moves the watch is de-
rived from the hand which wound it, so GER
tain is it that every terrestrial force de-
scends from the sun. 1t is he who main
tains the liquid condition of the profound
ocean, of the river which flows across the
plains, of the babbling brook and the mur-
muring spring, for without him water
would be rock. To him We owe the wind
which blows, the cloud which passes, the
green grass, the forest, the flower with its
perfume and color. 1t is he who makes the
world 60 round, who brings back the spring,
who raves in the tempest, who sings in the
unwearying throat Of the nightingale. The
galloping horse moves only by means Of
combustible material which he has re-
ceiyed from the sun; the turning mill is
moved by the same benefcent orb. The
wood which warns us in winter is sunshine
in fragments Every cubic inch, every
pound of wood, was built up by the heat of
the sun. And in the darkness of night,
through rain or snow, the noisy and blind
train which flies like serpent. plunges be-
meath mountains, goes whistling and fash
ing through the fog in the frozen nights Of
winter, this artificial animal is but another
child of the sun god, for the coal which
feeds it is again sunshine stored up through
millions of years In the geological forests
of the coal period. The sun comes to us in
the form of heat, he leaves US in the form OF
heat; but between his coming and his going
he has brought into existence all the vital
forces of our globe.
Everything on . Grand Scale.
What wonderi What power! What en-
ergy! What splendor! The heat given
forth by the sun every second is equal to
that which would result from the combus-
tion of eleven quadrillions, six hundred
thousand billions tons Of coal burned to-
getherl To estimate its temperature in de-
grees is beyond Imagination.
We call fame of fire that which burns;
but the gases of the solar atmosphere are
raised to such q degree of heat that it is i'm
possible for them to burn They are disso-
ciated and cannot enter into combination.
We can distinguish the vapors of magne-
SUM, of iron and of the greater number of
the metals, impregnating the incandescent
hydrogen. If we call the superficial layer
of the solar globe an ocean of fire, we must
reflect that it is an ocean hotter than the
hottest glowing furnace, and at the same
time deeper than the Atlantic is wide. IF
we call hurricanes the movements observed
on the sun, we must remember that our own
hurricanes blow with violence of 100
miles an hour, while there they may blow
with violence of 100 miles second; our
most impetuous tempests are but the light
est breezes. Shall we compare the solar ex-
plosions to our volcanic eruptions? Yesu-
vius has swallowed up Herculaneum and
Pompeli under her lavas A solar eruption
rising instantaneously to height Of 81. 800
miles would swallow up the entire earth
under its rain of fame, and in few Sec
onds would reduce all terrestrial life to
ashes! The fiery layer, these dazzling
particles, are descending on an ocean OF gas.
This granulated surface is, properly speak
ing, neither solid nor liquid nor gaseous; it
is cloudy, and rests upon the solar globe
which appears formed of gas incomparably
condensed. This immense solar globe is
/, ,2SO, 900 times more voluminous than the