The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-04-08
JUST A LITTLE SUNSHINE.
Paper Read Before the ChdluduQltd Circle

OSA "A 0A - LIZ y " N 0A4A ANG.
[Pdper Read Before the Chduta,tQ,td C,rcle
No art, no science holds for the mind
of man that allurement which astron-
Omy offers to the seeker of knowledge.
We may know nothing of the science,
as science, yet from the wondering
days of childhood to the cynical refec-
tiOns Of waning life, we are ever, un-
consciously, perhaps, speculating on
the wonders of the heavens. Who made
the stars? the child asks, and the echo
of that question is borne on down the
ages, ever growing stronger, as reason
tries in vain to answer. Twas that
in the child, this desire to know, which
gave the world its Pythagoras, and
Hipparchus; its Copernicus and Kep-
Ter; its Brahe, Galileo and Newton: its
Herschel and Proctor. Each conceived
an ideal and, without experience to
guide them, proved their ideals to be
true. Leverrier in the solitude of the
monastery conceived an ideal plane
tary system, a system through which
order and regularity prevailed; in
which an immutabe law guided the
motions of the planets upon their axes
and around their center of attraction
The result of his labor was the discov-
cry of the planet Neptune, the un-
known cause of many irregularities in
the movements of the planets.
For the origin of the sun, and all
other heavenly bodies, various the
cries have been auduced There is the
ancient, simple, and generally accepted
scriptural theory; the nebular theory,
as given in the correlated and clearly
defined deductions of such men as
Spencer, humboldt, Winchell, Flam-
marion and others of like eminence.
And the confusing compound theories
of the ancient Greeks, in which mate
rial, metaphysical and metapsy chical
speculatiOnS ran riot; many woven
from fancy and colored with the ridic-
ulous. OF such has been, in large
measure, the legacy to us of ancient
philosophic thought. Yet it is from
these same fanciful minds of old that
astronomy of today has sprung, full
armed of truth from its natal fount.
Pythagoras taught that the sun was
bo Of ri 70
this truth was choice bone of conten-
ton, over which, in the theaters of
Greece, were waged many intellectual
battles for supremacy in the field of
speculative thought; battles which, in
their sphere, rivalled the world famed
Marathon or Thermopyla. Unfortu-
nately for the truth and the genera
tions to follow, the theory of Aristotle
supplemented by that of Ptolemy, held
sway for fifteen centuries. Such was
the great force of Greek thought on
succeeding ages. And so today, of the
many gems which stud the infinite
azure dome of heaven, there is not one
*
terest, than does this vast luminous
body which holds the solar system in
its mighty grasp. In relation to it,
five facts are, today, we'll known. They
are it's central position in our system,
it's distance from the earth, its great
size, and lastly that it is the source of
our light and heat. The proof of its
central position every child can give
you; it's distance is computed from the
known velocity of light, 186,3OO miles
per second, and the time required for
it to reach us from the sun, 499 seconds,
the sum being 81, 963, 700 miles, it's mean
distance from the earth. Its mass
is 100000 times greater than that of
the earth; it's diameter being 866,5OO
miles; it's circumference about 2, ,72O, $40
miles, while of its light and heat
2,2OO,OOO,OOO times the quantity we re-
ceive is radiated from it into space.
With light and heat as solar energies,
we are less familiar, though in them
lies the greatest interest for the study
of cause and effect.
Let us glance at the theory of their
nature and production. Democritus
tells us that s'heat consists of mi