The Hawaiian gazette., 1910-05-06


| We know the earth is bound to the
sun because of the density Of the two
bodies 1t is the attraction OF matter
to matter, combined with the revolution
of the earth around the sun, that holds
the planet in its orbit to its center.
But what is the fierce that holds Hal
ley's comet in its elliptieal course
around the suns There is not substanee
enough in il to account for this Accord
ing to the laws Of gravitation, and whys
does it come from the regions of sun
less space into our system, tailless, to
grow this immense flaming tail behind
It as it comes nearer the SUM- BY what
law IS it's speed accelerated as it APP
proaehes the center of our system in
order to prevent it from falling into
the sun and being destroyed and what
is the force that turns it around its far
away focus and sends it back after a
period Of seventy yearsf If we were to
take the average speed of the flight of
this comet through space and multiply
| it by the number Of years of it's perio-
deity, what an unimaginable distance
it travels out into space, away beyond
the most distant of our regular planets;
but Donati's comet requires about al
! gNdAb W Andht Nut OL
its orbit.
And if the human mind with the aid
of algebra could reach out and COM
prehend what such distance means as
the remotest flight of Halley's comet
reaches, and if going far beyond that
limit we could reach even by the flight
of our imagination the almost limitiess
remoteness of the farthest point in the
curve in which Donatis comet turns.
we would still be only at the first letter
in the great alphabet that mush be used
to spell the word infinity.
| Take another fact in nature. the
electric current, and here the human
mind has made vast conquests over the
mysteries of nature since our savage
ancestors looked upon the lightning as
a thunderbolt hurled directly from the
hand of mighty Jove, or even since the
time when Franklin sent up his kite
and caught the electric spark upon his
knuekles from the end of his door kew.
We know no more about the nature of
the electric current than Franklin did,
and he knew no more than he who look
led upon it as bolt cast by the hand
of the anthropomorphic god of the
Greeks from Mount Olympus. We know
that our own earth is permeated through
and through with this force. 1t is found
in the dead amorphic rock. It fills
every globule of water in the oceans.
Without it there could be no life, no
bud could burst, no blade could grow,
no sentiert being could breathe, no
mind could think, no soul could aspire.
But what it is, whence it draws it's
supplies, its hidden laws and its essen
tial nature are as unknown to the most
advanced scientist of our day as to the
savage of thousand years ago.
Men have lived in this world 10000
years, and have learned so much about
the mysteries of their home, and vet
! know SO comparatively little, are so far
away from a fundamental understanding
of anything about it or themselves, that
surely the contemplation of the world IS
many mysteries and of our inability to
fathom them should naturally create in
the mind of thoughtful man the i'm
Ipression that ruled the spirit of Abra-
ham Lincoln during all the hours of his
maturer life. His biographers tell us
that Lincoln's favOrite hymn was the
one beginning with the line: ooh, WIN
should the spirit of mortal be proud7''
Abraham Lincoln was in many ways a
peculiar member of the human race.
Most of us are more like the king of
old who Wanted to himself; "Is not
this great Babylon that have build
ed?" When we think how slow the
progress of the race has been from
Ignorance to knowledge and how little
of the sum total of NATURES mysteries
we have even begun to fathom, it
would seem as if the natural conclu-
sion of the human mind should be that
it behooves us to be very slow in max
ing up our mind to final decisions upon
any of these mysteries.