The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1920-10-01
y IH4 H1AvGNo AoovE AND IN
TIE EARTH BENEATH

have perused IL.
With the aid OF the immense teIe-
scopes which are now being placed IN
position In some OF the big observa-
tories one OF the gigantic instruments
e expected to reveal to our vision one
hundred million stars that no human
eye on our planet ever before beheld.
We are told that some CT these stars
are $4,000 light years" distant from
the earth
To ascertain what a light year" is
one must first find the number of sec
onds IN a year. by multiplying 1885,
coo the number of miles light travels
per second and then multiply the sum
thus arrived at by $4,000. the distance
these stars are said TO be from our
earth, and he will have some realiza-
ton of the distance these stars are
away from US and some comprehension
Of the immensely of what lies beyond.
Further away. there are yet other
stars as far away from those stars as
those stars are from us-they are SO
far away that II is beyond the posi-
billty of the ingenuity of man to man
ufaoture lenses powerful enough for
Is 20 ever catch glimpse OF them.
Then we are told that some of these
stars are $4,000 times as bright as the
sun; that II our sun were as large,
that during the day II would occupy
the whole space of the earth; that the
earth would be fused by its enormous
heat aud would pass of into gaseous
vapor.
This week we are printing an arti-
Gle. entitled: Fossils" which gives
a. a treatise on geology.
In delving into the bowels of the
earth some scientists out in Wyoming
have unentombed the complete skele
tons OF animals that they tell US have
been dead for three million years"
What a wide field for speculation
and contemplation do these treatise on
astronomo and geology open up for us.
II the universe boundless? Had 1t
NO beginning and Is Il without end?
What stages has Il passed through
and how many races of men and of
animals have inhabited II and yet have
left mo- trace9
Some say that these statements
made BY these supposedly scientific
gentlemen are mere bunk-they are
made because they know that they
can not be successfully refuted.
Vet we must confess that their cal.
culatlons Of the return Of some of the
planets and comets after travelling
throarh space with the speed Of light
return % as on schedule time even
% the minute. although they may be
more than one hundred years on the
way.
With the wonderful progress of in
tentl0ns SO marvellous as TO be al.
most incOnceivahle-wi the puny eff.
forts of man ever be able to lift the
curtain which separates the known"
from the UNKNOWN"
THAT - the puzzle of the ages.
Devoting a few moments Co the con-
81 infinitude and the mar
telous progress We have made In the
shape of discovery and inventions
Colonel Robt. " Davis. editor of the
sun. wants TO know If man
eill ever reach the climax?
What b. SAYS will not be uninterest-
lng hear him:
we call this the age of discovery
and invention. We have found new
uses tor the air. including its navi.
satlon and its utility as a motive
uower. We have found new methods
90 travel over and under the trackless
seas We have mastered surgery. We
Save Invented machinery for every
purpose. We have dis
covered thousand uses for cleo
irieity. We have learned how TO send
messaRcs through wire aud through
mlles ct unwired ether. We have
made machines that reproduce the hu.
man voice When viii We reach the
unai climax u there a point beyond
hth human ingenuity cannot go? II
So when shall we arrive? And when
80 arrive viii II BE- the first time that
point has ever been reached before?
The earth was old when the Deluge
came Il vas old when the feet of
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob trod
upon lts sands. Il was old when the
pyramids we're built. Il was very old
when Christ was born. Was there
ever before. an age OF invention like
ours Away back. behind the DARK
sses may there not have been"
We are lost IN contemplated