The Ocala banner., 1921-08-12

Wln' written while at his home On
Grange Lake -
II was a new thought in the t;ma
OF Copernicus that men hitherto mn
derrated the extent of the nn;versa
and had overlooked the importanca -
our earth. The globe which had seem
ed the one fixed orb, for whose hane.
NJ the heavenly bodies had all been
made, was found to be but one mem-
Der OF family of orbs circling around
q globe much larger than any Of them
Thus the earth lost at once her con
trai position. her quality as THE world
tine sole abode of life), her fir;tv
her Importance in respect of the sun.
posed superiority of her dimensions
When Newton had finally established
the Copernican theory, the relative
lnsignificance of the earth was do
monstrated. The teachings of the
telescope showed in turn the insigni.
flcance of the solar system. With ey-
cry increase of light-gathering mower
the universe of stars grew larger and
larger, even when as yet no scale had
been obtained whereby to determine
the distance separating star from
star. With every Improvement in the
defining qualities and the measuring
power of telescopes, the universe Of
stars grew larger and larger, inde-
pendently of mere increase in num-
Der OF stars; for, though for long
time no measurement OF star dis.
tance could be effected, each failure
with improved means to measure the
distances of even the nearest stars,
showed that the scale Of the stellar
universe was larger than had before
been imagined.
Larger and larger grew the uni
verse, then, as men turned more and
more powerful, more and more exact
ing instruments to the survey Of the
heavens. When at length the distance
of the nearest star was measured, and
found to be more than twenty bill
lions of miles tmore than three years
light journey. though in each second
light travels distance exceeding
nearly eight times the entire circuit
of the earth), the number of stars
was already known to exceed twenty
millions. But more powerful tele-
scopes have been made since. With
every increase of telescope power
more stars come into view. With such
telescope as the great reflector Of
Pafsonsfo#n, fE5rd Ross telescope).
at least a hundred millions of stars
Gould be seen if every part of the
Fstellar sphere could be serutinized
with that mighty telescope eye.
But what, after all, is, this? Now
that we know how minute q creature
man is, how insignificant his largest
works compared with the globe on
which, he lives, bow, this globe is but
Ia point in the solar system lost
among countless, millions Of other
suns, with their attendant, planets
how pgepqsteroqs appesas|r,ss. appeesas|,s..t the thought
that any Instrument man cap fashion
can penetrate the the real al proffbpnpdities pfblp q
the universe! Seeing, as we DO now
ltApw, utterly meas lel Is ideas 9t Ynat the
stars. are fell short of 1lhy the Truth, and
bbew inaaeqpat1e 4 stu Il sj were fnelr con
lceptions of the real NUMBER q the
stars when they trusted only to the
,napmai eye, we shaaid yeEy well have
learned the lessmctheir errors teacn
ms. if we in turn-fe into the mistake
Eof jsgIpposlng that fthes te1escc2ic eye
Eean reveal nioreqtog as than the mer-
Test corner bfs the unigersed Even q
f4he universe sfiithe stars that IS, q
lsthe system of sans Whereofbour sun
E.;s asgp1enberaAthat may be said. But
.bsS5 unlikely, ] how incredible indeed.
l5a it!othat there is but one system OF
Essuns! but one galaxy ifhe star ciouos
|s,nav NOT be- outlying galaxies, as the
Hercules supposed. Buttwho can DOUBT
btbat beyond the limits of our own
galaxy, beyond spaces bearing pr0Oa-
blv something like the same proper
ton to the size Of our earth, some
hother galaxies, some like, some IN
l.,,ke our own, some as large, some
bsma,Fer but many doubtless far iarg-
Lar than, the glorious system''of suns
wnic,, appear inHnite ITO r our con-
Iss.syt,, ;,,Ens9 q lssaoJ.s qIigtss' tis'iie
EaG. q tRu tRus g'ts Ne flItllt ltitlt-in imagination
Fave aver al al anb5!ysmaI world, mighty cry
k5aiII3eas ks5SaiIses that hat systems more mysterious
,,SioTI,dIs ,wSiooTTIds more 4 n bilio5sWy other heights
Lr,tsrsr.rrptirs znns=are nearlng'
aua at hand can wonder u from
aWfdl m depths M ! men have turned
= waariness of soul, nay almost II