Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-19
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BookIoper


ment is accomplished, and whether the
Republicans or Democrats win the next
election all seems of almost no impor-
lance when one is reading 1.-THE Stars
in Their Courses" by Sir James Jeans.
The gift of writing and lecturing about
the most technical scientific subjects in
terms understandable by the average
person Of good intelligence belongs in
an unusual degree to Sir James Jeans.
During the past Winter he lectured in
the auditorium of the National Museum,
under the auspices of the Carnegie In
stitution, to a large audience, many of
whom were apprehensive that they
would understand little of what he
talked about; yet as the audience poured
out of the hall 1t was obvious that most
of them had understood and were awe
stricken by what they had heard. An
earlier book of Sir James Jeans, pub
lished about, a year ago, 1.-THE Mysteri-
GUS Universe" might, from the point
of view OF the advanced physicist and
astronomer, seem adapted to intelligent
young people of ID or is. "The Stars
in Their Courses" Is even simpler and,
from the same point of view, might seem
adapted to children. This is to say
that both books, especially the latter,
have much to give to non-scientific
adults eager for information about the
most recent theories concerning the
mysterious universe in which any hui
man being Is such q small and entirely
insignificant incident.
X X
Small and Insignificant as is our earth
in the vast system of the universe, and
completely unimportant as are we our
selves, we are nevertheless interested in
our origins. About the origin OF the
earth Sir James Jeans tells us much,
derived partly from hypothesis, partly
from logical reasoning and mathemati-
cal deduction from known facts. About
the origin of life on the earth he can
tell us practically nothing. The story
of the origin of the earth reads like a
most fascinating romance. Our sun,
the principal member of the isolated
colony in space of which the earth Is
small part, Is large, bright planet,
and looked much the same as it does
today 5000 million years ago, before
the earth was born. At about that time,
bright star in space approached the
sun and came so near that its gravita-
tional pull drew up large portion of
the suns atmosphere, much as the
moon now exerts a tidal pull on the
earth. AS the star, came nearer and
nearer, its pull became so much greater
that the mountain of sun atmosphere
grew higher and higher and finally shot
off from the sun toward the invading
star. This relieved pressure below, so
that lower parts of the sun mountain
also shot of. When the visiting star
passed by the sun, without colliding,
the pull diminished and the sun matter
which had been pulled of resembled in
shape long cigar. Gradually cooling,
this cigar condensed into separate drops
OF matter, which began to move about
In space as separate bodies, set in mo-
ton by the pull Of the now-receding
star. These bodies are the planets, one
OF the smaller of which Is our earth.
The dramatic spectacle we have just
witnessed Is one which must
inevitably happen in Nature whenever
one star approaches close enough to
another, and its final scene is so exactly
Ike the solar system that we have
every reason to suppose that this is
actually the way in which the planets
came into being"
r &7@
Once born, along with its sister plan
cts, our earth had to plough its way
through the debris which the great
cataclysm had left scattered about in
space. After thousands of millions of
years, 1t came to move about the sun
In regular orbit. Also It's chaotic
mass OF merry gas gradually cooled, Until
a solid crust formed over the surface.
while the center became liquid. And
later, when it is cooler still, a strange
new phenomenon appears on this solid
crust. Groups of atoms begin to COM
b1ne into coherent organizations Of the
kind which we-knOWing nothing of
their nature or OF the way they first
started into being-describe as life
Whether there is more complex
life on other planets of other suns. or
only less complex life, or perchance no
life at all, We simply do not know. .
1t seems that 1t Is possible that at any
moment some other wandering star
may approach near enough to our
earth to exert upon it a gravitationaI
pull sufncient to suck of a large por-
ton, which would then dance off mer-
r1ly into space as a separate individual.
This possibility makes worry over
business or politics seem rather futile.
However, Sir James Jeans does NOT
think this Is likely to happen within
the next few millions of years. In
any case, the insignifcance of humans
lily Is realized when we consider that
we are but atoms on small earth and
Cnat the earth is only one member of
the suns family; the suns family Is
only one member of the Galactic Sys-
tenn, (and) the Galactic system is oy,Iv
one member Of the system of STAR
cities in space"
X \ 4
No one Of his own time mr. sine.
has considered the novels of Buiwer-
Lytton OF the first rank. Yet nearly
everyone OF a. generation ago read at
least The Last Days of Pompeii'
ana perhaps also "Rienzi' and ''PeI-
nam Bulwer's personality caused
much discussion, not all laudatorv
among his contemporaries. He was as
tond OF dress and as much of a dandy
as Disraeh, he was proudly patriciai1
IN MS manner, yet he was a radical
III pontlcs. 'Bulwer; a Panorama.
Fart l. EDWARD and Rosina, 1803-l83S, .
oy Michael Sadlier, gives a portrait of
6uIWer In ms early life, before he be-
came Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton. His
peculiarities, Mr.. Sadlier believes with
true modern psychological interureta-
ton, were due to his early parental
training. He was cratic and preco-
cious, was sent TO too many different
schools, became extravagantlv roman
tic through undirected reading in his
grandfather's library (What a good
time he must have hadD and became
melancholy and self-conscious through
too much 1ntrospection and too little
association with ordinary human beings.
His air Of superiority was partly die
to consciousness Of his very good birth
and unusual talents and partly to shv-
ness. His marriage added to his faults
and MIR. Sadlier discusses this at length
Rosina Wheeler was the daughter Of a
drunken Irish laird and herself a
feminist reformer. She and Bulwer
were apparently neither soothing nor
helpfully stimulating to each other.
X X
G. B. Stern, creator Of the huge
family of Austrian Jews in its two
branches, the Rakonitzes and the
CZalnVarS in her novels "rha AHafri-