The Chapel Hill weekly., 1962-12-19
Chaff
Continued from Page y

opcn oouudIy ana 1roll w
5. The regular schedule will be
resumed Friday, January 4.
The University Laundry will
make regular collections and de-
iveries this week. It will not
make any collections next week.
Sometimes the Winter Solstice
comes on the 21st of December
and sometimes on the 22nd. This
year it comes at 3:15 am. Sat-
urday the 22nd. The almanac,
which copies for the general read
er what science has discovered,
says:
IF the earth's axis were per-
pendicular to the plane Of the
earth's orbit around the sun there
would be no change of seasons.
Day and night would be of equal
length and there would be equ-
able conditions of temperature.
But the axis is % degrees 27
minutes away from a perpendl-
cular to the orbit and only in
March and September is the axis
at right angles to the sun.
1.-THE points at which the sun
crosses the equator are the equin-
oxes, when day and night are
most nearly equal. The points at
which the sun is at a maximum
distance from the equator are
the Solstices. Days and nights
are then most equal in length"
l don't understand all this, but
l know it must be correct be-
cause | observe that what the
almanac says come true year al
ter year. A few days ago | read
a statement by the late Alfred
North Whitehead that the earth
was a second-rate planet of a
second-rate sum-" But he was a
notorious pessimist as well as a
famous mathematician, and may
be he gave our home planet too
low a rating. hope so. Any
way, l don't see anything for
any of us to do but take it as it
is and make the best of it. Was
it Carlyle-I can't be sure;
there's many a one of our pro-
feSsors who can affirm or deny
it-who replied, "Egad, you'd
BETTER" to Margaret Fuller's 81
accept the Universe?
Most people, l imagine, are
like me in this respect: that they
think of December 21st Tor 22nd)
not as the day of the Winter
Solstice but as the day when the
days begin to get longer. This
doesn't happen right away,
though. In fact, the calendar
tables for January and Decem-
ber show that the sun rises a
little later for a few days toward
the end of this month. Sunset
comes a little later, however,
without delay. The length of the
days is not really noticeable till
well along in January.
Paul and Elizabeth Green have
written this Christmas poem for
their friends:
Love Is the Soul of Man
walk through the woods and /
walk through the hills,
And | ask you to tell me if you
can,
You know what a tree is,
You know what a rock is,
But what is the soul of man?
You know what the moon and the
stars may be,
And the width of the salt sea
span,
But where is the tongue can
answer me this
What is the soul of man?
I turned to the east and l turned
to the west
And they told how the world
began
You know what a day is, you
know what a year is,
But what is the soul of man?
searched the broad earth, I
begged the far sky,
l questioned the rivers that
ran
But never a whisper to tell that
they knew
Aught of the soul of man.
l bowed low at evening, / bowed
down at morning,
/ prayed for some word of Gods
plan
When 10, the glad tidings - the
Christ Child is born
Love is the soul Of man.
LIBRARY EXHIBIT
Landmarks in the Evolution
of Dentistry"-from the first ac-
curate account of dental anatomy,
published in 1863, to a newly pub
lished pictorial history covering
5000 years-is featured currently
in an oYhihif nf ra,o and unusual