The Sun. — 1870-10-27 (London, England)

THE CIVILIZATION OF 1870.  Seldom have our English skies been seen in such a tremendous glow as they presented to the eye of the spectator on Monday evening. For several weeks past the Northern Lights, as they are commonly termed, have made themselves visible at intervals with more or less distinctness. On Tuesday evening they were again observable ; but on Monday they flamed with unusual splendour, arresting universal attention in the metropolis, and the southern Portion of England. It is one evidence of the general extension of knowledge in these times that celestial phenomena fail to create alarm among the masses of the people. Despite the necessity for an Elementary Education Act in the year 1870, the most illiterate of our metropolitan population were perfectly at ease, so soon as they learned that the blazing sky above them had no connection with any terrestrial conflagration. Comets have ceased to terrify, and eclipses have been accepted as inevitable for ages past. Nothing short of an earthquake would shake the nerves of nineteenth-century civilisation. The great meteoric shower of a few years back is indeed said to have frightened certain Scotch poachers back from the hill sides; but we doubt whether any such effect would have been produced upon a London burglar. The present generation of people have learned to believe that things which are natural are often extremely wonderful. Superstition may still linger in individual minds, and it may be found in drawing-rooms as well as in the dons and garrets of the city, or the secluded cottages of the agricultural labouring class. But this weakness of the human mind is less than ever a charaoteristic of the mass of English people. Otherwise what portents what might have been read in the sky on Monday night—as dire as those which were 'recorded bY Josephus, when at sunset the Jewish capital was lit uP with the glare of fiery clouds, and armies were seen fighting in heaven. London saw the blood' red patches in the firmament the other night, with many-coloured streamers travelling to and fret until the river shone with the reflected light. Doubtless the scene was gazed upon with awe by many intelligent minds ; but the craven fear of superstition would scarcely affect any, however ignorant. It is also pretty well known that the phenomenon, which is so rare and wonderful in the latitude of London, is not only common hnt welcome in more northern climes. In the Shot' land Isles, the " merry dancers" cheer the long winter nights ; and Norway, Lapland, and Siberia have their snowy landscapes illumined bY .the same nocturnal radiance, affording some compensation for the general rigour and gloom of winter on the tarot° frontier. 'Despite our knowledge, these fiery streamers and luminous arcs are but partly understood. Electricity, traversing the higher regions of the atmosphere, is tile asual explanation. It lso suggested that there is some connection between the aurora and those solar dis" turbances which give rise to what are called spots on the sun. The aurora borealis is said to affect the earth's magnetism. Perhaps Mr. Scudamore will tell 11° whether his wires became untractable during the display on Monday evening? At all events, scientific observer° will be able to say something on the subject. The aurora borealis is also alleged to forbode a reduced temperature, and consequently a severe winter. Others contend that the Northern Lights are heralds of destructive gales. There has been fearful weather in the Atlantic ; there has been a tornado in one part of England ; the sea has been driven over its usual boundaries on certain parts of our coasts,and the United States and Canada have quivered with earthquake shocks. Are there any connecting /lake between these phenomena, coupled with the unusual number of sun-spots and the extraordinary vividness the aurora-borealis? When the central orb is agitated, must the remote planet feel the shock, and respond to the pulsation ? Such are some of the questions suggested 11 a phenomenon which in a past age would have been take,Thi as an omen of murderous battles and burning cities. v' these, indeed, we have heard enough already ; but 5 firmament wrapped in a robe of crimson on a wintry night were no unfit emblem of Europe covered with flamee and blood.—Standard.