Year: 1875




THE BIRTH AND GROWTH OF woRLDs-No NE


cEssARY pIscoRD BETWEEN SCIENCE AND


REL1a1oN-THE woNDERs OF THE STAR


DEPTHS.


Steinway Hall was crowded last night by
fashionable audience 10 hear the celebrated Eng
lish astronomer Richard A. Proctor on ''rhe Birth
and Growth Of Worlds" The great scientist
threw an immense quantity OF light upon his
subject the light being enhanced in orilancy from
the fact that IL shone in darkness As soon as the
learned lecturer had finished his Introduction he sug
gested the advsabty Of having the gas turned down,
IN order that the numerous views which were TO
bo shown by the stereopticon might be prop.
erly seen by the audience. The represent
atiyes OF tho press present were by
means in ecstasies at this proposal inasmuch
they were thrown back upon the tablets OF the mind
In order make their notes and there a certain
amount OF walling and lamentaton in consequence.
said tablets having possibly been for time In
disuse


Professor Proctor prefaced his lecture by the remark
that from the time when began 10 think they had
examined the origin Of the world they knew 1t,
Il appeared to them. The processes Of the human
mind are much the same those by which finds
its level the pressure perpetuay present. and
only requires the removal OF obstacles for the human
mind TO upon speculative and scientific subjects just
in tho dynamic way all the forces OF nature
act II thus to pass that in process OF time, not
content with combining their inquiries this little
world OF ours began to ask them
selves the question how all things formed what
the origin OF the OF the given
this tremendous question pathetically SIM
Pile One OF them and here was evident that the
marks OF the lecturer pointed to the Book Of Genesis
said that the earth was fiat and circular, which
the heavens rested like tent that darkness the
face OF the waters that God said "Let there be light
and there light that the heavens then sepa
rated from the earth and the waters above sepa
rated from those beneath the earth, and many other
simple things of the sort 1t was clear from this
that at the time written people had
notion Of the way in which rain produced
Then came the creation OF the and moon Those
who received such stories these believed them in
their innocence, but were by no means conversant
with scientific II took thousands of years
for to be forced upon the scientific mind that just in
the way the plant is developed from the seed
and the from the plant the whole uni
verse developed Science that although 1t was
through inhnties of time and space, still In the
whole universe there orderly sequence
OF development and evolution. The ground here
trodden upon, said the learned lecturer delicate
one, because science seemed TO infringe directly upon
the domain OF religion He would say distinctly that
science had nothing TO do with the discussion Of the
existence Of supreme controlling will but at the
time, science more justified in rejecting
the notion OF that a-controling will than she is in
jecng the nHnities Of time and space II is true the
inhnity of that will presents greater difficulties, be-
cause impalpable, but the difference was simply
OF degree and not OF kind The lecturer asked his
audience pass to the study of the stupendous phe
nomena OF the universe, with full faith in the
exact sense in which that word is used
by religious men, for the simple that the study
Of science mislead nasmuch God, who is the
author OF all these phenomena has not set them up
a stumbling block but being Himself ncomprehensible,
It is but natural tnat certain amount Of mystery
should surround His creation which has taken cycles
upon cycles OF ages to reach It's present form.


It seems from all anaogcs OF the star depths that
In the beginning the earth and all the other members
OF the solar system and the other stars indnes
OF nebuous matter, floating with faint light through
space and that il was by the gradual cohesion OF this
nebulous matter consequent upon concentrating force
impaired to IT, that the planets we have them to-
day were formed. For this, OF course myriads of
years required. and he would impress upon his
hearers the fact that in the universe there was
doubtedly much variety in the matter OF the compo
siton of and systems there is a difference in
our solar system between Mars Uranus and Neptune.
Indeed in the examination Of the nebue by the spec
sroscope very remarkable that the solar spectrum