Part 28 (2/2)

”This view of the source of light, as respects the existence of the luciferous elehout space, accords with the Mosaic account of creation, in so far as that light is described as having been created in the first instance before the sun was called forth”

Dr Siemens read a paper before the Royal Society in March 1882, on ”A New Theory of the Sun” His views in many respects coincided with mine

[footnote

Interstellar space, according to Dr Siehly rarefied gaseous bodies-- including hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and aqueous vapour; that these gaseous co dissociated by radiant solar energy while in a state of extreme attenuation; and that the vapours so dissociated are draards the sun in consequence of solar rotation, are flashed into flame in the photosphere, and rendered back into space in the condition of products of coht on geology, Dr Siemens says: ”The effect of this continuous outpour of solar materials could not be without very iical conditions of our earth Geologists have long acknowledged the difficulty of accounting for the amount of carbonic acid that must have been in our atmosphere at one time or another in order to form with lime those enormous beds of doloreat measure composed It has been calculated that if this carbonic acid had been at one and the same time in our atmosphere it would have caused an elastic pressure fifty times that of our present atmosphere; and if we add the carbonic acid that etation in order to form our coal-beds we should probably have to double that pressure Animal life, of which we had abundant traces in these 'measures,' could not have existed under such conditions, we are almost forced to the conclusion that the carbonic acid must have been derived from an external source”

Soon after my paper was read, Lord Murray of Henderland, an old friend, then a Judge on the Scottish Bench, wrote to ed to you for a copy, if you have a spare one, of your printed note on Light It is expressed with great clearness and brevity If you wish to have a quotation for it, you may have recourse to the blind Milton, who has expressed your views in his address to Light: --

”'Hail, holy Light! offspring of heaven first-born Or of the Eternal co-eternal beaht, And never but in unapproached light Dwelt froht essence increate!”'

About the same time Sir Thomas Mitchell, Surveyor General of Australia, communicated his notions on the subject ”My dear Sir,” he wrote, ”Your kind and valuable coht, and I now thank you ratefully for the last, with its two enclosures These, and especially your views as to the source of light, afford --a sort of treasure one can always carry about, and, unlike other treasures, is most valuable in the solitude of a desert The beauty of your theory as to the nature of the source of light is, that it rather supports all preconceived notions respecting the soul, heaven, and an immortal state”

I still continued the study of astronomy The sun, moon, and planets yielded to azed at thelorious objects which the telescope reveals, the most iht When I directedtelescope almost at random to any part of the firht of ht into vieithin the field of the eye-piece was overpoweringly sublime

When it is considered that every one of these stars which so bewilderingly crowd the field of vision is, according to rational probability, and, I nitude as that which gives light to our globe, and yet situated so inconceivably deep in the abyss of space as to appear ht even to the most powerful telescope, it will be felt what a sublime subject appears before us Turn the telescope to any part of the heavens, it is the same

Let us suppose ourselves perched upon the farthest star which we are enabled to see by the aid of the most powerful telescope There, too, we should see countlessin their appointed orbits, and thus on and on throughout eternity What an idea of the li up infinite space with the evidences of His Alhty Presence! The hurasp such a subject

I also turned my attention to the microscope In 1851 I examined, by the aid of this instruewater Canal

I found twenty-seven of them, of the most varied form, colour, and movehty pheno about in the e of creative power--from the myriads of suns revealed by the telescope, to the anisms revealed by the microscope--filled me with unutterably devout wonder and awe

Moreover, it seelory even upon the instruments of human skill, which elevated man to the Unseen and the Divine

When we exaanisms, we find clear evidence in their voluntary powers of motion that these creatures possess a will, and that such Will must be conveyed by a nervous system of an infinitesimally ht, and contrast the myriads of suns and planets at one extreanised atoms at the other, we cannot but feel inexpressible wonder at the transcendent range of Creative Power

Shortly after, I sent to the Royal Astronomical Society a paper on another equally wonderful subject, ”The Rotatory Move, and as I endeavoured to illustrate ive it entire:

”What first set et at the reason of ater in a basin acquires a rotatory h a hole in the bottoment is accustomed to observe illustrations of the most sublime phenomena of creation in the most minute and familiar operations of the Creator's laws, one of the most characteristic features of which consists in the absolute and wonderful integrity nitude or distance of the objects on which they operate

”For instance, the rass-blade in early ives to the lobular form!

”Let us pass from the rotation of water in a basin to the consideration of the particles of a nebulous mass just suravitation coexisting ”The first mourated by the election of a centre of gravity, and, instantly after, every particle throughout the entire e towards that centre of gravity

”Now let us consider ould be the result of this It appears to ence of the particles towards the centre of gravity of such a nebulous mass would not only result in the formation of nucleus, but by reason of the physical i particles should arrive at the focus of convergence in directions perfectly radial and diaree of deviation from the absolute dia particles coalesce at the focus of attraction, a twisting action would result, and Rotation ensue, which, once engendered, be its intensity ever so slight, from that instant forward the nucleus would continue to revolve, and all the particles which its attraction would subsequently cause to coalesce with it, would do so in directions tangential to its surface, and not diametrically towards its centre

”In due course of ti nebulous mass would beco centre, and would assume what appears to me to be their inherent nor character of their structure; and as that is actually the aspect which may be said to characterise the majority of those nificent telescope, I aly impressed with the conviction that such reasons as I have assigned have been the cause of their spiral aspect and arrange, it appears to limpse of the priions of space, whether they be nebulae, stars, double stars, or planetary systems

”The primary cause of rotation which I have endeavoured to describe in the preceding remarks is essentially cos of the action of gravitation on hly mobile condition

”It will be obvious that in the case of a nebulous mass, whose matter is unequally distributed, that in such a case several sub-centres of gravity would be elected, that is to say, each patch of nebulous ravity; but these in their turn subordinate to that of the coravity of the whole syste parts would revolve

Each of the portions above alluded to would either be attracted by the superior mass, and pass in towards it as a wisp of nebulous matter, or else establish perfect individual and distinct rotation within itself, and finally revolve about the great co this in ures of the marvellous spiral nebulae which Lord Rosse's telescope has revealed to us, I shall now bring these suggestions to a conclusion