Part 2 (1/2)
Examine the Nautical Almanac, published by the British Government, a chart found on every sea-going vessel. On the trackless ocean it is the mariner's guide, his trusted friend and counsellor. He may embark upon a long voyage over the trackless ocean, to be absent for years, yet through all this time, and in any part of the world he has his truthful friend to consult, who will warn him of dangers, and direct his s.h.i.+p in safety in every changeful clime. He left his native land years ago, yet now far out amid ocean's waves, in a different hemisphere, he consults this little chart of astronomers. He knows in any and every lat.i.tude the time of eclipses of the Sun and Moon, and of Jupiter's satellites, their sidereal positions, distances, etc. It seems charged with messages from the skies for his guidance and safety.
”When we consider the acquisition of such rare and precious knowledge--this mapping out beforehand, almost to a hair's-breadth, the exact order and track in which the heavenly bodies will run their course through s.p.a.ce, and the precise relative position they will occupy at any given moment, when they can be seen in any part of the world--is not this convincing evidence of the correctness and truthfulness of the science of astronomy?”
But we have on record a more startling demonstration of its correctness--we say ”startling” because of its magnitude and importance, and because when we come to examine suns, planets, and worlds, through the lights of this science, when we contemplate their distances, magnitudes, and numbers, we shall be startled by their immensity, and exclaim:
”How wonderful are Thy works, O Lord of Hosts!”
”The year 1846 will ever be memorable for having witnessed one of the most striking ill.u.s.trations of the truth of Astronomy. Few can have forgotten the astonishment with which the discovery of the planet Neptune was then received, or the fact that it was due _not_ to a lucky or accidental pointing of the telescope toward a particular quarter of the heavens, but to positive calculations worked out in the closet; thus proving that before the planet was seen by the eye, it had already been grasped by the mind. The theory of its finding was a triumph of human intellect. The distant Ura.n.u.s--a planet hitherto orderly and correct--begins to show unusual movements in its...o...b..t. It is, somehow, not exactly in the spot where, according to the best calculations, it ought to have been, and the whole astronomical world is thrown into perplexity. Two mathematicians, as yet but little known to fame, living far apart in different countries, and acting independently of each other, concentrate the force of their penetrating intellects to find out the cause. The most obvious way of accounting for the event, was to have inferred that some error in previous computations had occurred; and in a matter so difficult, so abstruse, and so far off, what could have been more probable or more pardonable? But these astronomers knew that the laws of gravity were fixed and sure, and that figures truly based on them could not deceive. By profound calculations, each arrives at the conclusion that nothing can account for the ”perturbation” except the disturbing influence of some hitherto unknown ma.s.s of matter, exerting its attraction in a certain quarter of the Heavens. So implicit, so undoubting is the faith of the French astronomer Leverrier, in the truth of his deductions, that he requests a brother astronomer in Berlin, Prussia, to look out for this ma.s.s at a special point in s.p.a.ce, on a particular night; and there, sure enough, the disturber immediately discloses himself, and soon shows his t.i.tle to be admitted into the steady and orderly rank of his fellow-planets. The coincidence of the two astronomers--Leverrier, of France, and Adams, of England, arriving at this discovery through scientific calculations, based upon knowledge derived from physical observation, precludes every idea of guess-work, while such was the agreement between their final deductions, that the point of the Heavens fixed upon by both as the spot where the disturber lay, was almost identical.” ”Such a discovery” says Arago, ”is one of the most brilliant manifestations of the exact.i.tude of the system of modern astronomy.”
Child continues: ”Astronomy is without question, the grandest of sciences. It deals with ma.s.ses, distances, and velocities, which in their immensity belong specially to itself alone, and of which the mere conception transcends the utmost stretch of our finite faculties.
In no other branch of science is the limited grasp of our intellect more forcibly brought home to us, yet, though baffled in the effort to rise to the level of its requirements, our strivings are by no means profitless. Is it not truly a precious privilege to be able to trace, imperfect though it may be, the hand of the Almighty Architect in these, His grandest works, and to obtain by this means a broader consciousness of His Omnipotence?
”Could each one be privileged to look through Herschel's telescope on a clear night, and visibly behold the wonders of the Heavens, our faith in the realities of astronomy would pa.s.s with a sudden bound from theory into practice; planets and stars would become henceforth distinct and solid existences in our minds, our doubts vanish, and our belief settle into conviction. We should behold the mysterious moon of our childhood, mapped into brilliant mountain-peaks, and dark precipices, and softly lighted plains; we should see Jupiter s.h.i.+ning like another fair Luna, with attendant satellites moving round him in their well-known paths; or turn with admiration to Saturn encircled by his famous ring, with outlines as distinct as if that glorious creation lay but a few miles distant. Perhaps we may behold the beauteous Venus s.h.i.+ning with resplendent circular disk, or curiously pa.s.sing through her many phases in mimic rivalry of the Moon. Or, leaving these near neighbors far behind, we may penetrate more deeply into s.p.a.ce, and mark how the bright flas.h.i.+ng stars are reduced to a small, round, unmagnifiable point. Such a privilege would give us a more realizing sense of the power of the great Creator.”
_THE DISCOVERY OF THE MOTION OF THE EARTH AND HEAVENLY BODIES_.
The science of Astronomy is one of the oldest that has occupied the human mind. That the belief in Astrology was its forerunner, we cannot doubt. Professor Olmsted tells us, that, ”At a period of very remote antiquity, Astronomy was cultivated in China, India, Chaldea, and Egypt.” Three several schools were established, ranging from three to six hundred years before the Christian era. Anaximander, in the school of Miletus, taught the sublime doctrine that the planets are inhabited, and that the stars are suns of other systems. Pythagoras was the founder of the celebrated school of Crotona, upon the south-eastern coast of Italy, some five hundred years before the Christian era. He held that the Sun was the centre of the solar system, around which all the planets revolve, and that the stars are so many suns, each the centre of a system like our own. He also held that the Earth revolves daily on its axis, and yearly around the sun.
Although many of his opinions were founded in mere conjecture, and were erroneous, yet we see that some important ones were founded on truth.
He also held that the planets were inhabited, that the earth and planets were ever revolving in regular order, ”keeping up a loud and grand celestial concert, inaudible to man, but, as the 'music of the spheres,' audible to the G.o.ds.”
But the mind of man was not then prepared to grasp the feeble rays of light, and add thereto, by the power of expanding intellect. Although many succeeded Pythagoras, whose scientific attainments proved a blessing to the world, and whose names will go down to all succeeding generations, as the learned, the good, and the great of their time; yet prejudice and superst.i.tion again prevailed, and the true lights of this science were lost sight of, and, for near two thousand years, ages of darkness prevailed, until Copernicus appeared about the fifteenth century of the Christian era. He again revived the idea advanced by Pythagoras, that the earth and planets moved regularly in their orbits, and that the sun was the centre of the solar system. Yet with him, as with the former, it was little more than mere conjecture.
We quote again Prof. Olmsted, in regard to these earlier astronomers, who were struggling after light, and truth, in this grandest of sciences: ”Although, therefore, Pythagoras fathomed the profound doctrine, that the Sun is the centre around which the earth and all the planets revolve; yet we have no evidence that he ever solved the irregular motions of the planets, in conformity with his hypothesis, although the explanation of the diurnal revolution of the heavens, by that hypothesis, involved no difficulty.”
Again he says, ”Ignorant as Copernicus was of the principle of gravitation, and of most of the laws of motion, he could go but little way in following out the consequences of his own hypothesis; and all that can be claimed for him is, that he solved, by means of it, most of the common phenomena of the celestial motions. He was indeed upon the road to truth, and advanced some way in its sure path; but he was able to adduce but few independent proofs, to show that it was truth.
It was only near the close of his life that he published his system to the world, and that only at the urgent request of friends; antic.i.p.ating, perhaps, the opposition of a bigoted priesthood, whose fury was afterwards poured upon the head of Galileo, for maintaining the same doctrines.”
The bigotry and superst.i.tion of the priesthood of the Church of Rome again crushed out the lights of this science, and forbade further investigations, and all was resolved back again into the doctrine first taught by Eudoxus, who lived more than three hundred years before Christ. This doctrine was the system of _crystalline spheres_; ”the earth the centre of the world, and all heavenly bodies set like gems in hollow, solid orbs, composed of crystal so transparent, that no anterior orb could obstruct in the least, the view of any of the orbs lying behind it,” that the heavens revolved or rolled round from East to West, performing the circuit every twenty-four hours, carrying along the sun, planets, orbs, &c., and that ”above the whole were spread the _grand empyrean_, or 'third heavens,' the abode of perpetual serenity.”
”To account for the planetary motions, it was supposed that the planetary bodies, as also the stars, and sun, each had a motion of its own from East to West, while all partook of the common diurnal motion of the starry sphere.”
”Aristotle taught that these motions were effected by a tutelary genius of each planet, residing in it, and directing its motions, even as the mind of man directs his own movements.”
Thus, from the time of Copernicus, until Galileo appeared in the sixteenth century, the lights of this science were again extinguished by the superst.i.tion, bigotry, and intolerance of the priesthood, who would make no proper advance with intellect beyond the established dogmas of the church; even to ascertain truths which G.o.d himself had made plainly perceptible in His wondrous works.
Galileo, born in Pisa, Italy, in the year 1564, evinced in early life, a fondness for the study of philosophy, and the higher order of sciences, and proved himself also a genius in mechanical inventions.
Fortune favored him in his day, and, enjoying all the greater advantages of the best schools of his time, he studied well all the old masters, who had preceded him, and became perfectly familiar with every theory of philosophy and astronomy then known, and prepared himself for an advance in the sciences. He invented the first telescope, with which to survey the heavenly bodies, and the result of his experiments proved conclusively the correctness of the theory advanced by the conjectures of Copernicus.
He pursued his investigations for years, and established the truth, in his own mind, of the constant movements of the earth and planets, each revolving in its own orbit, with the Sun as the common centre of all; of the truth of which he could never more entertain a single doubt.
But the laws which governed and controlled their movements--the power and force of attraction and gravitation--he could not yet fully comprehend. This great work of discovery was left for Sir Isaac Newton. Knowing the bigotry and intolerance of the ruling powers of Rome, he, Galileo, resorted to subterfuge in order to obtain permission to publish his opinions to the world. Yet, when published, these drew down upon his head the stern persecution of the Pope and Cardinals, and also opposition and accusations from all other philosophers and astronomers of his time. At length, hearing the distant muttering ”thunders of the Vatican,” he resorted to Rome, to reason with the powers that then held universal sway. But, like all other lights of reason--from time immemorial to the present hour--the fiat of the Romish Church would ever obscure, or crush out light, chain down the intellect, become the arbiter of the consciences of men, and permit no advance, save as she might lead; and even then binding all to her dogmas, and decrees, by the power of force, and threatenings of her Inquisitions. She has ever stood ready, where she had the power, to crush with her iron heel every one who dared to oppose, or sought to lead the mind of man to light and liberty. And it has been the force of circ.u.mstances alone, that has, in part, broken this chain of bondage, emanc.i.p.ated the mind, given freedom to thought, and permitted the advance of human intellect.
Galileo seemed, indeed, as Nature's philosopher of his time. ”He interrogated the laws of nature by experiments and observations, and we have to ascribe to him the first true investigation of the laws of terrestrial gravity.” Had he stood firm and maintained the truths which G.o.d had permitted him to comprehend, the lights of a true science would then have shone forth, and it is possible that our knowledge to-day would be far in advance of what it is. We judge thus, because of the rapid advance made during the last century, especially since Dr. William Herschel first pointed his telescope toward the heavens.
But on Galileo's arrival at Rome, neither his venerable age, his enlightened mind, his acknowledged comprehensive and brilliant intellect, nor even his honorable and eloquent appeals for a full and scientific investigation as to the correctness of his theory, could gain a generous response. The powers that ruled had not made the advance, and it was dangerous to them to permit any one outside to do so. Hence, all new doctrines were held as heretical, and must be crushed at once. He was placed in confinement, charged with treason and conspiracy against the Church; his views heretical, such as demanded the most rigorous punishment;--even after he should renounce them before the cardinals sitting as Inquisitors in his case. The charges against him were those of his published views, which he freely acknowledged, and, while he knew them to be _truths_, yet so controlling was the influence of his belief in the dogmas of that church--even as it is with all its adherents--that he bowed to its fiat, and, on bended knees laid his hand upon the Holy Gospels, and swore by them and the Roman Catholic Church, before G.o.d, and the Inquisition of Cardinals, that the _truths he had published_ were _false_, abjuring, cursing, and detesting them as heresies; and swore a life allegiance to the Church, and received submissively, his sentence to a dungeon in the Inquisition for life.