When the earth is in a direct line between the sun and the moon,
(as the latter derives all its light from the sun) it becomes eclipsed;
if the earth passes immediately over the centre of the sun, the eclipse is
total; if not, its shadow only partially obscures the moon.
(as the latter derives all its light from the sun) it becomes eclipsed;
if the earth passes immediately over the centre of the sun, the eclipse is
total; if not, its shadow only partially obscures the moon.
Childrens - The Creation
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? 116
THE CREATION.
Having thus introduced the subject of astronomy by this brief
reference to its history, I will now call your attention, first, to the
Solar system, and then to the heaven of the fixed stars.
THE SOLAR SYSTEM.
The Sun is the centre of the Solar system, and never moves from its
place. It revolves on its axis in twenty-five days ten hours. The
sun is the source of light, heat, and vegetation. The diameter of the
sun is 880,000 miles, so that its magnitude is more than a million
times greater than the bulk of our earth; and if you could imagine
our globe to swell out and reach the moon, it would still have to go
200,000 miles beyond it, ere it occupied a space equal to the sun.
The distance of the sun from the earth is upwards of 94,000,000 of
miles; and yet so fervent are its rays, that, on a summer's day, when
yet it is four hours from the meridian, or noon, we are glad to shelter
ourselves from its burning heat.
It seems impossible to ascertain what the character of the body of
the sun may be. Sir Isaac Newton, and the great French astronomer
La Place, imagined it to be a body of fire; but the opinion that now
obtains is, that it is an opaque body, surrounded with a fiery atmo-
sphere. Thus they account for the dark specks on its disk.
THE PLANETS.
Immediately dependent on the sun are the planets, all deriving their
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? LETTER VII.
117
light from him. These all revolve round the sun in unequal periods:
those within the orbit of the earth, make their annual revolution in
less than our year, and those beyond our orbit, in an increased period,
according to the extent of their respective orbits. But, to prevent
confusion in your minds, I have drawn out a table of the planets,*
with their names, distances from the sun, the duration of their annual
circuit, and their size as compared with the earth.
Some of the planets have moons or satellites, which are called
secondary planets; the Earth has one, Jupiter four, Saturn seven,
Georgium Sidus six; the motion of these moons is from west to east,
excepting those of the last named planet, which are from east to west.
The planets whose orbits are within the earth's orbit are called
Inferior, aud those without Superior.
The planets are preserved in their orbits by the two-fold operation
of the centripetal and centrifugal force; the former, as the word
implies, ever attracting them to their centre, the sun; the other, ever
impelling them from the centre; but let us now view them for a little
in their order.
Mercury. --The heat of this planet, from its nearness to the sun, is
very great, above boiling quicksilver; water would boil at its poles; of
course, if inhabited, it must be by beings totally dissimilar to man.
Venus is by far the most brilliant of all the stars of light, and has
been seen in the full day by the naked eye. The heat of Venus,
* See Appendix.
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TH E C REATION.
except at the poles, would be too great for the animal or vegetable
life with which we are acquainted.
THE EARTH.
I have preferred waiting until we reached the orbit of the earth, to
explain to you a few particulars concerning it. Here, indeed, we can
speak with more certainty, as from the most accurate observations,
its size, &c. , have been all ascertained.
The earth is a dark opaque body, and has no light of its own. It is
composed of sea and land, in the proportion of three-fourths water to
one-fourth dry land. The earth is about twenty-five thousand miles
round; its shape, however, is not a perfect globe, as it is rather flat, like
an orange, at the poles; so that if a line were run from the equator
through the centre to the other side, it would extend twenty-five miles
further than if run through the earth from pole to pole.
The earth has two motions, one diurnal, or daily, the other annual,
or yearly; by its diurnal motion it revolves on its axis once in twenty-
four hours, and this gives the changes of day and night; by its annual
motion it performs its circuit in the heavens round the sun, in three
hundred and sixty-five days six hours, and this gives the changes of
the seasons; and thus it is that the Lord's gracious purposes are ful-
filled--" seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter,
day and night," fulfil their course. (Gen. viii. 22. )
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LETTER VII.
119
The earth's annual pathway, as she passes on through the heavens,
is at the rate of fifty-eight thousand miles an hour, and yet all this
while we are not sensible of the least motion whatever; for though
we revolve round, as well as hasten on, with this inconceivable velo-
city, yet we are quite unconscious of it. The sun appears to change its
place, but yet is fixed; ice appear fixed, and yet are never still*
" In the ordering of these events, we trace the hand of an Almighty
Creator, ever watchful over the comforts of the human race.
" The inclination of the earth's axis to the orbit which it describes,
and its constant direction to the same point in the heavens, viz. , the
pole, afford us the agreeable changes of summer and winter, spring
and autumn.
" If the axis of the earth, or the line round which it turns, were
perpendicular to its orbit, or, which is the same thing, to the plane in
which the sun is, the parts about the equator would be constantly
exposed to the full effects of the sun's rays, and be burnt up with in-
tolerable heat: the day and night would be equal all over the globe,
and the same season reign perpetually. "!
Thus, in place of the grateful vicissitudes of the seasons, the earth
? This you will see strikingly illustrated on board a ship passing up the river
Thames, with ustrong flood tide and easterly wind ; there is no perceptible mo-
tion, the vessel appears fixed, and the land seems approaching, passing, and receding
from you, and this is especially the case if you are looking through the cabin win-
dows ; and yet the reverse is the real fact.
t See a very valuable little Treatise on Astronomy, by the Rev. G. T. Hall. --
Parker, Strand.
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120
THE CREATION.
under and near the equator would be parched with burning heat, and
countries in our latitude would have always a cold and cheerless
spring, while a stern unyielding winter would reign in the higher
regions of the north; but our God is a God of mercy and of love,
and thus it is that every country has its harvest; and though the
summer of the north is short, * it is blooming and fresh.
The earth's atmosphere I have treated of at large in the day of its
creation. (Page 19. )
THE MOON.
This grateful planet, that comes to cheer us through the night,
has been the continual theme of poets as well as of astronomers,
and this too in all countries; how beautiful is the language of our own
Milton:--
" Fragrant the fertile earth
After soft showers; and sweet the coming on
Of grateful evening mild; then silent night
With this her solemn hird, and this fair moon,
And these the gems of heaven--her starry train. "
Paradise Lost, book iv.
Although the moon does not convey to us any heat, but simply
reflects from its surface the light of the sun, yet the language of
? Journal of a Lapland and Siberian Summer. --"June 23, snow melting;
July 1, snow gone; July 9, fields green ; July 17, plants full grown; July 25, plants
in flower; August 2, fruit ripe; August 18, snow. "--Sharon Turner's Sacred History
of the World, vol. i. p. 208.
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LETTER VII.
141
Moses in the blessing of Joseph seems to imply that the moon is the
source of vegetation to some things. " The precious things put forth
by the moon," can hardly bear any other meaning. (Deut. xxxiii. 14. )
The margin makes the word " moons," and this indeed may mean the
months, each yielding fruit in its appointed season.
The blessing of the moon to the earth is very great. " It rules
the night;" and in those countries where the sun is so long absent,
its presence must be invaluable. Its effects on the earth are very great:
this is shown especially in its power over the waters, which, by an
inconceivable agency, it draws up immediately under its disk, making
that part rise * many feet above its usual surface. This action of the
moon on the waters, is what is called " the tides," the benefit of
which to man cannot be told; for by it the waters are kept continually
agitated, and thus are preserved pure; and, in a commercial point of
view, watch the Thames, or the Mersey, the Clyde, or the Shannon,
or any of the great rivers, on which commerce sends its thousands of
ships, and you will at once see the importance of the ebb and flow of
the waters. See the anxiety with which mariners of all nations await
the "ebb tide" to carry their vessels out of port, and the "flood" to
carry them in; and every sailor, and many a landsman too, knows the
sprightliness of that sound,--" the flood's made,"--the anchor is
* As the waters near the moon are most drawn up, so the waters opposite must
be leatt drawn up; and thus the tide is flood at the same time on both extremes of
the globe.
G
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122
THE CREATION.
soon up, and the whole body of the ocean becomes the sailor's
friend, to carry him to the port--or the haven where he would be.
(Ps. cvii. 30. ) But not only does the sailor benefit by the moon in
this particular, but many of his most valuable calculations are derived
from the same source, especially the lunar observations. Astronomers
have divided the circle of the earth into 360 parts, or degrees; and, as
once in twenty-four hours the globe performs its daily journey, 360
divided by twenty-four will give the number of degrees that occupy
one hour of that journey, i. e. 15. In the time of Charles II. , that
there might be one general principle of calculation through the empire,
the Observatory at Greenwich was made,--as an artificial meridian to
the 360 degrees, all to the right of it, until it reached 180 degrees,
being in longitude east, and all to the left of it, to 180 degrees,
west; so that every fifteen degrees I am east of Greenwich I see the
sun an hour earlier, and every fifteen degrees west an hour later. *
This is the use of the chronometer,-- it always tells the time of Greenwich (its
owner setting it to a moment when he leaves port;) consequently, if
I know the time where I am, (and this the sun will always tell me,)
then the difference between the chronometer and my time is my
difference of longitude in hours, and one hour being equal to fifteen
? Some years since the government held out a reward of 10,000/. , and again of
20,000/. , to any one discovering a means by which the longitude might be deter-
mined, and when Mr. Harrison brought the chronometer to its present stale of
perfection, the sum was awarded him, at having attained, as far as possible, the
desired end. (See Frontispiece. )
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LETTER VII.
123
degrees, the calculation is soon made. But the watch or chronometer
may be wrong, (and it does not do to place implicit confidence in one of
them; if there are two, and they agree, then, in general, it is safe,) but
the lunar observations are invaluable, as a check on the chronometer
and common reckoning. The Nautical Almanack gives certain
tables which tell the distances between the sun and moon, or the
moon and some particular fixed star, at a given time at Greenwich--
the distances also observed on board the ship, and the time ascer-
tained,--the difference of time is the difference of longitude. Once
on coming from the Chesapeak to Bermuda, a distance only of 600
miles, our common reckoning was out 100 miles,* but the lunar
observations were correct within two or three leagues; this, however,
was thirty years since, and the chronometer was then hardly known;
the fact was, we were some days in that extraordinary current called
the gulf stream, and then all calculations are bafSed that are not made
on the heavenly bodies. But not only to the mariner, but especially
to the farmer, is the moon invaluable. And here I must tell you
something of the harvest moon.
The moon rises later every day, but the time varies at different
seasons of the year; sometimes there being an hour's interval, some-
times only a quarter, and at the autumnal equinox even less. At that
period, the moon is in that part of her orbit where the time of her
rising on successive evenings alters the least; in fact, for some days its
? See Appendix,
c2
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124
THE CREATION.
variation is only a few minutes; it lingers on the earth, as if in
sympathy with the harvest man, so that the sheaves may be gathered
in. How gracious is this provision, for not only does the Lord
" crown the year with his goodness," but by this merciful appointment,
prolongs the dag. Who can reflect on this and not see the most marked
and most merciful design in all the appointments of God! (Ps. lxv.
The moon, like the earth on which it attends, is an opaque body,
and derives all its light from the sun. Its diameter is about 2,000
miles, that is, one-fourth of that of the earth, and so its magnitude is
only l-64th of it. Its distance from us is about 240,000 miles, that
is, ten times the circumference of the earth; so that a traveller who
has gone ten times round the world, has travelled a journey equal to
the moon's distance: this calculation seems to bring that planet very
near to us; and two hundred days' journey, at fifty miles an hour,
would just equal the distance, t. e. 240,000 miles.
i
THE MOON'S PHASES.
The moon never presents the same appearance to us on two suc-
cessive evenings; for as it is ever changing its relative position with
the sun and the earth, so its phases* or appearances vary. We
watched the new moon the other evening,--the sun had sunk in the
? From the Greek word " to see. "
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? LETTER VII.
125
western sky; after a little while we discovered its beautiful silver
crescent, which seemed to be looking for the sun, as it was the part of
its disk near the sun, that was illuminated ; the next night the crescent
was enlarged, it had caught more of the sun's rays; and in five nights
more (for it was on the second day of its age we first saw it,) it was
half illumined; and on the fourteenth night it faced the sun, and the
whole orb was bright. But you may say, my dear children, if the
sun had sunk, and the earth was between it and the moon, would not
the earth eclipse the light of the sun, and shut it out from the moon ?
At times this would be the case; and your question, therefore, leads
me to say to you a little about the principle of eclipses.
ECLIPSES.
When the earth is in a direct line between the sun and the moon,
(as the latter derives all its light from the sun) it becomes eclipsed;
if the earth passes immediately over the centre of the sun, the eclipse is
total; if not, its shadow only partially obscures the moon. The same
is equally true of the eclipses of the sun; if the moon, which is an
opaque body, passes between the earth and the sun, at a time when
the orb of the moon equals that of the sun, if its centre passes over
the sun's centre, the eclipse is total, and the stars are seen; but if
the orb of the moon is less than that of the sun, and it passes over the
centre, then the eclipse is annular, and for a few minutes the sun is
seen as a beautiful golden ring in the heavens; but if the moon's
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? 126
THE CREATION.
centre does not pass the sun's centre, but crosses obliquely, then only
part of the sun, or a limb, as it is called astronomically, is obscured.
The darkness at the Crucifixion was not caused by "opposing
spheres," but was altogether miraculous: it was the terrible vengeance
of God, " the outer darkness " gathered round the head of that most
blessed sufferer, who, with the handwriting of ordinances that was
against us, and contrary to us, nailed to his cross, suffered there the
just for the unjust . (Compare Col. ii. 14, with Gal. iii. 13, and Mark
xv. 33, 34. )
How beautifully the fourth night (" The Christian Triumph") in
" Young's Night Thoughts," alludes to this:--
" And was the ransom paid ? it was: and paid
(What can exalt the bounty more! ) for you.
The sun beheld it--no, the shocking scene
Drove back his chariot; midnight veiled his face;
Not such as this--not such as nature makes;
A midnight nature shuddered to behold;
A midnight new! a dread eclipse (without
Opposing spheres) from the Creator's frown!
Sun, didst thou fly thy Maker's pain? or start
At that enormous load of human guilt
Which bow'd His blessed head? "
Having spent so much time in considering our own habitation, the
Earth, and its Moon; let us now pass on beyond our orbit, and see
the next planet in the heavens; and that is Mars.
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LETTER VII.
127
Mars is fifty millions of miles further from the sun than the earth;
so water would freeze at its equator, and spirits of wine would freeze
at a latitude corresponding to London; this planet appears of a deep
red colour, and may be seen by the naked eye.
Vesta, Juno, Ceres, and Pallas, are at nearly the same distances from
the sun, and are very small; so that it is calculated that the diameter
of Pallas is not more than seventy miles.
Jupiter is next in brilliancy to Venus, and is the largest planet of
our system, its diameter being eighty-eight thousand miles, that is,
eleven times greater than the earth's; at times it surpasses Venus in
brightness; Jupiter has four moons attendant on him, which can be
seen with a good common telescope; the knowledge of these is very
valuable. Their eclipses are marked at Greenwich in the Nautical
tables, and the same eclipses marked in another part of the globe; the
difference of time, therefore, between them, is the difference of longi-
tude : of course this cannot be done at sea. The discovery of these
Satellites and their eclipses also, determined the important astronomical
fact, that light was not communicated instantaneously, but that it
occupied time in coming from a luminous body to the eye. *
Galileo was the first who discovered the satellites of Jupiter.
Jupiter, like all the other planets, seems to have an atmosphere of
its own; it is also surrounded with a number of parallel cloudy belts.
Saturn is still more remote from the sun, as you will see by your
? See Appendix.
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THE CREATION.
table; Saturn has seven moons, and is also encircled with a brilliant
broad ring, sometimes exceeding in brightness the planet itself; its
distance from Saturn is a third of the diameter of that planet, which
distance also just equals the breadth of the ring.
Georgium Sidus. This is the last of the planets, and seems to be
placed in the utmost bounds of the solar system, its distance being
eighteen hundred millions of miles from the sun: it has six moons.
THE COMETS.
Ere we leave the solar system to pass into the regions of the fixed
stars, we must not omit to consider this singular order of heavenly
bodies.
The word Comet is derived from the Greek word for hair, and
probably the ancients thus applied the word on account of the luminous
tail that almost always accompanies them. Though irregular in their
movements, yet the return of some of the comets has been predicted
with great accuracy. * They are supposed to be of inconsiderable
size. The comet of the last year, (1843,) seems to have caused great
interest; in the southern hemisphere its tail was visible to an amazing
extent; our last letter from your dear brother J. , thus speaks of it:
? Astronomers noticed a comet in 1305, 1456, 1531, 1607, 1682. Dr. Halley
supposed that this was one and the same comet, and if so, predicted its return in
1759, which accordingly came to pass, and it doubtless was the same as appeared
in 1835.
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LETTER VII.
129
--" The wonderful comet has caused a great sensation among the
settlers: it extended, I should say, over one-sixth of the heavens;
was it seen in England ? " Australia, April 14, 1843.
THE HEAVEN OF THE FIXED STARS.
Leaving the solar system, one is lost in amazement in passing on
into the boundless regions of the fixed stars, all shining in unborrowed
lustre; the thought of the Psalmist irresistibly recurs to the mind,
" When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon
and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art
mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? "
(Ps. viii. 3, 4. ) And again, how sublime is that appeal to Job,
when the Lord, evidently in direct reference to the starry heavens,
says,* " Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the
bands of Orion ? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season ? or
canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the
ordinances of heaven ? canst thou set the dominion thereof in
the earth? " (Job xxxviii. 31--33. ) Yes, beloved children, God
walketh in this circuit of the heaven, (Job xxii. 14,) and all these
orbs of light move at his direction; he has appointed them " for times,
and for signs, and for seasons. "
* Again, how striking is that reference to the constellations in Job ix. 1--10.
See also Amos v. 8.
g3
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? 130
THE CREATION.
In the absence of the moon, "the star-light of night"is most
cheering; and in an astronomical point of view, the knowledge of the
stars is very valuable; night after night have I at sea beguiled the
time in watching this or that fixed star coming to its meridian, and by
taking its altitude, ascertained the latitude of the ship: of course
these observations, from the obscurity of the horizon, cannot be so
accurate as those taken from the sun; but if the sun has not been seen
for " many days," then they become very valuable; the polar star,
with some slight variations allowed, may be thus taken any hour of the
night.
The distance of the fixed stars is beyond our calculation: it may be
thus illustrated:--" If we look down a straight road, the pathway on
each side seems to unite in the distance; and at this point, if there
were two trees, one on each side, they would appear one; but as we
walk along the road, the trees gradually separate, and we see the road
beyond them; now the earth at one period of her revolution is a hun-
dred and ninety millions of miles nearer to some fixed stars, than she
was six months before, yet this enormous space makes no difference
betwixt any of the fixed stars; how vast then must be their distances
from us! " *
The brightest of the fixed stars is Sirius, but even its rays twinkle
as they reach us; in this the fixed stars differ from the planets. We
? Rev. T. G. Hall's Exercises in Astronomy, p. 21.
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? LETTER VII.
131
have ten other stars of the first magnitude visible to us; these you will
see noticed in the table.
The ancient astronomers formed a number of imaginary figures in
the sky, and then placed the fixed stars in groups according to this
arrangement; twelve of the principal they called the Zodiac,* which
as a zone encircled the heavens; in addition to the Zodiac they had
seventy-nine other constellations, making in the whole ninety-one;
these you will find arranged in the table below, so that at a glance
the whole idea may be before you. Many of these constellations we
have watched together; and have learnt the truth of those words,
" The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth
his handy-work. " (Ps. xix. 1. )
THE CONSTELLATIONS OF THE STARRY HEAVENS.
THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC.
NO. OF
STARS.
KAMES OF CONSTELLATIONS.
PRINCIPAL STARS.
MAO.
67
Aries, the Ram.
143
Aldebaran . . . .
1
87
Gemini, the Twins . . . .
Castor and Pollux. .
1--2
87
Cancer, the Crab.
101
1
117
Virgo, the Virgin . . . . .
Spica Virginis . . .
1
53
Libra, the Scales.
37
Scorpio, the Scorpion . . . .
1
73
Sagittarius, the Archer.
54
Capricornus, the Goat.
119
Aquarius, the Water Bearer.
115
Pisces, the Fishes.
? From the Greek word for animals or living creatures.
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132 THE CREATION.
PRINCIPAL CONSTELLATIONS IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE.
NAMES OF CONSTELLATIONS.
PRINCIPAL STARS.
MAO.
Ursa Major, the Great Bear . . . .
Ursa Minor, the Lesser Bear . . . .
1
Polar Star . . . .
2
2
1
1
Draco.
Triangulum, the Triangle.
Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown.
Serpens, the Serpent.
Hercules, with the Branch.
Vega
1
1
1
Sagitla, the Arrow.
Altair
Delphinus, the Dolphin.
Cassiopeia, the Lady in her Chair.
Pegasus.
Andromeda.
? 116
THE CREATION.
Having thus introduced the subject of astronomy by this brief
reference to its history, I will now call your attention, first, to the
Solar system, and then to the heaven of the fixed stars.
THE SOLAR SYSTEM.
The Sun is the centre of the Solar system, and never moves from its
place. It revolves on its axis in twenty-five days ten hours. The
sun is the source of light, heat, and vegetation. The diameter of the
sun is 880,000 miles, so that its magnitude is more than a million
times greater than the bulk of our earth; and if you could imagine
our globe to swell out and reach the moon, it would still have to go
200,000 miles beyond it, ere it occupied a space equal to the sun.
The distance of the sun from the earth is upwards of 94,000,000 of
miles; and yet so fervent are its rays, that, on a summer's day, when
yet it is four hours from the meridian, or noon, we are glad to shelter
ourselves from its burning heat.
It seems impossible to ascertain what the character of the body of
the sun may be. Sir Isaac Newton, and the great French astronomer
La Place, imagined it to be a body of fire; but the opinion that now
obtains is, that it is an opaque body, surrounded with a fiery atmo-
sphere. Thus they account for the dark specks on its disk.
THE PLANETS.
Immediately dependent on the sun are the planets, all deriving their
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? LETTER VII.
117
light from him. These all revolve round the sun in unequal periods:
those within the orbit of the earth, make their annual revolution in
less than our year, and those beyond our orbit, in an increased period,
according to the extent of their respective orbits. But, to prevent
confusion in your minds, I have drawn out a table of the planets,*
with their names, distances from the sun, the duration of their annual
circuit, and their size as compared with the earth.
Some of the planets have moons or satellites, which are called
secondary planets; the Earth has one, Jupiter four, Saturn seven,
Georgium Sidus six; the motion of these moons is from west to east,
excepting those of the last named planet, which are from east to west.
The planets whose orbits are within the earth's orbit are called
Inferior, aud those without Superior.
The planets are preserved in their orbits by the two-fold operation
of the centripetal and centrifugal force; the former, as the word
implies, ever attracting them to their centre, the sun; the other, ever
impelling them from the centre; but let us now view them for a little
in their order.
Mercury. --The heat of this planet, from its nearness to the sun, is
very great, above boiling quicksilver; water would boil at its poles; of
course, if inhabited, it must be by beings totally dissimilar to man.
Venus is by far the most brilliant of all the stars of light, and has
been seen in the full day by the naked eye. The heat of Venus,
* See Appendix.
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TH E C REATION.
except at the poles, would be too great for the animal or vegetable
life with which we are acquainted.
THE EARTH.
I have preferred waiting until we reached the orbit of the earth, to
explain to you a few particulars concerning it. Here, indeed, we can
speak with more certainty, as from the most accurate observations,
its size, &c. , have been all ascertained.
The earth is a dark opaque body, and has no light of its own. It is
composed of sea and land, in the proportion of three-fourths water to
one-fourth dry land. The earth is about twenty-five thousand miles
round; its shape, however, is not a perfect globe, as it is rather flat, like
an orange, at the poles; so that if a line were run from the equator
through the centre to the other side, it would extend twenty-five miles
further than if run through the earth from pole to pole.
The earth has two motions, one diurnal, or daily, the other annual,
or yearly; by its diurnal motion it revolves on its axis once in twenty-
four hours, and this gives the changes of day and night; by its annual
motion it performs its circuit in the heavens round the sun, in three
hundred and sixty-five days six hours, and this gives the changes of
the seasons; and thus it is that the Lord's gracious purposes are ful-
filled--" seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter,
day and night," fulfil their course. (Gen. viii. 22. )
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LETTER VII.
119
The earth's annual pathway, as she passes on through the heavens,
is at the rate of fifty-eight thousand miles an hour, and yet all this
while we are not sensible of the least motion whatever; for though
we revolve round, as well as hasten on, with this inconceivable velo-
city, yet we are quite unconscious of it. The sun appears to change its
place, but yet is fixed; ice appear fixed, and yet are never still*
" In the ordering of these events, we trace the hand of an Almighty
Creator, ever watchful over the comforts of the human race.
" The inclination of the earth's axis to the orbit which it describes,
and its constant direction to the same point in the heavens, viz. , the
pole, afford us the agreeable changes of summer and winter, spring
and autumn.
" If the axis of the earth, or the line round which it turns, were
perpendicular to its orbit, or, which is the same thing, to the plane in
which the sun is, the parts about the equator would be constantly
exposed to the full effects of the sun's rays, and be burnt up with in-
tolerable heat: the day and night would be equal all over the globe,
and the same season reign perpetually. "!
Thus, in place of the grateful vicissitudes of the seasons, the earth
? This you will see strikingly illustrated on board a ship passing up the river
Thames, with ustrong flood tide and easterly wind ; there is no perceptible mo-
tion, the vessel appears fixed, and the land seems approaching, passing, and receding
from you, and this is especially the case if you are looking through the cabin win-
dows ; and yet the reverse is the real fact.
t See a very valuable little Treatise on Astronomy, by the Rev. G. T. Hall. --
Parker, Strand.
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120
THE CREATION.
under and near the equator would be parched with burning heat, and
countries in our latitude would have always a cold and cheerless
spring, while a stern unyielding winter would reign in the higher
regions of the north; but our God is a God of mercy and of love,
and thus it is that every country has its harvest; and though the
summer of the north is short, * it is blooming and fresh.
The earth's atmosphere I have treated of at large in the day of its
creation. (Page 19. )
THE MOON.
This grateful planet, that comes to cheer us through the night,
has been the continual theme of poets as well as of astronomers,
and this too in all countries; how beautiful is the language of our own
Milton:--
" Fragrant the fertile earth
After soft showers; and sweet the coming on
Of grateful evening mild; then silent night
With this her solemn hird, and this fair moon,
And these the gems of heaven--her starry train. "
Paradise Lost, book iv.
Although the moon does not convey to us any heat, but simply
reflects from its surface the light of the sun, yet the language of
? Journal of a Lapland and Siberian Summer. --"June 23, snow melting;
July 1, snow gone; July 9, fields green ; July 17, plants full grown; July 25, plants
in flower; August 2, fruit ripe; August 18, snow. "--Sharon Turner's Sacred History
of the World, vol. i. p. 208.
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LETTER VII.
141
Moses in the blessing of Joseph seems to imply that the moon is the
source of vegetation to some things. " The precious things put forth
by the moon," can hardly bear any other meaning. (Deut. xxxiii. 14. )
The margin makes the word " moons," and this indeed may mean the
months, each yielding fruit in its appointed season.
The blessing of the moon to the earth is very great. " It rules
the night;" and in those countries where the sun is so long absent,
its presence must be invaluable. Its effects on the earth are very great:
this is shown especially in its power over the waters, which, by an
inconceivable agency, it draws up immediately under its disk, making
that part rise * many feet above its usual surface. This action of the
moon on the waters, is what is called " the tides," the benefit of
which to man cannot be told; for by it the waters are kept continually
agitated, and thus are preserved pure; and, in a commercial point of
view, watch the Thames, or the Mersey, the Clyde, or the Shannon,
or any of the great rivers, on which commerce sends its thousands of
ships, and you will at once see the importance of the ebb and flow of
the waters. See the anxiety with which mariners of all nations await
the "ebb tide" to carry their vessels out of port, and the "flood" to
carry them in; and every sailor, and many a landsman too, knows the
sprightliness of that sound,--" the flood's made,"--the anchor is
* As the waters near the moon are most drawn up, so the waters opposite must
be leatt drawn up; and thus the tide is flood at the same time on both extremes of
the globe.
G
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122
THE CREATION.
soon up, and the whole body of the ocean becomes the sailor's
friend, to carry him to the port--or the haven where he would be.
(Ps. cvii. 30. ) But not only does the sailor benefit by the moon in
this particular, but many of his most valuable calculations are derived
from the same source, especially the lunar observations. Astronomers
have divided the circle of the earth into 360 parts, or degrees; and, as
once in twenty-four hours the globe performs its daily journey, 360
divided by twenty-four will give the number of degrees that occupy
one hour of that journey, i. e. 15. In the time of Charles II. , that
there might be one general principle of calculation through the empire,
the Observatory at Greenwich was made,--as an artificial meridian to
the 360 degrees, all to the right of it, until it reached 180 degrees,
being in longitude east, and all to the left of it, to 180 degrees,
west; so that every fifteen degrees I am east of Greenwich I see the
sun an hour earlier, and every fifteen degrees west an hour later. *
This is the use of the chronometer,-- it always tells the time of Greenwich (its
owner setting it to a moment when he leaves port;) consequently, if
I know the time where I am, (and this the sun will always tell me,)
then the difference between the chronometer and my time is my
difference of longitude in hours, and one hour being equal to fifteen
? Some years since the government held out a reward of 10,000/. , and again of
20,000/. , to any one discovering a means by which the longitude might be deter-
mined, and when Mr. Harrison brought the chronometer to its present stale of
perfection, the sum was awarded him, at having attained, as far as possible, the
desired end. (See Frontispiece. )
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LETTER VII.
123
degrees, the calculation is soon made. But the watch or chronometer
may be wrong, (and it does not do to place implicit confidence in one of
them; if there are two, and they agree, then, in general, it is safe,) but
the lunar observations are invaluable, as a check on the chronometer
and common reckoning. The Nautical Almanack gives certain
tables which tell the distances between the sun and moon, or the
moon and some particular fixed star, at a given time at Greenwich--
the distances also observed on board the ship, and the time ascer-
tained,--the difference of time is the difference of longitude. Once
on coming from the Chesapeak to Bermuda, a distance only of 600
miles, our common reckoning was out 100 miles,* but the lunar
observations were correct within two or three leagues; this, however,
was thirty years since, and the chronometer was then hardly known;
the fact was, we were some days in that extraordinary current called
the gulf stream, and then all calculations are bafSed that are not made
on the heavenly bodies. But not only to the mariner, but especially
to the farmer, is the moon invaluable. And here I must tell you
something of the harvest moon.
The moon rises later every day, but the time varies at different
seasons of the year; sometimes there being an hour's interval, some-
times only a quarter, and at the autumnal equinox even less. At that
period, the moon is in that part of her orbit where the time of her
rising on successive evenings alters the least; in fact, for some days its
? See Appendix,
c2
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124
THE CREATION.
variation is only a few minutes; it lingers on the earth, as if in
sympathy with the harvest man, so that the sheaves may be gathered
in. How gracious is this provision, for not only does the Lord
" crown the year with his goodness," but by this merciful appointment,
prolongs the dag. Who can reflect on this and not see the most marked
and most merciful design in all the appointments of God! (Ps. lxv.
The moon, like the earth on which it attends, is an opaque body,
and derives all its light from the sun. Its diameter is about 2,000
miles, that is, one-fourth of that of the earth, and so its magnitude is
only l-64th of it. Its distance from us is about 240,000 miles, that
is, ten times the circumference of the earth; so that a traveller who
has gone ten times round the world, has travelled a journey equal to
the moon's distance: this calculation seems to bring that planet very
near to us; and two hundred days' journey, at fifty miles an hour,
would just equal the distance, t. e. 240,000 miles.
i
THE MOON'S PHASES.
The moon never presents the same appearance to us on two suc-
cessive evenings; for as it is ever changing its relative position with
the sun and the earth, so its phases* or appearances vary. We
watched the new moon the other evening,--the sun had sunk in the
? From the Greek word " to see. "
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? LETTER VII.
125
western sky; after a little while we discovered its beautiful silver
crescent, which seemed to be looking for the sun, as it was the part of
its disk near the sun, that was illuminated ; the next night the crescent
was enlarged, it had caught more of the sun's rays; and in five nights
more (for it was on the second day of its age we first saw it,) it was
half illumined; and on the fourteenth night it faced the sun, and the
whole orb was bright. But you may say, my dear children, if the
sun had sunk, and the earth was between it and the moon, would not
the earth eclipse the light of the sun, and shut it out from the moon ?
At times this would be the case; and your question, therefore, leads
me to say to you a little about the principle of eclipses.
ECLIPSES.
When the earth is in a direct line between the sun and the moon,
(as the latter derives all its light from the sun) it becomes eclipsed;
if the earth passes immediately over the centre of the sun, the eclipse is
total; if not, its shadow only partially obscures the moon. The same
is equally true of the eclipses of the sun; if the moon, which is an
opaque body, passes between the earth and the sun, at a time when
the orb of the moon equals that of the sun, if its centre passes over
the sun's centre, the eclipse is total, and the stars are seen; but if
the orb of the moon is less than that of the sun, and it passes over the
centre, then the eclipse is annular, and for a few minutes the sun is
seen as a beautiful golden ring in the heavens; but if the moon's
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? 126
THE CREATION.
centre does not pass the sun's centre, but crosses obliquely, then only
part of the sun, or a limb, as it is called astronomically, is obscured.
The darkness at the Crucifixion was not caused by "opposing
spheres," but was altogether miraculous: it was the terrible vengeance
of God, " the outer darkness " gathered round the head of that most
blessed sufferer, who, with the handwriting of ordinances that was
against us, and contrary to us, nailed to his cross, suffered there the
just for the unjust . (Compare Col. ii. 14, with Gal. iii. 13, and Mark
xv. 33, 34. )
How beautifully the fourth night (" The Christian Triumph") in
" Young's Night Thoughts," alludes to this:--
" And was the ransom paid ? it was: and paid
(What can exalt the bounty more! ) for you.
The sun beheld it--no, the shocking scene
Drove back his chariot; midnight veiled his face;
Not such as this--not such as nature makes;
A midnight nature shuddered to behold;
A midnight new! a dread eclipse (without
Opposing spheres) from the Creator's frown!
Sun, didst thou fly thy Maker's pain? or start
At that enormous load of human guilt
Which bow'd His blessed head? "
Having spent so much time in considering our own habitation, the
Earth, and its Moon; let us now pass on beyond our orbit, and see
the next planet in the heavens; and that is Mars.
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LETTER VII.
127
Mars is fifty millions of miles further from the sun than the earth;
so water would freeze at its equator, and spirits of wine would freeze
at a latitude corresponding to London; this planet appears of a deep
red colour, and may be seen by the naked eye.
Vesta, Juno, Ceres, and Pallas, are at nearly the same distances from
the sun, and are very small; so that it is calculated that the diameter
of Pallas is not more than seventy miles.
Jupiter is next in brilliancy to Venus, and is the largest planet of
our system, its diameter being eighty-eight thousand miles, that is,
eleven times greater than the earth's; at times it surpasses Venus in
brightness; Jupiter has four moons attendant on him, which can be
seen with a good common telescope; the knowledge of these is very
valuable. Their eclipses are marked at Greenwich in the Nautical
tables, and the same eclipses marked in another part of the globe; the
difference of time, therefore, between them, is the difference of longi-
tude : of course this cannot be done at sea. The discovery of these
Satellites and their eclipses also, determined the important astronomical
fact, that light was not communicated instantaneously, but that it
occupied time in coming from a luminous body to the eye. *
Galileo was the first who discovered the satellites of Jupiter.
Jupiter, like all the other planets, seems to have an atmosphere of
its own; it is also surrounded with a number of parallel cloudy belts.
Saturn is still more remote from the sun, as you will see by your
? See Appendix.
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? 128
THE CREATION.
table; Saturn has seven moons, and is also encircled with a brilliant
broad ring, sometimes exceeding in brightness the planet itself; its
distance from Saturn is a third of the diameter of that planet, which
distance also just equals the breadth of the ring.
Georgium Sidus. This is the last of the planets, and seems to be
placed in the utmost bounds of the solar system, its distance being
eighteen hundred millions of miles from the sun: it has six moons.
THE COMETS.
Ere we leave the solar system to pass into the regions of the fixed
stars, we must not omit to consider this singular order of heavenly
bodies.
The word Comet is derived from the Greek word for hair, and
probably the ancients thus applied the word on account of the luminous
tail that almost always accompanies them. Though irregular in their
movements, yet the return of some of the comets has been predicted
with great accuracy. * They are supposed to be of inconsiderable
size. The comet of the last year, (1843,) seems to have caused great
interest; in the southern hemisphere its tail was visible to an amazing
extent; our last letter from your dear brother J. , thus speaks of it:
? Astronomers noticed a comet in 1305, 1456, 1531, 1607, 1682. Dr. Halley
supposed that this was one and the same comet, and if so, predicted its return in
1759, which accordingly came to pass, and it doubtless was the same as appeared
in 1835.
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LETTER VII.
129
--" The wonderful comet has caused a great sensation among the
settlers: it extended, I should say, over one-sixth of the heavens;
was it seen in England ? " Australia, April 14, 1843.
THE HEAVEN OF THE FIXED STARS.
Leaving the solar system, one is lost in amazement in passing on
into the boundless regions of the fixed stars, all shining in unborrowed
lustre; the thought of the Psalmist irresistibly recurs to the mind,
" When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon
and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art
mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? "
(Ps. viii. 3, 4. ) And again, how sublime is that appeal to Job,
when the Lord, evidently in direct reference to the starry heavens,
says,* " Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the
bands of Orion ? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season ? or
canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the
ordinances of heaven ? canst thou set the dominion thereof in
the earth? " (Job xxxviii. 31--33. ) Yes, beloved children, God
walketh in this circuit of the heaven, (Job xxii. 14,) and all these
orbs of light move at his direction; he has appointed them " for times,
and for signs, and for seasons. "
* Again, how striking is that reference to the constellations in Job ix. 1--10.
See also Amos v. 8.
g3
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? 130
THE CREATION.
In the absence of the moon, "the star-light of night"is most
cheering; and in an astronomical point of view, the knowledge of the
stars is very valuable; night after night have I at sea beguiled the
time in watching this or that fixed star coming to its meridian, and by
taking its altitude, ascertained the latitude of the ship: of course
these observations, from the obscurity of the horizon, cannot be so
accurate as those taken from the sun; but if the sun has not been seen
for " many days," then they become very valuable; the polar star,
with some slight variations allowed, may be thus taken any hour of the
night.
The distance of the fixed stars is beyond our calculation: it may be
thus illustrated:--" If we look down a straight road, the pathway on
each side seems to unite in the distance; and at this point, if there
were two trees, one on each side, they would appear one; but as we
walk along the road, the trees gradually separate, and we see the road
beyond them; now the earth at one period of her revolution is a hun-
dred and ninety millions of miles nearer to some fixed stars, than she
was six months before, yet this enormous space makes no difference
betwixt any of the fixed stars; how vast then must be their distances
from us! " *
The brightest of the fixed stars is Sirius, but even its rays twinkle
as they reach us; in this the fixed stars differ from the planets. We
? Rev. T. G. Hall's Exercises in Astronomy, p. 21.
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? LETTER VII.
131
have ten other stars of the first magnitude visible to us; these you will
see noticed in the table.
The ancient astronomers formed a number of imaginary figures in
the sky, and then placed the fixed stars in groups according to this
arrangement; twelve of the principal they called the Zodiac,* which
as a zone encircled the heavens; in addition to the Zodiac they had
seventy-nine other constellations, making in the whole ninety-one;
these you will find arranged in the table below, so that at a glance
the whole idea may be before you. Many of these constellations we
have watched together; and have learnt the truth of those words,
" The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth
his handy-work. " (Ps. xix. 1. )
THE CONSTELLATIONS OF THE STARRY HEAVENS.
THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC.
NO. OF
STARS.
KAMES OF CONSTELLATIONS.
PRINCIPAL STARS.
MAO.
67
Aries, the Ram.
143
Aldebaran . . . .
1
87
Gemini, the Twins . . . .
Castor and Pollux. .
1--2
87
Cancer, the Crab.
101
1
117
Virgo, the Virgin . . . . .
Spica Virginis . . .
1
53
Libra, the Scales.
37
Scorpio, the Scorpion . . . .
1
73
Sagittarius, the Archer.
54
Capricornus, the Goat.
119
Aquarius, the Water Bearer.
115
Pisces, the Fishes.
? From the Greek word for animals or living creatures.
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132 THE CREATION.
PRINCIPAL CONSTELLATIONS IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE.
NAMES OF CONSTELLATIONS.
PRINCIPAL STARS.
MAO.
Ursa Major, the Great Bear . . . .
Ursa Minor, the Lesser Bear . . . .
1
Polar Star . . . .
2
2
1
1
Draco.
Triangulum, the Triangle.
Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown.
Serpens, the Serpent.
Hercules, with the Branch.
Vega
1
1
1
Sagitla, the Arrow.
Altair
Delphinus, the Dolphin.
Cassiopeia, the Lady in her Chair.
Pegasus.
Andromeda.
