Tribune Extras Pamphlet Series. 



stars, but the noblest of all created things that min- 

 ister to the wants of man. In Ions; p;i-t ages there 

 were men who worshiped the sun. ami knelt down 

 in adoration before him, because they believed he 

 was the source of all good upon the earth ; he was, 

 in fact, their God. Although in this they forgot the 

 Creator and worshiped the creature, yet if there was 

 any fault it may be pardoned. How little we think 

 when we see the sun rising as a ruddy globe above 

 the horizon, involved in leaden-colored clouds how 

 little we think that at every instant that globe with 

 a mighty force is attracting not only the earth but 

 other planets far larger than the earth ! Still less do 

 we think how, not merely in the daytime, but through 

 all time, that sun is pouring forth supplies of light 

 and heat, infinitely greater than are required for the 

 wants of this earth. Now let us consider first the 

 facts we have to deal with, in order that we may see 

 how large and how powerful he is, and thus thor- 

 oughly appreciate his physical characteristics when 

 we come to consider them. 



DISTANCE AND SIZE OF THE SUN. 



In the first place, let us consider the distance and 

 size of the sun, which I need hardly say are nearly 

 related. There is a comparison by which we arc 

 enabled to indicate at, once the relation of the sun 

 to us in magnitude and distance. It' this earth were 

 represented by a globe one inch in diameter, then 

 the sun's globe would be represented by an orb three 

 yards in diameter. Jt' the sun's globe in turn were 

 represented by a globe one inch in diameter, then 

 the distance would be represented by three yards ; 

 our earth a globe one inch in diameter, the sun three 

 yard- ; the -1111 a globe one inch in diameter, the dis- 

 tance i lii-re yards. Now let us consider what an 

 enormous distance that means. An Armstrong gun 

 tire* a bullet at the rate of 400 yards per second. A 

 bullet tired at that rate, and maintaining it to the 

 -mi, would take 13 years to get there, and the sound 

 of the explosion would reach the sun half a year 

 Liter. In the case, therefore, of those men who wor- 

 shiped the sun and rai.-ed their voices in prayer to 

 him. if their voices could have been heard, and there 

 were .in atmi'-phere, a medium of intercommunica- 

 tion by which the sound of their voices could reach 

 him. 1.;^, years \\miid have been needed before their 

 prayen could ha\e reached their god. If there were 

 .1 tee! rod '-"line, ung the earth with the sun, and 

 the earth wen' by it brought into communication 

 with tin- HIM, ::'o years would elapse before the strain 

 would reach Hie earth. Aunt IPT consideration and 

 this wa^ suggested by Prut. Mendeiihall of your coun- 

 try i- this: Feeling i-, e.inveycd along the nerves 

 10 times slower than sound travels. If, therefore, an 

 infant were born having an arm of the somewhat 



inconvenient length of 91,000,000 miles, so as to reach 

 the sun; and if, while in the cradle in boyhood, he 

 were to stretch out his arm and touch the sun, that 

 infant mi^lit grow to the three-score years and ten 

 allotted to man, or even to four-score, but he would 

 never be conscious of the fact that the tip of his 

 finger was burned. He must live 135 years before 

 any effect would be experienced. 



GKAVITY ACTS INSTANTANEOUSLY. 



Light, which travels with such velocity, which 

 travels L'00,000 miles in a single second of time, take- 

 eight minutes to reach us from the sun. -o that when 

 we look at the sun we see him not in the place he 

 actually occupies in the ecliptic, but the place which 

 he occupied eight minutes before. And this lead- to 

 the strange consideration that if gravity, the force 

 by which the sun rules the earth, were to occupy 

 the same time in passing over the interval between 

 the sun and the earth that light does, the years 

 would grow continually longer. Let us suppose the 

 earth, traveling from my left to my right around the 

 sun, which is directly opposite. When a body is 

 traveling forward against a material shower, such as 

 rainfall, the shower will appear to come somewhat 

 from the direction in which the shower is moving. 

 Thus the light from the sun come*, somewhat 

 obliquely to meet the earth. Suppose the fore.- of 

 attraction occupied the same time; that force would 

 occupy a line, not from I he sun but from a point 

 on the right of the sun; it would draw the earth not. 

 toward the sun but somewhat in the direction 

 toward which the earth is moving, and there would 

 be a continued increase in the earth's velocity and 

 an increase in the length of the year: and tin- would 

 be manifested in a few \ears, and stjll more in the 

 hundreds of years during which a-tninom> ha- been 

 a science; and because there is no appreciable in- 

 crease in the length of the year, it is shown that the 

 force of gravity acts instantaneously; that it acts 

 very much more quickly than light. Xow thai, is a 

 wonderful thought. That is a kind of force entirely 

 unlike that with which we are familiar. It' we strike 

 the water, a wave travels almm the .surface. If we 

 raise the voice in sound, it. is conveyed along the 

 waves of air, -and there is a certain rate of tran>ini- 

 sion. Light would circle the earth ei'_dii times in a 

 single second, but still it take- a certain lime in trav- 

 eling; but gravity, the. sun'-, might, acts, so far a.- we 

 can judge, instantaneously. It is one of the forces 

 of which we are able to ijive no account \\hatevei, 

 for all our laws of matter are opposed lo the concep- 

 tion of force acting otherwise than by eout.i'i. 

 Newton is reported to have said that a man must be 

 mad. who could assume (hat any force whatever could 

 act except by direct contact. 



