26 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Lomb in their first observatory bulle- 

 tin. 



Mr. Sinclair of the U. S. C. & G. S. 

 has been engaged for several weeks - 

 past in establishing the exact latitude 

 and longitude of the observatory. For 

 this w^ork the wireless receiving appa- 

 ratus is used to receive the time from 

 Washington. When the exact location 

 has been established the Bausch & 

 Lomb observatory will be regularly 

 listed in the world directory of obser- 

 vatories. 



Different Life and Conditions. 

 The impossibility of life existing as 

 we know it on the planets, has been 

 generally established — even for Mars. 

 But one must not forget that in all 

 probability millions of the stars are, 

 like the sun, the centers of an invisible 

 retinue of planets and satellites, per- 

 haps even more vast and complex than 

 our own solar system. Surely it is 

 not likely that our planet is the only 

 one in the whole cosmic universe ca- 

 pable of supporting human life. There 

 may be planets where races of human 

 beings live whose civilization surpasses 

 ours by an even greater margin than 

 we have advanced beyond the igno- 

 rance of primitive man, to say nothing 

 of the possibility of life existing of a 

 totally different nature. Bergson has 

 declared that the chemical affinity of 

 the carbon, oxygen and hydrogen 

 atoms is the genesis of all biological 

 species. May there not be worlds 

 where other elements unite to create 

 species of an entirely different type ? — 

 Henry Handy McHenry in "Popular 

 Astronomy." 



^ >j: >!; ;f; ^ 



Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 

 neither have entered into the heart of 

 man, the things which God hath pre- 

 pared for them that love Him. — I Cor. 

 H, 9. • 



It has been roughly estimated that 

 the extinct stars or suns outnumber 

 the lucent ones, one hundred to one. 

 \ erily, the universe is one vast ceme- 

 tery of dead suns and systems of 

 worlds. The process of creation or of 

 evolution of matter is, however, con- 

 tinuously going on, suns and star sys- 

 tems are ever being evolved, and as 

 Flammarion puts it, "in space there are 

 both cradles and tombs." — "The Call 

 of the Stars," (Kippax). 



Claim of Primary Importance of Na- 

 ture by the Episcopal Church. 



Everybody seems to admit abstract- 

 ly and more or less concretely, per- 

 haps, that God may be discovered 

 somewhere in nature ; but I am saying 

 that He is primarily revealed in nature. 

 We believe this is contrary to a widely 

 held public opinion where the Bible 

 takes first place and nature second, if 

 indeed it takes any place at all. 



But since the article, "Nature as well 

 as Revelation Reveals God." in the 

 March number was written, my atten- 

 tion has been called to an authoritative 

 statement by the Right Reverend 

 Chauncey B. Brewster, D. D., Bishop 

 of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecti- 

 cut. In his valuable and interesting 

 book. "Aspects of Revelation." he 

 shows his appreciation of nature as of 

 first importance by entitling the first 

 chapter. "A Revelation in Nature," and 

 more than this he distinctly states in 

 the summing up of that chapter. "Na- 

 ture is the primary revelation." 



I quote the first and the last para- 

 graph of that interesting chapter : 



"Before any written books was the 

 book of nature. It has always lain 

 open for men as a primer, wherein they 

 were to learn to read their first lessons, 

 deciphering its characters, spelling out 

 the syllables, and guessing at the mean- 

 ing. The material world has teaching 

 for those who can read aright. 



"The manifestation in natm'e. as re- 

 gards what is revealed and what is 

 concealed, is such as to warrant expec- 

 tation of a further manifestation 

 through something yet higher, that 

 shall more worthily express One who 

 is not only in all. but also above all. 

 Nature is the primary revelation. In 

 order, however, to read it aright, we 

 must have illumination. We need not 

 be surprised to find that the illuminp- 

 tion wherein truly to read nature, ar-d 

 to see its divine significance, is a light 

 that shines within. 



" 'The li.oiit that never was on sea or 

 land.' " 



