112 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1936 



The good sense of Shakespeare rejected the extravagant claims of 

 astrology, the mother of astronomy. In one of his sonnets he 

 remarks : 



Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck ; 



And yet methinks I have astronomy, 



But not to tell of good or evil luck. 



Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality. 



(From XlVth Sonnet.) 



Indeed he had astronomy ! From the earliest times the celestial 

 host has always been an inspiration to literature. The Psalmist sings : 



The Heavens declare the glory of God 



And the Firmament showeth his handiwork. 



Again 



When I consider Thy Heavens, the vpork of Thy fingers 

 The moon and the stars which Thou has ordained 

 What is man that Thou art mindful of him 

 Or the son of man that Thou visitest him. 



Yet compared to the glorious blaze of knowledge of these subjects in 

 which we now live, the astronomical reflections which the Psalmist 

 or even Shakespeare could indulge were as the faintest glimmering. 

 From the astonishing combination of simplicity and complexity re- 

 siding in the submicroscopic atomic world to the infinitely outreach- 

 ing boundaries of the starry universe as we now know them, there 

 is displayed such a wealth of marvelous adaptations as cannot fail 

 to inspire even the dullest person with astonishment and awe. 



Consider any solid body; be it stone, wood, metal, flesh, or any 

 other. Imagine a single morsel of it, no larger than a mote that flies 

 in the sunbeam. Small as it is, it contains at least 10 million billion 

 molecules. Each of these molecules contains many atoms. Each 

 of these atoms contains several or many smaller bodies besides pro- 

 tons and electrons. But these multitudinous ultimate constituents 

 of every speck of matter lie so far sepai'ated one from another that 

 they are relatively as remote, each to each, as the stars are in the 

 heavens. Solids, then, are no more to be regarded as solids, but 

 rather as openwork, gossamerlike constructions, wherein the spaces 

 are inmiense compared to the occupied parts. Motions of the most 

 beautiful configurations dance about within these systems. The elec- 

 tric forces which are imprisoned in these infinitesimal structures 

 baffle imagination to conceive of their immensity. A large book would 

 not suffice to tell of all the wonders that one invisible atom contains, 

 in a space far below the limit of vision of the most powerful 

 microscope. 



On the other hand, consider the heavens. We live upon the earth, 

 8,000 miles in diameter, which revolves about the sun 93,000,000 



