May 1, 1886.] 



♦ KNONA^LEDGE ♦ 



201 



^^LUSTRATED^MAGAZINE^ 

 NCE,lITERATURLMfii 



LONDON: MAT 1, 1886. 



THE UNKNOWABLE. 



By Eichaed A. Peoctoe. 



WORSHIP OF THE PLANETS. 



ITH the progress of time, it became clear to 

 the worshippers of the sun and moon, that 

 these orbs moved around the star-sphere 

 according to definite laws. The idea might 

 still remain that unless due pi-ayere and 

 sacrifices were oflfered up to each of them, 

 they might be oflended, and cease either for 

 a while, or for ever, to pursue their pi-oper 

 circuits. But inevitably the thought would intrude that 

 the sun and the moon were sure to move as they had been 

 wont to do since men had first observed them, and that it 

 was idle to pray for what was sure to take place. For 

 uncerfcunty is a necessary element in prayer. Those who 

 deem it right, nay, a duty, to pray for fine weather iifcer 

 long rains, or for rains after long drought, would not think 

 of pi-aying that the sun should rise to-morrow or ascend to 

 his due height in the heavens as the year progresses; nor 

 would they pray that he should stand still or in any other 

 way behave as they know he never has behaved and never 

 can. We can not only see from the sacrifices ofiered at the 

 time of new moon, sunrise, sunset, and still more solemnly 

 at the spring equinox and the autumn equinox, that in old 

 times men thought it was worth while to try to keep the 

 sun and moon in their proper courses bj' duly propitiating 

 those heavenly bodies, but we know that so ignorant were 

 they of the laws of the celestial movements, that they did 

 not hesitate to pray the sun and moon not. to move in their 

 proper courses. As that exceedingly religious rhyme-writer, 

 Robert Montgomery, did not hesitate to invite Deity to 

 " Pause and think," so the medicine men of olden times 

 were i-eady to request the sun and the moon to stand still, 

 and either pereuadcd themselves, or tried to per.suaile others, 

 that on occasions even such bold prayers as this had been 

 answered. But though the earth-central ide;i left men freer 

 to imagine such marvels to be possible than men can be 

 in our time (except, of coui\-e, the ignorant) even the 

 obser\ant believer in the earth-central theory must early 

 have Ijecome conscious that the sun and the moon move 

 according to regular law, and will neither hasttn nor check 

 their movements in response to prayei-s or sacrifices. 



No doubt most men in those days regarded such ideas as 

 profane and blasphemous. As fossil-minded folk in our 

 days proclaim that science is setting on one side the 

 Almighty in the name of univei'sal evolution, so would 

 the ignorant of those old sun-worshipping and moon- 

 worshipping days have lamented that theii- gods were 

 being set aside in the name of uniform motion. We have 

 only to consider the horror with which the Copemican 



theory and afterwards the theory of gravitation were 

 received, to perceive what a shock there must have been 

 for the worshippers of the sun and moon in the idea that 

 these bodies have, each of them, their appointed paths. 



But in the meantime other orbs would have attracted the 

 attention of those persons — priests, astrouomers, or what- 

 soever we may call them — who attended to the movements 

 of the sun and moon, determining the times and seasons for 

 sacrifices and for all other ceremonial observances. They found 

 five other bodies ti-avelling along the zodiacal track, already 

 recognised as the highway of the gods. 



Jupiter and Mars must first have been distinguished from 

 the fixed stars by their movements, though Venus certainly 

 attracted attention earher by her lustre and her alternate 

 appearance on either side of their great god, the sun. Even 

 Mercury may have been noticed as a strangely moving 

 body — never seen except near the sun, and passing rapidly 

 from one side to the other — before Mars and Jupiter were 

 distinguished from the fixed stars. AVe, indeed, seldom 

 see Mercury at all, and never see him as a conspicuous 

 orb ; but in clearer and less humid skies than ours Mercury 

 shines out resplendently, well justifying the name given to 

 him by the ancient astronomers — the Sparkling One. 



It may probably have been a long time before either 

 Venus or Mercury was recognised as traversing the zodLxcal 

 track, which had been assigned to the sun and moon. On 

 the contrary, Jupiter and Mars, so soon as they were dis- 

 tinguished at all from the fixed stars, would be seen to have 

 the zodiac for their pathway. Later, Si'u:n would be dis- 

 tinguished as a planet, though it might be hard to determine 

 whether he was probably first recognised as such through 

 his movements or through the peculiar quality of his light, 

 which distinguishes him in marked degree from the fixed 

 stars. 



So soon as the five planets had been recognised —one may 

 almost fay discovered — the ])riestly observers could not fail 

 to regard those bodies as deities, like the sun and moon, as 

 beings therefore to be propitiated by prayer and sacrifice. It 

 was not merely as Wordsworth rather mildly puts it, that 

 these " radiant Mercuries seemed to move, carrying through 

 Eether, in perpetual round, decrees and resolutions of the 

 gods," but that they seemed to move as gods. 



In some respects the planets would seem to be possessed 

 of greater power than the sun and moon. These two orbs, 

 though moving on the star-sphere, seemed obliged to move 

 alwajs in the same direction, and even on the self-same track, 

 for it would be long before the varying path of the moon 

 would be recognised. The other five moving bodies were 

 free to pursue such tracks as seemed good to them, "now 

 high, now low, then hid, progressive, retrograde, and standing 

 still." In this freedom there must cerlaialy have been 

 recognised an element of power. Moreover, some of the 

 planets were seen to travel with much statelier solemnity of 

 motion than either the sun or moon, while every one of the 

 five moved more slowly than the moon, which circles the 

 star-spheres in '21^ days. Comparative slowness or stateli- 

 ness of motion would be recognised by those first observers 

 (who supposed that eveiy thing they saw they must be able 

 to interpret) as indicating superior dignity, if not superior 

 power. 



With regard to power, indeed, they would be quite pre- 

 pared to believe that " great or bright infers not excellence." 

 It is quite likely that the influences of the stars on the 

 earth and on the fortunes of men and nations, were con- 

 sidered fully equal in importance to the influences of the sun 

 and moon. And though the five planets might not pour 

 heat on the earth, or raise tides, they might well be sup- 

 posed to exert other influences, which though less obvious 

 might be equally or even much more importa^t. What 



