Oct. 12, 1883.] 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



229 



"D ctionary of Americanisms," fourth edition, 1877. But 

 it began to be used about that time. It had been earlier 

 applied by the profession (stage) to those ■nho wished to be 

 actress-killers. 



A POEM suggested by four of my lectures on astronomy 

 has come to me this week. My usual rule has been to have 

 no poetry in these columns, although there are some sub- 

 jects of scientific study which seem to lend themselves 

 very suitably to poetic treatment. In the present case, 

 an exception has been made, to which I trust readers will 

 not take exception. 



VOICES OF THE SUNS.* 



By Vega. 



I WATCHED the depths of darkness infinite 

 Bestrewn with stars, till dreaming I beheld 

 From out the mystic realms beyond my ken 

 A £.tar come forth with even gliding rush : 

 Till sweeping onwards shone its orb 

 With all the mighty meaning of a sun, — 

 A sun girt round by many-peopled worlds, 

 And worlds as yet not peopled being young, 

 And worlds long since unpeopled being old 

 And dead. Their ruling sun shone on them — 

 On the living, on the yet unfashioned. 

 On the dead : on all it shone, though idly 

 Where as yet life had not sprung from forth 

 The teeming womb of time ; and idly too 

 Where life had ceased to be. On all those worlds 

 The mystic force which lives in matter worked 

 Its mighty will. Dead worlds and worlds scarce born 

 And worlds alive with myriad forms of life 

 Swept circling round that stately ruling orl). 

 As it sailed past I heard its solemn voice 

 Proclaiming through the realms of space the song, 

 The everlasting song of Life and Death — 

 Of wealth of Life and everduring waste 

 And dearth of Life. It sang of present, past, 

 And coming plenitudes of Life ; of past 

 And coming wastes of Death : infinitudes 

 At once of Life and Death ; each without end. 

 Without beginning each. " Along my path — 

 In front," it said, " and backwards whence I came — 

 And all around, above below my cour.'se. 

 Lie millions such as I, through endless realms 

 Of star-strewn space. There is no end to God's 

 Domain of suns and systems ruled by suns — 

 No end and no beginning through all space — 

 But everlasting, mystic, wonderful, 

 The song of us sounds ever round the throne 

 Of Ilim who reigns supreme, the Life of All — 

 Unknown ! yea evermore TjNKNOWAriLE !" 

 Then as the Psalmist sang of old I said — 

 Because, .so mov(!d, I could not choose but speak — 

 " What Lord is man that Thou should'st care 

 For him or for his kind, the son of man that Thou 

 Should'st mindful be of him or his 1 " Then rang 

 A voice of solemn thunder thi'ough the spheres 

 " Siiy rather, What is Space or Time to Me, 

 That thou should'st deem mere mightiness of mass 

 And plenitude of time can outweigh mind 

 And soul i Can worlds and suns My power know 1 

 Can ix'ons after toons sing My praise as man 

 Gifted by INIe with power to know My power, can tell 



* I.inos su^i^t^steil by four lectures on Astronoiiiv (Birth and Death 

 of Wui-lds, The Sun, Tlie Jlcon, and Tlie Star Depths). 



The meaning of the music of My spheres 1 



Then I said, " Nay Lord, but if the words 



Of men are worth the utterance, they are thine. 



Lo we are but the creatures of Thy hand. 



We see but part of all Thy wondrous work. 



Could we but see the glory of Thy Light, 



Could we but hear the thunder of Thy Power, 



We should become both blind and deaf — 



Deafened by strident tones, made blind by light. 



In Thee alone we live and move, in Thee 



We have our being. But shall we, finite, hymn 



The praises of Thine Infinite? Shall weak man. 



The creature, paint with erring brush the Sun 



Of Might and Power and Wisdom evermore supreme t " 



***** 

 The answer came, " Shalt thou. My creature, doubt, 

 Or hold My Will in question 1 Learn that the least 

 Of all the minds My Will has made 

 Outweighs not once but many thousand times 

 The mightiest mere mass : the thoughts of human hearts 

 Outvie the movements of a million suns. 

 The rush of systems infinite through space. 



WEATHEll FORECASTS AND HOW TO 

 MAKE THEM. 



By John Browning, F.R.A.S. 



THE BAIN-BAND SPECTROSCOPE. 



THE rain-bands are like the Fraunhofer lines, at right 

 angles to the spectrum, but instead of being sharply- 

 defined, they are simply shaded bands, which appear darker 

 as rain becomes imminent. When they are very prominent 

 they are more conspicuous than any of the Fraunhofer 

 lines. 



Almost the only difficulty experienced in using the spec- 

 troscope for observing the rain-band is that of knowing 

 where to look for the band or bands in the spectrum. 



By using the spectroscope in the manner now to be de- 

 scribed, and carefully consulting the engravings here given, 

 I trust this preliminary difliculty will be avoided. Take the 

 spectroscope in tlie left hand, and looking through the eye- 

 piece vilh tlie sliding lube towards the eye, direct the instru- 

 ment towards a white cloud at about 20" or 30° above the 

 horizon, that is, at about from one quarter to one-third of 

 the distance from the liorizon to the zenith, or, in other 

 words, overhead. If the instrument has an adjustable 

 slit, close the jaws by turning the largest milled ring at 

 the opposite end to t}\e eye-piece from left to right, 

 wliile you are looking through it, until lines begin to 

 appear in the direction of the length of the spectrum. 

 Then slowly and carefully open the jaws of the slit until 

 these horizontal lines disappear. Now turn the red end of 

 the spectrum towards the left, and examine the coloured 

 riband of light graduating from red through orange, yellow, 

 green, and blue into violet, known as the spectrum. 



Fig. 1. 



Just where the red and yellow meet in the spectrum 

 there is a fine line across the spectrum which is known as 

 the D line. In the ordinary rain-band spectroscope (Fig. 1) 



