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♦ KNOW^LEDGE ♦ 



[July 1, 1887. 



So loug as religion attempts to deal with the unknown 

 as the absolute unknowable, and fixes its domain within the 

 mi>;taken limit thus drawn, conflicts must ever be renewed 

 with growing science, and the event of such conflicts must 

 be ever the same. When religion ceases to proclaim that 

 " Deity is here, or It is there," and admits that the force lying 

 at the back of all phenomena, Absolutely Unknowable 

 Power, can alone be accepted as the truly divine mystery of 

 the universe, then and then only the advance of science will 

 become (as it should be) a matter of no moment so far as 

 religion is concerned. When men pictured Hell as the 

 lower story, Heaven as the top story, of a world whereof 

 the middle story was the earth, science, in showing the earth 

 to be a mere point in space, was shaking the very founda- 

 tions of i-eligion. But that was because religion was based 

 on falseh'-assamed knowledge. If science is shaking the 

 foundations of religion now, it can only be for a similar 

 reason. True religion has no more occasion to fear science 

 than che infinite has occasion to fear astronomy. 



THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM. 



By Richard A. Proctor. 



EW things perplex me more than the fanciful 

 way in which the general public take up 

 some matters of scientific interest and 

 neglect others. Although my real work 

 lies in scientific study rather than in the 

 exposition of scientific matters, I am con- 

 siderably interested in studying the man- 

 ner of thought of those whose avocations 

 are for the most jjart unscientific. And repeatedly I have 

 been surprised, not to say disappointed, by the lax attention 

 of the public in regard to matters which to the student of 

 science appear intensely interesting, and the earnestness, 

 almost enthusiasm, with which the same public will consider 

 matters relating, indeed, to science, but in which the student 

 of science will hardly consent to take any interest at all, so 

 trivial are they, or uncertain, or unfruitful. 



Amongst the matters about which I have received the 

 greatest number of inquiries I may mention specially what 

 the unscientific choose to call the Star of Bethlehem. I am 

 not referring now to the celestial appearance recorded as 

 seen in the East at the time of the Nativity — a subject 

 already dealt with fully in these columns. I am considering 

 a certain new star seen in the year 1.572, which persons 

 iguoi'ant of astronomy insist on chilling, without a shadow 

 of real reason, tlie Star of Bethlehem. I know not to whom 

 the honour of inventing this ridiculous title for the .star 

 should be assigned. Probably one those semi-religious, but 

 wholly ignorant fanatics, who look to the heavens for signs 

 and portents relating to the aflairs of men, and imagine that 

 the fires which are presently (they assert) to destroy this 

 sinful earth will come straight down on us from the celestial 

 canopy over our heads, conceived the brilliant idea. But, 

 whoever first thought of it, the idea has been received with 

 enthusiasm by kindred minds ; and such minds being much 

 more numerous than minds more reasonable, the notion is 

 found knocking about all over the world, in companj- with 

 an amount of ignorance about even the elements of astro- 

 nomy which is truly distressing in its bewildering com- 

 pleteness. 



The latest development of the preposterous notion that a 

 remote variable sun in Cassiopeia, probably at least a million 

 times further from us than our own sun, is the same orb 

 which led the astrologers of Chaldea first to Jerusalem, and 

 then, after disappearing for a time, from Jerusalem to 



Bethlehem (an eight miles' walk) has now been announced. 

 A " piofessor " — bless us I — of Hartford, Ky., has actually 

 seen the new star in Cassiopeia, close by the point overhead, 

 a little towards the noi'th. Astronomers will be more 

 startled by the position assigned to Cassiopeia than by the 

 discovery of a new star in that well-known constellation. 

 Any one could look at Cassiopeia and imagine — being igno- 

 rant — that some perfectly well-known star in that constella- 

 tion is a new one. In fact, this Kentucky " professor," by 

 remarking that there are five bright stars in Cassiopeia, 

 " and two or three others," shows clearly enough what 

 oddly incoiTect ideas he has about the array of stars in that 

 compact but tolerably rich constellation. What is really 

 stupendous in his achievement, is not his .seeing a new star 

 in Cassiopeia, but his seeing Cassiopeia in a new place. 

 Could Cassiopeia be seen at night in the middle of j\lay 

 towards the zenith, most assuredly the discovery would 

 merit most serious attention. For such a portent would 

 imply much more serious trouble than the appearance of a 

 whole legion of new stars. An old constellation (and 

 Cassiopeia is very old) appearing in a new place, would 

 imply very serious terrestrial disturbance. If the astro, 

 nomei's we pay to keep track of time b^- close survey of the 

 stars — our Government astronomers, I mean — had to report 

 Cassiopeia now as in the zenith, at any time between night- 

 fall and morning twilight — matters would look unpleasant 

 indeed. Old earth would have to wobble from her true 

 position in fearful fashion to bring about such a portentous 

 phenomenon as that ; for, as a mere matter of fact, Cassio- 

 peia ought at midnight in May to be nearer the horizon 

 than the point overhead. It has been suggested that the 

 miracle of the .standing still of the sun can only be explained, 

 for modern science, by the staying of the earth's rotation 

 during a cei'tain interval, the earth resuming her steady 

 spin when the Jews had done their fighting; to which the 

 sceptical crew who are always suggesting troublesome doubts, 

 have objected that if the earth stopped rotating, every 

 earthly thing would have been destroyed by the shock, and 

 consumed immediately afterwards by the tremendous heat 

 instantly generated. But this would be nothing compared 

 with the significance of the Kentuckian professor's miracle. 

 For this would requu-e not merely such a trifle as that the 

 earth's spin should be stopped and presently started afresh, 

 but that the actual position of the polai- axis should be 

 afl'ected. 



The question aiises whether we may not reject the 

 Kentuckian's miracle, even though his amiouncemeut is 

 prophetically worded. When we road in '■ King Solomon's 

 Mines " of a solar eclipse which remained total for half an 

 hour, to say nothing of its occuning a day after the moon 

 had been fall, which again occurred a day after the 

 moon had been " new," we do not feel bound to accept the 

 series of miraculous phenomena as the theologian accepts the 

 standing still of the sun and moon for the accommodation of 

 Jewish fighting folk. May we not in like manner suppose 

 that the professor of Kentucky has made a trifling misUike 1 

 To put the matter plainlv, may we not transfer our wonder 

 from the details of his sensational announcement to the 

 blafcmcy of his remarkable ignorance. 



To speak seriously, the Kentuckian jn'ofessor, in his holy 

 zeal to be the first to proclaim the appearance of the Star of 

 Bethlehem, has permitted himself the pri^-ilege of untruth. 

 Doubtle.ss he was, and is quite, certain that the star is due 

 this current year ; doubtless also he imagined that the star 

 may begin to be visible to very keen eyesight some time 

 before it becomes obvious to all. If the star really has a 

 message for mankind, as no doubt the Kentuckian professor 

 supposes, a man must be doing good service to the world 

 who gets beforehand with the star and starts the message a 



