324 



♦ KNOWLEDGE • 



[April 17, 1885. 



they are only sunk so low into the immense depth of 

 heaven, that we cannot possibly see them : in this case the 

 vortex follows his sun, and all's well again. 'Tis true, that 

 the greatest part of the fixed stars have not this motion, 

 by which they remove themselves so far from us, because 

 at other times they might return again nearer to us, and we 

 should see them sometimes greater, and sometimes less, 

 which never happens. But we will suppose that none l>ut 

 the little, light, and most active vortexes, which sli]i be- 

 tween the othei-s, make certain voyages, after which they 

 ■return ^ again, while the main body of vortexes remain 

 unmov'd. 'Tis likewise very strange that some fixed stars 

 show themselves to us, spending a great deal of time in 

 appearing and disappearing, and at last totally and entirely 

 disappear. Half suns would appear again at their set and 

 regulated time. But suns which should be sunk low into 

 the depths of heaven would disappear but once, and not 

 appear again for a vast space of time. Now, madam, 

 boldly declare your opinion : Must not these stars of 

 necessity be suns, which are so much darkened as not to 

 be visible to us, and yet afterwards shine again, and at last 

 are wholly extinct? 



" How can a sun," said the Marchioness, " be darkened, 

 and quite extinguish'd, when it is in its own nature a 

 fountain of light ? " 



" It may be done, madam," said I, " with all the ease in 

 the world, if Descartes's opinion be true,* that our sun lias 

 spots : now, whether these spots be scum or thick mists, or 

 what you please, they may thicken and unite, till at last 

 they thicken the sun with a crust, which daily grows 

 thicker, and then farewell sun. We have hitherto 'scap'd 

 pretty well ; but 'tis said, that the sun for some whole 

 years together has look'd very pale : for example, the year 

 after Cesar's death, it was this crust that then began to 

 grow ; but the force of the sun broke and dissipated it : 

 had it continued, we had been all lost people." 



" You make me tremble," reply'd the lady. " And now 

 I know the fatal consequences of the sun's paleness, I be- 

 lieve, instead of going every morning to my glass,' to see 

 how I look, I shall cast my eyes up to heaven, to see 

 whether or no the sun looks pale." 



" Oh madam," said I, " there is a great deal of time 

 required to ruin a world." 



"I grant it," said she; "yet 'tis but time that is 

 reqnird. 



"I confess it," said I ; " all this immense mass of matter, 

 that composes the universe, is in perpetual motion, no part 

 of It excepted : and since every part is moved, you may 

 be sure that changes must happen sooner or later ■ but 

 stall in times proportion'd to the eifect The antients 

 were pleasant gentlemen, to imagine that the celestial 

 bodies were m their own nature unchangeable, because 

 they observed no change in them ; but they did not 

 live long enough to confirm their opinion by their 

 own experience; they were boys in comparison of 

 m Give me leave, madam, to explain myself 

 by an allegory : If roses, which last but a day 

 could write histories, and leave memoirs one to another; 

 and if the first rose should draw an exact picture of his 

 gardener, and after fifteen thousand rose ages it should be 

 left to other roses, and so on still to those that should suc- 

 ceed without any change in it ; should the roses hereupon 

 say, we have every day seen the same gardener, and in the 

 memory of roses none ever saw any gardener but this, he 

 IS still the same he was ; and therefore certainly he will 



• There is something essentially French abont this calm descrip- 

 faon^of a discovery of Galileo's as an "opinion" of Descartes.— 



not die as we do, for there is no change at all in him. 

 Would not these rose.s, madam, talk very foolishly ? And 

 yet there would be more reason in their discourse than 

 there was in what the ancients said concerning celestial 

 bodies ; and tho' even to this very day there should appear 

 no visible change in the heavens, and the matter of which 

 they are made should have all the signs of an eternal 

 duration, without any change ; yet I would not believe 

 them unchangeable till I had the experience of many 

 more ages. Ought we, whose lives are but a span, to 

 make our continuance the mensuration of any other being ? 

 'Tis not so easy a matter to be eternal. To have lasted 

 many ages of men, one after another, is no sign of immor- 

 tality." 



" Truly," says the Marchioness, " I find the worlds are 

 far from being able to pretend to it ; I will not do them 

 so much honour as to compare them to the gardener who 

 lived so much longer than the roses. I begin to think 

 them like the roses themselves, which blow one day, and 

 die the next ; for now I understand that if old stars dis- 

 appear, new ones will come in their room, because every 

 species must preserve itself." 



" No species, madam," said I, " can totally perish ; some 

 perhaps will tell you that such new stars are suns, which 

 return to our sight again after they have been a long time 

 hid from us in the profundity of heaven ; others may tell 

 you they are suns cleared from that thick crust 

 which once covered them. If I should think all 

 this possible, yet I likewise believe that the universe 

 may be fram'd in such a manner that from time to time 

 it may produce new suns. Why may not that 

 matter, which is proper to make a sun, be dispers'd here 

 and there, and gather itself again at long run into one cer- 

 tain place, and lay the foundation of a new world 1 I am 

 very much inclin'd to believe such new productions, because 

 they suit with that glorious and admirable idea which I 

 have of the works of Nature. Can we think that all-wise 

 Nature knows no more than the secret of making herbs and 

 plants live and die by a continual revolution 1 1 am verily 

 persuaded (and are not you so too, madam'!) that Nature, 

 without much cost or pains, can put the same secret in 

 practice upon the worlds." 



"I now find," says she, "the worlds, the heavens, and 

 celestial bodies eo subject to change, that I am come to 

 myself again." 



"To recover ourselves the better," I reply'd, "let us say 

 no more of these matters. We are arriv'd at the very roof 

 and top of all the heavens ; and to tell you whether there 

 be any stars beyond it, you must have an abler astro- 

 nomer than I am. You may place worlds there, or no 

 worlds, as you please. 'Tis the philosopher's empire to 

 describe those vast invisible countries which are and are not, 

 or are such as he pleases to make 'em. It is enough for 

 me to have carried your mind as far as you can see with 

 your eyes." 



" Well," says the Marchioness, " I have now in my head 

 the whole system of the Universe. How learned am I 

 become ! " 



"Indeed, madam," said I, "you are pretty knowing ; and 

 you are so with the advantage of believing or not believing 

 anything I have said. For all my pains I only beg this 

 favour, that whenever you look on the sun, the heavens, or 

 the stars, you wUl think of me." 



An important work on the " Chittagong Hill Tribes," by Dr. E. 

 Eicbeck, translated by Professor Keane, ia announced by Messrs. 

 Asher & Co. To the ethnologist, the anthropologist, the zoologist, 

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 prove of high interest. 



