601 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Science 



the wide world by sea and land, and the his- 

 torian who searches the records of bygone 

 ages, are everywhere met by the unvarying 

 and melancholy spectacle of man opposed to 

 man. He, therefore, who amid the discord- 

 ant strife of nations, would seek intellectual 

 repose, turns with delight to contemplate 

 the silent life of plants, and to study the 

 hidden forces of Nature in her sacred 

 sanctuaries; or yielding to that inherent 

 impulse, which for thousands of years has 

 glowed in the breast of man, directs 

 his mind by a mysterious presentiment of 

 his destiny towards the celestial orbs, which, 

 in undisturbed harmony, pursue their an- 

 cient and eternal course. HUMBOLDT Views 

 of Nature, p. 20. (Bell, 1896.) 



2972. SCIENCE BEFORE INSTRU- 

 MENTS Discovery of Kepler's Laws Antedated 

 the Telescope Achievements of TychoBrahe 

 and Other Early Scientists. The basis of a 

 very important part of the astronomy of 

 our planetary system was already laid be- 

 fore the memorable years 1608 and 1610, 

 and therefore before the great epoch of 

 the invention of telescopic vision, and its 

 application to astronomical purposes. The 

 treasure transmitted by the learning of the 

 Greeks and Arabs was augmented by the 

 careful and persevering labors of George 

 Purbach, Regiomontanus (i. c., Johann Miil- 

 ler ) , and Bernhard Walther, of Nurnberg. To 

 their efforts succeeded a bold and glorious 

 development of thought the Copernican 

 system; this, again, was followed by the 

 rich treasures derived from the exact ob- 

 servations of Tycho Brahe and the combined 

 acumen and persevering spirit of calculation 

 of Kepler. Two great men, Kepler and Gali- 

 leo, occupy the most important turning- 

 point in the history of measuring astrono- 

 my, both indicating the epoch that separates 

 observation by the naked eye, tho aided 

 by greatly improved instruments of meas- 

 urement, from telescopic vision. Galileo was 

 at that period forty-four, and Kepler thirty- 

 seven years of age; Tycho Brahe, the most 

 exact of the measuring astronomers of that 

 great age, had been dead seven years. . . . 

 None of Kepler's contemporaries, Galileo 

 not excepted, bestowed any adequate praise 

 on the discovery of the three laws which 

 have immortalized his name. Discovered 

 by purely empirical methods, altho more 

 rich in results to the whole domain of sci- 

 ence than the isolated discovery of unseen 

 cosmical bodies, these laws belong entirely 

 to the period of natural vision, to the epoch 

 of Tycho Brahe and his observations, altho 

 the printing of the work entitled " Astro- 

 nomia nova seu Physica coelestis de motibus 

 Stellse Martis " was not completed until 

 1609, and the third law, that the squares 

 of the periodic times of revolution of two 

 planets are as the cubes of their mean dis- 

 tances, was first fully developed in 1619. 

 HUMBOLDT Cosmos, vol. iii.p. 69. (H., 1897.) 



2973. SCIENCE BROADENS OUR 

 ESTIMATE OF THE UNIVERSE .Leads 



to Modest Estimate of Ourselves (Ps. viii, 

 4). Did the discoveries of science stop here, 

 we have enough to justify the exclamation 

 of the psalmist, " What is man, that thou 

 are mindful of him; or the son of man, that 

 thou shouldest deign to visit him?" They 

 widen the empire of creation far beyond the 

 limits which were formerly assigned to it. 

 They give us to see that yon sun, throned 

 in the center of his planetary system, gives 

 light, and warmth, and the vicissitude of 

 seasons to an extent of surface several hun- 

 dreds of times greater than that of the earth 

 which we inhabit. They lay open to us a 

 number of worlds, rolling in their respective 

 circles around this vast luminary, and prove 

 that the ball which we tread upon, with all 

 its mighty burden of oceans and continents, 

 instead of being distinguished from the 

 others, is among the least of them, and, from 

 some of the more distant planets, would not 

 occupy a visible point in the concave of their 

 firmament. They let us know that tho this 

 mighty earth, with all its myriads of peo- 

 ple, were to sink into annihilation, there 

 are some worlds where an event so awful 

 to us would be unnoticed and unknown, and 

 others where it would be nothing more than 

 the disappearance of a little star which had 

 ceased from its twinkling. We should feel a 

 sentiment of modesty at this just but hu- 

 miliating representation. We should learn 

 not to look on our earth as the universe of 

 God, but one paltry and insignificant portion 

 of it; that it is only one of the many man- 

 sions which the Supreme Being has created 

 for the accommodation of his worshipers, 

 and only one of the many worlds rolling in 

 that flood of light which the sun pours 

 around him to the outer limits of the planet- 

 ary system. CHALMERS Astronomical Dis- 

 courses, p. 24. (R. Ct., 1848.) 



2974. SCIENCE CANNOT DISPROVE 

 THEOLOGY Redemption May Reach All the 

 Worlds of Space. For anything he [the ob- 

 jector] can tell, sin has found its way into 

 these other worlds. For anything he can tell, 

 their people have banished themselves from 

 communion with God. . . . For anything 

 he can tell, the redemption proclaimed to us 

 is not one solitary instance, or not the whole 

 of that redemption which is by the Son of 

 God, but only our part in a plan of mercy, 

 equal in magnificence to all that astronomy 

 has brought within the range of human 

 contemplation. For anything he can tell, 

 the moral pestilence, which walks abroad 

 over the face of our world, may have spread 

 its desolations over all the planets of all 

 the systems which the telescope has made 

 known to us. . . . For anything he can 

 tell, the wonder-working God, who has 

 strewed the field of immensity with so many 

 worlds, and spread the shelter of his om- 

 nipotence over them, may have sent a mes- 

 sage of love to each. . . . For anything 



