COMING ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS. 69 



Here are the declinations taken from the United States Almanac, every one 

 being north ; Sun, 23° 26'; Moon, 7°; Mercury, 22° 9'; Venus, 13° 24'; Mars, 

 9° 37' i Jupiter, 15° 37'; Saturn, 12° 19'; Uranus, 8° 28'; Neptune, 14° 52'. 



But this is no cause why astrologers should seek to create alarm. It is true 

 that when all the planets are on one side of the equator, they will exert an influ- 

 ence to lessen the angle between the ecliptic and equinoctial, or, in other words, 

 draw P. nearer to SN. The equatorial diameter of the Earth is 26 miles great- 

 er than the polar; this makes the equatorial protuberance 13 miles high all around 

 the Earth. There is more matter to be attracted about the equator than at the 

 poles. The excess of attraction from the Sun would, in time, make P. and SN. , 

 or the ecliptic and equator, coincide, were it not that the earth spins on its axis. 

 The force generated by axial rotation counteracts the attraction on the bulging 

 equatorial region, thus giving stability to the direction of the Earth's axis and plane 

 of the equator. This is called the persistency of the plane of rotation, and may 

 be studied by anybody who has a perfect gyroscope. But the force evolved by 

 the axial rotation of the Earth is not exactly sufficient to overcome the excess of 

 attraction. The two planes do tend to approach, but instead of doing so, the 

 equinoctial slides around on the ecliptic from east to west, contrary to the order 

 of the signs. 



The amount of this retrogradation is 50" annually, and has amounted, since 

 its discovery by the Greeks 2,000 years ago, to a whole sign. Everybody knows 

 that the star Castor is in Gemini, but in the cut it appears in Cancer, its true 

 position in reference to the signs. The stars in Gemini occupy the sign Cancer, 

 those of Cancer the sign Leo, and so on around the heavens. In the summer, 

 therefore, of 1881, all the bodies in the solar system will join in the endeavor 

 to make the ecliptic and equator coincide. This would, in time, put an end 

 to the changes of the seasons ; give to all places equal in latitude a climate that 

 would remain invariable, and would doubtless destroy multitudes of the human 

 species. 



Astrologers who have not grasped the full meaning of the laws of gravitation 

 and motion, fill the papers with ominous prophecies of approaching danger. 



There is not the slightest cause for alarm ; all that the planets can do, no mat- 

 ter where they are in their orbits, is to cause a minute increase in precession, so far as 

 their declinations are concerned. This we have seen is 50" annually, an arc so 

 small as to require mathematical instruments to measure it. The total augmenta- 

 tion of precession the planets are able to cause, is less than yi^ of 50", provided 

 they maintain their united effort throughout the year ! But they cannot be in 

 combination longer than the length of the day — the 19th of June. True, they 

 will be in north declination longer, but their directions will be so changed, that 

 by resolution and composition of forces, they will have less than their maximum 

 attraction on the equatorial elevation of the Earth. Their maximum power acting 

 during a year would be less than the small amount mentioned, a displacement of 

 the equinoxes so minute as to be incapable of measurement. 



