Child continues: "Astronomy is without question, the grandest of sciences. It deals with masses, distances, and velocities, which in their immensity belong specially to itself alone, and of which the mere conception transcends the utmost stretch of our finite faculties. In no other branch of science is the limited grasp of our intellect more forcibly brought home to us, yet, though baffled in the effort to rise to the level of its requirements, our strivings are by no means profitless. Is it not truly a precious privilege to be able to trace, imperfect though it may be, the hand of the Almighty Architect in these, His grandest works, and to obtain by this means a broader consciousness of His Omnipotence?
Could each one be privileged to look through Herschel's telescope on a clear night, and visibly behold the wonders of the Heavens, our faith in the realities of astronomy would pass with a sudden bound from theory into practice; planets and stars would become henceforth distinct and solid existences in our minds, our doubts vanish, and our belief settle into conviction. We should behold the mysterious moon of our childhood, mapped into brilliant mountain-peaks, and dark precipices, and softly lighted plains; we should see Jupiter shining like another fair Luna, with attendant satellites moving round him in their well-known paths; or turn with admiration to Saturn encircled by his famous ring, with outlines as distinct as if that glorious creation lay but a few miles distant. Perhaps we may behold the beauteous Venus shining with resplendent circular disk, or curiously passing through her many phases in mimic rivalry of the Moon. Or, leaving these near neighbors far behind, we may penetrate more deeply into space, and mark how the bright flashing stars are reduced to a small, round, unmagnifiable point. Such a privilege would give us a more realizing sense of the power of the great Creator."
THE DISCOVERY OF THE MOTION OF THE EARTH AND HEAVENLY BODIES.
The science of Astronomy is one of the oldest that has occupied the human mind. That the belief in Astrology was its forerunner, we cannot doubt. Professor Olmsted tells us, that, "At a period of very remote antiquity, Astronomy was cultivated in China, India, Chaldea, and Egypt." Three several schools were established, ranging from three to six hundred years before the Christian era. Anaximander, in the school of Miletus, taught the sublime doctrine that the planets are inhabited, and that the stars are suns of other systems. Pythagoras was the founder of the celebrated school of Crotona, upon the south-eastern coast of Italy, some five hundred years before the Christian era. He held that the Sun was the centre of the solar system, around which all the planets revolve, and that the stars are so many suns, each the centre of a system like our own. He also held that the Earth revolves daily on its axis, and yearly around the sun. Although many of his opinions were founded in mere conjecture, and were erroneous, yet we see that some important ones were founded on truth.
He also held that the planets were inhabited, that the earth and planets were ever revolving in regular order, "keeping up a loud and grand celestial concert, inaudible to man, but, as the 'music of the spheres,' audible to the Gods."
But the mind of man was not then prepared to grasp the feeble rays of light, and add thereto, by the power of expanding intellect. Although many succeeded Pythagoras, whose scientific attainments proved a blessing to the world, and whose names will go down to all succeeding generations, as the learned, the good, and the great of their time; yet prejudice and superstition again prevailed, and the true lights of this science were lost sight of, and, for near two thousand years, ages of darkness prevailed, until Copernicus appeared about the fifteenth century of the Christian era. He again revived the idea advanced by Pythagoras, that the earth and planets moved regularly in their orbits, and that the sun was the centre of the solar system. Yet with him, as with the former, it was little more than mere conjecture.
We quote again Prof. Olmsted, in regard to these earlier astronomers, who were struggling after light, and truth, in this grandest of sciences: "Although, therefore, Pythagoras fathomed the profound doctrine, that the Sun is the centre around which the earth and all the planets revolve; yet we have no evidence that he ever solved the irregular motions of the planets, in conformity with his hypothesis, although the explanation of the diurnal revolution of the heavens, by that hypothesis, involved no difficulty."
Again he says, "Ignorant as Copernicus was of the principle of gravitation, and of most of the laws of motion, he could go but little way in following out the consequences of his own hypothesis; and all that can be claimed for him is, that he solved, by means of it, most of the common phenomena of the celestial motions. He was indeed upon the road to truth, and advanced some way in its sure path; but he was able to adduce but few independent proofs, to show that it was truth. It was only near the close of his life that he published his system to the world, and that only at the urgent request of friends; anticipating, perhaps, the opposition of a bigoted priesthood, whose fury was afterwards poured upon the head of Galileo, for maintaining the same doctrines."