One can not read the wonderful messages of light—one can not study the sun, the moon, and the stars in any manner—without perceiving that the physical universe is enormously greater than he had thought, and that the creation, of which the Earth is an infinitesimal part, is almost infinitely more magnificent in actual magnitude than the imaginary domain which men of old times pictured as the dwelling-place of the all-controlling gods; without feeling that he has risen to a higher plane, and that his intellectual life has taken a nobler aim and a broader scope.
FOOTNOTES
[A] Let the reader remember that the distance between the two stars in the brim of the bowl of the Dipper is about ten degrees, and he will have a measuring-stick that he can apply in estimating other distances in the heavens.
[B] A similar calculation of the internal appearances of the Hercules cluster, which I made, was published in 1887 in the "New York Sun."
[C] The Henry Brothers have continued the photographic work described above, and their later achievements are even more interesting and wonderful. They have found that there are many nebulous masses involved in the group of the Pleiades, and have photographed them. One of the most amazing phenomena in their great photograph of the Pleiades is a long wisp or streak of nebulous matter, along which eight or nine stars are strung in a manner which irresistibly suggests an intimate connection between the stars and the nebula. This recalls the recent (August, 1888) discovery made by Prof. Holden, with the great Lick telescope, concerning the structure of the celebrated ring nebula in Lyra, which, it appears, is composed of concentric ovals of stars and nebulous stuff, so arranged that we must believe they are intimately associated in a most wonderful community.
[D] The following extract from a letter by Bessel to Humboldt, written in 1844 (see "Cosmos," vol. iii, p. 186), is interesting, in view of the discoveries made since then: "At all events I continue in the belief that Procyon and Sirius are true double stars, consisting of a visible and an invisible star. No reason exists for considering luminosity an essential property of these bodies. The fact that numberless stars are visible is evidently no proof against the existence of an equally incalculable number of invisible ones. The physical difficulty of a change in the proper motion is satisfactorily set aside by the hypothesis of dark stars."
[E] I should, perhaps, qualify the statement in the text slightly in favor of a lunar lady to whom Mr. Henry M. Parkhurst first called my attention. About nine days after new moon a rather pretty and decidedly feminine face appears on the western half of the disk. It is formed by the mountains and table-lands embraced by the Sea of Serenity, the Sea of Tranquillity, the Sea of Vapors, etc., and is best seen with the aid of an opera-glass of low power. The face is readily distinguishable on Rutherfurd's celebrated photograph of the full moon. It is necessary for this purpose to turn the photograph upside down, since it is a telescopic picture, and consequently reversed. The crater Tycho forms a breastpin for the lady, and Menelaus glitters like a diamond ornament in her hair, while the range of the Apennines resembles a sort of coronet resting on her forehead. This same woman in the moon, it appears, was described by Dr. James Thompson years ago, and, for aught I know, she may be the Diana to whom Herrick sang:
"Queen and huntress chaste and fair,
Seated in thy silver chair,
Now the Sun is laid to sleep,
State in wonted manner keep.
Hesperus entreats thy light,
Goddess excellently bright."
[F] There are other uses to which such eye-glasses may be put by sky-gazers. I habitually carry a pair for studying clouds. It is wonderful how much the effect of great cloud-masses is heightened by them, especially when seen in a bright light. Delicate curls and striæ of cirrus, which escape the uncovered eye in the glare of sunlight, can be readily detected and studied by the use of neutral-tinted eye-glasses or spectacles.
[G] See "Consolations in Travel, or, the Last Days of a Philosopher"; Dialogue I.