[THE SUN AS SEEN BY MR. PROCTOR SEPTEMBER 25TH, 1870.]
In the month of June, 1843, a spot was visible which, according to the measurements of Schwabe, the astronomer, had a length of no less than 74,816 miles. On March 15th, 1858, observers of the great solar eclipse had an opportunity of seeing a spot which had a breadth of 107,520 miles. But the most remarkable view of the sun was that exhibited September 25th, 1870. One of the openings was so vast that it was calculated that eighteen of our worlds, placed side by side, would have scarcely filled the chasm.
The latest discoveries in science tend rather to demonstrate that the sun's light is but very faintly visible on his globe; and that there is no such thing as solar heat. What is popularly called so is only the heat caused by the friction of the waves of light passing through the atmosphere, or striking against the earth. "We approach the question of the sun's inhabitability," says Sir David Brewster, "with the certain knowledge that the sun is not a red hot globe, but that its nucleus is a solid, opaque mass, receiving very little light from its luminous atmosphere." "For ought we know the dark, solid nucleus of the sun may have existed for millions of years and given out no light whatever. It is quite possible that variations of the sun's light may have been caused through electrical action. The telescope has shown us that the fixed stars are also luminous bodies similar to our sun, only very far distant from us. Some of these have suddenly flashed into existence, where none were previously visible. The appearance of twenty-one such stars is on record. Others have greatly increased in brightness; and, still further, many familiar suns have ceased to shine. On a careful re-examination of the heavens, many stars are found to be missing." (Herschel's Outlines, Sec. 832.)
The variation of our supply of light from the sun is the only explanation we have of the great alternations of heat and cold which have been so extensive as, at one period, to have clothed high northern latitudes, such as Greenland and Siberia, with a more than tropical luxuriance of vegetation, and, at another time, to have buried vast tracts of Europe and America, now enjoying a genial climate, under vast glaciers and mountains of ice.
Again, light, so far from being solely derived from the sun, exists in, and can be educed from almost any known substance. The metallic bases of most earths and alkalies are capable of emitting light in suitable electrical conditions, and a brilliant flame can be produced by the combustion even of water. All the metals can be made to flash forth lightnings under suitable electric and magnetic excitements; and the crystals of several rocks give out light during the process of crystallization. Thousands of miles of the earth's surface must once have presented the lurid glow of a vast furnace of melted granite. Even at a far later period of its history, it may have shone with a luster little inferior to that of the sun; for lime, of which unknown thousands of miles of its strata consist, when subject to a heat much less than that produced by contact with melted granite or lava, emits a brilliant, white light of such intensity that the eye cannot support its luster. (See Turner's Chemistry, Sec. 160.)
As is well known, the moon is a dark, opaque body, therefore the copper color of the moon, during a total eclipse, when the dark side of the earth is turned towards the moon, shows us that the earth, even now, is a source of light. That God could command the light to shine out of darkness, and convert the very ocean into a magnificent illumination, the following fact clearly proves:
"Captain Bonnycastle coming up the gulf of St. Lawrence, on the 7th of September, 1826, was roused by the mate of the vessel in great alarm from an unusual appearance. It was a starlight night, when suddenly the sky became overcast in the direction of the highland of Cornwallis County, and an instantaneous and intensely vivid light, resembling the aurora, or northern lights, shot out from the hitherto dark and gloomy sea, on the lee bow, which was so brilliant that it lighted every thing distinctly, even to the mast-head. The light spread over the sea between the two shores, and the waves, which before had been tranquil, now began to be agitated. Captain Bonnycastle describes the scene as that of a blazing sheet of awful and most brilliant light. A long and vivid line of light, superior in brightness to the parts of the sea not immediately near the vessel, showed the base of the high, frowning and dark land abreast; the sky became lowering and more intensely obscure. Long, tortuous lines of light showed immense numbers of large fish darting about as if in consternation. The top-sail yard and mizen boom were lighted by the glare, as if gas-lights had been burning directly below them; and until just before daybreak, at four o'clock, the most minute objects were distinctly visible." (Connection of Physical Sciences, p. 288.)
In the fourth and fifth verses of the first chapter of Genesis we are told, "And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And the evening and morning were the first day."
In spite of all the sneers of infidels, the candid reader finds the divine record sublime in its simplicity. The good effect of light upon our planet was immediately apparent. The earth having now become sufficiently condensed to cast a shadow, there was, of course, one side enjoying the light of the sun while the other was in shadow. Thus the dark body of the earth was the means by which God divided the light from the darkness, as at the present; and the first rotation of the earth upon its axis causing the shadow and the light to be alternately on every part of the earth, produced the evening and the morning of the first day. How long the first day was, we know not. From observations of phenomena going on in the Spiral Nebula at the present time, it is reasonable to suppose that the first revolution of the earth upon its axis occupied a vast epoch of time.