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Page 3
COLORED PLATE REPRESENTING VARIOUS SPECTA
MAPS TO FIND THE STARS
[Page 1]
I.
CREATIVE PROCESSES.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the
earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the
deep."--_Genesis_ i. 1, 2.
[Page 2]
"Not to the domes, where crumbling arch and column
Attest the feebleness of mortal hand,
But to that fane, most catholic and solemn,
Which God hath planned,--
To that cathedral, boundless as our wonder,
Whose quenchless lamps the sun and stars supply;
Its choir the winds and waves, its organ thunder,
Its dome the sky." H. W. LONGFELLOW.
"The heavens are a point from the pen of His perfection;
The world is a rose-bud from the bower of His beauty;
The sun is a spark from the light of His wisdom;
And the sky a bubble on the sea of His power."
SIR W. JONES.
[Page 3]
RECREATIONS IN ASTRONOMY.
* * * * *
I.
_CREATIVE PROCESSES._
During all the ages there has been one bright and glittering page
of loftiest wisdom unrolled before the eye of man. That this page
may be read in every part, man's whole world turns him before it.
This motion apparently changes the eternally stable stars into a
moving panorama, but it is only so in appearance. The sky is a
vast, immovable dial-plate of "that clock whose pendulum ticks
ages instead of seconds," and whose time is eternity. The moon
moves among the illuminated figures, traversing the dial quickly,
like a second-hand, once a month. The sun, like a minute-hand, goes
over the dial once a year. Various planets stand for hour-hands,
moving over the dial in various periods reaching up to one hundred
and sixty-four years; while the earth, like a ship of exploration,
sails the infinite azure, bearing the observers to different points
where they may investigate the infinite problems of this mighty
machinery.
This dial not only shows present movements, but it keeps the history
of uncounted ages past ready to be [Page 4] read backward in proper
order; and it has glorious volumes of prophecy, revealing the
far-off future to any man who is able to look thereon, break the
seals, and read the record. Glowing stars are the alphabet of this
lofty page. They combine to form words. Meteors, rainbows, auroras,
shifting groups of stars, make pictures vast and significant as the
armies, angels, and falling stars in the Revelation of St.
John--changing and progressive pictures of infinite wisdom and
power.
Men have not yet advanced as far as those who saw the pictures John
describes, and hence the panorama is not understood. That continuous
speech that day after day uttereth is not heard; the knowledge that
night after night showeth is not seen; and the invisible things
of God from the creation of the world, even his eternal power and
Godhead, clearly discoverable from things that are made, are not
apprehended.
The greatest triumphs of men's minds have been in astronomy--and
ever must be. We have not learned its alphabet yet. We read only
easy lessons, with as many mistakes as happy guesses. But in time we
shall know all the letters, become familiar with the combinations,
be apt at their interpretation, and will read with facility the
lessons of wisdom and power that are written on the earth, blazoned
in the skies, and pictured by the flowers below and the rainbows
above.
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