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Page 7
When we come to the perturbations caused by the mutual attractions
of the sun, nine planets, twenty moons, one hundred and ninety-two
asteroids, millions [Page 14] of comets, and innumerable meteoric
bodies swarming in space, and when we add to all these, that belong
to one solar system, the attractions of all the systems of the other
suns that sparkle on a brilliant winter night, we are compelled to
say, "As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high above our
thoughts and ways must be the thoughts and ways of Him who
comprehends and directs them all."
[Page 15]
II.
CREATIVE PROGRESS.
"And God said, Let there be light, and there was light."--_Genesis_
i., 3.
"God is light."--1 _John_, i. 5.
[Page 16]
"Hail! holy light, offspring of Heaven first born,
Or of the eternal, co-eternal beam,
May I express thee unblamed? since God is light,
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright essence increate."
MILTON.
"A million torches lighted by Thy hand
Wander unwearied through the blue abyss:
They own Thy power, accomplish Thy command,
All gay with life, all eloquent with bliss.
What shall we call them? Piles of crystal light--
A glorious company of golden streams--
Lamps of celestial ether burning bright--
Suns lighting systems with their joyous beams?
But 'Thou to these art as the noon to night."
DERZHAVIN, trans. by BOWRING.
[Page 17]
II.
_CREATIVE PROGRESS._
Worlds would be very imperfect and useless when simply endowed
with attraction and inertia, if no time were allowed for these
forces to work out their legitimate results. We want something
more than swirling seas of attracted gases, something more than
compacted rocks. We look for soil, verdure, a paradise of beauty,
animal life, and immortal minds. Let us go on with the process.
Light is the child of force, and the child, like its father, is full
of power. We dowered our created world with but a single quality--a
force of attraction. It not only had attraction for its own material
substance, but sent out an all-pervasive attraction into space. By
the force of condensation it flamed like a sun, and not only lighted
its own substance, but it filled all space with the luminous outgoings
of its power. A world may be limited, but its influence cannot;
its body may have bounds, but its soul is infinite. Everywhere is
its manifestation as real, power as effective, presence as actual,
as at the central point. He that studies ponderable bodies alone
is not studying the universe, only its skeleton. Skeletons are
somewhat interesting in themselves, but far more so when covered
with flesh, flushed with beauty, and inspired with soul. The
universe [Page 18] has bones, flesh, beauty, soul, and all is one.
It can be understood only by a study of all its parts, and by
tracing effect to cause.
But how can condensation cause light? Power cannot be quiet. The
mighty locomotive trembles with its own energy. A smitten piece
of iron has all its infinitesimal atoms set in vehement commotion;
they surge back and forth among themselves, like the waves of a
storm-blown lake. Heat is a mode of motion. A heated body commences
a vigorous vibration among its particles, and communicates these
vibrations to the surrounding air and ether. When these vibrations
reach 396,000,000,000,000 per second, the human eye, fitted to be
affected by that number, discerns the emitted undulations, and the
object seems to glow with a dull red light; becoming hotter, the
vibrations increase in rapidity. When they reach 765,000,000,000,000
per second the color becomes violet, and the eye can observe them no
farther. Between these numbers are those of different rapidities,
which affect the eye--as orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, in an
almost infinite number of shades--according to the sensitiveness
of the eye.
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