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BOOKMARK THIS PAGE NOW and check back often.Kevin Andrew Woolseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268449682429697653noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552238792208982895.post-23846958406330940282009-05-13T20:55:00.000-07:002009-05-13T20:56:27.825-07:00Sponsors and Related Sites<a href="http://100-secrets-of-wisdom.blogspot.com/">http://100-secrets-of-wisdom.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://first-chapters-of-books.blogspot.com/">http://first-chapters-of-books.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://familiar-quotations.blogspot.com/">http://familiar-quotations.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://sourced-quotations-online.blogspot.com/">http://sourced-quotations-online.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://amazing-quotation-collection.blogspot.com/">http://amazing-quotation-collection.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://worldsbestpoems.blogspot.com/">http://worldsbestpoems.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://attitudesandinsights.blogspot.com/">http://attitudesandinsights.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://worship-songs-chords-lyrics.blogspot.com/">http://worship-songs-chords-lyrics.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://leadingexperts.blogspot.com/">http://leadingexperts.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://roofing-contractor-baton-rouge.blogspot.com/">http://roofing-contractor-baton-rouge.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://today-365.blogspot.com/">http://today-365.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://10thoughtsaday.blogspot.com/">http://10thoughtsaday.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://booksandfun.blogspot.com/">http://booksandfun.blogspot.com/</a>Kevin Andrew Woolseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268449682429697653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552238792208982895.post-80943634759876119802009-05-13T20:10:00.000-07:002009-05-13T20:11:23.639-07:00General Science by Bertha M. ClarkCHAPTER I<br /><br />HEAT<br /><br /><br />I. Value of Fire. Every day, uncontrolled fire wipes out human<br />lives and destroys vast amounts of property; every day, fire,<br />controlled and regulated in stove and furnace, cooks our food and<br />warms our houses. Fire melts ore and allows of the forging of iron, as<br />in the blacksmith's shop, and of the fashioning of innumerable objects<br />serviceable to man. Heated boilers change water into the steam which<br />drives our engines on land and sea. Heat causes rain and wind, fog and<br />cloud; heat enables vegetation to grow and thus indirectly provides<br />our food. Whether heat comes directly from the sun or from artificial<br />sources such as coal, wood, oil, or electricity, it is vitally<br />connected with our daily life, and for this reason the facts and<br />theories relative to it are among the most important that can be<br />studied. Heat, if properly regulated and controlled, would never be<br />injurious to man; hence in the following paragraphs heat will be<br />considered merely in its helpful capacity.<br /><br />2. General Effect of Heat. _Expansion and Contraction_. One of the<br />best-known effects of heat is the change which it causes in the size<br />of a substance. Every housewife knows that if a kettle is filled with<br />cold water to begin with, there will be an overflow as soon as the<br />water becomes heated. Heat causes not only water, but all other<br />liquids, to occupy more space, or to expand, and in some cases the<br />expansion, or increase in size, is surprisingly large. For example, if<br />100 pints of ice water is heated in a kettle, the 100 pints will<br />steadily expand until, at the boiling point, it will occupy as much<br />space as 104 pints of ice water.<br /><br />The expansion of water can be easily shown by heating a flask (Fig. I)<br />filled with water and closed by a cork through which a narrow tube<br />passes. As the water is heated, it expands and forces its way up the<br />narrow tube. If the heat is removed, the liquid cools, contracts, and<br />slowly falls in the tube, resuming in time its original size or<br />volume. A similar observation can be made with alcohol, mercury, or<br />any other convenient liquid.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 1.--As the water becomes warmer it expands and<br />rise in the narrow tube.]<br /><br />Not only liquids are affected by heat and cold, but solids also are<br />subject to similar changes. A metal ball which when cool will just<br />slip through a ring (Fig. 2) will, when heated, be too large to slip<br />through the ring. Telegraph and telephone wires which in winter are<br />stretched taut from pole to pole, sag in hot weather and are much too<br />long. In summer they are exposed to the fierce rays of the sun, become<br />strongly heated, and expand sufficiently to sag. If the wires were<br />stretched taut in the summer, there would not be sufficient leeway for<br />the contraction which accompanies cold weather, and in winter they<br />would snap.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 2--When the ball is heated, it become too large to<br />slip through the ring.]<br /><br />Air expands greatly when heated (Fig. 3), but since air is practically<br />invisible, we are not ordinarily conscious of any change in it. The<br />expansion of air can be readily shown by putting a drop of ink in a<br />thin glass tube, inserting the tube in the cork of a flask, and<br />applying heat to the flask (Fig. 4). The ink is forced up the tube by<br />the expanding air. Even the warmth of the hand is generally sufficient<br />to cause the drop to rise steadily in the tube. The rise of the drop<br />of ink shows that the air in the flask occupies more space than<br />formerly, and since the quantity of air has not changed, each cubic<br />inch of space must hold less warm air than| it held of cold air; that<br />is, one cubic inch of warm air weighs less than one cubic inch of cold<br />air, or warm air is less dense than cold air. All gases, if not<br />confined, expand when heated and contract as they cool. Heat, in<br />general, causes substances to expand or become less dense.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 3--As the air in _A_ is heated, it expands and<br />escapes in the form of bubbles.]<br /><br />3. Amount of Expansion and Contraction. While most substances expand<br />when heated and contract when cooled, they are not all affected<br />equally by the same changes in temperature. Alcohol expands more than<br />water, and water more than mercury. Steel wire which measures 1/4 mile<br />on a snowy day will gain 25 inches in length on a warm summer day, and<br />an aluminum wire under the same conditions would gain 50 inches in<br />length.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 4.--As the air in _A_ is heated, it expands and<br />forces the drop of ink up the tube.]<br /><br />4. Advantages and Disadvantages of Expansion and Contraction. We owe<br />the snug fit of metal tires and bands to the expansion and contraction<br />resulting from heating and cooling. The tire of a wagon wheel is made<br />slightly smaller than the wheel which it is to protect; it is then<br />put into a very hot fire and heated until it has expanded sufficiently<br />to slip on the wheel. As the tire cools it contracts and fits the<br />wheel closely.<br /><br />In a railroad, spaces are usually left between consecutive rails in<br />order to allow for expansion during the summer.<br /><br />The unsightly cracks and humps in cement floors are sometimes due to<br />the expansion resulting from heat (Fig. 5). Cracking from this cause<br />can frequently be avoided by cutting the soft cement into squares, the<br />spaces between them giving opportunity for expansion just as do the<br />spaces between the rails of railroads.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 5: A cement walk broken by expansion due to sun<br />heat.]<br /><br />In the construction of long wire fences provision must be made for<br />tightening the wire in summer, otherwise great sagging would occur.<br /><br />Heat plays an important part in the splitting of rocks and in the<br />formation of débris. Rocks in exposed places are greatly affected by<br />changes in temperature, and in regions where the changes in<br />temperature are sudden, severe, and frequent, the rocks are not able<br />to withstand the strain of expansion and contraction, and as a result<br />crack and split. In the Sahara Desert much crumbling of the rock into<br />sand has been caused by the intense heat of the day followed by the<br />sharp frost of night. The heat of the day causes the rocks to expand,<br />and the cold of night causes them to contract, and these two forces<br />constantly at work loosen the grains of the rock and force them out of<br />place, thus producing crumbling.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Splitting and crumbling of rock caused by<br />alternating heat and cold.]<br /><br />The surface of the rock is the most exposed part, and during the day<br />the surface, heated by the sun's rays, expands and becomes too large<br />for the interior, and crumbling and splitting result from the strain.<br />With the sudden fall of temperature in the late afternoon and night,<br />the surface of the rock becomes greatly chilled and colder than the<br />rock beneath; the surface rock therefore contracts and shrinks more<br />than the underlying rock, and again crumbling results (Fig. 6).<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Debris formed from crumbled rock.]<br /><br />On bare mountains, the heating and cooling effects of the sun are very<br />striking(Fig. 7); the surface of many a mountain peak is covered with<br />cracked rock so insecure that a touch or step will dislodge the<br />fragments and start them down the mountain slope. The lower levels of<br />mountains are frequently buried several feet under débris which has<br />been formed in this way from higher peaks, and which has slowly<br />accumulated at the lower levels.<br /><br />5. Temperature. When an object feels hot to the touch, we say that<br />it has a high temperature; when it feels cold to the touch, that it<br />has a low temperature; but we are not accurate judges of heat. Ice<br />water seems comparatively warm after eating ice cream, and yet we know<br />that ice water is by no means warm. A room may seem warm to a person<br />who has been walking in the cold air, while it may feel decidedly cold<br />to some one who has come from a warmer room. If the hand is cold,<br />lukewarm water feels hot, but if the hand has been in very hot water<br />and is then transferred to lukewarm water, the latter will seem cold.<br />We see that the sensation or feeling of warmth is not an accurate<br />guide to the temperature of a substance; and yet until 1592, one<br />hundred years after the discovery of America, people relied solely<br />upon their sensations for the measurement of temperature. Very hot<br />substances cannot be touched without injury, and hence inconvenience<br />as well as the necessity for accuracy led to the invention of the<br />thermometer, an instrument whose operation depends upon the fact that<br />most substances expand when heated and contract when cooled.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Making a thermometer.]<br /><br />6. The Thermometer. The modern thermometer consists of a glass tube<br />at the lower end of which is a bulb filled with mercury or colored<br />alcohol (Fig. 8). After the bulb has been filled with the mercury, it<br />is placed in a beaker of water and the water is heated by a Bunsen<br />burner. As the water becomes warmer and warmer the level of the<br />mercury in the tube steadily rises until the water boils, when the<br />level remains stationary (Fig. 9). A scratch is made on the tube to<br />indicate the point to which the mercury rises when the bulb is placed<br />in boiling water, and this point is marked 212°. The tube is then<br />removed from the boiling water, and after cooling for a few minutes,<br />it is placed in a vessel containing finely chopped ice (Fig. 10). The<br />mercury column falls rapidly, but finally remains stationary, and at<br />this level another scratch is made on the tube and the point is marked<br />32°. The space between these two points, which represent the<br />temperatures of boiling water and of melting ice, is divided into 180<br />equal parts called degrees. The thermometer in use in the United<br />States is marked in this way and is called the Fahrenheit thermometer<br />after its designer. Before the degrees are etched on the thermometer<br />the open end of the tube is sealed.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Determining one of the fixed points of a<br />thermometer.]<br /><br />The Centigrade thermometer, in use in foreign countries and in all<br />scientific work, is similar to the Fahrenheit except that the fixed<br />points are marked 100° and 0°, and the interval between the points is<br />divided into 100 equal parts instead of into 180.<br /><br />_The boiling point of water is 212° F. or 100° C_.<br /><br />_The melting point of ice is 32° F. or 0° C_.<br /><br />Glass thermometers of the above type are the ones most generally used,<br />but there are many different types for special purposes.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Determining the lower fixed point of a<br />thermometer.]<br /><br />7. Some Uses of a Thermometer. One of the chief values of a<br />thermometer is the service it has rendered to medicine. If a<br />thermometer is held for a few minutes under the tongue of a normal,<br />healthy person, the mercury will rise to about 98.4° F. If the<br />temperature of the body registers several degrees above or below this<br />point, a physician should be consulted immediately. The temperature of<br />the body is a trustworthy indicator of general physical condition;<br />hence in all hospitals the temperature of patients is carefully taken<br />at stated intervals.<br /><br />Commercially, temperature readings are extremely important. In sugar<br />refineries the temperature of the heated liquids is observed most<br />carefully, since a difference in temperature, however slight, affects<br />not only the general appearance of sugars and sirups, but the quality<br />as well. The many varieties of steel likewise show the influence which<br />heat may have on the nature of a substance. By observation and tedious<br />experimentation it has been found that if hardened steel is heated to<br />about 450° F. and quickly cooled, it gives the fine cutting edge of<br />razors; if it is heated to about 500° F. and then cooled, the metal is<br />much coarser and is suitable for shears and farm implements; while if<br />it is heated but 50° F. higher, that is, to 550° F., it gives the fine<br />elastic steel of watch springs.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 11.--A well-made commercial thermometer.]<br /><br />A thermometer could be put to good use in every kitchen; the<br />inexperienced housekeeper who cannot judge of the "heat" of the oven<br />would be saved bad bread, etc., if the thermometer were a part of her<br />equipment. The thermometer can also be used in detecting adulterants.<br />Butter should melt at 94° F.; if it does not, you may be sure that it<br />is adulterated with suet or other cheap fat. Olive oil should be a<br />clear liquid above 75° F.; if, above this temperature, it looks<br />cloudy, you may be sure that it too is adulterated with fat.<br /><br />8. Methods of Heating Buildings. _Open Fireplaces and Stoves._<br />Before the time of stoves and furnaces, man heated his modest dwelling<br />by open fires alone. The burning logs gave warmth to the cabin and<br />served as a primitive cooking agent; and the smoke which usually<br />accompanies burning bodies was carried away by means of the chimney.<br />But in an open fireplace much heat escapes with the smoke and is lost,<br />and only a small portion streams into the room and gives warmth.<br /><br />When fuel is placed in an open fireplace (Fig. 12) and lighted, the<br />air immediately surrounding the fire becomes warmer and, because of<br />expansion, becomes lighter than the cold air above. The cold air,<br />being heavier, falls and forces the warmer air upward, and along with<br />the warm air goes the disagreeable smoke. The fall of the colder and<br />heavier air, and the rise of the warmer and hence lighter air, is<br />similar to the exchange which takes place when water is poured on oil;<br />the water, being heavier than oil, sinks to the bottom and forces the<br />oil to the surface. The warmer air which escapes up the chimney<br />carries with it the disagreeable smoke, and when all the smoke is got<br />rid of in this way, the chimney is said to draw well.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 12.--The open fireplace as an early method of<br />heating.]<br /><br />As the air is heated by the fire it expands, and is pushed up the<br />chimney by the cold air which is constantly entering through loose<br />windows and doors. Open fireplaces are very healthful because the air<br />which is driven out is impure, while the air which rushes in is fresh<br />and brings oxygen to the human being.<br /><br />But open fireplaces, while pleasant to look at, are not efficient for<br />either heating or cooking. The possibilities for the latter are<br />especially limited, and the invention of stoves was a great advance in<br />efficiency, economy, and comfort. A stove is a receptacle for fire,<br />provided with a definite inlet for air and a definite outlet for<br />smoke, and able to radiate into the room most of the heat produced<br />from the fire which burns within. The inlet, or draft, admits enough<br />air to cause the fire to burn brightly or slowly as the case may be.<br />If we wish a hot fire, the draft is opened wide and enough air enters<br />to produce a strong glow. If we wish a low fire, the inlet is only<br />partially opened, and just enough air enters to keep the fuel<br />smoldering.<br /><br />When the fire is started, the damper should be opened wide in order to<br />allow the escape of smoke; but after the fire is well started there is<br />less smoke, and the damper may be partly closed. If the damper is kept<br />open, coal is rapidly consumed, and the additional heat passes out<br />through the chimney, and is lost to use.<br /><br />9. Furnaces. _Hot Air_. The labor involved in the care of numerous<br />stoves is considerable, and hence the advent of a central heating<br />stove, or furnace, was a great saving in strength and fuel. A furnace<br />is a stove arranged as in Figure 13. The stove _S_, like all other<br />stoves, has an inlet for air and an outlet _C_ for smoke; but in<br />addition, it has built around it a chamber in which air circulates and<br />is warmed. The air warmed by the stove is forced upward by cold air<br />which enters from outside. For example, cold air constantly entering<br />at _E_ drives the air heated by _S_ through pipes and ducts to the<br />rooms to be heated.<br /><br />The metal pipes which convey the heated air from the furnace to the<br />ducts are sometimes covered with felt, asbestos, or other<br />non-conducting material in order that heat may not be lost during<br />transmission. The ducts which receive the heated air from the pipes<br />are built in the non-conducting walls of the house, and hence lose<br />practically no heat. The air which reaches halls and rooms is<br />therefore warm, in spite of its long journey from the cellar.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 13.--A furnace. Pipes conduct hot air to the<br />rooms.]<br /><br />Not only houses are warmed by a central heating stove, but whole<br />communities sometimes depend upon a central heating plant. In the<br />latter case, pipes closely wrapped with a non-conducting material<br />carry steam long distances underground to heat remote buildings.<br />Overbrook and Radnor, Pa., are towns in which such a system is used.<br /><br />10. Hot-water Heating. The heated air which rises from furnaces is<br />seldom hot enough to warm large buildings well; hence furnace heating<br />is being largely supplanted by hot-water heating.<br /><br />The principle of hot-water heating is shown by the following simple<br />experiment. Two flasks and two tubes are arranged as in Figure 15, the<br />upper flask containing a colored liquid and the lower flask clear<br />water. If heat is applied to _B_, one can see at the end of a few<br />seconds the downward circulation of the colored liquid and the upward<br />circulation of the clear water. If we represent a boiler by _B_, a<br />radiator by the coiled tube, and a safety tank by _C_, we shall have a<br />very fair illustration of the principle of a hot-water heating system.<br />The hot water in the radiators cools and, in cooling, gives up its<br />heat to the rooms and thus warms them.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 14.--Hot-water heating.]<br /><br />In hot-water heating systems, fresh air is not brought to the rooms,<br />for the radiators are closed pipes containing hot water. It is largely<br />for this reason that thoughtful people are careful to raise windows at<br />intervals. Some systems of hot-water heating secure ventilation by<br />confining the radiators to the basement, to which cold air from<br />outside is constantly admitted in such a way that it circulates over<br />the radiators and becomes strongly heated. This warm fresh air then<br />passes through ordinary flues to the rooms above.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 15.--The principle of hot-water heating.]<br /><br />In Figure 16, a radiator is shown in a boxlike structure in the<br />cellar. Fresh air from outside enters a flue at the right, passes the<br />radiator, where it is warmed, and then makes its way to the room<br />through a flue at the left. The warm air which thus enters the room is<br />thoroughly fresh. The actual labor involved in furnace heating and in<br />hot-water heating is practically the same, since coal must be fed to<br />the fire, and ashes must be removed; but the hot-water system has the<br />advantage of economy and cleanliness.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Fresh air from outside circulates over the<br />radiators and then rises into the rooms to be heated.]<br /><br />11. Fresh Air. Fresh air is essential to normal healthy living, and<br />2000 cubic feet of air per hour is desirable for each individual. If a<br />gentle breeze is blowing, a barely perceptible opening of a window<br />will give the needed amount, even if there are no additional drafts of<br />fresh air into the room through cracks. Most houses are so loosely<br />constructed that fresh air enters imperceptibly in many ways, and<br />whether we will or no, we receive some fresh air. The supply is,<br />however, never sufficient in itself and should not be depended upon<br />alone. At night, or at any other time when gas lights are required,<br />the need for ventilation increases, because every gas light in a room<br />uses up the same amount of air as four people.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 17.--The air which goes to the schoolrooms is<br />warmed by passage over the radiators.]<br /><br />In the preceding Section, we learned that many houses heated by hot<br />water are supplied with fresh-air pipes which admit fresh air into<br />separate rooms or into suites of rooms. In some cases the amount which<br />enters is so great that the air in a room is changed three or four<br />times an hour. The constant inflow of cold air and exit of warm air<br />necessitates larger radiators and more hot water and hence more coal<br />to heat the larger quantity of water, but the additional expense is<br />more than compensated by the gain in health.<br /><br />12. Winds and Currents. The gentlest summer breezes and the fiercest<br />blasts of winter are produced by the unequal heating of air. We have<br />seen that the air nearest to a stove or hot object becomes hotter than<br />the adjacent air, that it tends to expand and is replaced and pushed<br />upward and outward by colder, heavier air falling downward. We have<br />learned also that the moving liquid or gas carries with it heat which<br />it gradually gives out to surrounding bodies.<br /><br />When a liquid or a gas moves away from a hot object, carrying heat<br />with it, the process is called _convection_.<br /><br />Convection is responsible for winds and ocean currents, for land and<br />sea breezes, and other daily phenomena.<br /><br />The Gulf Stream illustrates the transference of heat by convection. A<br />large body of water is strongly heated at the equator, and then moves<br />away, carrying heat with it to distant regions, such as England and<br />Norway.<br /><br />Owing to the shape of the earth and its position with respect to the<br />sun, different portions of the earth are unequally heated. In those<br />portions where the earth is greatly heated, the air likewise will be<br />heated; there will be a tendency for the air to rise, and for the cold<br />air from surrounding regions to rush in to fill its place. In this way<br />winds are produced. There are many circumstances which modify winds<br />and currents, and it is not always easy to explain their direction<br />and velocity, but one very definite cause is the unequal heating of<br />the surface of the earth.<br /><br />13. Conduction. A poker used in stirring a fire becomes hot and<br />heats the hand grasping the poker, although only the opposite end of<br />the poker has actually been in the fire. Heat from the fire passed<br />into the poker, traveled along it, and warmed it. When heat flows in<br />this way from a warm part of a body to a colder part, the process is<br />called _conduction_. A flatiron is heated by conduction, the heat from<br />the warm stove passing into the cold flatiron and gradually heating<br />it.<br /><br />In convection, air and water circulate freely, carrying heat with<br />them; in conduction, heat flows from a warm region toward a cold<br />region, but there is no apparent motion of any kind.<br /><br />Heat travels more readily through some substances than through others.<br />All metals conduct heat well; irons placed on the fire become heated<br />throughout and cannot be grasped with the bare hand; iron utensils are<br />frequently made with wooden handles, because wood is a poor conductor<br />and does not allow heat from the iron to pass through it to the hand.<br />For the same reason a burning match may be held without discomfort<br />until the flame almost reaches the hand.<br /><br />Stoves and radiators are made of metal, because metals conduct heat<br />readily, and as fast as heat is generated within the stove by the<br />burning of fuel, or introduced into the radiator by the hot water, the<br />heat is conducted through the metal and escapes into the room.<br /><br />Hot-water pipes and steam pipes are usually wrapped with a<br />non-conducting substance, or insulator, such as asbestos, in order<br />that the heat may not escape, but shall be retained within the pipes<br />until it reaches the radiators within the rooms.<br /><br />The invention of the "Fireless Cooker" depended in part upon the<br />principle of non-conduction. Two vessels, one inside the other, are<br />separated by sawdust, asbestos, or other poor conducting material<br />(Fig. 18). Foods are heated in the usual way to the boiling point or<br />to a high temperature, and are then placed in the inner vessel. The<br />heat of the food cannot escape through the non-conducting material<br />which surrounds it, and hence remains in the food and slowly cooks it.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 18.--A fireless cooker.]<br /><br />A very interesting experiment for the testing of the efficacy of<br />non-conductors may be easily performed. Place hot water in a metal<br />vessel, and note by means of a thermometer the _rapidity_ with which<br />the water cools; then place water of the same temperature in a second<br />metal vessel similar to the first, but surrounded by asbestos or other<br />non-conducting material, and note the _slowness_ with which the<br />temperature falls.<br /><br />Chemical Change, an Effect of Heat. This effect of heat has a vital<br />influence on our lives, because the changes which take place when food<br />is cooked are due to it. The doughy mass which goes into the oven,<br />comes out a light spongy loaf; the small indigestible rice grain comes<br />out the swollen, fluffy, digestible grain. Were it not for the<br />chemical changes brought about by heat, many of our present foods<br />would be useless to man. Hundreds of common materials like glass,<br />rubber, iron, aluminum, etc., are manufactured by processes which<br />involve chemical action caused by heat.Kevin Andrew Woolseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268449682429697653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552238792208982895.post-75406154344400146622009-05-13T20:08:00.000-07:002009-05-13T20:09:19.633-07:00The Notebooks of Leonardo Da VinciThe author's intention to publish his MSS.<br /><br />1.<br /><br />How by a certain machine many may stay some time under water. And<br />how and wherefore I do not describe my method of remaining under<br />water and how long I can remain without eating. And I do not publish<br />nor divulge these, by reason of the evil nature of men, who would<br />use them for assassinations at the bottom of the sea by destroying<br />ships, and sinking them, together with the men in them. Nevertheless<br />I will impart others, which are not dangerous because the mouth of<br />the tube through which you breathe is above the water, supported on<br />air sacks or cork.<br /><br />[Footnote: The leaf on which this passage is written, is headed with<br />the words _Casi_ 39, and most of these cases begin with the word<br />'_Come_', like the two here given, which are the 26th and 27th. 7.<br />_Sughero_. In the Codex Antlanticus 377a; 1170a there is a sketch,<br />drawn with the pen, representing a man with a tube in his mouth, and<br />at the farther end of the tube a disk. By the tube the word<br />'_Channa_' is written, and by the disk the word '_sughero_'.]<br /><br />The preparation of the MSS. for publication.<br /><br />2.<br /><br />When you put together the science of the motions of water, remember<br />to include under each proposition its application and use, in order<br />that this science may not be useless.--<br /><br />[Footnote: A comparatively small portion of Leonardo's notes on<br />water-power was published at Bologna in 1828, under the title: "_Del<br />moto e misura dell'Acqua, di L. da Vinci_".]<br /><br />Admonition to readers.<br /><br />3.<br /><br />Let no man who is not a Mathematician read the elements of my work.<br /><br />The disorder in the MSS.<br /><br />4.<br /><br />Begun at Florence, in the house of Piero di Braccio Martelli, on the<br />22nd day of March 1508. And this is to be a collection without<br />order, taken from many papers which I have copied here, hoping to<br />arrange them later each in its place, according to the subjects of<br />which they may treat. But I believe that before I am at the end of<br />this [task] I shall have to repeat the same things several times;<br />for which, O reader! do not blame me, for the subjects are many and<br />memory cannot retain them [all] and say: 'I will not write this<br />because I wrote it before.' And if I wished to avoid falling into<br />this fault, it would be necessary in every case when I wanted to<br />copy [a passage] that, not to repeat myself, I should read over all<br />that had gone before; and all the more since the intervals are long<br />between one time of writing and the next.<br /><br />[Footnote: 1. In the history of Florence in the early part of the<br />XVIth century _Piero di Braccio Martelli_ is frequently mentioned as<br />_Commissario della Signoria_. He was famous for his learning and at<br />his death left four books on Mathematics ready for the press; comp.<br />LITTA, _Famiglie celebri Italiane_, _Famiglia Martelli di<br />Firenze_.--In the Official Catalogue of MSS. in the Brit. Mus., New<br />Series Vol. I., where this passage is printed, _Barto_ has been<br />wrongly given for Braccio.<br /><br />2. _addi 22 di marzo 1508_. The Christian era was computed in<br />Florence at that time from the Incarnation (Lady day, March 25th).<br />Hence this should be 1509 by our reckoning.<br /><br />3. _racolto tratto di molte carte le quali io ho qui copiate_. We<br />must suppose that Leonardo means that he has copied out his own MSS.<br />and not those of others. The first thirteen leaves of the MS. in the<br />Brit. Mus. are a fair copy of some notes on physics.]<br /><br />Suggestions for the arrangement of MSS treating of particular<br />subjects.(5-8).<br /><br />5.<br /><br />Of digging a canal. Put this in the Book of useful inventions and in<br />proving them bring forward the propositions already proved. And this<br />is the proper order; since if you wished to show the usefulness of<br />any plan you would be obliged again to devise new machines to prove<br />its utility and thus would confuse the order of the forty Books and<br />also the order of the diagrams; that is to say you would have to mix<br />up practice with theory, which would produce a confused and<br />incoherent work.<br /><br />6.<br /><br />I am not to blame for putting forward, in the course of my work on<br />science, any general rule derived from a previous conclusion.<br /><br />7.<br /><br />The Book of the science of Mechanics must precede the Book of useful<br />inventions.--Have your books on anatomy bound! [Footnote: 4. The<br />numerous notes on anatomy written on loose leaves and now in the<br />Royal collection at Windsor can best be classified in four Books,<br />corresponding to the different character and size of the paper. When<br />Leonardo speaks of '_li tua libri di notomia_', he probably means<br />the MSS. which still exist; if this hypothesis is correct the<br />present condition of these leaves might seem to prove that he only<br />carried out his purpose with one of the Books on anatomy. A borrowed<br />book on Anatomy is mentioned in F.O.]<br /><br />8.<br /><br />The order of your book must proceed on this plan: first simple<br />beams, then (those) supported from below, then suspended in part,<br />then wholly [suspended]. Then beams as supporting other weights<br />[Footnote: 4. Leonardo's notes on Mechanics are extraordinarily<br />numerous; but, for the reasons assigned in my introduction, they<br />have not been included in the present work.].<br /><br />General introductions to the book on Painting (9-13).<br /><br />9.<br /><br />INTRODUCTION.<br /><br />Seeing that I can find no subject specially useful or<br />pleasing--since the men who have come before me have taken for their<br />own every useful or necessary theme--I must do like one who, being<br />poor, comes last to the fair, and can find no other way of providing<br />himself than by taking all the things already seen by other buyers,<br />and not taken but refused by reason of their lesser value. I, then,<br />will load my humble pack with this despised and rejected<br />merchandise, the refuse of so many buyers; and will go about to<br />distribute it, not indeed in great cities, but in the poorer towns,<br />taking such a price as the wares I offer may be worth. [Footnote: It<br />need hardly be pointed out that there is in this 'Proemio' a covert<br />irony. In the second and third prefaces, Leonardo characterises his<br />rivals and opponents more closely. His protest is directed against<br />Neo-latinism as professed by most of the humanists of his time; its<br />futility is now no longer questioned.]<br /><br />10.<br /><br />INTRODUCTION.<br /><br />I know that many will call this useless work [Footnote: 3. questa<br />essere opera inutile. By opera we must here understand libro di<br />pittura and particularly the treatise on Perspective.]; and they<br />will be those of whom Demetrius [Footnote: 4. Demetrio. "With regard<br />to the passage attributed to Demetrius", Dr. H. MULLER STRUBING<br />writes, "I know not what to make of it. It is certainly not<br />Demetrius Phalereus that is meant and it can hardly be Demetrius<br />Poliorcetes. Who then can it be--for the name is a very common one?<br />It may be a clerical error for Demades and the maxim is quite in the<br />spirit of his writings I have not however been able to find any<br />corresponding passage either in the 'Fragments' (C. MULLER, _Orat.<br />Att._, II. 441) nor in the Supplements collected by DIETZ (_Rhein.<br />Mus._, vol. 29, p. 108)."<br /><br />The same passage occurs as a simple Memorandum in the MS. Tr. 57,<br />apparently as a note for this '_Proemio_' thus affording some data<br />as to the time where these introductions were written.] declared<br />that he took no more account of the wind that came out their mouth<br />in words, than of that they expelled from their lower parts: men who<br />desire nothing but material riches and are absolutely devoid of that<br />of wisdom, which is the food and the only true riches of the mind.<br />For so much more worthy as the soul is than the body, so much more<br />noble are the possessions of the soul than those of the body. And<br />often, when I see one of these men take this work in his hand, I<br />wonder that he does not put it to his nose, like a monkey, or ask me<br />if it is something good to eat.<br /><br />[Footnote: In the original, the Proemio di prospettiva cioe<br />dell'uffitio dell'occhio (see No. 21) stands between this and the<br />preceding one, No. 9.]<br /><br />INTRODUCTION.<br /><br />I am fully concious that, not being a literary man, certain<br />presumptuous persons will think that they may reasonably blame me;<br />alleging that I am not a man of letters. Foolish folks! do they not<br />know that I might retort as Marius did to the Roman Patricians<br />[Footnote 21: _Come Mario disse ai patriti Romani_. "I am unable to<br />find the words here attributed by Leonardo to Marius, either in<br />Plutarch's Life of Marius or in the Apophthegmata (_Moralia_,<br />p.202). Nor do they occur in the writings of Valerius Maximus (who<br />frequently mentions Marius) nor in Velleius Paterculus (II, 11 to<br />43), Dio Cassius, Aulus Gellius, or Macrobius. Professor E.<br />MENDELSON of Dorpat, the editor of Herodian, assures me that no such<br />passage is the found in that author" (communication from Dr. MULLER<br />STRUBING). Leonardo evidently meant to allude to some well known<br />incident in Roman history and the mention of Marius is the result<br />probably of some confusion. We may perhaps read, for Marius,<br />Menenius Agrippa, though in that case it is true we must alter<br />Patriti to Plebei. The change is a serious one. but it would render<br />the passage perfectly clear.] by saying: That they, who deck<br />themselves out in the labours of others will not allow me my own.<br />They will say that I, having no literary skill, cannot properly<br />express that which I desire to treat of [Footnote 26: _le mie cose<br />.... che d'altra parola_. This can hardly be reconciled with Mons.<br />RAVAISSON'S estimate of L. da Vinci's learning. "_Leonard de Vinci<br />etait un admirateur et un disciple des anciens, aussi bien dans<br />l'art que dans la science et il tenait a passer pour tel meme aux<br />yeux de la posterite._" _Gaz. des Beaux arts. Oct. 1877.]; but they<br />do not know that my subjects are to be dealt with by experience<br />rather than by words [Footnote 28: See Footnote 26]; and<br />[experience] has been the mistress of those who wrote well. And so,<br />as mistress, I will cite her in all cases.<br /><br />11.<br /><br />Though I may not, like them, be able to quote other authors, I shall<br />rely on that which is much greater and more worthy:--on experience,<br />the mistress of their Masters. They go about puffed up and pompous,<br />dressed and decorated with [the fruits], not of their own labours,<br />but of those of others. And they will not allow me my own. They will<br />scorn me as an inventor; but how much more might they--who are not<br />inventors but vaunters and declaimers of the works of others--be<br />blamed.<br /><br />INTRODUCTION.<br /><br />And those men who are inventors and interpreters between Nature and<br />Man, as compared with boasters and declaimers of the works of<br />others, must be regarded and not otherwise esteemed than as the<br />object in front of a mirror, when compared with its image seen in<br />the mirror. For the first is something in itself, and the other<br />nothingness.--Folks little indebted to Nature, since it is only by<br />chance that they wear the human form and without it I might class<br />them with the herds of beasts.<br /><br />12.<br /><br />Many will think they may reasonably blame me by alleging that my<br />proofs are opposed to the authority of certain men held in the<br />highest reverence by their inexperienced judgments; not considering<br />that my works are the issue of pure and simple experience, who is<br />the one true mistress. These rules are sufficient to enable you to<br />know the true from the false--and this aids men to look only for<br />things that are possible and with due moderation--and not to wrap<br />yourself in ignorance, a thing which can have no good result, so<br />that in despair you would give yourself up to melancholy.<br /><br />13.<br /><br />Among all the studies of natural causes and reasons Light chiefly<br />delights the beholder; and among the great features of Mathematics<br />the certainty of its demonstrations is what preeminently (tends to)<br />elevate the mind of the investigator. Perspective, therefore, must<br />be preferred to all the discourses and systems of human learning. In<br />this branch [of science] the beam of light is explained on those<br />methods of demonstration which form the glory not so much of<br />Mathematics as of Physics and are graced with the flowers of both<br />[Footnote: 5. Such of Leonardo's notes on Optics or on Perspective<br />as bear exclusively on Mathematics or Physics could not be included<br />in the arrangement of the _libro di pittura_ which is here presented<br />to the reader. They are however but few.]. But its axioms being laid<br />down at great length, I shall abridge them to a conclusive brevity,<br />arranging them on the method both of their natural order and of<br />mathematical demonstration; sometimes by deduction of the effects<br />from the causes, and sometimes arguing the causes from the effects;<br />adding also to my own conclusions some which, though not included in<br />them, may nevertheless be inferred from them. Thus, if the Lord--who<br />is the light of all things--vouchsafe to enlighten me, I will treat<br />of Light; wherefore I will divide the present work into 3 Parts<br />[Footnote: 10. In the middle ages--for instance, by ROGER BACON, by<br />VITELLONE, with whose works Leonardo was certainly familiar, and by<br />all the writers of the Renaissance Perspective and Optics were not<br />regarded as distinct sciences. Perspective, indeed, is in its widest<br />application the science of seeing. Although to Leonardo the two<br />sciences were clearly separate, it is not so as to their names; thus<br />we find axioms in Optics under the heading Perspective. According to<br />this arrangement of the materials for the theoretical portion of the<br />_libro di pittura_ propositions in Perspective and in Optics stand<br />side by side or occur alternately. Although this particular chapter<br />deals only with Optics, it is not improbable that the words _partiro<br />la presente opera in 3 parti_ may refer to the same division into<br />three sections which is spoken of in chapters 14 to 17.].<br /><br />The plan of the book on Painting (14--17).<br /><br />14.<br /><br />ON THE THREE BRANCHES OF PERSPECTIVE.<br /><br />There are three branches of perspective; the first deals with the<br />reasons of the (apparent) diminution of objects as they recede from<br />the eye, and is known as Diminishing Perspective.--The second<br />contains the way in which colours vary as they recede from the eye.<br />The third and last is concerned with the explanation of how the<br />objects [in a picture] ought to be less finished in proportion as<br />they are remote (and the names are as follows):<br /><br />Linear Perspective. The Perspective of Colour. The Perspective of<br />Disappearance.<br /><br />[Footnote: 13. From the character of the handwriting I infer that<br />this passage was written before the year 1490.].<br /><br />15.<br /><br />ON PAINTING AND PERSPECTIVE.<br /><br />The divisions of Perspective are 3, as used in drawing; of these,<br />the first includes the diminution in size of opaque objects; the<br />second treats of the diminution and loss of outline in such opaque<br />objects; the third, of the diminution and loss of colour at long<br />distances.<br /><br />[Footnote: The division is here the same as in the previous chapter<br />No. 14, and this is worthy of note when we connect it with the fact<br />that a space of about 20 years must have intervened between the<br />writing of the two passages.]<br /><br />16.<br /><br />THE DISCOURSE ON PAINTING.<br /><br />Perspective, as bearing on drawing, is divided into three principal<br />sections; of which the first treats of the diminution in the size of<br />bodies at different distances. The second part is that which treats<br />of the diminution in colour in these objects. The third [deals with]<br />the diminished distinctness of the forms and outlines displayed by<br />the objects at various distances.<br /><br />17.<br /><br />ON THE SECTIONS OF [THE BOOK ON] PAINTING.<br /><br />The first thing in painting is that the objects it represents should<br />appear in relief, and that the grounds surrounding them at different<br />distances shall appear within the vertical plane of the foreground<br />of the picture by means of the 3 branches of Perspective, which are:<br />the diminution in the distinctness of the forms of the objects, the<br />diminution in their magnitude; and the diminution in their colour.<br />And of these 3 classes of Perspective the first results from [the<br />structure of] the eye, while the other two are caused by the<br />atmosphere which intervenes between the eye and the objects seen by<br />it. The second essential in painting is appropriate action and a due<br />variety in the figures, so that the men may not all look like<br />brothers, &c.<br /><br />[Footnote: This and the two foregoing chapters must have been<br />written in 1513 to 1516. They undoubtedly indicate the scheme which<br />Leonardo wished to carry out in arranging his researches on<br />Perspective as applied to Painting. This is important because it is<br />an evidence against the supposition of H. LUDWIG and others, that<br />Leonardo had collected his principles of Perspective in one book so<br />early as before 1500; a Book which, according to the hypothesis,<br />must have been lost at a very early period, or destroyed possibly,<br />by the French (!) in 1500 (see H. LUDWIG. L. da Vinci: _Das Buch van<br />der Malerei_. Vienna 1882 III, 7 and 8).]<br /><br />The use of the book on Painting.<br /><br />18.<br /><br />These rules are of use only in correcting the figures; since every<br />man makes some mistakes in his first compositions and he who knows<br />them not, cannot amend them. But you, knowing your errors, will<br />correct your works and where you find mistakes amend them, and<br />remember never to fall into them again. But if you try to apply<br />these rules in composition you will never make an end, and will<br />produce confusion in your works.<br /><br />These rules will enable you to have a free and sound judgment; since<br />good judgment is born of clear understanding, and a clear<br />understanding comes of reasons derived from sound rules, and sound<br />rules are the issue of sound experience--the common mother of all<br />the sciences and arts. Hence, bearing in mind the precepts of my<br />rules, you will be able, merely by your amended judgment, to<br />criticise and recognise every thing that is out of proportion in a<br />work, whether in the perspective or in the figures or any thing<br />else.<br /><br />Necessity of theoretical knowledge (19. 20).<br /><br />19.<br /><br />OF THE MISTAKES MADE BY THOSE WHO PRACTISE WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE.<br /><br />Those who are in love with practice without knowledge are like the<br />sailor who gets into a ship without rudder or compass and who never<br />can be certain whether he is going. Practice must always be founded<br />on sound theory, and to this Perspective is the guide and the<br />gateway; and without this nothing can be done well in the matter of<br />drawing.<br /><br />20.<br /><br />The painter who draws merely by practice and by eye, without any<br />reason, is like a mirror which copies every thing placed in front of<br />it without being conscious of their existence.<br /><br />The function of the eye (21-23).<br /><br />21.<br /><br />INTRODUCTION TO PERSPECTIVE:--THAT IS OF THE FUNCTION OF THE EYE.<br /><br />Behold here O reader! a thing concerning which we cannot trust our<br />forefathers, the ancients, who tried to define what the Soul and<br />Life are--which are beyond proof, whereas those things, which can at<br />any time be clearly known and proved by experience, remained for<br />many ages unknown or falsely understood. The eye, whose function we<br />so certainly know by experience, has, down to my own time, been<br />defined by an infinite number of authors as one thing; but I find,<br />by experience, that it is quite another. [Footnote 13: Compare the<br />note to No. 70.]<br /><br />[Footnote: In section 13 we already find it indicated that the study<br />of Perspective and of Optics is to be based on that of the functions<br />of the eye. Leonardo also refers to the science of the eye, in his<br />astronomical researches, for instance in MS. F 25b '_Ordine del<br />provare la terra essere una stella: Imprima difinisce l'occhio'_,<br />&c. Compare also MS. E 15b and F 60b. The principles of astronomical<br />perspective.]<br /><br />22.<br /><br />Here [in the eye] forms, here colours, here the character of every<br />part of the universe are concentrated to a point; and that point is<br />so marvellous a thing ... Oh! marvellous, O stupendous Necessity--by<br />thy laws thou dost compel every effect to be the direct result of<br />its cause, by the shortest path. These [indeed] are miracles;...<br /><br />In so small a space it can be reproduced and rearranged in its whole<br />expanse. Describe in your anatomy what proportion there is between<br />the diameters of all the images in the eye and the distance from<br />them of the crystalline lens.<br /><br />23.<br /><br />OF THE 10 ATTRIBUTES OF THE EYE, ALL CONCERNED IN PAINTING.<br /><br />Painting is concerned with all the 10 attributes of sight; which<br />are:--Darkness, Light, Solidity and Colour, Form and Position,<br />Distance and Propinquity, Motion and Rest. This little work of mine<br />will be a tissue [of the studies] of these attributes, reminding the<br />painter of the rules and methods by which he should use his art to<br />imitate all the works of Nature which adorn the world.<br /><br />24.<br /><br />ON PAINTING.<br /><br />Variability of the eye.<br /><br />1st. The pupil of the eye contracts, in proportion to the increase<br />of light which is reflected in it. 2nd. The pupil of the eye expands<br />in proportion to the diminution in the day light, or any other<br />light, that is reflected in it. 3rd. [Footnote: 8. The subject of<br />this third proposition we find fully discussed in MS. G. 44a.]. The<br />eye perceives and recognises the objects of its vision with greater<br />intensity in proportion as the pupil is more widely dilated; and<br />this can be proved by the case of nocturnal animals, such as cats,<br />and certain birds--as the owl and others--in which the pupil varies<br />in a high degree from large to small, &c., when in the dark or in<br />the light. 4th. The eye [out of doors] in an illuminated atmosphere<br />sees darkness behind the windows of houses which [nevertheless] are<br />light. 5th. All colours when placed in the shade appear of an equal<br />degree of darkness, among themselves. 6th. But all colours when<br />placed in a full light, never vary from their true and essential<br />hue.<br /><br />25.<br /><br />OF THE EYE.<br /><br />Focus of sight.<br /><br />If the eye is required to look at an object placed too near to it,<br />it cannot judge of it well--as happens to a man who tries to see the<br />tip of his nose. Hence, as a general rule, Nature teaches us that an<br />object can never be seen perfectly unless the space between it and<br />the eye is equal, at least, to the length of the face.<br /><br />Differences of perception by one eye and by both eyes (26-29).<br /><br />26.<br /><br />OF THE EYE.<br /><br />When both eyes direct the pyramid of sight to an object, that object<br />becomes clearly seen and comprehended by the eyes.<br /><br />27.<br /><br />Objects seen by one and the same eye appear sometimes large, and<br />sometimes small.<br /><br />28.<br /><br />The motion of a spectator who sees an object at rest often makes it<br />seem as though the object at rest had acquired the motion of the<br />moving body, while the moving person appears to be at rest.<br /><br />ON PAINTING.<br /><br />Objects in relief, when seen from a short distance with one eye,<br />look like a perfect picture. If you look with the eye _a_, _b_ at<br />the spot _c_, this point _c_ will appear to be at _d_, _f_, and if<br />you look at it with the eye _g_, _h_ will appear to be at _m_. A<br />picture can never contain in itself both aspects.<br /><br />29.<br /><br />Let the object in relief _t_ be seen by both eyes; if you will look<br />at the object with the right eye _m_, keeping the left eye _n_ shut,<br />the object will appear, or fill up the space, at _a_; and if you<br />shut the right eye and open the left, the object (will occupy the)<br />space _b_; and if you open both eyes, the object will no longer<br />appear at _a_ or _b_, but at _e_, _r_, _f_. Why will not a picture<br />seen by both eyes produce the effect of relief, as [real] relief<br />does when seen by both eyes; and why should a picture seen with one<br />eye give the same effect of relief as real relief would under the<br />same conditions of light and shade?<br /><br />[Footnote: In the sketch, _m_ is the left eye and _n_ the right,<br />while the text reverses this lettering. We must therefore suppose<br />that the face in which the eyes _m_ and _n_ are placed is opposite<br />to the spectator.]<br /><br />30.<br /><br />The comparative size of the image depends on the amount of light<br />(30-39).<br /><br />The eye will hold and retain in itself the image of a luminous body<br />better than that of a shaded object. The reason is that the eye is<br />in itself perfectly dark and since two things that are alike cannot<br />be distinguished, therefore the night, and other dark objects cannot<br />be seen or recognised by the eye. Light is totally contrary and<br />gives more distinctness, and counteracts and differs from the usual<br />darkness of the eye, hence it leaves the impression of its image.Kevin Andrew Woolseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268449682429697653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552238792208982895.post-5795944489749234392009-05-13T20:05:00.000-07:002009-05-13T20:06:41.898-07:00Dracula by Bram StokerCHAPTER 1<br /><br /><br />Jonathan Harker's Journal<br /><br />3 May. Bistritz.--Left Munich at 8:35 P.M., on 1st May, arriving at<br />Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was<br />an hour late. Buda-Pesth seems a wonderful place, from the glimpse<br />which I got of it from the train and the little I could walk through<br />the streets. I feared to go very far from the station, as we had<br />arrived late and would start as near the correct time as possible.<br /><br />The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the<br />East; the most western of splendid bridges over the Danube, which is<br />here of noble width and depth, took us among the traditions of Turkish<br />rule.<br /><br />We left in pretty good time, and came after nightfall to Klausenburg.<br />Here I stopped for the night at the Hotel Royale. I had for dinner,<br />or rather supper, a chicken done up some way with red pepper, which<br />was very good but thirsty. (Mem. get recipe for Mina.) I asked the<br />waiter, and he said it was called "paprika hendl," and that, as it was<br />a national dish, I should be able to get it anywhere along the<br />Carpathians.<br /><br />I found my smattering of German very useful here, indeed, I don't know<br />how I should be able to get on without it.<br /><br />Having had some time at my disposal when in London, I had visited the<br />British Museum, and made search among the books and maps in the<br />library regarding Transylvania; it had struck me that some<br />foreknowledge of the country could hardly fail to have some importance<br />in dealing with a nobleman of that country.<br /><br /><br />I find that the district he named is in the extreme east of the<br />country, just on the borders of three states, Transylvania, Moldavia,<br />and Bukovina, in the midst of the Carpathian mountains; one of the<br />wildest and least known portions of Europe.<br /><br />I was not able to light on any map or work giving the exact locality<br />of the Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of this country as yet to<br />compare with our own Ordnance Survey Maps; but I found that Bistritz,<br />the post town named by Count Dracula, is a fairly well-known place. I<br />shall enter here some of my notes, as they may refresh my memory when<br />I talk over my travels with Mina.<br /><br />In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct<br />nationalities: Saxons in the South, and mixed with them the Wallachs,<br />who are the descendants of the Dacians; Magyars in the West, and<br />Szekelys in the East and North. I am going among the latter, who<br />claim to be descended from Attila and the Huns. This may be so, for<br />when the Magyars conquered the country in the eleventh century they<br />found the Huns settled in it.<br /><br />I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the<br />horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of<br />imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting. (Mem.,<br />I must ask the Count all about them.)<br /><br />I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had<br />all sorts of queer dreams. There was a dog howling all night under my<br />window, which may have had something to do with it; or it may have<br />been the paprika, for I had to drink up all the water in my carafe,<br />and was still thirsty. Towards morning I slept and was wakened by the<br />continuous knocking at my door, so I guess I must have been sleeping<br />soundly then.<br /><br />I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize<br />flour which they said was "mamaliga", and egg-plant stuffed with<br />forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which they call "impletata". (Mem.,<br />get recipe for this also.)<br /><br />I had to hurry breakfast, for the train started a little before eight,<br />or rather it ought to have done so, for after rushing to the station<br />at 7:30 I had to sit in the carriage for more than an hour before we<br />began to move.<br /><br />It seems to me that the further east you go the more unpunctual are<br />the trains. What ought they to be in China?<br /><br />All day long we seemed to dawdle through a country which was full of<br />beauty of every kind. Sometimes we saw little towns or castles on the<br />top of steep hills such as we see in old missals; sometimes we ran by<br />rivers and streams which seemed from the wide stony margin on each<br />side of them to be subject to great floods. It takes a lot of water,<br />and running strong, to sweep the outside edge of a river clear.<br /><br />At every station there were groups of people, sometimes crowds, and in<br />all sorts of attire. Some of them were just like the peasants at home<br />or those I saw coming through France and Germany, with short jackets,<br />and round hats, and home-made trousers; but others were very<br />picturesque.<br /><br />The women looked pretty, except when you got near them, but they were<br />very clumsy about the waist. They had all full white sleeves of some<br />kind or other, and most of them had big belts with a lot of strips of<br />something fluttering from them like the dresses in a ballet, but of<br />course there were petticoats under them.<br /><br />The strangest figures we saw were the Slovaks, who were more barbarian<br />than the rest, with their big cow-boy hats, great baggy dirty-white<br />trousers, white linen shirts, and enormous heavy leather belts, nearly<br />a foot wide, all studded over with brass nails. They wore high boots,<br />with their trousers tucked into them, and had long black hair and<br />heavy black moustaches. They are very picturesque, but do not look<br />prepossessing. On the stage they would be set down at once as some<br />old Oriental band of brigands. They are, however, I am told, very<br />harmless and rather wanting in natural self-assertion.<br /><br />It was on the dark side of twilight when we got to Bistritz, which is<br />a very interesting old place. Being practically on the frontier--for<br />the Borgo Pass leads from it into Bukovina--it has had a very stormy<br />existence, and it certainly shows marks of it. Fifty years ago a<br />series of great fires took place, which made terrible havoc on five<br />separate occasions. At the very beginning of the seventeenth century<br />it underwent a siege of three weeks and lost 13,000 people, the<br />casualties of war proper being assisted by famine and disease.<br /><br />Count Dracula had directed me to go to the Golden Krone Hotel, which I<br />found, to my great delight, to be thoroughly old-fashioned, for of<br />course I wanted to see all I could of the ways of the country.<br /><br />I was evidently expected, for when I got near the door I faced a<br />cheery-looking elderly woman in the usual peasant dress--white<br />undergarment with a long double apron, front, and back, of coloured<br />stuff fitting almost too tight for modesty. When I came close she<br />bowed and said, "The Herr Englishman?"<br /><br />"Yes," I said, "Jonathan Harker."<br /><br />She smiled, and gave some message to an elderly man in white<br />shirtsleeves, who had followed her to the door.<br /><br />He went, but immediately returned with a letter:<br /><br />"My friend.--Welcome to the Carpathians. I am anxiously expecting<br />you. Sleep well tonight. At three tomorrow the diligence will<br />start for Bukovina; a place on it is kept for you. At the Borgo<br />Pass my carriage will await you and will bring you to me. I trust<br />that your journey from London has been a happy one, and that you<br />will enjoy your stay in my beautiful land.--Your friend, Dracula."<br /><br /><br />4 May--I found that my landlord had got a letter from the Count,<br />directing him to secure the best place on the coach for me; but on<br />making inquiries as to details he seemed somewhat reticent, and<br />pretended that he could not understand my German.<br /><br />This could not be true, because up to then he had understood it<br />perfectly; at least, he answered my questions exactly as if he did.<br /><br />He and his wife, the old lady who had received me, looked at each<br />other in a frightened sort of way. He mumbled out that the money had<br />been sent in a letter, and that was all he knew. When I asked him if<br />he knew Count Dracula, and could tell me anything of his castle, both<br />he and his wife crossed themselves, and, saying that they knew nothing<br />at all, simply refused to speak further. It was so near the time of<br />starting that I had no time to ask anyone else, for it was all very<br />mysterious and not by any means comforting.<br /><br />Just before I was leaving, the old lady came up to my room and said in<br />a hysterical way: "Must you go? Oh! Young Herr, must you go?" She<br />was in such an excited state that she seemed to have lost her grip of<br />what German she knew, and mixed it all up with some other language<br />which I did not know at all. I was just able to follow her by asking<br />many questions. When I told her that I must go at once, and that I<br />was engaged on important business, she asked again:<br /><br />"Do you know what day it is?" I answered that it was the fourth of<br />May. She shook her head as she said again:<br /><br />"Oh, yes! I know that! I know that, but do you know what day it is?"<br /><br />On my saying that I did not understand, she went on:<br /><br />"It is the eve of St. George's Day. Do you not know that tonight,<br />when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will<br />have full sway? Do you know where you are going, and what you are<br />going to?" She was in such evident distress that I tried to comfort<br />her, but without effect. Finally, she went down on her knees and<br />implored me not to go; at least to wait a day or two before starting.<br /><br />It was all very ridiculous but I did not feel comfortable. However,<br />there was business to be done, and I could allow nothing to interfere<br />with it.<br /><br />I tried to raise her up, and said, as gravely as I could, that I<br />thanked her, but my duty was imperative, and that I must go.<br /><br />She then rose and dried her eyes, and taking a crucifix from her neck<br />offered it to me.<br /><br />I did not know what to do, for, as an English Churchman, I have been<br />taught to regard such things as in some measure idolatrous, and yet it<br />seemed so ungracious to refuse an old lady meaning so well and in such<br />a state of mind.<br /><br />She saw, I suppose, the doubt in my face, for she put the rosary round<br />my neck and said, "For your mother's sake," and went out of the room.<br /><br />I am writing up this part of the diary whilst I am waiting for the<br />coach, which is, of course, late; and the crucifix is still round my<br />neck.<br /><br />Whether it is the old lady's fear, or the many ghostly traditions of<br />this place, or the crucifix itself, I do not know, but I am not<br />feeling nearly as easy in my mind as usual.<br /><br />If this book should ever reach Mina before I do, let it bring my<br />goodbye. Here comes the coach!<br /><br /><br />5 May. The Castle.--The gray of the morning has passed, and the sun<br />is high over the distant horizon, which seems jagged, whether with<br />trees or hills I know not, for it is so far off that big things and<br />little are mixed.<br /><br />I am not sleepy, and, as I am not to be called till I awake, naturally<br />I write till sleep comes.<br /><br />There are many odd things to put down, and, lest who reads them may<br />fancy that I dined too well before I left Bistritz, let me put down my<br />dinner exactly.<br /><br />I dined on what they called "robber steak"--bits of bacon, onion, and<br />beef, seasoned with red pepper, and strung on sticks, and roasted over<br />the fire, in simple style of the London cat's meat!<br /><br />The wine was Golden Mediasch, which produces a queer sting on the<br />tongue, which is, however, not disagreeable.<br /><br />I had only a couple of glasses of this, and nothing else.<br /><br />When I got on the coach, the driver had not taken his seat, and I saw<br />him talking to the landlady.<br /><br />They were evidently talking of me, for every now and then they looked<br />at me, and some of the people who were sitting on the bench outside<br />the door--came and listened, and then looked at me, most of them<br />pityingly. I could hear a lot of words often repeated, queer words,<br />for there were many nationalities in the crowd, so I quietly got my<br />polyglot dictionary from my bag and looked them out.<br /><br />I must say they were not cheering to me, for amongst them were<br />"Ordog"--Satan, "Pokol"--hell, "stregoica"--witch, "vrolok" and<br />"vlkoslak"--both mean the same thing, one being Slovak and the other<br />Servian for something that is either werewolf or vampire. (Mem., I<br />must ask the Count about these superstitions.)<br /><br />When we started, the crowd round the inn door, which had by this time<br />swelled to a considerable size, all made the sign of the cross and<br />pointed two fingers towards me.<br /><br />With some difficulty, I got a fellow passenger to tell me what they<br />meant. He would not answer at first, but on learning that I was<br />English, he explained that it was a charm or guard against the evil<br />eye.<br /><br />This was not very pleasant for me, just starting for an unknown place<br />to meet an unknown man. But everyone seemed so kind-hearted, and so<br />sorrowful, and so sympathetic that I could not but be touched.<br /><br />I shall never forget the last glimpse which I had of the inn yard and<br />its crowd of picturesque figures, all crossing themselves, as they<br />stood round the wide archway, with its background of rich foliage of<br />oleander and orange trees in green tubs clustered in the centre of the<br />yard.<br /><br />Then our driver, whose wide linen drawers covered the whole front of<br />the boxseat,--"gotza" they call them--cracked his big whip over his<br />four small horses, which ran abreast, and we set off on our journey.<br /><br />I soon lost sight and recollection of ghostly fears in the beauty of<br />the scene as we drove along, although had I known the language, or<br />rather languages, which my fellow-passengers were speaking, I might<br />not have been able to throw them off so easily. Before us lay a green<br />sloping land full of forests and woods, with here and there steep<br />hills, crowned with clumps of trees or with farmhouses, the blank<br />gable end to the road. There was everywhere a bewildering mass of<br />fruit blossom--apple, plum, pear, cherry. And as we drove by I could<br />see the green grass under the trees spangled with the fallen petals.<br />In and out amongst these green hills of what they call here the<br />"Mittel Land" ran the road, losing itself as it swept round the grassy<br />curve, or was shut out by the straggling ends of pine woods, which<br />here and there ran down the hillsides like tongues of flame. The road<br />was rugged, but still we seemed to fly over it with a feverish haste.<br />I could not understand then what the haste meant, but the driver was<br />evidently bent on losing no time in reaching Borgo Prund. I was told<br />that this road is in summertime excellent, but that it had not yet<br />been put in order after the winter snows. In this respect it is<br />different from the general run of roads in the Carpathians, for it is<br />an old tradition that they are not to be kept in too good order. Of<br />old the Hospadars would not repair them, lest the Turk should think<br />that they were preparing to bring in foreign troops, and so hasten the<br />war which was always really at loading point.<br /><br />Beyond the green swelling hills of the Mittel Land rose mighty slopes<br />of forest up to the lofty steeps of the Carpathians themselves. Right<br />and left of us they towered, with the afternoon sun falling full upon<br />them and bringing out all the glorious colours of this beautiful<br />range, deep blue and purple in the shadows of the peaks, green and<br />brown where grass and rock mingled, and an endless perspective of<br />jagged rock and pointed crags, till these were themselves lost in the<br />distance, where the snowy peaks rose grandly. Here and there seemed<br />mighty rifts in the mountains, through which, as the sun began to<br />sink, we saw now and again the white gleam of falling water. One of<br />my companions touched my arm as we swept round the base of a hill and<br />opened up the lofty, snow-covered peak of a mountain, which seemed, as<br />we wound on our serpentine way, to be right before us.<br /><br />"Look! Isten szek!"--"God's seat!"--and he crossed himself reverently.<br /><br />As we wound on our endless way, and the sun sank lower and lower<br />behind us, the shadows of the evening began to creep round us. This<br />was emphasized by the fact that the snowy mountain-top still held the<br />sunset, and seemed to glow out with a delicate cool pink. Here and<br />there we passed Cszeks and slovaks, all in picturesque attire, but I<br />noticed that goitre was painfully prevalent. By the roadside were<br />many crosses, and as we swept by, my companions all crossed<br />themselves. Here and there was a peasant man or woman kneeling before<br />a shrine, who did not even turn round as we approached, but seemed in<br />the self-surrender of devotion to have neither eyes nor ears for the<br />outer world. There were many things new to me. For instance,<br />hay-ricks in the trees, and here and there very beautiful masses of<br />weeping birch, their white stems shining like silver through the<br />delicate green of the leaves.<br /><br />Now and again we passed a leiter-wagon--the ordinary peasants's<br />cart--with its long, snakelike vertebra, calculated to suit the<br />inequalities of the road. On this were sure to be seated quite a<br />group of homecoming peasants, the Cszeks with their white, and the<br />Slovaks with their coloured sheepskins, the latter carrying<br />lance-fashion their long staves, with axe at end. As the evening fell<br />it began to get very cold, and the growing twilight seemed to merge<br />into one dark mistiness the gloom of the trees, oak, beech, and pine,<br />though in the valleys which ran deep between the spurs of the hills,<br />as we ascended through the Pass, the dark firs stood out here and<br />there against the background of late-lying snow. Sometimes, as the<br />road was cut through the pine woods that seemed in the darkness to be<br />closing down upon us, great masses of greyness which here and there<br />bestrewed the trees, produced a peculiarly weird and solemn effect,<br />which carried on the thoughts and grim fancies engendered earlier in<br />the evening, when the falling sunset threw into strange relief the<br />ghost-like clouds which amongst the Carpathians seem to wind<br />ceaselessly through the valleys. Sometimes the hills were so steep<br />that, despite our driver's haste, the horses could only go slowly. I<br />wished to get down and walk up them, as we do at home, but the driver<br />would not hear of it. "No, no," he said. "You must not walk here.<br />The dogs are too fierce." And then he added, with what he evidently<br />meant for grim pleasantry--for he looked round to catch the approving<br />smile of the rest--"And you may have enough of such matters before you<br />go to sleep." The only stop he would make was a moment's pause to<br />light his lamps.<br /><br />When it grew dark there seemed to be some excitement amongst the<br />passengers, and they kept speaking to him, one after the other, as<br />though urging him to further speed. He lashed the horses unmercifully<br />with his long whip, and with wild cries of encouragement urged them on<br />to further exertions. Then through the darkness I could see a sort of<br />patch of grey light ahead of us, as though there were a cleft in the<br />hills. The excitement of the passengers grew greater. The crazy<br />coach rocked on its great leather springs, and swayed like a boat<br />tossed on a stormy sea. I had to hold on. The road grew more level,<br />and we appeared to fly along. Then the mountains seemed to come<br />nearer to us on each side and to frown down upon us. We were entering<br />on the Borgo Pass. One by one several of the passengers offered me<br />gifts, which they pressed upon me with an earnestness which would take<br />no denial. These were certainly of an odd and varied kind, but each<br />was given in simple good faith, with a kindly word, and a blessing,<br />and that same strange mixture of fear-meaning movements which I had<br />seen outside the hotel at Bistritz--the sign of the cross and the<br />guard against the evil eye. Then, as we flew along, the driver leaned<br />forward, and on each side the passengers, craning over the edge of the<br />coach, peered eagerly into the darkness. It was evident that<br />something very exciting was either happening or expected, but though I<br />asked each passenger, no one would give me the slightest explanation.<br />This state of excitement kept on for some little time. And at last we<br />saw before us the Pass opening out on the eastern side. There were<br />dark, rolling clouds overhead, and in the air the heavy, oppressive<br />sense of thunder. It seemed as though the mountain range had<br />separated two atmospheres, and that now we had got into the thunderous<br />one. I was now myself looking out for the conveyance which was to<br />take me to the Count. Each moment I expected to see the glare of<br />lamps through the blackness, but all was dark. The only light was the<br />flickering rays of our own lamps, in which the steam from our<br />hard-driven horses rose in a white cloud. We could see now the sandy<br />road lying white before us, but there was on it no sign of a vehicle.<br />The passengers drew back with a sigh of gladness, which seemed to mock<br />my own disappointment. I was already thinking what I had best do,<br />when the driver, looking at his watch, said to the others something<br />which I could hardly hear, it was spoken so quietly and in so low a<br />tone, I thought it was "An hour less than the time." Then turning to<br />me, he spoke in German worse than my own.<br /><br />"There is no carriage here. The Herr is not expected after all. He<br />will now come on to Bukovina, and return tomorrow or the next day,<br />better the next day." Whilst he was speaking the horses began to<br />neigh and snort and plunge wildly, so that the driver had to hold them<br />up. Then, amongst a chorus of screams from the peasants and a<br />universal crossing of themselves, a caleche, with four horses, drove<br />up behind us, overtook us, and drew up beside the coach. I could see<br />from the flash of our lamps as the rays fell on them, that the horses<br />were coal-black and splendid animals. They were driven by a tall man,<br />with a long brown beard and a great black hat, which seemed to hide<br />his face from us. I could only see the gleam of a pair of very bright<br />eyes, which seemed red in the lamplight, as he turned to us.<br /><br />He said to the driver, "You are early tonight, my friend."<br /><br />The man stammered in reply, "The English Herr was in a hurry."<br /><br />To which the stranger replied, "That is why, I suppose, you wished him<br />to go on to Bukovina. You cannot deceive me, my friend. I know too<br />much, and my horses are swift."<br /><br />As he spoke he smiled, and the lamplight fell on a hard-looking mouth,<br />with very red lips and sharp-looking teeth, as white as ivory. One of<br />my companions whispered to another the line from Burger's "Lenore".<br /><br />"Denn die Todten reiten Schnell." ("For the dead travel fast.")<br /><br />The strange driver evidently heard the words, for he looked up with a<br />gleaming smile. The passenger turned his face away, at the same time<br />putting out his two fingers and crossing himself. "Give me the Herr's<br />luggage," said the driver, and with exceeding alacrity my bags were<br />handed out and put in the caleche. Then I descended from the side of<br />the coach, as the caleche was close alongside, the driver helping me<br />with a hand which caught my arm in a grip of steel. His strength must<br />have been prodigious.<br /><br />Without a word he shook his reins, the horses turned, and we swept<br />into the darkness of the pass. As I looked back I saw the steam from<br />the horses of the coach by the light of the lamps, and projected<br />against it the figures of my late companions crossing themselves.<br />Then the driver cracked his whip and called to his horses, and off<br />they swept on their way to Bukovina. As they sank into the darkness I<br />felt a strange chill, and a lonely feeling come over me. But a cloak<br />was thrown over my shoulders, and a rug across my knees, and the<br />driver said in excellent German--"The night is chill, mein Herr, and<br />my master the Count bade me take all care of you. There is a flask of<br />slivovitz (the plum brandy of the country) underneath the seat, if you<br />should require it."<br /><br />I did not take any, but it was a comfort to know it was there all the<br />same. I felt a little strangely, and not a little frightened. I<br />think had there been any alternative I should have taken it, instead<br />of prosecuting that unknown night journey. The carriage went at a<br />hard pace straight along, then we made a complete turn and went along<br />another straight road. It seemed to me that we were simply going over<br />and over the same ground again, and so I took note of some salient<br />point, and found that this was so. I would have liked to have asked<br />the driver what this all meant, but I really feared to do so, for I<br />thought that, placed as I was, any protest would have had no effect in<br />case there had been an intention to delay.<br /><br />By-and-by, however, as I was curious to know how time was passing, I<br />struck a match, and by its flame looked at my watch. It was within a<br />few minutes of midnight. This gave me a sort of shock, for I suppose<br />the general superstition about midnight was increased by my recent<br />experiences. I waited with a sick feeling of suspense.<br /><br />Then a dog began to howl somewhere in a farmhouse far down the road, a<br />long, agonized wailing, as if from fear. The sound was taken up by<br />another dog, and then another and another, till, borne on the wind<br />which now sighed softly through the Pass, a wild howling began, which<br />seemed to come from all over the country, as far as the imagination<br />could grasp it through the gloom of the night.<br /><br />At the first howl the horses began to strain and rear, but the driver<br />spoke to them soothingly, and they quieted down, but shivered and<br />sweated as though after a runaway from sudden fright. Then, far off<br />in the distance, from the mountains on each side of us began a louder<br />and a sharper howling, that of wolves, which affected both the horses<br />and myself in the same way. For I was minded to jump from the caleche<br />and run, whilst they reared again and plunged madly, so that the<br />driver had to use all his great strength to keep them from bolting.<br />In a few minutes, however, my own ears got accustomed to the sound,<br />and the horses so far became quiet that the driver was able to descend<br />and to stand before them.<br /><br />He petted and soothed them, and whispered something in their ears, as<br />I have heard of horse-tamers doing, and with extraordinary effect, for<br />under his caresses they became quite manageable again, though they<br />still trembled. The driver again took his seat, and shaking his<br />reins, started off at a great pace. This time, after going to the far<br />side of the Pass, he suddenly turned down a narrow roadway which ran<br />sharply to the right.<br /><br />Soon we were hemmed in with trees, which in places arched right over<br />the roadway till we passed as through a tunnel. And again great<br />frowning rocks guarded us boldly on either side. Though we were in<br />shelter, we could hear the rising wind, for it moaned and whistled<br />through the rocks, and the branches of the trees crashed together as<br />we swept along. It grew colder and colder still, and fine, powdery<br />snow began to fall, so that soon we and all around us were covered<br />with a white blanket. The keen wind still carried the howling of the<br />dogs, though this grew fainter as we went on our way. The baying of<br />the wolves sounded nearer and nearer, as though they were closing<br />round on us from every side. I grew dreadfully afraid, and the horses<br />shared my fear. The driver, however, was not in the least disturbed.<br />He kept turning his head to left and right, but I could not see<br />anything through the darkness.<br /><br />Suddenly, away on our left I saw a faint flickering blue flame. The<br />driver saw it at the same moment. He at once checked the horses, and,<br />jumping to the ground, disappeared into the darkness. I did not know<br />what to do, the less as the howling of the wolves grew closer. But<br />while I wondered, the driver suddenly appeared again, and without a<br />word took his seat, and we resumed our journey. I think I must have<br />fallen asleep and kept dreaming of the incident, for it seemed to be<br />repeated endlessly, and now looking back, it is like a sort of awful<br />nightmare. Once the flame appeared so near the road, that even in the<br />darkness around us I could watch the driver's motions. He went<br />rapidly to where the blue flame arose, it must have been very faint,<br />for it did not seem to illumine the place around it at all, and<br />gathering a few stones, formed them into some device.<br /><br />Once there appeared a strange optical effect. When he stood between<br />me and the flame he did not obstruct it, for I could see its ghostly<br />flicker all the same. This startled me, but as the effect was only<br />momentary, I took it that my eyes deceived me straining through the<br />darkness. Then for a time there were no blue flames, and we sped<br />onwards through the gloom, with the howling of the wolves around us,<br />as though they were following in a moving circle.<br /><br />At last there came a time when the driver went further afield than he<br />had yet gone, and during his absence, the horses began to tremble<br />worse than ever and to snort and scream with fright. I could not see<br />any cause for it, for the howling of the wolves had ceased altogether.<br />But just then the moon, sailing through the black clouds, appeared<br />behind the jagged crest of a beetling, pine-clad rock, and by its<br />light I saw around us a ring of wolves, with white teeth and lolling<br />red tongues, with long, sinewy limbs and shaggy hair. They were a<br />hundred times more terrible in the grim silence which held them than<br />even when they howled. For myself, I felt a sort of paralysis of<br />fear. It is only when a man feels himself face to face with such<br />horrors that he can understand their true import.<br /><br />All at once the wolves began to howl as though the moonlight had had<br />some peculiar effect on them. The horses jumped about and reared, and<br />looked helplessly round with eyes that rolled in a way painful to<br />see. But the living ring of terror encompassed them on every side,<br />and they had perforce to remain within it. I called to the coachman<br />to come, for it seemed to me that our only chance was to try to break<br />out through the ring and to aid his approach, I shouted and beat the<br />side of the caleche, hoping by the noise to scare the wolves from the<br />side, so as to give him a chance of reaching the trap. How he came<br />there, I know not, but I heard his voice raised in a tone of imperious<br />command, and looking towards the sound, saw him stand in the roadway.<br />As he swept his long arms, as though brushing aside some impalpable<br />obstacle, the wolves fell back and back further still. Just then a<br />heavy cloud passed across the face of the moon, so that we were again<br />in darkness.<br /><br />When I could see again the driver was climbing into the caleche, and<br />the wolves disappeared. This was all so strange and uncanny that a<br />dreadful fear came upon me, and I was afraid to speak or move. The<br />time seemed interminable as we swept on our way, now in almost<br />complete darkness, for the rolling clouds obscured the moon.<br /><br />We kept on ascending, with occasional periods of quick descent, but in<br />the main always ascending. Suddenly, I became conscious of the fact<br />that the driver was in the act of pulling up the horses in the<br />courtyard of a vast ruined castle, from whose tall black windows came<br />no ray of light, and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line<br />against the sky.Kevin Andrew Woolseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268449682429697653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552238792208982895.post-74344503359023261642009-05-13T20:03:00.000-07:002009-05-13T20:05:11.402-07:00The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark TwainCHAPTER I.<br /><br />YOU don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I never seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt Polly—Tom's Aunt Polly, she is—and Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told about in that book, which is mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I said before.<br /><br />Now the way that the book winds up is this: Tom and me found the money that the robbers hid in the cave, and it made us rich. We got six thousand dollars apiece—all gold. It was an awful sight of money when it was piled up. Well, Judge Thatcher he took it and put it out at interest, and it fetched us a dollar a day apiece all the year round—more than a body could tell what to do with. The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand it no longer I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied. But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable. So I went back.<br /><br />The widow she cried over me, and called me a poor lost lamb, and she called me a lot of other names, too, but she never meant no harm by it. She put me in them new clothes again, and I couldn't do nothing but sweat and sweat, and feel all cramped up. Well, then, the old thing commenced again. The widow rung a bell for supper, and you had to come to time. When you got to the table you couldn't go right to eating, but you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little over the victuals, though there warn't really anything the matter with them,—that is, nothing only everything was cooked by itself. In a barrel of odds and ends it is different; things get mixed up, and the juice kind of swaps around, and the things go better.<br /><br />After supper she got out her book and learned me about Moses and the Bulrushers, and I was in a sweat to find out all about him; but by and by she let it out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time; so then I didn't care no more about him, because I don't take no stock in dead people.<br /><br />Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me. But she wouldn't. She said it was a mean practice and wasn't clean, and I must try to not do it any more. That is just the way with some people. They get down on a thing when they don't know nothing about it. Here she was a-bothering about Moses, which was no kin to her, and no use to anybody, being gone, you see, yet finding a power of fault with me for doing a thing that had some good in it. And she took snuff, too; of course that was all right, because she done it herself.<br /><br />Her sister, Miss Watson, a tolerable slim old maid, with goggles on, had just come to live with her, and took a set at me now with a spelling-book. She worked me middling hard for about an hour, and then the widow made her ease up. I couldn't stood it much longer. Then for an hour it was deadly dull, and I was fidgety. Miss Watson would say, "Don't put your feet up there, Huckleberry;" and "Don't scrunch up like that, Huckleberry—set up straight;" and pretty soon she would say, "Don't gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry—why don't you try to behave?" Then she told me all about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there. She got mad then, but I didn't mean no harm. All I wanted was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change, I warn't particular. She said it was wicked to say what I said; said she wouldn't say it for the whole world; she was going to live so as to go to the good place. Well, I couldn't see no advantage in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I wouldn't try for it. But I never said so, because it would only make trouble, and wouldn't do no good.<br /><br />Now she had got a start, and she went on and told me all about the good place. She said all a body would have to do there was to go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever. So I didn't think much of it. But I never said so. I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there, and she said not by a considerable sight. I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together.<br /><br />Miss Watson she kept pecking at me, and it got tiresome and lonesome. By and by they fetched the niggers in and had prayers, and then everybody was off to bed. I went up to my room with a piece of candle, and put it on the table. Then I set down in a chair by the window and tried to think of something cheerful, but it warn't no use. I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead. The stars were shining, and the leaves rustled in the woods ever so mournful; and I heard an owl, away off, who-whooing about somebody that was dead, and a whippowill and a dog crying about somebody that was going to die; and the wind was trying to whisper something to me, and I couldn't make out what it was, and so it made the cold shivers run over me. Then away out in the woods I heard that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when it wants to tell about something that's on its mind and can't make itself understood, and so can't rest easy in its grave, and has to go about that way every night grieving. I got so down-hearted and scared I did wish I had some company. Pretty soon a spider went crawling up my shoulder, and I flipped it off and it lit in the candle; and before I could budge it was all shriveled up. I didn't need anybody to tell me that that was an awful bad sign and would fetch me some bad luck, so I was scared and most shook the clothes off of me. I got up and turned around in my tracks three times and crossed my breast every time; and then I tied up a little lock of my hair with a thread to keep witches away. But I hadn't no confidence. You do that when you've lost a horseshoe that you've found, instead of nailing it up over the door, but I hadn't ever heard anybody say it was any way to keep off bad luck when you'd killed a spider.<br /><br />I set down again, a-shaking all over, and got out my pipe for a smoke; for the house was all as still as death now, and so the widow wouldn't know. Well, after a long time I heard the clock away off in the town go boom—boom—boom—twelve licks; and all still again—stiller than ever. Pretty soon I heard a twig snap down in the dark amongst the trees—something was a stirring. I set still and listened. Directly I could just barely hear a "me-yow! me-yow!" down there. That was good! Says I, "me-yow! me-yow!" as soft as I could, and then I put out the light and scrambled out of the window on to the shed. Then I slipped down to the ground and crawled in among the trees, and, sure enough, there was Tom Sawyer waiting for me.Kevin Andrew Woolseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268449682429697653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552238792208982895.post-4905100121473192242009-05-13T19:57:00.000-07:002009-05-13T20:02:12.197-07:00The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser by R. V. Pierce<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrNbKe3IWIWt3NSdTgMkTZTVvjFZ_4oAPaxZyqS12bjqWSwF6VrVZvDNGH7xg7NM0YlJHmV2GXPSXilhYeLfsg_OqUjPURJY1I7KTiYSZA7VDUqzibzOnyejOTuqCfhwqCB44JFQEBeIys/s1600-h/advise002.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 388px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrNbKe3IWIWt3NSdTgMkTZTVvjFZ_4oAPaxZyqS12bjqWSwF6VrVZvDNGH7xg7NM0YlJHmV2GXPSXilhYeLfsg_OqUjPURJY1I7KTiYSZA7VDUqzibzOnyejOTuqCfhwqCB44JFQEBeIys/s400/advise002.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335509212657911890" /></a><br /><br />PART I.<br /><br />PHYSIOLOGY.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />CHAPTER I.<br /><br />BIOLOGY.<br /><br /><br />In this chapter we propose to consider Life in its primitive<br />manifestations. _Biology_ is the science of living bodies, or the<br />science of life. Every organ of a living body has a function to perform,<br />and _Physiology_ treats of these functions.<br /><br />_Function_ means the peculiar action of some particular organ or part.<br />There can be no vital action without change, and no change without<br />organs. Every living thing has a structure, and _Anatomy_ treats of the<br />structures of organized bodies. Several chapters of this work are<br />devoted to _Physiological Anatomy_, which treats of the human organism<br />and its functions.<br /><br />The beginning of life is called _generation_; its perpetuation,<br />_reproduction_. By the former function, individual life is insured; by<br />the latter, it is maintained. Since nutrition sustains life, it has been<br />pertinently termed _perpetual reproduction_.<br /><br />LATENT LIFE is contained in a small globule, a mere atom of matter, in<br />the sperm-cell. This element is something which, under certain<br />conditions, develops into a living organism. The entire realm of nature<br />teems with these interesting phenomena, thus manifesting that admirable<br />adjustment of internal to external relations, which claims our profound<br />attention. We are simply humble scholars, waiting on the threshold of<br />nature's glorious sanctuary, to receive the interpretation of her divine<br />mysteries.<br /><br />Some have conjectured that chemical and physical forces account for all<br />the phenomena of life, and that organization is not the result of vital<br />forces. Physical science cannot inform us what the beginning was, or how<br />vitality is the result of chemical forces; nor can it tell us what<br />transmutations will occur at the end of organized existence. This<br />mysterious life-principle eludes the grasp of the profoundest<br />scientists, and its presence in the world will ever continue to be an<br />astonishing and indubitable testimony of Divine Power.<br /><br />The physical act of generation is accomplished by the union of two<br />cells; and as this conjugation is known to be so generally indispensable<br />to the organization of life, we may fairly infer that it is a universal<br />necessity. Investigations with the microscope have destroyed the<br />hypothesis of "spontaneous generation." These show us that even the<br />minutest living forms are derived from a parent organization.<br /><br />GENERATION. So long as the vital principle remains in the sperm-cell, it<br />lies dormant. That part of the cell which contains this principle is<br />called the _spermatozoön_, which consists of a flattened body, having a<br />long appendage tapering to the finest point. If it be remembered that a<br />line is the one-twelfth part of an inch in length, some idea may be<br />formed of the extreme minuteness of the body of a human spermatozoön,<br />when we state that it is from 1/800 to 1/600 part of a line, and the<br />filiform tail 1/50 of a line, in length. This life-atom, which can be<br />discerned only with a powerful magnifying glass, is perfectly<br />transparent, and moves about by executing a vibratile motion with its<br />long appendage. Within this speck of matter are hidden the multifarious<br />forces which, under certain favorable conditions, result in<br />organization. Magnify this infinitesimal atom a thousand times, and no<br />congeries of formative powers is perceived wherewith to work out the<br />wonders of its existence. Yet it contains the principle, which is the<br />contribution on the part of the male toward the generation of a new<br />being.<br /><br />The _ovum_ or germ-cell, is the special contribution on the part of the<br />female for the production of another being. The human ovum, though<br />larger than the spermatozoön, is also extremely small, measuring not<br />more than from 1/20 to 1/10 of a line, or from 1/240 to 1/120 of an<br />inch, in diameter.<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 1.<br /><br />_A_. Human Spermatozoön magnified about 3,800 diameters.<br />_B_. Vertical and lateral views of spermatozoa of man.<br />_C, D, E, F._ Development of spermatozoa within the vesicles of evolution.<br />_G_. Cell of the sponge resembling a spermatozoön.<br />_H_. Vesicles of evolution from the seminal fluid of the dog in the parent cell<br />_I_. Single vesicles of different sizes.<br />_J_. Human spermatozoön forming in its cell.<br />_K_. Rupture of the cell and escape of the spermatozoön.<br />]<br /><br />The sperm and the germ-cells contain the primary elements of all organic<br />structures, and both possess the special qualities and conditions by<br />which they may evolve organic beings. Every cell is composed of minute<br />grains, within which vital action takes place. The interior of a cell<br />consists of growing matter; the exterior, of matter which has assumed<br />its form and is less active.<br /><br />When the vital principle is communicated to it, the cell undergoes a<br />rapid transformation. While this alteration takes place within the cell,<br />deteriorating changes occur in the cell-wall. Although vital operations<br />build up these structures, yet the animal and nervous functions are<br />continually disintegrating, or wasting, them.<br /><br />Throughout the animal kingdom, germ-cells present the same external<br />aspect when carefully examined with the microscope. No difference can be<br />observed between the cells of the flowers of the oak and those of the<br />apple, but the cells of the one always produce oak trees, while those of<br />the other always produce apple trees. The same is true of the germs of<br />animals, there being not the slightest apparent difference. We are<br />unable to perceive how one cell should give origin to a dog, while<br />another exactly like it becomes a man. For aught we know, the ultimate<br />atoms of these cells are identical in physical character; at least we<br />have no means of detecting any difference.<br /><br />SPECIES. The term species is generally used merely as a convenient name<br />to designate certain assemblages of individuals having various striking<br />points of resemblance. Scientific writers, as a rule, no longer hold<br />that what are usually called _species_ are constantly unvarying and<br />unchangeable quantities. Recent researches point to the conclusion that<br />_all species vary more or less_, and, in some instances, that the<br />variation is so great that the limits of general specific distinctness<br />are sometimes exceeded.<br /><br />Our space will not permit us to do more than merely indicate the two<br />great fundamental ideas upon which the leading theories of the time<br />respecting the origin of species are based. These are usually termed the<br />doctrine of _Special Creation_ and the doctrine of _Evolution_.<br />According to the doctrine of Special Creation, it is thought that<br />species are practically immutable productions, each species having a<br />_specific centre_ where it was originally created, and from which it<br />spread over a certain area until its further progress was obstructed by<br />unfavorable conditions. The advocates of the doctrine of Evolution hold,<br />on the contrary, that species are not permanent and immutable, but that<br />they are subject to modification, and that "the existing forms of life<br />are descendants by true generation of pre-existing forms."[1] Most<br />naturalists are now inclined to admit the general truth of the theory of<br />evolution, but they differ widely respecting the mode in which it<br />occurred.<br /><br /><br />THE PROCESS OF GENERATION.<br /><br /><br />The vital _principle_, represented in the _sperm_-cell by a<br />spermatozoön, must be imparted to a _germ_-cell in order to effect<br />impregnation. After touching each other, separate them immediately, and<br />observe the result. If, with the aid of a powerful lens, we directly<br />examine the spermatozoön, it will be perceived that, for a short time,<br />it preserves its dimensions and retains all its material aspects. But it<br />does not long withstand the siege of decay, and, having fulfilled its<br />destiny, loses its organic characteristics, and begins to shrink.<br /><br />If we examine the fertilized germ, we discover unusual activity, the<br />result of impregnation. Organic processes succeed one another with<br />wonderful regularity, as if wrought out by inexplicable intelligence.<br />Here begin the functions which constitute human physiology.<br /><br />Generation requires that a spermatozoön be brought into actual contact<br />with a germ that fecundation may follow. If a spermatic cell, or<br />spermatozoön, together with several unimpregnated ova, no matter how<br />near to one another, if not actually touching, be placed on the concave<br />surface of a watch-crystal, and covered with another crystal, keeping<br />them warm, and even though the vapor of the ova envelops it, no<br />impregnation will occur. Place the spermatozoön in contact with an ovum,<br />and impregnation is instantly and perfectly accomplished. Should this<br />vitalizing power be termed nerve-force, electricity, heat, or motion? It<br />is known that these forces may be metamorphosed; for instance, nervous<br />force may be converted into electricity, electricity into heat, and heat<br />into motion, thus illustrating their affiliation and capability of<br />transformation. But nothing is explained respecting the real nature of<br />the vital principle, if we assert its identity with any of these forces;<br />for who can reveal the true nature of any of these, or even of matter?<br /><br /><br />ALTERNATE GENERATION.<br /><br /><br />In several insect families, the species is not wholly represented in the<br />adult individuals of both sexes, or in their development, but, to<br />complete this series, supplementary individuals, as it were, of one or<br />of several preceding generations, are required. The son may not resemble<br />the father, but the grandfather, and in some instances, the likeness<br />re-appears only in latter generations. Agassiz states: "Alternate<br />generation was first observed among the Salpae. These are marine<br />mollusks, without shells, belonging to the family Tunicata. They are<br />distinguished by the curious peculiarity of being united together in<br />considerable numbers so as to form long chains, which float in the sea,<br />the mouth(_m_) however being free in each.<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 2. ]<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 3. ]<br /><br />"Fig. 2. The individuals thus joined in floating colonies produce eggs;<br />but in each animal there is generally but one egg formed, which is<br />developed in the body of the parent, and from which is hatched a little<br />mollusk.<br /><br />"Fig. 3, which remains solitary, and differs in many respects from the<br />parent. This little animal, on the other hand, does not produce eggs,<br />but propagates, by a kind of budding, which gives rise to chains already<br />seen in the body of their parent(a), and these again bring forth<br />solitary individuals, etc."<br /><br />It therefore follows that generation in some animals require? two<br />different bodies with intermediate ones, by means of which and their<br />different modes of reproduction, a return to the original stock is<br />effected.<br /><br />UNIVERSALITY OF ANIMALCULAR LIFE.--Living organisms are universally<br />diffused over every part of the globe. The gentle zephyr wafts from<br />flower to flower invisible, fructifying atoms, which quicken beauty and<br />fragrance, giving the promise of a golden fruitage, to gladden and<br />nourish a dependent world. Nature's own sweet cunning invests all living<br />things constraining into her service chemical affinities, arranging the<br />elements and disposing them for her own benefit, in such numberless ways<br />that we involuntarily exclaim,<br /><br /> "The course of Nature is the art of God."<br /><br />The microscope reveals the fact that matter measuring only 1/120000 of<br />an inch diameter may be endowed with vitality, and that countless<br />numbers of animalcules often inhabit a single drop of stagnant water.<br />These monads do not vary in form, whether in motion or at rest. The life<br />of one, even, is an inexplicable mystery to the philosopher. Ehrenberg<br />writes: "Not only in the polar regions is there an uninterrupted<br />development of active microscopic life, where larger animals cannot<br />exist, but we find that those minute beings collected in the Antarctic<br />expedition of Captain James Ross exhibit a remarkable abundance of<br />unknown, and often most beautiful forms."<br /><br />Even the interior of animal bodies is inhabited by animalcules. They<br />have been found in the blood of the frog and the salmon, and in the<br />optic fluid of fishes. Organic beings are found in the interior of the<br />earth, into which the industry of the miner has made extensive<br />excavations, sunk deep shafts, and thus revealed their forms; likewise,<br />the smallest fossil organisms form subterranean strata many fathoms<br />deep. Not only do lakes and inland seas abound with life, but also, from<br />unknown depths, in volcanic districts, arise thermal springs which<br />contain living insects. Were we endowed with a microscopic eye, we might<br />see myriads of ethereal voyagers wafted by on every breeze, as we now<br />behold drifting clouds of aqueous vapor. While the continents of earth<br />furnishes evidences of the universality of organic beings, recent<br />observations prove that "animal life predominates amid the eternal night<br />of the depths of the liquid ocean."<br /><br /><br />THE ORIGIN OF LIFE.<br /><br /><br />The ancients, rude in many of their ideas, referred the origin of life<br />to divine determination. The thought was crudely expressed, but well<br />represented, in the following verse:<br /><br /> "Then God smites his hands together,<br /> And strikes out a soul as a spark,<br /> Into the organized glory of things.<br /> From the deeps of the dark."<br /><br />According to a Greek myth, Prometheus formed a human image from the dust<br />of the ground, and then, by fire stolen from heaven, animated it with a<br />living soul. Spontaneous generation once held its sway, and now the idea<br />of natural evolution is popular. Some believe that the inpenetrable<br />mystery of life is evolved from the endowments of nature, and build<br />their imperfect theory on observations of her concrete forms and their<br />manifestations, to which all our investigations are restricted. But<br />every function indicates purpose, every organism evinces intelligent<br />design, and _all_ proclaim a Divine Power. Something cannot come out of<br />nothing. With reason and philosophy, _chance_ is an impossibility. We,<br />therefore, accept the display of wisdom in nature as indicative of the<br />designs of God. Thus "has He written His claims for our profoundest<br />admiration and homage all over every object that He has made." If you<br />ask: Is there any advantage in considering the phenomena of nature as<br />the result of DIVINE VOLITION? we answer, that this belief corresponds<br />with the universally acknowledged ideas of accountability; for, with a<br />wise, and efficient Cause, we infer there is an intelligent creation,<br />and the desire to communicate, guide and bless, is responded to by man,<br />who loves, obeys, and enjoys. Nothing is gained by attributing to nature<br />vicegerent forces. Is it not preferable to say that she responds to<br />intelligent, loving Omnipotence? Our finiteness is illustrated by our<br />initiation into organized being. Emerging from a rayless atom, too<br />diminutive for the sight, we gradually develop and advance to the<br />maturity of those _conscious powers_, the exercise of which furnishes<br />indubitable evidence of our immortality. We are pervaded with invisible<br />influences, which, like the needle of the compass trembling on its<br />pivot, point us to immortality as our ultimate goal, where in the sunny<br />clime of Love, even in a spiritual realm of joy and happiness, we may<br />eternally reign with Him who is all in all.Kevin Andrew Woolseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268449682429697653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552238792208982895.post-28939493288355357582009-05-13T19:53:00.000-07:002009-05-13T19:55:21.687-07:00The Art of War by Sun TzuI. LAYING PLANS<br /><br /> [Ts`ao Kung, in defining the meaning of the Chinese for the<br />title of this chapter, says it refers to the deliberations in the<br />temple selected by the general for his temporary use, or as we<br />should say, in his tent. See. ss. 26.]<br /><br /> 1. Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to<br />the State.<br /> 2. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to<br />safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on<br />no account be neglected.<br /> 3. The art of war, then, is governed by five constant<br />factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when<br />seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.<br /> 4. These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth;<br />(4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.<br /><br /> [It appears from what follows that Sun Tzu means by "Moral<br />Law" a principle of harmony, not unlike the Tao of Lao Tzu in its<br />moral aspect. One might be tempted to render it by "morale,"<br />were it not considered as an attribute of the ruler in ss. 13.]<br /><br /> 5, 6. The MORAL LAW causes the people to be in complete<br />accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless<br />of their lives, undismayed by any danger.<br /><br /> [Tu Yu quotes Wang Tzu as saying: "Without constant<br />practice, the officers will be nervous and undecided when<br />mustering for battle; without constant practice, the general will<br />be wavering and irresolute when the crisis is at hand."]<br /><br /> 7. HEAVEN signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and<br />seasons.<br /><br /> [The commentators, I think, make an unnecessary mystery of<br />two words here. Meng Shih refers to "the hard and the soft,<br />waxing and waning" of Heaven. Wang Hsi, however, may be right in<br />saying that what is meant is "the general economy of Heaven,"<br />including the five elements, the four seasons, wind and clouds,<br />and other phenomena.]<br /><br /> 8. EARTH comprises distances, great and small; danger and<br />security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and<br />death.<br /> 9. The COMMANDER stands for the virtues of wisdom,<br />sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness.<br /><br /> [The five cardinal virtues of the Chinese are (1) humanity<br />or benevolence; (2) uprightness of mind; (3) self-respect, self-<br />control, or "proper feeling;" (4) wisdom; (5) sincerity or good<br />faith. Here "wisdom" and "sincerity" are put before "humanity or<br />benevolence," and the two military virtues of "courage" and<br />"strictness" substituted for "uprightness of mind" and "self-<br />respect, self-control, or 'proper feeling.'"]<br /><br /> 10. By METHOD AND DISCIPLINE are to be understood the<br />marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the<br />graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads<br />by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military<br />expenditure.<br /> 11. These five heads should be familiar to every general:<br />he who knows them will be victorious; he who knows them not will<br />fail.<br /> 12. Therefore, in your deliberations, when seeking to<br />determine the military conditions, let them be made the basis of<br />a comparison, in this wise: --<br /> 13. (1) Which of the two sovereigns is imbued with the<br />Moral law?<br /><br /> [I.e., "is in harmony with his subjects." Cf. ss. 5.]<br /><br /> (2) Which of the two generals has most ability?<br /> (3) With whom lie the advantages derived from Heaven and<br />Earth?<br /><br /> [See ss. 7,8]<br /><br /> (4) On which side is discipline most rigorously enforced?<br /><br /> [Tu Mu alludes to the remarkable story of Ts`ao Ts`ao (A.D.<br />155-220), who was such a strict disciplinarian that once, in<br />accordance with his own severe regulations against injury to<br />standing crops, he condemned himself to death for having allowed<br />him horse to shy into a field of corn! However, in lieu of<br />losing his head, he was persuaded to satisfy his sense of justice<br />by cutting off his hair. Ts`ao Ts`ao's own comment on the<br />present passage is characteristically curt: "when you lay down a<br />law, see that it is not disobeyed; if it is disobeyed the<br />offender must be put to death."]<br /><br /> (5) Which army is stronger?<br /><br /> [Morally as well as physically. As Mei Yao-ch`en puts it,<br />freely rendered, "ESPIRIT DE CORPS and 'big battalions.'"]<br /><br /> (6) On which side are officers and men more highly trained?<br /><br /> [Tu Yu quotes Wang Tzu as saying: "Without constant<br />practice, the officers will be nervous and undecided when<br />mustering for battle; without constant practice, the general will<br />be wavering and irresolute when the crisis is at hand."]<br /><br /> (7) In which army is there the greater constancy both in<br />reward and punishment?<br /><br /> [On which side is there the most absolute certainty that<br />merit will be properly rewarded and misdeeds summarily punished?]<br /><br /> 14. By means of these seven considerations I can forecast<br />victory or defeat.<br /> 15. The general that hearkens to my counsel and acts upon<br />it, will conquer: --let such a one be retained in command! The<br />general that hearkens not to my counsel nor acts upon it, will<br />suffer defeat: --let such a one be dismissed!<br /><br /> [The form of this paragraph reminds us that Sun Tzu's<br />treatise was composed expressly for the benefit of his patron Ho<br />Lu, king of the Wu State.]<br /><br /> 16. While heading the profit of my counsel, avail yourself<br />also of any helpful circumstances over and beyond the ordinary<br />rules.<br /> 17. According as circumstances are favorable, one should<br />modify one's plans.<br /><br /> [Sun Tzu, as a practical soldier, will have none of the<br />"bookish theoric." He cautions us here not to pin our faith to<br />abstract principles; "for," as Chang Yu puts it, "while the main<br />laws of strategy can be stated clearly enough for the benefit of<br />all and sundry, you must be guided by the actions of the enemy in<br />attempting to secure a favorable position in actual warfare." On<br />the eve of the battle of Waterloo, Lord Uxbridge, commanding the<br />cavalry, went to the Duke of Wellington in order to learn what<br />his plans and calculations were for the morrow, because, as he<br />explained, he might suddenly find himself Commander-in-chief and<br />would be unable to frame new plans in a critical moment. The<br />Duke listened quietly and then said: "Who will attack the first<br />tomorrow -- I or Bonaparte?" "Bonaparte," replied Lord Uxbridge.<br />"Well," continued the Duke, "Bonaparte has not given me any idea<br />of his projects; and as my plans will depend upon his, how can<br />you expect me to tell you what mine are?" [1] ]<br /><br /> 18. All warfare is based on deception.<br /><br /> [The truth of this pithy and profound saying will be<br />admitted by every soldier. Col. Henderson tells us that<br />Wellington, great in so many military qualities, was especially<br />distinguished by "the extraordinary skill with which he concealed<br />his movements and deceived both friend and foe."]<br /><br /> 19. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when<br />using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we<br />must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we<br />must make him believe we are near.<br /> 20. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder,<br />and crush him.<br /><br /> [All commentators, except Chang Yu, say, "When he is in<br />disorder, crush him." It is more natural to suppose that Sun Tzu<br />is still illustrating the uses of deception in war.]<br /><br /> 21. If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If<br />he is in superior strength, evade him.<br /> 22. If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to<br />irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.<br /><br /> [Wang Tzu, quoted by Tu Yu, says that the good tactician<br />plays with his adversary as a cat plays with a mouse, first<br />feigning weakness and immobility, and then suddenly pouncing upon<br />him.]<br /><br /> 23. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest.<br /><br /> [This is probably the meaning though Mei Yao-ch`en has the<br />note: "while we are taking our ease, wait for the enemy to tire<br />himself out." The YU LAN has "Lure him on and tire him out."]<br /><br />If his forces are united, separate them.<br /><br /> [Less plausible is the interpretation favored by most of the<br />commentators: "If sovereign and subject are in accord, put<br />division between them."]<br /><br /> 24. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are<br />not expected.<br /> 25. These military devices, leading to victory, must not be<br />divulged beforehand.<br /> 26. Now the general who wins a battle makes many<br />calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought.<br /><br /> [Chang Yu tells us that in ancient times it was customary<br />for a temple to be set apart for the use of a general who was<br />about to take the field, in order that he might there elaborate<br />his plan of campaign.]<br /><br />The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations<br />beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few<br />calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It<br />is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to<br />win or lose.<br /><br /><br />[1] "Words on Wellington," by Sir. W. Fraser.Kevin Andrew Woolseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268449682429697653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552238792208982895.post-71583594298999640812009-05-10T18:42:00.000-07:002009-05-10T18:43:26.064-07:00Our Day, by W. A. SpicerTHE BOOK THAT SPEAKS TO OUR DAY<br /><br /><br />Man may write a true book, but only God, the source of life, can write a<br />living book. "The word of God ... liveth and abideth forever." 1 Peter<br />1:23. The Bible is the living word of God. We look at the volume; we<br />hold it in our hands. It is like other books in form and printer's art.<br />But the voice of God speaks from these pages, and the word spoken is<br />alive. It is able to do in the heart that receives it what can be done<br />only by divine power.<br /><br /><br />The Book That Talks<br /><br />Far in the heart of Africa a missionary read to the people in their own<br />language from the translated Word of God. "See!" they cried; "see! the<br />book talks! The white man has a book that talks!" With that simplicity<br />of speech so common to children of nature, they had exactly described<br />it. This is a book that talks. What the wise man says of its counsels<br />through parents to children, is true of all the book: "When thou goest,<br />it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when<br />thou awakest, it shall talk with thee." Prov. 6:22.<br /><br />Here is companionship, faithful and true, a blessed guide and guardian<br />and friend.<br /><br /> "Holy Bible! book divine!<br /> Precious treasure, thou art mine!"<br /><br /><br />God Its Author<br /><br />The sixty-six books of Holy Scripture were written by many penmen, over<br />a space of fifteen centuries; yet it is one book, and one voice speaks<br />through all its pages. Spurgeon once said of his experience with this<br />book:<br /><br /> "When I see it, I seem to hear a voice springing up from it,<br /> saying, 'I am the book of God; man, read me. I am God's<br /> writing; open my leaf, for I was penned by God; read it, for He<br /> is my author.'"<br /><br />This book declares of itself: "All scripture is given by inspiration of<br />God." 2 Tim. 3:16. "The prophecy came not in old time by the will of<br />man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2<br />Peter 1:21. As the rugged verse of the old hymn puts it:<br /><br /> "Let all the heathen writers join<br /> To form one perfect book:<br /> Great God, if once compared with Thine,<br /> How mean their writings look!<br /><br /> "Not the most perfect rules they gave<br /> Could show one sin forgiven,<br /> Nor lead a step beyond the grave;<br /> But Thine conducts to heaven."<br /><br />It is the voice of the Almighty. Very different it is from the sacred<br />books of the non-Christian religions. In those writings it is man<br />speaking about God; in the Holy Scriptures it is God speaking to man.<br />The difference is as great as heaven is higher than earth. Here it is<br />not man groping in the darkness after God. In this book of God's<br />revelation we see the divine arm reaching down to save the lost, and<br />hear the voice of the loving Father calling to His children, every one<br />and everywhere. "Incline your ear," He calls; "hear, and your soul shall<br />live." Isa. 55:3.<br /><br /><br />The Word That Creates<br /><br />We must have something more than instruction; we must have a word of<br />power that is able to tell of sins forgiven, and to conduct us beyond<br />the grave to heaven. One of the greatest of China's sages, Mencius,<br />said, "Instruction can impart information, but not the power to<br />execute." That touches the crucial point. We must have instruction that<br />can come with power divine to execute. We have it only in God's words.<br />Christ said: "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth<br />nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are<br />life." John 6:63.<br /><br />The words of God are living words. When God spoke in the beginning, "Let<br />there be light," lo, the light sprang out of the darkness. There was<br />power in the word spoken to bring forth. "Let the earth bring forth<br />grass," was the word of the Lord: and the earth was carpeted with its<br />first rich greensward. So through all the work of creation, the creative<br />power was in the word spoken.<br /><br />"By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them<br />by the breath of His mouth." "He spake, and it was done; He commanded,<br />and it stood fast." Ps. 33:6, 9.<br /><br />Even so, when this word speaks instruction to man, there is creative<br />power in the word, if received, to work mightily in the soul that is<br />dead in trespasses and sins. Man must be born again, be re-created. That<br />we know; for Christ says, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man<br />be born again ["from above," margin], he cannot see the kingdom of God."<br />John 3:3.<br /><br />And the word of God--the Bible from heaven--received by faith, is the<br />agency by which this new birth "from above" is wrought. This is the<br />declaration of our text: "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but<br />of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever."<br />1 Peter 1:23.<br /><br />[Illustration: HEALING THE CENTURION'S SERVANT<br /><br />"Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed." Matt. 8:8.]<br /><br /><br />The Word That Works Within<br /><br />Not only does the word of God give the new birth, making the believer a<br />new man,--the past forgiven and a new heart within,--but the word that<br />re-creates abides in the believing heart that studies it and clings to<br />it, to work in the life with actual power that is not of the man<br />himself. To the Thessalonians, who had "turned to God from idols to<br />serve the living and true God," the apostle wrote:<br /><br />"For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye<br />received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the<br />word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually<br />worketh also in you that believe." 1 Thess. 2:13.<br /><br />The word itself works within, and works effectually. There is nothing<br />mechanical about it. The mere letter profits nothing. The Bible on the<br />center table, unstudied and unloved, has no magic power. But God<br />promises to abide by His Spirit of power in the heart that listens to<br />His voice and trembles at His word. Jesus Himself tells us the secret of<br />this power of the word to work in the believing heart:<br /><br />"If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him,<br />and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." John 14:23.<br /><br />No wonder, then, that believing and receiving the word brings divine<br />power into the life, making it possible for transformations of character<br />to be wrought, for victories to be won and obedience rendered to every<br />command of God.<br /><br />Simply believing God's word touches the current of everlasting power,<br />even as the trolley arm of the electric car reaches up and touches the<br />current of power flowing through the wire overhead. The faith that<br />takes the living word brings the power divine into the heart to move all<br />the spiritual mechanism of life's service.<br /><br /><br />The Word Our Safety and Defense<br /><br />When Christ came to live as our example in the flesh, and to give His<br />life a sacrifice for sin, He, the divine Son of God, made Himself like<br />unto His brethren. "I can of Mine own self do nothing," He said. John<br />5:30. Tempted and tried, He found His defense in the Holy Scriptures.<br />When Satan came to tempt Him to sin, the Saviour said, "It is written."<br />He clung to the sure defense. Again the tempter came. He was met with<br />the word, "It is written again." The third time it was the same weapon<br />of defense, "It is written." Matt. 4:1-11.<br /><br />Christ found safety only in the Scriptures of truth. So the Bible is the<br />Christian's shield against the enemy's attacks. As Jesus studied the<br />Scriptures and kept the words ever in His heart for a defense against<br />temptation, so must every Christian study and meditate upon God's Holy<br />Word if its counsels and precepts are to be his defense in the moment of<br />sudden temptation to sin. "Thy word have I hid in mine heart," said the<br />psalmist, "that I might not sin against Thee." Ps. 119:11. It was the<br />only way for Christ, our Pattern; it is the only way for us.<br /><br /><br />The Bread of Life<br /><br />The word of God is the daily food for the soul. "It is written, Man<br />shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of<br />the mouth of God." Matt. 4:4.<br /><br />Who has not, in hurried times, missed a meal, working on through the<br />day, never thinking of the prolonged fast? But after a time there came a<br />sense of weakening force, a lack of physical power. What was the<br />trouble? At once the reason was evident--one had not taken food, and<br />the system was calling for a renewal of its forces. Just so the<br />spiritual life must needs be fed by the word of God.<br /><br />[Illustration: CHRIST'S WEAPON OF DEFENSE--THE WORD OF GOD<br /><br />"Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord<br />thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." Matt. 4:10.]<br /><br />Do we at times feel a sense of weakening of the spiritual power, a<br />letting down of the vital forces of the soul? Ah, in the hurry of life<br />we have neglected to feed upon the living bread. We can no more sustain<br />spiritual vigor and health without feeding daily upon God's Holy Word<br />than we can maintain physical power without eating our daily bread. Eat<br />of the life-giving word. The taste for it grows with the partaking.<br /><br />There is life in "every word." The psalmist found the Lord's testimonies<br />"sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb," or, as the marginal reading<br />has it, than "the dropping of honeycombs." Ps. 19:10. We get the picture<br />of the honeycomb inverted, the cell caps broken open, the sweetness<br />dripping down. Just so every word of the Lord is a cell full of<br />sweetness and life for the soul that feasts upon the Holy Scriptures.<br /><br /><br />The Source of All Doctrine<br /><br />The Bible is the complete and perfect rule of faith and doctrine. Here<br />every doctrine of salvation is found. Inspiration has declared it in the<br />words of the apostle Paul to Timothy:<br /><br />"From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to<br />make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.<br />All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for<br />doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:<br />that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good<br />works." 2 Tim. 3:15-17.<br /><br />The divine command is, "Study." For every generation there has been a<br />message borne by this living word, making call to reformation of life,<br />or giving warning and comfort. "The Bible is not a collection of truths<br />formulated in propositions," said Dr. Samuel Harris, of Yale, "but<br />God's majestic march through history, redeeming men from sin."<br /><br />In every age God has been ruling and overruling, witnessing by His<br />Spirit through the living word. The experiences recorded of past ages<br />have their special lesson for the present time:<br /><br />"Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning,<br />that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope."<br />Rom. 15:4.<br /><br />"Let vs therfore all with feruent desyre," as the Old English of 1549<br />spelled the exhortation of Erasmus, "thyrste after these spirituall<br />sprynges.... Let vs kisse these swete wordes of Christ with a pure<br />affeccion. Let vs be newe transformed into them, for soche are oure<br />maners as oure studies be."<br /><br /><br />The Book for All Mankind<br /><br />It speaks in every tongue to the human heart. Its power to transform has<br />been shown through all the centuries in every clime and among every<br />race. One of the Gospels was put into the Chiluba tongue of Central<br />Africa. After a time a Garenganze chief came to Dan Crawford, the<br />missionary, changed from the spirit of a fierce, wicked barbarian to<br />that of a teachable child. Explaining his conversion, the chief said: "I<br />was startled to find that Christ could speak Chiluba. I heard him speak<br />to me out of the printed page, and what he said was, 'Follow me!'"<br /><br />Of the Bible's universal speech to all mankind, Dr. Henry van Dyke has<br />said:<br /><br /> "Born in the East, and clothed in Oriental form and imagery,<br /> the Bible walks the ways of all the world with familiar feet,<br /> and enters land after land to find its own everywhere. It has<br /> learned to speak in hundreds of languages to the heart of man.<br /> It comes into the palace to tell the monarch that he is the<br /> servant of the Most High, and into the cottage to assure the<br /> peasant that he is the son of God. Children listen to its<br /> stories with wonder and delight, and wise men ponder them as<br /> parables of life. It has a word of peace for the time of<br /> peril, a word of comfort for the day of calamity, a word of<br /> light for the hour of darkness. Its oracles are repeated in the<br /> assembly of the people, and its counsels whispered in the ear<br /> of the lonely. The wise and the proud tremble at its warnings,<br /> but to the wounded and penitent it has a mother's voice....<br /><br /> "Its great words grow richer, as pearls do when they are worn<br /> near the heart. No man is poor or desolate who has this<br /> treasure for his own. When the landscape darkens and the<br /> trembling pilgrim comes to the valley named the Shadow, he is<br /> not afraid to enter; he takes the rod and staff of Scripture in<br /> his hand; he says to friend and comrade, 'Good-by, we shall<br /> meet again,' and comforted by that support, he goes toward the<br /> lonely pass as one who climbs through darkness into<br /> light."--_The Century Magazine._<br /><br />[Illustration: RAISING JARIUS'S DAUGHTER<br /><br />"In Him was life; and the life was the light of men." John 1:4.]<br /><br />In the days of His life on earth, Jesus was a welcome guest in humble<br />homes in Judea and Galilee. "The common people heard Him gladly." His<br />presence brought peace and comfort to the home. He is no longer with us<br />in bodily presence; but He is the same Saviour still--"Jesus Christ the<br />same yesterday, and today, and forever." Heb. 13:8. By His Spirit,<br />through the living word of Holy Scripture, He enters the home where<br />faith receives Him, and speaks again the gracious salutation, "Peace be<br />to this house."<br /><br /><br />Christ the Central Theme<br /><br />All the Bible bears witness of Christ as the Saviour of the world. He<br />Himself said of the Scriptures, "They are they which testify of Me."<br />John 5:39. "To Him give all the prophets witness." Acts 10:43. We see<br />Him as the coming Messiah in promise and prophecy, in type and shadow.<br />His is the divine, living personality standing out in every book that<br />makes up the Sacred Volume. As we read with loving heart, the Author<br />seems near in every page.<br /><br /> "Reading, methinks I bend<br /> Before the cross<br /> Where died my King, my Friend.<br /> The whole world's loss<br /> For love of Him is gain."<br /><br />And having beheld Him giving His life as the divine sacrifice, and<br />rising in triumph over death to be our great High Priest in the heavenly<br />temple, as we read these Sacred Scriptures yet again, in every book,<br />from Genesis to Revelation, we see Him as the coming King of kings,<br />coming to take His children to the eternal home of the saved. The whole<br />book is a bright window through which we gaze on coming glory.<br /><br /> "And yet again I stand<br /> Where the seer stood,<br /> Gazing across the strand,<br /> Beyond the flood:<br /> The gates of pearl afar,<br /> The streets of gold,<br /> The bright and morning Star<br /> Mine eyes behold."<br /><br />"The Word of God ... liveth and abideth forever." 1 Peter 1:23. "Heaven<br />and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." Matt.<br />24:35.<br /><br />[Illustration: ON THE WAY TO EMMAUS<br /><br />"Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all<br />the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." Luke 24:27.]<br /><br />[Illustration: THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM<br /><br />"I am God,... declaring ... from ancient times the things that are not<br />yet done." Isa. 46:9, 10.]Kevin Andrew Woolseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268449682429697653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552238792208982895.post-88934816173098289252009-05-10T18:39:00.000-07:002009-05-10T18:40:37.295-07:00Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis CarrollCHAPTER I. Down the Rabbit-Hole<br /><br />Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the<br />bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the<br />book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in<br />it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice 'without pictures or<br />conversation?'<br /><br />So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the<br />hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure<br />of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and<br />picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran<br />close by her.<br /><br />There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so<br />VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, 'Oh dear!<br />Oh dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it<br />occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time<br />it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH<br />OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT-POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on,<br />Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had<br />never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch<br />to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field<br />after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large<br />rabbit-hole under the hedge.<br /><br />In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how<br />in the world she was to get out again.<br /><br />The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then<br />dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think<br />about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep<br />well.<br /><br />Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had<br />plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was<br />going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what<br />she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she<br />looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with<br />cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures<br />hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as<br />she passed; it was labelled 'ORANGE MARMALADE', but to her great<br />disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear<br />of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as<br />she fell past it.<br /><br />'Well!' thought Alice to herself, 'after such a fall as this, I shall<br />think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at<br />home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top<br />of the house!' (Which was very likely true.)<br /><br />Down, down, down. Would the fall NEVER come to an end! 'I wonder how<br />many miles I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud. 'I must be getting<br />somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four<br />thousand miles down, I think--' (for, you see, Alice had learnt several<br />things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this<br />was not a VERY good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there<br />was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over)<br />'--yes, that's about the right distance--but then I wonder what Latitude<br />or Longitude I've got to?' (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or<br />Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.)<br /><br />Presently she began again. 'I wonder if I shall fall right THROUGH the<br />earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with<br />their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think--' (she was rather glad<br />there WAS no one listening, this time, as it didn't sound at all the<br />right word) '--but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country<br />is, you know. Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia?' (and<br />she tried to curtsey as she spoke--fancy CURTSEYING as you're falling<br />through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) 'And what an<br />ignorant little girl she'll think me for asking! No, it'll never do to<br />ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.'<br /><br />Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began<br />talking again. 'Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I should think!'<br />(Dinah was the cat.) 'I hope they'll remember her saucer of milk at<br />tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are no<br />mice in the air, I'm afraid, but you might catch a bat, and that's very<br />like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?' And here Alice<br />began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy<br />sort of way, 'Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?' and sometimes, 'Do<br />bats eat cats?' for, you see, as she couldn't answer either question,<br />it didn't much matter which way she put it. She felt that she was dozing<br />off, and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with<br />Dinah, and saying to her very earnestly, 'Now, Dinah, tell me the truth:<br />did you ever eat a bat?' when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon<br />a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.<br /><br />Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a moment:<br />she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another<br />long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it.<br />There was not a moment to be lost: away went Alice like the wind, and<br />was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, 'Oh my ears<br />and whiskers, how late it's getting!' She was close behind it when she<br />turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she found<br />herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging<br />from the roof.<br /><br />There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked; and when<br />Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every<br />door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to<br />get out again.<br /><br />Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid<br />glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key, and Alice's<br />first thought was that it might belong to one of the doors of the hall;<br />but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small,<br />but at any rate it would not open any of them. However, on the second<br />time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and<br />behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: she tried the<br />little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted!<br /><br />Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not<br />much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and looked along the passage<br />into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of<br />that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and<br />those cool fountains, but she could not even get her head through the<br />doorway; 'and even if my head would go through,' thought poor Alice, 'it<br />would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could<br />shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only know how to begin.'<br />For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately,<br />that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really<br />impossible.<br /><br />There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she went<br />back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on it, or at<br />any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes: this<br />time she found a little bottle on it, ('which certainly was not here<br />before,' said Alice,) and round the neck of the bottle was a paper<br />label, with the words 'DRINK ME' beautifully printed on it in large<br />letters.<br /><br />It was all very well to say 'Drink me,' but the wise little Alice was<br />not going to do THAT in a hurry. 'No, I'll look first,' she said, 'and<br />see whether it's marked "poison" or not'; for she had read several nice<br />little histories about children who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild<br />beasts and other unpleasant things, all because they WOULD not remember<br />the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot<br />poker will burn you if you hold it too long; and that if you cut your<br />finger VERY deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never<br />forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked 'poison,' it is<br />almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.<br /><br />However, this bottle was NOT marked 'poison,' so Alice ventured to taste<br />it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour<br />of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot<br />buttered toast,) she very soon finished it off.<br /><br /> * * * * * * *<br /><br /> * * * * * *<br /><br /> * * * * * * *<br /><br />'What a curious feeling!' said Alice; 'I must be shutting up like a<br />telescope.'<br /><br />And so it was indeed: she was now only ten inches high, and her face<br />brightened up at the thought that she was now the right size for going<br />through the little door into that lovely garden. First, however, she<br />waited for a few minutes to see if she was going to shrink any further:<br />she felt a little nervous about this; 'for it might end, you know,' said<br />Alice to herself, 'in my going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder<br />what I should be like then?' And she tried to fancy what the flame of a<br />candle is like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember<br />ever having seen such a thing.<br /><br />After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided on going<br />into the garden at once; but, alas for poor Alice! when she got to the<br />door, she found she had forgotten the little golden key, and when she<br />went back to the table for it, she found she could not possibly reach<br />it: she could see it quite plainly through the glass, and she tried her<br />best to climb up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery;<br />and when she had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing<br />sat down and cried.<br /><br />'Come, there's no use in crying like that!' said Alice to herself,<br />rather sharply; 'I advise you to leave off this minute!' She generally<br />gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it),<br />and sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into<br />her eyes; and once she remembered trying to box her own ears for having<br />cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself,<br />for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people.<br />'But it's no use now,' thought poor Alice, 'to pretend to be two people!<br />Why, there's hardly enough of me left to make ONE respectable person!'<br /><br />Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table:<br />she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which the words<br />'EAT ME' were beautifully marked in currants. 'Well, I'll eat it,' said<br />Alice, 'and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it<br />makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door; so either way I'll<br />get into the garden, and I don't care which happens!'<br /><br />She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself, 'Which way? Which<br />way?', holding her hand on the top of her head to feel which way it was<br />growing, and she was quite surprised to find that she remained the same<br />size: to be sure, this generally happens when one eats cake, but Alice<br />had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way<br />things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on<br />in the common way.<br /><br />So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.Kevin Andrew Woolseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268449682429697653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552238792208982895.post-39414802946562116972009-05-10T18:35:00.000-07:002009-05-10T18:37:35.256-07:00Searchlights on Health by B. G. Jefferis and J. L. NicholsKNOWLEDGE IS SAFETY.<br /><br />1. The old maxim, that "Knowledge is power," is a true one, but there<br />is still a greater truth: "KNOWLEDGE IS SAFETY." Safety amid physical<br />ills that beset mankind, and safety amid the moral pitfalls that<br />surround so many young people, is the great crying demand of the age.<br /><br />2. CRITICISM.--This work, though plain and to some extent startling,<br />is chaste, practical and to the point, and will be a boon and a<br />blessing to thousands who consult its pages. The world is full of<br />ignorance, and the ignorant will always criticise, because they live<br />to suffer ills, for they know no better. New light is fast falling<br />upon the dark corners, and the eyes of many are being opened.<br /><br />3. RESEARCHES OF SCIENCE.--The researches of science in the past few<br />years have thrown light on many facts relating to the physiology<br />of man and woman, and the diseases to which they are subject, and<br />consequently many reformations have taken place in the treatment and<br />prevention of diseases peculiar to the sexes.<br /><br />4. LOCK AND KEY.--Any information bearing upon the diseases of mankind<br />should not be kept under lock and key. The physician is frequently<br />called upon to speak in plain language to his patients upon some<br />private and startling disease contracted on account of ignorance. The<br />better plan, however, is to so educate and enlighten old and young<br />upon the important subjects of health, so that the necessity to call a<br />physician may occur less frequently.<br /><br />5. PROGRESSION.--A large, respectable, though diminishing class in<br />every community, maintain that nothing that relates exclusively to<br />either sex should become the subject of popular medical instruction.<br />But such an opinion is radically wrong; ignorance is no more the<br />mother of purity than it is of religion. Enlightenment can never work<br />injustice to him who investigates.<br /><br />6. AN EXAMPLE.--The men and women who study and practice medicine are<br />not the worse, but the better for such knowledge; so it would be to<br />the community in general if all would be properly instructed on the<br />laws of health which relate to the sexes.<br /><br />7. CRIME AND DEGRADATION.--Had every person a sound understanding on<br />the relation of the sexes, one of the most fertile sources of crime<br />and degradation would be removed. Physicians know too well what sad<br />consequences are constantly occurring from a lack of proper knowledge<br />on these important subjects.<br /><br />8. A CONSISTENT CONSIDERATION.--Let the reader of this work study its<br />pages carefully and be able to give safe counsel and advice to others,<br />and remember that purity of purpose and purity of character are the<br />brightest jewels in the crown of immortality.Kevin Andrew Woolseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268449682429697653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552238792208982895.post-14870986600706741182009-05-10T18:25:00.000-07:002009-05-10T18:27:27.761-07:00Pride and Prejudice by Jane AustenChapter 1<br /><br /><br />It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession<br />of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.<br /><br />However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his<br />first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds<br />of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property<br />of some one or other of their daughters.<br /><br />"My dear Mr. Bennet," said his lady to him one day, "have you heard that<br />Netherfield Park is let at last?"<br /><br />Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.<br /><br />"But it is," returned she; "for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she<br />told me all about it."<br /><br />Mr. Bennet made no answer.<br /><br />"Do you not want to know who has taken it?" cried his wife impatiently.<br /><br />"_You_ want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it."<br /><br />This was invitation enough.<br /><br />"Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken<br />by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came<br />down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much<br />delighted with it, that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he<br />is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to<br />be in the house by the end of next week."<br /><br />"What is his name?"<br /><br />"Bingley."<br /><br />"Is he married or single?"<br /><br />"Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or<br />five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!"<br /><br />"How so? How can it affect them?"<br /><br />"My dear Mr. Bennet," replied his wife, "how can you be so tiresome! You<br />must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them."<br /><br />"Is that his design in settling here?"<br /><br />"Design! Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he<br />_may_ fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as<br />soon as he comes."<br /><br />"I see no occasion for that. You and the girls may go, or you may send<br />them by themselves, which perhaps will be still better, for as you are<br />as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley may like you the best of the<br />party."<br /><br />"My dear, you flatter me. I certainly _have_ had my share of beauty, but<br />I do not pretend to be anything extraordinary now. When a woman has five<br />grown-up daughters, she ought to give over thinking of her own beauty."<br /><br />"In such cases, a woman has not often much beauty to think of."<br /><br />"But, my dear, you must indeed go and see Mr. Bingley when he comes into<br />the neighbourhood."<br /><br />"It is more than I engage for, I assure you."<br /><br />"But consider your daughters. Only think what an establishment it would<br />be for one of them. Sir William and Lady Lucas are determined to<br />go, merely on that account, for in general, you know, they visit no<br />newcomers. Indeed you must go, for it will be impossible for _us_ to<br />visit him if you do not."<br /><br />"You are over-scrupulous, surely. I dare say Mr. Bingley will be very<br />glad to see you; and I will send a few lines by you to assure him of my<br />hearty consent to his marrying whichever he chooses of the girls; though<br />I must throw in a good word for my little Lizzy."<br /><br />"I desire you will do no such thing. Lizzy is not a bit better than the<br />others; and I am sure she is not half so handsome as Jane, nor half so<br />good-humoured as Lydia. But you are always giving _her_ the preference."<br /><br />"They have none of them much to recommend them," replied he; "they are<br />all silly and ignorant like other girls; but Lizzy has something more of<br />quickness than her sisters."<br /><br />"Mr. Bennet, how _can_ you abuse your own children in such a way? You<br />take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion for my poor nerves."<br /><br />"You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They<br />are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration<br />these last twenty years at least."<br /><br />"Ah, you do not know what I suffer."<br /><br />"But I hope you will get over it, and live to see many young men of four<br />thousand a year come into the neighbourhood."<br /><br />"It will be no use to us, if twenty such should come, since you will not<br />visit them."<br /><br />"Depend upon it, my dear, that when there are twenty, I will visit them<br />all."<br /><br />Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour,<br />reserve, and caprice, that the experience of three-and-twenty years had<br />been insufficient to make his wife understand his character. _Her_ mind<br />was less difficult to develop. She was a woman of mean understanding,<br />little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented,<br />she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her<br />daughters married; its solace was visiting and news.Kevin Andrew Woolseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268449682429697653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552238792208982895.post-90704705926070820952009-05-10T18:19:00.000-07:002009-05-28T17:38:41.243-07:00Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period, by Paul LacroixCondition of Persons and Lands.<br /><br /><br /><br />Disorganization of the West at the Beginning of the Middle<br />Ages.--Mixture of Roman, Germanic, and Gallic Institutions.--Fusion<br />organized under Charlemagne.--Royal Authority.--Position of the Great<br />Feudalists.--Division of the Territory and Prerogatives attached to<br />Landed Possessions.--Freemen and Tenants.--The Læti, the Colon, the<br />Serf, and the Labourer, who may be called the Origin of the Modern Lower<br />Classes.--Formation of Communities.--Right of Mortmain.<br /><br /><br />The period known as the Middle Ages, says the learned Benjamin Guérard, is<br />the produce of Pagan civilisation, of Germanic barbarism, and of<br />Christianity. It began in 476, on the fall of Agustulus, and ended in<br />1453, at the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II., and consequently the<br />fall of two empires, that of the West and that of the East, marks its<br />duration. Its first act, which was due to the Germans, was the destruction<br />of political unity, and this was destined to be afterwards replaced by<br />religions unity. Then we find a multitude of scattered and disorderly<br />influences growing on the ruins of central power. The yoke of imperial<br />dominion was broken by the barbarians; but the populace, far from<br />acquiring liberty, fell to the lowest degrees of servitude. Instead of one<br />despot, it found thousands of tyrants, and it was but slowly and with<br />much trouble that it succeeded in freeing itself from feudalism. Nothing<br />could be more strangely troubled than the West at the time of the<br />dissolution of the Empire of the Caesars; nothing more diverse or more<br />discordant than the interests, the institutions, and the state of society,<br />which were delivered to the Germans (Figs. 1 and 2). In fact, it would be<br />impossible in the whole pages of history to find a society formed of more<br />heterogeneous or incompatible elements. On the one side might be placed<br />the Goths, Burgundians, Vandals, Germans, Franks, Saxons, and Lombards,<br />nations, or more strictly hordes, accustomed to rough and successful<br />warfare, and, on the other, the Romans, including those people who by long<br />servitude to Roman dominion had become closely allied with their<br />conquerors (Fig. 3). There were, on both sides, freemen, freedmen, colons,<br />and slaves; different ranks and degrees being, however, observable both in<br />freedom and servitude. This hierarchical principle applied itself even to<br />the land, which was divided into freeholds, tributary lands, lands of the<br />nobility, and servile lands, thus constituting the freeholds, the<br />benefices, the fiefs, and the tenures. It may be added that the customs,<br />and to a certain degree the laws, varied according to the masters of the<br />country, so that it can hardly be wondered at that everywhere diversity<br />and inequality were to be found, and, as a consequence, that anarchy and<br />confusion ruled supreme.<br /><br />[Illustration: Figs. 1 and 2.--Costumes of the Franks from the Fourth to<br />the Eighth Centuries, collected by H. de Vielcastel, from original<br />Documents in the great Libraries of Europe.]<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Costumes of Roman Soldiers. Fig. 4.--Costume of<br />German Soldiers. From Miniatures on different Manuscripts, from the Sixth<br />to the Twelfth Centuries.]<br /><br />The Germans (Fig. 4) had brought with them over the Rhine none of the<br />heroic virtues attributed to them by Tacitus when he wrote their history,<br />with the evident intention of making a satire on his countrymen. Amongst<br />the degenerate Romans whom those ferocious Germans had subjugated,<br />civilisation was reconstituted on the ruins of vices common in the early<br />history of a new society by the adoption of a series of loose and<br />dissolute habits, both by the conquerors and the conquered.<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 5.--Costumes of Slaves or Serfs, from the Sixth to the<br />Twelfth Centuries, collected by H. de Vielcastel, from original Documents<br />in the great Libraries of Europe.]<br /><br />In fact, the conquerors contributed the worse share (Fig. 5); for, whilst<br />exercising the low and debasing instincts of their former barbarism, they<br />undertook the work of social reconstruction with a sort of natural and<br />innate servitude. To them, liberty, the desire for which caused them to<br />brave the greatest dangers, was simply the right of doing evil--of obeying<br />their ardent thirst for plunder. Long ago, in the depths of their forests,<br />they had adopted the curious institution of vassalage. When they came to<br />the West to create States, instead of reducing personal power, every step<br />in their social edifice, from the top to the bottom, was made to depend on<br />individual superiority. To bow to a superior was their first political<br />principle; and on that principle feudalism was one day to find its base.<br /><br />Servitude was in fact to be found in all conditions and ranks, equally in<br />the palace of the sovereign as in the dwellings of his subjects. The<br />vassal who was waited on at his own table by a varlet, himself served at<br />the table of his lord; the nobles treated each other likewise, according<br />to their rank; and all the exactions which each submitted to from his<br />superiors, and required to be paid to him by those below him, were looked<br />upon not as onerous duties, but as rights and honours. The sentiment of<br />dignity and of personal independence, which has become, so to say, the<br />soul of modern society, did not exist at all, or at least but very<br />slightly, amongst the Germans. If we could doubt the fact, we have but to<br />remember that these men, so proud, so indifferent to suffering or death,<br />would often think little of staking their liberty in gambling, in the hope<br />that if successful their gain might afford them the means of gratifying<br />some brutal passion.<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 6.--King or Chief of Franks armed with the Seramasax,<br />from a Miniature of the Ninth Century, drawn by H. de Vielcastel.]<br /><br />When the Franks took root in Gaul, their dress and institutions were<br />adopted by the Roman society (Fig. 6). This had the most disastrous<br />influence in every point of view, and it is easy to prove that<br />civilisation did not emerge from this chaos until by degrees the Teutonic<br />spirit disappeared from the world. As long as this spirit reigned, neither<br />private nor public liberty existed. Individual patriotism only extended as<br />far as the border of a man's family, and the nation became broken up into<br />clans. Gaul soon found itself parcelled off into domains which were<br />almost independent of one another. It was thus that Germanic genius became<br />developed.<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 7.--The King of the Franks, in the midst of the<br />Military Chiefs who formed his _Treuste_, or armed Court, dictates the<br />Salic Law (Code of the Barbaric Laws).--Fac-simile of a Miniature in the<br />"Chronicles of St. Denis," a Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century (Library<br />of the Arsenal).]<br /><br />The advantages of acting together for mutual protection first established<br />itself in families. If any one suffered from an act of violence, he laid<br />the matter before his relatives for them jointly to seek reparation. The<br />question was then settled between the families of the offended person and<br />the offender, all of whom were equally associated in the object of<br />vindicating a cause which interested them alone, without recognising any<br />established authority, and without appealing to the law. If the parties<br />had sought the protection or advice of men of power, the quarrel might at<br />once take a wider scope, and tend to kindle a feud between two nobles. In<br />any case the King only interfered when the safety of his person or the<br />interests of his dominions were threatened.<br /><br />Penalties and punishments were almost always to be averted by a money<br />payment. A son, for instance, instead of avenging the death of his<br />father, received from the murderer a certain indemnity in specie,<br />according to legal tariff; and the law was thus satisfied.<br /><br />The tariff of indemnities or compensations to be paid for each crime<br />formed the basis of the code of laws amongst the principal tribes of<br />Franks, a code essentially barbarian, and called the Salic law, or law of<br />the Salians (Fig. 7). Such, however, was the spirit of inequality among<br />the German races, that it became an established principle for justice to<br />be subservient to the rank of individuals. The more powerful a man was,<br />the more he was protected by the law; the lower his rank, the less the law<br />protected him.<br /><br />The life of a Frank, by right, was worth twice that of a Roman; the life<br />of a servant of the King was worth three times that of an ordinary<br />individual who did not possess that protecting tie. On the other hand,<br />punishment was the more prompt and rigorous according to the inferiority<br />of position of the culprit. In case of theft, for instance, a person of<br />importance was brought before the King's tribunal, and as it respected the<br />rank held by the accused in the social hierarchy, little or no punishment<br />was awarded. In the case of the same crime by a poor man, on the contrary,<br />the ordinary judge gave immediate sentence, and he was seized and hung on<br />the spot.<br /><br />Inasmuch as no political institutions amongst the Germans were nobler or<br />more just than those of the Franks and the other barbaric races, we cannot<br />accept the creed of certain historians who have represented the Germans as<br />the true regenerators of society in Europe. The two sources of modern<br />civilisation are indisputably Pagan antiquity and Christianity.<br /><br />After the fall of the Merovingian kings great progress was made in the<br />political and social state of nations. These kings, who were but chiefs of<br />undisciplined bands, were unable to assume a regal character, properly so<br />called. Their authority was more personal than territorial, for incessant<br />changes were made in the boundaries of their conquered dominions. It was<br />therefore with good reason that they styled themselves kings of the<br />Franks, and not kings of France.<br /><br />Charlemagne was the first who recognised that social union, so admirable<br />an example of which was furnished by Roman organization, and who was able,<br />with the very elements of confusion and disorder to which he succeeded, to<br />unite, direct, and consolidate diverging and opposite forces, to establish<br />and regulate public administrations, to found and build towns, and to<br />form and reconstruct almost a new world (Fig. 8). We hear of him assigning<br />to each his place, creating for all a common interest, making of a crowd<br />of small and scattered peoples a great and powerful nation; in a word,<br />rekindling the beacon of ancient civilisation. When he died, after a most<br />active and glorious reign of forty-five years, he left an immense empire<br />in the most perfect state of peace (Fig. 9). But this magnificent<br />inheritance was unfortunately destined to pass into unworthy or impotent<br />hands, so that society soon fell back into anarchy and confusion. The<br />nobles, in their turn invested with power, were continually at war, and<br />gradually weakened the royal authority--the power of the kingdom--by their<br />endless disputes with the Crown and with one another.<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 8.--Charles, eldest Son of King Pepin, receives the<br />News of the Death of his Father and the Great Feudalists offer him the<br />Crown.--Costumes of the Court of Burgundy in the Fifteenth<br />Century.--Fac-simile of a Miniature of the "History of the Emperors"<br />(Library of the Arsenal).]<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 9. Portrait of Charlemagne, whom the Song of Roland<br />names the King with the Grizzly Beard.--Fac-simile of an Engraving of the<br />End of the Sixteenth Century.]<br /><br />The revolution in society which took place under the Carlovingian dynasty<br />had for its especial object that of rendering territorial what was<br />formerly personal, and, as it were, of destroying personality in matters<br />of government.<br /><br />The usurpation of lands by the great having been thus limited by the<br />influence of the lesser holders, everybody tried to become the holder of<br />land. Its possession then formed the basis of social position, and, as a<br />consequence, individual servitude became lessened, and society assumed a<br />more stable condition. The ancient laws of wandering tribes fell into<br />disuse; and at the same time many distinctions of caste and race<br />disappeared, as they were incompatible with the new order of things. As<br />there were no more Salians, Ripuarians, nor Visigoths among the free men,<br />so there were no more colons, læti, nor slaves amongst those deprived of<br />liberty.<br /><br />[Illustrations: Figs. 10 and 11.--Present State of the Feudal Castle of<br />Chateau-Gaillard aux Andelys, which was considered one of the strongest<br />Castles of France in the Middle Ages, and was rebuilt in the Twelfth<br />Century by Richard Coeur de Lion.]<br /><br />Heads of families, on becoming attached to the soil, naturally had other<br />wants and other customs than those which they had delighted in when they<br />were only the chiefs of wandering adventurers. The strength of their<br />followers was not now so important to them as the security of their<br />castles. Fortresses took the place of armed bodies; and at this time,<br />every one who wished to keep what he had, entrenched himself to the best<br />of his ability at his own residence. The banks of rivers, elevated<br />positions, and all inaccessible heights, were occupied by towers and<br />castles, surrounded by ditches, which served as strongholds to the lords<br />of the soil. (Figs. 10 and 11). These places of defence soon became points<br />for attack. Out of danger at home, many of the nobles kept watch like<br />birds of prey on the surrounding country, and were always ready to fall,<br />not only upon their enemies, but also on their neighbours, in the hope<br />either of robbing them when off their guard, or of obtaining a ransom for<br />any unwary traveller who might fall into their hands. Everywhere society<br />was in ambuscade, and waged civil war--individual against<br />individual--without peace or mercy. Such was the reign of feudalism. It is<br />unnecessary to point out how this system of perpetual petty warfare tended<br />to reduce the power of centralisation, and how royalty itself was<br />weakened towards the end of the second dynasty. When the descendants of<br />Hugh Capet wished to restore their power by giving it a larger basis, they<br />were obliged to attack, one after the other, all these strongholds, and<br />practically to re-annex each fief, city, and province held by these petty<br />monarchs, in order to force their owners to recognise the sovereignty of<br />the King. Centuries of war and negotiations became necessary before the<br />kingdom of France could be, as it were, reformed.<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 12.--Knights and Men-at-arms, cased in Mail, in the<br />Reign of Louis le Gros, from a Miniature in a Psalter written towards the<br />End of the Twelfth Century.]<br /><br />The corporations and the citizens had great weight in restoring the<br />monarchical power, as well as in forming French nationality; but by far<br />the best influence brought to bear in the Middle Ages was that of<br />Christianity. The doctrine of one origin and of one final destiny being<br />common to all men of all classes constantly acted as a strong inducement<br />for thinking that all should be equally free. Religious equality paved the<br />way for political equality, and as all Christians were brothers before<br />God, the tendency was for them to become, as citizens, equal also in law.<br /><br />This transformation, however, was but slow, and followed concurrently the<br />progress made in the security of property. At the onset, the slave only<br />possessed his life, and this was but imperfectly guaranteed to him by the<br />laws of charity; laws which, however, year by year became of greater<br />power. He afterwards became _colon_, or labourer (Figs. 13 and 14),<br />working for himself under certain conditions and tenures, paying fines, or<br />services, which, it is true, were often very extortionate. At this time he<br />was considered to belong to the domain on which he was born, and he was at<br />least sure that that soil would not be taken from him, and that in giving<br />part of his time to his master, he was at liberty to enjoy the rest<br />according to his fancy. The farmer afterwards became proprietor of the<br />soil he cultivated, and master, not only of himself, but of his lands;<br />certain trivial obligations or fines being all that was required of him,<br />and these daily grew less, and at last disappeared altogether. Having thus<br />obtained a footing in society, he soon began to take a place in provincial<br />assemblies; and he made the last bound on the road of social progress,<br />when the vote of his fellow-electors sent him to represent them in the<br />parliament of the kingdom. Thus the people who had begun by excessive<br />servitude, gradually climbed to power.<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 13.--Labouring Colons (Twelfth Century), after a<br />Miniature in a Manuscript of the Ste. Chapelle, of the National Library of<br />Paris.]<br /><br />We will now describe more in detail the various conditions of persons of<br />the Middle Ages.<br /><br />The King, who held his rights by birth, and not by election, enjoyed<br />relatively an absolute authority, proportioned according to the power of<br />his abilities, to the extent of his dominions, and to the devotion of his<br />vassals. Invested with a power which for a long time resembled the command<br />of a general of an army, he had at first no other ministers than the<br />officers to whom he gave full power to act in the provinces, and who<br />decided arbitrarily in the name of, and representing, the King, on all<br />questions of administration. One minister alone approached the King, and<br />that was the chancellor, who verified, sealed, and dispatched all royal<br />decrees and orders.<br /><br />As early, however, as the seventh century, a few officers of state<br />appeared, who were specially attached to the King's person or household; a<br />count of the palace, who examined and directed the suits brought before<br />the throne; a mayor of the palace, who at one time raised himself from the<br />administration of the royal property to the supreme power; an<br />arch-chaplain, who presided over ecclesiastical affairs; a lord of the<br />bedchamber, charged with the treasure of the chamber; and a count of the<br />stables, charged with the superintendence of the stables.<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 14.--Labouring Colons (Twelfth Century), after a<br />Miniature in a Manuscript of the Ste. Chapelle, of the National Library of<br />Paris.]<br /><br />For all important affairs, the King generally consulted the grandees of<br />his court; but as in the five or six first centuries of monarchy in France<br />the royal residence was not permanent, it is probable the Council of State<br />was composed in part of the officers who followed the King, and in part of<br />the noblemen who came to visit him, or resided near the place he happened<br />to be inhabiting. It was only under the Capetians that the Royal Council<br />took a permanent footing, or even assembled at stated periods.<br /><br />In ordinary times, that is to say, when he was not engaged in war, the<br />King had few around him besides his family, his personal attendants, and<br />the ministers charged with the dispatch of affairs. As he changed from<br />one of his abodes to another he only held his court on the great festivals<br />of the year.<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 15.--The Lords and Barons prove their Nobility by<br />hanging their Banners and exposing their Coats-of-arms at the Windows of<br />the Lodge of the Heralds.--After a Miniature of the "Tournaments of King<br />Réné" (Fifteenth Century), MSS. of the National Library of Paris.]<br /><br />Up to the thirteenth century, there was, strictly speaking, no taxation<br />and no public treasury. The King received, through special officers<br />appointed for the purpose, tributes either in money or in kind, which<br />were most variable, but often very heavy, and drawn almost exclusively<br />from his personal and private properties. In cases of emergency only, he<br />appealed to his vassals for pecuniary aid. A great number of the grandees,<br />who lived far from the court, either in state offices or on their own<br />fiefs, had establishments similar to that of the King. Numerous and<br />considerable privileges elevated them above other free men. The offices<br />and fiefs having become hereditary, the order of nobility followed as a<br />consequence; and it then became highly necessary for families to keep<br />their genealogical histories, not only to gratify their pride, but also to<br />give them the necessary titles for the feudal advantages they derived by<br />birth. (Fig. 15). Without this right of inheritance, society, which was<br />still unsettled in the Middle Ages, would soon have been dissolved. This<br />great principle, sacred in the eyes both of great and small, maintained<br />feudalism, and in so doing it maintained itself amidst all the chaos and<br />confusion of repeated revolutions and social disturbances.<br /><br />We have already stated, and we cannot sufficiently insist upon this<br />important point, that from the day on which the adventurous habits of the<br />chiefs of Germanic origin gave place to the desire for territorial<br />possessions, the part played by the land increased insensibly towards<br />defining the position of the persons holding it. Domains became small<br />kingdoms, over which the lord assumed the most absolute and arbitrary<br />rights. A rule was soon established, that the nobility was inherent to the<br />soil, and consequently that the land ought to transmit to its possessors<br />the rights of nobility.<br /><br />This privilege was so much accepted, that the long tenure of a fief ended<br />by ennobling the commoner. Subsequently, by a sort of compensation which<br />naturally followed, lands on which rent had hitherto been paid became free<br />and noble on passing to the possession of a noble. At last, however, the<br />contrary rule prevailed, which caused the lands not to change quality in<br />changing owners: the noble could still possess the labourers's lands<br />without losing his nobility, but the labourer could be proprietor of a<br />fief without thereby becoming a noble.<br /><br />To the _comites_, who, according to Tacitus, attached themselves to the<br />fortunes of the Germanic chiefs, succeeded the Merovingian _leudes_, whose<br />assembly formed the King's Council. These _leudes_ were persons of great<br />importance owing to the number of their vassals, and although they<br />composed his ordinary Council, they did not hesitate at times to declare<br />themselves openly opposed to his will.<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 16.--Knight in War-harness, after a Miniature in a<br />Psalter written and illuminated under Louis le Gros.]<br /><br />The name of _leudes_ was abandoned under the second of the then French<br />dynasties, and replaced by that of _fidèles_, which, in truth soon became<br />a common designation of both the vassals of the Crown and those of the<br />nobility.<br /><br />Under the kings of the third dynasty, the kingdom was divided into about<br />one hundred and fifty domains, which were called great fiefs of the crown,<br />and which were possessed in hereditary right by the members of the highest<br />nobility, placed immediately under the royal sovereignty and dependence.<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 17.--King Charlemagne receiving the Oath of Fidelity<br />and Homage from one of his great Feudatories or High Barons.--Fac-simile<br />of a Miniature in Cameo, of the "Chronicles of St. Denis." Manuscript of<br />the Fourteenth Century (Library of the Arsenal).]<br /><br />Vassals emanating directly from the King, were then generally designated<br />by the title of _barons_, and mostly possessed strongholds. The other<br />nobles indiscriminately ranked as _chevaliers_ or _cnights_, a generic<br />title, to which was added that of _banneret_, The fiefs of _hauberk_ were<br />bound to supply the sovereign with a certain number of knights covered<br />with coats of mail, and completely armed. All knights were mounted in war<br />(Fig. 16); but knights who were made so in consequence of their high birth<br />must not be confounded with those who became knights by some great feat in<br />arms in the house of a prince or high noble, nor with the members of the<br />different orders of chivalry which were successively instituted, such as<br />the Knights of the Star, the Genet, the Golden Fleece, Saint-Esprit, St.<br />John of Jerusalem, &c. Originally, the possession of a benefice or fief<br />meant no more than the privilege of enjoying the profits derived from the<br />land, a concession which made the holder dependent upon the proprietor. He<br />was in fact his "man," to whom he owed homage (Fig. 17), service in case<br />of war, and assistance in any suit the proprietor might have before the<br />King's tribunal. The chiefs of German bands at first recompensed their<br />companions in arms by giving them fiefs of parts of the territory which<br />they had conquered; but later on, everything was equally given to be held<br />in fief, namely, dignities, offices, rights, and incomes or titles.<br /><br />It is important to remark (and it is in this alone that feudalism shows<br />its social bearing), that if the vassal owed obedience and devotion to his<br />lord, the lord in exchange owed protection to the vassal. The rank of<br />"free man" did not necessarily require the possession of land; but the<br />position of free men who did not hold fiefs was extremely delicate and<br />often painful, for they were by natural right dependent upon those on<br />whose domain they resided. In fact, the greater part of these nobles<br />without lands became by choice the King's men, and remained attached to<br />his service. If this failed them, they took lands on lease, so as to<br />support themselves and their families, and to avoid falling into absolute<br />servitude. In the event of a change of proprietor, they changed with the<br />land into new hands. Nevertheless, it was not uncommon for them to be so<br />reduced as to sell their freedom; but in such cases, they reserved the<br />right, should better times come, of re-purchasing their liberty by paying<br />one-fifth more than the sum for which they had sold it.<br /><br />We thus see that in olden times, as also later, freedom was more or less<br />the natural consequence of the possession of wealth or power on the part<br />of individuals or families who considered themselves free in the midst of<br />general dependence. During the tenth century, indeed, if not impossible,<br />it was at least difficult to find a single inhabitant of the kingdom of<br />France who was not "the man" of some one, and who was either tied by rules<br />of a liberal order, or else was under the most servile obligations.<br /><br />The property of the free men was originally the "_aleu_," which was under<br />the jurisdiction of the royal magistrates. The _aleu_ gradually lost the<br />greater part of its franchise, and became liable to the common charges due<br />on lands which were not freehold.<br /><br />In ancient times, all landed property of a certain extent was composed of<br />two distinct parts: one occupied by the owner, constituted the domain or<br />manor; the other, divided between persons who were more or less dependent,<br />formed what were called _tenures_. These _tenures_ were again divided<br />according to the position of those who occupied them: if they were<br />possessed by free men, who took the name of vassals, they were called<br />benefices or fiefs; if they were let to læti, colons, or serfs, they were<br />then called colonies or demesnes.<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 18.--Ploughmen.--Fac-simile of a Miniature in a very<br />ancient Anglo-Saxon Manuscript published by Shaw, with legend "God Spede<br />ye Plough, and send us Korne enow."]<br /><br />The _læti_ occupied a rank between the colon and the serf. They had less<br />liberty than the colon, over whom the proprietor only had an indirect and<br />very limited power. The colon only served the land, whilst the læti,<br />whether agriculturists or servants, served both the land and the owner<br />(Fig. 18). They nevertheless enjoyed the right of possession, and of<br />defending themselves, or prosecuting by law. The serf, on the contrary,<br />had neither city, tribunal, nor family. The læti had, besides, the power<br />of purchasing their liberty when they had amassed sufficient for the<br />purpose.<br /><br />_Serfs_ occupied the lowest position in the social ladder (Fig. 19). They<br />succeeded to slaves, thus making, thanks to Christianity, a step towards<br />liberty. Although the civil laws barely protected them, those of the<br />Church continually stepped in and defended them from arbitrary despotism.<br />The time came when they had no direct masters, and when the almost<br />absolute dependence of serfs was changed by the nobles requiring them to<br />farm the land and pay tithes and fees. And lastly, they became farmers,<br />and regular taxes took the place of tithes and fees.<br /><br />The colons, læti, and serfs, all of whom were more or less tillers of the<br />soil, were, so to speak, the ancestors of "the people" of modern times;<br />those who remained devoted to agriculture were the ancestors of our<br />peasants; and those who gave themselves up to trades and commerce in the<br />towns, were the originators of the middle classes.<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 19.--Serf or Vassal of Tenth Century, from<br />Miniatures in the "Dialogues of St. Gregory," Manuscript No. 9917 (Royal<br />Library of Brussels).]<br /><br />As early as the commencement of the third royal dynasty we find in the<br />rural districts, as well as in the towns, a great number of free men: and<br />as the charters concerning the condition of lands and persons became more<br />and more extended, the tyranny of the great was reduced, and servitude<br />decreased. During the following centuries, the establishment of civic<br />bodies and the springing up of the middle classes (Fig. 20) made the<br />acquisition of liberty more easy and more general. Nevertheless, this<br />liberty was rather theoretical than practical; for if the nobles granted<br />it nominally, they gave it at the cost of excessive fines, and the<br />community, which purchased at a high price the right of<br />self-administration, did not get rid of any of the feudal charges imposed<br />upon it.<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 20.--Bourgeois at the End of Thirteenth<br />Century.--Fac-simile of Miniature in Manuscript No. 6820, in the National<br />Library of Paris.]<br /><br />Fortunately for the progress of liberty, the civic bodies, as if they had<br />been providentially warned of the future in store for them, never<br />hesitated to accept from their lords, civil or ecclesiastical, conditions,<br />onerous though they were, which enabled them to exist in the interior of<br />the cities to which they belonged. They formed a sort of small state,<br />almost independent for private affairs, subject to the absolute power of<br />the King, and more or less tied by their customs or agreements with the<br />local nobles. They held public assemblies and elected magistrates, whose<br />powers embraced both the administration of civil and criminal justice,<br />police, finance, and the militia. They generally had fixed and written<br />laws. Protected by ramparts, each possessed a town-hall (_hôtel de<br />ville_), a seal, a treasury, and a watch-tower, and it could arm a certain<br />number of men, either for its own defence or for the service of the noble<br />or sovereign under whom it held its rights.<br /><br />In no case could a community such as this exist without the sanction of<br />the King, who placed it under the safeguard of the Crown. At first the<br />kings, blinded by a covetous policy, only seemed to see in the issue of<br />these charters an excellent pretext for extorting money. If they consented<br />to recognise them, and even to help them against their lords, it was on<br />account of the enormous sacrifices made by the towns. Later on, however,<br />they affected, on the contrary, the greatest generosity towards the<br />vassals who wished to incorporate themselves, when they had understood<br />that these institutions might become powerful auxiliaries against the<br />great titulary feudalists; but from the reign of Louis XI., when the power<br />of the nobles was much diminished, and no longer inspired any terror to<br />royalty, the kings turned against their former allies, the middle classes,<br />and deprived them successively of all the prerogatives which could<br />prejudice the rights of the Crown.<br /><br />The middle classes, it is true, acquired considerable influence afterwards<br />by participation in the general and provincial councils. After having<br />victoriously struggled against the clergy and nobility, in the assemblies<br />of the three states or orders, they ended by defeating royalty itself.<br /><br />Louis le Gros, in whose orders the style or title of _bourgeois_ first<br />appears (1134), is generally looked upon as the founder of the franchise<br />of communities in France; but it is proved that a certain number of<br />communities or corporations were already formally constituted, before his<br />accession to the throne.<br /><br />The title of bourgeois was not, however, given exclusively to inhabitants<br />of cities. It often happened that the nobles, with the intention of<br />improving and enriching their domains, opened a kind of asylum, under the<br />attractive title of _Free Towns_, or _New Towns_, where they offered, to<br />all wishing to establish themselves, lands, houses, and a more or less<br />extended share of privileges, rights, and liberties. These congregations,<br />or families, soon became boroughs, and the inhabitants, though<br />agriculturists, took the name of bourgeois.<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 21.--Costume of a Vilain or Peasant, Fifteenth<br />Century, from a Miniature of "La Danse Macabre," Manuscript 7310 of the<br />National Library of Paris.]<br /><br />There was also a third kind of bourgeois, whose influence on the extension<br />of royal power was not less than that of the others. There were free<br />men who, under the title of bourgeois of the King _(bourgeois du Roy_),<br />kept their liberty by virtue of letters of protection given them by the<br />King, although they were established on lands of nobles whose inhabitants<br />were deprived of liberty. Further, when a _vilain_--that is to say, the<br />serf, of a noble--bought a lease of land in a royal borough, it was an<br />established custom that after having lived there a year and a day without<br />being reclaimed by his lord and master, he became a bourgeois of the King<br />and a free man. In consequence of this the serfs and vilains (Fig. 21)<br />emigrated from all parts, in order to profit by these advantages, to such<br />a degree, that the lands of the nobles became deserted by all the serfs of<br />different degrees, and were in danger of remaining uncultivated. The<br />nobility, in the interests of their properties, and to arrest this<br />increasing emigration, devoted themselves to improving the condition of<br />persons placed under their dependence, and attempted to create on their<br />domains _boroughs_ analogous to those of royalty. But however liberal<br />these ameliorations might appear to be, it was difficult for the nobles<br />not only to concede privileges equal to those emanating from the throne,<br />but also to ensure equal protection to those they thus enfranchised. In<br />spite of this, however, the result was that a double current of<br />enfranchisement was established, which resulted in the daily diminution of<br />the miserable order of serfs, and which, whilst it emancipated the lower<br />orders, had the immediate result of giving increased weight and power to<br />royalty, both in its own domains and in those of the nobility and their<br />vassals.<br /><br />These social revolutions did not, of course, operate suddenly, nor did<br />they at once abolish former institutions, for we still find, that after<br />the establishment of communities and corporations, several orders of<br />servitude remained.<br /><br />At the close of the thirteenth century, on the authority of Philippe de<br />Beaumanoir, the celebrated editor of "Coutumes de Beauvoisis," there were<br />three states or orders amongst the laity, namely, the nobleman (Fig. 22),<br />the free man, and the serf. All noblemen were free, but all free men were<br />not necessarily noblemen. Generally, nobility descended from the father<br />and franchise from the mother. But according to many other customs of<br />France, the child, as a general rule, succeeded to the lower rank of his<br />parents. There were two orders of serfs: one rigorously held in the<br />absolute dependence of his lord, to such a degree that the latter could<br />appropriate during his life, or after death if he chose, all he possessed;<br />he could imprison him, ill-treat him as he thought proper, without having<br />to answer to any one but God; the other, though held equally in bondage,<br />was more liberally treated, for "unless he was guilty of some evil-doing,<br />the lord could ask of him nothing during his life but the fees, rents, or<br />fines which he owed on account of his servitude." If one of the latter<br />class of serfs married a free woman, everything which he possessed became<br />the property of his lord. The same was the case when he died, for he could<br />not transmit any of his goods to his children, and was only allowed to<br />dispose by will of a sum of about five sous, or about twenty-five francs<br />of modern money.<br /><br />As early as the fourteenth century, serfdom or servitude no longer existed<br />except in "mortmain," of which we still have to speak.<br /><br />[Illustration: The Court of Mary of Anjou, Wife of Charles VII.<br /><br />Her chaplain the learned Robert Blondel presents her with the allegorical<br />Treatise of the "_Twelve Perils of Hell_." Which he composed for her<br />(1455). Fac-simile of a miniature from this work. Bibl. de l'Arsenal,<br />Paris.]<br /><br />_Mortmain_ consisted of the privation of the right of freely disposing<br />of one's person or goods. He who had not the power of going where he<br />would, of giving or selling, of leaving by will or transferring his<br />property, fixed or movable, as he thought best, was called a man of<br />mortmain.<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 22.--Italian Nobleman of the Fifteenth Century. From a<br />Playing-card engraved on Copper about 1460 (Cabinet des Estampes, National<br />Library of Paris).]<br /><br />This name was apparently chosen because the hand, "considered the symbol<br />of power and the instrument of donation," was deprived of movement,<br />paralysed, in fact struck as by death. It was also nearly in this sense,<br />that men of the Church were also called men of mortmain, because they<br />were equally forbidden to dispose, either in life, or by will after death,<br />of anything belonging to them.<br /><br />There were two kinds of mortmain: real and personal; one concerning land,<br />and the other concerning the person; that is to say, land held in mortmain<br />did not change quality, whatever might be the position of the person who<br />occupied it, and a "man of mortmain" did not cease to suffer the<br />inconveniences of his position on whatever land he went to establish<br />himself.<br /><br />The mortmains were generally subject to the greater share of feudal<br />obligations formerly imposed on serfs; these were particularly to work for<br />a certain time for their lord without receiving any wages, or else to pay<br />him the _tax_ when it was due, on certain definite occasions, as for<br />example, when he married, when he gave a dower to his daughter, when he<br />was taken prisoner of war, when he went to the Holy Land, &c., &c. What<br />particularly characterized the condition of mortmains was, that the lords<br />had the right to take all their goods when they died without issue, or<br />when the children held a separate household; and that they could not<br />dispose of anything they possessed, either by will or gift, beyond a<br />certain sum.<br /><br />The noble who franchised mortmains, imposed on them in almost all cases<br />very heavy conditions, consisting of fees, labours, and fines of all<br />sorts. In fact, a mortmain person, to be free, not only required to be<br />franchised by his own lord, but also by all the nobles on whom he was<br />dependent, as well as by the sovereign. If a noble franchised without the<br />consent of his superiors, he incurred a fine, as it was considered a<br />dismemberment or depreciation of the fief.<br /><br />As early as the end of the fourteenth century, the rigorous laws of<br />mortmain began to fall into disuse in the provinces; though if the name<br />began to disappear, the condition itself continued to exist. The free men,<br />whether they belonged to the middle class or to the peasantry, were<br />nevertheless still subject to pay fines or obligations to their lords of<br />such a nature that they must be considered to have been practically in the<br />same position as mortmains. In fact, this custom had been so deeply rooted<br />into social habits by feudalism, that to make it disappear totally at the<br />end of the eighteenth century, it required three decrees of the National<br />Convention (July 17 and October 2, 1793; and 8 Ventôse, year II.--that is,<br />March 2, 1794).<br /><br />It is only just to state, that twelve or fourteen years earlier, Louis<br />XVI. had done all in his power towards the same purpose, by suppressing<br />mortmain, both real or personal, on the lands of the Crown, and personal<br />mortmain (i.e. the right of following mortmains out of their original<br />districts) all over the kingdom.<br /><br />[Illustration: Fig. 23.--Alms Bag taken from some Tapestry in Orleans,<br />Fifteenth Century.]<br /><br /><br />Great Sites - One Click Away:<br /><a href="http://passiontolearn.com/">http://passiontolearn.com/</a><br /><a href="http://100-secrets-of-wisdom.blogspot.com/">http://100-secrets-of-wisdom.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://first-chapters-of-books.blogspot.com/">http://first-chapters-of-books.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://familiar-quotations.blogspot.com/">http://familiar-quotations.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://sourced-quotations-online.blogspot.com/">http://sourced-quotations-online.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://amazing-quotation-collection.blogspot.com/">http://amazing-quotation-collection.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://worldsbestpoems.blogspot.com/">http://worldsbestpoems.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://attitudesandinsights.blogspot.com/">http://attitudesandinsights.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://worship-songs-chords-lyrics.blogspot.com/">http://worship-songs-chords-lyrics.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://leadingexperts.blogspot.com/">http://leadingexperts.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://roofing-contractor-baton-rouge.blogspot.com/">http://roofing-contractor-baton-rouge.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://today-365.blogspot.com/">http://today-365.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://10thoughtsaday.blogspot.com/">http://10thoughtsaday.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://booksandfun.blogspot.com/">http://booksandfun.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://thoughts-to-browse.blogspot.com/">http://thoughts-to-browse.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://china-sinclair.blogspot.com/">http://china-sinclair.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://practical-quotations.blogspot.com/">http://practical-quotations.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://great-thoughts-online.blogspot.com/">http://great-thoughts-online.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://gems-of-thought.blogspot.com/">http://gems-of-thought.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://choice-thoughts.blogspot.com/">http://choice-thoughts.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://treasury-of-thought.blogspot.com/">http://treasury-of-thought.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://winning-thoughts.blogspot.com/">http://winning-thoughts.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://passiontolearn.com/Books-to-Browse.php">http://passiontolearn.com/Books-to-Browse.php</a><br /><a href="http://spanish-english-web-dictionary.blogspot.com/">http://spanish-english-web-dictionary.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://the-book-of-thoughts.blogspot.com/">http://the-book-of-thoughts.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://many-thoughts-of-many-minds.blogspot.com/">http://many-thoughts-of-many-minds.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://pages-to-browse.blogspot.com/">http://pages-to-browse.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://passiontolearn.com/Quick-Quotations.php">http://passiontolearn.com/Quick-Quotations.php</a><br /><a href="http://rogets-thesaurus-1911.blogspot.com/">http://rogets-thesaurus-1911.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://top-20-world-news.blogspot.com/">http://top-20-world-news.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://para-christianos.blogspot.com/">http://para-christianos.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://self-improvement-articles-free.blogspot.com/">http://self-improvement-articles-free.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://daily-fresh-read.blogspot.com/">http://daily-fresh-read.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://baton-rouge-realtor.blogspot.com/">http://baton-rouge-realtor.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://passiontolearn.com/Awesome-Articles.php">http://passiontolearn.com/Awesome-Articles.php</a>Kevin Andrew Woolseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268449682429697653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552238792208982895.post-81946137619560302502009-05-10T18:08:00.000-07:002009-05-10T18:17:32.587-07:00The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 by J. Arthur ThomsonI<br /><br />THE ROMANCE OF THE HEAVENS<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />THE SCALE OF THE UNIVERSE--THE SOLAR SYSTEM<br /><br /><br />§ 1<br /><br />The story of the triumphs of modern science naturally opens with<br />Astronomy. The picture of the Universe which the astronomer offers to us<br />is imperfect; the lines he traces are often faint and uncertain. There<br />are many problems which have been solved, there are just as many about<br />which there is doubt, and notwithstanding our great increase in<br />knowledge, there remain just as many which are entirely unsolved.<br /><br /> The problem of the structure and duration of the universe [said the<br /> great astronomer Simon Newcomb] is the most far-reaching with which<br /> the mind has to deal. Its solution may be regarded as the ultimate<br /> object of stellar astronomy, the possibility of reaching which has<br /> occupied the minds of thinkers since the beginning of civilisation.<br /> Before our time the problem could be considered only from the<br /> imaginative or the speculative point of view. Although we can to-day<br /> attack it to a limited extent by scientific methods, it must be<br /> admitted that we have scarcely taken more than the first step toward<br /> the actual solution.... What is the duration of the universe in<br /> time? Is it fitted to last for ever in its present form, or does it<br /> contain within itself the seeds of dissolution? Must it, in the<br /> course of time, in we know not how many millions of ages, be<br /> transformed into something very different from what it now is? This<br /> question is intimately associated with the question whether the<br /> stars form a system. If they do, we may suppose that system to be<br /> permanent in its general features; if not, we must look further for<br /> our conclusions.<br /><br /><br />The Heavenly Bodies<br /><br />The heavenly bodies fall into two very distinct classes so far as their<br />relation to our Earth is concerned; the one class, a very small one,<br />comprises a sort of colony of which the Earth is a member. These bodies<br />are called _planets_, or wanderers. There are eight of them, including<br />the Earth, and they all circle round the sun. Their names, in the order<br />of their distance from the sun, are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars,<br />Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and of these Mercury, the nearest to<br />the sun, is rarely seen by the naked eye. Uranus is practically<br />invisible, and Neptune quite so. These eight planets, together with the<br />sun, constitute, as we have said, a sort of little colony; this colony<br />is called the Solar System.<br /><br />The second class of heavenly bodies are those which lie _outside_ the<br />solar system. Every one of those glittering points we see on a starlit<br />night is at an immensely greater distance from us than is any member of<br />the Solar System. Yet the members of this little colony of ours, judged<br />by terrestrial standards, are at enormous distances from one another. If<br />a shell were shot in a straight line from one side of Neptune's orbit to<br />the other it would take five hundred years to complete its journey. Yet<br />this distance, the greatest in the Solar System as now known (excepting<br />the far swing of some of the comets), is insignificant compared to the<br />distances of the stars. One of the nearest stars to the earth that we<br />know of is Alpha Centauri, estimated to be some twenty-five million<br />millions of miles away. Sirius, the brightest star in the firmament, is<br />double this distance from the earth.<br /><br />We must imagine the colony of planets to which we belong as a compact<br />little family swimming in an immense void. At distances which would take<br />our shell, not hundreds, but millions of years to traverse, we reach<br />the stars--or rather, a star, for the distances between stars are as<br />great as the distance between the nearest of them and our Sun. The<br />Earth, the planet on which we live, is a mighty globe bounded by a crust<br />of rock many miles in thickness; the great volumes of water which we<br />call our oceans lie in the deeper hollows of the crust. Above the<br />surface an ocean of invisible gas, the atmosphere, rises to a height of<br />about three hundred miles, getting thinner and thinner as it ascends.<br /><br />[Illustration: LAPLACE<br /><br />One of the greatest mathematical astronomers of all time and the<br />originator of the nebular theory.]<br /><br />[Illustration: _Photo: Royal Astronomical Society._<br /><br />PROFESSOR J. C. ADAMS<br /><br />who, anticipating the great French mathematician, Le Verrier, discovered<br />the planet Neptune by calculations based on the irregularities of the<br />orbit of Uranus. One of the most dramatic discoveries in the history of<br />Science.]<br /><br />[Illustration: _Photo: Elliott & Fry, Ltd._<br /><br />PROFESSOR EDDINGTON<br /><br />Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge. The most famous of the English<br />disciples of Einstein.]<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 1.--DIAGRAMS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM<br /><br />THE COMPARATIVE DISTANCES OF THE PLANETS<br /><br />(Drawn approximately to scale)<br /><br />The isolation of the Solar System is very great. On the above scale the<br />_nearest_ star (at a distance of 25 trillions of miles) would be over<br />_one half mile_ away. The hours, days, and years are the measures of<br />time as we use them; that is: Jupiter's "Day" (one rotation of the<br />planet) is made in ten of _our hours_; Mercury's "Year" (one revolution<br />of the planet around the Sun) is eighty-eight of _our days_. Mercury's<br />"Day" and "Year" are the same. This planet turns always the same side to<br />the Sun.]<br /><br />[Illustration: THE COMPARATIVE SIZES OF THE SUN AND THE PLANETS (Drawn<br />approximately to scale)<br /><br />On this scale the Sun would be 17-1/2 inches in diameter; it is far<br />greater than all the planets put together. Jupiter, in turn, is greater<br />than all the other planets put together.]<br /><br />Except when the winds rise to a high speed, we seem to live in a very<br />tranquil world. At night, when the glare of the sun passes out of our<br />atmosphere, the stars and planets seem to move across the heavens with a<br />stately and solemn slowness. It was one of the first discoveries of<br />modern astronomy that this movement is only apparent. The apparent<br />creeping of the stars across the heavens at night is accounted for by<br />the fact that the earth turns upon its axis once in every twenty-four<br />hours. When we remember the size of the earth we see that this implies a<br />prodigious speed.<br /><br />In addition to this the earth revolves round the sun at a speed of more<br />than a thousand miles a minute. Its path round the sun, year in year<br />out, measures about 580,000,000 miles. The earth is held closely to this<br />path by the gravitational pull of the sun, which has a mass 333,432<br />times that of the earth. If at any moment the sun ceased to exert this<br />pull the earth would instantly fly off into space straight in the<br />direction in which it was moving at the time, that is to say, at a<br />tangent. This tendency to fly off at a tangent is continuous. It is the<br />balance between it and the sun's pull which keeps the earth to her<br />almost circular orbit. In the same way the seven other planets are held<br />to their orbits.<br /><br />Circling round the earth, in the same way as the earth circles round the<br />sun, is our moon. Sometimes the moon passes directly between us and the<br />sun, and cuts off the light from us. We then have a total or partial<br />eclipse of the sun. At other times the earth passes directly between the<br />sun and the moon, and causes an eclipse of the moon. The great ball of<br />the earth naturally trails a mighty shadow across space, and the moon is<br />"eclipsed" when it passes into this.<br /><br />The other seven planets, five of which have moons of their own, circle<br />round the sun as the earth does. The sun's mass is immensely larger than<br />that of all the planets put together, and all of them would be drawn<br />into it and perish if they did not travel rapidly round it in gigantic<br />orbits. So the eight planets, spinning round on their axes, follow their<br />fixed paths round the sun. The planets are secondary bodies, but they<br />are most important, because they are the only globes in which there can<br />be life, as we know life.<br /><br />If we could be transported in some magical way to an immense distance in<br />space above the sun, we should see our Solar System as it is drawn in<br />the accompanying diagram (Fig. 1), except that the planets would be mere<br />specks, faintly visible in the light which they receive from the sun.<br />(This diagram is drawn approximately to scale.) If we moved still<br />farther away, trillions of miles away, the planets would fade entirely<br />out of view, and the sun would shrink into a point of fire, a star. And<br />here you begin to realize the nature of the universe. _The sun is a<br />star. The stars are suns._ Our sun looks big simply because of its<br />comparative nearness to us. The universe is a stupendous collection of<br />millions of stars or suns, many of which may have planetary families<br />like ours.<br /><br /><br />§ 2<br /><br />The Scale of the Universe<br /><br />How many stars are there? A glance at a photograph of star-clouds will<br />tell at once that it is quite impossible to count them. The fine<br />photograph reproduced in Figure 2 represents a very small patch of that<br />pale-white belt, the Milky Way, which spans the sky at night. It is true<br />that this is a particularly rich area of the Milky Way, but the entire<br />belt of light has been resolved in this way into masses or clouds of<br />stars. Astronomers have counted the stars in typical districts here and<br />there, and from these partial counts we get some idea of the total<br />number of stars. There are estimated to be between two and three<br />thousand million stars.<br /><br />Yet these stars are separated by inconceivable distances from each<br />other, and it is one of the greatest triumphs of modern astronomy to<br />have mastered, so far, the scale of the universe. For several centuries<br />astronomers have known the relative distances from each other of the sun<br />and the planets. If they could discover the actual distance of any one<br />planet from any other, they could at once tell all the distances within<br />the Solar System.<br /><br />The sun is, on the latest measurements, at an average distance of<br />92,830,000 miles from the earth, for as the orbit of the earth is not a<br />true circle, this distance varies. This means that in six months from<br />now the earth will be right at the opposite side of its path round the<br />sun, or 185,000,000 miles away from where it is now. Viewed or<br />photographed from two positions so wide apart, the nearest stars show a<br />tiny "shift" against the background of the most distant stars, and that<br />is enough for the mathematician. He can calculate the distance of any<br />star near enough to show this "shift." We have found that the nearest<br />star to the earth, a recently discovered star, is twenty-five trillion<br />miles away. Only thirty stars are known to be within a hundred trillion<br />miles of us.<br /><br />This way of measuring does not, however, take us very far away in the<br />heavens. There are only a few hundred stars within five hundred trillion<br />miles of the earth, and at that distance the "shift" of a star against<br />the background (parallax, the astronomer calls it) is so minute that<br />figures are very uncertain. At this point the astronomer takes up a new<br />method. He learns the different types of stars, and then he is able to<br />deduce more or less accurately the distance of a star of a known type<br />from its faintness. He, of course, has instruments for gauging their<br />light. As a result of twenty years work in this field, it is now known<br />that the more distant stars of the Milky Way are at least a hundred<br />thousand trillion (100,000,000,000,000,000) miles away from the sun.<br /><br />Our sun is in a more or less central region of the universe, or a few<br />hundred trillion miles from the actual centre. The remainder of the<br />stars, which are all outside our Solar System, are spread out,<br />apparently, in an enormous disc-like collection, so vast that even a ray<br />of light, which travels at the rate of 186,000 miles a second, would<br />take 50,000 years to travel from one end of it to the other. This, then<br />is what we call our universe.<br /><br /><br />Are there other Universes?<br /><br />Why do we say "our universe"? Why not _the_ universe? It is now believed<br />by many of our most distinguished astronomers that our colossal family<br />of stars is only one of many universes. By a universe an astronomer<br />means any collection of stars which are close enough to control each<br />other's movements by gravitation; and it is clear that there might be<br />many universes, in this sense, separated from each other by profound<br />abysses of space. Probably there are.<br /><br />For a long time we have been familiar with certain strange objects in<br />the heavens which are called "spiral nebulæ" (Fig 4). We shall see at a<br />later stage what a nebula is, and we shall see that some astronomers<br />regard these spiral nebulæ as worlds "in the making." But some of the<br />most eminent astronomers believe that they are separate<br />universes--"island-universes" they call them--or great collections of<br />millions of stars like our universe. There are certain peculiarities in<br />the structure of the Milky Way which lead these astronomers to think<br />that our universe may be a spiral nebula, and that the other spiral<br />nebulæ are "other universes."<br /><br />[Illustration: _Photo: Harvard College Observatory._<br /><br />FIG. 2.--THE MILKY WAY<br /><br />Note the cloud-like effect.]<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 3--THE MOON ENTERING THE SHADOW CAST BY THE EARTH<br /><br />The diagram shows the Moon partially eclipsed.]<br /><br />[Illustration: _From a photograph taken at the Yerkes Observatory_<br /><br />FIG. 4.--THE GREAT NEBULA IN ANDROMEDA, MESSIER 31]<br /><br />Vast as is the Solar System, then, it is excessively minute in<br />comparison with the Stellar System, the universe of the Stars, which is<br />on a scale far transcending anything the human mind can apprehend.<br /><br /><br />THE SOLAR SYSTEM<br /><br />THE SUN<br /><br /><br />§ 1<br /><br />But now let us turn to the Solar System, and consider the members of our<br />own little colony.<br /><br />Within the Solar System there are a large number of problems that<br />interest us. What is the size, mass, and distance of each of the<br />planets? What satellites, like our Moon, do they possess? What are their<br />temperatures? And those other, sporadic members of our system, comets<br />and meteors, what are they? What are their movements? How do they<br />originate? And the Sun itself, what is its composition, what is the<br />source of its heat, how did it originate? Is it running down?<br /><br />These last questions introduce us to a branch of astronomy which is<br />concerned with the physical constitution of the stars, a study which,<br />not so very many years ago, may well have appeared inconceivable. But<br />the spectroscope enables us to answer even these questions, and the<br />answer opens up questions of yet greater interest. We find that the<br />stars can be arranged in an order of development--that there are stars<br />at all stages of their life-history. The main lines of the evolution of<br />the stellar universe can be worked out. In the sun and stars we have<br />furnaces with temperatures enormously high; it is in such conditions<br />that substances are resolved into their simplest forms, and it is thus<br />we are enabled to obtain a knowledge of the most primitive forms of<br />matter. It is in this direction that the spectroscope (which we shall<br />refer to immediately) has helped us so much. It is to this wonderful<br />instrument that we owe our knowledge of the composition of the sun and<br />stars, as we shall see.<br /><br /> "That the spectroscope will detect the millionth of a milligram of<br /> matter, and on that account has discovered new elements, commands<br /> our admiration; but when we find in addition that it will detect the<br /> nature of forms of matter trillions of miles away, and moreover,<br /> that it will measure the velocities with which these forms of matter<br /> are moving with an absurdly small per cent. of possible error, we<br /> can easily acquiesce in the statement that it is the greatest<br /> instrument ever devised by the brain and hand of man."<br /><br />Such are some of the questions with which modern astronomy deals. To<br />answer them requires the employment of instruments of almost incredible<br />refinement and exactitude and also the full resources of mathematical<br />genius. Whether astronomy be judged from the point of view of the<br />phenomena studied, the vast masses, the immense distances, the æons of<br />time, or whether it be judged as a monument of human ingenuity,<br />patience, and the rarest type of genius, it is certainly one of the<br />grandest, as it is also one of the oldest, of the sciences.<br /><br /><br />The Solar System<br /><br />In the Solar System we include all those bodies dependent on the sun<br />which circulate round it at various distances, deriving their light and<br />heat from the sun--the planets and their moons, certain comets and a<br />multitude of meteors: in other words, all bodies whose movements in<br />space are determined by the gravitational pull of the sun.<br /><br /><br />The Sun<br /><br />Thanks to our wonderful modern instruments and the ingenious methods<br />used by astronomers, we have to-day a remarkable knowledge of the sun.<br /><br />Look at the figure of the sun in the frontispiece. The picture<br />represents an eclipse of the sun; the dark body of the moon has screened<br />the sun's shining disc and taken the glare out of our eyes; we see a<br />silvery halo surrounding the great orb on every side. It is the sun's<br />atmosphere, or "crown" (corona), stretching for millions of miles into<br />space in the form of a soft silvery-looking light; probably much of its<br />light is sunlight reflected from particles of dust, although the<br />spectroscope shows an element in the corona that has not so far been<br />detected anywhere else in the universe and which in consequence has been<br />named Coronium.<br /><br />We next notice in the illustration that at the base of the halo there<br />are red flames peeping out from the edges of the hidden disc. When one<br />remembers that the sun is 866,000 miles in diameter, one hardly needs to<br />be told that these flames are really gigantic. We shall see what they<br />are presently.<br /><br /><br />Regions of the Sun<br /><br />The astronomer has divided the sun into definite concentric regions or<br />layers. These layers envelop the nucleus or central body of the sun<br />somewhat as the atmosphere envelops our earth. It is through these<br />vapour layers that the bright white body of the sun is seen. Of the<br />innermost region, the heart or nucleus of the sun, we know almost<br />nothing. The central body or nucleus is surrounded by a brilliantly<br />luminous envelope or layer of vaporous matter which is what we see when<br />we look at the sun and which the astronomer calls the photosphere.<br /><br />Above--that is, overlying--the photosphere there is a second layer of<br />glowing gases, which is known as the reversing layer. This layer is<br />cooler than the underlying photosphere; it forms a veil of smoke-like<br />haze and is of from 500 to 1,000 miles in thickness.<br /><br />A third layer or envelope immediately lying over the last one is the<br />region known as the chromosphere. The chromosphere extends from 5,000<br />to 10,000 miles in thickness--a "sea" of red tumultuous surging fire.<br />Chief among the glowing gases is the vapour of hydrogen. The intense<br />white heat of the photosphere beneath shines through this layer,<br />overpowering its brilliant redness. From the uppermost portion of the<br />chromosphere great fiery tongues of glowing hydrogen and calcium vapour<br />shoot out for many thousands of miles, driven outward by some prodigious<br />expulsive force. It is these red "prominences" which are such a notable<br />feature in the picture of the eclipse of the sun already referred to.<br /><br />During the solar eclipse of 1919 one of these red flames rose in less<br />than seven hours from a height of 130,000 miles to more than 500,000<br />miles above the sun's surface. This immense column of red-hot gas, four<br />or five times the thickness of the earth, was soaring upward at the rate<br />of 60,000 miles an hour.<br /><br />These flaming jets or prominences shooting out from the chromosphere are<br />not to be seen every day by the naked eye; the dazzling light of the sun<br />obscures them, gigantic as they are. They can be observed, however, by<br />the spectroscope any day, and they are visible to us for a very short<br />time during an eclipse of the sun. Some extraordinary outbursts have<br />been witnessed. Thus the late Professor Young described one on September<br />7, 1871, when he had been examining a prominence by the spectroscope:<br /><br /> It had remained unchanged since noon of the previous day--a long,<br /> low, quiet-looking cloud, not very dense, or brilliant, or in any<br /> way remarkable except for its size. At 12:30 p.m. the Professor left<br /> the spectroscope for a short time, and on returning half an hour<br /> later to his observations, he was astonished to find the gigantic<br /> Sun flame shattered to pieces. The solar atmosphere was filled with<br /> flying debris, and some of these portions reached a height of<br /> 100,000 miles above the solar surface. Moving with a velocity which,<br /> even at the distance of 93,000,000 miles, was almost perceptible to<br /> the eye, these fragments doubled their height in ten minutes. On<br /> January 30, 1885, another distinguished solar observer, the late<br /> Professor Tacchini of Rome, observed one of the greatest prominences<br /> ever seen by man. Its height was no less than 142,000<br /> miles--eighteen times the diameter of the earth. Another mighty<br /> flame was so vast that supposing the eight large planets of the<br /> solar system ranged one on top of the other, the prominence would<br /> still tower above them.[1]<br /><br /> [1] _The Romance of Astronomy_, by H. Macpherson.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 5.--DIAGRAM SHOWING THE MAIN LAYERS OF THE SUN<br /><br />Compare with frontispiece.]<br /><br />[Illustration: _Photo: Royal Observatory, Greenwich._<br /><br />FIG. 6.--SOLAR PROMINENCES SEEN AT TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE, May 29, 1919.<br />TAKEN AT SOBRAL, BRAZIL.<br /><br />The small Corona is also visible.]<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 7.--THE VISIBLE SURFACE OF THE SUN<br /><br />A photograph taken at the Mount Wilson Observatory of the Carnegie<br />Institution at Washington.]<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 8.--THE SUN<br /><br />Photographed in the light of glowing hydrogen, at the Mount Wilson<br />Observatory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington: vortex phenomena<br />near the spots are especially prominent.]<br /><br />The fourth and uppermost layer or region is that of the corona, of<br />immense extent and fading away into the surrounding sky--this we have<br />already referred to. The diagram (Fig. 5) shows the dispositions of<br />these various layers of the sun. It is through these several transparent<br />layers that we see the white light body of the sun.<br /><br /><br />§ 2<br /><br />The Surface of the Sun<br /><br />Here let us return to and see what more we know about the<br />photosphere--the sun's surface. It is from the photosphere that we have<br />gained most of our knowledge of the composition of the sun, which is<br />believed not to be a solid body. Examination of the photosphere shows<br />that the outer surface is never at rest. Small bright cloudlets come and<br />go in rapid succession, giving the surface, through contrasts in<br />luminosity, a granular appearance. Of course, to be visible at all at<br />92,830,000 miles the cloudlets cannot be small. They imply enormous<br />activity in the photosphere. If we might speak picturesquely the sun's<br />surface resembles a boiling ocean of white-hot metal vapours. We have<br />to-day a wonderful instrument, which will be described later, which<br />dilutes, as it were, the general glare of the sun, and enables us to<br />observe these fiery eruptions at any hour. The "oceans" of red-hot gas<br />and white-hot metal vapour at the sun's surface are constantly driven by<br />great storms. Some unimaginable energy streams out from the body or<br />muscles of the sun and blows its outer layers into gigantic shreds, as<br />it were.<br /><br />The actual temperature at the sun's surface, or what appears to us to be<br />the surface--the photosphere--is, of course, unknown, but careful<br />calculation suggests that it is from 5,000° C. to 7,000° C. The interior<br />is vastly hotter. We can form no conception of such temperatures as must<br />exist there. Not even the most obdurate solid could resist such<br />temperatures, but would be converted almost instantaneously into gas.<br />But it would not be gas as we know gases on the earth. The enormous<br />pressures that exist on the sun must convert even gases into thick<br />treacly fluids. We can only infer this state of matter. It is beyond our<br />power to reproduce it.<br /><br /><br />Sun-spots<br /><br />It is in the brilliant photosphere that the dark areas known as<br />sun-spots appear. Some of these dark spots--they are dark only by<br />contrast with the photosphere surrounding them--are of enormous size,<br />covering many thousands of square miles of surface. What they are we<br />cannot positively say. They look like great cavities in the sun's<br />surface. Some think they are giant whirlpools. Certainly they seem to be<br />great whirling streams of glowing gases with vapours above them and<br />immense upward and downward currents within them. Round the edges of the<br />sun-spots rise great tongues of flame.<br /><br />Perhaps the most popularly known fact about sun-spots is that they are<br />somehow connected with what we call magnetic storms on earth. These<br />magnetic storms manifest themselves in interruptions of our telegraphic<br />and telephonic communications, in violent disturbances of the mariner's<br />compass, and in exceptional auroral displays. The connection between the<br />two sets of phenomena cannot be doubted, even although at times there<br />may be a great spot on the sun without any corresponding "magnetic<br />storm" effects on the earth.<br /><br />A surprising fact about sun-spots is that they show definite periodic<br />variations in number. The best-defined period is one of about eleven<br />years. During this period the spots increase to a maximum in number and<br />then diminish to a minimum, the variation being more or less regular.<br />Now this can only mean one thing. To be periodic the spots must have<br />some deep-seated connection with the fundamental facts of the sun's<br />structure and activities. Looked at from this point of view their<br />importance becomes great.<br /><br />[Illustration: _Reproduction from "The Forces of Nature"_ (_Messrs.<br />Macmillan_)<br /><br />THE AURORA BOREALIS<br /><br />The aurora borealis is one of the most beautiful spectacles in the sky.<br />The colours and shape change every instant; sometimes a fan-like cluster<br />of rays, at other times long golden draperies gliding one over the<br />other. Blue, green, yellow, red, and white combine to give a glorious<br />display of colour. The theory of its origin is still, in part, obscure,<br />but there can be no doubt that the aurora is related to the magnetic<br />phenomena of the earth and therefore is connected with the electrical<br />influence of the sun.]<br /><br />It is from the study of sun-spots that we have learned that the sun's<br />surface does not appear to rotate all at the same speed. The<br />"equatorial" regions are rotating quicker than regions farther north or<br />south. A point forty-five degrees from the equator seems to take about<br />two and a half days longer to complete one rotation than a point on the<br />equator. This, of course, confirms our belief that the sun cannot be a<br />solid body.<br /><br />What is its composition? We know that there are present, in a gaseous<br />state, such well-known elements as sodium, iron, copper, zinc, and<br />magnesium; indeed, we know that there is practically every element in<br />the sun that we know to be in the earth. How do we know?<br /><br />It is from the photosphere, as has been said, that we have won most of<br />our knowledge of the sun. The instrument used for this purpose is the<br />spectroscope; and before proceeding to deal further with the sun and the<br />source of its energy it will be better to describe this instrument.<br /><br /><br />A WONDERFUL INSTRUMENT AND WHAT IT REVEALS<br /><br />The spectroscope is an instrument for analysing light. So important is<br />it in the revelations it has given us that it will be best to describe<br />it fully. Every substance to be examined must first be made to glow,<br />made luminous; and as nearly everything in the heavens _is_ luminous the<br />instrument has a great range in Astronomy. And when we speak of<br />analysing light, we mean that the light may be broken up into waves of<br />different lengths. What we call light is a series of minute waves in<br />ether, and these waves are--measuring them from crest to crest, so to<br />say--of various lengths. Each wave-length corresponds to a colour of the<br />rainbow. The shortest waves give us a sensation of violet colour, and<br />the largest waves cause a sensation of red. The rainbow, in fact, is a<br />sort of natural spectrum. (The meaning of the rainbow is that the<br />moisture-laden air has sorted out these waves, in the sun's light,<br />according to their length.) Now the simplest form of spectroscope is a<br />glass prism--a triangular-shaped piece of glass. If white light<br />(sunlight, for example) passes through a glass prism, we see a series of<br />rainbow-tinted colours. Anyone can notice this effect when sunlight is<br />shining through any kind of cut glass--the stopper of a wine decanter,<br />for instance. If, instead of catching with the eye the coloured lights<br />as they emerge from the glass prism, we allow them to fall on a screen,<br />we shall find that they pass, by continuous gradations, from red at the<br />one end of the screen, through orange, yellow, green, blue, and indigo,<br />to violet at the other end. _In other words, what we call white light is<br />composed of rays of these several colours. They go to make up the effect<br />which we call white._ And now just as water can be split up into its two<br />elements, oxygen and hydrogen, so sunlight can be broken up into its<br />primary colours, which are those we have just mentioned.<br /><br />This range of colours, produced by the spectroscope, we call the solar<br />spectrum, and these are, from the spectroscopic point of view, primary<br />colours. Each shade of colour has its definite position in the spectrum.<br />That is to say, the light of each shade of colour (corresponding to its<br />wave-length) is reflected through a certain fixed angle on passing<br />through the glass prism. Every possible kind of light has its definite<br />position, and is denoted by a number which gives the wave-length of the<br />vibrations constituting that particular kind of light.<br /><br />Now, other kinds of light besides sunlight can be analysed. Light<br />from any substance which has been made incandescent may be observed with<br />the spectroscope in the same way, and each element can be thus<br />separated. It is found that each substance (in the same conditions of<br />pressure, etc.) gives a constant spectrum of its own. _Each metal<br />displays its own distinctive colour. It is obvious, therefore, that the<br />spectrum provides the means for identifying a particular substance._ It<br />was by this method that we discovered in the sun the presence of such<br />well-known elements as sodium, iron, copper, zinc, and magnesium.<br /><br />[Illustration: _Yerkes Observatory._<br /><br />FIG. 9.--THE GREAT SUN-SPOT OF JULY 17, 1905]<br /><br />[Illustration: _From photographs taken at the Yerkes Observatory._<br /><br />FIG. 10.--SOLAR PROMINENCES<br /><br />These are about 60,000 miles in height. The two photographs show the<br />vast changes occurring in ten minutes. October 10, 1910.]<br /><br />[Illustration: _Photo: Mount Wilson Observatory._<br /><br />FIG. 11.--MARS, October 5, 1909<br /><br />Showing the dark markings and the Polar Cap.]<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 12.--JUPITER<br /><br />Showing the belts which are probably cloud formations.]<br /><br />[Illustration: _Photo: Professor E. E. Barnard, Yerkes Observatory._<br /><br />FIG. 13.--SATURN, November 19, 1911<br /><br />Showing the rings, mighty swarms of meteorites.]<br /><br />Every chemical element known, then, has a distinctive spectrum of its<br />own when it is raised to incandescence, and this distinctive spectrum is<br />as reliable a means of identification for the element as a human face is<br />for its owner. Whether it is a substance glowing in the laboratory or in<br />a remote star makes no difference to the spectroscope; if the light of<br />any substance reaches it, that substance will be recognised and<br />identified by the characteristic set of waves.<br /><br />The spectrum of a glowing mass of gas will consist in a number of bright<br />lines of various colours, and at various intervals; corresponding to<br />each kind of gas, there will be a peculiar and distinctive arrangement<br />of bright lines. But if the light from such a mass of glowing gas be<br />made to pass through a cool mass of the _same_ gas it will be found that<br />dark lines replace the bright lines in the spectrum, the reason for this<br />being that the cool gas absorbs the rays of light emitted by the hot<br />gas. Experiments of this kind enable us to reach the important general<br />statement that every gas, when cold, absorbs the same rays of light<br />which it emits when hot.<br /><br />Crossing the solar spectrum are hundreds and hundreds of dark lines.<br />These could not at first be explained, because this fact of<br />discriminative absorption was not known. We understand now. The sun's<br />white light comes from the photosphere, but between us and the<br />photosphere there is, as we have seen, another solar envelope of<br />relatively cooler vapours--the reversing layer. Each constituent<br />element in this outer envelope stops its own kind of light, that is, the<br />kind of light made by incandescent atoms of the same element in the<br />photosphere. The "stoppages" register themselves in the solar spectrum<br />as dark lines placed exactly where the corresponding bright lines would<br />have been. The explanation once attained, dark lines became as<br />significant as bright lines. The secret of the sun's composition was<br />out. We have found practically every element in the sun that we know to<br />be in the earth. We have identified an element in the sun before we were<br />able to isolate it on the earth. We have been able even to point to the<br />coolest places on the sun, the centres of sun-spots, where alone the<br />temperature seems to have fallen sufficiently low to allow chemical<br />compounds to form.<br /><br />It is thus we have been able to determine what the stars, comets, or<br />nebulæ are made of.<br /><br /><br />A Unique Discovery<br /><br />In 1868 Sir Norman Lockyer detected a light coming from the prominences<br />of the sun which was not given by any substance known on earth, and<br />attributed this to an unknown gas which he called helium, from the Greek<br />_helios_, the sun. _In 1895 Sir William Ramsay discovered in certain<br />minerals the same gas identified by the spectroscope._ We can say,<br />therefore, that this gas was discovered in the sun nearly thirty years<br />before it was found on earth; this discovery of the long-lost heir is as<br />thrilling a chapter in the detective story of science as any in the<br />sensational stories of the day, and makes us feel quite certain that our<br />methods really tell us of what elements sun and stars are built up. The<br />light from the corona of the sun, as we have mentioned indicates a gas<br />still unknown on earth, which has been christened Coronium.<br /><br /><br />Measuring the Speed of Light<br /><br />But this is not all; soon a new use was found for the spectroscope. We<br />found that we could measure with it the most difficult of all speeds<br />to measure, speed in the line of sight. Movement at right angles to the<br />direction in which one is looking is, if there is sufficient of it, easy<br />to detect, and, if the distance of the moving body is known, easy to<br />measure. But movement in the line of vision is both difficult to detect<br />and difficult to measure. Yet, even at the enormous distances with which<br />astronomers have to deal, the spectroscope can detect such movement and<br />furnish data for its measurement. If a luminous body containing, say,<br />sodium is moving rapidly towards the spectroscope, it will be found that<br />the sodium lines in the spectrum have moved slightly from their usual<br />definite positions towards the violet end of the spectrum, the amount of<br />the change of position increasing with the speed of the luminous body.<br />If the body is moving away from the spectroscope the shifting of the<br />spectral lines will be in the opposite direction, towards the red end of<br />the spectrum. In this way we have discovered and measured movements that<br />otherwise would probably not have revealed themselves unmistakably to us<br />for thousands of years. In the same way we have watched, and measured<br />the speed of, tremendous movements on the sun, and so gained proof that<br />the vast disturbances we should expect there actually do occur.<br /><br />[Illustration: THE SPECTROSCOPE IS AN INSTRUMENT FOR ANALYSING LIGHT; IT<br />PROVIDES THE MEANS FOR IDENTIFYING DIFFERENT SUBSTANCES<br /><br />This pictorial diagram illustrates the principal of Spectrum Analysis,<br />showing how sunlight is decomposed into its primary colours. What we<br />call white light is composed of seven different colours. The diagram is<br />relieved of all detail which would unduly obscure the simple process by<br />which a ray of light is broken up by a prism into different<br />wave-lengths. The spectrum rays have been greatly magnified.]<br /><br /><br />IS THE SUN DYING?<br /><br />§ 3<br /><br />Now let us return to our consideration of the sun.<br /><br />To us on the earth the most patent and most astonishing fact about the<br />sun is its tremendous energy. Heat and light in amazing quantities pour<br />from it without ceasing.<br /><br />Where does this energy come from? Enormous jets of red glowing gases can<br />be seen shooting outwards from the sun, like flames from a fire, for<br />thousands of miles. Does this argue fire, as we know fire on the earth?<br />On this point the scientist is sure. The sun is not burning, and<br />combustion is not the source of its heat. Combustion is a chemical<br />reaction between atoms. The conditions that make it possible are known<br />and the results are predictable and measurable. But no chemical reaction<br />of the nature of combustion as we know it will explain the sun's energy,<br />nor indeed will any ordinary chemical reaction of any kind. If the sun<br />were composed of combustible material throughout and the conditions of<br />combustion as we understand them were always present, the sun would burn<br />itself out in some thousands of years, with marked changes in its heat<br />and light production as the process advanced. There is no evidence of<br />such changes. There is, instead, strong evidence that the sun has been<br />emitting light and heat in prodigious quantities, not for thousands, but<br />for millions of years. Every addition to our knowledge that throws light<br />on the sun's age seems to make for increase rather than decrease of its<br />years. This makes the wonder of its energy greater.<br /><br />And we cannot avoid the issue of the source of the energy by saying<br />merely that the sun is gradually radiating away an energy that<br />originated in some unknown manner, away back at the beginning of things.<br />Reliable calculations show that the years required for the mere cooling<br />of a globe like the sun could not possibly run to millions. In other<br />words, the sun's energy must be subject to continuous and more or less<br />steady renewal. However it may have acquired its enormous energy in the<br />past, it must have some source of energy in the present.<br /><br />The best explanation that we have to-day of this continuous accretion of<br />energy is that it is due to shrinkage of the sun's bulk under the force<br />of gravity. Gravity is one of the most mysterious forces of nature, but<br />it is an obvious fact that bodies behave as if they attracted one<br />another, and Newton worked out the law of this attraction. We may say,<br />without trying to go too deeply into things, that every particle of<br />matter attracts every other throughout the universe. If the diameter of<br />the sun were to shrink by one mile all round, this would mean that all<br />the millions of tons in the outer one-mile thickness would have a<br />straight drop of one mile towards the centre. And that is not all,<br />because obviously the layers below this outer mile would also drop<br />inwards, each to a less degree than the one above it. What a tremendous<br />movement of matter, however slowly it might take place! And what a<br />tremendous energy would be involved! Astronomers calculate that the<br />above shrinkage of one mile all round would require fifty years for its<br />completion, assuming, reasonably, that there is close and continuous<br />relationship between loss of heat by radiation and shrinkage. Even if<br />this were true we need not feel over-anxious on this theory; before the<br />sun became too cold to support life many millions of years would be<br />required.<br /><br />It was suggested at one time that falls of meteoric matter into the sun<br />would account for the sun's heat. This position is hardly tenable now.<br />The mere bulk of the meteoric matter required by the hypothesis, apart<br />from other reasons, is against it. There is undoubtedly an enormous<br />amount of meteoric matter moving about within the bounds of the solar<br />system, but most of it seems to be following definite routes round the<br />sun like the planets. The stray erratic quantities destined to meet<br />their doom by collision with the sun can hardly be sufficient to account<br />for the sun's heat.<br /><br />Recent study of radio-active bodies has suggested another factor that<br />may be working powerfully along with the force of gravitation to<br />maintain the sun's store of heat. In radio-active bodies certain atoms<br />seem to be undergoing disintegration. These atoms appear to be splitting<br />up into very minute and primitive constituents. But since matter may be<br />split up into such constituents, may it not be built up from them?<br /><br />The question is whether these "radio-active" elements are undergoing<br />disintegration, or formation, in the sun. If they are undergoing<br />disintegration--and the sun itself is undoubtedly radio-active--then we<br />have another source of heat for the sun that will last indefinitely.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />THE PLANETS<br /><br />LIFE IN OTHER WORLDS?<br /><br />§ 1<br /><br />It is quite clear that there cannot be life on the stars. Nothing solid<br />or even liquid can exist in such furnaces as they are. Life exists only<br />on planets, and even on these its possibilities are limited. Whether all<br />the stars, or how many of them, have planetary families like our sun, we<br />cannot positively say. If they have, such planets would be too faint and<br />small to be visible tens of trillions of miles away. Some astronomers<br />think that our sun may be exceptional in having planets, but their<br />reasons are speculative and unconvincing. Probably a large proportion at<br />least of the stars have planets, and we may therefore survey the globes<br />of our own solar system and in a general way extend the results to the<br />rest of the universe.<br /><br />In considering the possibility of life as we know it we may at once rule<br />out the most distant planets from the sun, Uranus and Neptune. They are<br />probably intrinsically too hot. We may also pass over the nearest planet<br />to the sun, Mercury. We have reason to believe that it turns on its axis<br />in the same period as it revolves round the sun, and it must therefore<br />always present the same side to the sun. This means that the heat on the<br />sunlit side of Mercury is above boiling-point, while the cold on the<br />other side must be between two and three hundred degrees below<br />freezing-point.<br /><br /><br />The Planet Venus<br /><br />The planet Venus, the bright globe which is known to all as the morning<br />and evening "star," seems at first sight more promising as regards the<br />possibility of life. It is of nearly the same size as the earth, and it<br />has a good atmosphere, but there are many astronomers who believe that,<br />like Mercury, it always presents the same face to the sun, and it would<br />therefore have the same disadvantage--a broiling heat on the sunny side<br />and the cold of space on the opposite side. We are not sure. The<br />surface of Venus is so bright--the light of the sun is reflected to us<br />by such dense masses of cloud and dust--that it is difficult to trace<br />any permanent markings on it, and thus ascertain how long it takes to<br />rotate on its axis. Many astronomers believe that they have succeeded,<br />and that the planet always turns the same face to the sun. If it does,<br />we can hardly conceive of life on its surface, in spite of the<br />cloud-screen.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 14.--THE MOON<br /><br />Showing a great plain and some typical craters. There are thousands of<br />these craters, and some theories of their origin are explained on page<br />34.]<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 15.--MARS<br /><br /> 1} Drawings by Prof. Lowell to accompany actual photographs of Mars<br /> showing many of the<br /> 2} canals. Taken in 1907 by Mr. E. C. Slipher of the Lowell Observatory.<br /> 3 Drawing by Prof. Lowell made January 6, 1914.<br /> 4 Drawing by Prof. Lowell made January 21, 1914.<br /><br />Nos. 1 and 2 show the effect of the planet's rotation. Nos. 3 and 4<br />depict quite different sections. Note the change in the polar snow-caps<br />in the last two.]<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 16.--THE MOON, AT NINE AND THREE-QUARTER DAYS<br /><br />Note the mysterious "rays" diverging from the almost perfectly circular<br />craters indicated by the arrows (Tycho, upper; Copernicus, lower), and<br />also the mountains to the right with the lunar dawn breaking on them.]<br /><br />We turn to Mars; and we must first make it clear why there is so much<br />speculation about life on Mars, and why it is supposed that, if there<br />_is_ life on Mars, it must be more advanced than life on the earth.<br /><br /><br />Is there Life on Mars?<br /><br />The basis of this belief is that if, as we saw, all the globes in our<br />solar system are masses of metal that are cooling down, the smaller will<br />have cooled down before the larger, and will be further ahead in their<br />development. Now Mars is very much smaller than the earth, and must have<br />cooled at its surface millions of years before the earth did. Hence, if<br />a story of life began on Mars at all, it began long before the story of<br />life on the earth. We cannot guess what sort of life-forms would be<br />evolved in a different world, but we can confidently say that they would<br />tend toward increasing intelligence; and thus we are disposed to look<br />for highly intelligent beings on Mars.<br /><br />But this argument supposes that the conditions of life, namely air and<br />water, are found on Mars, and it is disputed whether they are found<br />there in sufficient quantity. The late Professor Percival Lowell, who<br />made a lifelong study of Mars, maintained that there are hundreds of<br />straight lines drawn across the surface of the planet, and he claimed<br />that they are beds of vegetation marking the sites of great channels or<br />pipes by means of which the "Martians" draw water from their polar<br />ocean. Professor W. H. Pickering, another high authority, thinks that<br />the lines are long, narrow marshes fed by moist winds from the poles.<br />There are certainly white polar caps on Mars. They seem to melt in the<br />spring, and the dark fringe round them grows broader.<br /><br />Other astronomers, however, say that they find no trace of water-vapour<br />in the atmosphere of Mars, and they think that the polar caps may be<br />simply thin sheets of hoar-frost or frozen gas. They point out that, as<br />the atmosphere of Mars is certainly scanty, and the distance from the<br />sun is so great, it may be too cold for the fluid water to exist on the<br />planet.<br /><br />If one asks why our wonderful instruments cannot settle these points,<br />one must be reminded that Mars is never nearer than 34,000,000 miles<br />from the earth, and only approaches to this distance once in fifteen or<br />seventeen years. The image of Mars on the photographic negative taken in<br />a big telescope is very small. Astronomers rely to a great extent on the<br />eye, which is more sensitive than the photographic plate. But it is easy<br />to have differences of opinion as to what the eye sees, and so there is<br />a good deal of controversy.<br /><br />In August, 1924, the planet will again be well placed for observation,<br />and we may learn more about it. Already a few of the much-disputed<br />lines, which people wrongly call "canals," have been traced on<br />photographs. Astronomers who are sceptical about life on Mars are often<br />not fully aware of the extraordinary adaptability of life. There was a<br />time when the climate of the whole earth, from pole to pole, was<br />semi-tropical for millions of years. No animal could then endure the<br />least cold, yet now we have plenty of Arctic plants and animals. If the<br />cold came slowly on Mars, as we have reason to suppose, the population<br />could be gradually adapted to it. On the whole, it is possible that<br />there is advanced life on Mars, and it is not impossible, in spite of<br />the very great difficulties of a code of communication, that our "elder<br />brothers" may yet flash across space the solution of many of our<br />problems.<br /><br /><br />§ 2<br /><br />Jupiter and Saturn<br /><br />Next to Mars, going outward from the sun, is Jupiter. Between Mars and<br />Jupiter, however, there are more than three hundred million miles of<br />space, and the older astronomers wondered why this was not occupied by a<br />planet. We now know that it contains about nine hundred "planetoids," or<br />small globes of from five to five hundred miles in diameter. It was at<br />one time thought that a planet might have burst into these fragments (a<br />theory which is not mathematically satisfactory), or it may be that the<br />material which is scattered in them was prevented by the nearness of the<br />great bulk of Jupiter from uniting into one globe.<br /><br />For Jupiter is a giant planet, and its gravitational influence must<br />extend far over space. It is 1,300 times as large as the earth, and has<br />nine moons, four of which are large, in attendance on it. It is<br />interesting to note that the outermost moons of Jupiter and Saturn<br />revolve round these planets in a direction contrary to the usual<br />direction taken by moons round planets, and by planets round the sun.<br />But there is no life on Jupiter.<br /><br />The surface which we see in photographs (Fig. 12) is a mass of cloud or<br />steam which always envelops the body of the planet. It is apparently<br />red-hot. A red tinge is seen sometimes at the edges of its cloud-belts,<br />and a large red region (the "red spot"), 23,000 miles in length, has<br />been visible on it for half a century. There may be a liquid or solid<br />core to the planet, but as a whole it is a mass of seething vapours<br />whirling round on its axis once in every ten hours. As in the case of<br />the sun, however, different latitudes appear to rotate at different<br />rates. The interior of Jupiter is very hot, but the planet is not<br />self-luminous. The planets Venus and Jupiter shine very brightly, but<br />they have no light of their own; they reflect the sunlight.<br /><br />Saturn is in the same interesting condition. The surface in the<br />photograph (Fig. 13) is steam, and Saturn is so far away from the sun<br />that the vaporisation of its oceans must necessarily be due to its own<br />internal heat. It is too hot for water to settle on its surface. Like<br />Jupiter, the great globe turns on its axis once in ten hours--a<br />prodigious speed--and must be a swirling, seething mass of metallic<br />vapours and gases. It is instructive to compare Jupiter and Saturn in<br />this respect with the sun. They are smaller globes and have cooled down<br />more than the central fire.<br /><br />Saturn is a beautiful object in the telescope because it has ten moons<br />(to include one which is disputed) and a wonderful system of "rings"<br />round it. The so-called rings are a mighty swarm of meteorites--pieces<br />of iron and stone of all sorts and sizes, which reflect the light of the<br />sun to us. This ocean of matter is some miles deep, and stretches from a<br />few thousand miles from the surface of the planet to 172,000 miles out<br />in space. Some astronomers think that this is volcanic material which<br />has been shot out of the planet. Others regard it as stuff which would<br />have combined to form an eleventh moon but was prevented by the nearness<br />of Saturn itself. There is no evidence of life on Saturn.<br /><br /><br />THE MOON<br /><br />Mars and Venus are therefore the only planets, besides the earth, on<br />which we may look for life; and in the case of Venus, the possibility is<br />very faint. But what about the moons which attend the planets? They<br />range in size from the little ten-miles-wide moons of Mars, to Titan, a<br />moon of Saturn, and Ganymede, a satellite of Jupiter, which are about<br />3,000 miles in diameter. May there not be life on some of the larger of<br />these moons? We will take our own moon as a type of the class.<br /><br /><br />A Dead World<br /><br />The moon is so very much nearer to us than any other heavenly body that<br />we have a remarkable knowledge of it. In Fig. 14 you have a photograph,<br />taken in one of our largest telescopes, of part of its surface. In a<br />sense such a telescope brings the moon to within about fifty miles of<br />us. We should see a city like London as a dark, sprawling blotch on the<br />globe. We could just detect a Zeppelin or a Diplodocus as a moving speck<br />against the surface. But we find none of these things. It is true that a<br />few astronomers believe that they see signs of some sort of feeble life<br />or movement on the moon. Professor Pickering thinks that he can trace<br />some volcanic activity. He believes that there are areas of vegetation,<br />probably of a low order, and that the soil of the moon may retain a<br />certain amount of water in it. He speaks of a very thin atmosphere, and<br />of occasional light falls of snow. He has succeeded in persuading some<br />careful observers that there probably are slight changes of some kind<br />taking place on the moon.<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 17.--A MAP OF THE CHIEF PLAINS AND CRATERS OF THE<br />MOON<br /><br />The plains were originally supposed to be seas: hence the name "Mare."]<br /><br />[Illustration: FIG. 18.--A DIAGRAM OF A STREAM OF METEORS SHOWING THE<br />EARTH PASSING THROUGH THEM] [Illustration: _Photo: Royal Observatory,<br />Greenwich._<br /><br />FIG. 19.--COMET, September 29, 1908<br /><br />Notice the tendency to form a number of tails. (See photograph below.)]<br /><br />[Illustration: _Photo: Royal Observatory, Greenwich._<br /><br />FIG. 20.--COMET, October 3, 1908<br /><br />The process has gone further and a number of distinct tails can now be<br />counted.]<br /><br />But there are many things that point to absence of air on the moon. Even<br />the photographs we reproduce tell the same story. The edges of the<br />shadows are all hard and black. If there had been an appreciable<br />atmosphere it would have scattered the sun's light on to the edges and<br />produced a gradual shading off such as we see on the earth. This<br />relative absence of air must give rise to some surprising effects. There<br />will be no sounds on the moon, because sounds are merely air waves. Even<br />a meteor shattering itself to a violent end against the surface of the<br />moon would make no noise. Nor would it herald its coming by glowing into<br />a "shooting star," as it would on entering the earth's atmosphere. There<br />will be no floating dust, no scent, no twilight, no blue sky, no<br />twinkling of the stars. The sky will be always black and the stars will<br />be clearly visible by day as by night. The sun's wonderful corona, which<br />no man on earth, even by seizing every opportunity during eclipses, can<br />hope to see for more than two hours in all in a long lifetime, will be<br />visible all day. So will the great red flames of the sun. Of course,<br />there will be no life, and no landscape effects and scenery effects due<br />to vegetation.<br /><br />The moon takes approximately twenty-seven of our days to turn once on<br />its axis. So for fourteen days there is continuous night, when the<br />temperature must sink away down towards the absolute cold of space. This<br />will be followed without an instant of twilight by full daylight. For<br />another fourteen days the sun's rays will bear straight down, with no<br />diffusion or absorption of their heat, or light, on the way. It does not<br />follow, however, that the temperature of the moon's surface must rise<br />enormously. It may not even rise to the temperature of melting ice.<br />Seeing there is no air there can be no check on radiation. The heat that<br />the moon gets will radiate away immediately. We know that amongst the<br />coldest places on the earth are the tops of very high mountains, the<br />points that have reared themselves nearest to the sun but farthest out<br />of the sheltering blanket of the earth's atmosphere. The actual<br />temperature of the moon's surface by day is a moot point. It may be<br />below the freezing-point or above the boiling-point of water.<br /><br /><br />The Mountains of the Moon<br /><br />The lack of air is considered by many astronomers to furnish the<br />explanation of the enormous number of "craters" which pit the moon's<br />surface. There are about a hundred thousand of these strange rings, and<br />it is now believed by many that they are spots where very large<br />meteorites, or even planetoids, splashed into the moon when its surface<br />was still soft. Other astronomers think that they are the remains of<br />gigantic bubbles which were raised in the moon's "skin," when the globe<br />was still molten, by volcanic gases from below. A few astronomers think<br />that they are, as is popularly supposed, the craters of extinct<br />volcanoes. Our craters, on the earth, are generally deep cups, whereas<br />these ring-formations on the moon are more like very shallow and broad<br />saucers. Clavius, the largest of them, is 123 miles across the interior,<br />yet its encircling rampart is not a mile high.<br /><br />The mountains on the moon (Fig. 16) rise to a great height, and are<br />extraordinarily gaunt and rugged. They are like fountains of lava,<br />rising in places to 26,000 and 27,000 feet. The lunar Apennines have<br />three thousand steep and weird peaks. Our terrestrial mountains are<br />continually worn down by frost acting on moisture and by ice and water,<br />but there are none of these agencies operating on the moon. Its<br />mountains are comparatively "everlasting hills."<br /><br />The moon is interesting to us precisely because it is a dead world. It<br />seems to show how the earth, or any cooling metal globe, will evolve in<br />the remote future. We do not know if there was ever life on the moon,<br />but in any case it cannot have proceeded far in development. At the most<br />we can imagine some strange lowly forms of vegetation lingering here and<br />there in pools of heavy gas, expanding during the blaze of the sun's<br />long day, and frozen rigid during the long night.<br /><br /><br />METEORS AND COMETS<br /><br />We may conclude our survey of the solar system with a word about<br />"shooting stars," or meteors, and comets. There are few now who do not<br />know that the streak of fire which suddenly lights the sky overhead at<br />night means that a piece of stone or iron has entered our atmosphere<br />from outer space, and has been burned up by friction. It was travelling<br />at, perhaps, twenty or thirty miles a second. At seventy or eighty miles<br />above our heads it began to glow, as at that height the air is thick<br />enough to offer serious friction and raise it to a white heat. By the<br />time the meteor reached about twenty miles or so from the earth's<br />surface it was entirely dissipated, as a rule in fiery vapour.<br /><br /><br />Millions of Meteorites<br /><br />It is estimated that between ten and a hundred million meteorites enter<br />our atmosphere and are cremated, every day. Most of them weigh only an<br />ounce or two, and are invisible. Some of them weigh a ton or more, but<br />even against these large masses the air acts as a kind of "torpedo-net."<br />They generally burst into fragments and fall without doing damage.<br /><br />It is clear that "empty space" is, at least within the limits of our<br />solar system, full of these things. They swarm like fishes in the seas.<br />Like the fishes, moreover, they may be either solitary or gregarious.<br />The solitary bit of cosmic rubbish is the meteorite, which we have just<br />examined. A "social" group of meteorites is the essential part of a<br />comet. The nucleus, or bright central part, of the head of a comet (Fig.<br />19) consists of a swarm, sometimes thousands of miles wide, of these<br />pieces of iron or stone. This swarm has come under the sun's<br />gravitational influence, and is forced to travel round it. From some<br />dark region of space it has moved slowly into our system. It is not then<br />a comet, for it has no tail. But as the crowded meteors approach the<br />sun, the speed increases. They give off fine vapour-like matter and the<br />fierce flood of light from the sun sweeps this vapour out in an<br />ever-lengthening tail. Whatever way the comet is travelling, the tail<br />always points away from the sun.<br /><br /><br />A Great Comet<br /><br />The vapoury tail often grows to an enormous length as the comet<br />approaches the sun. The great comet of 1843 had a tail two hundred<br />million miles long. It is, however, composed of the thinnest vapours<br />imaginable. Twice during the nineteenth century the earth passed through<br />the tail of a comet, and nothing was felt. The vapours of the tail are,<br />in fact, so attenuated that we can hardly imagine them to be white-hot.<br />They may be lit by some electrical force. However that may be, the comet<br />dashes round the sun, often at three or four hundred miles a second,<br />then may pass gradually out of our system once more. It may be a<br />thousand years, or it may be fifty years, before the monarch of the<br />system will summon it again to make its fiery journey round his throne.<br /><br />[Illustration: _Photo: Harvard College Observatory._<br /><br />FIG. 21.--TYPICAL SPECTRA<br /><br />Six main types of stellar spectra. Notice the lines they have in common,<br />showing what elements are met with in different types of stars. Each of<br />these spectra corresponds to a different set of physical and chemical<br />conditions.] [Illustration: _Photo: Mount Wilson Observatory._<br /><br />FIG. 22.--A NEBULAR REGION SOUTH OF ZETA ORIONIS<br /><br />Showing a great projection of "dark matter" cutting off the light from<br />behind.]<br /><br />[Illustration: _Photo: Astrophysical Observatory, Victoria, British<br />Columbia._<br /><br />FIG. 23.--STAR CLUSTER IN HERCULES<br /><br />A wonderful cluster of stars. It has been estimated that the distance of<br />this cluster is such that it would take light more than 100,000 years to<br />reach us.]<br /><br /><br />THE STELLAR UNIVERSE<br /><br />§ 1<br /><br />The immensity of the Stellar Universe, as we have seen, is beyond our<br />apprehension. The sun is nothing more than a very ordinary star, perhaps<br />an insignificant one. There are stars enormously greater than the sun.<br />One such, Betelgeux, has recently been measured, and its diameter is<br />more than 300 times that of the sun.<br /><br /><br />The Evolution of Stars<br /><br />The proof of the similarity between our sun and the stars has come to us<br />through the spectroscope. The elements that we find by its means in the<br />sun are also found in the same way in the stars. Matter, says the<br />spectroscope, is essentially the same everywhere, in the earth and the<br />sun, in the comet that visits us once in a thousand years, in the star<br />whose distance is incalculable, and in the great clouds of "fire-mist"<br />that we call nebulæ.<br /><br />In considering the evolution of the stars let us keep two points clearly<br />in mind. The starting-point, the nebula, is no figment of the scientific<br />imagination. Hundreds of thousands of nebulæ, besides even vaster<br />irregular stretches of nebulous matter, exist in the heavens. But the<br />stages of the evolution of this stuff into stars are very largely a<br />matter of speculation. Possibly there is more than one line of<br />evolution, and the various theories may be reconciled. And this applies<br />also to the theories of the various stages through which the stars<br />themselves pass on their way to extinction.<br /><br />The light of about a quarter of a million stars has been analysed in the<br />spectroscope, and it is found that they fall into about a dozen classes<br />which generally correspond to stages in their evolution (Fig. 21).<br /><br /><br />The Age of Stars<br /><br />In its main lines the spectrum of a star corresponds to its colour, and<br />we may roughly group the stars into red, yellow, and white. This is also<br />the order of increasing temperature, the red stars being the coolest and<br />the white stars the hottest. We might therefore imagine that the white<br />stars are the youngest, and that as they grow older and cooler they<br />become yellowish, then red, and finally become invisible--just as a<br />cooling white-hot iron would do. But a very interesting recent research<br />shows that there are two kinds of red stars; some of them are amongst<br />the oldest stars and some are amongst the youngest. The facts appear to<br />be that when a star is first formed it is not very hot. It is an immense<br />mass of diffuse gas glowing with a dull-red heat. It contracts under the<br />mutual gravitation of its particles, and as it does so it grows hotter.<br />It acquires a yellowish tinge. As it continues to contract it grows<br />hotter and hotter until its temperature reaches a maximum as a white<br />star. At this point the contraction process does not stop, but the<br />heating process does. Further contraction is now accompanied by cooling,<br />and the star goes through its colour changes again, but this time in the<br />inverse order. It contracts and cools to yellow and finally to red. But<br />when it again becomes a red star it is enormously denser and smaller<br />than when it began as a red star. Consequently the red stars are divided<br />into two classes called, appropriately, Giants and Dwarfs. This theory,<br />which we owe to an American astronomer, H. N. Russell, has been<br />successful in explaining a variety of phenomena, and there is<br />consequently good reason to suppose it to be true. But the question as<br />to how the red giant stars were formed has received less satisfactory<br />and precise answers.<br /><br />The most commonly accepted theory is the nebular theory.<br /><br /><br />THE NEBULAR THEORY<br /><br />§ 2<br /><br />Nebulæ are dim luminous cloud-like patches in the heavens, more like<br />wisps of smoke in some cases than anything else. Both photography and<br />the telescope show that they are very numerous, hundreds of thousands<br />being already known and the number being continually added to. They are<br />not small. Most of them are immensely large. Actual dimensions cannot be<br />given, because to estimate these we must first know definitely the<br />distance of the nebulæ from the earth. The distances of some nebulæ are<br />known approximately, and we can therefore form some idea of size in<br />these cases. The results are staggering. The mere visible surface of<br />some nebulæ is so large that the whole stretch of the solar system would<br />be too small to form a convenient unit for measuring it. A ray of light<br />would require to travel for years to cross from side to side of such a<br />nebula. Its immensity is inconceivable to the human mind.<br /><br />There appear to be two types of nebulæ, and there is evidence suggesting<br />that the one type is only an earlier form of the other; but this again<br />we do not know.<br /><br />The more primitive nebulæ would seem to be composed of gas in an<br />extremely rarified form. It is difficult to convey an adequate idea of<br />the rarity of nebular gases. The residual gases in a vacuum tube are<br />dense by comparison. A cubic inch of air at ordinary pressure would<br />contain more matter than is contained in millions of cubic inches of the<br />gases of nebulæ. The light of even the faintest stars does not seem to<br />be dimmed by passing through a gaseous nebula, although we cannot be<br />sure on this point. The most remarkable physical fact about these gases<br />is that they are luminous. Whence they derive their luminosity we do not<br />know. It hardly seems possible to believe that extremely thin gases<br />exposed to the terrific cold of space can be so hot as to be luminous<br />and can retain their heat and their luminosity indefinitely. A cold<br />luminosity due to electrification, like that of the aurora borealis,<br />would seem to fit the case better.<br /><br />Now the nebular theory is that out of great "fire-mists," such as we<br />have described, stars are born. We do not know whether gravitation is<br />the only or even the main force at work in a nebula, but it is supposed<br />that under the action of gravity the far-flung "fire-mists" would begin<br />to condense round centres of greatest density, heat being evolved in the<br />process. Of course the condensation would be enormously slow, although<br />the sudden irruption of a swarm of meteors or some solid body might<br />hasten matters greatly by providing large, ready-made centres of<br />condensation.<br /><br /><br />Spiral Nebulæ<br /><br />It is then supposed that the contracting mass of gas would begin to<br />rotate and to throw off gigantic streamers, which would in their turn<br />form centres of condensation. The whole structure would thus form a<br />spiral, having a dense region at its centre and knots or lumps of<br />condensed matter along its spiral arms. Besides the formless gaseous<br />nebulæ there are hundreds of thousands of "spiral" nebulæ such as we<br />have just mentioned in the heavens. They are at all stages of<br />development, and they are visible to us at all angles--that is to say,<br />some of them face directly towards us, others are edge on, and some are<br />in intermediate positions. It appears, therefore, that we have here a<br />striking confirmation of the nebular hypothesis. But we must not go so<br />fast. There is much controversy as to the nature of these spiral nebulæ.<br />Some eminent astronomers think they are other stellar universes,<br />comparable in size with our own. In any case they are vast structures,<br />and if they represent stars in process of condensation, they must be<br />giving birth to huge agglomerations of stars--to star clusters at least.<br />These vast and enigmatic objects do not throw much light on the origin<br />of our own solar system. The nebular hypothesis, which was invented<br />by Laplace to explain the origin of our solar system, has not yet met<br />with universal acceptance. The explanation offers grave difficulties,<br />and it is best while the subject is still being closely investigated, to<br />hold all opinions with reserve. It may be taken as probable, however,<br />that the universe has developed from masses of incandescent gas.<br /><br />[Illustration: _Photo: Yerkes Observatory._<br /><br />FIG. 24.--THE GREAT NEBULA IN ORION<br /><br />The most impressive nebula in the heavens. It is inconceivably greater<br />in dimensions than the whole solar system.]<br /><br />[Illustration: _Photo: Lick Observatory._<br /><br />FIG. 25--GIANT SPIRAL NEBULA, March 23, 1914<br /><br />This spiral nebula is seen full on. Notice the central nucleus and the<br />two spiral arms emerging from its opposite directions. Is matter flowing<br />out of the nucleus into the arms or along the arms into the nucleus? In<br />either case we should get two streams in opposite directions within the<br />nucleus.]<br /><br /><br />THE BIRTH AND DEATH OF STARS<br /><br />§ 3<br /><br />Variable, New, and Dark Stars: Dying Suns<br /><br />Many astronomers believe that in "variable stars" we have another star,<br />following that of the dullest red star, in the dying of suns. The light<br />of these stars varies periodically in so many days, weeks, or years. It<br />is interesting to speculate that they are slowly dying suns, in which<br />the molten interior periodically bursts through the shell of thick<br />vapours that is gathering round them. What we saw about our sun seems to<br />point to some such stage in the future. That is, however, not the<br />received opinion about variable stars. It may be that they are stars<br />which periodically pass through a great swarm of meteors or a region of<br />space that is rich in cosmic dust of some sort, when, of course, a great<br />illumination would take place.<br /><br />One class of these variable stars, which takes its name from the star<br />Algol, is of special interest. Every third night Algol has its light<br />reduced for several hours. Modern astronomy has discovered that in this<br />case there are really two stars, circulating round a common centre, and<br />that every third night the fainter of the two comes directly between us<br />and its companion and causes an "eclipse." This was until recently<br />regarded as a most interesting case in which a dead star revealed itself<br />to us by passing before the light of another star. But astronomers have<br />in recent years invented something, the "selenium-cell," which is even<br />more sensitive than the photographic plate, and on this the supposed<br />dead star registers itself as very much alive. Algol is, however,<br />interesting in another way. The pair of stars which we have discovered<br />in it are hundreds of trillions of miles away from the earth, yet we<br />know their masses and their distances from each other.<br /><br /><br />The Death and Birth of Stars<br /><br />We have no positive knowledge of dead stars; which is not surprising<br />when we reflect that a dead star means an invisible star! But when we<br />see so many individual stars tending toward death, when we behold a vast<br />population of all conceivable ages, we presume that there are many<br />already dead. On the other hand, there is no reason to suppose that the<br />universe as a whole is "running down." Some writers have maintained<br />this, but their argument implies that we know a great deal more about<br />the universe than we actually do. The scientific man does not know<br />whether the universe is finite or infinite, temporal or eternal; and he<br />declines to speculate where there are no facts to guide him. He knows<br />only that the great gaseous nebulæ promise myriads of worlds in the<br />future, and he concedes the possibility that new nebulæ may be forming<br />in the ether of space.<br /><br />The last, and not the least interesting, subject we have to notice is<br />the birth of a "new star." This is an event which astronomers now<br />announce every few years; and it is a far more portentous event than the<br />reader imagines when it is reported in his daily paper. The story is<br />much the same in all cases. We say that the star appeared in 1901, but<br />you begin to realise the magnitude of the event when you learn that the<br />distant "blaze" had really occurred about the time of the death of<br />Luther! The light of the conflagration had been speeding toward us<br />across space at 186,000 miles a second, yet it has taken nearly three<br />centuries to reach us. To be visible at all to us at that distance the<br />fiery outbreak must have been stupendous. If a mass of petroleum ten<br />times the size of the earth were suddenly fired it would not be seen at<br />such a distance. The new star had increased its light many hundredfold<br />in a few days.<br /><br />There is a considerable fascination about the speculation that in such<br />cases we see the resurrection of a dead world, a means of renewing the<br />population of the universe. What happens is that in some region of the<br />sky where no star, or only a very faint star, had been registered on our<br />charts, we almost suddenly perceive a bright star. In a few days it may<br />rise to the highest brilliancy. By the spectroscope we learn that this<br />distant blaze means a prodigious outpour of white-hot hydrogen at<br />hundreds of miles a second. But the star sinks again after a few months,<br />and we then find a nebula round it on every side. It is natural to<br />suppose that a dead or dying sun has somehow been reconverted in whole<br />or in part into a nebula. A few astronomers think that it may have<br />partially collided with another star, or approached too closely to<br />another, with the result we described on an earlier page. The general<br />opinion now is that a faint or dead star had rushed into one of those<br />regions of space in which there are immense stretches of nebulous<br />matter, and been (at least in part) vaporised by the friction.<br /><br />But the difficulties are considerable, and some astronomers prefer to<br />think that the blazing star may merely have lit up a dark nebula which<br />already existed. It is one of those problems on which speculation is<br />most tempting but positive knowledge is still very incomplete. We may be<br />content, even proud, that already we can take a conflagration that has<br />occurred more than a thousand trillion miles away and analyse it<br />positively into an outflame of glowing hydrogen gas at so many miles a<br />second.<br /><br /><br />THE SHAPE OF OUR UNIVERSE<br /><br />§ 4<br /><br />Our Universe a Spiral Nebula<br /><br />What is the shape of our universe, and what are its dimensions? This is<br />a tremendous question to ask. It is like asking an intelligent insect,<br />living on a single leaf in the midst of a great Brazilian forest, to say<br />what is the shape and size of the forest. Yet man's ingenuity has proved<br />equal to giving an answer even to this question, and by a method exactly<br />similar to that which would be adopted by the insect. Suppose, for<br />instance, that the forest was shaped as an elongated oval, and the<br />insect lived on a tree near the centre of the oval. If the trees were<br />approximately equally spaced from one another they would appear much<br />denser along the length of the oval than across its width. This is the<br />simple consideration that has guided astronomers in determining the<br />shape of our stellar universe. There is one direction in the heavens<br />along which the stars appear denser than in the directions at right<br />angles to it. That direction is the direction in which we look towards<br />the Milky Way. If we count the number of stars visible all over the<br />heavens, we find they become more and more numerous as we approach the<br />Milky Way. As we go farther and farther from the Milky Way the stars<br />thin out until they reach a maximum sparseness in directions at right<br />angles to the plane of the Milky Way. We may consider the Milky Way to<br />form, as it were, the equator of our system, and the line at right<br />angles to point to the north and south poles.<br /><br />Our system, in fact, is shaped something like a lens, and our sun is<br />situated near the centre of this lens. In the remoter part of this lens,<br />near its edge, or possibly outside it altogether, lies the great series<br />of star clouds which make up the Milky Way. All the stars are in motion<br />within this system, but the very remarkable discovery has been made that<br />these motions are not entirely random. The great majority of the stars<br />whose motions can be measured fall into two groups drifting past one<br />another in opposite directions. The velocity of one stream relative to<br />the other is about twenty-five miles per second. The stars forming these<br />two groups are thoroughly well mixed; it is not a case of an inner<br />stream going one way and an outer stream the other. But there are not<br />quite as many stars going one way as the other. For every two stars in<br />one stream there are three in the other. Now, as we have said, some<br />eminent astronomers hold that the spiral nebulæ are universes like our<br />own, and if we look at the two photographs (Figs. 25 and 26) we see that<br />these spirals present features which, in the light of what we have just<br />said about our system, are very remarkable. The nebula in Coma Berenices<br />is a spiral edge-on to us, and we see that it has precisely the<br />lens-shaped middle and the general flattened shape that we have found in<br />our own system. The nebula in Canes Venatici is a spiral facing towards<br />us, and its shape irresistibly suggests motions along the spiral arms.<br />This motion, whether it is towards or away from the central, lens-shaped<br />portion, would cause a double streaming motion in that central portion<br />of the kind we have found in our own system. Again, and altogether apart<br />from these considerations, there are good reasons for supposing our<br />Milky Way to possess a double-armed spiral structure. And the great<br />patches of dark absorbing matter which are known to exist in the Milky<br />Way (see Fig. 22) would give very much the mottled appearance we notice<br />in the arms (which we see edge-on) of the nebula in Coma Berenices. The<br />hypothesis, therefore, that our universe is a spiral nebula has much to<br />be said for it. If it be accepted it greatly increases our estimate of<br />the size of the material universe. For our central, lens-shaped system<br />is calculated to extend towards the Milky Way for more than twenty<br />thousand times a million million miles, and about a third of this<br />distance towards what we have called the poles. If, as we suppose, each<br />spiral nebula is an independent stellar universe comparable in size with<br />our own, then, since there are hundreds of thousands of spiral nebulæ,<br />we see that the size of the whole material universe is indeed beyond our<br />comprehension.<br /><br />[Illustration: _Photo: Mount Wilson Observatory._<br /><br />FIG. 26.--A SPIRAL NEBULA SEEN EDGE-ON<br /><br />Notice the lens-shaped formation of the nucleus and the arm stretching<br />as a band across it. See reference in the text to the resemblance<br />between this and our stellar universe.]<br /><br />[Illustration: _Photo: H. J. Shepstone._<br /><br />100-INCH TELESCOPE, MOUNT WILSON<br /><br />A reflecting telescope: the largest in the world. The mirror is situated<br />at the base of the telescope.]<br /><br />[Illustration:<br /><br /> ________________________________________________________________<br /> | |<br /> | THE SOLAR SYSTEM |<br /> |________________________________________________________________|<br /> | | | | | |<br /> | | MEAN DISTANCE | PERIOD OF | | |<br /> | NAME | FROM SUN (IN | REVOLUTION | DIAMETER | NUMBER OF |<br /> | | MILLIONS OF | AROUND SUN | (IN MILES) | SATELLITES |<br /> | | MILES) | (IN YEARS) | | |<br /> |_________|_______________|____________|____________|____________|<br /> | | | | | |<br /> | MERCURY | 36.0 | 0.24 | 3030 | 0 |<br /> | VENUS | 67.2 | 0.62 | 7700 | 0 |<br /> | EARTH | 92.9 | 1.00 | 7918 | 1 |<br /> | MARS | 141.5 | 1.88 | 4230 | 2 |<br /> | JUPITER | 483.3 | 11.86 | 86500 | 9 |<br /> | SATURN | 886.0 | 29.46 | 73000 | 10 |<br /> | URANUS | 1781.9 | 84.02 | 31900 | 4 |<br /> | NEPTUNE | 2971.6 | 164.78 | 34800 | 1 |<br /> | SUN | ------ | ------ | 866400 | -- |<br /> | MOON | ------ | ------ | 2163 | -- |<br /> |_________|_______________|____________|____________|____________|<br /><br />FIG. 27]<br /><br />[Illustration:<br /><br /> ______________________________________<br /> | |<br /> | STAR DISTANCES |<br /> |______________________________________|<br /> | |<br /> | DISTANCE IN |<br /> | STAR LIGHT-YEARS |<br /> | |<br /> | POLARIS 76 |<br /> | CAPELLA 49.4 |<br /> | RIGEL 466 |<br /> | SIRIUS 8.7 |<br /> | PROCYON 10.5 |<br /> | REGULUS 98.8 |<br /> | ARCTURUS 43.4 |<br /> | [ALPHA] CENTAURI 4.29 |<br /> | VEGA 34.7 |<br /> |______________________________________|<br /> | |<br /> | SMALLER MAGELLANIC CLOUD 32,600[A] |<br /> | GREAT CLUSTER IN HERCULES 108,600[A] |<br /> |______________________________________|<br /><br />[A] ESTIMATED<br /><br />FIG. 28<br /><br />The above distances are merely approximate and are subject to further<br />revision. A "light-year" is the distance that light, travelling at the<br />rate of 186,000 miles per second, would cover in one year.]<br /><br />In this simple outline we have not touched on some of the more debatable<br />questions that engage the attention of modern astronomers. Many of these<br />questions have not yet passed the controversial stage; out of these will<br />emerge the astronomy of the future. But we have seen enough to convince<br />us that, whatever advances the future holds in store, the science of the<br />heavens constitutes one of the most important stones in the wonderful<br />fabric of human knowledge.<br /><br /><br />ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS<br /><br />§ 1<br /><br />The Telescope<br /><br />The instruments used in modern astronomy are amongst the finest triumphs<br />of mechanical skill in the world. In a great modern observatory the<br />different instruments are to be counted by the score, but there are two<br />which stand out pre-eminent as the fundamental instruments of modern<br />astronomy. These instruments are the telescope and the spectroscope, and<br />without them astronomy, as we know it, could not exist.<br /><br />There is still some dispute as to where and when the first telescope was<br />constructed; as an astronomical instrument, however, it dates from the<br />time of the great Italian scientist Galileo, who, with a very small and<br />imperfect telescope of his own invention, first observed the spots on<br />the sun, the mountains of the moon, and the chief four satellites of<br />Jupiter. A good pair of modern binoculars is superior to this early<br />instrument of Galileo's, and the history of telescope construction, from<br />that primitive instrument to the modern giant recently erected on Mount<br />Wilson, California, is an exciting chapter in human progress. But the<br />early instruments have only an historic interest: the era of modern<br />telescopes begins in the nineteenth century.<br /><br />During the last century telescope construction underwent an<br />unprecedented development. An immense amount of interest was taken in<br />the construction of large telescopes, and the different countries of the<br />world entered on an exciting race to produce the most powerful possible<br />instruments. Besides this rivalry of different countries there was a<br />rivalry of methods. The telescope developed along two different lines,<br />and each of these two types has its partisans at the present day. These<br />types are known as _refractors_ and _reflectors_, and it is necessary to<br />mention, briefly, the principles employed in each. The _refractor_ is<br />the ordinary, familiar type of telescope. It consists, essentially, of a<br />large lens at one end of a tube, and a small lens, called the eye-piece,<br />at the other. The function of the large lens is to act as a sort of<br />gigantic eye. It collects a large amount of light, an amount<br />proportional to its size, and brings this light to a focus within the<br />tube of the telescope. It thus produces a small but bright image, and<br />the eye-piece magnifies this image. In the _reflector_, instead of a<br />large lens at the top of the tube, a large mirror is placed at the<br />bottom. This mirror is so shaped as to reflect the light that falls on<br />it to a focus, whence the light is again led to an eye-piece. Thus the<br />refractor and the reflector differ chiefly in their manner of gathering<br />light. The powerfulness of the telescope depends on the size of the<br />light-gatherer. A telescope with a lens four inches in diameter is four<br />times as powerful as the one with a lens two inches in diameter, for the<br />amount of light gathered obviously depends on the _area_ of the lens,<br />and the area varies as the _square_ of the diameter.<br /><br />The largest telescopes at present in existence are _reflectors_. It is<br />much easier to construct a very large mirror than to construct a very<br />large lens; it is also cheaper. A mirror is more likely to get out of<br />order than is a lens, however, and any irregularity in the shape of a<br />mirror produces a greater distorting effect than in a lens. A refractor<br />is also more convenient to handle than is a reflector. For these reasons<br />great refractors are still made, but the largest of them, the great<br />Yerkes' refractor, is much smaller than the greatest reflector, the one<br />on Mount Wilson, California. The lens of the Yerkes' refractor measures<br />three feet four inches in diameter, whereas the Mount Wilson reflector<br />has a diameter of no less than eight feet four inches.<br /><br />[Illustration: THE YERKES 40-INCH REFRACTOR<br /><br />(The largest _refracting_ telescope in the world. Its big lens weighs<br />1,000 pounds, and its mammoth tube, which is 62 feet long, weighs about<br />12,000 pounds. The parts to be moved weigh approximately 22 tons.<br /><br />The great _100-inch reflector_ of the Mount Wilson reflecting<br />telescope--the largest _reflecting_ instrument in the world--weighs<br />nearly 9,000 pounds and the moving parts of the telescope weigh about<br />100 tons.<br /><br />The new _72-inch reflector_ at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory,<br />near Victoria, B. C., weighs nearly 4,500 pounds, and the moving parts<br />about 35 tons.)]<br /><br />[Illustration: _Photo: H. J. Shepstone._<br /><br />THE DOUBLE-SLIDE PLATE HOLDER ON YERKES 40-INCH REFRACTING TELESCOPE<br /><br />The smaller telescope at the top of the picture acts as a "finder"; the<br />field of view of the large telescope is so restricted that it is<br />difficult to recognise, as it were, the part of the heavens being<br />surveyed. The smaller telescope takes in a larger area and enables the<br />precise object to be examined to be easily selected.]<br /><br />[Illustration: MODERN DIRECT-READING SPECTROSCOPE<br /><br />(_By A. Hilger, Ltd._)<br /><br />The light is brought through one telescope, is split up by the prism,<br />and the resulting spectrum is observed through the other telescope.]<br /><br />But there is a device whereby the power of these giant instruments,<br />great as it is, can be still further heightened. That device is the<br />simple one of allowing the photographic plate to take the place of the<br />human eye. Nowadays an astronomer seldom spends the night with his eye<br />glued to the great telescope. He puts a photographic plate there. The<br />photographic plate has this advantage over the eye, that it builds up<br />impressions. However long we stare at an object too faint to be seen, we<br />shall never see it. With the photographic plate, however, faint<br />impressions go on accumulating. As hour after hour passes, the star<br />which was too faint to make a perceptible impression on the plate goes<br />on affecting it until finally it makes an impression which can be made<br />visible. In this way the photographic plate reveals to us phenomena in<br />the heavens which cannot be seen even through the most powerful<br />telescopes.<br /><br />Telescopes of the kind we have been discussing, telescopes for exploring<br />the heavens, are mounted _equatorially_; that is to say, they are<br />mounted on an inclined pillar parallel to the axis of the earth so that,<br />by rotating round this pillar, the telescope is enabled to follow the<br />apparent motion of a star due to the rotation of the earth. This motion<br />is effected by clock-work, so that, once adjusted on a star, and the<br />clock-work started, the telescope remains adjusted on that star for any<br />length of time that is desired. But a great official observatory, such<br />as Greenwich Observatory or the Observatory at Paris, also has _transit_<br />instruments, or telescopes smaller than the equatorials and without the<br />same facility of movement, but which, by a number of exquisite<br />refinements, are more adapted to accurate measurements. It is these<br />instruments which are chiefly used in the compilation of the _Nautical<br />Almanac_. They do not follow the apparent motions of the stars. Stars<br />are allowed to drift across the field of vision, and as each star<br />crosses a small group of parallel wires in the eye-piece its precise<br />time of passage is recorded. Owing to their relative fixity of position<br />these instruments can be constructed to record the _positions_ of stars<br />with much greater accuracy than is possible to the more general and<br />flexible mounting of equatorials. The recording of transit is<br />comparatively dry work; the spectacular element is entirely absent;<br />stars are treated merely as mathematical points. But these observations<br />furnish the very basis of modern mathematical astronomy, and without<br />them such publications as the _Nautical Almanac_ and the _Connaissance<br />du Temps_ would be robbed of the greater part of their importance.<br /><br /><br />§ 2<br /><br />The Spectroscope<br /><br />We have already learnt something of the principles of the spectroscope,<br />the instrument which, by making it possible to learn the actual<br />constitution of the stars, has added a vast new domain to astronomy. In<br />the simplest form of this instrument the analysing portion consists of a<br />single prism. Unless the prism is very large, however, only a small<br />degree of dispersion is obtained. It is obviously desirable, for<br />accurate analytical work, that the dispersion--that is, the separation<br />of the different parts of the spectrum--should be as great as possible.<br />The dispersion can be increased by using a large number of prisms, the<br />light emerging from the first prism, entering the second, and so on. In<br />this way each prism produces its own dispersive effect and, when a<br />number of prisms are employed, the final dispersion is considerable. A<br />considerable amount of light is absorbed in this way, however, so that<br />unless our primary source of light is very strong, the final spectrum<br />will be very feeble and hard to decipher.<br /><br />Another way of obtaining considerable dispersion is by using a<br />_diffraction grating_ instead of a prism. This consists essentially of a<br />piece of glass on which lines are ruled by a diamond point. When the<br />lines are sufficiently close together they split up light falling on<br />them into its constituents and produce a spectrum. The modern<br />diffraction grating is a truly wonderful piece of work. It contains<br />several thousands of lines to the inch, and these lines have to be<br />spaced with the greatest accuracy. But in this instrument, again, there<br />is a considerable loss of light.<br /><br />We have said that every substance has its own distinctive spectrum, and<br />it might be thought that, when a list of the spectra of different<br />substances has been prepared, spectrum analysis would become perfectly<br />straightforward. In practice, however, things are not quite so simple.<br />The spectrum emitted by a substance is influenced by a variety of<br />conditions. The pressure, the temperature, the state of motion of the<br />object we are observing, all make a difference, and one of the most<br />laborious tasks of the modern spectroscopist is to disentangle these<br />effects from one another. Simple as it is in its broad outlines,<br />spectroscopy is, in reality, one of the most intricate branches of<br />modern science.<br /><br /><br />BIBLIOGRAPHY<br /><br />(The following list of books may be useful to readers wishing to pursue<br />further the study of Astronomy.)<br /><br /> BALL, _The Story of the Heavens_.<br /> BALL, _The Story of the Sun_.<br /> FORBES, _History of Astronomy_.<br /> HINCKS, _Astronomy_.<br /> KIPPAX, _Call of the Stars_.<br /> LOWELL, _Mars and Its Canals_.<br /> LOWELL, _Evolution of Worlds_.<br /> MCKREADY, _A Beginner's Star-Book_.<br /> NEWCOMB, _Popular Astronomy_.<br /> NEWCOMB, _The Stars: A Study of the Universe_.<br /> OLCOTT, _Field Book of the Stars_.<br /> PRICE, _Essence of Astronomy_.<br /> SERVISS, _Curiosities of the Skies_.<br /> WEBB, _Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes_.<br /> YOUNG, _Text-Book of General Astronomy_.Kevin Andrew Woolseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268449682429697653noreply@blogger.com0