Chapter V · FOURTH DAY.

Section I.—The Sun.

Signs — Names — Nature — Motions — Form — Magnitude — Distance — Suspension — Idolatrous worship of the Sun — The Sun an Emblem of Christ.

On the fourth day, “God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness.” The light which had hitherto been scattered and confused, was now collected and formed into several luminaries, and so rendered more glorious and of greater utility.

A sensible and pious author observes, that not only the two great lights, which were made after a special manner to rule the day and the night, but, in general, all the lights in the firmament of the heaven, are said to be for signs and for seasons; or, as some render the words, “for signs of the seasons.” And indeed this seems to be the meaning of the inspired writer. As for the manner of expression, “for signs and for seasons,” it is very common in the Hebrew, as well as in many other languages, and is a figurative way of speech, expressing those things disjunctively, which must by the understanding be joined together. First, these lights are said to be for signs, and then the things are mentioned which they are to signify, namely, the seasons, the days, and the years: whereas, if we understand the word signs in an indefinite sense, and not confined to what follows, we are through the whole text left in great uncertainty; seeing that there are signs appointed in the heaven for some purpose or other, but not knowing for what. Besides, if we must take all the parts of the text disjunctively, then “the lights in the firmament” must be taken for seasons, and for days, and for years, as well as for signs. But we know, that the celestial bodies are not themselves seasons, and days, and years, but only signs of them, by such particular motions and aspects, as God, according to the laws of nature, has ordained them. Neither can I see reason to believe, that every motion or position of the heavenly bodies has a special signification in it: though serving in general to display the wisdom and power of God, in their regular courses. The sun, indeed, which is called the greater light, is said to rule the day, as it is by the appearance of his light, increasing and decreasing, that we measure the length of the day; and the moon likewise to rule the night, partly on the like account. Thus likewise the sun’s course (if we may so call it) is a determining sign of the beginning and ending of the year, and of its various seasons. And in general, the sun, the moon, and the other lights, are necessary signs of the seasons of sowing, reaping, planting, and are useful in navigation, as well as other arts.

Costard, in his History of Astronomy, makes some critical remarks on the name of this greater light. He says, The sun is, by the Greeks, called Ἡλιος: which is nothing more than the Hebrew word אל El, modelled after the Greek manner of pronunciation, and signifies Lord; the first idolatrous worship being paid to this planet. In the Hebrew language it is called שמש Shemesh, and in the Chaldee שמשא Shimsha, from שמש Shamesh, to minister, on account of its administering light and heat to this world. From this property of communicating heat, it is also called המה Hammah. By the Phœnician idolaters it seems to have been called בעל Baal, or בעל שמים Baal-Shamim, the Lord of Heaven. And on account of the supposed swiftness of its diurnal motion from east to west, it had a chariot dedicated to it at Sidon, an ancient town of Phœnicia. Such a chariot is still seen on the coins of that place. This superstition was likewise imitated by the idolatrous Jews: for we read of the horses which the kings of Judah had given, or dedicated, to the sun. By the Chaldeans it seems to have been called בל Bel, and by the Assyrians פל Pul; and, with the addition, sometimes of אב ab, or אף ap, i.e. father, אף-פל Ap-Pul, or Father-Lord; from whence the Greeks formed their Απολλων, another name given by them to the sun. The name of this luminary, among the Romans, was sol; given more probably, on account of his scorching heat in the summer, or from his determining the length of the year by his course, than because he appeared solus, alone, according to the derivation given by Macrobius.

The nature of the sun is a subject which has not only excited the most diligent inquiry among men of scientific knowledge, but the opinions concerning it have passed through a variety of vicissitudes. The sun being evidently the source of light and heat, was by the ancients considered to be a globe of fire. But Dr. Herschell’s discoveries, by means of his immensely large telescopes, tend to prove, that what we call the sun is only the atmosphere of that luminary: “that this atmosphere consists of various elastic fluids, which are more or less transparent; that as the clouds surrounding our earth are probably decompositions of some of the elastic fluids belonging to the atmosphere itself, so we may suppose that in the vast atmosphere of the sun similar decompositions may take place, but with this difference, that the decompositions of the elastic fluids of the sun are of a phosphoric nature, and are attended by lucid appearances, by giving out light.” The body of the sun this celebrated astronomer considers as hidden generally from us, by means of this luminous atmosphere; that what are called maculæ, or spots on the sun, are real openings in this atmosphere, through which the opaque body of the sun becomes visible; that this atmosphere itself is not fiery nor hot, but is the instrument which God designed to act on the caloric or latent heat; and that heat is only produced by the solar light acting on and combining with the caloric or matter of fire contained in the air, and other substances which are heated by it.

This indefatigable investigator of the heavenly phenomena shows, by many substantial proofs, drawn from natural philosophy, that heat is produced by the sun’s rays only when they act on a calorific medium; and that they cause the production of heat by uniting with the matter of fire which is contained in the substances that are heated,—as the collision of flint and steel will inflame a magazine of gunpowder, by uniting with its latent fire, and bring the whole into action. This point is capable of a very clear elucidation. “On the tops of mountains, and at heights to which the clouds seldom reach to shelter them from the direct rays of the sun, we always find regions of ice and snow. Now if the sun’s rays themselves conveyed all the heat we find on the earth, it would of course be hottest in situations similar to the tops of mountains, where their course is least interrupted. But all those who have ascended in balloons confirm the coldness of the upper regions of the atmosphere; and, therefore, since even on the earth the heat of the situation depends on the facility with which the medium yields to the impression of the sun’s rays, we have only to admit, that, on the sun itself, the fluids composing its atmosphere, and the matter on its surface, are of such a nature as not to be capable of any excessive heat from its own rays. It is also a well known fact, that the focus of the largest burning lens thrown into the air, will occasion no heat in the place where it has been kept for a considerable time, although its powers of exciting heat, when proper bodies are exposed to it, should be sufficient to melt or fuse the most refractory metals.” That the sun is a luminous, and not an igneous body, has met with the general consent of modern philosophers; an opinion to which every new discovery in philosophy gives additional support.

The telescope, said to have been invented by the children of a spectacle-maker at Middleburgh, in the year 1590, but first brought to such a degree of perfection by Galileo as to make any considerable discoveries in the celestial regions, has led to the most important results in the science of astronomy. Among which are the spots in the sun’s disk, by whose motion from west to east the sun is perceived to revolve upon his own axis in 25 days, 14 hours, 8 minutes. This revolution of the sun round his own axis is probably not the only motion which this luminary experiences. There is great reason to believe that he has another motion, either rectilinear, or round some indefinitely remote centre of attraction. In this last course, he carries along with him, through space, the entire system of planets, satellites, and comets; in the same manner in which each planet draws his satellites along with him in his motion round the sun. He communicates light and heat to at least twenty opaque bodies, which revolve round him, at different distances, in ellipses that differ but little from circles.

From the motion of the spots, which is sometimes straight and sometimes curved, we learn that the sun’s axis is not perpendicular to the plane of his ecliptic, but inclined to it, or the plane of the earth’s annual orbit, so as to form an angle of about 83 degrees. Christopher Scheiner, a most diligent observer of these spot’s in the sun’s disk, published a treatise concerning them in A.D. 1626. These spots are sometimes seen to increase to a very large size, and to continue for a considerable time. In the year 1779, there was a spot on the sun’s disk which was large enough to be seen with the naked eye: it was divided into two parts, and must have been 50,000 miles in diameter: this, and other phenomena of the same kind, may be accounted for from some natural change of the atmosphere. For if some of the fluids which enter into its composition be of a shining brilliancy, while others are merely transparent, then any temporary cause removing the lucid fluid, will permit us to see the body of the sun through the transparent ones. Dr. Herschell supposes that the spots in the sun are mountains on its surface, which, considering the great attraction exerted by this luminary upon bodies placed at its surface, and the slow revolution it has about its axis, he thinks may be more than 300 miles in height, and yet not be rendered unstable by the centrifugal force.

[There appears to be a discrepancy between this last statement—“Dr. Herschell supposes that the spots in the sun are mountains on his surface;”—and the statement made a few paragraphs preceding—“that what are called maculæ, or spots on the sun, Dr. Herschell thought to be real openings in his atmosphere, through which the opake body of the sun becomes visible.” These statements must have been made at different periods of his observations on the sun, which continued about fifteen years. The last statement was, doubtless, Dr. Herschell’s mature opinion.

As this seems to be a settled question among philosophers; and as it has induced the enlightened world to regard the sun as a habitable globe, it will not be out of place to enlarge a little on this point.

The spots on the sun’s surface has led to the conclusion above, and also to a determination of the motion of the sun around his own axis. They appear to have been observed, for the first time, in A.D. 1610, by Fabricius and Harriot; the first in Germany, the second in England. It is uncertain which noticed them first; but it is certain the discovery was original with both.

After the observations of these two fortunate persons were known, the attention of the scientific was directed to this phenomenon. Scheiner supposed the spots to be planets which revolved very near the sun. In process of unwearied observations, it was ascertained that these spots changed their positions. Sometimes two would blend together, and thus run into each other. Sometimes one large one would divide into two or three smaller ones. They were observed to dilate, and contract; and to have umbræ, or shades attending them.

From these phenomena Galileo and others supposed the solar spots were schoria floating on the burning liquid matter, of which they supposed the sun composed. M. de la Hire, and La Lande supposed them to be eminences which occasionally rose above the rolling tides of fire, as islands rise above the sea. All these theories were on the supposition that the sun was an igneous body, in a high state of combustion, by which means he dispenses heat and light to the surrounding planets.

Dr. Wilson, Professor of practical astronomy in the University of Glasgow, was the first to conjecture that these spots were depressions rather than elevations. This was about the year 1769. The Doctor rendered this conjecture very probable, by his close and lucid observations and illustrations.

These spots attracted the attention of the celebrated Dr. Herschell in 1779, who continued to observe them closely until 1794, and by means of his immensely large and powerful telescopes, he clearly established Dr. Wilson’s conjectures, that these spots are openings in the luminous surface of the sun, through which his opake body appears.

Dr. Herschell regards the real body of the sun to be an opake nucleus, fit for the habitation of intellectual creatures: that he has an atmosphere suited in density and height to his own magnitude: that in the higher regions of this atmosphere there are two sets of clouds surrounding the sun, which are permanently and essentially luminous, being phosphoric in their nature. The lower set of these clouds, which are next the sun, are less bright, and more dense than the upper set. They are designed to serve as a curtain to the sun’s body, to prevent a too great intensity of light at his real surface; the higher set of clouds, which are visible to us, being the principal source, or rather agent, of light.

It is plain from the foregoing theory, that we never see the real body of the sun, except when we see the spots on his surface: that what we commonly call the sun, are only those bright, luminous phosphorescent clouds, which permanently surround his body, and which give light outwards to the planets, and also inwards to his own inhabitants.

It will be obvious also to any one, that the inhabitants of the sun cannot see any heavenly body, as the stars, and planets; because they are inclosed by those clouds, which are impenetrable to vision. They may catch a glimpse of a passing star through these openings as we do of the sun’s body.

It is highly probable (see our paper on light, attached to our author’s chapter on the same,) that these luminous phosphoric clouds do not actually emit light, or heat; but only excite them at the surfaces of the different planets. That is: it is very probable there is a matter of light or a luminiferous ether, diffused through all existing matter, as caloric is, which is excited by these clouds, and thus becomes visible, which is light, as latent caloric is excited, and becomes sensible, by becoming free. Indeed it is very probable that the matter of heat and light is the same, and that heat and light are only different modifications of the action of the same substance, excited in a different, or higher degree.]

The sun has two apparent motions, namely, the diurnal and annual. By the former he appears to move round the earth in twenty-four hours: and by the latter he appears to traverse that circle in the heavens, called the ecliptic, in the course of a year. These motions, are, however, only apparent: the sun does not travel round the earth in twenty four hours: he does not change his place in the heavens at different seasons of the year. His apparent motions are occasioned by the earth’s real motions. The sun’s apparent diurnal motion is occasioned by the earth’s real rotation about its axis: and the sun’s apparent annual motion is caused by the earth’s real motion in her orbit, through the whole of which she travels in a little less than 365 days, and 6 hours.

The fixed stars appear every twenty-four hours to make an entire revolution about the earth. The sun makes the same apparent circuit; but the apparent diurnal motion of the sun is evidently slower than that of the fixed stars. This appearance is occasioned by the daily rotation of the earth on its axis; for while it is turning once on its axis it advances in its orbit a whole degree; therefore it must make more than a complete rotation before it can come into the same position with the sun that it had the preceding day. In the same way, as when both hands of a watch set off together at any hour, as twelve o’clock, the minute hand must travel more than the whole circle before it can overtake the hour hand: hence the difference between solar and sidereal days, which it is important to understand in explaining the equation of time.

Though the sun appears to us merely as a circular disk, yet he is a spheroid, higher under his equator than about his poles. The deception arises from this; that all the parts of his surface are equally luminous, and consequently there is nothing which can suggest to us, at the great distance he is from the earth, that the central parts are more prominent than the sides, although in reality, they are nearer by half a million of miles.

This luminous body is supposed to be 886,473 English miles in diameter, about 2,700,000 in circumference, in solid bulk 24,000,000 times as big as the moon, and 1,384,462 times as big as the earth, and its superficies in square miles, about 2,236,603,000,000. This magnitude of the sun may appear exaggerated; for our eyes can discover nothing so large as the earth which we inhabit; and as to this alone we compare the sun, so we are tempted to believe the testimony of sense rather than our reason. But what confirms this prodigious size, is his visible magnitude, notwithstanding the vastly remote point which he occupies in space. And, concerning this subject, no doubt can remain, if we admit the calculations of astronomers, which are made on principles indubitably correct.

The sun does not appear large; but this is owing to his distance from the earth, which is 95,513,794 miles: this is so prodigious, that a cannon-ball, which is known to move at the rate of eight miles in a minute, would be something more than twenty-two years in going from the earth to the sun. If a spectator were placed as near to any of the fixed stars as we are to our sun, he would see our sun as small as we see a common star, divested of its circumvolving planets; and in numbering the stars he would reckon it one of them. But the earth’s orbit being an ellipse, the sun is not always at an equal distance from it. When he is in his apogee, that is, furthest from the earth, the sun is full two millions of miles further from us than when he is in his perigee, or nearest the earth: nevertheless, we feel greater heat than when he is in our winter. The difference of temperature between summer and winter does not depend chiefly upon our nearness to the sun, but upon the following causes. 1. In summer, the solar rays strike upon the earth more perpendicularly than in winter, and therefore they act with greater force than when they strike it obliquely. 2. The rays of the sun coming more perpendicularly in summer than in winter, have less of the atmosphere to pass through. 3. In the summer, the sun continues a longer time above the horizon than below it; and consequently there is time for the earth to accumulate a greater portion of heat than in the days of winter. We know, in the longest days, that the sun to us is above the horizon 16 hours; whereas, in the shortest days, it is not more than 8 hours visible.114

The miraculous suspension of the natural powers of the heavenly bodies, as recorded in the book of Joshua, shows that they are upheld, controlled, and directed in their operations, by a Being who is infinitely wise and powerful. To account for this miracle, and to ascertain the manner in which it was wrought, has employed the pens of the ablest divines and astronomers, especially of the last two centuries. For the elucidation of this important fact, I shall transcribe the view which Dr. Adam Clarke has given of it, which he considers to be strictly philosophical, consonant to the Pythagorean, Copernican, or Newtonian system, which is the system of the universe, laid down in the writings of Moses.

He assumes, as a thoroughly demonstrated truth, that the sun is in the centre of the system, moving only round his own axis, and the common centre of the gravity of the planetary system, while all the planets revolve round him; and that his influence is the cause of the diurnal and annual revolutions of the earth.

“Joshua’s address is in a poetic form in the original, and makes the two following hemistichs:

“The effect of this command is related in the following words: וידם השמש וירח עמד vayiddom ha-Shemesh ve-Yareach âmad; And the sun was dumb, or silent, and the moon stood still. And it is added, And the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

“I consider, that the word דום dom, refers to the withholding or restraining this influence, so that the cessation of the earth’s motion might immediately take place. The desire of Joshua was, that the sun might not sink below the horizon; but as it appeared now to be over Gibeon, and the moon to be over the valley of Ajalon, he prayed that they might continue in these positions till the battle should be ended; or, in other words, that the day should be miraculously lengthened out.115

“Whether Joshua had a correct philosophical notion of the true system of the universe, is a subject that need not come into the present inquiry; but whether he spoke with strict propriety on this occasion, is a matter of importance, because he must be considered as acting under the Divine influence, in requesting the performance of such a stupendous miracle: and we may safely assert, that no man in his right mind would have thought of offering such a petition, had he not felt himself under some Divine afflatus. Leaving, therefore, his philosophical knowledge out of the question, he certainly spoke as if he had known that the solar influence was the cause of the earth’s rotation, and therefore, with the strictest philosophic propriety, he requested, that that influence might be for a time restrained, that the diurnal motion of the earth might be arrested, through which alone, the sun could be kept above the horizon, and the day be prolonged. His mode of expression evidently considers the sun as the great ruler or master in the system; and all the planets, (or at least the earth) moving in their respective orbits at his command. He therefore desires him, (in the name and by the authority of his Creator) to suspend his mandate with respect to the earth’s motion, and that of his satellite, the moon. Had he said, Earth, stand thou still—the cessation of whose diurnal motion was the effect of his command, it could not have obeyed him; as it is not even the secondary cause either of its annual motion round the sun, or its diurnal motion round its own axis. Instead of doing so, he speaks to the sun, the cause (under God) of all these motions, as his great archetype did, when, in the storm on the sea of Tiberias, he rebuked the wind first, and then said to the waves, Peace, be still! Σιωπα, πεφιμωσο, be silent! be dumb! And the effect of this command was, a cessation of the agitation in the sea, because the wind ceased to command it, that is, to exert its influence upon the waters.

“The terms in this command are worthy of particular note: Joshua does not say to the sun, Stand still, as if he had conceived him to be running his race round the earth; but, be silent, or inactive; that is, as I understand it, restrain thy influence; no longer act upon the earth, to cause it to revolve round its axis; a mode of speech which is certainly consistent with the strictest astronomical knowledge: and the writer of the account, whether Joshua himself, or the author of the Book of Jasher, in relating the consequence of this command, is equally accurate, using a word widely different, when he speaks of the effect, the retention of the solar influence had on the moon: in the first case, the sun was silent, or inactive, דום dom; in the latter, the moon stood still, עמד âmad. The standing still of the moon, or its continuance above the horizon, would be the natural effect of the cessation of the solar influence, which obliged the earth to discontinue her diurnal rotation, which, of course, would arrest the moon; and thus both it and the sun were kept above the horizon, probably for the space of a whole day. As to the address to the moon, it is not conceived in the same terms as that to the sun, and for the most obvious philosophical reason: all that is said is simply, and the moon on the vale of Ajalon, which may be thus understood: ‘Let the sun restrain his influence, or be inactive, as he appears now upon Gibeon, that the moon may continue as she appears now over the vale of Ajalon.’ It is worthy of remark, that every word in this poetic address is apparently selected with the greatest caution and precision.

“At the conclusion of the 13th verse, a different expression is used when it is said, So, the sun stood still, it is not דום dom, but עמד âmad; ויעמד השמש vai-yaâmod ha-shemesh, which expression, thus varying from that in the command of Joshua, may be considered as implying, that in order to restrain his influence, which I have assumed to be the cause of the earth’s motion, the sun himself became inactive, that is, ceased to revolve round his own axis; which revolution is, probably, one cause, not only of the revolution of the earth, but of all the other planetary bodies in our system, and might have effected all the planets at the time in question: but this neither could, nor did produce any disorder in nature; and the delay of a few hours in the whole planetary motions, dwindles away into an imperceptible point in the thousands of years of their revolutions. I need scarcely add, that the command of Joshua to the sun, is to be understood as a prayer to God (from whom the sun derived his being and continuance) that the effect might be what is expressed in the command; and therefore it is said, verse 14, ‘that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel.’”

How glorious an object is the sun! too dazzling for mortal eye long to gaze on: the brightest visible emblem of its adorable Creator. This luminary rejoices to run his prescribed course, makes our day joyful, and without his reviving beams we should dwell in perpetual darkness. He, as the great source of day, distributes light and life through all nature. Seeds, in the bosom of the earth, feel his vegetative presence, and unfold themselves. By his diffusive influence he causes the vital juice to ascend in the tubes of trees, plants, and vegetables; and clothes them with their various and beautiful foliage. He nourishes the young fruits, gives them their fine tints, and brings them to maturity. At his approach, millions of insects awake into life, shine, collect themselves, and sport in his rays. Animals partake of his benefits, and without his animating beams they would sink into insensibility and death: even in caves and dens of the earth, his visitation gives life. His heat has a pleasing effect on all the juices and fluids in the human body, which, without his directive or impulsive energy, would soon become stagnant and useless. He is, by the Divine wisdom and goodness, placed at such a proper distance from us, that, were he much nearer, the blood would boil in our veins, and our bodies soon be either dissolved or calcined: or, were he at a much greater distance, we should become torpid, and presently be congealed to statues of ice. The very bowels of the earth partake of his influence, thus producing many valuable and useful metals. He penetrates the highest mountains, though composed of stones and rocks. He darts his beams even into the depths of the ocean, where the watery tribes live and play at his command.

As the sun is the greatest visible glory in the natural world, so it is selected by the pen of Divine inspiration as the brightest emblem of the Supreme Being—“The Lord God is a sun.” This great luminary has been considered by the Heathen as the representative of the Deity, and as such received religious adoration. According to Mr. Bryant’s system of Ancient Mythology, the worship of fire is nearly as old as the flood, having been propagated by the posterity of Ham, in Egypt, who called themselves Ammonians, and carried this worship with them wherever they went, erecting their puratheia, or fire-temples, in all their settlements. It is stated, that fire was the primitive, or at least the principal object of idolatrous worship, and common to all idolaters from the first apostasy at Babel. For the original institution of this sacred fire among the Chaldeans, we must go back to Nimrod, concerning whom the Alexandrian Chronicon asserts, that “the Assyrians called Nimrod, Ninus; this man taught the Assyrians to worship fire.” From the Greeks we may trace it backwards to the Ur of the Chaldeans; on which the learned Classius remarks, that “Ur is the name of a city wherein the sacred fire was conserved and worshipped by the Chaldeans, whence it was called Ur, which otherwise signifies fire.” Plutarch confesses that the Romans, in the days of Numa, borrowed their worship of fire from the Greeks at Athens and Delphi. Numa built a temple of an orbicular form, to represent, as Plutarch interprets, the system of the heavens; which temple was the conservatory of a holy and perpetual fire, kindled at first by the reflections of the sun-beams, and placed in the centre of the building; the astronomy of that early period placing the sun in the centre of the world. Fire has such an affinity to light, that the same word has sometimes comprehended them both. The Ur of the Chaldeans was fire; the Horus of the Egyptians was light: and the reason is plain, because fire and light are united at the body of the sun, and by him diffused over the world. If, therefore, we consider fire as called into action by the sun, and bear in mind that the ancient Pythagoreans used the same term ΠΥΡ to denote both fire and the sun,116 we shall get at the root of most of the heathen mythologic divinity.

So universal was the attachment to this fire, that Macrobius undertook to reduce the names of all the heathen deities to the one object of the sun and its attributes. He says, “The Egyptians consecrated a lion in that part of the heavens where the heat of the sun is most powerful, because that animal seems to derive his nature from the sun, excelling all other creatures in fire and force, as the sun exceeds the other lights of heaven. His eyes, likewise, are bright and fiery, as the sun with a bright and fiery aspect surveys the world. The Lybians represented their Jupiter Hammon, which was the setting sun, with the horns of a ram, with which that animal exerts its strength, as the sun acts by its rays. The worship of Egypt abundantly shows, that the bull is to be referred to the sun; which is plain from the worship of a bull at Heliopolis, the city of the sun; and of the bull Apis at Memphis, where it was an emblem of the sun; and of the other bull called Pacis, consecrated in the magnificent temple of Apollo at Hermunthis.”117

Wheresoever fire was worshipped in the puratheia of antiquity after the manner of Numa, we may suppose that there the true solar system prevailed, which places the solar fire in the centre; and that this was really the universal opinion of the most ancient Heathens. This doctrine agrees with the name which they gave to the sun in his physical capacity, calling him cor cœli, the heart of the heaven;118 which illustration and allusion is probably of very great antiquity, because it cannot with any propriety be applied to the more modern Ptolemaic hypothesis. The analogy is very striking; for as the heart is the centre of the animal system, so is the sun in the centre of our world: as the heart is the fountain of the blood, so is the sun the source of light and fire: as the heart is the life of the body, so is the sun the life and heat of animated nature, and the first mover of the mundane system: when the heart ceases to beat, the circuit of life is at an end; and if the sun should cease to act, a total stagnation would take place throughout the whole frame of nature. Macrobius, pursuing this analogy, says, “We have before observed, that the sun is called the fountain of the ethereal fire; therefore the sun is in the heavens, what the heart is in animals.” Since the circulation of the blood has been known, this analogy has been taken up with advantage by the celebrated Hervey himself, who, first of all the moderns, explained to us with sufficient accuracy this branch of natural philosophy. He observes, that the heart of animals is the foundation of life, the chief ruler of all things in the animal system, the sun of the microcosm, from which flows all its strength and vigor. The philosophers of antiquity called the sun the heart of the microcosm; the moderns call the heart the sun of the microcosm. There must be something very striking in the analogy which is thus convertible, and has been taken up at both ends by such different persons, at such remote periods of time.

The savage philosophy of America seems to have comprehended in it the relation, which we have already noticed, between the animal system and the frame of nature. Acosta, in his History of the Indies, reports, that in the human sacrifices of the Mexicans, the high priest pulled out the heart with his hands, which he showed smoking to the sun, to whom he offered this heat and fume of the heart, and presently he turned towards the idol, and cast the heart at his face. A very highly esteemed correspondent in Ceylon writes, There is a cast of people inhabiting this island who live wild in the woods, and worship fire as an emblem of purity; they are called Vandals, and several English officers have met a premature death by intruding near the holy fire, which is under a tamarind tree.

With the Persians fire was an object of worship from the earliest times, under the name of Amanus, and Mithas; and it is retained as such at this day by the Geberrs, Gaurs, Guebres, or Ghebers, a sect of Indian philosophers. Pottinger says, “At the city of Yezd, in Persia, which is distinguished by the appellation of the Darûb Abadut, or seat of Religion, the Guebres are permitted to have an Atush Kudu, or Fire Temple (which, they assert, has had the sacred fire in it since the days of Zoroaster), in their own compartment of the city; but for this indulgence they are indebted to the avarice, not the tolerance of the Persian government, which taxes them at twenty-five rupees each man.” Hanway informs us, that the Ghebers suppose the throne of the Almighty is seated in the sun, and hence their worship of that luminary. “As to fire,” says Grose, “the Ghebers place the spring-head of it in that globe of fire, the sun, by them called Mithras, or Mihir, to which they pay the highest reverence, in gratitude for the manifold benefits flowing from his ministerial omniscience. But they are so far from confounding the subordination of the servant with the majesty of the Creator, that they not only attribute no sort of sense or reasoning to the sun or fire, in any of its operations, but consider it as a purely passive blind instrument, directed and governed by the immediate impression on it of the will of God; but they do not even give that luminary, all glorious as it is, more than the second rank among his works, reserving the first for the stupendous production of the Divine power, the mind of man.” The temples are generally built over subterraneous fires. Rabbi Benjamin observes, “Early in the morning, they (the Parsees or Ghebers of Ouham) go in crowds to pay their devotions to the sun, to whom upon all the altars are spheres consecrated, made by magic, resembling the circles of the sun; and, when the sun rises, these orbs seem to be inflamed, and turn round with a great noise. Every one has a censer in his hands, and offers incense to the sun.”

It is not a little surprising that the descendants of faithful Abraham, taken into covenant with God, should fall under the influence of this idolatrous worship! The apostasy of the Israelites in the wilderness from the true God to the golden calf, was occasioned by a previous attachment to the sacred rites of the Egyptian idolatry. And the calves which were afterwards set up in Dan and Bethel, were probably derived from the same source. The Israelites were not only cautioned against this worship, but, if the charge of idolatry brought against an Israelite was proved by unequivocal facts and competent witnesses, it affected his life. Such was the progress of this idolatrous worship among this people at one period, that Josiah, king of Judah, took away out of the temple of the Lord the horses, and burned the chariots, which the kings, his predecessors, had consecrated to the sun. Job, in allusion to this vile worship, says, “If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; if my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:119 this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.” Ezekiel, in a vision, saw “at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east: and they worshipped the sun toward the east,” in imitation of the Egyptians, Persians, and other Eastern nations.

While the heathen have thus paid idolatrous worship to the sun, some persons, believing in the truth of revealed religion, have entertained strange notions concerning this luminary. It is remarkable, observes a polite writer, that whilst some of the ancients imagined the sun to be the seat of future blessedness, from Psal. xix, 14, “He set his tabernacle in the sun,” a Mr. Swinden, among the moderns, endeavors to prove that hell is seated in the sun, chiefly pleading that this is the grand repository of fire; that its horrible face, viewed by a telescope, suits the description given of the burning lake; and that being in the centre of the system, it might be properly said that wicked men were cast down into it. But these are mere hypotheses, and unworthy of serious consideration.

Notwithstanding this idolatrous worship of the sun, there is a sober and religious use to be made of this luminary; for being the greatest visible glory in the natural world it is selected as the brightest emblem of the Supreme Being—“The Lord God is a sun.” An object thus illustrious and useful in the regular and wise economy of nature, is mentioned in the sacred volume as a metaphor fraught with truths of infinite moment, imparting wisdom to the simple, and instruction to the ignorant. He admirably represents the unity, glory, and bounty of God.

Viewing our sun in all his paramount qualities to every material object in nature, how is he eclipsed and surpassed by the Sun of Righteousness, of whose splendor, grace, and energy this is but a faint emblem, and from whom issues, in bright and gentle beams, all the light, life, joy, and hope received and enjoyed in the Christian world. The one is the most magnificent creature among the vast variety of objects which surround us, but the other is the source of all that is excellent, attractive, and beneficial, in the whole range of material causes and effects, as well as in the nature, extent, and perpetuity of the kingdom of grace. The material sun runs its course from day to day, with unwearied regularity, activity, and ardor, and thus completes its circuit according to its original destination. And did not our adorable Saviour also finish the great career of our redemption, after he held performed all those miracles, and published his own everlasting gospel, which are the sublime and interesting themes of the sacred writers, by offering himself on the consecrated altar a sacrifice for the sins of mankind? The former diffuses light, vitality, vegetation, and felicity through the whole mass of animated nature in our planetary system. And does not the other likewise dissipate the ignorance which darkens the intellectual regions, enlighten our minds in all saving knowledge, and produce in the human heart every grace and virtue?

Were our natural sun to withdraw his beams, or absent himself from the centre of our system for any given time, the planets would start out of their orbits; darkness, black as night, would instantly spread itself over the whole mass, and “chaos come again.” And if the glorious Luminary of the moral world were to hide his face behind a thick cloud of gathering vengeance and judicial desertion, this would introduce into the soul alarming fears and tumultuous passions, which would exist in a state of opposition and conflict. Those who have been brought out of the darkness of ignorance, wickedness and misery, into the light of knowledge, holiness and happiness, by Christ, who is the light of the world, should be careful to walk in the light of his countenance all the days of their life. Does not the earth return the fructifying warmth of the sun, and all his genial effects, in a profusion of verdure, foliage, and flowers? Do not all the irrational tribes joyfully greet his rising every morning, and bask in his presence through the day with great delight? All the orbs which revolve round him, and are preserved and cherished in their respective spheres by his ministry, pay him perpetual homage by maintaining invariable harmony and order. And being thus taught by natural objects, what is due for the reception of so many mercies, surely it is an unquestionable duty that we guard against every thing which would prevent us doing the will of our best benefactor.

Christian believers, rich in the bloom of holiness, and ripening for the harvest of glory, are said to be “clothed with the sun.” It is the gracious promise, on which all their hopes and wishes confidently rely, that the “righteous shall” ultimately “shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”120 Thus it is written, “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day.” In the path of the just there is a progress from a less to a greater light: it does not only grow clearer, but increases in clearness till it is light in perfection; advancing from the break of day to the sun rising, and then to the brightness of noon-day.

Section II.—The Moon.

Names — Dimensions — Motions — Seasons — Phases — Harvest Moon — Moon’s Surface — Aërial Stones — Eclipses — Moonlight — Epithets — Religious Improvement.

The moon is called a great light, but less than the sun. Moses does not here speak philosophically, according to her bulk, but to the proportion of light she affords us, which is more than all the planets in the solar system and all the fixed stars put together.

The moon is not a primary planet, but only a satellite, or secondary planet, attendant on our earth, round which she revolves, and along with which she is carried round the sun.

“The moon,” says Dr. O. Gregory, “is a dark, or opake body, shining principally with the light she receives from the sun. If she shone by a light of her own, we should feel a sensible warmth from her rays; but it is a light reflected from the sun with which she shines, and is so exceedingly weak and languid, that the greatest burning glass will not collect enough to make any sensible degree of heat. This has been accounted for, and those who have gone through the computation assert that the light of the full moon is ninety thousand times less than day-light.” The ancients early discovered, that the moon had no light of its own, but shone with that which it reflected from the sun. This, after Thales, was the sentiment of Anaxagoras and Empedocles, who thence accounted not only for the mildness of its splendor, but the imperceptibility of its heat, which our experiments confirm.

In the Hebrew language the moon is called ירה Yarah, or, more strictly speaking, says Parkhurst, the lunar light, or flux of light, reflected from the moon’s body, or orb. That this is the true sense of the word is evident from several passages of Scripture, one of which is, “For the precious (produce) נרש ירחים put forth by—what? Not the orbs of the moon surely (for the orb is but one), but by the fluxes or streams of light reflected from it, which are not only several but various, according to the moon’s different phases and aspects in regard to the sun and the earth. And this may lead us to the radical idea of the word ירח; for as יחר and אחר,‎ יחד and אתד &c., are very nearly related to each other respectively, so likewise I conjecture that ירח is to ארה, in sense as well as in sound, and consequently that it signifies to go in a track or in a constant customary road or way; and this affords us a good descriptive name of the lunar light; for, Behold, says Bildad in Job, chap. xxv, 5, even to the ירח or lunar light ולא יאהיל and he (God) hath not pitched a tent (for it); as he has for the שמש or solar light. No! The lunar stream has fixed station from whence it issues, but together with the orb which reflects it, and which like a human traveller moves now a quicker, now a slower pace, is continually performing its appointed journey, and proceeding in a constant, though regularly irregular track.”

The Greeks called the moon μηνη, which may be considered as a derivative from μην. Parkhurst says, This word may be derived either from μηνη, the moon, by the phases of which the month is reckoned, or else it may be deduced from the Hebrew מנה manah, to number, compute, as being computed by the lunar phases. And it is probable that the first computations of time were made by the revolutions of the moon. It is obvious to remark, that not only these two Greek words, but also the Latin mensis, a month, and the English moon, month, are ultimately derived from the same Hebrew מנה. Leigh observes, that “the Hebrews call the moon and a month by the same name, because the moon is renewed every month. The Greeks also call σεληνη, from σελας, because it every day renews its light.” Parkhurst on the word σεληνη says, “The Greek etymologists, and particularly Plato, deduce it from σελας νεον, new light, because its light is continually renewed.” But the learned Goguet says; “The Greeks gave to the moon the name selene, which comes from the Phœnician word (לן or לון namely) which signifies to pass the night; whence also we may observe is plainly derived the Latin name of the moon, luna.” From lun with the termination a, comes luna, and this name is given to the planet from her changing or appearing under different phases.

As to the dimensions of the moon, according to the most accurate calculations, her diameter is 2,175 miles, the circumference 6,831 miles, the surface contains 14,898,750 square miles, and its solidity 5,408,246,000 cubical ones. Her bulk is equal to about a fiftieth part of our earth, and her mean distance from the earth is about 240,000 miles.

The motions of the moon are most of them very irregular. The only equable motion she has, is her revolution on her own axis. The time in which she moves round her axis is about 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, 5 seconds; and her revolution through an elliptical orbit is performed in the same time as her rotation on her axis, moving about 2,290 miles every hour. Her revolution round her axis exactly in the same time that she goes round the earth, is the reason she always turns the same face towards us: she has only one day and one night in the course of a month. From a long series of observations, it has been ascertained that the moon makes a complete revolution in 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, 5 seconds; this is called the periodical month; but, if we refer to the time passed from new moon to new moon again, the month consists of 29 days, 12 hours, and 44 minutes, which is called the synodical month. This difference is occasioned by the earth’s annual motion in its orbit. Thus, if the earth had no motion, the moon would make a complete round in 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, and 5 seconds; but while the moon is describing her journey the earth has passed through nearly a twelfth part of its orbit, which the moon must also describe before the two bodies come again into the same position that they before held with respect to the sun: this takes up so much more time as to make her synodical month equal to 29 days, 12 hours, and 44 minutes. The motions of the hour and minute hands of a watch may serve to give some idea of the periodical and synodical revolutions of the moon; for when the minute hand has performed a complete revolution, it has yet some distance to go to obtain a coincidence with the hour hand, similar to that which it had the preceding hour.

We have observed that the same face is turned towards us during the whole of the moon’s revolution, and that the other half of her surface is never visible to us. This arises from the two motions we have noticed, which, with regard to our view of the moon, appear to counteract each other. Her revolution round the earth is performed towards the east; while the revolution upon her own axis is performed towards the west: so that, one of these motions turns as much of her face from us, as the other turns towards us. And from the moon’s axis being inclined to the plane of her orbit, sometimes one of her poles is inclined towards the earth, and sometimes the other: in consequence of which, we see more or less of her polar regions in different periods of her revolution. When the moon is in perigee, or nearest distance from the earth, her motion is quickest; and when in apogee, or most remote distance, her motion is slowest.

The length of the day is equal to our lunar month, for all that time is included in one revolution round her axis. Her days and nights, therefore, will constantly be of the same length, or almost fifteen of our days each. The year will be exactly the same with our year; because, being an attendant on the earth, she must go round the sun in the same time as that does. Her difference of seasons will be much less than on our earth, having only a small inclination of her axis of six degrees and a half; so that the variation between her summer’s heat and her winter’s cold must be comparatively inconsiderable. Hence there will be only thirteen degrees of Torrid Zone, on some parts most opposite the sun, and thirteen degrees of Frigid Zone on those contiguous to her poles; which consequently must leave seventy-seven degrees for what we should call her Temperate Zones, both in the north and south parts from her Equator. Our earth, unquestionably, performs the office of a moon to the moon, waxing and waning regularly, but appearing thirteen times as large, and, of course, affording her thirteen times as much light as she does to us. When she changes to us, the earth appears full to her; when she is in her first quarter to us, the earth is in its third quarter to her; and vice versâ. To the moon the earth seems to be the largest body in the universe, and must indeed be a most magnificent sight.

On the supposition that the moon is inhabited, it may be observed, that those who are placed about the middle of the surface, or face next to us, will constantly see our earth over their heads, and increasing and decreasing in light, like as the moon itself appears to us. Those who are situated near the borders, whether on the right or left, or upon the top or bottom, will also constantly have the same appearance in the opposite part of the horizon. But those who live on the side of the moon which is not presented to us, will know nothing of our earth, or at least, they will never have an opportunity of seeing this large and wonderful moon, without travelling perhaps more than 1,500 of our miles on the surface of that luminary. To those who live on this side of the moon, or travel to it on any account, as we may pass from the northern into the southern hemisphere of our globe, the earth, indeed, when at full to them, will appear to be more than three times as broad as the moon does to us, and to communicate, as has been already mentioned, about thirteen times as much light to her, as she does to us when at the full.

The moon, possessing no native light, shines entirely by light received from the sun, and which is reflected to us from her surface. That half of her which is towards the sun is enlightened, and the other half is dark and invisible: hence, when she is between us and the sun, she disappears, because her dark side is then towards us. Whilst making her revolution round the heavens, she undergoes a continual change of appearance. She is sometimes on our meridian at midnight, and therefore in that part of the heavens which is opposite to the sun; when she appears with a face completely circular, which is called a full moon. As she moves eastward, a part of her dark side comes forward on the western side, and, in a little more than seven days, reaches to the meridian, at about six in the morning, having the appearance of a semi-circle, with the convex side turned towards the sun: this crescent gradually becomes more slender, till, about fourteen days after the full moon, being so near the sun, and in a line between that luminary and our earth, she is rendered invisible to us, from the superior splendor of that orb of light. About four days after this disappearance, she may be seen in the evening, a little to the eastward of the sun, in the form of a fine crescent,121 as before, but having her convex side turned from the sun. Travelling still towards the east, the crescent becomes wider; and when advanced to the meridian, about six in the evening, she again bears the appearance of a bright semi-circle, with the same difference that we observed of the crescent, that is, its convex side is now turned from the sun. Advancing still more eastward, the semi-circular moon widens into an oval shape, till at last, in about twenty-nine days and a half from the last opposition to the sun, she is again in the same situation, and appears a full moon.

The following account of the harvest moon, so called, taken from the Pantalogia, will no doubt be acceptable to the reader.—It is remarkable that the moon, during the week in which she is full about the time of harvest, rises sooner after sun-setting than she does in any other full moon week in the year. By this means, she affords an immediate supply of light after sun-set, which is very beneficial for the harvest and gathering in the fruits of the earth; and hence this full moon is distinguished from all the others in the year, by calling it the harvest-moon.

To conceive the reason of this phenomenon, it may first be considered, that the moon is always opposite to the sun when she is full; that she is full in the signs Pisces and Aries in our harvest months, those being the signs opposite to Virgo and Libra, the signs occupied by the sun about the same season; and because those parts of the ecliptic rise in a shorter space of time than others, as may easily be shown and illustrated by the celestial globe: consequently, when the moon is about her full in harvest, she rises with less difference of time, or more immediately after sun-set, than when she is full at other seasons of the year.

In our winter, the moon is in Pisces and Aries about the time of her first quarter, when she rises about noon; but her rising is not then noticed, because the sun is above the horizon. In spring, the moon is in Pisces and Aries about the time of her change; at which time, as she gives no light, and rises with the sun, her rising cannot be perceived. In summer, the moon is in Pisces and Aries about the time of her last quarter; and then, as she is on the decrease, and rises not till midnight, her rising usually passes unobserved. But in autumn, the moon is in Pisces and Aries at the time of her full, and rises soon after sun-set for several evenings successively; which makes her regular rising very conspicuous at that time of the year.

HARVEST MOONS.

L M L M L M L M

1790 1798 1807 1816 1826 1835 1844 1853

1791 1799 1808 1817 1827 1836 1845 1854

1792 1800 1809 1818 1828 1837 1846 1855

1793 1801 1810 1819 1829 1838 1847 1856

1794 1802 1811 1820 1830 1839 1848 1857

1795 1803 1812 1821 1831 1840 1849 1858

1796 1804 1813 1822 1832 1841 1850 1859

1797 1805 1814 1823 1833 1842 1851 1860

1806 1815 1824 1834 1843 1852 1861

1825

When the moon is viewed through a good telescope, there appear vast cavities and asperities on various parts of her face, some of them extremely resembling deep caverns and vallies, and others mountains.

The cavities, it is conjectured, do not contain water; hence it is concluded that there can be no extensive seas and oceans, like those which cover a great part of our earth. It is, however, imagined that there may be springs and rivers. The moon seems, as a learned author has observed, in almost every respect to be a body similar to our earth, to have its surface diversified by hill and dale, mountains and vallies, rivers and lakes. With regard to a lunar atmosphere, the existence of which has long been a subject of much dispute, it is now generally admitted.122 The irregularity of the moon’s surface, arising from hills and vallies, renders her more capable of reflecting the sun’s rays to us. Though philosophers have differed widely in their ideas concerning the materials of the moon’s mountains, some from their brilliancy even supposing them to be rocks of diamonds, there is no diversity of opinion as to their use. If smooth and polished, like a mirror, or covered with water, she would not reflect and distribute the light received from the sun. In some positions she would show us his image no larger than a single point, and with a lustre that would injure our sight: but roughened by these hills and vallies, her surface returns the sun’s light to us in an equable and pleasant manner, and enables us to examine her with ease and precision.

That the moon is a planet similar to our earth, is a sentiment very early adopted. Orpheus is the most ancient author, whose opinion on this subject has come down to us. Proclus presents us with three verses of that philosopher, wherein he positively asserts, that the moon was another earth, having in it mountains, vallies, &c. Pythagoras, who followed Orpheus in many of his opinions, taught likewise, that the moon was an earth like ours, replete with animals, whose nature he presumed not to describe, though he was persuaded they were of a more noble and elegant kind than ours, and not liable to the same infirmities. Stobæus gives us the opinion of Democritus about the nature of the moon, and the cause of those spots which we see upon its disk. That great philosopher imagined, that “those spots were no other than shades, formed by the excessive height of the lunar mountains,” which intercepted the light from the lower parts of that planet, where the valleys formed themselves into what appeared to us as shades or spots. Plutarch went further, alleging, that there were embosomed in the moon, vast seas and profound caverns: he says, those deep and extensive shades which appear upon the disk of that planet, must be occasioned by the vast seas it contains, which are incapable of reflecting so vivid a light, as the more solid and opake parts; “or by caverns extremely wide and deep, wherein the rays of the sun are absorbed,” whence those shades and that obscurity which we call the spots of the moon. And Zenophanes said, that those immense cavities were inhabited by another race of men, who lived there just as we do upon earth.

[The height of the moon’s atmosphere is supposed to be 1.622 miles; or a little more than a mile and a half.

The observations on the moon have been so accurate, and so often repeated, by means of the best glasses, that the map of the moon is now considered nearly perfect. On this map is laid down the position of spots, cavities, and mountains, representing their size, height, depth, and peculiarities. They are very numerous.

Some of these mountains are full five miles high. They descend in height, from the highest to small elevations.

Several astronomers, particularly Herschell, has distinctly observed and described volcanos in the moon, actually flaming; and others in an expiring state. Craters of extinct volcanos are visible, and so numerous as to indicate very clearly, that volcanic action was once very extensive and powerful in the moon.

Some of the cavities are more than three miles and a half deep, and sixteen broad at the surface. Ferguson’s Astronomy, additional chapters by Dr. Brewster.]

That stones have fallen from the clouds or from much higher regions, is a fact which has recently been very closely investigated, and also fully demonstrated. A table, constructed by M. Izarn, a foreign chemist, exhibits a variety of facts of this kind, from which the following is an extract.

Substances. Places where they fell. Period of their fall.

Shower of stones. At Rome. Under Tullus Hostilius.

Shower of stones. At Rome. Consuls, C. Martius, and M. Torquatus.

A very large stone. Near the river Negos, Thrace. Second year of the 78th Olympiad.

Three large stones. In Thrace. Year before J.C. 452.

Stone of 72 lbs. Near Larissa, Macedonia. January, 1706.

About 1,200 stones; one 120 lbs. Another of 60 lbs. Near Padua, in Italy. In 1510.

Another of 59 lbs. On Mount Vasier, Provence. November 27, 1627.

Two large stones, weighing 20 lbs. Liponas, in Bresse. September, 1753.

A stony mass. Niort, Normandy. In 1750.

A stone of 7½ lbs. At Luce, in Le Maine. September 13, 1768.

A stone. At Aire, in Artois. In 1768.

A stone. In Le Contenin. In 1768.

Extensive shower of stones. Environs of Agen. July 24, 1790.

About 12 stones. Sienna, Tuscany. July, 1794.

A large stone of 56 lbs. Wold Cottage, Yorkshire. December 13, 1795.

A stone of 10 lbs. In Portugal. February 19, 1796.

A stone of 120 lbs. Salé, Department of the Rhone. March 17, 1798.

Shower of stones. Benares, East Indies. December 19, 1798.

Shower of stones. At Plann, near Tabor, Bohemia. July 3, 1753.

Mass of iron, 70 cubic feet. America. April 5, 1800.

Mass of do. 14 quintals. Abakauk, Siberia. Very old.

Shower of stones. Barboutan, near Roquefort. July, 1789.

Large stone, 260 lbs. Ensisheim, Upper Rhine. November 7, 1492.

Two stones, 200 and 300 lbs. Near Verona. In 1762.

A stone of 20 lbs. Sales, near Ville Franche. March 12, 1798.

Several do. from 10 to 17 lbs. Near L’Aigle, Normandy. April 26, 1803.

The stones generally appear luminous in their descent, moving in oblique directions, with very great velocities, and commonly with a hissing noise. They are frequently heard to explode, or burst, and seem to fly in pieces, the larger parts falling first. They often strike the earth with such force, as to sink several inches below the surface. They are always different from the surrounding bodies, but is every case are similar to one another, being semi-metallic, coated with a thin black encrustation. They bear strong marks of recent fusion. Chemists have found, on examining these stones, that they very nearly agree in their nature and composition, and in the proportions of their component parts.

Their specific gravities are generally about three or four times that of water, being heavier than common stones. From the above account, it is reasonable to conclude, that they have all the same origin. I believe it is generally agreed among philosophers, that all these aërial stones, chemically analysed, evince the same properties; and that no stone, found on our earth, possesses exactly similar properties, nor in the same proportions: this is an extraordinary circumstance, and deserves particular notice. At the sitting of the Society of Natural History at Halle, July 6, 1816, M. Chladni submitted to the inspection of the members present, a collection of meteoric stones, or stones fallen from the atmosphere; and to the exhibition, he added his own observations on their nature and formation. Dr. Kæstner, taking up the subject in the same point of view which M. Chladni had given of it, admitted that these stones are not natives of this earth, but of other celestial bodies; to which he added, that the chemical analysis of them proves, that many of the same substances as are found in our mountains, and among the solids of our globe, are also component parts of the solids and mountains of other globes; certainly of those celestial bodies which are nearest to us; and probably of the others which form our planetary system.

That these stones are projected from lunar volcanos, very strong reasons have been assigned to prove. As 1. Volcanos in the moon have been observed by means of the telescope. 2. The lunar volcanos are very high, and the surface of that globe suffers frequent changes, as appears by the late observations of Schroëter. 3. If a body be projected from the moon to a distance greater than that of the point of equilibrium, between the attraction of the earth and the moon, it will, on the known principles of gravitation, fall to the earth. 4. That a body may be projected from the lunar volcanos beyond the moon’s influence, is not only possible, but very probable; for on calculation it is found, that four times the force usually given to a twelve pounder, will be quite sufficient for this purpose: it is to be observed, that the point of equilibrium is much nearer; and that a projectile from the moon will not be so much retarded as one from the earth, both on account of the moon’s rarer atmosphere, and its less attractive force.123

Of all the phenomena of the heavens, there are none which engage the attention of mankind more than eclipses of the sun and moon; and to those who are unacquainted with the principles, nothing can appear more extraordinary than the accuracy, even to a second of time, with which they are predicted. Eclipses of the sun are occasioned by the shadow of the intervening new moon falling on the earth, and those of the moon are caused by the shadow of the earth falling on the full moon, the earth at the full moon being always in a direction between the sun and moon.

It is ascertained that, for an eclipse of the sun to be annular, the most favorable circumstances will be when the sun is in perigee, and the moon in apogee; and, for an eclipse to be total, the most favorable case is when the sun is in apogee, and the moon in perigee. The motion of the moon being much swifter than that of the earth, and the motions of both being directed from west to east, an eclipse of the sun must always begin in the western edge of the sun; and as the moon is a great deal less than the earth, her shadow forms a cone, the section of which is much less than the earth, so that a small portion of the earth only can, at any time, be involved in the shadow at one time. Hence it is, that an eclipse of the sun is not perceived, at the same instant, in every part of the hemisphere that is turned towards the sun, and that, in some parts, it will not be seen at all. For instance, a friend of mine, writing from Ceylon in the month of May, (1817,) says, “On the 16th of this month, we had a fine sight of an eclipse of the sun about noon: I think about 3-4ths of the surface were covered.” But in this country we had no solar eclipse at the same time. Again, in different situations, different parts of the sun’s disk will appear eclipsed; but, on the contrary, an eclipse of the moon is perceived, at the same moment, in every part of the earth where this planet is visible, and appears every where to occupy the same portion of her disk. Hence, eclipses of the sun are much less frequent in any particular place than eclipses of the moon.

If the nodes of the moon constantly corresponded with the same points in the heavens, the eclipses of the sun or moon might be expected in the same months, and even on the same days; but as the nodes shift backwards, or contrary to the earth’s annual motion, about 19½ degrees in a year, the same node will come round about nineteen days sooner every year than in the preceding. From the time, therefore, when the ascending node passes by the sun, as seen from the earth, there will be only 173 days before the descending node passes by him. If, then, at any time of the year, we have eclipses about either of the nodes, their return may be expected in about 173 days, in or near the other.

It may be further observed, that, after the sun, moon, and nodes, have been once in a line of conjunction, they will return nearly to the same state again in 228 lunations, or eighteen years and ten days; so that the same node which was in conjunction with the sun and moon at the beginning of the first of these lunations, will be within less than half a degree of the line of conjunction with the sun and moon again, when the last of these lunations is completed. In that time, therefore, there will be a regular period of eclipses for many ages.

These things being properly considered, it will not be difficult to conceive how astronomers are able to foretell the exact time when any phenomenon of this kind will happen; for, as an eclipse can only take place at the time of a new or full moon, the principal requisites are, to determine the number of mean conjunctions and oppositions that will happen every year, and the true places of the sun and moon in their orbits at each of those times. And, if from this, when proper calculations have been made, it appears that the two luminaries are within the proper limits of the node, there will be an eclipse. To facilitate these operations, we have astronomical tables ready computed, by which the places of the heavenly bodies, and every other particular required, may be easily found for any given instant of time.124

With delight we reflect on the invaluable benefits which this lesser light confers on our globe. She sometimes appears visible in the presence of the sun; but how faint and pale is her shining! God has appointed her to rule the night, and give light to men. How cheerless and uncomfortable would our nights be, were we destitute of the light which this faithful and inseparable companion of our earth dispenses! How strange are her eclipses, occasioned by the earth interposing and shading her face! but, they are highly useful in astronomical, geographical, and chronological calculations. How salutary, too, is her attractive influence, which sways the ocean, and actuates the world of waters; causing the swelling of the tides, and perpetuating the regular returns of ebb and flow; by which the liquid element itself is preserved from putrefaction, and the surrounding continents from infection and disease.

A moonlight night has led the greatest poets in every age to vie with each other in attempting to describe its beauty and use. Among all the treasures of modern poetry, I know not one superior, for pleasing imagery, and variety of numbers, to that of Milton:

Homer, in the eighth book of the Iliad, gives us a description of a fine moonlight night, which is esteemed a master-piece of nocturnal painting. Milton’s pencil leaves off where that of Homer begins:

The wise Son of Sirach, although his writings are not admitted into the sacred canon, deserves to be heard on this subject. He says, “The Lord made the moon also to serve in her season, for a declaration of times, and a sign of the world. From the moon is the sign of feasts, a light decreaseth in her perfection. The month is called after her name, increasing wonderfully in her changing, being an instrument of the armies above, shining in the firmament of heaven; the beauty of heaven, the glory of the stars, an ornament giving light to the highest places of the Lord. At the commandment of the Holy One they will stand in their order, and never faint in their watches.” This is paraphrased with great elegance and spirit by Mr. Broome:

Many striking epithets have been given to this refulgent lamp of the night, some of which are noticed by Nichols in his Conference with a Theist. Tully asserts, that the moon was called Diana, because she made a day of the night, whilst all other stars did not make a twilight. Æschylus, a tragic poet, born at Athens 397 before the Christian era, calls her πρεσβυϛον αϛρων, the ancient, the governess, or mother of the stars. Apollinaris, bishop of Hierapolis, in Phrygia, about A.D. 171, denominates her, νυχιων βασιλεια αταρπων, the queen of the nightly paths. Tynesius, who flourished A.C. 400, styles her, ποιμην νυχιων θεων, the princess of the nocturnal gods: which is consonant to Horace’s lucidum cœli decus—syderum regina. Virgil likewise calls her, astrorum decus, the ornament of the stars. Seneca terms her, obscuri dea clara mundi, the bright goddess of the obscure world; and also clarumque cœli sydus et noctis decus, the bright star of heaven, and the grace of the night. Statius, who lived at Rome in the reign of Domitian, in his Thebais, terms her, arcanæ moderatrix Cynthia noctis, the moon the governess of silent night. “Fair as the moon,” was an ancient manner of describing beauty, and, it is said, still prevails in the East.

Among the ancients, observes Mr. Butler, the moon was an object of prime respect. By the Hebrews, she was more regarded than the sun, and they were more inclined to worship her as a deity. The new moons, or first days of every month, were observed as festivals among them, which were celebrated with sound of trumpets, entertainments, and sacrifice. The moon was the goddess of the Phœnicians, whom they worshipped under the name Ashtoreth, or Astarte. The moon is sometimes in Scripture styled, the “queen of heaven.” She is likewise styled, “the goddess of the Zidonians,” and “the abomination of the Zidonians,” as she was worshipped very much in Zidon, or Sidon, a famous city of the Phœnicians, situated upon the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. Solomon, who had many wives that were foreigners, was prevailed upon by them to introduce the worship of this goddess into Israel, and he built her a temple on the mount of Olives, which, on account of this and other idols, is called “the mount of corruption.”125 Milton says,

The full moon was held favorable for any undertaking by the Spartans; and no motives could induce them to enter upon an expedition, march an army, or attack an enemy, till the full of the moon. It is usual with the modern Arabians to begin their journeys at the new moon; a practice which, indeed, appears to be very ancient. When the Shunammite proposed going to Elisha, her husband dissuaded her by observing that it was neither new moon nor sabbath.

1. The moon is an emblem of the church of God, which receives its light from Christ as the moon does from the sun. Especially, of the Jewish dispensation, which consisted much in the observation of new moons, its solemn feasts being governed by them. The Jewish dispensation was a veiled and shadowy one: Christ and the blessings of the covenant of grace were revealed in dark promises, obscure prophecies, types and ceremonies, which were all significant figures of that grace which should be displayed, with fulness and evidence, under the Christian dispensation. The Jewish economy exhibits such marks of imperfection, as show the necessity of some new revelation to supply its defects. Its rites and precepts seem to be particularly suited to the condition, capacity, temper and genius of that particular people, for whom they were first formed, but not to be calculated for general use. It consisted chiefly of external performances, such as washings, sacrifices, and oblations, which could not purify the conscience, nor, indeed, satisfy the reason of man. The provision for sin, by way of atonement, was partial, and not thoroughly effectual: for some sins no sacrifice was admitted; and though sacrifice, where it was appointed, might atone for ceremonial impurity, yet the inward guilt and defilement still remained, and the justice of God was not satisfied. Yet the observance of these was enjoined in a very awful manner. The omission of what was prescribed by these laws, or even a defect in observing the minute circumstances of them, was made a capital crime, or rendered the delinquents liable to be cut off from the congregation. The Apostle styles the whole code of these laws, “a yoke of bondage;“ and says, that, previous to the coming of Christ, the Jews were in bondage under what he terms “the beggarly elements of the world.”

There were indeed wise reasons for such a dispensation: to keep the Jews a distinct people, and preserve them from idolatry, while they were continually employed in the service of God; to remind them of their obligations to purity, inward and outward holiness; and, as a schoolmaster, to bring them to Christ; the law being a type and shadow of that “truth and grace which came by Jesus Christ,” who was “the end of the law for righteousness.” On which account, the law of Moses was not perpetual, but a temporary institution: thus the Apostle reasons, “There is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof; for,” as he says in another place, “the law could not in any wise make the comers thereunto perfect.” He calls the law, “a shadow of good things to come.” The Levitical ceremonies led the Jewish church into the knowledge of the promised Messiah, and what he was to do, suffer, purchase, and apply. Hence the words of St. Peter, “Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not to themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.” The Christian dispensation is attended with greater clearness. We have a far more comprehensive knowledge of the glorious Redeemer, in his person, natures, offices, and blessings; of the spiritual nature of his kingdom, and the way of salvation through faith in him, than what the Jews had. Thus the Apostle says, “But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

In the Revelation, we have this representation given of the Christian church: “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” An author, quoted by Dr. A. Clarke, gives the following elucidation of this passage.—That the woman here represents the true church of Christ, most commentators are agreed. In other parts of the Apocalypse, the pure church of Christ is evidently pourtrayed by a woman. In chapter xix, verse 7, a great multitude are represented as saying, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.” In chapter xxi, 9, an angel talks with St. John, saying, “Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” That the Christian Church is meant will appear also from her being “clothed with the sun,” a striking emblem of Jesus Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, the light and glory of the Church; for the countenance of the Son of God is, as “the sun shineth in his strength.” The woman has the “moon under her feet.” Bishop Newton understands this of the Jewish typical worship; and, indeed, the Mosaic system of rites and ceremonies could not have been better represented. The moon is the less light, ruling over the night, and deriving all its illumination from the sun: in like manner, the Jewish dispensation was the bright moonlight night of the world, and possessed a portion of the glorious light of the gospel. At the rising of the sun the night is ended, and the lunar light no longer necessary as the sun which enlightens her shines full upon the earth: exactly in the same way has the whole Jewish system of types and shadows been superseded by the birth, life, crucifixion, death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession of Jesus Christ. Upon the head of the woman is “a crown of twelve stars;” a very significant representation of the twelve apostles, who were the first founders of the Christian church; and by whom the gospel was preached in a great part of the Roman empire with astonishing success.

2. The phenomenon of the moon is mutability. This beautiful luminary, whose gentle beams render the summer evenings still more agreeable, and in the winter nights cheer the abodes of solitude, and aid the midnight traveller, is perpetually changing. In this, and in nothing but this, observes Mr. Basely, she is invariable, and a perfect index to all within her orbit. This should teach us, says Mr. Browne, that there is not any thing permanent in the present scene. Mutability is engraved in legible characters upon every earthly object. Every thing is in motion, and assuming a different appearance, whilst vicissitude and change wait on the affairs of mortals. Such is the fluctuating state of the present world, whether we view kingdoms in general, or the personal concerns of men in particular.

But while these things are fortuitous as to man, we should reflect that they are under the direction and control of a Divine providence. The prosperous issue of all our designs and enterprises depends entirely on the sovereign disposer of events. “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it; except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” “A man’s heart deviseth his way; but the Lord directeth his steps;” the result of his designs and projects being under the dominion and direction of God. Whether his undertaking shall succeed or fail, belongs alone to the Most High to determine. Let as arrange our worldly concerns in the most prudent and politic manner, so that there shall appear the greatest probability of success, yet God has the ordering of the event. Solomon has long since observed, that, amongst the many vanities under the sun, one is, “the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill: but time and chance happeneth to them all.” Some unforeseen circumstance may interrupt our pursuit, and disappoint our expectation. So great is the uncertainty which attends all human affairs, and all future events are concealed in such thick darkness, that we can never positively affirm that this or the other scheme, however wisely laid, cannot be frustrated, or that it is impossible the success should be otherwise than as we calculate. No man knows what shall be on the morrow; the only thing we know previously is, that every event shall be as God is pleased to settle it.

This consideration, that it is not by our own choice and foresight, but the will and wisdom of God, our affairs are directed and determined, we should apply to ourselves. We are not competent to mark out our own ways, nor can we seriously imagine that matters should be arranged exactly according to our imperfect views and secret inclinations; but we should refer ourselves to his guidance who cannot err, and willingly acquiesce in his providential decisions: saying, “I know, oh Lord, that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his own steps.” We are commanded by the Apostle James to say, “If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.” And Solomon’s advice is, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Concerning all our lawful designs, enterprises, and projects, we may pray, “Establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.”

Section III.—The Seasons.

Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter — Displaying Divine Power, Wisdom, Goodness, Faithfulness — Religious Improvement.

The Divine Architect appointed the sun and moon the places of their rising, the circuits they were to run, and where they were to go down: he marked out the line in which they were to move through all the different climates of the earth. They instantly obeyed his all-powerful word, and have ever since acted faithfully to his command. In their operations, they measure out our days and nights, distinguish between different periods of time, and produce the several seasons of the year.

God is the supreme ruler in the kingdom of nature, and the constant changes of day and night, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, are appointed and regulated by his providential influence. This wonderful and stupendous system, consisting of matter, is preserved by motion. Deprive it of motion, and, as a system, it must expire. Who, then, breathed into this amazing combination of things acting together, the life of motion? What power impelled the planets to move, since motion is not a property of the matter of which they are composed? Did not annual observation familiarize it to us (to speak unphilosophically), who that observes the sun going in appearance further from us during six months in succession, and all that time decreasing in light and heat, could ever think that he would again return to us? What hinders his projection into boundless space, till he should appear no larger than a star, or get beyond the reach of our powers of vision? What, but the immediate control of God! for this is a work superior to all created strength, and only to be effected by almighty energy.126

When we have seen that glorious lamp of heaven, the great ruler of the day, gone so far from us that we scarcely knew how to stand before the cold, how has his return revived and cheered us, visiting the frozen earth with his friendly beams, infusing a genial warmth into every creature, and inspiring us with the pleasing hope of once more enjoying those various fruits of the earth, which are the liberal gifts of an indulgent Providence! It is the Divine Being who commands the sun to rise, who, “coming out of his chamber” in the east, rejoices as a strong man to run a race. Again, he bids this glorious orb to withdraw, and obscure his beauty behind thick clouds, or sink below the western ocean; when, behold, the day is covered with darkness, and night succeeds. At his sovereign command, the glowing summer recedes, and winter approaches with chilling aspect. “He sends his snow like wool, and scattereth his hoar frost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?” He then recalls the solar influence, scatters the inauspicious clouds, thaws the frozen ridges of the field; the corn springs up and flourishes, and the heart of man rejoices with the pleasing hope of a plenteous harvest. Thus does the almighty Creator, and beneficent Governor of the world, order and regulate the constant succession of the seasons; his Providence over-rules and directs the whole movement, and nothing can come to pass without his superintendence.