OF THE 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
THE 
 
 SIMPLICITY OF THE CREATION ; 
 
 OR, THE 
 
 Jtottoimtal llamtment of % te& Dirp, 
 
 A 
 
 NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM, 
 
 I 
 THUNDERSTORMS, WATEKSPOUTS, 
 
 AURORA BOREALIS, ETC., AND THE TIDES. 
 
 DEDICATED TO THE MOTHER OF GOD. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM ADOLPH. 
 
 SECOND ENLARGED EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 BURNS & LAMBERT, 17, PORTMAN STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE, AND 
 63. PATERNOSTER Row. 
 
 T. RICHARDSON & SON, DERBY ; 9, CAPEL STREET, DUBLIN ; AND 
 26, PATERNOSTER Row. 
 
 1864. 
 [The Right of Translation is reserved.] 
 
KEATING AND CO., PRINTERS, 11, WATER LANE, TOWEB STREET, B.C. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 WHEN works are dedicated to other parties, it is done 
 because they have shown some act of kindness, of friendship, 
 to the author, have taken him by the hand, and nursed him 
 under their protection, or are by him loved and respected. 
 
 I cannot boast, that, in the progress and development of my 
 new theory of the solar system, I have had help from friends, 
 or the great, or learned ones of mankind ; but it pleased God so 
 to direct my thoughts and change the proposed end of a business 
 speculation, as to lead to the result of my discovering and pro- 
 pounding " the Simplicity of the Creation." 
 
 In the subsequent pages I have shown how God created 
 matter, to which He gave laws and properties ; that He created 
 no forces, because Heal one is THE self-acting force Himself, and 
 that this self-acting force is exercised by Him then only, when He 
 supersedes, abrogates, or suspends those laws which He laid down 
 at the creation ; and HERE I have the gratification of statirig T that, 
 with regard to the latter, besides many other favours, the singular 
 proof and privilege has been bestowed upon me and mine, through 
 the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, and by a special act of 
 divine goodness, of seeing one of the laws of nature superseded 
 in my own house. And hence my dedication. 
 
 -*: ?e: 
 
IV. DEDICATION. 
 
 It is now more than six years since my dear wife has been ill. 
 During that time up to the 8th of December, 1855, she had been 
 lame for two years and could neither stand, walk, nor lift up her 
 legs by herself when hanging down from the chair or sofa on 
 which she might be reclining ; and it was my daily office during 
 these two years to carry her in my arms from the bed to the sofa 
 and from the sofa to the bed. Often she said, that if God would 
 but give her the use of her legs again, she would willingly suffer. 
 
 Thus the grand festival of the proclamation of the Immaculate 
 Conception was approaching, when a novena, or nine days' 
 prayer for her intention was to be made to the Blessed Virgin. 
 Her confessor, the Rev. Daniel Gilbert, had promised to offer up 
 the Holy Sacrifice for her on that memorable day, and the evening 
 before asked all his penitents to offer up their prayers and holy 
 communions for his intention, which he gave to my dear wife. 
 The 8th of December, 1855, arrived ; but for her no signs of 
 improvement. "The festival has done you no good as yet," I 
 said to her in the morning, upon which, full of suffering, she 
 replied : " God is very good ; if He chooses to do anything, He 
 can do it still, the day is not yet over. About 6 o'clock in the 
 evening, sitting on the sofa, she observed to me : " Had we not 
 better say some prayers ?" to which I replied, that we might as 
 well finish our novena. Upon this I knelt down at the little table 
 by her side and finished the prayers, to which, from pain, she was 
 hardly able to pay any attention. After getting up I saw her 
 pray very fervently by herself, intently looking upon a picture of 
 the Assumption on the wall opposite to her, when all at once she 
 said : " Thank God, I can walk again !" and with these words 
 she got up, walked to the picture (and myself following trem- 
 
 * This custom, to obtain a particular blessing, dates from, the time of the 
 Apostles who, after the ascension of our Lord, were assembled in prayer for 
 nine days, and on the tenth received the Holy Ghost. 
 
DEDICATION. V. 
 
 blingly behind lest she might fall), gave thanks to God and the 
 Blessed Virgin for the favour bestowed upon her, and went oack 
 again to the sofa. Since that time, though continuing to be 
 afflicted with illness more or less trying, she notwithstanding, 
 never lost the use of her legs again. 
 
 Whether, in this instance, God restored to her the gift of 
 walking by a natural law, or by a special exercise of His 
 Omnipotence, by a supersession of the natural order of things : 
 it is always HE who accomplished it, He who allowed and allows 
 the law of grace to supersede the law of nature ; and in this in- 
 stance He evidently 'granted it through the intercession of His 
 Blessed Mother. 
 
 May then this token of gratitude to our heavenly Mother be 
 acceptable to her and to Him who created her for us ; may this 
 monument travel far and wide to spread the beauty of her name, 
 and wherever the starry sky is beheld and explored by the human 
 race, may (not overlooking the Star of the Sea,) " generations and 
 generations still call her Blessed," and experience the efficacy of 
 her powerful and never-failing intercession like 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 August, 1859. 
 
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 
 
 MANY years ago I became acquainted with a foreign architect 
 who possessed a perfect knowledge of ventilation, although personal 
 peculiarities prevented his success in life. By my intercourse with 
 him, his science of ventilation became my own, and I am only 
 sorry that it lies beyond my sphere to carry it into practice. 
 
 The science of ventilation requires an intimate knowledge of 
 the nature of the air and its movements; and stepping beyond 
 ventilation I was first led to my new theory of the tides, of 
 sound, thunder, &c., several articles from me on these subjects 
 being kindly allowed space in the columns of the Builder of 1851 
 and 1852. Since then each one of these subjects began more and 
 more to develop itself in my mind ; and though I had scarcely 
 any time to devote to scientific pursuits, save now and then, the 
 fruit began to ripen by degrees, until it dropped upon paper in 
 the shape of the " Simplicty of the Creation." It has been a 
 work of love, the brightest ideas often coming across my mind 
 when I ought and thought to have been buried in devotion ; and 
 thus I lay it before the world as the product of an amateur in 
 science, as one who cannot claim it as the result of his own 
 learning or capacious intellect ; and I thefore trust it will be 
 received with indulgence, and judged and criticised with kind- 
 ness. It is true, I have taken a dogmatic stand, inseparable from 
 
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. vii. 
 
 the conviction of a good cause ; yet I am far from presuming to 
 say, that my New Theory of the Solar System is absolutely true, 
 because, though simpler than the old one, God may have created 
 all in a still more simple manner, may have arranged all in a 
 more simple way, by more simple laws, than I have assumed to 
 exist. But, if not true even, I still hope that my work will lead 
 others to more successful inquiries, and open a new field to 
 science. 
 
 I am aware that many points are wanting, many points but 
 feebly or defectively carried out in my present work ; but want 
 of time from many causes, want of intercourse with men of science, 
 their seeming reluctance to give an opinion of my new theory, 
 either pro or cow, whenever I have applied to them in writing, 
 and my consequent inability of rectifying defects or objections, 
 must plead an excuse. Thus not only left to myself, not only not 
 assisted in the progress and development of my New Theory of 
 the Solar System by the great, or the learned ones, of mankind, 
 I have not even been encouraged by those few to whom I pro- 
 posed to read, or who were condescending enough to read my MS. 
 in some of its stages. The one did not think it of a character 
 likely to be received by the Royal Society, but gave no opinion 
 of the system ; the other thought they (scientific men) were satis- 
 fied with the old system, as they could calculate everything in 
 astronomy ; a third evaded my request to read the MS. though 
 exceedingly kind to me ; judging only from the little precursor 
 which I published in 1856, a fourth, in one of the weekly papers, 
 declared it one of the most remarkable productions that could well 
 be imagined, and absolutely dangerous to those possessing but an 
 imperfect acquaintance with science, whilst but few who had 
 attended lectures on mathematics at any college would coincide 
 with me ; the fifth had read a great part of my work, admired the 
 vastity of physical knowledge embodied therein, but considered it 
 
Vlll. PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 
 
 too difficult to treat of the subjects agitated in my MS. in the 
 present state of science ; thought a work of this kind would not 
 be well received by scientific people, and (yet anticipating its 
 publication) advised me to leave out the religious part of it. 
 
 Thus, not only without help, but left in the dark respecting the 
 actual merits or demerits of my theory, I have nevertheless had 
 a few tokens of approbation from others, though non-professors of 
 astronomy, to cheer me on. 
 
 Judging merely by the above-mentioned little precursor of my 
 work, the one kindly wrote " that he saw many things in it with 
 which he could agree, and much vigour and originality of 
 thinking ;" the other was satisfied " that my theory was ingenious 
 and truthful, that it would astonish the world indeed, if I suc- 
 ceeded, AS HE THOUGHT I SHOULD, to account for the phenomena 
 of the universe on my hypothesis." Providing for the proofs of 
 some of the facts, a third, most eminent, though not professed, 
 authority, considered my theory SIMPLE AND COMPLETE ; a fourth 
 would be happy to see my theory acknowledged, though it 
 threatened to give the go-by to a mass of painfully-acquired 
 learning ; the fifth, the head of one of the largest colleges in 
 Europe, thought very highly of the MS. (though still imperfect), 
 and so did the party who sent it to him. 
 
 All this, the absence of censure, which I consider the highest 
 encomium, my own conviction of the untenability of the old, and 
 the utmost probability, if not certainty, of the truth of my new 
 system, had fixed my mind upon its publication ; but a singular 
 incident confirmed me in my resolution, particularly IN REGARD 
 
 TO MY INTENDED DEDICATION. 
 
 Whilst my MS. was in the hands of the astronomer, who, about 
 three months later, without the slightest indication respecting the 
 merits of my theory, gave me the advise to leave out the dedication 
 and other semi-religious expressions, though on these points entirely 
 
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. IX. 
 
 unasked for, I was travelling in the Tyrol in the month 
 of March 1858, and through the kind introduction of his 
 Eminence Cardinal Wiseman to his Lordship, John Nepom. 
 Tschiderer, Bishop of Trent, obtained permission to see Maria 
 Mori, the estatica at Caldern, with whom England was first made 
 acquainted by the pious Earl of Shrewsbury about twenty-five 
 years ago. 
 
 When with the Pater Provincial of the Capuchins, her con- 
 fessor, and three women of the country, I entered her apartment, 
 she was in ecstacy kneeling on her bed. Being recalled into the 
 consciousness of this world, I recommended myself and all mine to 
 her prayers, and her face lit up with a peculiar delight when I 
 told her of the miraculous event which happened to my dear 
 wife. Whilst standing before her conversing with her confessor, 
 I heard the rustling of clothes, and looking up she was already 
 on her knees in her previous angelic posture of ecstatic adoration. 
 I had one more request to make of her, and so the good father 
 recalled her again from her communion with God. " Will you, Miss 
 Maria," I said to her, "pray for me, that I may succeed in the 
 monument I wish to erect to the Blessed Virgin Mary ?" to 
 which (as she is dumb to all except her confessor) she repeatedly 
 nodded a most cheerful consent. Her confessor, however, asked, 
 " What monument?" to which I replied : " Not one as usual ;" 
 and turning to her almost at the same moment she smiled at me 
 so significantly, making at the same time with her right hand the 
 sign of writing, that I understood her at once to know that the 
 monument I meant was a WRITTEN one. 
 
 NOW, THOUGH THIS IS NO TEST OF THE WORK ITSELF, yet I. 
 
 took and take it for granted, that I am doing right and something 
 pleasing to God, who gave her this supernatural knowledge of a 
 written monument in honour of that sublime and exalted model 
 of womankind, the B.V., whose "Magnificat," although not with 
 
X. PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 
 
 our affection, now even resounds still in the cathedrals of the 
 Anglican Church, if I publish the whole work as it is, without 
 any shrinking as to what may be said of it, fondly loving to think 
 and acknowledge myself one of Her seed, one of Her I hope, 
 accepted children. The dedication, then, is a thing personal to 
 myself, an act of gratitude, which will be respected by generous 
 minds, though they may differ ; but the work itself, with all its 
 faults or shortcomings, is launched forth into a world full of con- 
 tention, to be perfected or torn to pieces, and must stand or fall 
 on its own deserts. I do trust however, that, though crude, the 
 foundation and outlines of the monument are good, and that by 
 the truly learned and well-disposed it will by degrees be more 
 clearly and distinctly developed, and its form and features assume 
 all that comeliness and beauty of aspect with which master -hands 
 are able to endow it ; that it will expand over the whole globe, 
 and, in return, still more unfold the power, wisdom and goodness of 
 God in His creation, as well as the favours and blessings He has 
 bestowed upon His children. 
 
 Before passing over to my New Solar System I beg to observe, 
 that, in order to facilitate the comprehension of my new theory, 
 the reader must picture to himself the whole universe turned over 
 from its present representation, in such a manner, that the 
 ecliptic, or zodiac, appears to him vertical, like a hoop, like a ring 
 of brilliant stars, standing upright and encircling our solar 
 system, and the planets rolling and revolving underneath between 
 it and the sun, in progressive order and elevation, instead of 
 ecliptic and planets lying horizontally in a plane to our solar 
 centre, according to the theory of Newton. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 August, 1859. 
 
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 SUBSEQUENTLY to the first edition of my work, I published a 
 concise view of the same, adding a most important simplification 
 of the theory of the tides. 
 
 I therein also begged " for any remarks, suggestions, or ob- 
 jections," which, however, I never received, save from my friend, 
 J. Graeme, Esq., to whom I owe many thanks for his hearty 
 encouragement in my labours and many valuable suggestions. 
 
 Him alone excepted, and he no PROFESSOR, the New Theory 
 though competent gleaners have been in the rear was not taken 
 up by the astronomical world, and I am not sorry for it ; for, had 
 it been otherwise, my task would have been over, and the monu- 
 ment left unfinished, if not become disfigured. As it is, however, 
 the hand that began was also to complete it, and thus the unity of 
 design has been preserved, the original outlines have grown, 
 diffused, and been filled up, in natural order and form, and carried 
 to their legitimate conclusion. 
 
 And thus I trust that my monument will not be the least 
 among its rivals of wood, stone, marble, and canvass, and that 
 one day, by a higher hand, I may see it crowned with appro- 
 bation. 
 
 Religion being so intimately interwoven with the Simplicity of 
 the Creation, it here becomes my duty to make a profession of 
 faith, negative and positive. 
 
111. PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 In the negative I am not one of those who, in the 19th century, 
 so inconsistently pretend to understand the holy scriptures, or 
 know their primitive explanation, or, professing their ignorance, 
 and then pay another layman like themselves and similarly 
 situated, in order to instruct them in their meaning and preach to 
 them a sermon. In the positive I am one of those who, to the 
 utmost, value and follow THEIR OWN genuine private judgment, 
 as will be seen in the succeeding pages, and THEREFORE truly 
 believe in ONE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH FROM THE BEGINNING, 
 and to her DIVINE AUTHORITY submit, freely and unasked for, 
 whatever I have written. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 London, August, 1864. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PACK. 
 
 I. Creation of the World. Non-Existence of Self-Acting Forces. 
 Substances producing Effects. Growth of the Heavenly Bodies. 
 Electricity the Chief Acting Agent. The Six Days of Creation. 
 Harmony with the Relation of Moses. Creation of Plants and Living 
 Creatures. DarwinVOrigin of Species. Paradise. Commencement 
 of Time. Length of'the Days of Creation 1 
 
 II. Electricity, the First Element and Basis of Creation. Privilege of 
 Man to Explore the Depths and Mysteries of Creation. Simplicity of 
 Theory above Calculation. The Universe Governed by Systemal 
 Repulsion and by Solar and Planetary Attraction. Centres of Systems. 
 Envelopes of the Heavenly Bodies ; the Outer One of the Earth, One 
 of Pure Hydrogen. Comets affected by the Solar Atmosphere. 
 Lexell's and other Comets. Fallacies connected with the Old Theory 
 of Comets. Hydrogen the Reflector of Light 21 
 
 III. Positive Electricity without, Negative Electricity within, the Solid 
 Nucleus of the Heavenly Bodies. William Gilbert. Lightning of 
 every kind, Thunderstorms, Waterspouts, Sandspouts, Dustspouts, 
 Cyclones, Meteors and Meteoric Phenomena of every description, are 
 the Products of the Re-Union of Positive and Negative Electricity. 
 Extent of the Earth's Atmosphere. Professor Challis. Probable 
 Origin of the Moon. The Exploded Planet of Olbers. Swarms of 
 Shooting Stars. The Aurora Borealis ; its correspondence with the 
 Aurora Australis ; Electric connection within the Earth from Pole to 
 Pole 40 
 
 IV. Sound, its Causes and Origin. Professor Faraday. Thunder, Sub- 
 terranean Grumbling. " 88 
 
 V. Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions, Elevation of Mountain Chains. 
 St. Patricius. Separation of the Land from the Water. The 
 Deluge and the Rainbow ; Revolution within and upon the Earth. 
 Precipitation of Nitrates from the Atmosphere. Change of Tempera- 
 ture upon our Globe ; its relation to Plants and Animals. Electricity 
 in connection with the Growth of Plants. Barking of Trees. In- 
 fluence of the Moon on Vegetation. The Colours of Flowers. 
 Aniline and its Colours. Electricity in connection with Animal Life. 
 Electricity, the A of Creation 100 
 
 VI. Oxygen, and the source of its supply. Inhalation and Exhalation 
 of Plants. Carbonic Acid ; Formation of Diamonds. Precipitations 
 from the Atmosphere. Creation of the Firmament. The Earth 
 supplied with Moisture. Newton 126 
 
XIV. CONTENTS. 
 
 PA OK. 
 
 VII. Penetration of Light through the Atmosphere. Spectral Analysis. 
 Jupiter's Satellites. Velocity of Light ; Recent Discovery of Error in 
 its Theory. Humboldt. The Lighting and Warming of our Earth 
 and the Planets ; Objections against the Old Theory ; Von Gumpach. 
 The Heavenly Bodies inhabited ; Astronomers on the other side of 
 the Moon. The Church a Focus of Light and Warmth. Light and 
 Vision of the Soul. More Stars seen now than before. Proved : the 
 Existence of an Ocean of Oxygen .above the Existence of Positive 
 Electricity without, and of Negative Electricity within, the Solid 
 Nucleus of the Heavenly Bodies 149 
 
 Vin. Electric Tide of the Atmosphere and within the Earth ; Variation 
 and Dip of the Needle. Effect of the Aurora Borealis on the Magnetic 
 Needle. Oersted and Von Hoff on Terrestrial Magnetism. Magnetic 
 Iron, Coal and Salt within the Bowels of the Earth. Providence of 
 God. Rotation of the Sun round his own Axis. Seas and Deserts 
 on the Solar Body. Variable Stars. Oscillation of the Earth, Cause 
 of the Seasons. Necessary Polarity of the Earth and Planets. 
 Oscillation of the Sun ; Effect on Climate 165 
 
 IX. Influence of Comets and Planets upon the Earth and on Man. 
 Comet-Strokes. Calumnies against the Church ; Arago, Von 
 Gumpach, Gibbon, Msedler and others. The Angelus Domini. The 
 Phenomena of Nature to lead to God ; when leading to Him. no 
 Superstition. The Pharisee in the " Times." Supposed danger of 
 Comets. Galileo, Mackintosh, Mseedler again, Sir David Brewster, 
 The " E Pur Se Mouve." Humboldt, Aristotle, the Church, Bar- 
 barism and True Civilization. The Age of Lying and Prostitution of 
 the Press. The Dean of Canterbury. Outbursts of the Solar Photo- 
 sphere, the Zodiacal Light, their Influence 18 
 
 X. Refutation of the Old Theory of the Rotation of the Earth, the Parallel- 
 ism of the Earth's Axis and the Cause of the Seasons ; Anomalies of 
 the Theory. Review of the various Self-acting Forces. The Famous 
 Discovery of the Primitive Impulse ; Newton and Laplace. The 
 Gyroscope. Important Effect of the New Theory on the Calculation 
 of Eclipses ; their Influence on Man. Miracles ; Effect of Unbelief. 223 
 
 XI. Precession of the Equinox. Sir John Herschel; the Earth a 
 Spinning-top. Nutation of the Earth's Axis. Remarkable Theorems 
 and Conclusions respecting " Masses " and the Stability of the 
 Seasons ; Variation of the Ecliptic. Futility of the Calculation of 
 Masses on the Ground of Universal -Gravitation. Confusion of the 
 Old Theory. Hollowness of supposed Perturbations. Hypothetical 
 Change of Place of Heavenly Bodies. Previous Calculations falsified 
 by later Discoveries. Adaptation of Elements and Calculations 242 
 
 XII. Equatorial and Polar Attraction; Pendulum Observations; the 
 Protuberance at the Equator. Ellipticity of the Earth ; Strange 
 Reasoning of Astronomers. Absurdity of a Central Swinging, or 
 so-called, Centrifugal Force. The Formation of the Solar System 
 and Laplace. Density and Figure of the Earth. The Torsion - 
 Balance. The Accidental Discovery of Neptune by Le Verrier 264 
 
CONTENTS. XV. 
 
 PAOB. 
 
 XIII. Common Centre of Gravity of Two Heavenly Bodies ; Sir John 
 Herschel's Marvellous Elucidation. Revolution of Two Stars round 
 each other ; the Binary System. Sirius, and other Suns, moving 
 round a Dark Body as their Centre of Gravity. Fixed Stars in Life, 
 Astronomy and Geology. Retrograding Minds and Theories in 
 Science. Revelation borne out by True Science. Dr. Msedler and 
 the Centre of Gravity of the Universe. Importance of Accurate 
 Observations. The Theory of Newton a Labyrinth of Errors 280 
 
 XIV. Universal Gravitation a Vicious Circle. Elliptic Orbits. Greater 
 and lesser Distance of the Sun and Moon from the Earth. Path and 
 Passage of the Moon. Backward Motion of the Moons of Uranus 
 and Neptune. Comets, Planets and Moons influenced by the Poles of 
 their Primaries. Old Theory of the Tides ; its Anomalies and Re- 
 futation. New and Correct Theory. Non-Rotation of the Moon 
 round her own Axis ; Proofs. Eccentric Theory of an Eccentric 
 Common Centre of Gravity between Earth and Moon. Tide of the 
 Atmosphere. No Tides in the Open Sea ; none round the Equator ; 
 Table of Tides 297 
 
 XV. Anomalies of the Old Theory of the Tides disappear in the New 
 One. Barometrical Pressure and the Moon. Libration and Face of 
 the Moon. Importance of the New Theory to Meteorology. Varia- 
 tion in the Pressure of the Air ; the Equinoctial Gales accounted for. 
 Acceleration of the Moon's Motion ; if true, reasons for the same. 
 Removal, or Collapse, of the Envelopes of the Heavenly Bodies. 
 Liberation of the Electric Element from within the Earth. De- 
 struction of the Earth by Fire and the End of the World. Concise 
 Recapitulation of the New Theory of the Simplicity of the Creation. 339 
 
NON NOBIS DOMINE, NON NOBIS, 
 SED NOMINI TUO DA GLORIAM. 
 
THE 
 
 NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 i. 
 
 CREATION OF THE WORLD. NON- EXISTENCE OF SELF-ACTING FORCES. 
 SUBSTANCES PRODUCING EFFECTS. GROWTH OF THE HEAVENLY 
 BODIES. ELECTRICITY THE CHIEF ACTING AGENT. THE SIX DAYS 
 OF CREATION. HARMONY WITH THE RELATION OF MOSES. CREA- 
 TION OF PLANTS AND LIVING CREATURES. DARWIN'S ORIGIN OF 
 SPECIES. PARADISE. COMMENCEMENT OF TIME. LENGTH OF THE 
 DAYS OF CREATION. 
 
 EVERYTHING had a beginning ; God alone had no beginning, and 
 has no end ; He exists from eternity to eternity, and He alone 
 fills all eternity. What He created, He created out of nothing, 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 because nothing existed but Himself. Out of this nothing He 
 created spirits, the spirits of angels and of man ; and of all 
 things created, these spirits are next in degree to God. 
 
 He also, in the beginning, created heaven and earth, that same 
 heaven and earth which, in the words of Christ, shall pass away ; 
 He laid the foundation of all the heavenly bodies as well as of 
 our own terrestrial abode, that is : He created things visible and 
 invisible, "visibilium omnium et invisibilium," substances pon- 
 derable and imponderable, which He moulded according to, and 
 into the instruments of, His divine will, and which He endowed 
 with certain properties to carry out His wonderful designs ; and 
 these instruments, thus endowed, produce the effects which we 
 witness in nature. God created material causes, instruments, as 
 I have said, to produce effects ; but He did not create effects, or 
 abstract, self-acting forces, whether these forces be centripetal or 
 centrifugal, attractive or repulsive, moving or reposing. For, 
 there is no ABSTRACT, no SELF-ACTING FORCE, even in animated 
 creation, and though endowed with a soul, there is no self-acting 
 force, properly so called, even in man himself, unless he is CON- 
 SCIOUS OF HIMSELF, and IN POSSESSION OF FREE WILL ; a SELF- 
 ACTING FORCE, therefore, cannot be imagined to exist, without 
 pre-supposing these two conditions, and necessarily something 
 like a soul and body. 
 
 Thus, without, at THE VERY LEAST, creating substances, instru- 
 ments, by which forces are exercised, and effects produced, forces 
 themselves are nothing but so many immediate and direct opera- 
 tions of the divine omnipotent will, without the instrumentality 
 of matter; their exercise, independent of matter, unconnected 
 with the means which He created for the production of effects, is 
 a PROPERTY OF His OWN, an attribute of His divinity. 
 
 Matter and its properties God subjected to certain laws ; matter, 
 properties, and laws, He continues to preserve, sustain, and direct 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 3 
 
 according to the objects of creation; through these, and by their 
 means, He operates ; and hence we may say, that, in the ordi- 
 nary course of nature, God does not act by mere abstract forces, 
 that He does not act in a direct and special manner, but that the 
 operations of nature proceed from material causes which He 
 created,' and which He continues to wield and to sustain. 
 
 God rested on the seventh day of creation ; hence we may 
 conclude that He operated but once materially, that forces went 
 out from Him when He created and endowed everything with 
 certain properties. When thus the clock-work of creation was 
 finished, He only, by a further direct exercise of force, though 
 without, trouble or labour, set the pendulum in motion; and it 
 is the pendulum of preservation and compensation alone which, 
 by His persevering will, He continues to maintain and to guide ; 
 but He does not in a direct manner, by an abstract centrifugal 
 power, turn the wheel of the earth on its axis, or by direct im- 
 pulse waft it round the sun. If the earth rotates on its own axis 
 and revolves round the sun, He causes it by some material means, 
 but not independently of these means, the instruments designed for 
 this end ; if flowers bloom, the fields become green, and forests put 
 on the garb of spring : it is not by the exercise of God's power in the 
 abstract, in a direct manner, by which all this is brought about, 
 but by the instruments of electricity, oxygen, carbon, and other 
 substances which He devised and organized for the purpose ; and 
 thus it will be seen, that the exercise of force or forces in the 
 abstract emanates from His omnipotent arm in a direct manner, 
 unconnected with matter, then only, when He creates, or when 
 He suspends, abrogates, or supersedes, any of those laws or pro- 
 perties, which He impressed upon all matter and bodies at their 
 creation ; or, in a few words, when He performs, what is called, 
 a miracle. Hence also, all calculations made upon the assump- 
 tion of mere forces, must necessarily be false, unless based upon 
 
 B 2 
 
4 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 the substances, the instruments from which these forces proceed ; 
 for, upon the attributes of God, upon the exercise of His omni- 
 potent power or will, the force, for instance, with which He is 
 said to have projected the earth into space, no astronomical cal- 
 culations can be made. The fallacy of calculating the centre of 
 gravity of the planets as at a distance from the centre of the sun ; 
 of calculating the centre of gravity between the earth and the 
 moon to lie at a considerable distance from the earth's centre, and 
 both the earth and the moon revolving round this common centre 
 of gravity ; and of calculating the amount of abstract attraction 
 of the sun and the moon upon the waters of the earth to produce 
 the tides, will hereafter be made apparent.* 
 
 "When God, in the beginning, had created heaven and earth, 
 substances visible and invisible, ponderable and imponderable, 
 electricity, in its twofold nature, as the binding and repelling 
 agent of creation, had also been called into life, and with its first 
 quivering and quickening motion chaos began to tremble, to sun- 
 der, and matter to conglomerate according to the design with 
 which He had cast and distributed the seed of worlds within it. 
 Silently and, as it were, unconsciously, negative electricity prin- 
 cipally allied itself to matter in order to form these worldsf of 
 ponderable bodies, which, at the same time, it repelled from 
 each other like so many drops of water falling from the cloud ; 
 positive electricity expanded the more, chiefly to keep company 
 with imponderable substances, and to embrace the nascent sys- 
 tems and constellations, until magnetic worlds inclosing within 
 their womb the kernel, the germ of their own foundation, the 
 
 * Dealing with abstract, or self-acting, forces, is less than beating the air 
 or fighting with real shadows ; it is, in fact, fighting with shadows without 
 a substance to come from. 
 
 t " Rocks and mountains are nothing but immense masses of crystallised 
 matter .... and negative voltaic electricity instantly determines 
 the crystalline arrangements, whilst positive voltaic electricity counteracts 
 it." Mackintosh, p. 101. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAE SYSTEM. 
 
 FIAT of the Eternal Word were moulded into shape, the Spirit 
 of God moving over the dark, formless, and silent deep, and in- 
 fusing fire and life into their veins to be called forth into activity 
 with the dawn of light. 
 
 When, in their circular course, the currents of air and water 
 flow from the equator to the poles, and from the poles to amalga- 
 mate again at the equator : so the electric elements. Thus, when 
 the separation of negative from positive electricity had in part 
 been accomplished by their respective incorporation and alliance 
 with solid, liquid, and gaseous matter ; when by the electric pre- 
 cipitation of oxygen and hydrogen the medium between gas and 
 solids covered the whole earth in the form of water ; when by 
 this means the nucleus of growing worlds had been defined, and 
 that they began to manifest the polarity of their bodies ; when 
 thus ponderables had been separated from imponderables, so as to 
 unveil the face of creation, and leave untroubled and unimpeded 
 the mutual inclination of positive and negative electricity in a 
 free state, for the entire dissipation of its darkness, God said : 
 " LET THERE BE LIGHT !" and it was so. Accumulated to over- 
 flowing at the poles of creation, electricity returned again towards 
 the centre of the universe ; positive and negative electricity cours- 
 ing back from their respective poles, for the first time met for 
 mutual embrace in chemical recombination ; all became active 
 with life ; a spark, and, in the twinkling of an eye, all was light ; 
 light, the fruit, the product of reunion, suddenly flashed from the 
 centre, embraced the unbounded equator of the universe and 
 shone over and into the depths of the whole creation ; darkness 
 gave way to the surprise of the first grand morning, and in 
 obedience, fear and humility retired behind the enlightened por- 
 tions of the heavenly bodies ; towards the vast girdle of the 
 universe all was bright, away from it all became dark ; and as the 
 systems began to separate, and each one to move round its own 
 
6 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 magnetic centre within the electric globe of the world, light and 
 darkness in succession passed over the surface of their bodies 
 during their systemal revolution. 
 
 "When the immeasurable space of creation was illumed, and 
 light first fell upon the faces of the electric infant worlds, in 
 anxious expectation, as it were, of approaching animation, in- 
 clining to their common centre, to the primary, which from its own 
 interior heat also threw a radiant warmth upon them, they first 
 began to pulsate and quicken into life ; light had given motion to 
 the element within, and it broke forth in copious exhalation. 
 The separated electricities within and without also endeavoured 
 to unite ; they strove, in a manner, for mastery over the as yet 
 unapportioned and undisposed of vapours, gases, and solutions 
 that still hung over the abyss of the deep ; and as their con- 
 tending activity both contracted and precipitated, decomposed and 
 distended the substances coming under the influence of their re- 
 combination, their first, and most likely unresisted effort at amal- 
 gamation, augmented to a greater degree still the light shed upon 
 created worlds from the equator of the universe ; and their 
 shaded sides even, during that long systemal revolution, shared 
 in that glimmer of light which is never absent from us in a clear, 
 though starless, night, and which always, more "or less, is at- 
 tendant upon the union of the opposite electricities when free and 
 unaccumulated. 
 
 Thus it was that the first evening of the world had been 
 ushered in ; it lasted until systems had performed a revolution 
 round their own respective axes, or the globe of the universe 
 itself having accomplished, perhaps, a revolution round its own 
 centre ; and, as the moon during one of her revolutions round the 
 earth has but one night and one day, so this first long evening, 
 with the morning that preceded the second day of creation, were 
 but one day, during which, light and darkness passing once over 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 7 
 
 every part of the orbs moving with their systems within the re- 
 volving creation, the electricity within them continued to attract 
 the chaotic particles of superincumbent elements, until, as un- 
 folded to us by geology, each stratum in succession was formed 
 according to the attraction exercised upon the various kinds of 
 matter ;* and thus these orbs were moulded and consolidated 
 within the deep for the ulterior occupation and benefit of those 
 beings who were to inhabit them. 
 
 No suns having as yet been enkindled in the vault of heaven 
 to divide the day from the night, but light merely called into 
 existence to separate the light from the darkness, it was the light 
 of evening rather, the first AURORA CENTRALIS UNIVERSI, that 
 first shone upon the airless creation. Hence, day and night are 
 not named by the sacred penman, but evening and morning only ; 
 and the DAY of the world having commenced with the evening, 
 increasing in light with every successive day of creation, he con- 
 tinues to introduce every subsequent day of creation as beginning 
 with the evening ; and from this, no doubt, it also arises that the 
 Jews, the once chosen people, still count their days from sunset 
 to sunset. 
 
 On the second day God separated, for good, the contending, 
 yet to union-inclining electric elements, by the creation of the 
 firmament, the non-conducting atmosphere of the earth, and 
 
 * As regards this deposition of matter, the respective order of which is 
 left to the learned to find out, Sir David Brewster says, in his " More Worlds 
 than Owe," " If the Almighty, then, since the creation of man, broke up 
 the foundations of the deep, and opened the windows of heaven, and thus, 
 by apparently natural causes, covered the whole earth with an ocean that 
 rose above the Himalaya and the Andes, why may he not at different pe- 
 riods, or during the whole course of the earih's formation, have deposited 
 its strata by a rapid precipitation of their elements from the waters in 
 which they were dissolved or suspended ? Chemical and physical forces of 
 high activity may have been the agents iu such summary operations ; and in 
 the beautiful process of the electrotype, we have a striking example of the 
 influence of electricity in effecting a rapid precipitation of metals from 
 their solutions." 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM* 
 
 probably also the atmospheres of the other planets, sues 
 and stars of the universe. Thenceforward, heated by the 
 gradually increased electric action of the interior, and more and 
 more warmed by a stronger radiation from the primary, mists 
 arose from, and floated over, the liquid waters of the earth ; and 
 by thus moistening the atmosphere, and neutralizing to a great 
 degree the non-conducting nature of the air, the two electricities 
 continued to amalgamate, and though with increased obstruction, 
 yet at a greater distance from the earth, and within a clearer and 
 more rarefied space ; and in this manner the process of precipita- 
 tion and decomposition went on as before, the same as it does 
 now under similar conditions. 
 
 When on the third day God separated the dry land from the 
 water, the mists rising from the earth took a higher direction, 
 they became less with the diminished extent of the surface of the 
 waters ; with them, positive electricity retired still further from 
 the solid body of our globe, whilst the negative element became 
 more strictly confined within the ponderable spheres with which 
 it had associated ; and with this closer confinement the heat of 
 the exterior crust of the earth gradually decreased in proportion, 
 whilst interior heat and activity augmented. 
 
 By the partial removal of superabundant moisture, as well as 
 by the wider separation by the firmament between the waters 
 below, and the vapours, mineral solutions, oxygen and hydrogen, 
 and perhaps other gases above which as yet had not been, or were 
 not to be, incorporated with the solid or liquid masses of the 
 earth, the air became clarified, and began more and more to ap- 
 proach the state in which we enjoy it at present. Deprived, 
 therefore, to a great degree of the moist conductor by which it 
 had been saturated before, still -more resistance had to be over- 
 come in the union of the two electricities. This, however, was 
 counteracted by the warmth imparted by the earth to the atmos- 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 9 
 
 phere ; and recombining at i still more increased distance from 
 the earth, and within a still more rarefied space than before, we 
 may even suppose that the third day of creation was lighter than 
 the first and the second. Land, still soft after its emersion from 
 the deep, and fertilized by depositions from the atmosphere, the 
 absence of sunshine made good by an increase of light, the want 
 of solar fire made good by the highest degree of lightless radia- 
 tion of heat from the opaque body of the sun, and further com- 
 pensated by interior warmth and activity, and the absence of rain 
 amply and more universally supplied by heavy dews, the earth 
 became an electricity -exhaling and inhaling hothouse from pole to 
 pole, to receive the Word of God, and to bring forth in gigantic 
 forms the wonders of the vegetable kingdom. 
 
 On the fourth day of creation the mists of the earth, of the 
 planets, and suns had still further retired above their firmaments ; 
 positive electricity likewise withdrew into still higher regions, and 
 began more and more to accumulate at its increased distance from 
 the attracting twin confined within the solid masses below ; at the 
 bidding of God, their tendency to unite arriving at the point of 
 culmination, at the highest and purest pitch of concentration ; and 
 the orbs of creation having arrived at manhood, as it were, and 
 the planets with their envelopes ripened, peeled off from, to move 
 freely within, the now insurpassably dilated and transparent 
 atmosphere of their system, the electric envelopes of the suns 
 broke through the charm that had bound them in slumbering 
 action, they burst into fire, and from SIMPLE HEAVENLY BODIES 
 became LIGHTS and STARS, to shine and sparkle in the expanse of 
 the heavens, and to behold and hold fast the inferior bodies that 
 had nestled and grown up within their invisible bosoms. Nega- 
 tive electricity having drawn around itself the firm nucleus and 
 the still accumulating crusts of the heavenly bodies ; having robed 
 its habitation with the festive verdure of youthful existence, the 
 
10 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 virgin soil uncursed as yet through the fall of man : its heart ex- 
 panded with accelerated vigour, and, like the newly-born infant 
 beginning with LIVING LIFE, so to say, its mysteriously-nourished 
 pulsation, it bounded in the light and warmth of its glorified 
 kindred; and it was then, in the exuberance of joy, that, 
 having from the commencement partaken of the rotation of 
 the ball of the universe, the matured worlds of creation first 
 began to rock to and fro in the cradle of heaven ; that, prepared 
 for it by the separation of the dry land from the water, they 
 began their individual motions and courses, that the sun com- 
 menced to rotate round his own axis once in twenty-five days, 
 and that our days and nights began to reckon twenty-four hours. 
 For, until then there had been but evening and morning, one 
 night and one day for each period, and each succeeding period 
 shorter than the preceding one, and on earth a uniform climate, 
 with the most luxuriant vegetation, because no lights were made 
 to divide the day and the night, to be " for signs, and for .seasons, 
 and for days and years," such as we count them, and the light 
 and darkness of the first (to us long) days of creation gave way 
 to, and were absorbed by, the concentrated light and darkness of 
 solar systems without number, and comparative repose of the 
 heavenly bodies gave way to revolving and wandering motion. 
 
 With God there is neither space nor time, and as the present is 
 at this moment present to us, so the whole universe as it is, was, 
 and will be, always is, was, and will be present to Him. 
 
 With Him also there is nothing either great or small ; and as 
 with the increasing power of the microscope, the photographic 
 point, scarcely perceptible to the unassisted human eye, unfolds 
 to us, step by step, more and more, the minutest lineaments of a 
 perfect picture, really present in that little dot : so in the seed of 
 plants first cast by the Almighty upon the earth, He saw all their 
 numerous and variegated offspring covering our globe ; so in each 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 11 
 
 respective individual little seed, His Omnipresent eye beheld the 
 blooming flower in all its beauty and fragrance, the ear tilled with 
 corn, the lofty cedar and the towering mammoth tree, all in their 
 minutest detail and organisation ; the earth, the sun, the whole 
 universe, each and all and all and each were and are to Him but 
 a small photographic point. 
 
 Hence it is clear, that God, in one instant, might have done all 
 that was done in the first four days of creation, might have called 
 into existence, in the twinkling of an eye, everything as it is at 
 this moment; but, as if to confound the future unbeliever, to 
 adapt the work of creation to our understanding, and leave no 
 room for cavilling at the divinely-inspired account given by Moses, 
 and as such perhaps transmitted to him from Adam himself : 
 He was pleased to give time to the development, the realisation, 
 of His designs, the same as those of man, however conceived, 
 require time to carry out, whether flowing from the mind through 
 pen, pencil or brush, upon paper and canvas, or, based upon mas- 
 sive stones, to rise up into the magnificent temple of the living 
 God, with its pillars and arches and the vaulted roof, its orna- 
 ments and decorations in most wonderful variety all copied from 
 the dome of the universe, from the adorned temple of our own 
 globe, and pervaded by the Spirit of Him by whom all things 
 were made, " per quern omnia facta sunt," and who in return is 
 reflected and glorified in the productions which He inspired, but 
 not in any others. God's temple of nature is not naked and cold, 
 nor the temples, raised to Him by man in the spirit of truth ; for, 
 the one must necessarily be the reflex of the other. Nakedness 
 has no share in the praise and glorification of infinite Majesty, 
 and naked ideas are not inspired or nourished by the Spirit of 
 Truth ; there is no poetry therein, and God and truth are the 
 essence of poesie in its elevated fact, form and expression. 
 
 Thus, God willed it, that His idea, His eternal conception of 
 
12 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 the universe as it ia, should take form and receive expression by 
 degrees ; and as a thousand years with Him are but as one day, 
 so He chose but one day for each of the six divisions in which 
 He created heaven and earth and all that exists. 
 
 Sun, planets, moons, all the heavenly bodies and all things 
 created enclose within their essence the thought of God ; beyond 
 this, man alone was designated for the dignity of being made accord- 
 ing to His own likeness and to receive the impression of His image. 
 
 When the thoughts of the Creator were being clothed in the 
 forms of heavenly bodies, the whole chaotic ball of the universe 
 was as yet silently floating through eternity, until by degrees, 
 with the dawn of light, it began its rotating course. Suns, al- 
 most stationary within the centres of their systems, partook of 
 this motion, until, more and more repelled by each other as they 
 became more consistent, they slowly, with their systems, began 
 their own revolving motions. Infantlike, unborn, as it were, 
 their first complete revolution round their own axis may have 
 taken ages of our own time, whilst planets and satellites, floating 
 merely within their sphere, and carried round in their then most 
 likely narrow orbits, may have taken more of our time still until 
 the first journey round their primaries was accomplished. 
 
 Thus, from the creation of light, but one single day elapsed, 
 long enough, however, to our poor comprehension, for the most 
 protracted development of creation during and for the first day of 
 creation, as related by Moses, and sufficient for all the require- 
 ments of scientific doubters and unbelievers; and still, in all 
 truth, it was but one day, one single day, though such as no 
 sinner would like to live and to suffer. 
 
 With the progress of growing worlds and their increasing life 
 and activity, their motions and courses became accelerated ; and 
 when the second day of creation, the second revolution had been 
 accomplished, a shorter space of our time had elapsed than was 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 13 
 
 required for the first day, but sufficiently long to satisfy the most 
 scrupulous of the scrupulous, for the production of all the phe- 
 nomena which may be ascribed to have taken place on the second 
 day, the second literal day of creation. 
 
 On the third day the motions of the heavenly bodies became 
 swifter, the time of their revolution shorter ; yet it was but one 
 day, literally one day, long enough to prepare the earth for the 
 reception of the seeds of vegetation, for the thoughts of God to 
 germ, to root and bring forth the grass and green herbs and 
 bushes and the most colossal trees, each one bearing within itself 
 seed of its own kind for insuring its propagation. 
 
 When these, to us, long days were over, and everything was 
 ready for receiving the living creation, but a short moment was 
 required, having been wound up as it were, to set the heavenly 
 bodies going in full motion and speed, and on the fourth day of 
 creation to give them their present rotation and progression. 
 
 The whole universe having been lighted up and illuminated in 
 one moment by countless hosts of suns and stars, and shining 
 planets and satellites rising into higher altitudes in the now more 
 dilated spheres of their primaries, all being brought into visible 
 communion from one end of creation to the other, and indi- 
 vidually and collectively proclaiming the majesty of Him who 
 clothed them in light, who made THEM and the whole universe in 
 radiant splendour the befitting garment of His Divinity, the pal- 
 pable evidence of His existence, God created all living creatures, 
 and last of all man, in the prime of life introducing him into the 
 fullness of this overwhelmingly glorious world, and the especially 
 beautiful habitation of the earth. 
 
 God was pleased to let the earth and the heavenly bodies grow 
 and be organised by degrees ; to let the vegetable world, as we 
 see it now, spring up from the earth and thrive, and, arriving at 
 maturity, every plant to bear within itself seed of its own kind to 
 
14 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 provide for its continued reproduction aud diffusion (Gen. i. 12, 
 ii. 9) ; of all this we have the evidence daily before our eyes ; 
 but we have no proof that mustard seed brought forth an oak, 
 and the acorn a mammoth tree, we have not seen the violet change 
 into a rose, nor the willow into a cedar.* 
 
 In the animal world we see that kind begets kind, though kind 
 may multiply and vary into species of the same kind, according 
 to climate and other conditions ; we also behold the caterpillar 
 transformed into a butterfly ; but we have it neither from reason, 
 tradition, scripture, or any record whatever among any of the 
 tribes of the earth, nor from any observed fact or analogy in na- 
 ture, that a goose was brought forth from the egg of a duck, or 
 that a swan slipped out from the egg of a goose, or that one of 
 these birds was improved or changed into the other, that the cater- 
 pillar was changed into a snail, or the butterfly into a bird ; 
 that asses were turned into horses, or horses into asses, or that 
 mules, or other hybrid productions, are capable of generation ; 
 these hybrids, neither horse nor ass, neither hot nor cold, as if 
 constantly to vindicate the narration of Moses, God WILL NOT 
 have them fructify, because He did not create them, could not 
 therefore and did not say to them : " increase and multiply !" j- 
 
 * " As in hybridisation, so with grafting, the capacity is limited by sys- 
 tematic affinity, for no one has been able to graft trees together, belonging 
 to quite distinct families ; and on the other hand, closely allied species can 
 usually, but not invariably, be grafted with ease." Darwin on the origin of 
 Species, p. 283. 
 
 f It is distressing to see the wisdom of God's will questioned by the 
 learned aberration of Darwin in his work on the " Origin of Species." 
 Page 282 he says : " Why, it may even be asked, has the production of hy- 
 brids been permitted ? To grant to specie the special power of producing 
 hybrids, and then to stop their future propagation by different degrees of 
 sterility, not strictly related to the family of the first union between their 
 parents, seems to be a strange arrangement." 
 
 And yet this arrangement of God, found fault with by the writer as 
 " strange," is exactly one of the most convincing proofs of the inspiration of 
 Moses, a test of the fact, that one planter animal did not proceed from the 
 other, but that " God created plants and animals of different kinds, each 
 one bearing seed and offspring of its own kind," and not bringing forth seed 
 or offspring of another kind. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 15 
 
 There is no trace of remembrance or tradition anywhere, even 
 amongst the lowest tribes of mankind, that their founders or fore- 
 fathers, that the parents of the human race, had from monkeys 
 progressed into the form and mind of man, had been monkeys 
 themselves, or been nursed by monkeys, though, alas ! we have 
 but too much evidence, how man, so nobly created and endowed 
 by a good God, degenerates below the monkey, even below the 
 beasts of the field. And yet, for all that, we cannot come to the 
 conclusion, that the animal creation, beginning with the monkey 
 tribe, has descended from man, notwithstanding the fact of his 
 awful degradation in body and mind, in some instances even 
 living like a brute among the brutes ; for, in his most abandoned 
 state, man still retains some vestige of the type of special creation, 
 a remnant of the stamp and impression of a higher order of beings, 
 of a creation separate and independent of the animal world (Gen. i. 
 25, 27) ; and as for the reasons stated already, and from the very 
 helplessness of infancy, man neither proceeded from animal, no 
 more than one kind of animal changes into, or is brought forth by, 
 the other, either by crossing, or hybridisation, and as neither the one 
 nor the other grows or grew out of the earth : so we are irresistibly 
 forced to the conclusion, agreeably to the account of holy writ, that 
 the seed of man was to proceed from man, and of animal from 
 animal, in the perfect state and development of his manhood, and 
 that, consequently, God was obliged to create him, and all other 
 living creatures, in the full spring tide of their existence ; and for 
 this purpose, humanly speaking, He did not want days like the 
 first ones of creation, not even a day of twenty-four hours was 
 required, a single moment was sufficient for His omnipotence. 
 
 Hence, the creation of the animal world, and lastly of man, on 
 the fifth and sixth days of creation, in days like our own, is con- 
 sistent with reason, with the order of divine providence, and with 
 the revealed account of Moses. 
 
16 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 Nevertheless, a still more probable account may perhaps be 
 given of the last three days of creation. 
 
 When, on the fourth day, the sun for the first time threw his 
 golden rays upon the earth, his own rotation began to quicken ; 
 and that of the earth, and its progression round the sun, increased 
 in proportion to the stimulus given to the electric blood within its 
 bowels, and the body began slightly to be polarized, and to incline 
 and tend towards its present oscillation for the ultimate produc- 
 tion of the seasons. Plants, at the same time, which hitherto, 
 not without light but without sunshine, had grown and flourished 
 as in a hothouse, began to change their succulent and pulpy cha- 
 racter, trees to harden into greater consistency, and little by little 
 show in their growth the gradual commencement of seasons, grass 
 and herbs to become more solid and substantial, fit as food for a 
 living creation, and flowers to assume the magnificent display of 
 colors and designs, to delight and fill with admiration the future 
 lord of the earth, and to remind him of the Lord of All who 
 bade them come forth from the ground. 
 
 The earth once more had made a revolution round its own axis, 
 and finished another course round the sun whilst all this was being 
 accomplished ; but its course and rotation was much shorter than 
 the previous one ; the great day of the creation of man drew nearer. 
 
 On the fifth day Grod created the great whales, and every living 
 and moving creature which the waters brought forth, and every 
 fowl flying over the earth; and whilst again with still more ac- 
 celerated speed, rotating but once on it own axis, the earth ran 
 its course round the sun, becoming more and more polarized and 
 inclined to oscillation, the fifth day of creation, shorter still than 
 the preceding one, was still long enough for the creeping creature 
 and the winged fowl to increase and multiply, and to present a 
 wonderful and animated spectacle to the intended living image of 
 Him who made them. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 17 
 
 On the sixth day of creation, the earth, once void and empty 
 had become a paradise full of joyous life, and nothing was wanted 
 but the tenant of this terrestrial heaven, prepared for him by God 
 Himself. 
 
 But, still more to afford happiness to the future ruler of the 
 earth, his Creator wished to surround him with another living 
 creation, more noble, as it were, to have dominion over, and with 
 creatures likewise becoming attached and familiarized to him, to 
 be incorporated, so to say, into the society of man. 
 
 Accordingly, God made the beasts of the earth and the cattle, 
 and after having done so, He made man to his own image and 
 likeness, brought to him all the beasts of the earth, and the cattle, 
 and all the fowls of the air, * that he would call them, and Adam 
 called them all by their names. 
 
 To Adam, however, the happiness of paradise, of the loveliest 
 spot of the whole earth, was still incomplete; therefore, God 
 
 * "I believe that animals have descended from at most only four or five 
 progenitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number." Darwin on tlieOriyin 
 of Species, p. 518. 
 
 That so few KINDS of plants and animals should have been created does not 
 seem likely, neither from the words of Scripture I have quoted, from the different 
 kinds of plants and animals which we see, nor from the words of the writer him- 
 self when at page 27 he says : "Now, it is difficult, perhaps IMPOSSIBLE, to bring 
 forward ONE case of the hybrid offspring of two animals CLEARLY DISTINCT, 
 being themselves perfectly fertile." 
 
 Now, every one of my readers will clearly distinguish, looking about at home 
 merely, RATHER MORE than four or five CLEARLY DISTINCT animals, and of 
 plants the same, neither of them to use the the writer's own language the 
 offspring of TWO ANIMALS CLEARLY DISTINCT, or of trees, the product of " quite 
 distinct families." (See page 14.) 
 
 But this fact shows all the more the greatness, power, and wisdom of God, 
 that, as from the seed of the Church, all the various orders and institutions 
 sprang forth to become, in the most variegated form, and manner, the ornament 
 of the kingdom of God upon earth : so, perhaps, from the created suns, from the 
 seed of worlds, there sprang forth the magnificent planets, and the twinkling 
 heavenly bodies, ornamenting the universal temple of God, and harmoniously 
 circling around the centre by whom they are lighted and nourished ; so from the 
 plants and animals originally created in the unity of their kind or genus, there 
 sprang up the most surprising and wonderful variety of species, an ornament of 
 (loci's earth which they enliven, each one adapting itself to the state and condi- 
 tion of man, and the place and climate which he inhabits. 
 
18 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 threw him into a profound sleep, the ecstatic sleep of primitive 
 innocence, and from one of his ribs made and gave to him Eve, 
 his wife, the transformed and lovely object of his own substance. 
 
 What, but vice, the spirit of evil, and the doctrine of the 
 serpent, of Satan in disguise, could ever mar the bliss, or sever the 
 bond of such a union of husband and wife ? 
 
 As yet their happiness was complete ; for them, time did not 
 as yet exist, nor had the sun as yet set upon Eden and their 
 paradisial existence ; there was no night weighing upon their 
 minds, nor had darkness overtaken and closed their eyes ; they 
 still saw God, communed with Him, and beheld creation in all its 
 beauty and harmony ; and if they slept, they slept or reposed in 
 the cool of the shade, whilst their souls were awake. But when 
 the serpent had done its work, when by the first act of disobedience 
 to the will of God the first drop of bitterness had been put into 
 the chalice of Gethsemani, their minds became overcast, THE 
 
 SUN OF PARADISE WAS SETTING TO THEM FOR THE FIRST TIME ; 
 
 and when cast out of their special abode of happiness, it was then 
 that the law of nature became the handmaid of the law of grace 
 and justice, that their life became day and night, that their existence 
 became one of joy and sorrow, that night set in upon them to give 
 them rest after a day of labour ; that then only Adam knew his 
 wife, (Gen. iv. 1.), that the generation of man began with the 
 beginning of time, with the present rotation of the sun and solar 
 system, and the present rotation and course of the earth; that 
 with the beginning of time the return of the seasons was established, 
 that the whole harmony of the heavens was organized as we see 
 it now, so that " all the days of the earth," (Gen. viii, 22), until 
 its final consummation by fire, " seed time and harvest, cold and hot, 
 summer and winter, night and day, " were not to cease. 
 
 In treating of the slow, but gradual, development of the earth, 
 the transition from a primitive state of comparative rest of the 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 19 
 
 heavenly bodies into that of a floating progression, and ultimately 
 rotating progressive motion, I do not mean to insist that one 
 rotation of the earth round its own axis coincided with one of its 
 revolutions round the sun, that the length of one day coincided 
 with the length of one year, whatever that length respectively may 
 have been. For, it is possible, that on the first day of creation the 
 earth floated twice, or oftener, round the sun, before it had once 
 turned on its own axis and presented every portion of its surface 
 to the then unenkindled, but still gradually warming, central body ; 
 or it may have turned once round its axis, before its first course 
 around him was accomplished. And so on, on the sixth day of 
 creation, the earth may have gone beyond one complete course 
 round the sun before it had once turned on its own axis ; or it 
 may have made one rotation on its own axis before it had gone the 
 twelfth part of its orbit. The DAYS of creation, according to my 
 theory, depending on the time of rotation of the earth round its 
 own axis, and not on its course round the sun, the former case 
 would give the length of more than one of our present years, and 
 the latter but one month of our time to the length of the sixth 
 day of creation, to the work done on that day, to the beginning 
 and end of a paradise upon earth. 
 
 When the seemingly insignificant little match first enkindles the 
 fire under the boiler, by degrees changes the fuel into one burning 
 mass, slowly warms and finally heats and expands the water into 
 steam, and step by step sets the locomotive in motion until it 
 acquires that degree of velocity and speed which the constructor 
 had intended it to attain : so in the same manner, from the dawn of 
 creation, the germ of the celestial bodies and of planetary life began 
 to develop, until the whole of our solar system, with all the con- 
 stellations of the universe, attained that regularity and harmony of 
 motion which the Divine Constructor had ordained. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 THE NEW THEORY Of TfiE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 If, then, the revolution of our earth on its own axis, and its 
 course round the sun, was arrived at in unerring geometrical 
 progression, it becomes an interesting speculation to find out the 
 steady advance of each day of creation, the length of our time 
 which it took for each day, until our earth acquired its present 
 velocity of rotation, until it made one complete rotation on its 
 own axis in twenty-four hours. 
 
 According to my theory, as lastly propounded, our present rapid- 
 ity of rotation was attained on the seventh day of creation. If then 
 we multiply 24 hours by 24 hours, we obtain 576 hours, or 24 of 
 our days for the rotation of the earth round its axis on the sixth 
 day of creation, being the duration of the paradisial state of 
 existence. If again we multiply 576 hours by 576 hours, we find 
 that the time of the previous rotation of the earth, the length of 
 the fifth day of creation, lasted 331,775 hours, or 13,800 days, or 
 about 38 years of our present time, and so on. 
 
 The progressive calculation back to the first day of creation, 
 and then only to the " beginning," when " God created heaven and 
 earth," and the harmonizing calculations concerning other planets, 
 systems and spheres, if not of the whole universe, I must leave to 
 the reader, who, however, may chose, to calculate and speculate 
 upon what interpretation and extent of time or period he pleases ; 
 but I trust I have shown, almost to superfluity, that the days of 
 creation spoken of by the inspired pontif of the Jews, may, and 
 no doubt have been, literally, as well as figuratively, days, on each 
 one of which the light, first separated from the darkness, and 
 later the light of the sun, made to separate the day from the night, 
 rose and set upon the earth but once during the length of their 
 respective duration. 
 
 Thus we have seen, how by degrees everything grew into 
 existence, how everything was prepared for man, the most exalted 
 object of creation, and how the organization of the body of the 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 21 
 
 earth itself, and the solar system, and the whole universe, received 
 the finishing touch, when the light, previously diffused, was 
 absorbed, when the transparent veil, spread over and mildly shin- 
 ing upon a wakening- infant orbs, was drawn away and superceded 
 by the radiating light of millions of suns bursting out upon the 
 whole of creation ; but all would fade, wandering worlds would 
 stand still again, if the resplendent bodies were extinguished 
 with which the unfathomable firmament of heaven was thus orna- 
 mented and sprinkled all over ; with a dissolution of the 
 electric element, CREATION ITSELF WOULD AGAIN RETURN INTO 
 CHAOS. 
 
 n. 
 
 ELECTRICITY, THE FIRST ELEMENT AND BASIS OF CREATION PRIVI- 
 LEGE OF MAN TO EXPLORE THE DEPTHS AND MYSTERIES OF CREATION. 
 SIMPLICITY OF THEORY ABOVE CALCULATION. THE UNIVERSE 
 GOVERNED BY SYSTEMAL REPULSION AND BY SOLAR AND PLANET- 
 ARY ATTRACTION. CENTRES OF SYSTEMS. ENVELOPES OF THE 
 
 HEAVENLY BODIES ; THE OUTER ONE OF THE EARTH, ONE OF PURE 
 HYDROGEN. COMETS AFFECTED BY THE SOLAR ATMOSPHERE. 
 LEXELL'S AND OTHER COMETS. FALLACIES CONNECTED WITH THE 
 OLD THEORY OF COMETS. HYDROGEN THE REFLECTOR OF LIGHT. 
 
 THE universe of creation, of which God Himself is the centre, 
 whilst, at the same time, it reposes within Him, this universe of 
 created things, limited within His infinite Godhead, He filled, as 
 we have assumed, and as we shall see more particularly hereafter, 
 with that subtle, imponderable, and elastic matter, which, as con- 
 firmed by all human researches and observations, of all substances 
 occupies the first rank in the gradation of created elements 
 electricity. 
 
22 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 As all throughout nature everything seems to consist of two 
 kindred elements, so electricity exists in a twofold kind ; it forms 
 two genders, and these are known and distinguished as positive 
 and negative, the latter no doubt proceeding from the former, as 
 woman was taken from man ; and these two mysterious twin 
 elements are, and still more will be found to be, the very life and 
 soul, the ever-active agents, the essence, of creation ; they are the 
 most expansive and the most contractible, the most subtle, and 
 most powerful, and they, more or less, pervade or combine, with 
 every substance ; IT is FROM THEM THAT PROCEED LIGHT AND HEAT, 
 
 EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION, ATTRACTION AND REPULSION, 
 MOTION. 
 
 When suns had been lighted, positive electricity alone appears 
 to have taken possession of, and filled the entire immeasurable 
 expanse of the universe, as with a globe of cohesive and elastic 
 fluid, distended by its own expansive nature, and by all the 
 heavenly systems poised within it, and yet tending to collapse 
 towards the centres of attraction distributed within its unfathom- 
 able space. 
 
 Beyond this universal globe, this universal sphere of positive 
 electricity, beyond which there is eternal darkness, the darkness 
 separated from the light, there God alone is reigning in endless 
 being and presence, holding creation upon His hand like a precious 
 pearl, and turning it round without effort ; and within this moving 
 creation travelling through eternity, all the heavenly systems are 
 harmoniously revolving, most likely round a centre of their own, 
 perhaps round our own solar system. 
 
 To each of these systems, repelling each other like so many 
 electrified pith-balls, the omnipotent Creator gave a centre of its 
 own, a sun, as a centre of light and warmth, and as the point of 
 attraction. Thus, our own sun is the centre, the electro-magnetic 
 point of concentration of our solar system, as the earth is the 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 23 
 
 centre of gravitation of everything that moves within its sphere ; 
 and in the same manner as He gave atmospheres of their own to 
 our earth and to all the planets, so He gave an atmosphere to the 
 sun, within which all the planets of our systems were to REVOLVE 
 in regular order and orbits, the same as the moon FLOATS within 
 our own sphere. 
 
 True, God can do anything; He can, according to the old 
 theory, fill creation with vacant spaces, and move through them, 
 in arbitrary positions, the heavenly bodies, by the most arbitrary 
 laws, in any manner He pleases ; the creation, however, alone was 
 arbitrary, but the laws which govern it are simple, and only 
 appear arbitrary as long as we do not know them. To find out 
 these laws, to wield power over unconscious matter, and make it 
 subject to his wants and will, is one of the noble tasks left to 
 man ; and as his success therein evidences the high position in 
 which God has placed him upon earth, evidences that brilliant 
 spark of conscious intelligence which is not of his own making, 
 but which the Supreme and Eternal Intelligence infused into him 
 from His own nature ; so it glorifies and evinces that wisdom 
 and intelligence of the Creator and Master of all matter, in man 
 himself, and in every thing created. And, as if to mock the in- 
 tellect, naturally limited by vice and pride, of the professed 
 descendants of monkeys in human form ; as if to confound, shame, 
 if possible, and increase still more the culpable responsibility of 
 the infidel, materialist, or pantheistical philosopher, who ignores 
 and disowns the name of God, of an Almighty Being, who wor- 
 ships his own imaginary wisdom, the dust he is made from, or 
 some abstract absurdity, as the origin of things of which he can 
 give no account : the more man penetrates into the mysteries 
 and the mysterious simplicity of nature and of the heavens, the 
 more enlarged becomes the sphere of observation ; it grows with, 
 and ever outgrows, the progress of science ; for, " He has de- 
 
24 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 livered the world to their consideration, so that man cannot find 
 out the work which God hath made from the beginning to the 
 end;" Ecclesiastes iii 2.; and thus with every new discovery, 
 with every deeper plunge into the abyss of the ocean of the stars, 
 the goal of human researches and investigations is enlarged and 
 further removed, in order that the CHRISTIAN philosopher may 
 never cease more and more to magnify God in His, to us, infinite 
 creation, called into existence for His own glorification, and the 
 consequent happiness here, and eternal bliss hereafter, of those 
 who DO glorify Him in the simplicity and yet endless variety of 
 creation, and in the production of works and effects so stupendous 
 by means so simple. 
 
 When these means, these arrangements of God are truly 
 discovered, all becomes plain and intelligible to ordinary com- 
 prehension ; they are sure not to be true laws if they present 
 to us a theory, intricate and anomalous, and indigestible to the 
 mass of mankind. 
 
 When Thomas Young, and Fresnel, first shook the foundation 
 of Newton's now discarded theory of light, Fresnel, in one of his 
 eminent works said : " In choosing a system, regard must be had 
 only to the SIMPLICITY OF AN HYPOTHESIS ; that of CALCULATION 
 can have no weight in testing its admissibility. Nature did not 
 trouble itself about the difficulties of analysis ; it only avoided 
 complicated means for the attainment of an object. It seems to 
 have made up its mind to accomplish much by little ; and this is a 
 principle, which the physical sciences in their progress incessantly 
 confirm by new proofs." 
 
 If then my theory be true as it is simple, I shall feel happy to 
 have been the humble instrument in promoting the knowledge of 
 the simplicity of the laws which govern creation, to have pro- 
 pounded, and perhaps satisfactorily proved, a " UNIVERSAL SYSTEMAL 
 BEPULSION ;" and investing the sun with an atmosphere of his own. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 25 
 
 to having reduced the law of " universal gravitation " into that of 
 " solar and planetary gravitation," by which the planets gravitate 
 to the CENTRE OF THE SUN, and the moons gravitate to the CENTRES 
 of their respective planets, that is: all the planets, however numer- 
 ous, are attracted by the centre of the sun, in whose sphere they 
 progressively REVOLVE, and the moons are attracted by the centres 
 of the planets, in whose sphere they FLOAT onward. 
 
 I am borne out in this new theory by Mr. Montagu Lyon Philipps, 
 who says, in his " Worlds beyond the Earth-." "It is difficult 
 to conceive a system, like that of the universe, to be stable without 
 some agent to counteract gravitation. The fact of the fixed stars 
 keeping in their relative positions so unchanged, would be 
 inexplicable upon the hypothesis of gravitation alone." In another 
 place he says : " Gravitation alone will not account for the stability 
 of such (planetary) systems. The one sun must be repulsive of 
 the other, as we have explained. Each would maintain its own 
 SYSTEM OF PLANETS unaffected by the other." 
 
 Nearly half the ponderable matter of our globe consists of 
 oxygen, the vital part of the air ; and this gas, on being freed 
 from union with solid bodies, expands into a space two thousand 
 times greater than that which it previously occupied : what space^ 
 then, would it not fill if it were released from the combination 
 with the greater part of the crust of the earth ! 
 
 By some, the sun is considered as an ever-burning body ; by 
 some, a vast volcano in action ; by some, as a body, black and 
 cold, like our own earth, but enveloped by a luminous cloud. If 
 we consider him as a globe of fire, what may not have been the 
 liberation of matter when God created him, and bade him give 
 light and life to a world ! We may suppose a crust to be dis- 
 solved, whose liberated gases rose up from the surface, until they 
 filled the space assigned to them, and in which they are kept 
 expanded by the same fiery agency, gravitating still to their centre, 
 
26 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 and, like our own atmosphere, becoming dense as they approach, 
 and more and more rarefied as they recede from it. If we consider 
 the sun and fixed stars as encircled by a luminous cloud, formed, 
 as I believe, by a concentration of that positive electricity which 
 I assume to pervade the whole universe, to transgress the limits 
 of every solar system, to know of no barrier save the embrace of 
 the omnipotent God : that concentration would, on my theory, 
 manifest itself as a permanent state of sheet lightning, a constant 
 overspreading aurora- borealis, produced by laws similar to those 
 which operate on our own planet, as we shall have occasion to see 
 more clearly hereafter ; and this cloud of electric fire, in the same 
 manner as if the body of the sun itself were burning, would tend 
 to keep his atmosphere in that expanded and attenuated state in 
 which, beyond doubt, it exists, the same as the heat of the sun 
 himself contributes to the expansion and extension of our own 
 atmosphere, particularly round the equator. 
 
 Of the pressure of this inconceivably rarefied atmosphere of 
 the sun, of an atmosphere of gases gradating in wonderful affinity, 
 in increased attenuation and elasticity from the surface of his 
 body to the confines of his sphere, and, no doubt, capable also of 
 transmitting light with an infinitely greater velocity than our own 
 atmosphere, we may conceive but a faint idea, by bearing in 
 mind the extraordinary pressure of a little air in a bladder 
 expanding within an exhausted receiver, so that the atmosphere 
 of the sun forms a resisting medium, modified to the highest 
 degree by its extreme elastic condition. 
 
 Within this atmosphere it pleased God to station the planets, 
 invested with correspondingly elastic and resisting envelopes, to 
 facilitate their passage through seemingly vacant spaces. And 
 for this purpose He not only endowed them with one atmosphere 
 of matter, but, like the sun, with a succession of envelopes of 
 various descriptions, with ocean above ocean, as I shall prove 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 27 
 
 later on, each envelope, ring, or ocean, becoming attenuated and 
 elastic in proportion to its approaching the extremity of our 
 sphere, and forming, as it were, an elastic web or network that 
 keeps the whole together. 
 
 Thus, our own atmosphere of air, ending at a calculated 
 distance of about forty-five miles above us, would not have been 
 sufficient, and on that account cannot terminate the extent of our 
 sphere ; for it w~as not only neccessary to swell the bulk of the 
 earth, as well as that of all the planets, by a more fluid, rarefied, 
 and elastic body than the air, to keep it afloat in the atmos- 
 phere of the sun, and to lessen the effect on the solid part of it 
 in which we live, which a passing planet or comet might otherwise 
 exercise, but also to encircle them by a substance corresponding 
 to the rapidity of their revolution and progression, as well as to 
 the substance they were to move in, as it is not, and cannot be 
 true, that the heavenly bodies should move through empty regions, 
 without any resisting medium, without anything to support them. 
 
 That they move within a resisting medium is proved by comets, 
 whose transparent and magnifying envelopes or atmospheres begin 
 to form into tails, and to elongate or shorten, according to the 
 velocity of their motion and the density of the fluid in which they 
 move ; and this effect could not take place if they were moving 
 in a vacuum, whatever their envelopes or atmospheres may be 
 composed of, whatever the nature of their cohesion. 
 
 A comet approaching the sun, when seen at any considerable 
 distance from that body, has little or no tail. The tail begins to 
 appear when the body draws near the sun, moving with pro- 
 digious velocity ; with the proximity and velocity of the body the 
 length of the tail increases, but does not acquire its greatest 
 extent till after the perihelion passage ; it is then by degrees 
 drawn in again, until, in the remote regions of the system, moving 
 slower, the comet reassumes its spherical form, and even expands, 
 
28 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 like that of Encke and the one of 1835, as it ascends into the 
 more and more dilated atmosphere of the sun. 
 
 The velocity of the comet's motion through a resisting medium 
 changes its hair, or nebulous envelope, into a tail, which becomes 
 expanded or contracted in bulk according to the distance from 
 the sun and the consequent immersion into a more dense or more 
 attenuated atmosphere ; and it is this expansion and contraction, 
 with the elongation and shortening of the tail, that causes the 
 eccentricity of the comet's orbit. Or rather, destined, perhaps, to 
 carry light and warmth, in a latent state, into the remotest parts 
 of our solar system, to planets, but sparingly supplied by the rays 
 of the sun, they probably pass in cycles round the sun, similar to 
 the motion of the moon round the earth ; or, ascending balloon-like 
 from perihelion until they find their level, they then only com- 
 mence and pursue their real journey within the solar sphere, 
 at distances and in curves unknown. Having given off its 
 superabundance of light and warmth, the reduced or exhausted 
 body of the comet is attracted by one of the polar regions 
 of the sun, or by some place or other laid bare by the immense 
 openings of his veil of fire ; and gravitating with ever increasing 
 velocity to the centre of its attraction, it is replenished with 
 a fresh store of vitality, and its exposed nucleus endowed 
 with renewed polarization ; and thus charged to overflowing with 
 the bounty of the Almighty, it is repelled back with prodigious 
 power on its distant errand, to reappear at some uncalculated 
 future period, a wonder of creation, in another part of the heavens, 
 attracted by the other pole, or some other spot of the sun, or its 
 electric helix. 
 
 One of the greatest visible proofs of a resisting solar atmo- 
 sphere was established by the appearance of Donati's comet in 
 1858. On the third of September the discoverer observed already 
 that the nucleus of the comet had assumed an elliptic form, as 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 shown in the drawing; and this could not but be owing to the 
 resisting medium through which it was passing. 
 
 The comet, moreover, contrary to what might have been expected 
 from the expanding influence of the sun, did not only not increase, 
 but actually decreased in diameter whilst getting four times 
 nearer to the sun than it was on the second of June, on the day 
 of its discovery ; and more remarkable still, a manifest densation 
 and shrinking of the nucleus took place. By a careful measure- 
 ment in 1838 of Encke's comet, having no tail, it was found that 
 
 its nebulous envelope contracted more and more the nearer it 
 approached the sun in its elliptical course. 
 
 This telescopic comet of Encke, moreover, seen about the end 
 of November, 1861, is said to describe a spiral round the sun, 
 .which brings it nearer to him with every revolution, and must in 
 
30 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 the end fall into the same, unless, like the other -comets, it has its 
 ultimate perihelion, though distant in time, at which it is repelled 
 again into the higher regions of the solar atmosphere. 
 
 In the mean-while, to quote a writer mGaglmani's Messenger, 
 taken from the Times of the 19th December, 1861. " Encke's 
 comet is perhaps the most important of celestial bodies in a scien- 
 tific point of view, since it deals the theory of universal gravita- 
 tion a heavy blow it is attracted according to 
 
 a law which is not recognised or followed by any other celestial 
 body ; and astronomers are sorely at a loss to account for this 
 serious anomaly, which has induced M. En eke himself to embrace 
 the highly improbable theory of a resisting medium, often discussed 
 before." 
 
 Though the writer speaks of the " highly improbable theory of 
 a resisting medium," yet I would ask : what else but the pressure, 
 the resistance of the solar atmosphere, and solar, instead of univer- 
 sal attraction and gravitation, could have produced and could 
 produce the effects above spoken of, if true at all? Common 
 sense would point to a resisting medium rather than to vacant 
 space ! 
 
 I believe, however, that Encke's comet may simply exhibit to 
 to us a " precession of the perihelion," without at all coming closer 
 to the sun at every revolution ; and this I consider far more 
 natural than its spiral approach to the centre of our system as the 
 result of resisting matter. 
 
 The sun, as noticed before, has an expanding, a rarefying, a 
 dispersing, a dispelling and repulsive power ; hence it is said that 
 he repels the envelope of the comet into a tail ; that, though he 
 ATTRACTS THE COMET, he does not only not leave alone, but 
 actuall/, by an opposite force, BRUSHES BACK its hair with enor- 
 mous rapidity at the same time " being " in the words of Sir John 
 Herschell, " under the influence of a REPULSIVE force directed FROM 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 31 
 
 the sun ! " On the other hand, with a strange, and in astronomers 
 not rare, inconsistency, the sifn is said to attract and conse- 
 quently to CONTRACT the WATERY envelope of the earth, more than 
 the earth itself, by raising a tide ! 
 
 It is said also, that the nucleus of the comet itself possesses and 
 exercises a repelling power upon its envelope ; but if so, why 
 should this power act backward, and not equally on all sides, or 
 on that side which faces the sun, and which is exposed to his 
 dissipating influence ? 
 
 These anomalies cannot be overcome except by the simple 
 adoption of a resistance of the the solar atmosphere. 
 
 This resistance also prevents the restoration of the balance of the 
 comet's hair, its re-accumulation in front of the nucleus, and thereby 
 causes a circulation of the nebulous matter, as of a constant 
 emanation from the interior of the nucleus towards the sun, a kind 
 of fountain or jet, in a direction opposite to that of the tail, but 
 sometimes forming whirls or eddies, driven back again in wave- 
 like rings or curves into the tail by the resisting atmosphere of 
 the sun. 
 
 The envelope of the comet driven back into a tail, will naturally 
 accumulate and becomes dense at the sides of the nucleus ; but 
 the brunt of resistance being borne by the forepart of the comet, 
 the part away from the sun, the back, as it were, will be screened, 
 and more or less remain in its normal condition ; hence no accu- 
 mulation of the matter of the envelope immediately behind the 
 nucleus ; and being, moreover, the shaded side of the comet, 
 the appearance there of a dark streak, a seemingly hollow 
 cone between the concentrated volumes and more enlightened side 
 of the comet's tail, will be a necessary consequence. 
 
 The wavelike motion of the tails of comets, which by'several 
 has been observed, can only be ascribed to currents, or an agitated 
 state of the solar atmosphere. 
 
32 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 The hornlike, or curved, appearance of the projections, protuber- 
 ances, or cusps, of the solar photospheres, observed during the last 
 eclipse of the sun, (1860) is no doubt also due to the resisting 
 atmosphere of the sun, within and with which he is rotating on 
 his own axis. 
 
 If our earth and the planets had no further envelope than an 
 atmosphere of air, or that the higher rings of oxygen, hydrogen, 
 or whatever else it may be, were not of so highly cohesive and 
 elastic a nature, the earth and planets would not appear as spheres 
 to our eyes ; for, the rapid progression of tire earth through the 
 resisting medium of the solar atmosphere would drive back into a 
 tail our ocean of air and water, already so easily acted upon and 
 lashed into fury by a slight pressure of the moon, and by a mere 
 accumulation of thunderclouds, as we shall see hereafter, and thus 
 also make ife present the appearance of a comet-like body. It 
 therefore, is not only probable, also, but absolutely necessary, that 
 (as shown in the diagram), superior en- 
 velopes of our earth should exist, in order 
 to guard us against exterior pressure, 
 whether caused by the rapidity of the 
 earth's progress in the solar atmosphere, or 
 by passing comets or other heavenly bodies, 
 should they come within our vicinity. 
 But what, I may be questioned, about Jupiter's envelope, and 
 "Lexell's comet," passing twice among his satellites ? 
 
 In the year 1770 a comet was discovered by Messier, but its 
 course and periodical return in five years and-a-half so EXACTLY 
 calculated by Lexell, that in consequence it bears his name. 
 
 From this calculation it appears, that not only in 1767, but also 
 In 1779, the same comet passed among the moons of Jupiter, with- 
 out exercising the slightest effect upon them ; of all the astronomers 
 then existing, not one could detect the least perturbation. Sir John 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 33 
 
 Herschell, in his " 600 pages of OUTLINES of Astronomy," says 
 at page 346 ; " It is worthy of notice that by this rencontre with 
 the system of Jupiter's satellites, none of THEIR motions suffered 
 any perceptible derangement, a sufficient proof of the smallness 
 of its (the comet's) mass." 
 
 On the first rencontre, in 1767, the comet came from a very 
 distant errand, not to be ascertained, but, approaching Jupiter in 
 its way, it proved such an attraction to the planet, that its former 
 unknown course was changed into an ellipse of five-and-a-half 
 years' duration. 
 
 The second rencontre, according to Sir John, as above, took 
 place " about the the 23rd of August, 1779, when by a SINGULAR 
 COINCIDENCE, the comet again approached Jupiter, whose attraction 
 at the time was 200 times greater than that of the sun himself; " 
 but strange enough, instead of as in 1767 narrowing still more 
 its calculated ellipse or course, it turned out repulsive to the planet, 
 which so flung it off, that again no one knows, or is able to calculate, 
 in what direction, or to what distance, it has retired. 
 
 Why the excess of Jupiter's attraction over that of the sun 
 should not narrow the path of the comet, instead of according 
 to Sir John " DEFLECTING its orbit into a curve, not one of 
 whose elements would have the least resemblance to those of 
 the ellipse of Lexell," I, as an amateur, cannot be expected 
 to understand ;* I should rather have thought, that from 
 that time the comet would have commenced coursing round 
 
 * Nor can I understand the VERT OPPOSITE statement of Sir John, 530, 
 why " At the distance at which the moon really is from us, its gravity to- 
 wards the earth is ACTUALLY LESS than towards the sun." And yet the 
 moon courses round THE EARTH 1 according to Sir John, in 529, for the 
 FOLLOWING reason : " The moon, as we have seen, is about 60 radii of the 
 earth distant from the centre of the latter. Its proximity, therefore, to its 
 centre of attraction, thus estimated, is much greater than that of the planets 
 to the sun ; .... It is owing to the proximity," THOUGH THE SUN 
 ATTRACTS HER MORE" that the moon remains attached to the earth as a 
 satellite." 
 
 
34 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 Jupiter as its centre, or at least like the comet of Encke, 
 continued narrowing its orbit instead of returning into the 
 more distant regions of the solar system and revolving again 
 round its primitive centre, the sun. If, however, Jupiter 
 really sent off the comet into the wide world, there is still some 
 hope of Encke's comet not falling into the sun, and thus escaping 
 the threatened conflagration. 
 
 "Its observation on its first return in 1776 was rendered 
 IMPOSSIBLE by the relative situation of the perihelion and of the 
 earth at the time." Sir John Herchell as above. 
 
 When first I heard, and afterwards read, of these extraordinary 
 facts concerning Lexell's comet, I can scarcely say what I felt, 
 when in my mind I beheld this celestial body, majestically, but 
 quietly, twice passing among the satellites of Jupiter, as if to 
 salute and bring them tidings of other worlds, from members of the 
 same communion and system ; and though unknown by one another, 
 yet all warmed and held together by one common centre, to whom 
 the messenger was going to fetch, and bring back, a fresh store of 
 graces and vitality of which the distant flock was now in need of; 
 and again, I felt strange, when after the second visit, like an un- 
 certain sporadic meteor, I saw the flaming wanderer pushed off 
 and disappear like one excommunicated and an outlaw! But 
 wonderment of one kind gave way to wonderment of another, 
 when I found, that though so confidently spoken of as to the years 
 1767, 1776, and " about the 23rd of August, 1779," this brilliant 
 comet WAS NEVER SEEN BEFORE 1770, when Messier discovered it, 
 
 NOR EVER AFTER. 
 
 This amazing discovery destroyed the charm of previously sup- 
 posed FACTS, and the TWICE UNSEEN approach to, and departure 
 from, Jupiter and his moons, their UNDETECTED perturbation, and 
 the IMPOSSIBLE observation of a comet NOT IN SIGHT, reminded 
 me of the story of a mercantile house writing to one of its debtors: 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 35 
 
 c We are much astonished at not having as yet received your remit- 
 tances ; " and the reply : " I should have still more been astonished 
 than yourselves if the remittance had arrived, because I never sent 
 it." 
 
 What if the comet of 1770 never returned again at all, like so 
 many others I Or if it be one of long period like that of Halley's ? 
 Would not, in that case, the comet also have been astonished to see 
 itself twice observed among Jupiter's satellites, when perhaps, 
 it was in the very opposite part of the solar system, and at 
 all events beyond a visible distance ? And would not the moons 
 of Jupiter have bee^| astonished too if they had seen the comet 
 and been disturbed by him when he never came ? 
 
 When of all the comets, the periodic time of THREE ONLY has 
 been ascertained and verified from observation, that of Halley 
 completing its passage round the sun in about 75 1 years, that 
 of Biela in about 6f years, and that of Encke in about 3^- years ; 
 but when these even do not turn up regularly ? For, in his " Intro- 
 duction to Astronomy" page 117, Mr. Hind says of the first one 
 of these three comets, that Halley " foretold its appearance in 1759, 
 which actually took place AFTER A RETARDATION OF BETWEEN 
 
 ONE AND TWO YEARS through the ATTRACTION OF JUPITER AND 
 
 SATURN !" What, then, can be said in favour of the correctness of 
 Lexell's calculation, generally accepted, against the probability, 
 if not certainty, of my suppositions? Having been acknow- 
 ledged by the whole astronomical world, the calculations of 
 Lexell ought certainly to be correct, if it were not for the draw- 
 back of want of verification from observation. 
 
 To verify the periodic time of a comet, the comet is first sought * 
 to be identified with some former one as to size, appearance, and 
 path. 
 
 When thus found that there is a similarity of results in previous 
 with present observations; that for some time back, say for 
 
 D 2 
 
36 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 centuries, at an interval of from about 75 to 75 years, a little 
 more or. less either way, a similar comet had made its appearance; 
 that therefore it might reasonably be predicted that in about 75 
 years hence, the same comet would turn up again : the identity 
 of the heavenly body is tried to be verified by adapting the 
 elements of calculation to its probable orbit, whether of long or 
 short duration, and we have seen with anything but a certain and 
 definite result, though nearly all those comets whose periodic time 
 is said to have been verified, and whose number is stated by Sir 
 John Herschell to be 36, a great increase since the previously 
 given number came under my notice ! move^mnd the sun in the 
 same direction as the planets. 
 
 The orbits, then, of these comets, ought to have been as easily 
 and correctly (?) calculated as those of the planets have been 
 determined, if astronomers were as sure of THEIR THEORY as they 
 pretend to be, and of the contrary of which the loss of many 
 asteroids, discovered but not re-found, and the late correction* in 
 the distance of the earth from the sun, and its narrowed orbit, are 
 striking proofs. 
 
 As to the CONSEQUENT irregularity in the CALCULATED returns 
 of Halley's and other comets, the periodic time of which is con- 
 sidered to have been truly verified, Sir John has an excellent and 
 happy mode of accounting for the same. Astronomers are not 
 wrong, oh dear no! " All this APPARENT irregularity is owing to 
 the action mainly of Jupiter, which is a general disturber of 
 
 * Among the communications made at the last meeting of the Astronomical 
 Society, was one from Mr. Stone, principal assistant at the Koyal Observatory, 
 Greenwich. Mr. Stone had completed the calculations of the mean horizontal 
 parallax of the sun, as deduced from observations made at Greenwich on the 
 planet Mars at his recent opposition, compared with other similar observations 
 made in Australia. The result is that the heretofore-received mean distance of 
 the earth from the sun must be diminished by about three millions of miles! 
 What a corollary this on the dogmatical and supercilious assurance with which 
 some astronomers lay down the law to lay thinkers on the subject of astronomical 
 science ! Public Opinion, 16 May, 1863. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 37 
 
 comets " and of learned men, " and gives a vast deal of trouble 
 to calculators ; and Saturn " as Mr. Hind already told us, " is not 
 without a finger in the pie." "Jupiter, in fact, is a regular 
 stumbling block in the way of comets," and of Sir John too I 
 suppose. 
 
 If, then, it were not for this Jupiter, no doubt all the calcula- 
 tions concerning comets would be as true as the Gospel ; but, as 
 this is not the case, as no comet as yet has ever proximately been 
 calculated correctly, unless seen four or five times and more ; and 
 as in the absence of verification from observation, for which " the 
 poor unhappy comet " of Lexell, unfortunately, declined giving 
 the opportunity, I must beg to differ from the calculation as well 
 as from the observation on which it is based. 
 
 How futile even calculations based upon observation, will 
 appear from the following extract from the Times of 18th September, 
 1861, relating to a sitting of the Academy of Sciences. 
 
 " Mr. Biot communicated two letters from Mr. Valz, honorary 
 director of the observatory at Marseilles, in which he repeats his 
 assertion, that the earth passed through the comet's tail on the 
 30th of June last, and in support of this opinion computes the 
 position of the tail, the situation of the earth, &c. It is a curious 
 fact, that on such a mathematical question as the inclination of a 
 comet's tail, and the position of that body and the earth at a given 
 moment, there should be two, and even three, opinions ; for our 
 readers must recollect, that Messrs. Hind, Liais, and Valz, all 
 admit that the comet's tail swept the earth, but neither agree as to 
 the hour or THE DAY ; whilst Leverrier has cast great doubts upon 
 the occurrence." 
 
 How ridiculous, then, the authoritative tone and dicta of so 
 many astronomers, when among themselves they are at variance 
 about a question, which, one should say, could not possibly admit 
 of an error, either of observation or calculation ; and if in a case 
 
38 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 like this, the comet almost within the reach of the hand, such 
 important differences exist, no agreement even about THE DAY 
 which took us through the tail of the comet : what weight can 
 we attach to observations and calculations of more distant and 
 smaller bodies, and to calculations unsupported by observation ? 
 to " the SINGULAR COINCIDENCE of an UNSEEN COMET being said 
 to have passed among Jupiter's satellites about the 23rd August, 
 1779?" 
 
 Notwithstanding, the correctness of Lexell's calculation is and 
 has, in the meanwhile, been as readily taught and taken for 
 granted, as if it were based upon infallible authority, though, 
 certainly, things still less possible than the impossible observation 
 of an invisible comet, have been and are seriously believed and 
 propagated, and of which an instance or two, connected with 
 cometary influence, will be found later on. 
 
 The CALCULATED FACTS respecting Lexell's comet, SUPPOSING 
 them to be truly verified from observation, would, however, just 
 as beautifully illustrate my new theory, as their absence would 
 leave it intact ; they would establish the moon-embracing envelope 
 of Jupiter, warding off the comet from the solid body, and by its 
 elasticity throwing it out again after having come to take a dip 
 into the superior oceans of the planet, as a swallow would take a 
 dip into the water whilst flying over the lake. 
 
 This, in fact, could not be otherwise ; for, what could have 
 prevented the comet from circulating round Jupiter, or from de- 
 scending upon its terra firma, when the planet attracted it 200 
 times stronger than the sun himself ? Why should not, as meteors 
 are said to come from beyond our sphere upon the earth, with 
 this overwhelming attraction, the comet have settled upon Jupiter 
 like the bird over its nest ? The envelopes of Jupiter alone could 
 have resisted its momentum, and prevented the warming up and 
 melting of the planet's polar regions. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 39 
 
 It is, however, considering Lexell's calculation to be as correct 
 as it is false, more probable, that nevertheless, at the first rencontre 
 with Jupiter, the comet would only have passed him by, in its 
 regular course directed by the attraction of the sun and the 
 currents of the solar atmosphere ; and that at the second rencontre 
 if ever it took place it would merely have impinged upon the 
 exterior envelope of the planet, but been repelled and driven off 
 by its elasticity. The very brilliancy of Jupiter may be and no 
 doubt actually is owing to one of its envelopes, to an enormous 
 ocean of hydrogen surrounding him. 
 
 And may not the moon's brightness, the visible OUTLINE of her 
 dark body when slightly in the crescent before and after new moon, 
 though ascribed to the light she receives from the earth, the 
 projection on her disc of an occulted star, and of solar protuber- 
 ances at the time of an eclipse of the sun, be owing to the ocean 
 of hydrogen somewhere above us and surrounding our satellite ? 
 And if so, how singularly beautiful is it not then, that these 
 oceans of hydrogen, like a floating mirror, a moving lens, at once 
 convex and concave, surrounding everyone of the celestial bodies, 
 should absorb, accumulate, send down and reflect upon them in 
 myriads of rays the concentrated light of their suns ? And that 
 by the same means their daylight should be dispersed and mutually 
 reflected by the one into the night of the other, from star to star 
 and from planet to planet ? That thus there should be a kind of 
 communion between the whole of the heavenly host, seen and 
 unseen, millions of orbs saluting each other in twinkling tokens 
 of kindred origin, and as one choir in silent harmony proclaiming 
 the one God their common Creator ? 
 
40 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM, 
 
 in. 
 
 POSITIVE ELECTRICITY WITHOUT, NEGATIVE ELECTRICITY WITHIN, THE 
 SOLID NUCLEUS OP THE HEAVENLY BODIES. WILLIAM GILBERT. 
 LIGHTNING OF EVERY KIND, THUNDERSTORMS, WATERSPOUTS, SAND- 
 SPOUTS, DUSTSPOUTS, CYCLONES, METEORS AND METEORIC PHENO- 
 MENA OF EVERY DESCRIPTION, ARE THE PRODUCTS OF THE RE-UNION 
 OF POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ELECTRICITY. EXTENT OF THE EARTH'S 
 ATMOSPHERE. PROFESSOR CHALLIS. PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE 
 MOON. THE EXPLODED PLANET OF OLBERS. SWARMS OF SHOOTING 
 STARS. THE AURORA BOREALIS ; ITS CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE 
 AURORA AUSTRALIS ; ELECTRIC CONNECTION WITHIN THE EARTH 
 FROM POLE TO POLE. 
 
 HYDROGEN, as the best reflector of light, the lightest or most 
 expanded of all known gases, is admirably calculated to form one 
 of the outer, if not the last, envelopes of the heavenly bodies and 
 our own globe, as, owing to its expansion, it is capable of that 
 resistance which our earth requires for protection in its rapid 
 course through resisting matter. Our sphere, surrounded by an 
 invisible web, and pressed upon all sides by the atmosphere of 
 the sun, we may not inaptly compare, as I have done already, 
 with a balloon filled, in our own instance SURROUNDED, by hydrogen 
 gas. In the great Vauxhall balloon it has been calculated the 
 air pressing with a weight of 15 Ibs. to the square inch that 
 when inflated with this gas, it sustains upon its external surface 
 the enormous pressure of 9,122 tons. And such an envelope of 
 gas is actually required for our globe to resist the pressure of the 
 atmosphere of the sun, and to ward off from us the effect 
 of a progressive motion through the heavens of 68,143 miles 
 an hour, or 19* miles in a second, in the mere twinkling of 
 an eye. 
 
 Whether, thus surrounded and protected, like the yolk by the 
 white of the egg, the planets, as fiery balls, rose up from the body, 
 
 * These figures will have to be corrected according to foot note page 36, 
 though the operation prove fatal to universal gravitation or the doctors. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLA.R SYSTEM. 41 
 
 and with the expanding atmosphere of the labouring sun, ascend- 
 ing to their designated positions, there to cool, and by degrees to 
 form each one a world for itself, some of them generating and 
 throwing up in a similar manner the satellites by whom they are 
 accompanied ; whether, with the grand luminary that attracts 
 them all, and bestows upon each of them the blessings of light 
 and warmth, they were dropped from the bosom of the Almighty 
 like soap-bubbles from the mouth of the child ; or, whether as 
 seed sown into chaos by God, and feeding upon it, the heavenly 
 bodies grew into size, as the solid part of the earth, particularly 
 round the equator, is still increasing in bulk by feeding upon the 
 surrounding atmosphere : His unerring and immutable wisdom 
 provided them all, like the sun himself, with electro-magnetic 
 hearts of intense, unquenchable fire, with veins, arteries, and 
 blood vessels, similar to the constitution of the human body, to 
 
 fill AND WARM THE WHOLE OF THEIR FRAME, by infusing into them 
 
 from the beginning the negative element, to grow and enlarge 
 together like the body with the soul ; and He weighed and ad- 
 justed its quantity, in proportion to their size and density in so 
 admirable a manner, that when the sun began to revolve upon his 
 course, they also began, like so many balloons, inflated, in a 
 manner, by the breath of Omnipotence, to float and revolve with 
 mathematical precision, certainty, and regularity, in their pre- 
 scribed orbits, in his track, and upon their proper level within the 
 atmosphere of the solar system. 
 
 Positive electricity, which I have assumed to pervade the whole 
 universe, accumulates round the heavenly bodies according to their 
 own exterior electric constitution ; they influence and repel each 
 other on their approach by this very accumulation, though kept 
 apart already at their respective distances by the position 
 they occupy within the solar atmosphere, according to their infla- 
 tion and specific gravity ; but, by surrounding and isolating each 
 
42 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 of them by an almost non-conducting element, by a transparent 
 veil, by a sheet of paper, as it were, placed between the magnet 
 and the magnetized object, it was alone possible to keep each 
 planet confined to the place and path assigned to it by God, to 
 restrain within their limits the two kinds of electricity, which 
 always tend to unite, and also to bring together the bodies from 
 which they emanate, or which by them are invested. 
 
 By this isolating veil our atmosphere of air, this union, this 
 approximation, has so beautifully been guarded against by Divine 
 Providence, that, by the exquisite distribution of exterior, that is, 
 solar heat, of water and air, just so much of negative electricity is 
 liberated from each planet (if our earth be a pattern of all), and just 
 so much of the positive fluid allowed to penetrate and accumulate 
 within the upper regions of the atmosphere, as by amalgamation 
 in the phenomenon of lightning, and its accompanying thunder, 
 and the aurora borealis, &c., will be a blessing to the beings by 
 whom the planet is inhabited, each one of the electric elements 
 most likely returning again to its original destination, in some 
 manner or other, by a compensation veiled in mystery. 
 
 I will now proceed, from natural phenomena, to prove the 
 material points of my new theory of the solar system, namely : the 
 existence and operation of positive electricity exterior to the solid 
 parts of the heavenly bodies, and of negative electricity confined 
 within them, and keeping them together.*-* 
 
 That these two kinds of electricity have a tendency to unite, is 
 a well known matter of fact. Positive electricity becomes perma- 
 nent when we arrive in the upper regions of our atmosphere, 
 increasing in body and intensity the nearer we approach the 
 
 * William Gilbert, (about 1600), was of opinion that "the Terrestrial Globe 
 is held together as by an electric force ; for the electric action tends to produce 
 the cohesion of matter ; " and Poisson supposed already, as we shall see pre- 
 sently, the existence of electricity in the higher regions of our atmosphere, 
 Cosmos ii. p. 340. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 43 
 
 sun; negative electricity is permanent in the earth and its 
 waters, increasing in body and intensity the nearer we come to 
 the heart of the earth ; the former is densest the colder and more 
 rarefied the air ; the latter escapes more freely from the earth, the 
 warmer and more expanded the air becomes on its surface. Hence 
 no thunderstorms in cold regions, or in winter, because the 
 condition of amalgamation does not exist ; that is, the cold state 
 of the atmosphere does not allow negative electricity to escape 
 from the earth. 
 
 In this I am confirmed by Dr. Lardner, who says : " One of the 
 earliest results of the observation of the electrical state of the 
 air was the discovery of the fact that, in clear weather, when 
 the natural state of the atmosphere is undisturbed by clouds, 
 it is always charged with positive electricity,* and the surface of 
 the earth is, on the contrary, charg edwith negative electricity. 
 
 " The negative electricity of the ground, and the positive elec- 
 tricity of the stratum of air contiguous to it, have a continual 
 tendency to recombine and neutralize each other. From this cause 
 the lowest stratum of air in clear weather, apart from disturbing 
 causes, is found to be in its natural state. This effect extends to 
 the height of three or four feet from the ground; above 
 which height the positive electricity begins to be perceivable, 
 and increases in its intensity in ascending, according to some 
 definite law, which observation has not yet discovered." And he 
 further states : " From the testimony of Phipps, Scoresby, Parry, 
 Eoss, and all others, who have navigated the Polar seas, it has 
 
 * Dr. Lardner assumes that the positive electricity of the air is supplied to it 
 by the earth. But this cannot be true ; for, rising from the earth, and diverging 
 as it ascends into the ever-increasing rarefying ring of atmosphere, it is not 
 possible that, according to the same authority, it should "augment in intensity, 
 as the height increases, to the greatest elevation to which observation is ex- 
 tended." Positive electricity, therefore, must be permanent above us, decreasing 
 in intensity in the same proportion as it has to force its way down to the earth 
 through the increasing density of the air. 
 
44 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 been ascertained that the frequency of thunder diminishes in 
 approaching the pole. It appears to be certain that it never thun- 
 ders in north latitudes above the 75th parallel. Between 70 and 
 75 thunder is sometimes, but rarely heard. Below 65 storms 
 become more common, and their frequency increases as the latitude 
 diminishes, the inter-tropical regions being those which, in general, 
 present the most violent and frequent manifestations of this 
 meteor." 
 
 Thus, the body of air floating on the earth is a constant obstacle 
 to the union of the two electricities. When, however, the rays of 
 the sun, in certain states of the atmosphere, fall particularly strong 
 on the earth or the sea, their accumulation and intensity cause the 
 air to expand ; and in proportion to this accumulated heat and 
 consequent expansion of the air, the negative fluid is perspired by, 
 is liberated from, the earth, or disengaged from the sea ; it then 
 rises all over the more than ordinarily heated surface, and, filling 
 the air, produces in us that lassitude of body and depression of 
 spirits which we always complain of in sultry weather. In this 
 I am confirmed by Richter, who found that the electricity of the 
 positive pole augments, whilst the negative diminishes the action 
 of life ; the pulse of the hand, he says, held a few minutes in con- 
 tact with the positive pole, is strengthened ; that of the one in 
 contact with the negative is enfeebled. 
 
 Whilst this depressing liberation of negative electricity takes 
 place on the earth or the sea, the sky becomes overcast, clouds 
 begin to form, and the positive fluid of the upper regions, floating 
 there loosely like its kindred below, finds in these clouds a place of 
 refuge, into which it creeps like water into a sponge ; or, in the 
 words of Dr. Lardner, " the cloud takes the nature of one con- 
 tinued conductor, and the free electricity accumulates on its surface 
 in the same manner as on the conductor of an electrical machine." 
 The clouds then serve as a vehicle to carry the electricity thus 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 45 
 
 contracted through the otherwise opposing air, towards the object 
 of its attraction. 
 
 During this process of concentration of electricity below and 
 above, both kinds begin to exercise their mutual influence, their 
 inherent magnetic power, their property of amalgamation, their 
 tendency to unite, having increased with their accumulation ; and 
 thus, as it were, they are brought within sight of each other, close 
 within contact. Positive clouds begin to draw together, to unite, 
 and to lower as they become larger and more charged ; and their 
 movements are directed, more or less, by the accumulation of 
 negative electricity on the earth, which draws them down, as also 
 by atmospheric currents and the face of the country. If the place 
 of gathering be mountainous, thunderclouds will sometimes ap- 
 proach from opposite directions, and hover about the tops of hills 
 and mountains, as if they would not leave them. 
 
 The electricity of the earth tending to rise, and at a certain 
 height finding itself everywhere impeded by a denser and colder 
 state of the air, seeks a conductor in any elevated object that may 
 be near ; and to this it leans, as it were, for assistance, and 
 ascending into the higher strata, forms a constantly upward- 
 flowing stream of the electricity all round. The fluid, however, 
 will prefer such conductors as are most congenial, to which it has 
 the greatest affinity ; and the more pointed the ends of the 
 conductors, the more readily will the stream, pushed on from 
 below, quit its hold and emerge into the opposing atmosphere ; 
 but the rounder or larger the extremity of the conductor, the more 
 the negative fluid will accumulate there, and the more difficult 
 will be its passage into the resisting air. 
 
 In this manner, then, the negative electricity escaped from, and 
 floating on, the earth or the sea, like vapours from the surface of 
 boiling water, is directed upwards in as many volumes or streams 
 as there are conductors, and the better the conductor, the more 
 
46 THE NEW THEOBY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 concentrated or condensed will be the stream ; the best and high- 
 est conductors take the lead, and in most cases absorb the lower 
 and lesser streams of the neighbourhood. On the sea, islands and 
 ships will act as conductors, and to these the electricity floating 
 on the surface of the water will incline. Islands, moreover, will 
 not only attract and conduct the electricity of the water that 
 surrounds them, but will also send up their own electric exhala- 
 tions in still greater abundance. 
 
 This is confirmed by Humboldt in his " Cosmos" and also by 
 Dr. Lardner. The former says : " When, upon the whole, where 
 the ocean of the air rests upon a fluid bottom, the electric balance 
 is more rarely disturbed than in the air on land ; it is more strik- 
 ing to see how, in extensive seas, small groups of islands influence 
 the state of the atmosphere, and cause the formation of thunder- 
 storms." And Dr. Lardner makes the following observation: 
 " By comparing the recorded cases of thunderstorms on land and 
 at sea, it appears to be established, on grounds at least of strong 
 probability, that storms are more frequent on land than at sea ; 
 that at sea the frequency of storms diminishes as the distance 
 from land increases ; and analogy leads to the probable conjecture 
 that there is a certain distance from land at which it never 
 thunders." The cause of this lies in the absence of conductors to 
 the negative electricity liberated from the water, and the con- 
 sequent formation of waterspouts instead of thunderstorms, as we 
 shall see a little further on. 
 
 On land, the chief conductors will be elevated buildings, particu- 
 larly steeples with metal vanes, and the like ; trees, as also the human 
 body, and animals in an erect position, where higher and better con- 
 ductors are wanting. Hence the necessity in open fields to lie down 
 flat on the ground in case we are overtaken by thunderstorms.* 
 
 * One person is a better conductor than another, and, no doubt one animal 
 better than another ; and this most likely depends upon the stronger or feebler 
 
THE NBW THEORT OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 47 
 
 As regards mountains, the fluid will creep up at the sides, and 
 arrive at the summit more and more concentrated, like many 
 streams merging into one; and hence its power, at this elevation, 
 to attract and arrest electric clouds.* 
 
 For this accumulation of electricity on the summit of mountains, 
 Dr. Lardner accounts in the following way : " Since free 
 electricity accumulates in great intensity at prominences and points 
 of a conducting body, the negative electricity of the earth may 
 be expected to be most intense at mountain- summits. Clouds 
 being in general charged with positive electricity, an attraction 
 will consequently be exerted upon them, which, conspiring with 
 the attraction of gravitation, will draw them round such summits." 
 The true cause of accumulation is, however, as I have stated it. 
 
 Besides this ascent of negative electricity by the sides of moun- 
 tains, vapours rising from the earth will also act as conductors ; 
 charged with the electricity through which they ascend, they will 
 form into light clouds, and rapidly take their direction to the 
 clouds above. 
 
 By these means the atmosphere becomes filled with streams 
 and volumes of negative electricity, and the stronger and higher 
 they rise, the more will they attract and hold fast the electric 
 clouds. Negative clouds, if but lightly charged, will swell the 
 positive ones, and the amalgamation will take place without 
 explosion ; if heavily charged, the mutual attraction is more 
 vehement and stronger, and the point of union of the two fluids 
 at a greater distance between them ; the positive charge passing 
 
 process of animation, of life, upon the respective warmth or coolness, the elec- 
 tric-phosphoric constitution, of the body. With animals, the form of the body 
 will probably influence the conduction of the electric fluid. If among inanimate 
 bodies one conductor is better than another, all else being the same, it arises 
 from the one being chemically united with more electric matter than the other. 
 
 * It will be interesting to examine what relation there exists between pine 
 and other forests growing on the tops of mountains, and electricity and oxygen ; 
 whether wood grown on the mountain, as a rule, burns better than wood grown 
 in the plain or in the valley. 
 
48 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 to the negative cloud will be ignited by friction with the air 
 through which it darts, and the union of the clouds will be 
 accompanied by lightning. 
 
 In the same way, when both electricities have reached that 
 point at which their union becomes irresistible, that distance at 
 which the force of the electricity shall overcome the resistance of 
 the surrounding air, the positive will precipitate itself from the 
 cloud towards the negative columns from the earth, ignite by 
 friction with the air it has to pass through, and cause as many 
 of these volumes to explode in the air, down to their very base, 
 even into the bowels of the earth if uninterrupted, as may be 
 dense or near enough to be capable of ignition. The almost 
 instantaneous explosion of these electric columns rising from the 
 earth, often cut off from the earth by the wind or atmospheric 
 currents, and drifting about in the air, produces the various forms 
 of fork, or zig-zag lightning, which, according to Lardner, seldom 
 flashes between two clouds, but is, in conformity with my theory, 
 generally manifested between a cloud and some terrestrial object, 
 playing about in the air like flames in the escaping gasses of a 
 coal fire. 
 
 Lightning-flashes sometimes dart upwards from the cloud ; and 
 this takes place when volumes of electricity rising from the earth 
 ascend higher than the position of the thundercloud hanging in 
 the air. If such a volume be struck by a flash from the cloud, 
 it is natural that it should explode to its extreme point, whether 
 this be the summit of a mountain or the top of a steeple. An 
 instance of this kind is cited by Dr. Lardner (ii. 127), where 
 seven persons were killed on a church, erected on a lofty peak in 
 Styria, by a flash of lightning ascending from a cloud about half 
 the elevation below the place where they stood. 
 
 In all cases, where resistance of the air to the amalgamation of 
 the two electricities in their accumulated state is not sufficient to 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 49 
 
 cause ignition,* the union will take place without the appearance 
 of lightning, and the affected column, or volume of electricity, 
 the thunderbolt as it is called, will strike with the same de- 
 structive effect, though without the fire ; no such effect will result, 
 however, if the accumulation of the two electricities is not 
 sufficiently dense for the purpose. % 
 
 The heavier a cloud is charged with electricity, the blacker will 
 be its appearance ; magnetism, or its property of cohesion, will 
 hold the fluid together in as compact a body as possible, and 
 consequently, the vapours of the cloud are contracted, with tLa 
 charge they contain, into a much denser body than otherwise 
 would be the case ; and there is no doubt upon my mind but that 
 the rays of the sun falling upon, and being absorbed by, the 
 cloud, must exercise some material influence on its condition and 
 development. 
 
 In the absence of clouds, on fine, clear, and calm summer days, 
 the electric columns from the earth will rise to a great height. 
 On arriving in the upper, highly rarefied regions of the air, 
 whether cut off from, or still connected with, the stream from 
 below, they will amalgamate with the free, yet more than ordi- 
 narily attracted and consequently dense positive electricity above : 
 this amalgamation is accompanied by an evolution of light, and, 
 by a rapid exhaustion and supply from above and below, produces 
 the sheet lightnings of our summer evenings. For, light alone is 
 evolved by the two electricities when their union takes place 
 within a rarefied atmosphere. This is proved by a very beautiful 
 experiment described by Dr. Lardner. Let a Ley den jar be 
 suspended under the receiver of an air-pump in a dark room, and 
 
 * The distance at which the explosion will take place, and its force, will depend 
 on many circumstances ; such as the difference between the actual charges of the 
 clouds, and the charges due to contact, the form of clouds, and the state of the 
 intervening atmosphere. An electrical explosion, therefore, may take place 
 between two clouds, whether they are both similarly electrified (if unequally 
 charged), or one be electrified and the other in its natural state. Lardner. 
 
 E 
 
50 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 let the air within the receiver be slowly and gradually rarefied by 
 the action of the pump. When the internal fluid is sufficiently 
 relieved from the restraining pressure of the air, it will be seen to 
 overflow the mouth of the jar, and descend the sides in a cascade 
 of light to meet and combine with the external fluid. Fluctua- 
 tions in this^cascade of light alone are wanting faithfully to 
 represent the rapid succession of flashes of sheet lightning. 
 
 By a similar process, assisted perhaps by a superabundant supply 
 of supporters of combustion existing in chaos, we may readily 
 imagine the inconceivable longitude and latitude of the equator 
 of the universe to have been lighted up, as noticed page 5, when 
 God said: "Let there be light;" and to have influenced the 
 creations which it embraced. 
 
 During common thunderstorms, sheet lightning is produced 
 in the same manner as above ; the two electricities combine in 
 the higher rarefied regions of the air, without the explosion of 
 electric volumes taking place. If a cloud be negatively electri- 
 fied, sheet lightning will be produced behind the cloud ; and hence 
 it arises, no doubt, that the edges only of the clouds appear 
 illuminated. If the cloud be positively electrified, the sheet 
 lightning will naturally flash downward, the positive electricity 
 uniting with the ascending negative electricity in its free yet 
 accumulated state. 
 
 Of volcanic thunderstorms, Von Humboldt says : " The hot 
 steam (from the waters that may have found their way into the 
 interior of the mountain) rising during the eruption from the 
 crater, and emerging into the atmosphere, will, when cooling, 
 form a cloud, by which the column of ashes and fire, many 
 thousand feet high, is surrounded. Lightning, in winding motion, 
 flashes from the column, and then the rolling thunder of the 
 volcanic thunderstorm may be clearly distinguised from the crack- 
 ing within the volcano. The lightning striking down from the 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 51 
 
 volcanic steam cloud killed eleven horses and two men in Iceland, 
 on the 17th October, 1755." 
 
 The operation here is the same as before described ; electricity 
 from the higher regions concentrates in the volcanic cloud, whilst 
 the volcanic column does not only carry up the electricity liberated 
 within the volcano, but serves also as a conductor- to that rising 
 from the earth in the vicinity round about. At the eruption of 
 Mount Vesuvius in April, 1855, Professor Palmieri, at Naples, 
 noticed that the electric current in general appeared to follow the 
 course of the smoke issuing from the crater. 
 
 By a process similar to the preceding one, waterspouts are 
 formed at sea. 
 
 In a " dead calm " the sun exercises, as a matter of course, a 
 more powerful influence on the water than he does when it is in 
 any way agitated. By the intensity and undisturbed accumulation 
 of his rays on the quiescent surface, the air, resting upon it, 
 becomes unusually rarefied ; an extraordinary evaporation, most 
 likely assisted, if not chiefly caused, by volcanic action below, 
 takes place, as if the sea were steaming, and an immense quantity 
 of negative electricity is produced or liberated. The electric fluid 
 tending to rise, but opposed by the resistance of the air, unites 
 with the generated vapours as the only conductor it can lay hold 
 of. The particles of vapour being heavier than the highly expanded 
 air, are unable to ascend and form into a cloud ; attracted, there- 
 fore, and held together by the electricity they contain, and striving 
 to rise, they all begin to move towards the centre, the focus of 
 the foggy surface, until by degrees the whole mass is set in one 
 uniform upward spiral motion, assuming the shape of a funnel 
 turned upside down, and becoming more and more elevated as it 
 becomes more contracted. The calm state of the air allows the 
 quiet formation of the electric cone, which, in the absence of a 
 conductor, like a wedge, parts and penetrates the impeding air, 
 
 E 2 
 
52 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 through which otherwise the body of diffused electrified vapours 
 would not have been able to ascend, not having even the assistance 
 of small things like grass and shrubs, which on land facilitate the 
 escape of electricity from the earth into the air, 
 
 Currents will be produced where accumulation takes place, or 
 the balance of fluids or liquids is disturbed. Fire expands water 
 and air, and by disturbing their balance, currents are set in motion. 
 Heat, whether from the rays of the sun, from fire or friction, dis- 
 turbs the electric equilibrium of matter, and causes currents to 
 take place. 
 
 Whilst thus the wedge is forming by a continual access of elec- 
 tricity and electric vapours, the surrounding air, likewise disturbed 
 in its balance, begins by degrees to be slightly set in motion by the 
 screw-like accumulation in the centre of the steaming surface ; and 
 this motion takes the same direction in which the wedge or screw 
 is winding upwards. The air will thus gradually press more heavily 
 on the base of the funnel, and less and less on the elevated part 
 where it meets with less surface, and where the pressure is more 
 on the incline ; and by this means it even assists the progressive 
 elevation of the negative spout. 
 
 The rising in a column, however, of this mass of electric vapours 
 would nevertheless not take place, if before, or at the time of its 
 formation into a spout, no cloud had been gathering in the sky, 
 saturated with the positive electricity of the upper regions, exercis- 
 ing its attractive power on the negative acccumulation below, and 
 fixing through it, as it were, a vertical axis. The two kindred 
 elements tend to union, but have no conductor to effect it. Thus it 
 is the attraction from above that makes the electric vapours, heavier 
 and denser than the highly expanded air, and consequently unable 
 to rise, assume the natural shape of a funnel-like wedge, whilst the 
 attraction from below, in the absence of any conductor whatsoever, 
 causes the same appearance in the cloud above : holding to a com- 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 53 
 
 mon axis, it is a kind of mutual magnetic suction, the spout above 
 causing the one below, and the one below causing the other above, 
 until, elongated within the striking-distance, within the point of 
 amalgamation, they break down in union in the form of rain or 
 hail, unable any longer to be held in suspense by the air which both 
 cones contributed to set in spiral motion. 
 
 That previous to, or at the time of actual union of the spouts, 
 no explosion takes place s may be accounted for in several ways. 
 
 Though, in the first instance, the extreme points of the cones may 
 be seen, yet it is likely, and it is even said to have been observed, 
 that previous to their meeting, rays, or threadlike streams of elec- 
 tricity, are shooting forth from cone to cone, thus rendering visible 
 the electric axis, the magnetic bridge, that had been thrown across 
 at the commencement from kindred to kindred. These rays of 
 electricity, however, concentrated by the tapering shape of the 
 spout, as the rays of the sun are concentrated by a lens, must 
 possess a correspondingly increased magnetic power, and may 
 easily be supposed to act as a link, as a chain, and imponderable 
 conductor, from cone to cone, by which both are steadily and 
 gradually drawn together. This electric link, the axis of the spout, 
 as we have seen before, communicates between the cones soon after 
 their formation, and sometimes before they come in contact. 
 Hence, the amalgamation of the two fluids, harboured by these 
 columns of vapour, and the union of the columns themselves, is 
 so gradual, that no ignition, no explosion can take place, there 
 being very little, if any, friction with the air. 
 
 The absence of explosion may, in the second instance, be 
 accounted for by the exceedingly saturated or condensed state of 
 the vapours ; they are too much like water to let the electric fluid 
 have an easy escape, though this does not diminish their relative 
 attraction, their tendency to unite being only somewhat fettered. 
 
 When the union of the two cones has been accomplished, and 
 
54 THE NEW THEORY -&F THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 the two fluids have been brought to amalgamate, the whole mass, 
 being now too condensed to be held any longer in suspense by 
 the air, will violently burst or come down in rain or hail, and, 
 according to circumstances, with or without lightning, accom- 
 panied with great noise, but without any thunder. 
 
 All these phenomena may easily be accounted for, particularly 
 the bursting, the rain and hail ; they depend upon the more or 
 less rapid amalgamation or dissipation of the two electricities ; if 
 their union or dispersion is gentle and gradual, the spout will 
 dissolve in rain; but if violent and sudden, positive electricity 
 most likely preponderating, hail will be the result. Lightning 
 will more or less depend upon the density of the respective cones, 
 and their admixture with air during the amalgamation of the two 
 electricities ; and the lightning taking place within the spouts, and 
 merely flashing out, as it is said, readily explains ths rumbling 
 noise i but the electric fluid not passing or striking through the 
 exterior atmosphere, as is the case during thunderstorms, 
 sufficiently accounts for the absence of thunder. 
 
 If the " dead calm " at sea extends to a great distance, several 
 waterspouts may naturally happen at the same time, each one 
 forming its own centre. Their motion on the water seems to 
 depend upon the upper currents of the atmosphere, the positive 
 cone drawing along the negative one. They will also move in 
 the direction of a ship, or of a prominent point on land, as centres 
 of attraction and conductors to the electricity of the surrounding 
 place. 
 
 Waterspouts on land happen from the same causes as those at sea, 
 from the high position of positively electrified clouds, from isolated 
 powerful conductors of the negative electricity of the earth, or 
 tfrom the absence of conductors. 
 
 Sandspouts in the desert originate in the same way as those at 
 sea and on land. Electricity disengaged by the burning sun, by 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 55 
 
 evaporation accumulated on the heated waste, and attracted either 
 by electric clouds or dther electric accumulations in the upper air, 
 tries to rise ; but having no conductor, it concentrates in one or 
 more places, according to local causes, and the element pressing 
 from all sides upon the centre, it assumes that spiral motion (around 
 its own electric axis), which is witnessed throughout all nature, 
 in the water, the air, and in the plant that winds itself round the 
 protecting pole or the stem of a tree ; and as the centre of the 
 spout turns and rises and puts the air in motion, it gathers strength 
 and consistency from the pressure around, taking up the sand 
 within its powerful grasp ; and like thq| avalanche in its fall, 
 accumulating in bulk, electric force, and rapidity as it whirls 
 round over the plane, it will often, like the water and landspout, 
 change into a hurricane, tearing up everything in its way, until 
 its career is broken and inpeded by internal exhaustion and disso- 
 lution, or by exterior obstacles and a dissipation of its electric 
 accumulation. The aurora borealis, in the same manner, is an 
 originator of storms. 
 
 Mr. Kedfield in his Observations on Storms, in the transactions 
 of the Americ. Philos. Society, 1841, offered an opinion, that 
 generally during a gale there is, in the lower part of the atmo- 
 sphere, a spiral motion inclining downwards and towards the centre ; 
 and in the higher regions a like spiral motion inclining upwards 
 and towards the exterior. 
 
 My theory, of storms originating in electrical accumulation,- 
 often perhaps without either vapours or sand, and in the impeded 
 or unimpeded amalgamation of the two electricities, seems to 
 confirm the opinion of Mr. Redfield ; for these storms must naturally 
 partake of the motion of the positive and negative cones from 
 above and below. 
 
 Hurricanes, revolving storms, or " cyclones," from their 
 revolving motion, appear to belong to that class, and are 
 
56 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 said to embrace masses of air of from 50 to 500 miles in 
 diameter. 
 
 According to the Manual of Scientific Enquiry, published by 
 Authority of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, 1859, 
 " These cyclones always revolve in the same way in each respec- 
 tive hemisphere, though in each their rotation is in an opposite 
 direction. In the northern hemisphere their rotation is RETRO- 
 GRADE, i.e., contrary to the motion of the hands of a watch 
 laid face upwards, or in conformity with the motion of the hand 
 in UNSCREWING a screw. In the southern their rotation is DIRECT, 
 conformable to the hands of a watch, or to the motion of the 
 hand screwing IN a screw into a horizontal board."* 
 
 According to my theory, the northern cyclone is rolling towards 
 the exhausted equator, and the southern one is doing the same ; 
 they come from opposite directions, each one following the meridian 
 to fill up a vacuum, as it were, in the tropics ; and following also, 
 like the electric tide, the apparent course of the sun from east 
 to west, they naturally revolve forward to the west as described 
 above. 
 
 At a meeting of the Meteorological Society, according to the 
 
 * " As the phenomena of the cyclone are reversed in the opposite hemi- 
 spheres, so are those of the (atmospheric) wave. In the northern hemisphere 
 the barometor, during the passage of an atmospheric wave, rises with N.E. 
 winds ; IN THIS INSTANCE, in the southern hemisphere, it FALLS ; in the 
 northern hemisphere, as the N.E. winds pass they DECREASE in force ; in the 
 southern hemisphere they appear to increase." Manual of Scientific Enquiry. 
 
 Owing to the greater heat at the equator, and the equatorial depression of 
 the envelope of the earth of which I speak further on, the air is denser 
 and colder, consequently heavier towards the north than at the equator. 
 When, therefore, a current, a wind, comes from the N.E., it comes from a 
 dense quarter into a rarefied one ; hence the more rarefied air becomes 
 heavier, and the barometer rises : the current itself becomes diffused, and 
 therefore decreases in force. In the southern hemisphere, the N.E. current 
 in that direction comes in reality from the equator ; its air is warmer and 
 lighter than that into which it flows towards the south pole ; hence the 
 colder air is warmed and rarefied, and the barometer sinks, whilst the current 
 itself becomes compressed by driving in between a colder atmosphere, and 
 therefore seems to increase in ferce. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 57 
 
 Daily News of llth April, 1860, a paper was read by H. Cook, 
 M.D., on duststorms and dustcolunins, &c. of India. The author 
 remarked : " that there are certain days in which, however hard 
 and violently the wind may blow, little or no dust accompanies it, 
 whilst at other times every little puff of air or current of wind 
 raises up and carries with it clouds of dust, and at these times 
 the individual particles of sand appear to be in such an electrified 
 condition that they are even ready to repel each other, and are 
 consequently disturbed from their position and carried up into the 
 air with the slightest current. To so great an extent does this 
 sometimes exist, that the atmosphere is completely filled with dust, 
 and when accompanied by a strong wind nothing is visible at a 
 few yards, and the sun at noonday is obscured. This CONDITION 
 
 OF THE ATMOSPHERE IS EVIDENTLY ACCUMULATIVE, it increases by 
 
 degrees until the climax is reached, when after a certain time, 
 usually about 24 hours, the atmosphere is cleared and equanimity 
 restored. Dustcolumns appear under a similar condition of 
 electrical disturbance or intensity. On calm quiet days when 
 hardly a breath is stirring, and the sun pours down his heating 
 rays with full force, little CIRCULAR EDDIES are seen to arise in 
 the atmosphere near the surface of the ground ; these increase in 
 force and diameter, until a column is formed of great height and 
 diameter, which usually remains stationary for some time, and 
 then sweeps away across the country at great speed, and ultimately, 
 losing the velocity of its circular movement, dissolve and disappear. 
 The author had seen in the valley of Mingochao, which is only a 
 few miles across, and surrounded by high hills, on a day when not 
 a breath of air stirred, twenty of these columns. These seldom 
 changed their places, or but slowly moved across the level track, 
 and they never interfered with each other." 
 
 In a paper read before the Royal Society, treating of magnetic 
 storms, eddies, currents, &c., the astronomer-royal, Mr. Airy, ASA 
 
58 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 NOVELTY in 1864, " assumes the presence of a magnetic ether or fluid 
 as an envelope of some feet in thickness over the surface of the 
 whole earth, which, being affected during magnetic storms in the 
 same way as air and water are, occasions the phenomena which 
 have long been regarded as the most interesting in observations 
 of terrestrial magnetism." 
 
 Some inconsistency excepted, it will strike the reader that there 
 is nothing in the preceding assumption, either NEW or IMPORTANT. 
 
 Spouts, like the dustcolumns here spoken of, and originated 
 only by the heat of the sun, will scarcely ever, if at all, happen 
 during the night, unless through some exceptional state of the 
 atmosphere ; and their formation on the sea during the day is no 
 doubt intimately connected with sub-marine geological fprmations 
 and dispositions, with the greater or lesser depth of the sea, the 
 absence of currents, &c. The same causes most likely produce 
 also local marine fogs and clouds which in bright weather have 
 been observed on the high sea. 
 
 "Mists are frequently met with over shoals and sand-banka 
 
 I have seen such mists to the south of Jamaica, 
 
 and in the Pacific, which have shown the outline of the shoala 
 beneath so well defined, as to be distinctly recognised from a 
 distance ; thus forming to the eye aerial images reflecting the form 
 
 of the bottom of the ocean At sea and in very clear 
 
 weather, clouds are often seen suspended above the site of 
 sand-banks or shoals, as well as over low coral or sandy islands. 
 Their bearings may be taken from a distant ship by the 
 compass, precisely as that of a high mountain or solitary peak." 
 Cosmos ii. 30. 
 
 These mists and clouds, like icebergs, afar off indicated by the 
 thermometer, Humboldt ascribes to the low, if not cold, tempera- 
 ture of the water over shoals and sand-banks, though I think they 
 are caused by the reverse, i.e., the warm state of the water. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 59 
 
 Shallow water is always warmer than deep water. In the 
 former case, the proximity of land to the surface of the water 
 makes this very apparent, negative electricity is more abundantly 
 disengaged, draws down, or attracts, the positive fluid from above, 
 and master cold condenses the moisture of the air through which 
 he passes, thus causing mists and clouds as before described, the 
 same as islands produce mists and clouds and thunderstorms, 
 which are absent on the deep open sea away from land, and the 
 same as mists and fogs in general are caused by the positive 
 electricity coming^down lower into our atmosphere and cooling 
 the same, rather than by the cooling of the surface of the earth 
 and water. For, it would be strange if the earth, heated by the 
 direct rays of the sun, were to cool sooner than the air which it 
 warms by reflection. 
 
 We have hitherto seen how electricity rises from the earth in 
 streams or volumes, whether by the aid of conductors, or ascend- 
 ing with the cone of the spout ; we have seen how by these means 
 the electricity of the earth and that of the higher region are brought 
 into union ; but we have seen also at page 48, how the electric 
 stream often rises beyond the region of the clouds, beyond the 
 region where negative and positive electricity are wont to unite. 
 And these streams, ascending higher than our ordinary concep- 
 tions, are by far more numerous than those which bring us the 
 refreshing water and the cooling influence of the thundercloud. 
 For, thunderstorms are comparatively rare in proportion to 
 the electric volumes rising every day from the earth into the 
 atmosphere* 
 
 These volumes perform their noiseless journey during the day, 
 and in warm and cloudless nights. As evening draws on, or 
 the atmosphere cools, as a breeze springs up, or currents of air 
 cross each other in sundry directions, these pillars are cut off, 
 some early, some late, some high, some low, some in one state, 
 
60 THE NEW THEOKY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 some in another ;* and as they are cut off they contract, unless 
 dissipated by wind, and form into spheres, small or large, according 
 to circumstances. Arago found, according to Lardner, that when 
 electric currents were transmitted through wires forming closed 
 curves, or complete geometrical figures, iron filings, placed within 
 the sphere of attraction of the wire, adhered to it, so as to form 
 concentric rings upon it. The moment the connection of the wire 
 with the piles was broken, and the current was no longer trans- 
 mitted along it, the filings fell off, and all attraction disappeared. 
 We may, therefore, well conclude, that these spheres, balls, or 
 globes of electricity, attract metallic and other particles floating 
 in the air, and that by the ignition and explosion of these electric 
 metallic accumulations, fire-balls, meteors, shooting stars, and 
 meteoric stones are produced. 
 
 That brimstone and other analogous solutions are contained in 
 our atmosphere is evidenced by the many cases in which the 
 lightning-flash, and thunderstorms themselves, have been accom- 
 panied by a suffocating sulphurous smell. Hence, the first thing 
 of a meteoric character we meet with is the appearance of ball- 
 lightning. 
 
 Whilst the electric columns, flashing into lightning, uncondensed, 
 and in the act of ascending, had no opportunity, nor power, to 
 attract much of the solutions filling the air, another volume cut 
 off before coming into, or passing by, the striking distance of an 
 electric opposite charge, had time to contract, to condense, and to 
 form into a sphere; or, the rising volume still clinging to the earth, 
 untouched by surrounding explosions, but resisted in its upward 
 progress, its upper end began to accumulate into a ball. Thus, 
 concentrated into an electric sphere of larger or smaller dimension, 
 it more powerfully attracted the metallic substances within its 
 
 * Hence, also, the rarity of lightning striking into buildings, trees, &c., at 
 night. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 61 
 
 reach, and coming within striking distance of another electric 
 accumulation from below or from above, it shoots, a ball of fire, 
 with lightning rapidity to the earth, whilst the ponderable par- 
 ticles that compose its bulk are less quickly dissolved or solidified ; 
 and by this means the globular form is preserved until its final 
 explosion, diffusing in sulphurous smoke, and often spreading 
 about in fragments, the evidence of ponderable matter diffused in 
 the air.* 
 
 This ponderable matter which also is proved to fill the air, by 
 the fact that metallic bases have been obtained in the analysis of 
 plants whose nutriment has been derived exclusively from the 
 atmosphere will most likely be present at different times in 
 different proportions ; electric clouds will also attract it, and 
 discharges therefrom will, therefore, often be attended by a 
 peculiar smell ; or, the matter in question will accumulate into a 
 ball, or balls, according to the constitution and electric state of 
 the cloud. These balls, concentrating within themselves a greater 
 portion of electric and material accumulation, and coming within 
 striking distance of volumes of electricity rising from the earth ; 
 or, repelled from each other and thrown off from the cloud, or 
 sinking down by the weight of their agglomeration until friction 
 
 * " The British Ship Albemarle, according to Lardner, was struck withlightning 
 off Cape Cod. A mass of burning bituminous matter fell in the boat suspended 
 at the stern of the vessel, which diffused an odour like that of gunpowder. It 
 was consumed in the place where it fell, after ineffectual attempts to extinguish 
 it by water, or to throw it out of the boat with rods of wood." 
 
 A similar, but more awful proof of my theory is recorded in Holy Scripture, 
 where (Gen. xix. 24,) we are told, that "The Lord rained brimstone and fire 
 upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and destroyed these cities, and all the country 
 about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the 
 earth." And how naturally can we not account for such a phenomenon? 
 But to the Christian philosopher, on religious grounds, it is far more con- 
 genial, consoling, and encouraging still to contemplate in this event the truth 
 and confirmation of divine revelation ; how the laws of grace and justice 
 govern the laws of nature ; how hand in hand they go, and in due time, and 
 at the proper place, not only punish the guilty creature, and purge the earth 
 from rotten generations, but also how therein he possesses the guarantee that the 
 same laws of grace and nature will go hand in hand to lead him to transcendent 
 bliss, as they have done so many others before him. 
 
62 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 with the air causes explosion, they will fall to the earth in the 
 shape of balls of fire, according to the cause and circumstance of 
 discharge from above. 
 
 That in most cases these ponderable electric balls are attracted 
 from their position in the air or in the clouds by volumes of 
 electricity rising from the earth is proved by the fact, that they 
 mostly alight upon the steeples of churches or towers, and at sea, 
 in particular, on the masts of ships. Humboldt relates (Cosmos 
 i. 125.), that " the companions of Cortes saw at Cholula the 
 aerolite which had fallen on the neighbouring PYRAMID," by which, 
 no doubt, it was attracted ; and that (note 75) a short time before 
 the earthquake of Quito in October, 1766, " during a whole hour, 
 the volcano of Cayamba appeared as if veiled by the number of 
 falling stars, and the alarmed inhabitants instituted processions." 
 
 These globes of fire, then, will be produced wherever there is 
 a sphere-like accumulation of one kind of electricity or the other, 
 where, at the same time, ponderable and electric or magnetic 
 substances fill the air ; the light will ensue when friction with the 
 air, or some chemical combination within the ball, causes ignition, 
 and the explosion will take place when the intensity of action 
 dissolves, melts, or solidifies, and repels or disperses the com- 
 ponent parts. The combination of ponderable matter with the 
 electric accumulation in these balls presents to us that spontaneous 
 explosion and disappearance which we witness in the lightning- 
 flash. 
 
 Ball-lightning of the kind we have spoken of is rare, because, 
 happening at the time of thunderstorms, there is opportunity 
 enough for the discharge and amalgamation of electricity in the 
 shape of common lightning. But in calm, serene weather, the 
 electric emanations and volumes will rise higher than the region 
 of the clouds. Cut off from the earth by one means or the other, 
 they will form into larger spheres than the balls before noticed ; 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 63 
 
 these spheres, assisted by the quiescent state of the atmosphere, 
 will attract more ponderable matter, and, free from the condensed 
 moisture which saturated the fire-ball before its ignition, and 
 removed from the attraction of electric volumes or clouds, they 
 will float longer in the air, until their final consummation. The 
 electric sphere, like a shell, holds the particles it has attracted, 
 and by interior chemical excitation, or by friction with the air 
 when in the lower strata of the atmosphere, ignites like a will-o'- 
 the-wisp, and the agglomerated atoms amalgamate with great 
 intensity. Impelled by its own weight, or attracted again from 
 below, and pressed upon by the surrounding air in proportion to 
 its velocity ; having also by its presence and heat caused an 
 accumulation of free, positive electricity, the explosion envelopes 
 the electric shell from without and solidifies the agglomerated 
 mass within, and, impressing upon its surface a deep black coating 
 as a mark of the violence of its action and evidence of its warm 
 embrace, sends down to the earth the product of electric com- 
 bustion and amalgamation the meteoric stone. If more than one 
 stone fall from the exploding meteor, it is clear that in this case 
 the ponderable accumulation was not confined to, or concentrated 
 in, the shell, the outer envelope of the ball, but that it penetrated 
 the whole electric sphere, which, flashing into fire from within, or 
 across, separated the body by repulsion, and dispersed it into 
 numbers of fragments by its explosion. 
 
 That these meteoric stones are formed within our atmosphere is 
 beyond contradiction, and, at all events, far more probable, than 
 " that our planet has been formed from NEBULOUS RINGS, separated 
 from the solar atmosphere, AGGLOMERATED INTO SPHERIODS, and 
 consolidated by progressive condensation " (Cosmos, 275) ; for, it 
 is and has been proved and confirmed over and over again, that 
 the sulphurous smell accompanies the lightning-flash, proceeds 
 from the lightning-ball, which, itself issuing from the clouds, fell 
 
64 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 on the masthead and the steeple, into the church and the house, 
 and often scattering about fragments ; that volumes of dust and 
 sand are carried high and far away* into the atmosphere, and by 
 moisture and electricity condensed and converted into showers of 
 aerolites, the same as vapours are converted into rain and showers 
 of hail; that clouds are formed and meteoric stones projected 
 from them to the earth ; that balls of fire, and brilliant globes of 
 light, and even shooting stars have let them drop.f And where 
 there is such an absolutely undefinable transition, both in appear- 
 ance and result, from the lightning-flash to the shooting star, from 
 the will-o'-the-wisp to the most brilliant meteor : who will point 
 out the line of demarcation, the broken link, and say, the one 
 phenomenon is of the earth (telluric), the other comes from 
 beyond it (cosmic)? And if of cosmic origin ; why should the 
 earth ATTRACT these cosmic bodies, whilst, as we are told, Jupiter 
 repels the cosmic comet, if the old solar theory be correct ? Is 
 there any, and in which of these two cases does there exist, a 
 suspension of the law of universal gravitation ? What makes the 
 comet fly off from the planet whilst, as we have seen, said to be 
 200 times more attracted by it than by the sun, and whilst 
 meteoric stones FROM BEYOND OUR OWN SPHERE are said to fall 
 upon the body of the earth ? that they " are small heavenly 
 bodies, which the attraction of our planet has caused to deviate from 
 their previous path." (Cosmos, p. 51.) 
 
 Not only this : but the metallic, or earthy composition of 
 meteoric stones contains nothing that is foreign to what the crust 
 of the earth is composed of ; and the violence of electric action 
 
 * Dust or sand, in which Ehrenberg discovered the remains of 18 species 
 of siliceous shelled polygastric infusoria, often falls on ships navigating the 
 ocean near Cape Verd Islands, at a distance of 380 geographical miles from 
 the African coast." Cosmos, p. 345. 
 
 t Numerous instances to prove all these cases will be found in every work 
 on meteorology or natural science. 
 
THE NEW THEOBY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 65 
 
 accounts sufficiently for the solidity, as the magnetic properties 
 of the attracted particles do for the purity of meteoric metals. 
 
 That nothing so pure and solidly blended together is found in 
 the earth seems to prove, that a less intense, a more gentle opera- 
 tion of electric agency was at work when chaos was sundered 
 and the earth formed, than when fireballs or meteoric globes issue 
 from the still existing, though purer, chaos of the air, or from the 
 chaotic ingredients of the clouds in which they were moulded. 
 
 When, according to the state of the atmosphere, electric volumes 
 from the earth, or spherical accumulations of electricity rise higher 
 still than those which ordinarily produce meteoric stones, their 
 dimensions must naturally increase with the altitude they attain, 
 and with the rarefied air or matter within which they ascend ; the 
 same as in the case of balloons, which must be larger and more 
 expanded in proportion to the elevation they are to reach. Hence 
 it follows, that the higher the meteor, the greater its size ; the 
 further away from the sun, the larger or lighter the planets ; the 
 higher a bird is to soar, the wider must be its wings and the lighter 
 its body. 
 
 Thus constituted, and no doubt frequently, if not always, more 
 or less charged with phosphoric emanations from the earth, meteoric 
 accumulations rise beyond our atmosphere of air, beyond the region 
 which holds metals in solution, or though in a decreasing ratio 
 only ; and as they ascend and increase in size and aggregation of 
 matter, interior distribution of particles or electric agency, will 
 often, in the higher regions perhaps always, cause a mutual repul- 
 sion before explosion ; the original sphere will part, as it were, 
 into numbers of globes, which, after a longer or shorter course 
 becoming ignited, present to us a host of shooting stars, emanating 
 from one common point of radiation in apparently one or the 
 other constellation of the heavens. Numbers of these meteoric 
 globes rising from the earth, or forming in the atmosphere, and 
 
 F 
 
66 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 resistance to their motion diminishing as their elevation increases, 
 their glow, ignition, and final explosion become more steady and 
 protracted; their brilliancy augments as more and more they 
 withdraw from the ocean of air into that of oxygen, the supporter 
 of combustion, and thence into the still higher ocean of hydrogen, 
 combustible itself.* Thus they begin and pursue their brief but 
 dazzling career, and separating into fragments, like the explo- 
 ding rocket scattering about the drops of light it inclosed, 
 will give us those swarms of shooting stars, which, at certain 
 periods of the year in particular, dart through the heavens, 
 mainly in one direction. Less composed of ponderable sub- 
 stances, but more of gaseous matter, and acted upon by 
 the currents in which they float, and the velocity or ease with 
 which they themselves proceed, they often present an undulating 
 course, and leave behind them streams or tails of glowing 
 vapours. 
 
 According to the distance of meteors and shooting stars from 
 the earth, the direction of their passage will be influenced by the 
 currents above, and become more and more uniform the higher 
 they ascend. The difference of temperature between the poles and 
 the equator causes at all times currents of water and of air and 
 of moisture between them ; and these currents within our atmo- 
 sphere of air are often disturbed, crossed, and altered by local and 
 other causes. These causes of altering currents do not, however, 
 exist beyond our ocean of air, and the oceans above it partake 
 only of the general movement from east to west. 
 
 Within these superior oceans, however, positive electricity, kept 
 off from the earth by the non-conducting air, is at home and 
 accumulates on the confines of our atmosphere, watching, so to 
 
 * The brilliancy and colour of meteors is readily explained when we bear 
 in mind the dazzling light produced by putting a grain of sulphur into highly 
 heated molten saltpetre, and that all the elements of these bodies are con- 
 tained in the air, brought together and acted upon by electricity. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 67 
 
 say, every opportunity to come down and unite with the negative 
 electricity below. This union is greatest and most intense at the 
 equator ; and though we are not as yet acquainted with the law 
 of electric compensation, whether planetary, solar, or universal, 
 we are certain that the greatest accumulation of terrestrial and 
 atmospheric electricity exists at the poles. If, therefore, the 
 evaporation of negative electricity at the equator is maintained by 
 an uninterrupted current from the interior of the polar regions, 
 the positive electricity of the air at the equator, spent in union 
 with the former, is supplied by currents flowing above our atmo- 
 sphere of air from the poles to the equator, uninfluenced by the 
 configuration of the land and its interior organization, contrary 
 to the opposite element. 
 
 When these currents, en rapport with the earth, in annual ebb 
 and flow pass and repass from the poles to the equator, this 
 rapport touches or strikes a corresponding electric cord in the 
 organization of the birds of passage, in harmony with which, 
 exhilarated, they rise until they reach the respective altitude of 
 the conductor which awakened within them their slumbering 
 instinct, and are safely guided by it into distant regions. 
 
 When in the same manner meteoric columns or accumulations 
 rise to the requisite altitude, and by repulsion of agglomerated 
 particles disperse into numberless fragments; each separated 
 fragment will again form its own sphere, and like birds of 
 passage, as shooting stars follow the course, more or less, of these 
 electric currents ; and hence it arises, that all seem to move in 
 the same or similar direction, and to follow the magnetic meridian 
 of the earth, with a strong westerly deviation on account of the 
 westward flow of the fluid matter above, caused by the eastward 
 rotation of the earth itself. This latter circumstance will from 
 hour to hour remove further away from the zenith the point of 
 
 radiation of meteors, or shooting stars, ascended during the day 
 
 r2 
 
68 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM- 
 
 or in the course of the evening, and make it appear as if the 
 spot from which they seem to emanate were located, nay almost 
 fixed, in the constellation in which first they were noticed. This, 
 however, refers chiefly to those periodical swarms of shooting 
 stars, which, more or less, last for several, even six to eight hours 
 of the evening, the greatest number appearing generally about 
 midnight. 
 
 The density and velocity of the aforesaid currents of positive 
 electricity influencing the direction of shooting stars will naturally 
 also affect their brilliancy, motion, and duration. The existence 
 of electricity in the superior regions of our planet, if not the 
 consequent prevalence of electric currents within and high above 
 our atmosphere of air, was entertained by Poisson, the friend of 
 Humboldt. In Note 63 of I. vol. of Cosmos, he is quoted as 
 follows : " At a distance from the earth where the density of 
 the atmosphere is altogether insensible, it would be difficult to 
 attribute, as has been done, the incandescence of aerolites to 
 friction with the molecules of the air. Could it not be supposed 
 that the electric fluid, in a neutral state, forms a kind of atmo- 
 sphere, which extends far beyond the mass of air ; which is subject 
 to the attraction of the earth, and which, consequently, FOLLOWS 
 OUR GLOBE IN ITS MOVEMENTS ? On this hypothesis, the bodies in 
 question, entering into this imponderable atmosphere, by their 
 unequal action on both electricities, would decompose the neutral 
 fluid, and thus electrifying themselves they would become heated 
 and incandescent." 
 
 A recent and more important approximation in favour of my 
 theory I find in the Eeader of 19 March, 1864 ; a letter of Mr. 
 Haidinger, Vienna, to M. Van Benden, of the Academic Royal de 
 Belgique, is noticed there in which he says : " The identity of the 
 three kinds of fiery meteors, viz: shooting stars, meteorites, and 
 star-showers seem to me undoubted ; but I do not feel justified in 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 69 
 
 expressing any decided opinion on the height of the atmosphere. 
 Mr. Quetelet has assumed that I do not share his views as to the 
 height of the atmosphere being greater than is generally supposed. 
 I may, however, say that I take the same view of the case as he 
 does, both with regard to the greater height of the atmosphere, and 
 also to the superposition of two layers of a different nature. The 
 lower of these, the unstable atmosphere, partakes of the rotatory 
 motion of the earth, and is subject to the influence of currents, 
 and to other variations, whilst the upper layer-^the stable 
 atmosphere is of much less density and is relatively at rest. 
 There is no doubt that the latter follows the earth in its annual 
 revolution, but whether it partakes of its diurnal motion is a 
 point which for the present remains undecided." 
 
 All this closely harmonises with what I have stated before, and 
 having in 1858 had the pleasure of paying a visit to the eminent 
 physicist and being most affably received by him, I am all the 
 more gratified of having the concurrence of so high an authority 
 respecting the connection between meteors and shooting-stars, and 
 of at least ONE further ocean of matter above our atmosphere of 
 air and different from it. 
 
 The link, then, which I have shown to exist between lightning 
 and the highest and brightest globes of light is evident proof that 
 these phenomena occur within the sphere of the earth, whatever 
 distance the meteor may seem to be at, and that this sphere of 
 ours is more than likely to embrace its faithful companion the 
 moon herself. 
 
 As I have once before noticed, the atmosphere of the earth has 
 been calculated to rise to an elevation of about 45 miles, but it 
 seems that an extension, though small, and still far from the 
 moon, has been gained ; for, in the Athenaeum of 11 October, 1862, 
 evidently alluding to my new theory never before entertained by 
 any one else, Professor Challis, at the meeting of the British 
 
70 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 Association for the advancement of Science, is reported to have 
 said : " It has been generally supposed that the earth's atmosphere 
 is about 70 miles high, but on no definite grounds, and the estimates 
 of the height have been very various. Against the opinion that it 
 extends as far as the moon, it was argued, that, as the moon would 
 in that case attach to itself a considerable portion by its gravitation, 
 which would necessarily have some connexion with the rest, there 
 would be a continual DRAG on the portion more immediately 
 surrounding the earth, and intermediately on the earth itself, 
 which would in some degree retard the rotation on its axis. 
 Hence, if, as there is reason to suppose, the rotation be strictly 
 uniform, the earth's atmosphere cannot extend to the moon." 
 
 In this argument there are no less than three fallacies to be 
 noticed, 
 
 If, in the first instance, the moon does float within our sphere, 
 she no more attaches to herself a portion of the element she rides 
 in, or upon, than a balloon attaches to itself a portion of the air by 
 which it is surrounded, or the vessel a portion of the water on which 
 she sails. 
 
 If, in the second instance, the moon did do so : the smallness of 
 such attachment, and her distance from the earth, would put 
 entirely out of the question a DRAG upon the air immediately 
 surrounding the earth, and still more so a retardation of the 
 rotation of the earth on its axis. 
 
 If, in the third instance, all were true respecting the attach- 
 ment and the drag, then the important and indisputable fact 
 still remains : that the present rotation of the earth on its axis is 
 ITS NORMAL CONDITION, whether the moon, according to my theory, 
 is actually as much attached to the earth as a balloon in the air, a 
 ship on the water, or a fish in the sea, or whether she is as 
 distinctly separated from the earth as Mars and Venus. 
 
 Hence, it will appear a strange conclusion to the thinking 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 71 
 
 reader, that, " if the rotation of the earth be strictly uniform, its 
 atmosphere cannot extend to the moon ; " or, which is the same : 
 "the rotation of the earth is strictly uniform, THEREFORE its 
 atmosphere does not extend to the moon," which, nevertheless, my 
 theory of the tides will prove it does, and that consequently, 
 meteors of every description have their beginning and end in our 
 own sphere, still embracing the moon. 
 
 Before suns were kindled in the firmament of heaven, most 
 likely during the third day of creation, when the dry land was 
 separated from the water, when the earth in labour was heaving 
 up towering mountains, furrowing the bed of the sea and opening 
 its bosom in numerous clefts and volcanoes, God may have willed 
 it that, like a nascent meteor, an electric accumulation, the moon 
 rose up from our planet, until agglomerated to repletion it ignited 
 in the atmosphere of moisture and gases into which it had as- 
 cended, already enveloped, perhaps, by an ocean of hydrogen, and 
 crystallizing without leaving any thing loose or liable to drop 
 down upon the earth into a body full of pores and vesicular 
 cavities, instead of fusing into a compact meteoric composition or 
 dispersing in numberless fragments. 
 
 As molten nickel poured into water will form little hollow 
 globes, so the electric accumulation of the future moon, under 
 favourable combinations, may have blazoned up without consolid- 
 ation or diffusion, and, though in other proportions, similar to the 
 meteoric stones with their pores and vesicular cavities mentioned 
 by Humboldt, Cosmos p. 119, been converted into a cork-like ball, 
 whose extensive vesicles and hollows perchance filled with the 
 hydrogen in which I suppose our satellite to be immersed with 
 its vast craters and cavities, would admirably be calculated to 
 keep her aloft on the expansive ocean on which she found her 
 level, and on which, preserving a semi-electric condition, she 
 continues to float like a discharged vessel, less dense and heavy 
 
72 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 above than below, within the sphere that gave her birth, in order 
 to reflect light on the body from which she proceeded. 
 
 The planets themselves, though as organic bodies, in a similar 
 manner, in meteoric progression, MAY have risen from the suns 
 round whom they revolve, when these primaries, by the Word of 
 God, had been distributed throughout creation, each one forming 
 strata after strata of attracted matter around their own electric 
 accumulation by feeding upon the surrounding chaos, and thus 
 preserving their floating, and ultimately revolving capacities. 
 This, indeed, seems to me more likely, than that, in the words of 
 Sir David Brewster, according to the theory of Olbers, " thirty 
 asteroids,* relics of a once mighty planet, are revolving in dis- 
 severed orbits, and warning the vain astronomer of another world 
 that a similar fate may await his own." That a planet should be 
 shattered in pieces, and its thirty or more solid fragments, by 
 some abstract magic power, assume the form of globes ; that these 
 fragments should become centres, and accommodate themselves to 
 the reputed law of universal gravitation, keeping each other apart, 
 and yet not beyond a certain respectful distance, and that, irres- 
 pective of the impulse they received, when torn asunder, in the 
 direction of every quarter of the universe, they should continue 
 to revolve in the same plane and in the same orbital space in 
 which their formerly common body is said to have been whirled 
 by the hand of the Almighty, is to me too much to comprehend. 
 
 The interior of that mighty planet, the same as our earth about 
 30 miles below the surface is said to be, was, no doubt, one mass 
 of fiery molten matter ; but what became of this interior sphere 
 of liquid fire when its shell was rent in pieces, we are not told. 
 Whether, exploding like a rocket, in streams of lava-lightning it 
 furrowed the heavens in every direction, dissolved and vanished 
 
 * Since this was written by Sir David Brewster, 50 more asteroids have 
 been discovered, so that there are now 80 in all. 
 
THE NEW THEOR1 OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 73 
 
 AS cosmical vapour ? Or, whether, blown up into fragments, these 
 also, by some unconscious, mysterious agency, formed into globes; 
 and cooling and hardening were turned into LITTLE planets, cours- 
 ing in the path of their parent to whose destruction they owed 
 their diminutive existence ? Or, whether the white-heat liquid was 
 scattered and dispersed into millions of meteoric bodies, swarming 
 round the sun in different orbits, and in their periodical tour 
 closely pass us by, manifesting themselves as luminous balls and 
 shooting stars, and by explosions and the sending down of incan- 
 descent memorials remind us of their volcanic origin and condition? 
 About all this the annals of astronomy are silent, and perhaps 
 all the better; for it appears, according to Hind's Introduction 
 of 1863, p. 96, that "the bursting of a planet" has recently 
 been given up, that " a fearful catastrophe of a great planet can 
 hardly be said to be the prevailing opinion at the PKESENT TIME 
 as to the origin of this remarkable group of planets." 
 
 The number, time, and periodicity of meteors and shooting 
 stars will depend upon general as well as local expansion of the 
 air by the heat of the sun, upon the thaws and frosts of the Arctic 
 regions, upon the tranquil, dry, or moist state of the atmosphere 
 and of the superior oceans, upon local warmth of the land or the 
 sea, upon the evaporation of electricity from volcanoes, and upon 
 the electric currents from the poles to the equator. 
 
 Which of these circumstances may combine, or in what manner 
 they may be favourable or unfavourable to meteoric phenomena, I 
 have not had time or facilities to examine ; but as regards 
 the general temperature of the air : the increase of heat, facilitating 
 the escape of electricity from the earth, seems to bring with 
 it an increase in the number of shooting stars. For, according to 
 observations made at Paris, and generally in the north of Europe, 
 the mean number of shooting stars during the first six months of 
 the year is only three to four per hour, whilst during the last six 
 
74 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 months it rises as high as six to eight per hour, and with the 
 departure of the sun to the south decreases again to the minimum. 
 
 The two maxima occur in August and November, the one when 
 the heat of summer is greatest and thunderstorms on the wane, 
 the second when a moist state of the atmosphere steps in between 
 the rains and dryness of summer and the snows and cold of winter, 
 and when the electric currents of the upper regions begin again to 
 flow more strongly to supply the consumption of the equator, 
 which in our summer chiefly, if not exclusively, is supplied from 
 the south. That the extraordinary swarms of shooting stars 
 which, at the aforesaid period in particular, fill us with wonder 
 and admiration, have no cosmic origin, and by no means are 
 annual or periodical travellers around the sun, I hope sufficiently 
 to have established ; but there is more positive evidence which 
 unmistakingly speaks against these suppositions. 
 
 Whether these puzzling meteors are the offspring of exploded 
 planets, or otherwise were launched by God into space and into 
 our solar system : in either case it would be wonderful indeed if, 
 in their course round the sun not only setting aside the darling 
 law of universal, but also the intruder of solar and planetary, 
 gravitation this, their centre of attraction, would let go his hold 
 upon the little things, permit them to peep down into our garden, 
 and even allow a good many of them to drop in uninvited. It 
 would further be truly wonderful if, with their astounding rapidity 
 of motion of from 10 to 70 miles or more in a second, as has been 
 calculated, some should at once stand still in their career and 
 quietly burn out their existence ; that so many should stop short 
 in our atmosphere, and not only stand still, but perpendicularly 
 fall, and some others perpendicularly rise, with almost lightning 
 velocity ; that others again should incline in their fall, and 
 numbers of others dart and disappear in lines horizontal; that 
 often they should more up and down in every direction j that, 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 75 
 
 like birds of passage getting lame or tired, some should come 
 down as meteoric masses of stone or iron, others explode and 
 dissolve into vapours, and others suddenly light up and as sud- 
 denly extinguish, and with others in their normal, but unseen and 
 never-seen, condition, continue their rapid flight ; that their race 
 round the sun should bring them down so deep into our atmo- 
 sphere as to be mostly no higher above the earth than from 5 to 90, 
 and in the rarer and exceptional instances from 120 to 180 and even 
 200 miles, and that notwithstanding we should see them only for a 
 few seconds from the time of their entrance into to that of their exit 
 from it ; that the lower meteors should be the SMALLER AND MOST 
 NUMEROUS, and the higher ones the LARGERST AND FEWEST ; that 
 shooting stars and luminous balls should be seen even at plain 
 noon, in the morning and evening, but in by far the greatest 
 number at midnight ; that they should be seen at all times of the 
 year, particularly from summer to autumn in every zone, in the 
 northern and southern hemisphere, at every height above the sea, 
 abeve plains and mountains ; that consequently the earth, as it 
 were, should constantly be clothed, completely enveloped, by these 
 swiftly-passing lights, mostly taking the direction of the magnetic 
 meridian or a more westerly course, and in the southern hemi- 
 sphere most likely the same, similar to the cyclones rolling from 
 north and south towards the equator, and following the sun to the 
 west ; that throughout the year, as from a regular source or 
 fountain, emanating from the higher region of our pole, they mostly 
 should seem to proceed from one or two circumpolar constellations, 
 encircling the dome of the earth on every side and glorifying God 
 as the lights more humbly do that illuminate the dome and tomb of 
 the Prince of the Apostles; that, if coming from cosmos and every- 
 where surrounding the earth unlike rain and hail falling upon a 
 globe so few should strike upon the body of the earth, but 
 mostly higher above pass us by, and dissolve or vanish in our 
 
76 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 atmosphere ; that in the case of those precipitated to the earth, the 
 sun should cease to exercise his inherent right and power of 
 attraction, whilst, notwithstanding, these bodies are said to obey 
 the laws of gravitation : yet ALL THIS is incompatible with, and 
 loudly protests against, their cosmic origin, whatever the kind of 
 meteor ; protests against the closed ring in which those swarms of 
 myriads of shooting stars appearing in August and November 
 every year are said to course round the sun, and in their passage 
 across the earth's orbit to touch, or come within, our sphere ; and 
 against the declaration of Mr. Faye,* " that not only does our 
 earth," as I have seen it so beautifully DRAWN ON PAPER, "pass 
 through a meteoric ring at that time, but that the sporadic meteors 
 seen from time to time," more or less the WHOLE YEAR ROUNI>, 
 " are BORROWED FROM THE RING AND BECOME ACTUAL TERRESTRIAL 
 SATELLITES," though of a very AIRY nature, " UNTIL THE EARTH'S 
 
 ATTRACTION PROVES TOO MUCH FOR THEM ;" but ALL THE CIRCUM- 
 STANCES connected with the phenomena of meteors and shooting 
 stars are readily accounted for by my simple theory. 
 
 In Lisbon I happened to be present in a foundry whilst melted 
 iron of great purity was drawn from the furnace ; and as iron, 
 when chemically pure, will ignite when coming in contact with 
 air or oxygen, so each time the flowing metal first began to run 
 into the crucible, little sparks, but mostly invisible particles, 
 quickly and in great numbers, as from a playing fountain, flew up 
 into the air, and by their contact with it, suddenly broke out into 
 light, gently exploded, and filled the space about with a shower of 
 falling stars, each one emanating and sparkling out from its tiny 
 nucleus, and in most instances leaving no visible fragment behind. 
 Hence also the unfrequency of being hurt by these beautiful little 
 meteors,' for they were nothing else though often falling about 
 like flakes of snow. They never enkindled until they had risen, and 
 
 * See Reader, October 3, 1863. 
 
THB NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 77 
 
 then, in a graceful inclined arch, exploded and vanished in their 
 oxidation. 
 
 Never have I seen a more beautiful illustration of luminous 
 meteors than in this instance, and it could not but confirm me in 
 my theory, that chemically-pure iron chiefly must also be the 
 basis in the formation of shooting stars and all kindred phenomena. 
 
 These atoms of iron, with other mineral or metallic solutions, 
 filling the air, aggregated into spheres, or otherwise accumulated 
 or condensed, as I have stated before, are reduced into their 
 chemically-pure elements by the warmth and action of the electric 
 currents more or less constantly or regularly flowing from about 
 the zenith of the pole towards the equator ; and being in contact 
 with our superior ocean of oxygen, or coming down into, or 
 floating within, our atmosphere of air, these agglomerations on a 
 grander scale will likewise explode and spread about the oxidizing 
 particles, in their rapid flight often leave tail-like traces behind, 
 and thus present to us all the varieties and conditions of luminous 
 bodies and shooting stars. 
 
 Whether meteoric phenomena emanate in greater number from 
 the sea or the land, is a question to be settled by observation, 
 though I think that but very few have their ORIGIN on the sea ; 
 for, the same reason which prevents thunder and lightning from 
 want of conductors, prevents also the rising of electric streams, 
 and their subsequent formation into spheres. One instance where 
 such a sphere was formed ON the water, confirmatory of what I 
 have said, is recorded in the Philosophical Transactions : " It 
 happened on board the Montague, on the 4th of November, 1748, 
 in latitude 42 48', and 9 3' west longitude, about noon. One 
 of the quartermasters desired the master of the vessel to look to 
 the windward, when he observed a large ball of blue fire rolling 
 apparently on the surface of the water, at the distance of three 
 miles from them. It rose almost perpendicular, when it was 
 
78 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 within forty or fifty yards from the main chains of the ship ; it 
 then went off with an explosion, as if a hundred cannons had been 
 fired at one time, and left so strong a smell of sulphur, that the 
 ship seemed to contain nothing else. After the noise had subsided, 
 the maintopmast was found shattered to pieces, and the mast 
 itself was rent quite down to the keel. Five men were knocked 
 down, and one of them greatly burnt by the explosion." The ball 
 was said to have been as big as a millstone. 
 
 It will also be a matter of observation, whether shooting stars 
 diminish when the aurora borealis is prevalent ; whether meteors 
 will be scarce when and where thunderstorms are frequent ; 
 whether meteors and meteoric stones fall about the time of 
 volcanic eruptions ; and whether meteoric phenomena are most 
 frequent and numerous in the tropics. 
 
 When in the higher latitudes these meteoric emanations from 
 the land or the sea are arrested by the cold state of the atmo- 
 sphere, by clouds of frozen vapours or snow, they will give us 
 that most magnificent of all phenomena, the 
 
 AURORA BOREALIS. 
 
 The accumulation of electricity, like the density of the air and 
 of oxygen, is greatest* at the poles, owing to the intense cold, the 
 rarefaction of the upper regions of the atmosphere, and the snow 
 and ice which cover land and sea, and which form a barrier to the 
 escape of negative electricity from the earth. The accumulation, 
 also, is greater at the north than at the south pole, the former 
 having more land, and the latter more water, and the one holding 
 more electricity than the other. The evidence of this accumu- 
 lation, of these reservoirs of electricity, lies in their attraction of 
 the magnetic needle ; for, the greater the quantity of electricity, the 
 greater the amount and force of magnetic power ; and the greatest 
 magnetic attraction is that of the north pole. 
 
 According to all accounts, the aurora borealis takes place after 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 79 
 
 a thaw, though volcanic action on land and on water, as it 
 produces clouds and thunderstorms, may also be one, if not a 
 chief, cause of its production. By this means, and in proportion 
 to the rapidity of the thaw, an immense quantity of negative 
 electricity confined in the earth, and accumulated on its surface 
 under the cover of snow and ice, is liberated ; and trying to rise 
 through the air which opposes its passage, it creeps up at the sides 
 of hills and mountains, which abound in the Artie regions, and 
 ascends also with the rising vapours. 
 
 Electricity is the binding and dissolving element of bodies, the 
 same as fire and water, which decompose some and solidify others : 
 electricity gathers the vapours of the air and concentrates them 
 into clouds, whilst within them it accumulates, and by its repulsive 
 or expansive property prevents their aggregation into water ; but 
 no sooner has the cloud commenced to discharge its electric ac- 
 cumulation, than the same operation which decomposes water into 
 hydrogen and oxygen, and reduces these gases again into water, 
 begins to liquefy the aqueous vapours into drops of water to fall down 
 on the land from which electricity arose to attract and collect it. If 
 a cloud rises very high, and in its elevated position is unable to dis- 
 charge its electric accumulation by communication with electric accu- 
 mulations from the earth, the positive element will more and more 
 augment and concentrate within the cloud, until overcharged, it 
 suddenly contracts and violently combines with the vapours, at 
 the same time breaking them up into numberless bodies, to pre- 
 cipitate or send them down to the earth in the form of hail, or, as 
 in regularly cold seasons, and with a more gradual operation of 
 positive electricity, in flakes of snow. At night, when the 
 atmosphere has cooled down and is less expanded, clouds cannot 
 attain the altitude which they rise to during the day ; they, there- 
 fore, are not liable to be quickly transferred to a higher and 
 colder stratum, to be there exposed to an increased accumulation 
 
80 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 of positive electricity and a sudden contraction ; and hence the 
 scarcity of hail at night. 
 
 It has been observed by Humboldt, that in fogs, and at the 
 beginning of the fall of snow, in the plain as well as between 10 
 and 14,000 feet above the level of the sea, in cold as well as in 
 tropical regions, the atmosphere quickly and frequently changes 
 from one electrical state to the other ; and this change, in the case 
 of the clouds, seems, beyond question, to be in connection with, if 
 not the main cause of, the formation of hail. 
 
 Wherever contraction is concerned, positive electricity seems 
 mainly the operating agent. In winter, when all is cold, when 
 the normal state of the atmosphere is to the highest degree posi- 
 tively electric, when snow and ice cover land and water, when 
 negative electricity has retired from the vegetable creation into the 
 bosom of the earth, all nature seems contracted. When metals 
 are cold, retaining even the skin of the warm hand that touches 
 them : is it, that warmth, that negative electricity, has been driven 
 out of them, and positive electricity takes its place ? Or is it that 
 metals are chemically combined with the positive element? 
 that in metals, perhaps, we find positive, or, as may be, 
 negative electricity in its most compressed state ? that positive 
 electricity not only explodes meteoric accumulations, but enters 
 into combination with the metallic solutions of our atmosphere to 
 produce meteoric stones ? That, as fire and light, an evolution of 
 electricity on a small scale, warm and kindle by induction, and 
 contact, and chemical decomposition, solidify and liquefy bodies : 
 electricity chemically combined with metals, and effecting the 
 same on a large scale, is freed and decomposed again by electric 
 batteries ? As water is^ a compound of oxygen and hydrogen, 
 and absorbs air containing oxygen : are metals, as they seem to 
 me, a compound of some element or elements with electricity, 
 which they absorb still by contact with electrified metals or mag- 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 81 
 
 nets ? If my theory be true, it will be an interesting subject for 
 inquiry, what relation there is between magnetization and the 
 specific gravity or density of metals, as also, whether iron could 
 not be saturated with some substance or other to prevent its mag- 
 netization in shipping, &c ? Whether acids are not minutely 
 condensed particles of electricity, a condensation of electric 
 matter ? 
 
 These and other questions naturally present themselves to the 
 mind, and seem to me to be objects of the highest importance, 
 though for the moment they lead away from the subject. 
 
 When water begins to congeal and to freeze : is it not likely 
 that warmth, that negative electricity gives way to positive, the 
 same as no doubt it does in the change from rain to hail and 
 snow f that, having been contracted and taken possession of, the 
 newly-formed ice will expand again by a continued and passive 
 accession of the positive fluid, by nature expansive? That by 
 these means ice will become lighter and float upon the water from 
 which it had been formed? That ice and snow melted by the 
 rays of the sun will dissolve into vapours, of themselves highly 
 electric, and thus all the more be calculated to assist and promote 
 the formation and development of the aurora borealis ? 
 
 Whether vapours thus disengaged will lose or change their 
 electric condition, whether they will be transferred into fogs, 
 into clouds of rain, or again into snow or icy particles, will depend 
 on the temperature and the electric condition and currents of the 
 superior air ; and this, no doubt, will determine the way, form, 
 colour and duration of the phenomenon in the amalgamation of 
 the two electric fluids near the poles. 
 
 From the nature of the aurora borealis, the COLD state of the 
 upper atmosphere, and the general rapidity of the thaw, it seems 
 to me likely that the electricity of the earth rises, both by the 
 conduction of mountains and vapours, generally without any of 
 
82 THE NEW TIIEOEY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 the electricity above coming down any distance into our atmo- 
 sphere, or settling in clouds, as it does in thunder storms and 
 waterspouts. Hence, no condensed body, or charges of positive 
 electricity, will in this case be formed, and the fluid remains free 
 and passive, as it were, though accumulating by the attraction 
 from below ; and as by electric discharges in the rarefied air of a 
 PARTIALLY exhausted receiver, the glow, which, according to 
 Faraday, precedes the brush and actual explosion, is readily 
 obtained, so the negative streams, or negative clouds of vapour, 
 coming up and in contact with the former, the silent lightning, 
 the sheet-lightnings of our summer evenings, will take place, as 
 also has been shown before : but by the presence or vicinity of 
 the ocean of oxygen which I believe to exist above our atmosphere 
 of air, by the composition of the air itself, as well as by other 
 conditions, this silent lightning, this glow, will be changed into 
 the Northern Light as it most commonly appears. 
 
 The shape of the earth, the ring of vapours or clouds that gird 
 the Polar regions, the atmosphere floating like an arch on the 
 globe, may account for the curve or arch in which the aurora 
 borealis presents itself to our view ; but it seems to me more 
 probable, that electric columns rising up at extreme points of the 
 plane or place of evaporation, without any, at least lofty, volumes 
 rising up in the centre or intermediate parts, at these points draw 
 down the positive fluid nearer to the earth than it can descend in 
 the middle ; and hence the appearance of a vaulted firework. 
 
 One of the experiments of Sir H. Davy proves that electric 
 accumulations and currents are influenced by magnets. It is, 
 therefore, quite evident, that the electric volumes rising from the 
 earth have power to draw down and to draw out of their course 
 and altitude the currents and accumulations of the positive 
 electricity above. "He placed" (quoting from Dr. Lardner) 
 " two pieces of charcoal in connection with the wires of a 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 83 
 
 powerful voltaic battery, and, by presenting their points towards 
 each other, at a distance varying from one to four inches, 
 according to the density of the air in which the experiment 
 was made, he obtained a column of electric fluid formed by the 
 current passing through the space between the charcoal points. 
 This current was not transmitted, as usual, along any conductor, 
 but merely passed through the air between the points, and its 
 presence was rendered manifest by the light evolved. When a 
 powerful magnet was presented to this column with its pole at a very 
 acute angle to it, the current was attracted or repelled with a rotatory 
 motion, or made to revolve by placing the poles in different 
 positions, in the same manner as metallic wire conducting the 
 current would have been. The electric column was more easily 
 affected by the magnet, and its motion was more rapid when it 
 passed through dense than through rarefied air ; and, in this case, 
 the conducting medium, or chain of aeriform particles, was much 
 shorter." 
 
 The same influence which in this instance was exercised by the 
 magnet upon the electric current between the two pieces of charcoal, 
 is, in the case of the aurora borealis, exercised by the electric 
 volumes rising from the earth in certain places and at certain times 
 upon the currents of the superior regions, to which their points 
 or poles form more or less acute angles. 
 
 Mr. Biot, according Dr. Lardner, " conceives that the luminous 
 columns composing the aurora have not in reality the position or 
 form which they appear to the eye to have ; but that their apparent 
 form is merely the result of perspective. He considers, and 
 truly so, that the phenomenon is produced by an infinite number 
 of luminous columns, parallel to the dipping-needle and to each 
 other, arranged side by side at nearly the same height from the 
 surface of the earth ; these systems of columns being placed at 
 unequal distances from the eye, and seen under different angles of 
 
84 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 obliquity, are projected into various figures, which are subject to 
 variation arising from the varying splendour of their component 
 rays." Add to this, that clouds of some sort or other will also 
 form in the upper regions, or be carried thither by atmospheric 
 currents, charged perhaps with ponderable matter, and collecting 
 and accumulating the positive electricity of the higher sphere ; that 
 these clouds will, dispersed or united, correspond in position to the 
 negative columns or clouds rising from the earth, as in the case of 
 waterspouts cone corresponds to cone ; and that for want of con- 
 ductors, where trees, hills, and mountains are scarce, clouds at the 
 formation of the aurora boreal is will always assume the conical 
 figure of the waterspout ; that there may be a discharge of elec- 
 tricity between two clouds, one above the other ; that, itself a dark 
 segment, an electric cloud may send up lofty cones into the upper 
 regions, and communicate also with the space below, as sometimes 
 is the case with thunderclouds ; that meteoric, globular accumu- 
 lations from the earth may be attracted and concentrated over a 
 certain area by a cloud or clouds, or their ascent impeded by too 
 cold a state of the upper strata of air, and thus ignite and break 
 out into streams of light ; that above all there is a constant over- 
 flowing of positive electricity at the poles, and returning in regular 
 currents high above us to the equator ; that these currents alone 
 are sufficient to account for all the electric accumulations of the 
 higher regions, that, in fact, the aurora borealis will form itself 
 into all shapes, if over against numerously-ascending columns of 
 negative electricity, positive volumes or accumulations arrange 
 themselves from the beforementioned causes : and it may easily be 
 imagined that the amalgamation of the two electricities under 
 various atmospheric densities and conditions will produce all those 
 splendid displays of the phenomena which so often have dazzled 
 and charmed the beholder. 
 Brilliancy and colour, as in the case of meteors, depend upon 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 85 
 
 the proportionate presence of atmospheric air and its constituents, 
 on the state and composition of clouds and vapours, and par- 
 ticularly on the refraction and reflection of light in the 
 arctic regions ; the direction and motion of the aurora borealis 
 will be influenced by the electric fluid from the earth, currents of 
 the atmosphere, and the rotation of the earth itself ; but there can 
 be no doubt that it is itself nothing but the amalgamation of the two 
 electricities, in a different clime, under different circumstances, and 
 for a different end. Almost all philosophers of natural science are 
 agreed, that the aurora borealis is the result of electric agency ; 
 but according to Dr. Lardner, Eberhart, Professor of Halle, and 
 Paul Frisi at Pisa, were the first who proposed the explanation of 
 the phenomenon being the effect of atmospheric electricities, 
 founded on the following facts : 
 
 " 1. Electricity transmitted through rarefied air exhibits a 
 luminous appearance, precisely similar to that of the aurora 
 borealis." 
 
 " 2. The strata of atmospheric air become rarefied as their alti- 
 tude above the surface of the earth is increased." Hence they 
 argued, in the words of the Doctor, " that the aurora is nothing 
 more than electric discharges transmitted through parts of the 
 upper regions of the atmosphere, so rarefied as to produce that 
 peculiar luminous appearance which they exhibit." 
 
 Whether the aurora borealis is more frequent and intense in 
 severe or mild winters, whether it is chiefly local, and happens 
 about the time of electric high tide, of which latter I shall treat 
 hereafter, I have not been able to enter into and to ascertain. 
 But it is a most conclusive proof of my theory of an electric 
 organization of the interior of the earth, and of an exterior corres- 
 ponding operation of electricity, that difference of geographical 
 situation being taken into consideration, polar lights have often 
 been observed at the same time in the northern and in the southern 
 regions of the earth. 
 
86 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 The last aurora, as recorded in Nature and Revelation, Miinster, 
 were seen at the same corresponding time, the one at Miinster, 
 Westphalia, and the other at Melbourne, Australia, on the evening 
 of the 9th, and morning of the 10th of April, 1858, respectively ; 
 the magnetism of the earth was violently disturbed, and the effect 
 upon the magnetic needle simultaneously observed at Melbourne, 
 Bonn, Gottingen, Prague, Vienna and Christiania. 
 
 Other, and later, instances of corresponding polar lights, with 
 great disturbance of the MAGNETISM OF THE EARTH whilst the 
 electric tension of the ATMOSPHERE WAS NOT PARTICULARLY DIS- 
 TURBED, with variation of the declination and INCLINATION of the 
 magnetic needle, magnetic intensity and effect upon the telegraph 
 wires, are recorded in the first number of the above named work 
 of 1860. In one case of a magnetic storm the magnetic disturb- 
 ances were very great and peculiar, and appeared to Mr. Neumayer, 
 the observer at Melbourne, as the effect of a polar light and of an 
 earthquake. A polar light had for some time preceded this mag- 
 netic storm. 
 
 It has also been noticed, that the auroras, or polar lights, are most 
 frequent in those countries that are nearest to and lie on the side of 
 the magnetic pole. In North America, for instance, being on the side 
 of the magnetic pole, they are far more frequent, and come down 
 further south than in Europe or Asia ; there also the magnetism of 
 the earth is far more intense than in the latter parts of the earth. 
 
 This makes it clear, that there is a correspondence between the 
 northern and southern auroras, consequent upon an INTERIOR COR- 
 RESPONDENCE of the earth ; that, like an induction apparatus, 
 filled with soft iron, the EARTH, filled with metallic substances from 
 pole to pole, is the primary cause, next to the sun, of the electric 
 phenomena of the air. 
 
 The aurora borealis, therefore, must necessarily exercise a very 
 sensible effect upon the magnetic needle, owing to the immense 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 87 
 
 quantity of electricity liberated and brought into action from a 
 state of rest, by the time it has reached its height, or the point of 
 culmination ; and the disturbance in the previous magnetic state 
 of the atmosphere must obviously be greater or less, according to 
 the intensity of the electric evaporation and the development of 
 the aurora. 
 
 The amalgamation of the two electricities, as in the case of 
 waterspouts, is not necessarily accompanied with thunder, though 
 the development of the aurora borealis, according to the competent 
 authority of Hansteen, and some others, is at times attended with 
 a crackling noise ; and this may be^accounted for by the electric 
 sparks coming, on these occasions, from a more or less compact 
 segment of the aurora, more or less in contact with the denser, and 
 to us, nearer, part of the atmosphere. 
 
 When the phenomenon takes place on the confines of our atmo- 
 sphere of air, it is too distant, and the air too rarefied to produce 
 or transmit to us any sound ; for, sound is best produced and 
 propagated where the air is densest, and where the bodies or 
 substances causing the sound, and giving character to it, are those 
 which are the most solid. Hence, in the case of thunderstorms 
 even, thunder will always be loud in proportion to the density of 
 the cloud, and weak in proportion to its attenuity. Humboldt 
 has proved also, that sounds are audible at greater distances by 
 night than by day ; and this arises from the greater density of the 
 air at night to what it is by day. 
 
88 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 IV. 
 
 SOUND, ITS CAUSES AND ORIGIN. PROFESSOR FARADAY. THUNDER, 
 SUBTERRANEAN GRUMBLING. 
 
 SOUND, the most charming and soul-stirring of all the wonders of 
 a bountiful Creator, is the effect of a more or less violent friction 
 of the air with more solid bodies ; it is an agitation of the air 
 striking against more opaque bodies than itself, modified by the 
 substance with which the friction takes place, or by which the 
 agitation is produced ; and the agitation itself is caused by a dis- 
 placement, or by a disturbance of the equilibrium, of the air in 
 oneway or another. 
 
 When, originated by the pressure of the moon or the cloud, or 
 by the electric phenomena of land, sand and waterspouts, the 
 tempest roars over the sea, sweeps through the forest, assails the 
 lofty castle, and whistles and howls about our dwellings ; there is a 
 violent friction of the air, and its sound tells us of the awful power 
 with which God invested the element of our life. When the 
 hammer strikes upon the bell, when lightning flashes, when the 
 waves of the sea run up against the shore, there is a violent 
 displacement and consequent agitation of the air ; when the organ 
 swells, the trumpet sounds, and music of every kind steals upon 
 the ear, it comes from a more gentle, but still the same friction, 
 displacement and agitation of the air, and fills us with delight ; we 
 have it in the song of the mother, and in the laugh of the child ; 
 in the discourse of the man and the merriment of the boy ; and 
 these human voices are the tones that are sweetest and touch us 
 most, and above all, when coming from those whom we love ; but 
 all is' friction, displacement, and agitation of the air wherever utter- 
 ance was given to animated creation to proclaim the glory of God. 
 And in all these cases, the volume, power, and weakness of sound is 
 proportioned to the force of friction or agitation, its character 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 89 
 
 established by the substance acted upon and producing agitation, 
 and its scale determined by a concentration or extension of space 
 of displacement, a concentration or extension of agitation or 
 vibration. 
 
 The propagation of this agitation, of sound, depends upon the 
 nature and state of the bodies in connection, in contact with, or 
 contiguous to the spot or place where the displacement of the air 
 originated, as also upon their form. If these bodies are smooth or 
 polished, particularly when trumpet-shaped, sound may be conveyed 
 to an extraordinary distance, for, in the latter case, the waves 
 forced out of the instrument will remain concentrated, and thus 
 overcome resistance a long time before diverging ; if, however, they 
 are uneven, or porous, sound will travel but a short way, and lose 
 its intensity, and this for the following reasons : 
 
 If a stone be thrown into the water, rings will propagate all over 
 the surface until the original force is spent, the rings die away, are 
 intercepted, or broken at the shore ; ordinarily there is nothing to 
 impede the extension of the circle of the wave on the surface of 
 the water. But as the stone is sinking to the bottom, the rings 
 around it will soon have ceased ; everywhere surrounded and 
 pressed upon by the water, the displacing force of the stone neu- 
 tralized and destroyed, and the water from all sides rushing in 
 upon the space it has passed through as it goes down, no ring can 
 form, much less propagate, after the first moment of immersion. 
 
 It is the same with sound produced in the air. Surrounded by 
 air, it diffuses in every direction like the rays of light ; and the air 
 also rushing from all sides upon the spot where displacement and 
 agitation began, prevents its propagation to any particular extent. 
 But wherever the air presents any surface, and according to 
 the nature of this surface, sound travels to a much greater 
 distance. 
 
 This surface of the air exists wherever it leans again.-t a solid. 
 

 90 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 liquid, or condensed fluid body ; resting upon the river, the lake or 
 the sea, the lower surface of the air reposes on the surface of the 
 water ; on land the lower surface of the air rests on rough and 
 broken ground ; there is a surface of the air pressing against every 
 body in nature capable of pressure : there is a surface of the air 
 on the slab of the table and underneath it ; there is one against 
 the wall, the floor, and the ceiling ; in fact, against every tangible 
 object. 
 
 If these surfaces of the air lean against surfaces of bodies polished 
 or uninterruptedly even, sound will travel the longest distance, 
 because the wave originally created is propagated without impedi- 
 ment until it naturally dies away; but if the surface of bodies is 
 rough, loose or porous, the wave of the air passing over it is every- 
 where and every moment impeded, broken, or absorbed, and conse- 
 quently soon exhausted or destroyed. Hence it follows that sound 
 is conveyed by the air only, according to the surface and form which 
 receives the first undulation, and that it is sustained by the length 
 of time required to bring the agitated air into a state of rest ; and 
 this will last longer on smooth and rounded surfaces than on rough 
 and uneven or cornered bodies, as it will also depend on the oscil- 
 lation and swinging of bodies, by or on which the friction of the air, 
 the sound has been produced, until they likewise come to a state 
 of rest. 
 
 When cannons are fired at sea, it is not the water that conveys 
 the sound to an extraordinary distance, but the displacement and 
 consequent wave of the air caused by the explosion, and propa- 
 gated without impediment over the liquid surface. If the water is 
 agitated, its undulation will, as it were, give light and shade to the 
 sound, and make it resemble the distant, scarcely audible, rolling 
 of thunder. When the tramping of horses is heard at a greater 
 distance by putting the ear close to the earth, than it is when heard 
 within, or through, the body of the airj it is not the earth that 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 91 
 
 conveys the sound, but the agitated surface of the air resting upon 
 it. Hence also the fact, that apart from the greater density of the 
 air, sound is propagated and heard to a greater distance in winter 
 than at any other time, because snow covers the ground, and 
 presents an extended and smoother surface to the air -wave passing 
 over it, particularly when the snow is not soft, but more or less 
 frozen over. 
 
 When in the whispering gallery of St. Paul's a person speaks 
 across the dome, he will not be heard on the opposite side, because 
 the sound produced, meeting everywhere with resistance, and 
 weakened by diffusion, soon dies away in the air ; but let him 
 speak close to the wall, and the wave of sound created on the sur- 
 face of the air leaning against it, will immediately pass round the 
 whole circle, because there is nothing to hinder its propagation 
 It is not the wall, as is supposed, that conveys or deflects the sound, 
 but the surface of the air resting against it. 
 
 If a metallic rod be made to strike against a chair, table, or 
 other body : it is not the metallic rod through which the sound is 
 conveyed to our ear, but by the waving air embracing its polished 
 surface. If a beam of timber be struck, or scratched with a pin or 
 nail at one end, and the sound comes to your ear at the other as 
 passing through the wood itself : it is not the wood that vibrates 
 or conveys that sound, but the Wave produced by the scratch or 
 stroke, and propagated on the surface of the air embracing the 
 surface of the beam, and concentrated again in one focus at the 
 opposite end. 
 
 If, as was done by Professor Wheatstone at the Polytechnic 
 Institution, a piano or other musical instruments are placed in the 
 cellar or souterrain of the house, and the instruments brought 
 in communication with an upper appartment by means of staves 
 carried through the several intervening ceilings, the music per- 
 formed below will, as if present, be heard above. For this 
 
92 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 purpose the staves must be in connection with the sounding-boards 
 of the instruments in the cellar as well as with the sounding- 
 board of some musical instrument above. 
 
 In this case, however, it is not, as has been imagined, the wood, 
 the staves, that convey ex- or in-teriorly the sound from below to 
 the room upstairs, but the wave of the air passing along the 
 staves. The staves, like all conducting bodies of sound, are 
 entirely passive, they are innocent of the transmission of harmony 
 along their surface. Had the apertures by which the staves were 
 carried from ceiling through ceiling been made to close air-tight 
 upon them, no sound whatever would have passed. Had the 
 sounding-boards of harps or other instruments above been re- 
 moved, the sound from below would not have spread over the 
 apartment, but only been able to be heard by listening at the 
 extremity of the staves, from which it would escape into the free 
 air of the room, and there be lost by speedy diffusion. Had the 
 experiment been reversed, and the music performed upstairs 
 instead of below, the sound would not so easily have been heard 
 in the cellar, because the vertical descent of an air-wave, however 
 free to move, is against the natural upward current of the atmo- 
 sphere, itself the result of a constantly higher state of warmth of 
 its lower strata. 
 
 When the bell sounds the merry peal, it is not the shaking or 
 motion of every particle of the metal that causes and diffuses the 
 sound, but the violent concussion of the hammer with the bell 
 suddenly forcing the air from its place, and driving the wave all 
 over the bell into the open atmosphere, in proportion to the in- 
 tensity of the stroke. If dust has accumulated on the bell, it 
 will change place according to the wave of air which passed over 
 the surface, but not on account of any motion of the atoms or 
 particles composing the metal.* 
 
 * If light particles of dust be on the outside of a bell when it is struck, you 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 93 
 
 Professor Faraday, in his lecture on Friday, December 26th, 
 1856, according to the Morning Chronicle, says: " Observe the 
 elasticity of a bell, which causes the sound to vibrate, and produces 
 chimes, tolling, &c.; put the bell under a slow fire for two or 
 three minutes, the sound is dull, the elasticity is gone ; let it get 
 cold, the sound returns to it." 
 
 But this is evidently wrong. If the sound grows dull when the 
 bell is warmed, it is not owing to a diminished elasticity of the 
 metal, but to the warmer state of the air coming in immediate 
 contact with the bell, as it is a well-known fact, that sound pro- 
 pagates louder and farther in winter than in summer, in a cold 
 than in a warm, in a dense than in an expanded state of the air. 
 Hence also the difficulty of the singer, and his vain exertion to 
 produce a good tone in warm weather, in an expanded and 
 attenuated state of the air. The warm air is thin and more 
 elastic, consequently gives way, and offers, as it were, no volume 
 or body to the striking hammer, receives, therefore, but a slight 
 shock, and propagates but a feeble wave.* The air, when cold, 
 as a denser body, more resists the falling stroke, the displacement 
 is more violent, more particles of air are acted upon, and the 
 
 will, by their motion, have no doubt but that the PARTICLES OF THE METAL 
 MOVE TOO, though not sufficiently to be visible to the naked eye. If you take 
 a plate of glass and sprinkle .on it a little fine sand, and then hold it at one 
 corner by a pair of pliers, and pass a violin bow along one of the sides, you 
 will see the sand arrange itself into a uniform figure ; if you apply the bow to 
 one corner, the figure will be varied ; and by these means you may produce 
 some beautiful arrangements of the sand, and almost say that you SEE 
 sound. T. Joyce's Scientific Dialogues. 
 
 In these instances, as I have observed already, it is not the metal that moves 
 (the small capitals above are my own), not the glass that vibrates, no more than 
 the cement or stone when the wind is striking against aud howling along the 
 castle wall ; here there is no oscillation of particles, but it is the agitated air, 
 the waves produced by the hammer and the bow, that cause the dust and the 
 sand to arrange themselves into regular forms and figures on the body, over 
 whose surface the waves are passing. 
 
 * That in winter or in cold weather the air-wave is more voluminous and 
 longer, and in warm weather thinner and shorter, may perhaps, like the thick 
 and long, thin and short, string on the harp or piano, account for the sound 
 of organ pipes giving a deeper tone in winter than in summer. 
 
94 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 agitation or vibration becomes stronger, and the sound louder and 
 longer, both as to time and distance ; the density of the air is a 
 multiplied propagator of the wave and agitation originally created, 
 and sound will continue until the agitated air has subsided into 
 rest, for which one substance or body, surface and form, is more 
 calculated than the other. Hence also the oscillations, swelling 
 and sinking, &c., of sound, if they are not the intentional produc- 
 tion of the performer. 
 
 It follows from all this, that sound can neither penetrate through 
 solid bodies, which are impervious to the air itself, nor be con- 
 ducted by any solid bodies, not in contact with the air. If gases, 
 water, or other seemingly-condensed or opaque bodies, convey 
 sound without being in immediate contact with the atmosphere, it 
 is because they are saturated with air, the air within them is 
 concentrated, and they are, therefore, still in contact, however 
 remotely, with the atmosphere. If there were no communication 
 of the atmosphere with the air in the interior of a closed watch, 
 you would not hear its ticking, the same as you do not hear a 
 bell if placed under an exhausted receiver, unless you put your 
 ear close to the smooth and solid body on which the receiver may 
 rest ; for the wave, however thin, will still affect the air outside 
 along the polished surface of the said body, as the receiver may 
 be very highly rarefied within, but can never entirely be exhausted. 
 It is the same with a musical box put under the receiver ; if it 
 rest on a solid substance, its sound will be heard ; but if placed 
 on a bag of wool, it will become inaudible, because the bag will 
 absorb or break the wave. 
 
 One of the most beautiful evidences, how, from the recess of 
 inclosure, the slightest motion given to the air is conveyed to the 
 ear, is afforded by the stethoscope, which, on being applied to the 
 human frame, naturally penetrated with air, reveals to us the 
 sanitary state of the lungs and heart. Their expansion, and con- 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 95 
 
 traction, and pulsation, produce and convey, through mouth and 
 nostrils exteriorly, an air-wave over the surface of the body, which 
 wave, concentrated more or less around and within the instrument, 
 breaks into the ear. Or, the heaving and beating of lungs and heart, 
 by and through the skin, is communicated to the air within and 
 without the stethoscope ; and, however slight, an indent, a feeble 
 wave or motion of the air is produced, which silently, in a whisper, 
 in an echo, as it were, strikes the listening mind ; the ear rather 
 feels than hears the inward action. 
 
 Thus, there cannot possibly be any sound where there is no air, 
 or where the friction or concussion of solid bodies, or the vibra- 
 tion of any substance is not communicated to it in some way or 
 other. Sound, therefore, though it may have many fathers, 
 knows no other mother and conductor but the air. 
 
 And yet I am inclined to think, that there is something more 
 concerned in the production of sound than the mere friction or 
 concussion with the air. The great rapidity of the conveyance 
 of sound in comparison to the motion of the air itself, to the 
 fleetest of hurricanes; the propagation of sound through and 
 against the strongest wind, which, one should think, . would 
 overcome, or at least neutralize, any air-wave, any vibration of 
 the air caused by whatever means, whilst the mere use of the 
 human voice will penetrate through the opposing storm ; the 
 sound which will reach the ear from within the although never 
 entirely exhausted receiver, notwithstanding the apparently 
 broken connection with the air outside ; the increase of sound 
 within and from the exhausted receiver if a few drops of alcohol 
 or ether which quickly evaporate, are put in ; the divergence of 
 musical harmonies through the air in every direction, without the 
 waves that convey them ever commingling together, but bringing 
 each individual note or sound distinctly and at the same time to 
 our ear ; the fact of hard and solid substances, particularly metals 
 
96 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 producing the loudest tone and propagating it farthest; that 
 friction produces both sound and light : all this makes me suppose 
 that the essence of sound is connected with electricity ; that by 
 whatever friction with the air, perhaps with its most important 
 and mysterious ingredient, oxygen, a certain corresponding amount 
 of electric excitation is produced ; that this electric excitation is 
 inseparably bound up with the air ; that the air is the vehicle to 
 bring the effects of this excitation in all their unimaginable 
 variety to our mind ; and as the sun sends forth his seven- 
 coloured rays, shows them to us in the rainbow, and again in 
 their most wonderful and infinite variety of mixture and union in 
 every created object and in the works of man, so the same 
 electric element, in indissoluble alliance with the air we breathe, 
 sends, like rays of light, in another form, to our mind and heart 
 the seven notes of the musical scale, with all that harmony which 
 the genius of the composer has been and will still be able to 
 weave out by their unlimited combination in inexhaustible 
 measure, melody, aud modulation. 
 
 The air, then, remains the mother, handmaid, and conductor of 
 sound ; it is the plastic element that yields to and adopts every 
 impression, which it receives as a unit and sub- divides into 
 millions of undivided parts, conveying to each hearer the unit 
 unimpaired ; for, all will hear alike, all will taste alike, their hearts 
 and minds will be filled with the unit, and yet they cannot contain 
 or grasp it ; a beautiful type, this, of the Blessed Sacrament. 
 
 Conveying every kind of impression the air receives, undulating 
 sounds, like the rolling of distant thunder, will fall upon our ear 
 if a waggon rolls over the pavement, which being undulated, 
 imparts its character and nature to the wave, the sound produced. 
 
 Thunder itself is produced in a similar manner. 
 
 Dr. Lardner states, that from " the reports of military en- 
 gineers, who, being placed at elevated stations on the Pyrenees, 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 97 
 
 and thus enabled to observe the superior surface of strata of 
 clouds situated below them, it appears that there is no corres- 
 pondence between the state of the lower and upper surface of a 
 stratum of thunderclouds ; that when the inferior surface is per- 
 fectly even and level, the superior surface will be broken into 
 ridges and protuberances, rising upwards to great altitudes, like 
 the surface of the earth in an alpine district. In times of great 
 heat, such strata were observed to send upwards lofty vertical 
 cones, which, stretching into higher regions of the air, established 
 by their conducting power (no doubt themselves attracted by 
 superior accumulations of free electricity), an electrical communi- 
 cation between strata of the atmosphere at very different heights. 
 This appearance was generally observed to precede a thunder- 
 storm." 
 
 Now when lightning flashes from the cloud, the air is violently 
 displaced, and the wave thereby created will pass with a 
 uniformity of sound along the inferior level surface : but passing 
 to the superior, undulated, surface of the cloud, the rolling 
 thunder will be heard in proportion to the distance and intensity 
 of the flash and the density of the cloud, and continue until the 
 flux and reflux of the air-wave or waves re-subside into a state of 
 rest. Even when near, an electric explosion behind the cloud 
 only will give us but a faint murmur of the agitated air ; but when 
 the flash communicates with the earth, the vibration of the air will 
 strike against more solid bodies, and the wave or waves above, 
 often with repeated concussions, will propagate along the space 
 through which the lightning passed; and hence the peal of 
 thunder, at once so loud, long, and fluctuating. The violent dis- 
 placement of the air may also set the cloud in a trembling, undu- 
 lating motion at the inferior surface, thereby causing, or adding 
 to, the rolling nature of the wave. The cloud is the sounding- 
 board of the electric string; undulated and elastic, dense or 
 
98 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 light, high or low, near or far, it reverberates to us in awful 
 majesty the power and greatness of the Creator, the same as, 
 caused by the vibration of the string, the sounding-board of the 
 musical instrument sends to us the exquisite harmonies, as it 
 were, of heaven, to make us feel and appreciate the love and 
 goodness of the Supreme Being in having made an element, more 
 than any other in His especial service, to gratify our senses, 
 elevate our thoughts, and dispose our minds to everything that is 
 gentle and noble ; for, 
 
 " There is in souls a sympathy with sounds ; 
 And as the mind ispitch'd the ear is pleased 
 With melting airs, or martial, brisk or grave : 
 Some chord in unison with what we hear 
 Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies." COWPER. 
 
 That clouds are capable of reflecting sound is proved by 
 Muschenbroeck, who, according to Lardner, " states as the result 
 of his own observations, that a cannon which being discharged 
 when the heavens were unclouded produced only a single 
 report, had its sound several times reverberated when discharged 
 in the same place under a clouded sky. In the course of experi- 
 ments made in 1822 to determine the velocity of sound already 
 referred to, the same observation was made." 
 
 That, in proportion to their density, clouds press heavily upon 
 the air, and consequently are able to produce and reverberate sound 
 when the air is agitated on their surfaces, is proved by the smooth 
 level which they present on the inferior surface, showing the 
 weight with which they rest on the air, and by the strong winds 
 which generally attend thunderstorms. The air, previously 
 expanded by the heat of the sun, is rushed in upon by denser cur- 
 rents from other places, and the cloud floating in the atmosphere 
 like a bridge, presses upon it with great power, and drives it away 
 from underneath, whilst at the same time it forms an arch, through 
 which the air will force itself with great impetuosity, as it does 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 9S 
 
 through the arch of a bridge ; and the more bulky the bridge or 
 the cloud the more violent will be the rush. 
 
 Without clouds there will be no thunder : hence it is but a 
 rumbling noise that sometimes attends the dissolution of the water- 
 spout ; yet at the time of earthquakes it seems sometimes to be heard 
 in the air when the sky is perfectly clear. Though this is no case 
 of common thunder, the noise, or apparent thunder, proceeds, 
 nevertheless, from the upper regions of the atmosphere, and is no 
 acoustic deception. Places at which the phenomenon happens to 
 occur are subject to earthquakes, and possess volcanoes, either 
 active or apparently burnt out. When violent concussions take 
 place within them, the air which has sunk or settled down into the 
 craters or fissures of the mountain is displaced and becomes agitated: 
 the waves thus created, travel up to the mouth or opening of the 
 abyss, whence they propagate and diffuse in the superior regions 
 of the atmosphere ; and the vibration descending partially to the 
 earth, apparent thunder will be heard by those who receive the 
 impression of the agitated air, according to the beautiful design by 
 which the DIVINE INTELLIGENCE modelled the human ear, so that 
 sound from before and behind, from above and below, the air- wave 
 falling upon the organ of hearing, should convey and indicate to 
 the brain and soul of man and other living creatures, the direction 
 of its coming. 
 
 When by means of fissures or openings the air on the ground 
 comes in contact with volcanic concussions in the interior of the 
 earth, the noise appears to proceed from its very bowels, and the 
 wave created will travel along the surface of the ground until it 
 dies away or is broken, preserving all the time the subterranean 
 character imparted to it by the original cause and material of 
 agitation. The earth is the sounding-board of the vibration caused 
 at certain places within, and there first communicated to the air by 
 
 direct er indirect contact. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 " I have minutely ascertained (says Humboldt), that the great 
 shock of the earthquake of Riobamba (4th February, 1797), one 
 of the most terrible phenomena of the physical history of our 
 earth, was unaccompanied by any noise." 
 
 In this instance it is evident that the concussions, or action, of 
 the heaving material, or the electric current below, came not in 
 contact with the air at the place of the earthquake, though it 
 must have done so, direct or indirectly, at a great distance away 
 from it, where eighteen or twenty minutes AFTER the actual 
 catastrophe, a great subterranean noise was heard. From this it 
 also follows, that shocks of earthquakes may happen without any 
 apparent subterranean noise, and that subterranean noise may be 
 heard without any shock being experienced. 
 
 V. 
 
 EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS, ELEVATION* OF MOUNTAIN 
 CHAINS. ST. PATRICIUS. SEPARATION OF THE L'AND FROM THE 
 WATER. THE DELUGE AND THE RAINBOW J REVOLUTION WITHIN AND 
 UPON THE EARTH. PRECIPITATION OF NITRATES FROM THE ATMO- 
 SPHERE. CHANGE OF TEMPERATURE UPON OUR GLOBE ; ITS RELATION 
 
 TO PLANTS AND ANIMALS. ELECTRICITY IN CONNECTION WITH THE 
 
 GROWTH OF PLANTS. BARKING OF TREES. INFLUENCE OF THE MOON 
 ON VEGETATION. THE COLOURS OF FLOWERS. ANILINE AND ITS 
 COLOURS. ELECTRICITY IN CONNECTION WITH ANIMAL LIFE. 
 ELECTRICITY, THE A OF CREATION. 
 
 EARTHQUAKES and volcanoes, in a remarkable manner, seem to 
 confirm my theory of electricity, not only on account of the 
 thunderstorms which so frequently accompany earthquakes and 
 volcanic eruptions, but also on account of all the other phenomena 
 by which they are more or less attended. 
 
 That earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are the effect of 
 electric disturbances is fully established by Professor Palmieri's 
 observations. 
 
 On the occasion of the earthquakes of Mefi, he used the mag- 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 101 
 
 netic apparatus of Lament, and the result led him to believe that 
 it would no less act on the occasion of an eruption. He observed 
 great changes in the electrical condition of the atmosphere ; on the 
 29th April, 1355> the needles of the aforesaid apparatus had been 
 slightly affected ; they were greatly agitated on the 30th, so as to 
 amount to what the professor calls a magnetic storm, and on the 
 following day the eruption of Mount Vesuvius broke out. During 
 the eruption the magnetic vibrations continued with increased 
 intensity, and the electrical state of the atmosphere, quite in 
 correspondence with my theory, was equally remarkable, being 
 greater than the maximum in ordinary times ; its diurnal period 
 was disturbed, greater electricity having been observed during the 
 night than during the day ; and what was still more singular, 
 during the eruption of ashes the fixed conductors gave but slight 
 indication of negative electricity, while the moveable ones gave the 
 strongest possible signs of positive tension. In general the electric 
 current appeared to follow the course of the smoke. A letter in 
 the Athenceum of 2nd June, 1855, gives an interesting account 
 of the eruption. 
 
 The electric fluid with which our earth, and every planet and 
 sun has been inflated, or endowed, by Divine Wisdom, and which 
 by the construction arid enormous thickness of the crust of our 
 globe, as well as by its atmosphere, is kept bound and imprisoned 
 within its bowels, has a natural tendency to be freed, and to burst 
 the vault that holds it confined, and within which it dwells and 
 circulates like the blood in the human body, with its heart, veins 
 and arteries, whilst, at the same time, it pervades the minutest 
 parts of the whole frame ; and this tendency to break its bonds 
 is further aided by the rays of the sun heating the surface of the 
 earth and expanding the air, thus opening, as it were, a door for 
 the escape of the fluid, and attracting it to the heated and expanded 
 area from within all parts of the earth. 
 
102 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 In this manner, to wherever the sun shines, to wherever the 
 earth is warmed and its atmosphere expanded by the great luminary 
 of our system^ there will be an interior, uninterrupted, current of 
 electricity. But this current is everywhere impeded by noncon- 
 ducting masses, and thus, the bursting of electric veins and arteries, 
 or the forcing of a passage, produce " horizontal oscillations of the 
 surface of our earth, similar to the waves of an agitated sea, 
 violent perpendicular up-liftings; so that it would seem as if 
 repeated explosions were exerting their force against the roof of a 
 subterranean cavern, threatening to burst it open and to blow into 
 the air everything placed over it."** In fact, if our atmosphere, 
 pressing with a weight of 15 Ib. to the square inch upon the earth, 
 were rarefied to a very high degree, or withdrawn from it, earth- 
 quakes would be much more frequent and violent, and the earth 
 itself might be blown and shivered into atoms. 
 
 When electric currents, to our every-day knowledge, are capable 
 of melting rods of iron in a moment, the electric currents circu- 
 lating within the earth are capable of producing that heat of our 
 globe which increases as deeper we descend into its bowels, as we 
 come nearer to the heart of its electric organization ; the powerful 
 spring that drives these currents from the heart of the earth through 
 the masses of its body, operating upon its various ingredients, 
 melting and refining its metallic constituents, and sending up 
 fountains after fountains of healing water, cold and warm,j" all 
 over the earth, explains the enormous pressure which throws up 
 
 * This description of the effects of earthquakes is the language of a writer who 
 wanted but the key of the theory to which it corresponds. 
 
 f Saint Patricius, probably bishop of Pertusa, as early as the third century, 
 conceived already the fire in the cloud to be the same as that in the earth. " Fire 
 is nourished in the interior of the earth as well as in the clouds, as you may learn 
 both from mount Etna and another mountain near Naples. Water rises from 
 beneath the ground as in siphons ; those at a distance from the subterranean 
 fire are colder, but those which have their source near the fire are heated by it, 
 and bring with them to the surface which we inhabit an insupportable degree of 
 heat." Cosmos 211. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 103 
 
 stones, molten lava, &c., from a volcano, with a force equal to from 
 300 to 400 atmospheres, though water decomposed, or steam 
 generated within the mountain by the intensity of the electric 
 current, may add to the force of electricity itself. My theory 
 explains the connection of volcanic agency between various parts 
 of the earth, the simultaneous shocks at places far asunder, as for 
 instance at the earthquake of Lisbon, on the 1st November, 1755, 
 which was felt in Greenland, Africa, and even America ; and it 
 accounts for the fact, that generally either the first, or one of the 
 first shocks, are the most violent, because the first strokes of the 
 electric power open the passage through opposing strata of the 
 earth. 
 
 Volcanoes are the safety -valves, the lungs, of our globe in 
 labour ; they are the conductors of the unfettered element within ; 
 and happy those places that possess them. Providence also has 
 placed them where they are most needed, that is, chiefly in those 
 parts of the earth that are exposed to the greatest heat of the sun 
 and therefore more calculated to attract the electric current within, 
 and give to it the opportunity of liberation. Volcanoes moreover, 
 by Divine Wisdom, seem mostly placed close to the sea, not only 
 with the view of originally raising bulwarks to the waters of the 
 earth, AND CAUSE THE LAND TO BE SEPARATED FROM THE WATER, 
 but also, because, near the sea, particularly at the bottom of the 
 ocean, the electric fluid has a thinner crust to burst through than 
 it would have in the midst of continents. Hence electric up-heavings 
 on land are diminished, and at sea not so dangerous to man, though 
 at times ships are engulphed in the chasms of the ocean caused by 
 the sudden rise and fall of its bottom. 
 
 The elevation of mountain-chains is evidently due to regular 
 currents of elastic, i.e. electric forces ; for the lines of direction 
 which characterize each group have such relations to each other, 
 and are so symmetrically arranged over the earth's surface, that 
 
104 THE FEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 they cannot but be the result of that electrical organization of th^ 
 interior of the earth of which I have spoken. It was, no doubt, 
 first called into extraordinary activity when the whole solid globe 
 was still covered with water, when the earth though darkness 
 had been banished from the face of the deep by the creation of 
 light, and the waters separated from the waters by a firmament of 
 air was still void and empty, G-od said : " Let the waters that 
 are under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let 
 the dry land appear. And it was done." And thus the electric 
 current within the earth fulfilled the word of its Creator, and by 
 its volcanic action undulated the earth, and systematically and 
 symmetrically raised up mountains and mountain-chains, as so many 
 monuments of the power and wisdom of God. The separation of 
 land from the water was the first violent catastrophe our earth 
 experienced for the benefit of man, who hereafter was to inhabit 
 it; and it is only by the operation of a pent-up force of 
 electric matter that we can satisfactorily account for the dis- 
 turbance of all the strata of the crust of the earth, and their 
 tumbling one over the other in the most extraordinary and seem- 
 ingly confused positions and directions, rendering firmer and more 
 compact even that shell, which, with its horizontal layers, could 
 not withstand the electric element, since that time more effectually 
 confined, and provided with the volcanic safety-valve to limit its 
 destructive effect on the earth. 
 
 Apart from this universal revolution in the crust of the earth, 
 other tremendous concussions have taken place, as they still from 
 time to time do occur, confined to individual portions of the globe. 
 The elevation of new, and the sinking of old islands in the ocean, 
 are evidence of this subterranean working of electricity. 
 
 Dr. Lardner says : " When storms are breaking in the heavens, 
 and sometimes long before their commencement, and when their 
 approach has not yet been manifested by any appearances in the 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 105 
 
 firmament, phenomena are observed, apparently sympathetic, 
 proceeding from the deep recesses of the earth, and exhibited 
 under various forms at its surface." And these phenomena 
 proceeding from the deep recesses of the earth, as Dr. Lardner 
 truly says, without however, suspecting the true cause, most strik- 
 ingly confirm the theory I have laid down : of an accumulation 
 and organization of negative electricity within the earth. 
 
 This negative electricity, though separated by the nonconducting 
 air from the positive electricity of the superior regions, is never 
 totally severed from it ; the thread, the link of union, however 
 finely spun, however attenuately distended, is never altogether 
 broken ; like rarefied air, to what extent soever expanded, the 
 active, though invisible and imperceptible, union with the distant 
 accumulation of the most dense and cold atmosphere is never for 
 one moment interrupted ; the thread of India-rubber, drawn out to 
 its utmost length and attenuity, its particles will still retain their 
 hold upon one another, and resume their ordinary condition as 
 soon as the distending power or cause is removed. The two 
 electricities in the same way will hold each other, and approach 
 in accumulation, or retire in expansion, according to the condition 
 of the barrier or power that in the ordinary state keeps them in 
 distant communion, and at other times allows them in force to 
 amalgamate. 
 
 Thus, when storms are approaching, though unperceived in the 
 heavens, the two electricities are gradually drawing into closer 
 communion ; that from within the earth will force its way through 
 certain wonted channels, causing fountains to boil, springs to flow, 
 after having been dry for a time, and often heave up the waters 
 of rivers and lakes and the sea, roll them in furious waves and 
 drive them over their banks, rend hills in two, open their sides and 
 bring with it the waters of the veins it has opened in the earth ; 
 and, at times, even, it will open awful pits and blast abysses in the 
 
106 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 bosom of the earth, and like gashing wounds force asunder and 
 divide the waters of the mirror of the ocean. 
 
 From the day on which God separated the waters from the 
 waters until Noah went into the ark, dews only had nourished and 
 refreshed the vegetable creation ; no rain had as yet fallen Cf upon 
 the earth. Since the sun had broken out into light, hydrogen and 
 oxygen gases receded to a still greater distance from the earth than 
 before, and mists rose higher into the air ; but as yet all the pores 
 of the earth were open, evaporation of water and electricity, and 
 climate, was general and even all over its surface ; there were as 
 yet no separate accumulations or concentrations of these elements 
 in the atmosphere, and the vapours that had risen returned again 
 as heavy dews ere they could ascend high enough to condense and 
 fall down in drops of rain, or in the form of hail or snow. 
 
 When at last the solid body of the earth had increased in bulk 
 and hardened so as to accumulate a greater amount of heat on its 
 surface and correspondingly to expand the air : God gathered the 
 rising mist into one vast sheet, into a universal cloud enveloping 
 the whole earth ; electricity from above accumulated in the aggre- 
 gated vapours (no doubt also peculiarly acted upon by the rays of 
 the sun, which they received and absorbed), and whilst moulding 
 them into drops, and converting into water the oxygen and hydrogen 
 gases collected in the air and existing above our atmosphere, it 
 drew forth from its stronghold, into closer embrace, the electricity 
 within the bowels of the earth ; and thus it came that " in the 
 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth 
 day of the month, the same day all the foundations of the great 
 deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." 
 
 * There are still countries, such as Peru, and places, where it never rains 
 but where heavy dews supply the earth with moisture. For the last three years 
 it never rained at the island Teneriffe, by which famine and disease were pro- 
 duced and multitudes obliged to leave the island. In Egypt it has not rained 
 for 700 or 800 years. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 107 
 
 Thus a law of nature harmonized with the moral law of God, 
 the law of justice, and swept away a sinful world. 
 
 Unaccompanied with lightning and thunder, the discharge in 
 rain of the accumulated vapours of the whole ejarth did not come 
 down in the heavy drops of the thunder-cloud, but fell in 
 universal and slower measure for forty days and nights, until the 
 electricity accumulated above had again been liberated. As rain 
 begins to fall and to increase when lightning is nigh ceasing, or 
 when electric discharges have taken place, so it was then that the 
 sheet of water, spread out on high over the earth, began to 
 lighten and to disperse, that the sun again broke forth through 
 the dissolving veil ; and from that moment the windows of heaven 
 were shut, the power had been removed that drew electricity and 
 water from the innermost depths of the earth, and thus also the 
 fountains of the deep were stopped up. Nor were they to be 
 opened again; for, when the earth was dried, mists were no 
 longer the only accumulation of moisture ; the constitution of the 
 earth had been changed, and henceforth, clouds were to be formed 
 to bring refreshment and carry blessings all over the face of the 
 earth. When thus, after the Deluge, Noah had left the ark and 
 was occupied in the cultivation of the restored land, mists again 
 began to rise ; but from the altered electric organization of our 
 globe they rose high and formed into clouds ; and fearful perhaps, 
 lest they should gather together and again send the devastating 
 current over the earth, God took away his fear and told the 
 second father of mankind, that He would no more waste the 
 earth by the waters of a flood ; and as a pledge for His assurance 
 He said to him : " This is the sign of the covenant which I give 
 between me and you. I will set my bow in the clouds, and when 
 I shall cover the sky with clouds, my bow shall appear in the 
 clouds." And thus it was that God, for the FIRST TIME, decorated 
 the FIRST-BORN CLOUD, though dark and threatening, with the arch 
 
108 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 of peace, with the glorious rainbow, to us still, as it was to Noah, 
 the seal of the covenant, that the waters of the earth, above and 
 below the firmament of heaven, will no more be gathered into a 
 shroud for the human race. 
 
 From the time that Noah went into the ark nothing but water 
 once more covered the earth, nor retired from the land until a 
 revolution of one year and ten days' time, within the earth and 
 on its surface, marked the progress and final subsidence of the 
 deluge. During its prevalence the subterranean agency was not 
 idle that originally heaved up mountains and separated the dry 
 land from the water; continents, countries, islands, and mountains, 
 risen perhaps and fallen already during the 2,000 years that 
 preceded the deluge, but particularly from the third day of 
 creation to the creation of man, rose and sunk again and again, 
 here of a sudden, there by degrees ; monsters of the deep were 
 carried up within mountains of the soil and clay upon which they 
 had roamed and in which now they became embedded and 
 entombed ; forests and prairies with their inhabitants sank and 
 were swept away where forests and prairies had perhaps sunk or 
 been swept away before, to be covered again by falling hills or 
 buried under floating masses ; the waters of the flood filled every 
 recess, every abyss, as well as the craters and openings of the 
 highest mountains ; they extinguished the fires of numberless 
 volcanoes and stopped up the pores of the earth ; and whilst they 
 remained, ample time was given for gigantic deposits and quiet 
 sediments of various kinds ; for, once at their height, the waters 
 of the deluge were disturbed only by the waves of an agitated 
 surface, by the ebb and flow of the tides ; and the flood settled 
 down, perhaps, and retired from the land, in a dead calm, until its 
 final abatement, no doubt, however, leaving vast tracts under 
 water that hitherto had been above the level of the ocean ; for, it 
 stands to reason, that by the accumulation of the waters from 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 109 
 
 below and above, the ocean itself must have been raised and 
 increased in extent. 
 
 Since then, in proportion to the disturbance of the former 
 electric organization of the earth, and the alluvial deposits that 
 had been formed by the deluge, and in which alone remains of 
 existing animals and of man are found, its climate began more 
 sensibly to vary; negative electricity, the representative of 
 warmth, was more driven back and more closely confined at certain 
 places within the earth ; and where this had been the case, and 
 perspiration impeded, positive electricity, the representative of 
 cold, came down in greater accumulation upon the earth ; and as 
 the former retired from the plants it had luxuriantly raised up, 
 the latter came to embrace them in its withering grasp. 
 
 If before the Deluge the crust and soil of the earth was not 
 more spongy, porous, or loose, than after it ; and that it did not 
 increase in thickness by further deposits and chemical precipita- 
 tion, to which latter, among others, we no doubt owe the beds of 
 nitrate of potash, of borax and of tincal in the East Indies, and 
 the beds of nitrate of soda, and of borate of lime in Chili and 
 Peru,* being combinations of azote, oxygen, &c. ; or that the 
 interior electric action and evaporation of the earth was not more 
 active when in early times the climate of the earth was hotter 
 than it is now at the torrid zone : was it perhaps that then the 
 earth was altogether nearer to the sun than it is at present ? or 
 
 * According to Lardner, the transmission of the electric fluid through the 
 atmosphere produces nitric acid. In the residue of seventeen samples of 
 rainwater, collected during or immediately after thunderstorms, Professor 
 Liebig found nitric acid in combination with lime, or with ammonia. In the 
 tropics, where thunderstorms are very violent and for a length of time of 
 daily occurence, the formation of nitric acid and its precipitation with other 
 substances must still be very great, though diminishing, no doubt, in a pro- 
 gressing ratio, the same as precipitation or deposition in general must have 
 diminished since the closing of Paradise, or more probably, since the deluge. 
 Before this inundation of the whole earth, before the production of thunder- 
 storms, of lightning striking through the air,- 1 do not think any precipitation 
 of nitrate of potash, nitrate of soda, and of borates, to have taken place. 
 
110 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 that the oscillation of the earth's axis, its so-called inclination to 
 the plane of the earth's orbit, was not as great as at present ? or 
 that the brine of the ocean, once more covering the whole globe, 
 saturated the ground, and thenceforward, although diluted with 
 the rain and sweet water of the rivers, affected the growth and 
 nutritiousness of vegetation and consequently all life upon 
 earth? 
 
 Henceforth, however, not only plants and animals, but man 
 also began to diminish in size and longevity ; and from the 
 permission of God to man after the deluge, to eat the flesh of 
 animals, there seems to be no doubt, but that by a reduced 
 emanation of warmth from the earth, or by the abstraction by 
 precipitation from the air of an essential element of life, perhaps 
 of oxygen, calculated both for sustaining life and adding volume 
 to the body by oxygenation, or by the precipitation or change of 
 some other ingredient of the atmosphere : some important 
 alteration must have occured in the physical condition of the 
 surface of the earth, or in the constitution of the air, for which 
 the said permission was to compensate in a certain degree as far 
 as the life of man was concerned. 
 
 As to plants and animals, the change became particularly 
 striking towards the polar regions of the earth, and is analogous 
 to the gradual diminution of all organic life from the valley to 
 the mountain top. 
 
 In the now colder regions of the earth, negative electricity, 
 reduced in its exhalation from the earth both as to time and 
 quantity, does not sufficiently long and powerfully enter into the 
 plants so as to make them grow to the height and extent to which 
 they grow in hotter climates, nor does it in this limited state 
 infuse sufficient warmth into animals, to make them enlarge into 
 the size of those of the tropics. When in spring, with respect to 
 plants, the electric element is excited within the earth by the 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. Ill 
 
 heat of 'the sun, it issues from the earth, and is conducted upwards 
 into the air by the vegetable creation ; but it also enters into the 
 plant itself, drives it upward, and, excited by the sun, causes it 
 to. live and to attract from the air all the substances required for 
 its growth, its leaves and flowers, according to the order and 
 design which God had laid down and hidden within the seed. 
 When in autumn the electric element is driven back into the 
 heart of the plant, the same as in cold weather our blood is 
 driven back to the heart, and the exterior parts of our body 
 become chilled, its leaves wither and the branches become bare ; 
 and when in winter the electric element is driven out of the 
 plant altogether, the negative overcome by the positive, warmth 
 by cold, the latent life of the sap is gone, the plant freezes, and 
 dies. 
 
 Thus, by this simple element and operation, we see everthing 
 grow and ripen. Living in electricity, exteriorly and interiorly, 
 every blade of grass, every leaf of bush or tree becomes a 
 conductor, from which it readily emerges into the air ; but the 
 flower, the berry, the ear of corn, the apple and the pear, not 
 being of so pointed a form, afford no such ready escape into the 
 air ; their rounded shape retains it, and for this reason a certain 
 activity is excited, and more warmth produced ; and this warmth 
 ripens flowers and fruit, which, when sufficiently saturated or com- 
 bined with electricity, are repelled by the stem that bore them. 
 
 Instances are not wanting by which my theory is proved. 
 
 " The elebrated Duhamel du Monceau states," according to Dr. 
 Lardner " that silent lightning, unaccompanied by wind or rain, 
 called heat lightnings, have the property of breaking the ears of 
 corn. Farmers are well acquainted with this fact. On the 3rd of 
 September, 1771, Duhamel himself witnessed this fact: on the 
 morning of that day there was much lightning, and he afterwards 
 found that all the ears of corn which were ripe were broken off 
 
112 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 at the nearest knot : the only ones which remained standing were 
 the green ones." 
 
 We here see, in a more active degree, the usual operation of 
 electricity on plants, both exteriorly and interiorly. As long as 
 the plant is green, every part of it is connected by the sap of its 
 veins, and held together by the electricity by which it is pervaded. 
 When the ear is ripening, the sap in the fruit drying up and the 
 grain beginning to harden, the interior conducting substance is 
 weakened, the grain by degrees peels off from the vessel that 
 holds it ; and electrified by the electricity exteriorly rising up 
 and accumulating round the ear, the matured corn is suddenly 
 thrown off on occasions like the above, when the electricity rising 
 from the earth becomes particularly excited. 
 
 " These and similar effects," Dr. Lardner continues, " indicate 
 an influence emanating from the ground. Such effects are not 
 confined to corn, but probably extend to all vegetable substances. 
 The following fact, as stated in the Bibliotkeque Britannique, of 
 Geneva, for the year 1796, supplies an example of this: 
 
 "'A wood of oak situated on an eminence two leagues from 
 Geneva was barked in May, 1795. This operation can only be 
 effected in the season of the year when the sap, moving between 
 the wood and the bark, diminishes sufficiently the adherence of 
 the latter to be enabled to be separated with facility from the 
 tree. The workmen remark also, that the state of the atmo- 
 sphere produces an evident influence on the process. 
 
 '"One day the wind was blowing from the north and the sky 
 unclouded, the bark was removed with more than usual difficulty. 
 In the afternoon, clouds rose in the west, thunder rolled, and at 
 the same instant the bark, to the greatest astonishment of the 
 workmen, fell spontaneously from the trees. They soon had 
 reason to ascribe this to the state of the atmosphere, since the 
 effect ceased when the storm passed away.'" 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 113 
 
 As long as the wind was blowing from the north, and the air 
 cold and without any electric accumulation, the electricity residing 
 within the tree was driven back to the heart and to the earth, as 
 it is in autumn ; and as it withdrew and became contracted, so it 
 drew all parts of the tree closer together, assisted by the pressure 
 of the atmosphere ; and hence the difficulty of removing the bark. 
 Without the air even becoming warmer and more filled with 
 electricity, but an electric accumulation taking place in the sky 
 only, causing but a temporary electric disturbance, the negative 
 element within the earth and trees became active and excited ; it 
 panted to be set free and to unite with the positive element above, 
 and expanding in proportion to the superior excitation and attrac- 
 tion, it almost by itself, without the aid of the labourer, drove off 
 the bark from the body of the tree. 
 
 A similar, but more striking, case is recorded in the Times, of 
 May 18th, 1860, by the rector of the parish of Holy well, near 
 St. Ives, Hunts. He says : 
 
 "A violent thunderstorm broke out this evening at five o'clock. 
 A few hundred yards from my residence, in a farmer's field stood 
 an oak of about 40 feet high, and 10 feet in circumference, perfectly 
 vigorous and sound, just putting forth its leaves. The thunder- 
 bolt struck it about 15 feet from the ground, it was broken almost 
 two-thirds off, and the top of the tree fell to the earth, clinging to 
 the stem by the undivided fibres. % 
 
 " The tree was nearly barked from the top to the root as perfectly 
 as human labour could have stripped it. About one-fourth part of 
 the standing stem was cleft clean out to the very root, and flung 
 on the side opposite to that on which the top had fallen. The 
 remainder of the standing trunk was cleft in four or five places, so 
 that the hand could be thrust into some parts and the fingers into 
 others. The whole heart of the tree was literally torn into 
 thousands of splinters. The bark and pieces that seemed torn 
 
114 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 from the stem of the broken top were flung in various distances 
 into the field." 
 
 When corn and grass have been beaten down by the rain, the 
 force of gravity has overcome the power of electricity within, and 
 the cold of the rain has driven it back towards the ground ; but 
 when the rays of the sun fall again upon the prostrate stalk, the 
 cold vanishes, the rain-drops dissolve, electricity is again elicited 
 from its retreat, or freed from its contraction ; it re-enters the 
 plant, expands in the warmth of the sun, and tending to rise 
 towards the electricity of the superior regions, it raises up the 
 fallen legions of the field, lifts up and elevates their drooping heads, 
 as the grace of God lifts up the fallen sinner. If, however, the 
 corn, or grass, or flowers, be ripe, or dry, or broken, they will no * 
 more rise when prostrated by the storm, because the conducting 
 sap has been absorbed or scorched away, because the connecting 
 link is withered, severed, not merely bent or weakened. 
 
 In his theory of sleep, Dr. Ashburner says : " The sensitive 
 plant exhibits, under two different conditions, the opposite states 
 of sleep and vigilance. Its contracted leaves are in a state of 
 spasm -4a grasping, active, apparent acquiescence ; and when its 
 leaves are open and expanded, it is awake." And this he very 
 aptly compares with the two opposite states, with the sleep and 
 vigilance of man. But what is it that produces these states in 
 plants ? It is the ejectricity retiring into the deeper recesses of 
 the plant at night, contracting all its members, as was the case 
 with the oak-trees mentioned above, and re-entering or expanding 
 again into its extreme part as soon as the morning sun, or the 
 warmth of day, arouses it from its sleep by its electric touch. 
 And how beautifully is this operation not represented by the 
 opening and shutting of the convolvulus ! by the sunflower, which 
 then even remains turned to and following the sun when clouds 
 are passing between 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 115 
 
 But plants in their origin, growth, maturity, and fruitfulness, 
 exhibit to us the beneficial effect of the solar emanations. 
 
 At the time of new moon, when the moon in conjunction stands 
 between us and the sun, she witholds from the earth that vast 
 proportion of solar rays and heat which fall upon her back and are 
 absorbed by her body. This deprivation produces a low state of 
 activity on the earth, the lowest during the month. If seeds or 
 plants are then put into the ground everything else being the 
 same they will have the benefit of ever-increasing light and 
 warmth, as by degrees the moon moves away from under the sun 
 allowing more and more rays of light and warmth to fall again on 
 the earth until she has reached the opposition, until she is full ; 
 the seed or plants will therefore thrive under this gradually- 
 increasing, genial, and invigorating influence. If on the contrary, 
 seed and plants are put into the ground at full moon, they will 
 germ and take root at the time of the greatest terrestrial electric 
 activity ; and as the moon will then decrease and thus begin more 
 and more to abstract from the life of the earth, to deprive us in an 
 increasing ratio of a proportion of solar rays and heat until she has 
 completed her lunar month, the plants will languish fate want of 
 good food, as it were ; the stimulus that attended theft birth is 
 not only not kept up but diminishing, they are stinted immediately 
 after they have taken root or begun to live, and thus they will 
 remain sickly. 
 
 At a meeting of horticulturists at Berlin, in 1860, the royal 
 gardener observed, from his own attention to the subject, that 
 apples which fell from the tree whilst the moon was on the decline, 
 did not begin to rot on the spot which touched the ground, but 
 those which fell when the moon was on the increase soon rotted 
 on those parts on which they had fallen. From this it would 
 seem to be best to gather in fruit when the moon is on the wane. 
 
 Similar observations must have been made in very early times, 
 
116 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 as the Roman writer Varro, contemporary of Cicero, in his book 
 on agriculture, exhorts the farmer that in cultivating the land he 
 is to pay the greatest attention to whether the moon is on the 
 increase or decrease ; and sheep are not to be shorn, nor one's 
 own hair to be cut when the moon is decreasing. 
 
 Singular it is, that a shark turns black when hung up in the 
 moonshine ; and I have been told that other fish, similarly 
 exposed, also turn, and become unfit for food. 
 
 Thus, the fact of lunar, though indirect, influence on the earth 
 cannot be denied ; it is based upon the testimony of ages and of all 
 nations, against which the individual opinion of astronomers, 
 because it passes their observation and comprehension, is but like 
 a few grains of sand against the desert ; and if this influence has 
 been transferred to matters of business and other objects not within 
 the sphere of the laws of nature, it was but a natural transition 
 with people in a state of heathenism. 
 
 At a total eclipse of the sun, when the moon almost entirely 
 deprives us of the benefit of his rays next to the darkness pro- 
 duced, is the fall of the thermometer, the lowering of the tempera- 
 ture evei|jj|jO chilliness, as in July, 1860, causing the feeling of 
 approaching night suddenly to come over the animal creation, and 
 birds in particular, and convolvulus and other flowers to close and 
 hang their heads. 
 
 Vegetation and animal life thus influenced by the sun, flowers 
 and blossoms open to him their bosoms, in order that fructification 
 may take place, that the multiplication of their seed and kind may 
 be insured by electric agency and electric incorporation. For, 
 electricity, as stated in the beginning, is incorporated with every 
 created substance, and liberated again by dissolution, or combustion; 
 we take it with our food, imbibe it with our drink, and inhale it 
 with our breath. It is the fire which is latent in all ponderable 
 matter, the most closely fettered in metals, and the most loosely 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 117 
 
 allied to spirit and ether. It reposes in the mineral lodes of the 
 earth, in its fields of coal, its lakes of oil, and beds of turf, 
 and is embodied in every tree and plant. Of alcohol, in equal 
 purity and composition of 52.23 carbon, 13.01 hydrogen, 34.76 
 oxygen, produced from every variety of grain, fruit, berry, 
 and juice, it is the essence ; it exists in the oil and tallow of the 
 animal and vegetable creation ; man skilfully concentrates it in 
 gunpowder for the destruction and chastisement of his own 
 species ; by the bee, the pattern of order and industry, it is 
 collected, so that, hidden within the virgin wax, the lighted 
 candle, an emblem of faith, and striking image of the Holy 
 Trinity, it may illuminate the altar of God, burn and shine in 
 honour of Him who Himself came to be the light of the world, 
 and by whom it first was created ; on being kindled it starts from 
 its repose and breaks out into fire, and, amalgamating with the 
 electricity bound up with the oxygen of the air, will continue to 
 flash and to flame until the body from which it is evolved or from 
 which it emanates, is dissolved, consumed, or exhausted. 
 
 We have seen already how exterior and interior electric currents 
 drive up the plants and cause them to abstract from the air the 
 nourishment which they require ; for, attraction, magnetism, is but 
 a property of electricity. * 
 
 When the seed of the plant falls, or is put, into the ground, the 
 positive pole strikes downward to take root in the earth, whilst 
 the negative pole strives upward into the light. Thus the tree rises, 
 the negative crown enlarges, and like arms, stretching forth its 
 branches, it proclaims the praise of its Creator, and draws down 
 upon itself the dew and showers of His bounty. The crown, 
 however, is but the corresponding part of a root positively resting 
 
 * " William Gilbert .... anticipated by his conjectures much of our 
 present knowledge. He regarded magnetism and electricity as two emanations 
 of one fundamental force pervading all matter, and therefore treated of both at 
 once." Cosmos ii., p. 331. 
 
118 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 in God's own foundation, or holding fast to the rock ; and, always 
 turned to the light, the tree luxuriates in its rays, and with us here 
 its volume and foliage is fuller, more developed and preponderating 
 ou the south side than on that of the north. This, no doubt, is 
 the effect of the sun, towards whom the electric currents are 
 inclining, causing a greater vitality in that direction, and proving 
 also, that the plant feeds upon the surrounding atmosphere, and by 
 means of the leaves absorbs nourishment from the air. The leaves, 
 in fact, are the outward life of the plant ; the fruit of a tree will 
 wither when they have been eaten by caterpillars ; the tree itself 
 will cease to grow, and perish, when they are all taken away at an 
 unseasonable time, as by cutting off all the branches of a plant, it 
 will, as it were, bleed to death, or, at the very least, deteriorate its 
 produce. 
 
 Flowers and fruit, owing to their more rounded forms, retain 
 longer the exterior and interior electric currents which more readily 
 escape from the pointed leaf; hence they are subject to greater 
 electric activity, particularly on those spots or parts which are 
 shone upon by the sun. This activity attracts in greater abundance 
 from the air the substances they require, as also those which form 
 the various beautiful colours and bloom by which we are charmed, 
 and which so often make us adore the goodness of God and admire 
 the beauty of His designs. And can we SUFFICIENTLY appreciate 
 and admire His power and wisdom in producing all this by the 
 simplest of means ? 
 
 Meteors of every description, the metallic bases of plants living 
 entirely in the air, have shown us already that the air is filled with 
 metallic solutions, chemically combined with oxygen, perhaps free, 
 perhaps in both states. The analysis of meteoric stones shows 
 nothing foreign to what is contained in the earth ; in them we find, 
 according to Berzelius, eighteen simple elements ; viz., oxygen, 
 sulphur, phosphor, flint, aluminum, magnesia, calcium, kali, natron, 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR g^TEM. 119 
 
 iron, nickel, cobalt, chrome, manganese, copper, zinc, and titan. All 
 these are highly magnetic ; and each one thus attracted according 
 to the electric organization of every plant, the metallic atoms 
 settle down upon leaf, fruit, and flower, in the order and arrange- 
 ment devised, and the pattern traced and delineated thereon by 
 God ; and moistened by interior sap, by dew, and rain, and again 
 shone upon by the sun, oxidation takes place, the solar rays 
 corporify, yielding to our eyes the most magnificent variety of 
 colours, such as human chemistry has not as yet been able to 
 produce, though the newly-discovered aniline colours surpass all 
 other colours previously made. But their beauty and intensity is 
 accounted for by my theory, which the discovery most clearly and 
 remarkably confirms and illustrates. 
 
 Anil is the Indian name of the plant from which indigo or indigo- 
 blue is obtained ; hence also the name of anil given to indigo 
 itself, by the Portugese and the Spaniards, who first met with the 
 plant in India. 
 
 From this anil a certain liquid was produced, and on that 
 account called aniline ; and owing to the presence of this aniline 
 in indigo it is found^hat there is no other blue or colour equally 
 fast and bright. 
 
 Now aniline exists in coal, deep within the bowels of the earth, 
 and by various processes of distillation is obtained from coal-tar, 
 when, by means of steam, it is chemically united with mineral or 
 metallic preparations of tin, lead, mercury, manganese, etc. ; and 
 thus the new colours are produced. 
 
 Coal being a transformation of vegetable bodies, without the 
 loss of their component parts, we here have in an artificial 
 manner the same operation and the same substances as in living 
 nature, namely : the aniline of vegetation, and the metallic solutions 
 of the atmosphere ; and against steam : the solar rays combined 
 with moisture both of plant and air, with an over-abundant 
 
i 
 
 120 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 supply of oxygen, nitric and nitrous acids, salts, sulphur, &c., 
 likewise required in the chemical process. 
 
 The new colours, moreover, can only be dissolved with alcohol 
 and wood naptha, both extracted from vegetable sources, and 
 both concerned in the production of floral decoration. 
 
 Hence the intensity and beauty of aniline colours, their pro- 
 duction corresponding to the operation and combination of God's 
 laboratory of nature. 
 
 With further progress in the production of these colours, I 
 think that the constitution of plants will still be found out, why 
 one absorbs the cobalt, another the copper, the chrome, the iron 
 etc., and why others again should absorb and secrete in different 
 proportions the arsenic or other poisonous solutions that may be 
 suspended in the air; why chemical operations on the plant 
 produce a change of colour in the plant by changing its electric 
 condition or constitution, its quality and power of attraction, etc. 
 What wonders of Divine wisdom will not then be manifested 
 when science shall have arrived at this eminence ! and when, as 
 in plants, so also in animal and human life, we find electricity 
 the chief, if not the only ACTING agent, Tiay the essence and 
 primary created cause of mortal life itself; when, arriving at the 
 unit of creation, we find all things passible, even our own bodies, 
 ^-vanishing from us as nothing real, nothing self-existing, nothing 
 self-sustaining, nothing self-acting! Then the very climax of 
 science will FORCE us TO ACKNOWLEDGE, that beyond all this, 
 distinct from all and ABOVE ALL, there must be a Supreme 
 Intelligence, an omnipotent, self- existing, self-acting, real God, 
 manifesting Himself to us in million-fold diversity, springing 
 forth from a created unit, and this diversity ever and anon return- 
 ing again to the unit, in the dissolution of inorganic and organic, 
 and of animal and human corporal existence. 
 
 The same agencies, which in plants produce their growth and 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 121 
 
 color, in animal life produce increase in size, color and instinct ; 
 and animals being endowed with living, but mortal, souls, and 
 because mortal, unconscious of death, instinctively self-acting, 
 they are capable of locomotion, and so transport themselves to 
 wherever their instinct inclines or repels them, that is : they move 
 towards the plant or food that attracts, or anything else that 
 agreeably affects them, whilst plants attract the nourishment 
 necessary for their existence and development. 
 
 Why, as with plants noticed above, one animal should be 
 attracted to feed upon one, and the other upon another plant ; 
 why one should be repelled from one and another from the other, is 
 still a mystery, but will no doubt be found out to be traceable 
 to electric affinities and differential electric organization, the 
 same also that one kind of food will not incorporate with one 
 animal when it will do so with another. 
 
 As plants root in the earth, and are warmed, expanded, and 
 fed, by means of the electricity rising into them, their interior 
 warmth and consequent life and growth kept up by positive 
 electricity and oxygen from the air, and in the products of wax 
 and oil, and seed and grain of every description, re-produce 
 again electricity in a concentrated state: so the animal world 
 feeding upon these products, takes up the electricity they contain ; 
 and the focus, the hearth, which God planted somewhere in every 
 living creature, being fed and excited by the electricity and 
 oxygen from without, from the air, both electricities combine for 
 the combustion and dissolution of the food taken, re-producing 
 again in the animal body the same elements in a still more 
 purified and concentrated state ; and as none of the oxygen 
 consumed is given up again in the gaseous form by the animal 
 body, so there is no pure, uncombined, oxygen at any time given 
 up by the plant either, except in the case noticed page 134, but 
 simply the products of combustion, both the change and the 
 
i 
 
 122 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 surplus ; and as the food taken affects in various ways the body, 
 so in man, the wholesome and poisonous effects, morally, of meat 
 and drink, may and do pass over into the soul. 
 
 According to the distribution and organization of animal life, 
 one substance produces more blood, the other more fat, in the 
 animal body. Hybernating animals, no doubt by this means 
 chiefly, become uncommonly fat towards the end of autumn ; 
 before they retire into their hiding places, they are, in a manner, 
 cased in fat. During the whole of their winter's sleep they take 
 no food ; but, as we know, the accumulation of fat is absorbed 
 by degrees, so that on their awaking in spring they are quite lean 
 and look altogether famished. 
 
 As with the departing heat of summer the circulation of the 
 blood becomes less rapid, and consequently the perspiration of 
 the animal gradually diminishes and ceases, the fat produced by 
 the food they have taken must naturally accumulate upon their 
 bodies, instead of being thrown off in evaporation by exterior and 
 interior heat and excited motion, the same as domestic animals 
 are fattened by being kept in close confinement, and fed with fat- 
 producing nourishment. 
 
 From the moment they begin their winter sleep, the accumu- 
 lation of fat not only ceases by their not taking any food, but, by a 
 wonderful disposition of Divine Providence, the fat itself is turned 
 into their life-preserving element ; and that this element may not 
 too soon be exhausted, their respiration and circulation of the 
 blood, from the want of access of exterior air, aided, no doubt, 
 by an accumulation of carbonic acid about them, becomes rapidly 
 slower, until at last they appear entirely to be deprived of life. 
 
 Under these circumstances the process of life seems to be kept 
 up by the focus, the secret hearth within, most likely some higher 
 concentration of electricity, attached to an organization affected 
 from without, and tenanting the unconscious, animated, but mortal, 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 123 
 
 i.e. totally extinguishable soul, the one perishing with the other, 
 and returning again into chaos by the extinction of the vital 
 
 This living soul, with its immediate body of latent light, like 
 the wick of a candle, burns slower and slower with a diminution in 
 tne supply of oxygen, dissolving or liberating, in a decreasing 
 ratio, the latent light and warmth of the fat, electricity in another 
 state, and sending it correspondingly through the veins and 
 arteries of th bo3y to keep it alive ; but the fat, the concentrated 
 electricity all gone, or the electricity, as in the case of the tree 
 driven out and supplanted by cold, by the positive element, and 
 all life is gone. 
 
 Here also the two electricities are the life-preserving and 
 motion-imparting agents, as they are the acting constructors into 
 form of all things in existence, the obedient executors of God's 
 will, ideas and designs, every object being but the expression of 
 the thoughts of God made manifest to us in creation. 
 
 It is, no doubt, the enormous accumulation of fat, the con- 
 centration of an immense amount of negative electricity, not only 
 on hybernating animals, but- also on those living; in cold climates, 
 on the bear, the whale, the seal, &c., wTsfchjhields them against 
 the severest frost and makes their ext^ior part of the body 
 impervious, as it were, to the icy grasp, 'th'e; withering influence 
 of positive electricity, of cold itself. 
 
 And in all this behold again the wonderful simplicity of God's 
 creation, TWO ELEMENTS, in ORIGIN ONE, PERFORMING ALL, every 
 thing else being an accidental or auxiliary in the carrying out, 
 the conceptions, the thoughts of God, by His persevering will 
 PERMANENTLY IMPRESSED upon the germ of every thing of its 
 own kind, though nothing, in fact, is actually permanent on earth 
 except the soul of man. The human body even is in constant change ; 
 after every seven years all its former particles have disappeared and 
 
124 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 been supplanted by new ones, composed of the same elements ; 
 after death it will entirely be dissolved into its original con- 
 stituents of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbonic acid gases, 
 but the soul remains ; it alone is a conscious intellectual, free- willed, 
 by God created, self-acting REALITY, impressed with His own 
 image, and THEREFORE ALONE worthy the ransom of Calvary, 
 ALONE worthy the price of redemption ; hence also the soul of 
 man ALONE is conscious of the death of its body of clay, there- 
 fore also ALONE conscious of an undying existence ; for, as He is 
 for ever, so His image will exist for ever, but everything else is 
 transitory and passible, subject to everlasting change, to decay 
 and resurrection, to disappearance and re -appearance in some 
 form or other, to amalgamation and evolution ; and thus the 
 grand scenery of this earth, the dissolving views of a Divine 
 Intelligence, of an Omnipotent Prime Mover, will continue in 
 ever youthful renovation, until the final conflagration of the world, 
 and the establishment, the % creation of the new, the heavenly 
 Jerusalem, the dwelling place of PURE and happy souls, clothed 
 in their former, but transfigured, form and elements, and the 
 abode of eternal peace. 
 
 As all the emanations of the brain that have been written down 
 from the beginning in all nations and tongues, have been expressed 
 and presented to the human mind by about twenty-five letters, and 
 these governed by only five positive sounds, called vowels, of 
 which vowels that of "A," the first one also pronounced by the 
 lisping infant, is first in rank, the basis, the womb, the cell, as it 
 were, of the whole alphabet ; and as all the writings, designs, 
 pictures and paintings of every descripton ever executed by the 
 hand of man, are based upon, have for foundation but ONE SINGLE 
 LINE, applied in various positions, curves and combinations ; and 
 as all the variety of colour and of musical notes and harmonies 
 produced and combined by human ingenuity and in existence are 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 125 
 
 reducible to seven primaries each, and again both colour and sound 
 having but one root, radiating and elicited but from one element ; 
 so with the corporification of the thoughts, the conception of a 
 Divine Being, with the compositions, the pictures, the tableaux, 
 the panoramas, the decorations, the fireworks and illuminations, 
 the musical harmonies and the thunders of creation ; all emanate 
 from one very short but simple alphabet, unknown, as yet, to be 
 sure, but nevertheless certain. Electricity, positive and negative, 
 two in one, and one in two, is no doubt the alpha, as it is the 
 omega of this alphabet, joined by oxygen and hydrogen ; the two 
 former as light when in active amalgamation, and as cold and heat* 
 when separate ; and the two latter forming the vowels of solids 
 and liquids, ALL, with all their infinite variety of mixture and 
 combination, radiating from the first vowel, from electricity the 
 A of creation. 
 
 The starting-point of all life itself is said to be a single cell, by 
 degrees doubling, quadrupling, etc., until the most complete 
 differentiation of living creatures, from the frog to the philoso- 
 pher, as it has been expressed is developed and established. 
 
 But behind the A of creation, behind the cell ? There is the 
 grand composer and artist and modelleur from eternity ! For, 
 though wonder upon wonder manifests itself in the simplicity of 
 
 * Baron von Reichenbach seems most singularly to confirm my supposition 
 respecting the nature of the two electricities in respect to warmth and cold. 
 Speaking of the magnetic nature of crystals, he says : " Every crystal presents 
 two points, which lie always diametrically opposite to each other ; they ARE 
 THE POLES of a primary axis of the crystal. Both poles act in the same way, 
 but one always much more strongly than the other, and with the distinction 
 that from one there appears (to sensitive persons) to issue a cool, from the 
 other a softer, gentle warm (seeming) current of air. The magnet when drawn 
 over the hand of a sensitive person, produces the same sensation of cold at one 
 pole, and of gentle heat at the other pole. In regard to quantity the north 
 pole is stronger and the south pole, weaker ; in the crystal the northward pole 
 is stronger, and the southward pole weaker." 
 
 Joyce, page 482, says : " The thermo-electric apparatus has been employed 
 to prove a case in which electricity produces cold : as when a feeble current 
 passes the junction of bismuth and antimony." 
 
126 THB NEW THEORY OF THE SOL AH SYSTEM. 
 
 the creation, when from the most minute to the most gigantic object 
 in nature, from inorganic to animate existence, from the growth 
 of the insect to the growth of the elephant, from the course of the 
 fishes in the water to the passage of the birds in the air, from the 
 song of the nightingale to the call of the vulture, from the bleating 
 of the lamb to the roar of the lion, from the moving centre of the 
 smallest infusoria to the pulsation of the human heart, from the 
 electric hearth and crystal rocks of our globe and the planets to the 
 electric nucleus and luminous garment of the sun, from the deposi- 
 tion of colour on the flower by his rays to the reduction again into 
 colour of gold and silver,* we trace nothing but the simplest of 
 means, electricity in repose, electricity free and accumulated, 
 electricity in silent operation and amalgamation, and electricity in 
 dissolving, dispersing and explosive action ; electricity in attraction 
 and repulsion, in contraction and expansion, in motion, and the 
 cause of motion ; yet, for all that, it is no intelligent no self-acting 
 force, but the obedient instrument, the spring and the lever, the pen, 
 brush and pencil of the will of an All-powerful, Self-existing Creator. 
 How childish, then, does it not appear, to speak of self-acting 
 forces in nature ! 
 
 VI. 
 
 OXYGEN, AND THE SOURCE OF ITS SUPPLY. INHALATION AND EXHAL- 
 ATION OF PLANTS.- CARBONIC ACID J FORMATION OF DIAMONDS. 
 
 PRECIPITATIONS FROM THE ATMOSPHERE, CREATION OF THE FIRMA- 
 MENT. THE EARTH SUPPLIED WITH MOISTURE. NEWTON. 
 
 IN the life of plants, of animated creation, in the composition 
 or dissolution of almost everything that presents itself to our 
 
 *As the light, the rays of the sun, with metallic solutions, deposit and cor- 
 porify in surpassing splendonr upon the flowers of the field, so in turn, as we 
 have'seen, metals themselves are reduced again into rays of colour ; gold itself 
 is diffused into the brightest ruby and purple upon glass and porcelain, it is all 
 but re-converted again into the red and purple rays of the sun. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 127 
 
 notice, electricity, with its attractive power of whatever comes 
 with more or less affinity within its reach, the metallic solutions 
 which fill our air, and oxygen, seem to be, of all bodies, the most 
 intimately interwoven. Nothing is more strikingly acted upon by 
 electricity than metals, and nothing more readily oxydises, or 
 comes under the influence of oxygen than metals. Hence we may 
 conclude, that metals in a state of undefinable solution are always 
 in a state of amalgamation with oxygen, and that in this state of 
 amalgamation, electricity, as in all cases, is the binding element 
 of the body, the cement of the cement, whether that body be in a 
 gaseous, fluid, opaque, or solid condition, and that it depends 011 the 
 degree of electric excitation and amalgamation as to what state or 
 property certain proportions of matter, or substances, are to assume. 
 
 In feeding upon metallic solutions derived from the air by 
 plants, and no doubt by ourselves, and by animals on land and in 
 the water, it will be evident, according to the above, that the 
 solutions could not be absorbed, could not be inhaled without 
 the necessary portion of, or combination with oxygen, and 
 that, living by the inhalation of oxygen, we must necessarily 
 inhale some portion of metallic matter, determining, perhaps, 
 electrical operation always united, the various state and colour of 
 the blood, the sap and juice of plants, etc. Thus the preceding 
 trio seems to be inseparably connected ; and having treated already 
 at large upon electricity, and tried to prove the metallic state of 
 the ocean of air we live in, it still remains to demonstrate, if 
 possible, where in the economy of Divine Providence, the important 
 element of oxygen is derived from. 
 
 At the beginning of this work I have already spoken of the 
 certainty of oceans of different matter existing beyond our own 
 atmosphere of air, and these oceans, or rings, which surround our 
 globe, are but ulterior rings and strata of a system of construction 
 which begins within the earth itself ; for the earth, as geologists 
 
128 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 have shown, is composed of rings or strata, which, as we leave 
 the interior, become lighter and lighter in substance the nearer we 
 come to the surface; and this surface is girt by an ocean of water, 
 and this again covered by a lighter ocean of air. Hence we may 
 reasonably conclude, that the higher oceans are progressing in 
 lightness, expansion and elasticity, in proportion to their reaching 
 the boundary of our sphere. 
 
 That of these oceans one is of oxygen, I am the more inclined 
 to believe, as the supply of this gas has, as yet, not been accounted 
 for ; that it is the first and next in order after our own atmosphere 
 of air, I hope to be able to establish. 
 
 Oxygen is a body, a gas, which scientific men have, as yet, not 
 succeeded to decompose, though several beginnings have been 
 made. In nature we meet with it in every form, but in the air we 
 find it in its most simple state. 
 
 The air itself is composed of two gases, of which seventy-nine 
 parts are nitrogen, or azote, which means destructive of life, and 
 twenty-one parts of oxygen, or vital air ; and these two gases are 
 almost evenly mixed throughout the whole ocean of our airy atmo- 
 sphere, of which oxygen is the leaven. Oxygen in fact, is the all- 
 pervading life-giving matter of this our terrestrial globe ; no human 
 being, no animal, whether of the air, water, or earth, can live, nor 
 can plants grow without it ; and, like electricity, it seems to unite, 
 or to be in a state of incorporation, more or less, with every created 
 substance. By this incorporation, the oxidation of inanimate 
 matter, by the process of respiration of man, animals, and plants, 
 by consumption through fire and other causes, so much is used and 
 withdrawn from the air, that it is truly wonderful how the supply 
 keeps pace with the demand, and that too with a regularity 
 hardly conceivable. It is one of the masterpieces, if we may say 
 so, of the God of Creation, of Him who needed no counsel in the 
 arrangement of His works. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 129 
 
 Azote, or nitrogen gas, the great bulk of our atmosphere, science 
 has not been able to dissolve, or decompose, no more than oxygen ; 
 it enters into chemical combinations with oxygen in different pro- 
 portions from that in which it is mixed with it as air, forming 
 nitric acid, etc. ; but otherwise it is not known to suffer any 
 diminution ; and if this be so, we may conclude, that it is the 
 permanent part of our atmosphere, through and with which we 
 inhale oxygen in that proportion which is most suitable to our 
 existence. 
 
 Oxygen, then, is the variable, the constantly consumed and 
 abstracted part of our atmosphere, or more correctly speaking, of 
 the air ; and unless my theory be correct, it will as yet have to be 
 found out, by what law it has pleased Divine Providence to pro- 
 duce or renew, and from what chamber of His laboratory to 
 furnish us with this indispensable vivifying element. Frem appear- 
 ances, we should suppose, as we shall see, that the supply comes 
 from above, from beyond our own atmosphere, though the results 
 of chemistry certainly seem to be against this supposition. But 
 then, chemistry has still to divide both nitrogen and oxygen. 
 
 There are bodies which contain very large quantities of oxygen, 
 and in particular manganese ; from these bodies it is driven off by 
 heat, and by being heated to a high degree, others will again 
 absorb it. By this, and other means, scientific men have been able 
 to collect and weigh this gas ; and they find that 100 cubic inches 
 at a medium temperature and pressure, weigh 34*4 grains, whereas 
 an equal column of atmospheric air weighs only 31 grains; and 
 azote, or nitrogen, the residue of the air after being deprived of 
 oxygen, to weigh only 30 '20 grains. 
 
 Supposing these results to be correct, it would certainly seem 
 strange, that oxygen, the heaviest of the three bodies, should form 
 an ocean above our atmosphere ; it would be something like water 
 floating upon oil. It must, however, be borne in mind, that 
 
130 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 oxygen, unlike water and oil, is a rarefied and elastic body, and that 
 the oxygen measured and weighed by scientific men, has, moreover, 
 been obtained by artificial means ; and the question therefore arises : 
 is it as pure as that which floats in our atmosphere or above it, 
 particularly seeing, that water, however pure, differs much in 
 weight? How will pressure and temperature HERE and ABOVE 
 relatively influence its density ? Professor Schonbein, some years 
 ago discovered " ozone " in the atmosphere, a gas, which by some, 
 is considered a compound of hydrogen and oxygen, by others, 
 oxygen in a highly excited state. Mr. Auguste Kouzeau has also 
 succeeded in obtaining a very odoriferous gas from oxygen, said to 
 be dangerous to respiration. 
 
 And does not this, in some degree, bear out already my theory I* 
 May not oxygen form some undetected combination by coming 
 down into our atmosphere ? Indeed, it seems to me very likely, that 
 nitrogen, the bulk of our atmosphere, is an undetected compound, 
 of which the heaviest part unites with the oxygen coming from 
 above, and thus facilitates its descent to the earth. But still more 
 probable does it seem to me, that oxygen unites with the metallic 
 solutions with which our atmosphere is charged, and thus sinks 
 easily down to us with uninterrupted regularity ; hence also its 
 greater weight over that of the air, or nitrogen, by themselves. If, 
 on the other hand, oxygen is really heavier in its free state than air 
 and azote, there will be more difficulty to account for its rise in even 
 proportion to the greatest height against the law of gravity, than 
 to account for its descent on my proposition. Or, if it rise like 
 vapours from the earth, to form into clouds and come down again : 
 whence does it rise ? 
 
 Taking, then, for granted, that, in its pure, natural and 
 
 * Since this was written Professor Schonbein has followed up his important 
 discovery; and it is now a fact, confirmed by Dr. Faraday, that oxygen is a com- 
 pound of ozone and ant-ozone gases, the more perfect knowledge of which may 
 lead to most extraordinary results. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 131 
 
 expanded state above, it is lighter than air, the same as air is 
 lighter than water ; and that in this assumption I am borne out 
 by the evidence which I shall bring forward, I will now try first 
 to show, that, as a source of supply, oxygen is not contained in 
 the earth, nor in the water, nor in the air. 
 
 As a source of supply, oxygen does certainly not seem to be 
 contained in the earth, or to evaporate from it, in the state in 
 which we breathe it ; for, if you dig a well or pit, it will by 
 degrees escape from the air with which it was mixed and leave 
 nothing but azote behind, a substance, in which neither human 
 being, nor animal, can live, or fire burn ; and in thus separating 
 from the air, it either creeps into the wall of the pit or well to 
 form some oxidation, or it rises again into the light of day. It is 
 the same with mines that are not worked, or badly, or not at all 
 ventilated ; and if our supply of oxygen came from the earth, 
 this would not be the case, and the well, pit, or mine, would never 
 become foul, and dangerous to human life. 
 
 The lower strata of the air are always, more or less, charged 
 with deleterious matter, which, partly as miasma and contagious 
 gases, dangerously affect the animal organization ; there are fogs 
 which give a peculiar smell, and which, according to Humboldt, 
 remind us at certain times of the year, of those accidental 
 mixtures of the lower air. 
 
 Now if our supply of oxygen came from the earth, though 
 united with various metals it forms the greater part of the crust 
 of our globe, it stands to reason, that the strata of air nearest to 
 the earth would always be as much, if not more, charged with it, 
 as the upper regions, notwithstanding the exhalation of other 
 matter, and the stagnation of the air in so many places, both 
 above and below ground ; for, the oxygen would there be fresh, 
 and by its constant escape upwards keep the air healthy and clear 
 
 like a rivulet at its spring. Nor is it likely, that, with an almost 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 constant deposit of carbonic and other gases, and matter floating 
 over the surface of the earth, God should have chosen to convey 
 to us, through this dead sea of impurities, that element, on which 
 life itself depends, and that this element should more be shrouded 
 in corruption at its source than at the greatest, or any, distance 
 from it. If, again, it came from the earth, it would also have a 
 tendency to return to it, like rain and dew to the waters from 
 which they rise, and not, in its pure natural state, ascend and 
 remain, in greater proportion than below, higher than it has been 
 given to man to ascend. But the earth draws its supply from 
 above, and amalgamating with it by the process of oxidation, 
 holds it bound, and only allows it to be freed again by force ; it is 
 more inclined to unite with solid bodies under certain conditions, 
 than to escape from them when once it has formed the combi- 
 nation. Hence the oxidation of our globe, of whose ponderable 
 matter nearly one-half consists of oxygen ; and this oxidation 
 would not have taken place, nor be going on, if, instead of 
 absorbing this element like all living and inanimate bodies, from 
 the air, it were to supply them all, and the air too, from its own 
 substance, unless it could be proved, that there was an inex- 
 haustible supply within the earth itself, and that at any time, 
 place, or under particular conditions, it was evolved by it into the 
 atmosphere. 
 
 It is said that plants, and flowers in particular, at times exhale 
 this extraordinary gas ; this, however, must be very little, inas- 
 much as, like living beings, they always absorb the oxygen of 
 the air, or of the water, in which they grow, to be incorporated 
 with their sap, the same as it is with our blood. If flowers over 
 night produce such an atmosphere in a room, that a person 
 sleeping therein will die from its effects, like from the effect of 
 burning charcoal : it is, that the flowers, as well as the walls of 
 the room, absorb perhaps all the oxygen of the place, leaving 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 133 
 
 nitrogen, charged with the carbonic odour of the flowers, behind, 
 just the same as a charcoal fire in a closed department. In 
 daytime, when the air of a room is more or less changed by 
 the opening of doors and windows, no such effect is perceived, 
 and hence, no doubt, has arisen the belief, that flowers exhale 
 oxygen by day, and carbonic acid gas by night. 
 
 Speaking of "the sources from whence the atmosphere may 
 derive carbonic acid," Cosmos p. 306., Humboldt says in Note 
 379 : " I have not included in this enumeration the exhalation of 
 carbonic acid gas by plants during the night, WHEN THEY INHALE 
 OXYGEN, because this source of addition is fully compensated by 
 the respiration of plants during the day." 
 
 How these results have been arrived at I have had no means 
 to ascertain ; but it strikes me very forcibly, that if this exhala- 
 tion of carbonic acid by plants during the night did take place, 
 it would be impossible for animals to live, or human beings to 
 sleep, in forests or in places of rich vegetation, and the oxygen 
 evolved by plants during the day would do them no good for the 
 night. 
 
 Oxygen promotes our breathing, fast breathing accelerates the 
 circulation of the blood, and a rapid flow of the blood causes 
 perspiration. And is it not the same with plants and flowers 
 inhaling oxygen, as it were, that they perspire after rain and 
 dew, particularly when followed by sunshine, from increased 
 activity of life? This activity is manifested by their erected 
 carriage, by electricity raising up their drooping heads and limbs, 
 sustained, refreshed, and nourished by the oxygen, which in 
 combination with metallic solutions have been attracted and 
 absorbed. 
 
 Oxygen gas is evolved by the action of the sun's rays on the 
 moistened leaves of trees, which, it is said, by this agency decom- 
 pose the carbonic acid DIFFUSED IN THE ATMOSPHERE from various 
 
134 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 sources, and by combining it with their carbon, flourish and 
 increase in size. Now there are at most, and at times only, but 
 one-and-a-half per cent, of carbonic acid contained in our atmo- 
 sphere, and this, if decomposed by the aforesaid process, would 
 not go very far to make the leaves of trees flourish and increase in 
 size, particularly those on which the sun never shines. Mere 
 warmth will not have the effect of evolving oxygen from moistened 
 leaves, or from a fresh leaf put into a glass of water ; but as the 
 rays of the sun produce this result, they must exercise a kind of 
 fermenting influence on leaves in that state, from which they 
 disengage the oxygen, causing it to appear in the shape of little 
 silvery bubbles, like those that rise from the bottom of a flask of 
 water over a fire. The oxygen thus evolved is no doubt the 
 result of an excess of electric activity produced by the rays of 
 the sun ; this emanation, however, can never be regarded as a 
 supply for our atmosphere, for, the process is very partial, short- 
 lived, and at long intervals, and- there are many more leaves 
 not shone, than shone, upon by the sun. 
 
 From what I have said here and at the preceding page it will 
 appear evident to the reader, that the inhalation and exhalation 
 by plants of oxygen and carbonic acid must be of very little im- 
 portance as to the effects thereby produced upon the atmosphere, 
 and the same upon plants as far as the inhalation of carbonic acid 
 is concerned. For, the minute quantity of this gas in THE ATMO- 
 SPHERE is utterly incapable of materially, if at all, promoting 
 their increase in size. For this reason there must be another 
 source from whence plants derive their carbon, and particularly 
 from whence they derived it since the third day of creation 
 up to the deluge, when they grew into such gigantic dimensions, 
 and covering, perhaps, almost every part of our globe. 
 
 Unlike oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, which never, or but 
 in small quantities, are found on the surface of, or issuing from, 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 135 
 
 the earth,* " we see steam and carbonic acid gas issue from the 
 ground almost always free from nitrogen " ; " of gaseous emis- 
 sions those of carbonic acid are, as far as we yet know, the 
 most numerous and the most abundant." (Cosmos 205 and 206.) 
 Therefore, the source of supply must be sought in the earth ; but, 
 being a compound, how did the carbonic acid get there ? 
 
 The same as from the beginning by electric agency the solid 
 portion of the earth had been precipitated from chaos, attracted 
 by its electric nucleus ; the same as still by electric action we 
 see pure meteoric iron, stones, pebbles, and sulphurous substances 
 precipitated from our atmosphere, as noticed in page 63 ; the same 
 as we cannot help connecting the smell of gunpowder, the 
 bituminous matter and brimstone spoken of at page 61, with the 
 beds of saltpetre, sulphur, and of copper and iron pyrites, etc., 
 found in the earth ; the same as we must trace the beds of 
 nitrates, chalk, limestone, marbles, and sand, to the same source 
 from which Liebig, page 109, obtained his nitric acid, his lime 
 and ammonia : so we must trace the existence of carbon and 
 carbonic acid to the same source of combination and precipita- 
 tion, to our atmosphere, the firmament dividing the waters from 
 the waters. 
 
 More than this. Similar to the formation of crystals of hail 
 in the air, so, at some early time, crystallizations, bright as if 
 of solar rays, may have taken place above, and in the shape of 
 glittering diamonds been dropped upon the earth ; for, it is only 
 a superior region that any thing so pure could come from, the 
 same as man in his original purity came from the hand of 
 God. 
 
 But, as the diamond was washed away and embedded in the 
 
 * " The absence of hydrogen in gaseous emanations from the fissures of 
 craters and from lava currents which have not yet cooled." Cosmos, p. 226. 
 " The small quantity of nitrogen emitted opposes similar difficulties to the hypo- 
 thesis of the entrance of atmospheric air into the crater." Cosmos, p- 287. 
 
136 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 alluvial soil of the earth, and man threw himself into the soil of 
 sin and immorality, both were tarnished, save one celestial gem, 
 who alone was preserved in its original crystalline purity immacu- 
 late ; and as the defaced diamond can only be restored to its pristine 
 brilliancy by being rubbed, and scoured with its own broken 
 substance : so the disfigured soul of man could be redeemed, could 
 be re-invested with its pristine purity, only by the broken heart of a 
 God made Man like himself. And as the purified diamond exposed 
 to the light absorbs it more and more until it becomes more and 
 more resplendent in its fulness : so the purified soul drinks in the 
 light and grace of God to overflowing. But what a glory of light 
 must not SHE have drank in and absorbed, who was conceived 
 without the taint of sin, and BORE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD 
 WITHIN HER ! an immensity of glory and grace, whose halo fills 
 the heavens, embraces the whole earth, shines upon all mankind, 
 and is partaken of by all who but will be her children. 
 
 It is melancholy to reflect, that the distribution of human 
 diamonds particularly among those who outside are sparkling and 
 polished, decked with precious or imitated pearls and stones, and 
 who far and wide diffuse around them the odour of simulated 
 virtue and artificial perfume should be as scarce and isolated as 
 that of carbon diamonds hidden in the ground. 
 
 . The isolated distribution of the fields of the latter over the 
 earth, may, perhaps, find a parallel in the remarkable fall of hail, 
 no doubt, a rare occurrence, described by Mr. Thomas Sutton in the 
 Proceedings of the Royal Society, as related in the Illustrated 
 London News of 4th January, 1863. I give the interesting article 
 entire though in part foreign to the subject. 
 
 " The district over which the hail fell on the 7th of May last, 
 at Headingly, near Leeds, was very narrow. The fall was preceded 
 by a violent storm. The hailstones did not fall in a continuous 
 shower, but in irregular clusters. Sometimes a field would be 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 137 
 
 thickly strewn with them whilst an adjoining one escaped with 
 hardly any ; one part of a greenhouse would be much broken, and 
 the remainder, similarly exposed, escape uninjured. So great was 
 the force, that in some cases, circular holes were cut in the glass 
 without the sheet being otherwise injured. The end of a pendulous 
 branch of beech, 12 inches long and inch in circumference, was 
 cut from the tree, and several larger branches from apple and lilac 
 trees. The hailstones were of different forms and sizes, and 
 Mr. Sutton sketched no less than forty varieties, some of a fantastic 
 form. The heaviest weighed by Mr. Sutton was two ounces, but 
 some weighed by other persons were said to be upwards of five 
 ounces. One cake-shaped hailstone had a radiated mass resembling 
 a mushroom rising out of it. Another stone was composed of five 
 large masses of ice, quite clear, and in size like nutmegs." 
 
 Thus, in the same way, under a different early condition of the 
 atmosphere, diamonds, no doubt, have at times been scattered from 
 above, and therefore we must conclude, that not only carbonic 
 acid, but the diamond itself, have their source in the air. 
 
 In Cosmos, note 376, Humboldt refers to Boussingault " on the 
 influence of atmospheric electricity in the production of nitrate of 
 ammonia, which is changed into carbonic acid by contact with 
 lime ;" and having seen that Liebig obtains from the air the very 
 elements which constitute and produce carbonic acid, we cannot 
 but conclude, that, when in the infancy of our planet, after the 
 separation of the land from the water, and ATMOSPHERIC ELEC- 
 TRICITY being probably at the climax of intensity of action, those 
 enormous volumes of carbonic acid were precipitated, which, 
 perhaps in the atmosphere already, combining with kindred sub- 
 stances, formed the beds of chalk, limestone and marbles before 
 spoken of, entered into the composition of other earthy and of 
 metallic Carbonates, thereby purifying the air for future life, fer- 
 tilizing the land, and laying the foundation of a luxuriant vegetation. 
 
138 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 It is even possible, that when hills and valleys and plains had been 
 clothed with verdure and towering trees, from subterranean con- 
 vulsions, they sank in all their glory, or forests perished and 
 calcined under a burning sun, and were covered by continued and 
 far-extending precipitations of liine and other atmospheric pro- 
 ducts, similar to heavy and lasting falls of snow, which often to 
 an incredible depth cover the ground ; and this process may have 
 occurred again and again before the atmosphere was sufficiently 
 pure for animal life to exist in ; the very spots of sunken woods 
 and fertile lands may have been re-decorated with the richest 
 garments of nature, likewise to be buried and again to be 
 re-juvenized. 
 
 All this seems to be more likely than that " at the same early 
 period of generally-distributed VOLCANIC ACTIVITY, there also 
 
 ISSUED FROM THE EARTH THE ENORMOUS QUANTITY OF CARBONIC 
 ACID WHICH, IN COMBINATION WITH LIME, HAS FORMED THE LIME- 
 STONE ROCKS, and of which the carbon alone, in a solid form, 
 constitutes about the eighth part of its bulk.*' Cosmos, 207. 
 
 On the other hand, Humboldt, no doubt, is correct, when he 
 says (page 306), that " the admixture of carbonate of ammonia 
 IN THE ATMOSPHERE may have been older than the presence of 
 organic life on the globe," for, without this, no organic life could 
 have existed, and for carbonic acid to issue in such abundance 
 from the bowels of the earth, it must have been deposited there first. 
 
 That this deposition of carbonic acid took place in its fluid 
 form, like the precipitation of water by the chemical union of 
 oxygen and hydrogen, I do not believe. I rather think that, 
 besides the combination of carbonic acid with lime, &c., spoken 
 of before, seeing such a minute quantity of this gas in the air 
 as to be of no account in the growth of plants, and that 
 " according to the important experiments of Saussure and Liebig 
 (Cosmos, 305) traces of ammoniacal vapours which furnish to 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 139 
 
 plants the azote they contain," exist in the atmosphere : there is 
 every reason to suppose, that, by the process of inhalation by 
 plants of the oxygen and nitrogen of the air and their 
 decomposition by electrical agency, combined with some other 
 constituent, the carbon of almost the whole vegetable kingdom is 
 produced, though it may partly be ascribed to large quantities of 
 carbonic acid taken up by the roots of plants. 
 
 When thus successive series of vegetation were buried in the 
 womb of the earth, they coaled by the electric heat of the interior, 
 and thus produced the carbonic acid which in such enormous 
 quantities is emitted "in districts of extinct volcanoes and 
 thermal springs," and which, without rising into the air, re-com- 
 bines again with water and earthy matter ; and in this way 
 lime rocks may still be formed, though they do not seem to me 
 to have been so formed originally, and particularly not before 
 " the presence of organic life on the globe." 
 
 The ATMOSPHERE, then, does not derive any carbonic acid from 
 the respiration of animals or emissions from the earth, on account 
 of its being too heavy to rise ; it must, therefore, be and 
 have been produced in the air, and by woods and plants or 
 vegetable matter sunk into the earth ; for, as we have seen 
 already, the respiration of plants, whether of carbonic acid or 
 oxygen, counts for nothing in the bulk of the atmosphere. 
 
 That plants, like all organic life, must emit, or throw off, 
 something, is quite certain ; they throw off their leaves, but their 
 emission of gases in quantity and quality is still very uncertain. 
 Some recent experiments seem to show, that plants emit ozone 
 both by day and by night, and more by night than by day; 
 and if this be so, the theory of emission of oxygen, and, no 
 doubt, of carbonic acid, by plants, if true, will, at least be con- 
 siderably modified, but still more clearly prove, that the source 
 of oxygen is not to be sought in our atmosphere of air. 
 
140 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 Oxygen, as a reservoir for the supply of our globe, does not 
 seem to be contained in water either, from which that part of it, 
 required for sustaining the life of the creatures and plants it 
 contains, is abstracted or absorbed by them, as it is done by us 
 from the air. If this were not so, water, whether in contact with 
 the air, or not, would never become foul, inasmuch as the 
 combination with the life-preserving oxygen would be its unfailing 
 and unvarying condition, and keep it fresh, whatever quantity it 
 might have to give up to our atmosphere. But water will decom- 
 pose by standing for some time, simply because the oxygen is 
 escaping from it, the same as the air of an apartment long closed 
 will decompose by the retirement of its vivifying element. 
 
 Water is a compound of eight parts of oxygen and one part of 
 hydrogen ; and though this appears almost similar to saying that 
 bread is a compound of eight parts of leaven and one part of 
 flour, yet we are unable to explain the nature of the change 
 which takes place in producing water by means of the aforesaid 
 combination, or chemical union of gases. Oxygen thus converted 
 into water has evidently no longer anything more in common 
 with the oxygen we breathe which pervades the whole atmo- 
 sphere and all the waters of the earth as leaven pervades bread, 
 and which is as necessary for the creatures living in the water as 
 for those living on earth than petrified wood has anything in 
 common with the same wood when green ; the difference between 
 the two is this : that the former is converted in a moment, and the 
 latter by very slow degrees. 
 
 If oxygen, on being changed into water, did not change its 
 nature altogether, none of all the creatures living, and plants 
 growing in it, would require any pure oxygen for their sus- 
 tenance, nor would this gas merely in a mechanical, and not in a 
 chemical, manner, unite with the water. But it is a well estab- 
 lished factj that river water in particular possesses the property of 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 141 
 
 absorbing much oxygen, and that for this reason the surface of 
 both rivers and the ocean holds more oxygen than the atmospheric 
 air, to the amount even of 29'1 per cent.; and this it is tha' 
 contributes to the maintenance of the respiration of fishes and the 
 growth of aquatic plants, the same as required for man, and the 
 animals and plants on land. 
 
 Water again, a combination of oxygen and hydrogen, will, at a 
 low temperature, form ice ; but it is not from the ice either, no 
 more than from the oxidized crust of our globe, that we derive 
 the oxygen we breathe. It seems, on the contrary, that in the 
 formation of ice, the oxygen is excluded and left behind in the 
 unfrozen liquid, to establish, as it were, an additional store for the 
 animals underneath, the ice being a barrier against the usual 
 supply from the air, destitute itself of atmospheric air when first 
 dissolved, and consequently unable to sustain respiration in fishes. 
 Ice-water, for the same reason, the absence of atmospheric air, is 
 mawkish and insipid, but by exposure to it, it speedily absorbs a 
 due proportion. With snow-water it is much the same, and for 
 this reason, no doubt, it is, when drunk, so injurious to the con- 
 stitution ; and frost and cold are evidently as unfavourable to 
 oxidation as warmth and heat are favourable to it. Hence also to 
 nature the particular benefit of a warm rain, and the invigorating 
 influence of dew, which contains still more air and oxygen than 
 rain. 
 
 Water also, like land, is covered with vapours of various- 
 descriptions, and the same reasons which I adduced for not 
 considering the earth as the universal reservoir of oxygen for the 
 benefit of all things created, will likewise hold good with regard 
 to the former. 
 
 That the atmosphere itself is not the great holder of oxygen 
 seems very evident from the decomposition of the air, wherever 
 it may be, unless renewed from time to time. 
 
142 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 I have already spoken of how this gas escapes from the air of 
 rooms kept shut for any length of time, whether under or above 
 ground ; but, if even a chimney or tower were built a thousand 
 or more feet high, everywhere air-tight save at the top, the 
 oxygen would soon be found to have disappeared from the air 
 within, by either having crept into the wall, or ascended into the 
 regions of light, towards which it is most inclined. Being, in its 
 purely natural state, lighter than the matter with which combined 
 it forms air, it must naturally have a tendency to rise, unless more 
 powerfully attracted by bodies with which it chemically as well 
 as mechanically unites ; and it would, for this reason, leave the 
 whole earth a valley of death, had a good God, who called the 
 world into existence, not ordained that the due and rain of heaven, 
 and the wind and agitation of the air, should always provide us 
 with it in that nearly uniform proportion, in which almost all 
 scientific men have found it to exist everywhere. 
 
 And whence is it likely that the movements and currents of the 
 air should carry to us this element of life ? From where else, if not 
 from a reservoir in the regions above, from the highest of which 
 life itself has come I 
 
 If water, as I have shown, and as the air-vessels of fishes in 
 particular tend to demonstrate, contains air, and of necessity 
 oxygen, it does beyond all doubt derive it from that ocean of air 
 which fosteringly rests upon its surface ; and though the process 
 by which the water sucks in the air from above, drawing down 
 a lighter body than itself, is not known to us, yet we may compare 
 it to apparently solid bodies absorbing moisture, to quicklime 
 feeding upon vapour, until saturated to that degree assigned to it 
 by its Creator for His own purposes ; it is, in a certain manner, 
 an oxidation of the water,, perhaps an electric suction. 
 
 Our atmosphere, in the same manner, absorbs its own lighter 
 part, from a reservoir higher above than itself, and with such 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 143 
 
 regularity, that no consumption, however great, takes place, but is 
 instantly made up again by a fresh supply. As water holds a 
 given quantity of air, with a constant tendency to rise, so air holds 
 a given quantity of oxygen, and this again a defined quantity of 
 still purer matter, perhaps hydrogen, until we have arrived at the 
 limit of our earthly sphere, where a still purer invisible matter, 
 electricity, with its inherent magnetic power, begins to fill up the 
 spaces between the worlds of the universe, and in which they move 
 with almost the rapidity of thought, directed and sustained by 
 God, the Creator of all. 
 
 To facilitate the absorption and incorporation of air by the 
 water, He ordained, that, by the varying pressure of the atmosphere, 
 caused by the disturbing influence of the moon gliding over it for 
 the production of the tides, and by the turbulent action of the 
 breeze and the hurricane, it should be brought more within the 
 wild but benificent embrace of the air; and the atmosphere itself 
 He provided to be rocked to and fro by the companion of the earth, 
 and to be set in almost constant motion all over the globe by its 
 various currents, in order to promote the absorption of the 
 animating element, and its diffusion in every quarter, and 
 particularly at those places were the air is most liable to 
 decomposition. And these places are unquestionably at the 
 equator, where nature, as it were, is constantly exhausting and 
 recovering itself, where, more than recovering, ever since the sun 
 burst into light, the earth has constantly been increasing in bulk, 
 so as to make the poles appear flattened against the protuberance 
 thus produced, if such protuberance really exist ; it is there that 
 the greatest evaporation of water, the greatest evaporation of 
 electricity, the greatest absorption of oxygen, and the greatest 
 decomposition of air takes place. 
 
 When in our own clime, in the heat of summer, owing, no 
 doubt, to the escape of air and oxygen from brooks and ponds, 
 
144 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 the fishes come up to the surface, apparently gasping for breath : 
 what must not be the evaporation under the vertical rays of the 
 sun at the equator ! What clouds of vapour must not cover the 
 sea and the land ! What enormous quantities of electricity must and 
 do not rise to produce thunderstorms almost every day ! What 
 absorption of oxygen must not take place there by the vegetable 
 creation with a constant summer and uninterrupted vegetation ! 
 And towards the equator it is, that from the poles, where there is 
 no decomposition of air or water, where, in their respective 
 regions, electricity and oxygen exist in their greatest and densest 
 proportion, they are more particularly carried by ceaseless currents. 
 
 But also the dew and rain of heaven, as we have seen, bring 
 down to us this indispensable oxygen, which, owing to the colder 
 state of the higher regions of our atmosphere, is there also in 
 greater abundance than in the warmer and more expanded strata 
 below, the same as it is present in greater quantity in winter than 
 in summer, as evidenced by the brighter burning of the fire at the 
 former season. They will bring it down, not merely judging by 
 the coolness which they impart to the air, but also by the pleasure 
 of breathing on a fine summer morning, or after the rain of a sultry 
 summer day ; it is the oxygen that makes us breathe again and 
 again, as if we could not breathe enough ; it is the oxygen coming 
 down fresh from heaven that causes the perspiration, and dissolves 
 the fragrant gases, of plants and flowers, making them fill the air 
 with an odour, as it were, of another world, and with the Church, 
 offer up to God, at every moment of time, from the rising of the 
 sun to the going down of the same, the incense of adoration. 
 
 It is after thunderstorms in particular, that the air is filled with 
 the perfume of nature ; and this, no doubt, arises from the still 
 greater than ordinary quantity of oxygen with which the water is 
 charged. For, apart from the usual cause of rain through the 
 formation of vapours into clouds, the process above, on a grand 
 
THE NEW THEOBY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 145 
 
 scale, seems to be that of scientific men below, who have 
 discovered how to convert oxygen into water, and thereby 
 changing its very nature; hydrogen, like oxygen, rises in part 
 from the earth towards the sphere from whence they have come ; 
 both are united above, and by electric agency formed into that 
 water, to which we owe the more particular delight of an atmo- 
 sphere, almost overflowing with the sweetest fragrance. 
 
 In considering this transformation of oxygen into water, I am 
 involuntarily carried back again to that awful instance, when by 
 this means, and the gathering into one universal cloud of the 
 mists of the earth, the floodgates of heaven were opened, and a 
 sinful generation was swept away. 
 
 The deluge, though vouched for by the tradition of every nation 
 under the sun, is, to many, difficult to believe ; but suppose it to be 
 correct, that there is an ocean of oxygen above our atmosphere, as 
 there is an ocean of water resting on the land, and an ocean of 
 air covering land and sea ; that this body of oxygen is saturated 
 with hydrogen from an ocean still higher above, in the same manner 
 that land is saturated with water, water with air, and the air with 
 oxygen ; that, as we have seen already, positive electricity pervades 
 the superior parts of our atmosphere and the whole space of the 
 universe ; and how easy was, and is, it not then for God, whose 
 laws of nature harmonize, go hand in hand with those of morals, 
 to excite this electricity, and by its silent operation, apart from 
 the common rain, and the gathering of the mists of the earth into 
 one common cloud, to convert, in an instant, and in even a com- 
 prehensible manner, an ocean of animating matter into an element 
 of chastisement and destruction. If water is but another name 
 for oxygen, as ice, snow, hail, dew, and steam, are but other names 
 for water ; and if within the sphere of our globe, that ocean of 
 oxygen with its component part of hydrogen, like a line of 
 demarcation resting upon our surface of air, forms, perhaps, the 
 
146 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 blue canopy of heaven and grand reflector of light** how beauti- 
 fully true do not then become the words of Moses : " And God 
 said, Let there be a firmament (an atmosphere of air) in the 
 midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 
 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which WERE 
 under the firmament from the waters which were above the firma- 
 ment ; and it was so." 
 
 As on each day of creation, it may be supposed, God called a 
 new law of nature into operation, so, on the second day, He issued 
 the " fiat " of a firmament to be made. 
 
 The laws which on the first day, in the form of water covering 
 the whole earth, had precipitated from chaos the requisite 
 quantity of oxygen and hydrogen, still left an enormous amount of 
 these and other gases hanging undivided over the deep ; but now 
 another law, though still an electric agency, carried out one of the 
 most striking designs of the wisdom and providence of God. 
 
 The firmament, the future scene of life upon earth, was not to 
 contain anything deleterious or repugnant to man in particular. 
 Hence, chlorine, one of the most offensive substances, and for life 
 insupportable, though otherwise in the highest degree useful ; and 
 sodium, burning with great intensity in the air, the most 
 remarkable devourer of oxygen, of the supporter of life, were 
 separated from chaos and in combination precipitated into the 
 water, that, as chloride of sodium, as sea-salt, it might saturate 
 the entire ocean then covering our globe, in order to preserve its 
 freshness to the end of the world, to provide an abundant store of 
 one of the greatest essentials of life, and by this means make the 
 firmament fit for organic life to exist in. 
 
 * In a pure state of the air, water-gases, when fine, reflect a beautiful blue 
 tint ; this tint, however, becomes dingy and greyish with a moist and impure 
 atmosphere ; but as neither of these conditions, or states, are normal, we only 
 can account for the permanent blue sky by the permanent ocean of hydrogen 
 above, which gas, among all known substances, is the best reflector of light, as 
 has been noticed before. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 147 
 
 The precipitation of chlorine and sodium was succeeded by the 
 precipitation of the firmament itself, forming our grand ocean of 
 azote, or nitrogen, permeated by a fifth portion of oxygen, so as to 
 constitute the atmosphere in which we live. 
 
 The firmament having been separated from chaos, there was 
 left above ft still a vast ocean of pure, unappropriated oxygen, 
 permeated by hydrogen, an ocean of the purest water, when, as 
 we have seen, electrically acted upon ; and thus the firmament 
 divided the waters from the waters, leaving still beyond this 
 transparent ocean of latent water above, a still vaster and more 
 expanded ocean of hydrogen, both divinely calculated for the 
 penetration of light and vision, and the contemplation by man of 
 the wonders of God on high. 
 
 As noticed before, the ocean of hydrogen above forms a vast 
 burning-glass and reflector embracing the whole earth, in order to 
 collect and concentrate the rays of the sun, and throw light and 
 heat with intensity upon it. When, however, at the deluge, 
 the windows of heaven were opened, when, in addition to 
 descending mists, so enormous a quantity of oxygen and hydrogen 
 was precipitated in the form of water as to cause it to rain for 
 forty days and nights without intermission : the oceans above 
 were so dimished in bulk or density, that the hydrogen lens was 
 greatly reduced in its previous light-concentrating and reflecting 
 capacity ; and hence, as I believe, the real cause of the diminution 
 of all life upon earth after the deluge. Since then the precipitation 
 of oxygen and hydrogen has gone on, not to inundate our globe 
 for the rainbow still appears but to supply us with moisture and 
 with the corresponding blessings of heaven. 
 
 This theory is strengthened by the following observation of Sir 
 Isaac Newton, who says : " that COMETS seemed to be required 
 
 FOR THE CONSERVATION OF THE SEAS AND FLUIDS OF PLANETS, in 
 
 order that, from their condensed exhalations and vapours, the 
 
 L 2 
 
148 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 water consumed in vegetables and putrefaction, may be continually 
 replaced and supplied. For, all vegetables grow wholly from fluids, 
 and then are, to a great extent, turned into dry earth by putrefac- 
 tion, a slime perpetually settling from putrefying fluids. Hence it 
 is that the bulk of the solid earth is continually increasing, and 
 that its fluids, if not supplied from any other source, must 
 constantly decrease, and at last, entirely fail. I suspect also, that 
 the comets supply our air with that which is the smallest, and most 
 subtle, and useful part of it, and which is required to sustain the 
 life of everything." 
 
 Who does not see that the functions here ascribed to COMETS 
 are more naturally performed by the oceans of oxygen and 
 hydrogen above, yielding their supply to the solid earth until it 
 shall please God to consume it by fire, fed by the oxygen which it 
 received through the air. 
 
 It is also worthy of notice, that of the superincumbent oceans of 
 air, oxygen, and hydrogen, the air, as a general rule, but always 
 when cold, should be positively electrified ; that oxygen, in its 
 uncombined gaseous state is attracted by the positive, and 
 hydrogen, in its uncombined gaseous state, by the negative pole of 
 the voltaic battery ; that therefore the electric state of these 
 bodies is calculated for the functions they have to perform, oxygen 
 being negatively, and hydrogen positively electrified. Owing to 
 the extraordinary absorption of oxygen and hydrogen by the 
 earth, and by vegetation and animal life, it is not to be wondered 
 at, that the ocean above us should by degrees diminish, in bulk or 
 density, however little, in a given time ; and to this diminution, 
 both of the oceans of oxygen and hydrogen, we may, no doubt, 
 ascribe the moon's acceleration, that is, her gradual, though slow 
 approach to the earth, if she is really coming down. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 149 
 
 VII. 
 
 FENETRATION OF LIGHT THROUGH THE ATMOSPHERE. SPECTRAL 
 ANALYSIS. JUPITER'S SATELLITES. VELOCITY OF LIGHT ; RECENT 
 DISCOVERY OF ERROR IN ITS THEORY. HUMBOLDT. THE LIGHTING 
 AND WARMING OF OUR EARTH AND THE PLANETS; OBJECTIONS 
 AGAINST THE OLD THEORY ; VON GUMPACH. THE HEAVENLY BODIES 
 
 INHABITED ; ASTRONOMERS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOON. THE 
 CHURCH A FOCUS OF LIGHT AND WARMTH. LIGHT AND VISION OF 
 THE SOUL. MORE STARS SEEN NOW THAN BEFORE. PROVED : THE 
 EXISTENCE OF AN OCEAN OF OXYGEN ABOVE, THE EXISTENCE OF 
 POSITIVE ELECTRICITY WITHOUT, AND OF NEGATIVE ELECTRICITY 
 WITHIN, THE SOLID NUCLEUS OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES. 
 
 THE steady absorption of mineral and metallic solutions that fill 
 the air, along with the absorption of oxygen and hydrogen by the 
 solid earth from its superior oceans, in a corresponding ratio 
 facilitates also the transmission of light through our atmosphere 
 and the atmospheres of the heavenly bodies. 
 
 This is proved by the spectral analysis, according to which 
 
 MINERAL VAPOURS ABSORB THE RAYS OF THE SUN and throw dark 
 
 lines upon their spectrum, whilst mineral-vapour flames by them- 
 selves throw bright and coloured tints upon their spectrum. 
 
 Thus, the sodium flame produces yellow lines, and the flame of 
 iron vapours produces bright rays upon the spectrum, whilst, when 
 interposed, sodium vapour absorbs the rays of the sodium-vapour 
 flame, and iron vapours absorb the rays of the iron-vapour flame, 
 causing dark lines to fall upon the spectrum. Therefore, metallic 
 or mineral solutions in the atmosphere would absorb corresponding 
 rays coming from the sun, and produce darkness upon the earth ; 
 and hence, the precipitation of sodium and chlorine for the 
 formation of salt, and the purification of the firmament, as well as 
 the deposition of other elements from the atmosphere, were, and 
 are still, necessary for the free admission of light upon the earth ; 
 and these continual depositions of solutions and gases, so 
 
150 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 beautifully preconceived and providentially arranged by the 
 Creator and Ruler of chaos, must influence the oceans above us. 
 
 OUTSIDE, EXTERIOR, to these oceans, to these atmospheric 
 envelopes of our earth, I believe light to be uninterrupted, to have 
 been and to be simul- and instantaneously transmitted or diffused 
 to its furthest limit. 
 
 A burning candle will not shine beyond a certain distance, if it 
 were to burn for ever, and the same holds good with any other 
 light or fire, according to its size and luminosity. 
 
 If the immersion and emersion of the moons of Jupiter into and 
 from his shadow, CONTRARY TO THE CALCULATED TIME, takes place 
 SOONER when the earth in its path round the sun is placed between 
 the sun and Jupiter, when Jupiter is said to be in opposition, and 
 later when the earth is passing towards the opposite side of the 
 sun, towards conjunction of Jupiter with the sun: it does not 
 follow the difference between SOONER and LATER than the 
 calculated time, amounting to about fourteen minutes that, there- 
 fore, the rays of Jupiter's moons take a quarter of an hour longer 
 to reach the earth when near conjunction, than when it is right 
 underneath Jupiter, between Jupiter and the sun ; or that, when 
 the earth is most remote from Jupiter, the rays of his moons, on 
 their immersion into his shadow, vanish from our sight a quarter 
 of an hour later than when the earth is nearest to Jupiter, or, 
 which is the same, that in that case the rays of his moons remain 
 visible to us after the moons themselves have already for a quarter 
 of an hour been totally immersed into the shadow of their primary. 
 
 Though unable satisfactorily to demonstrate the reverse, yet, 
 seeing that so many things have been wrongfully taken for granted 
 and calculated, that the Newtonian theory of the solar system is 
 altogether based upon a sandy foundation, that experiments 
 affecting the transmission of light made in our atmosphere here 
 below are no standard, even if correct, of its transmission through 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 151 
 
 the atmosphere of the sun and the electrical medium of the space 
 of the whole universe : I may reasonably be permitted to question, 
 particularly from what in this respect will appear further on, the 
 conclusion and calculation of astronomers come to and made from 
 the eclipses of Jupiter's moons, namely, that light travels at the 
 rate of 192,000 miles a second, and that the light of some of the 
 stars may have taken thousands, if not millions of our years until 
 their rays fell upon the earth ; and that other stars may have been 
 extinct thousands, if not millions of years ago, whose rays are still 
 falling upon our eyes, and make us believe in their still real 
 existence. 
 
 All this MAY be true, but it strikes me that it looks like seeing 
 a man's shadow after he is gone out of the sun, or at an eclipse 
 of the sun our still standing within the tip of the shadow of the 
 moon after she has passed away from under him. 
 
 I cannot help thinking, that light and shadow begin to contract 
 or recede at the extremity, as soon as the primary cause is 
 removed, and that there may still be some other explanation of the 
 phenomenon of light than the theory of emanation or undulation. 
 
 Humboldt himself does not seem to think the present theories 
 of light to answer every difficulty. In his Cosmos, p. 132, he 
 speaks " of observations made by the acute Olbers, ' of sudden 
 flashings and pulsations, which, in the course of a few seconds, 
 vibrate throughout the whole of a comet's tail, which is seen at 
 the same time to lengthen several degrees, and again to contract. 
 As the different portions of a comet's tail, which is millions of 
 miles in length, are at very unequal distances from the earth, IT 
 is NOT POSSIBLE, according to the law of the velocity of light, that 
 actual alterations in a cosmical body filling so immense a space, 
 should be seen by us to take place in such short intervals of time.' 
 These considerations . . . . should make us careful to dis- 
 tinguish between effects which should be referred to the cosmical 
 
152 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 ether and to the regions of space, and those which are referrible 
 to the terrestrial atmospheric strata through which the bodies 
 
 I 
 
 existing in space are beheld by us we are not 
 
 able to explain completely all that takes place at the uncertain 
 
 and much-contested limit of our atmosphere The 
 
 phenomena of light .... have not yet been successfully 
 investigated." 
 
 This, though the proof be not true is most singularly con- 
 firmed by a statement where, referring to an astronomical error 
 about the weight of the sun and the earth found out by Le Verrier, 
 it is said : " But in the meantime M. Foucault " by an ingenious 
 arrangement of reflectors "had discovered that the velocity 
 usually assigned to light in its passage from the sun to the earth 
 had been over-estimated : the sun is CONSEQUENTLY one-thirtieth 
 less distant from the earth than had been supposed . . ." 
 
 I here may be allowed to ask : is the sun less distant from the 
 earth BECAUSE the velocity of his light has been over-estimated, 
 or, is the velocity of light less BECAUSE the earth is one-thirtieth 
 nearer to the sun, according to Le Verrier and the calculation 
 referred to in foot-note, page 36 ? If, however, the discovery of 
 Foucault, as stated, be independent of this calculation : by what 
 standard does he estimate and compare the result of his experi- 
 ments in this nether world of smoke and vapours with the 
 transmission of light through the solar and stellar spheres ? 
 
 Supposing, however, that his velocity of light be correct : what 
 then becomes of the velocity of light from the sun to the earth 
 and the planets, from planet to planet, and from star to star, 
 adopted by all astronomers and yet now not true ? What of the 
 velocity of light calculated by Romer from the eclipses of the 
 satellites of Jupiter, see p. 150 ? What of the aberration of light 
 calculated from " the relative velocities of light, and of the earth 
 in her annual orbit, upon which the effect depends," if the calcu- 
 
THE NEW THEOBY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 153 
 
 lations of both the velocity of light and the orbit of the earth 
 have been blunders ? What of Romer's calculations, endorsed by 
 the highest astronomical authorities, if the earth be 3,000,000, 
 miles less distant from the sun, its orbit round him 3,000,000 
 miles narrower than he adopted in his calculations I What of the 
 annual parallax of the earth hitherto adopted, and everything 
 based upon its foundation ? What of the velocity of the solar 
 system in space, say 49 miles in a second, when, by the reduction 
 of the orbit of the earth to the extent of 18,000,000 miles, the 
 velocity of our own planet has been mistaken ? What greater 
 certainty have we than before, that these new amendments re- 
 specting the reduced distance and orbit of the earth and the 
 diminished velocity of light are this time to be depended upon ? 
 And IF THERE EXIST a lesser velocity of light than previously 
 calculated : may there not be more reasons even than one to 
 account for it, apart from the assumption of a lesser distance 
 between the earth and the sun, and the necessarily defective and 
 doubtful experiments of scientific men ? Is it not likely that we 
 are as far from the knowledge of the diffusion of light in space as 
 we are from that of the NATURE of light ? 
 
 Which, then, of these calculations and conclusions shall we take 
 to be true ? The new velocity of light ? The new distance of 
 the earth from the sun ? The new weight of either the sun or the 
 earth ? or both ? 
 
 In the present stage, I think, we laymen in science had better 
 suspend our decision and wait further result of the Newtonian 
 theory. If hitherto we have believed in the accuracy of astrono- 
 mical observations and calculations, astronomers themselves have 
 destroyed the prestige and undermined our faith ; they have shown 
 and still do show that they are very fallible guides, that universal- 
 gravitation FAILS IN EVERY POINT IT HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO BEAR 
 
 UPON. What, then, would appear more natural, than that men, 
 
154 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 and above all the eminent in learning, should abandon their old 
 idol, and freely and cheerfully launch into the deep, into the depth 
 and vast expanse of the Simplicity of the Creation ? 
 
 My theory of light, of a hydrogen lens surrounding our earth, 
 every planet, and most likely every sun, though emanating from 
 an amateur also liable to err, may, nevertheless, meet some of the 
 greatest difficulties and deficiencies of present theories, if it does 
 not altogether set the theories themselves aside. 
 
 My theory alone explains the high degree of light and warmth 
 which we enjoy upon earth ; for, as Sir David Brewster says : 
 " convex lenses possess peculiar advantages for concentrating the 
 sun's rays, and for conveying to an immense distance a condensed 
 parallel beam of light." If, therefore, there were no such lens 
 surrounding our earth, it would be but feebly lighted and warmed. 
 Let the rays of the sun, as in the annexed diagram, diverge 
 
 into space and a portion fall 
 upon the body of the earth, 1, 
 simply surrounded by our 
 atmosphere of air, and it will 
 then be evident, that, com- 
 paratively speaking, but few 
 rays would strike and rest 
 upon it, and that it would 
 scarcely make any difference 
 in the number and force of 
 those falling upon the equator 
 and those falling upon the 
 other parts of the earth ; 
 therefore, light and heat 
 would be weak and pretty 
 equal on every spot shone upon by the sun. Let, however, the 
 earth, 2, be surrounded by its hydrogen lens, extending beyond the 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 155 
 
 moon and immensely greater in proportion to our atmosphere of 
 air than represented in the diagram and it will be seen, that 
 the rays of the sun THICKLY CONCENTRATED will fall upon its 
 body, thus causing greater intensity of light and heat, and par- 
 ticularly at the equator, the focus of this concentration. 
 
 This also accounts for the increasing light and heat of the sun 
 when in the morning we enter the area of our lens until we arrive 
 in its centre, and it explains their decreasing intensity as towards 
 evening we pass out of its limits. The concentrated action of the 
 solar rays falls and rests upon the earth, and as we rise in the 
 balloon, or ascend the peak of the mountain, we gradually retire 
 from their focus and they lose in power. If this were not so, 
 considering the size of the sun, the insignificant ball of the earth 
 in comparison, and the little distance between them, it would 
 make no difference, as long as we beheld the sun, whether his rays 
 were to fall upon us perpendicularly, or more or less oblique, 
 whether we received them in the balloon, on the mountain top, 
 or on the deck of the vessel, in winter or in summer, at the 
 equator or at the poles. 
 
 The objections against the old theory are very clearly set forth 
 by Von Gumpach. In Baby Worlds, page 134, he says : 
 
 " The difference of atmospheric heat, or of temperature between 
 morning or evening and noon, is, according to the prevailing theory, 
 explained by the OBLIQUE DIRECTION of the solar rays at the two 
 former epochs. But it must be confessed that this is, to say the 
 least, a very oblique explanation. For, it is evident that, if the 
 sun's calorific action decrease as the square of the distance, and 
 extends only beyond the orbit of Neptune, the linear dimensions of 
 the terrestrial radius=less than 4000 miles, at a distance from the 
 sun=95, 000,000 miles, can mark no APPRECIABLE difference of 
 temperature. In other words, according to the present theory, it 
 ought to be as hot in the morning and the evening, as it is at noon : 
 
156 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 or else as cold at noon, as it is in the morning and the evening. 
 And at the epoch of the summer solstice, when the earth is at the 
 greatest distance from the sun, the annual temperature of the 
 terrestrial atmosphere should reach its minimum of heat, and its 
 maximum, when the earth is nearest to the sun, at the time of the 
 winter solstice. The reverse of all this is the case. Moreover, 
 whether we ascend, even in the regions of the equator, some 
 thousand feet only above the level of the sea, straight into free 
 space by means of a balloon, or up the inclined slopes of a lofty 
 mountain, we find, AT THE VERY MOMENT OF NOON, that the 
 nearer we are to the sun, the lower is the temperature of the atmo- 
 sphere; and that, at a certain elevation the ground ceases to 
 produce, and the snow no longer melts. Or, whether, leaving the 
 zone of the tropics, we turn towards the north or towards the 
 south, we find, that the mean temperature of the terrestrial atmo- 
 sphere rapidly decreases, and that eternal ice and snow begin to 
 clothe the barren regions in the vicinity of either pole. That, in 
 the face of empirical facts as striking as these, and in spite of the 
 wonderful progress of the natural sciences in our days, the vulgar 
 opinion concerning the source of terrestrial atmospheric heat 
 should have maintained its undisputed ascendancy, is almost as 
 strange a thing, as is the mutual (electro-magnetic) action between 
 the sun and the planets itself." 
 
 All these anomalies find their solution in my new theory and 
 stamp it with the seal of truth. And if this were not so : how 
 could the more distant planets receive light and heat, if it were 
 not for the bountiful provision of God which my theory establishes ? 
 And is it not even possible that, according to the density or volume 
 of the hydrogen envelopes of Mercury and Venus, these planets 
 should NOT MORE be heated and lighted than our own earth, not- 
 withstanding their nearness to the sun ? 
 
 That upon this supposition, as well as on the ground of gravi- 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 157 
 
 tation, from what will appear hereafter, all the celestial bodies 
 might be inhabited by beings like ourselves, it is not unreasonable 
 to conclude ; the belief would be innocent, and if not in harmony 
 with, at least not against any thing taught by, revealed relegion. 
 
 I, moreover, can understand, that noble minds would cherish 
 the idea of beings dwelling upon the celestial orbs, in their nature 
 equal, if not superior, to man, and needing no redemption ; for, 
 nothing more beautiful or higher in the order of creation can be 
 imagined by man, than either angels in human form, or youth or 
 virgin blooming in original innocence; the thought would be 
 calculated to raise heart and soul to God in the contemplation of 
 intellectual life of a higher grade serving and adoring Him from 
 one end to the other of creation. 
 
 Without any warrant, by some astronomers even, the orbs of 
 heaven have been peopled with all sorts of monstrous conceptions ; 
 they may be harmless too, and not against revealed religion either, 
 but are by no means grand and inspiring. 
 
 Dr. Maedler keeps within a more sensible medium. Imbued 
 with the nobility of his profession, according to Baby Worlds, 
 footnote p. 133, he "depicts the inhabitants of the moon as 
 endowed by nature with more than eagles' eyes, an untiring frame 
 of body, and an extraordinary elasticity of motion, and he 
 expresses the confident opinion, that : that most splendid observa- 
 tory in the entire solar system, the lunar hemisphere turned 
 away from us, cannot well have the worst set of astronomers 
 attached to it.'" 
 
 From this I cannot differ, for there ARE astronomers on the other 
 side of the moon, and that we know nothing of them arises entirely 
 from their over great humility ; they do not wish to be spoken of. 
 
 The immense apertures of our satellite, generally believed to be 
 extinct craters of volcanoes, are nothing but the mouths of tubes 
 passing from the other side of the moon to ours, and through these 
 
158 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 lunar telescopes the men of science above watch our proceedings 1 
 here below, and naturally those of their confreres. 
 
 When thus they look down upon Dorpat and Berlin, Greenwich 
 and Cambridge, Paris, and even Rome, not minding much the 
 lesser constellations, their astonishment must be great at the work 
 they find performed, as with myriads of ants everything covered 
 with figures, through which facts cannot be seen ; and though 
 timid and retired, yet they agree with the doctor : " that the worst 
 set of astronomers are not attached to the moon." 
 
 But they do not wish to be discovered. Therefore, whenever 
 with us there is an eclipse of the sun, or the occultation of a star 
 by the moon, by general consent and with one accord they close 
 the eye-pieces of their telescopes, though they do not always 
 succeed all at the same time. 
 
 Thus, whenever there is one or the other weary on the watch, 
 or too late, we can see through the moon, like a prisoner in dark- 
 ness through a little hole in the roof of his cell ; and though this 
 is so very natural, yet the light from above has always been mis- 
 taken for stars reflected on the disc of our satellites, an opinion 
 which somewhere in my work I myself have tried to confirm. 
 
 However, for all that has been said, and for all the theories in 
 the world to the contrary, the astronomers in the moon may 
 nevertheless be exposed to the greatest cold ; for, her climate and 
 heat do not depend upon her greater nearness to the sun when in 
 conjunction, no more than the temperature on the peaks of the 
 equatorial mountains, but upon the focus of that solar focus of 
 light, into which she may be placed, or from which she may be 
 partially, if not totally, removed or excluded. 
 
 In a similar manner to the warming and lighting of our globe, 
 the Church is the focus of God's love upon earth, and all who 
 enter her precincts will be divinely warmed and enlightened in 
 proportion to their advance into its very heart. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 159 
 
 In her garden many sweet flowers are blooming, nourished by 
 the centre of life, and drinking from the fountain of heaven ; and 
 warblers there are without number, rising gloriously up to the 
 sky, and songsters in humble plumage, to cheer up the sickly and 
 drooping in the silent night of affliction ; her children are ACCUS- 
 TOMED to their strains, and harbour them with tender affection ; 
 and their sorrow is great when by small birds of prey, or royal 
 hawks and vultures, they are driven away from their peaceful 
 abodes, and desolation is brought over some fair portion of the 
 grounds. 
 
 Outside, the clime is less warm and congenial, and the further 
 removed from the focus of love, the more all is stunted and pining, 
 no flowers can bud to perfection, and their colours want brightness 
 and purity ; some lovely Nightingale may appear, grown up, as it 
 were, in a wilderness, lonely and without kindred companions, pant- 
 ing away, and leaving nurses, BUT NO SISTEKS, behind ; with song 
 sublimely touching, the more welcome as it is rare, the admiration 
 of all in the country the more she is solitary, and the more cherished 
 and adored the farther away she is from her real home. For, she 
 is not in the focus of the light from heaven, in which alone the 
 heart can fully live and expand ; beyond its borders these 
 songsters and flowers are but exotic, passing strangers ; to souls 
 yearning for a better land, all is pale moonshine, a dreary spiritual 
 waste, in which, even for the most intellectual mind, there is no 
 altar to attract, no ever-burning lamp of the sanctuary to guide, 
 no shining lights to cheer, nothing to follow, except, perhaps, 
 the unsteady cone of the zodiacal light of a departed or still 
 hidden sun, to many, I hope, rising, but mostly nothing but the 
 flickering will-o'-the-wisp, or the phantom of the desert, shifting 
 and fleeting at the moment of being grasped. 
 
 When light first gave the kiss of greeting to the newly created 
 worlds and embraced them with ever-increasing fondness, it THEN 
 
160 THE NEW THEOET OP THE SOLAB SYSTEM. 
 
 DID NOT TRAVEL, for God said, 4< Let there be light," 
 
 and " there was light." 
 
 Before then it had been veiled, but now darkness withdrew, the 
 curtain dropped from creation, chaos had been resolved into order, 
 it was gone .... and there WAS light upon everything that had 
 been separated from the light. As yet there was no concentration 
 round the intended orbs of the universe, as yet no noon and 
 midnight alternated upon the celestial bodies, but only evening and 
 morning, for there only WAS LIGHT, but NO LIGHTS had as yet 
 been made to divide the day from the night. When, however, 
 LIGHTS had been made, light had not been withdrawn, had not 
 retired from the heavenly bodies ; it only became more dilated, 
 more rarefied, less visible in space, that, more accumulated and 
 bursting out into brilliant rays around the centre of every system, 
 its blessings might be centred upon every globe, and in particular 
 upon our earth, through the concentrating lens of its wondrous 
 blue envelope. 
 
 Thus, all over the universe, there was but a transition from 
 light to lights, from diffusion to concentration, from evening and 
 morning to midnight and noon, and every luminous orb shone at 
 once to the end of its destination. Beyond this they could not 
 shine, for, as I have said already : a burning candle will not throw 
 its rays upon the moon if it were to burn for ever ; a child will 
 not see as many lights hung up in the vault of heaven as the 
 adult, and the naked eye of the adult will not equal the eye 
 assisted by the telescope in penetrating into the depth of creation. 
 
 Light, as it were, is the transition from imponderable matter to 
 the instinctive animal but mortal soul, and thence to the spiritual 
 soul of man, composed, the concentration, of pure light in its 
 essence, the eternal reflection of the Eternal Light, a LIVING 
 LIGHT, endowed with consciousness, free will, and everlasting, 
 SELF-ACTING, intellectual life. Hence, when immaculate, and 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 161 
 
 dwelling in a pure or purified body, it perceives things material 
 and immaterial, whether in exstacy or out of it. In that pure 
 state, in the perfect state in which Adam and Eve were created, 
 but more so in the state of the immaculate Virgin, over and 
 above also FULL OF GRACE, the soul is the living image of its 
 Creator ; and as He beholds and embraces, at every instant, the 
 whole universe, All in All, its past, present, and future : so, as an 
 evidence of being made according to His own likeness, the clean, 
 undefiled image of God is made to share in the attributes and 
 prerogatives^ 5 of its Eternal Type, and at one time is privileged to 
 see the past, at another the present, and again the future unfolded 
 and revealed. 
 
 The mystic eye of such a soul, the living light itself, penetrates 
 the veil of the body, as the light of the heavenly bodies penetrates 
 the atmospheric veils within which they are clothed ; and as the 
 thoughts emanating from a soul, from a living light of such 
 transcendent purity, penetrate in one instance through the whole 
 expanse of the universe, wing their way into heaven and there 
 take up their abode, wander into the infernal regions and at the 
 same moment shrink back again from their horrors : so light, in 
 its pure state and intensity, is next in rapidity to human thoughts 
 in traversing the whole of creation, bringing blessings wherever 
 it is admitted. 
 
 As vice of any kind, evil thoughts, nay mere conceit, drown 
 the light of the soul, obscure its vision, lame its wings for flights 
 into loftier regions, keep it grovelling in the dust, bound in chains 
 and wallowing in the mire : so mists, fogs and smoke, or an other- 
 wise defiled atmosphere, impede the vision of our bodily eye, 
 prevent the admission of superior light; even an atmosphere 
 
 * As instanced by Mosels and the prophets, by a long line of saints of the 
 new law, and by many holy souls of our own day, like sister Catharina 
 Emmerich and numbers of others. 
 
 M 
 
162 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 transparent with brightness, yet hides from our view heavenly 
 hosts without number, stars untold, perhaps seen already by Adam 
 and Eve, as noticed page 18., when unspotted they walked in 
 the garden of paradise, and God with them. For, clean of 
 heart, with unclouded, unimpaired vision of soul and body, the 
 LIVING- IMAGE OF GOD SAW GOD, and contemplated in all their 
 splendour the glories of the heavens, though an atmosphere less 
 clarified and transparent than at present rested upon our globe ; 
 but the shadow of death having spread over the soul and body of 
 man, spiritual and corporal vision became dull and confined ; sin, 
 the substance of the shadow of death, like a dark veil, placed 
 itself between God and man, the image of God had been overlaid 
 with the film of corruption, and no more saw its Eternal Type, the 
 beauties of creation diminished, and thousands of stars in the 
 dome of heaven disappeared to the fallen creature. 
 
 As, however, according to Sir David Brewster, " on the 
 summit of the highest mountains, where their light has to pass 
 through a much less extent of air, a much greater number of 
 stars is visible to the eye than in the plains below," so by the 
 continual growth of the earth through the constant absorption of 
 matter from tne air, this element itself became gradually clearer 
 and brighter, until by this means, with the lapse of time, many 
 stars re-appeared, silently, unnoticed, like hidden virtue, as it were, 
 to the descendants of Adam, so that generation after generation 
 beheld some celestial body or bodies, that had been hid from 
 their predecessors, the same as thousands of stars were hid from our 
 more immediate forefathers, which now WE see through a more 
 purified medium, without the assistance of telescopes. These 
 space-penetrating instruments only make perceptible to our im- 
 paired vision the light of those millions of orbs, which from its 
 first outburst already broke in and settled upon the borders of the 
 atmospheres of the heavenly bodies, though unable to penetrate 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 163 
 
 to our naked perception upon the earth, except by the progressive 
 accumulation of its nucleus, particularly round the equator, 
 occasioned, as repeatedly noticed, by the absorption from the air 
 of its more ponderable constituents, of its oxygen, its mineral and 
 metallic solutions, and the consequent clarification and increasing 
 transparency of the atmosphere. 
 
 It seems natural, that, by the manifold operations in nature, by 
 the various pressure of the moon floating on the oceans above us, 
 by storms, and winds, and phenomena of different kinds, the 
 presence of oxygen in the air should not be as even everywhere 
 as has generally been believed ; there are too many causes to 
 operate against this permanently even distribution. Humboldt 
 also states, that from observations made by Levy it has become 
 probable, that according to seasons, the situation of places in the 
 sea or in the interior of continents, the presence of oxygen varies 
 a little, but sufficiently so as to be noticeable. He also states his 
 own view to that effect, and mentions, that Martin, at a height 
 of 8,226 feet, did not find the air he had collected poorer in 
 oxygen than the air of Paris. Gay-Lussac, in one of his balloon 
 ascents, brought down air from a height of 22,000 feet, or more 
 than four miles, with the same result. 
 
 The two instances cited above are not exactly adapted to show 
 the variableness of oxygen in different parts of the air, but they 
 are the best proof that this element exists in the air in un- 
 diminished proportion at the highest altitude that has been 
 ascended to, and one of the best evidences in favour of my 
 theory. 
 
 Electricity, as it has the power to convert oxygen and hydrogen 
 into water, so it possesses the power to evolve both oxygen and 
 hydrogen from water. But all those instances in which these 
 gases are liberated from solid or liquid bodies, and rise into the 
 
 air, are exceptions to the general rule j and it cannot be said 
 
 M 2 
 
164 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 that by these means our atmosphere is provided with the one and 
 the other; we then must necessarily go higher for our supply. 
 
 Meteors, and in particular the aurora borealis, of which I have 
 treated already, and which has been calculated to rise from 50 to 
 600 miles, and the one simultaneously seen at Rome and at Paris, 
 on the 16th October, 1726, to have had an elevation of 800 miles,** 
 do, no doubt, owe their brilliancy to the reservoir of oxygen, 
 within which, or in whose vicinity, they make their appearance ; 
 their various light, intensity and duration cannot be ascribed to 
 an electric explosion or amalgamation in vacant space or rarefied 
 air only, there must be some other body to cause their diversified 
 appearance, and this body can be no other than oxygen, giving 
 lustre to electric metallic combustion and conflagration. 
 
 Thus, within the solid body of the earth, upon and exterior to 
 it, we have seen the existence of electricity and its operation, 
 though but clumsily represented and illustrated ; yet upon the 
 evidence brought forward, until shown to the contrary, I think my 
 propositions must be considered as established, viz : the existence, 
 per se, of positive electricity without, and negative electricity 
 within, the solid part of the heavenly bodies, if our earth be a 
 pattern of all. But we have a further, and still greater, proof 
 of this separation and distribution of the two electricities in the 
 variation and the dip of the magnetic needle. 
 
 * For many most important facts and ideas I am indebted to a work pub- 
 lished in numbers, at Munster, in Westphalia, under the title of Nature and 
 Revelation (Natur und Oifenbarung), and I cannot sufficiently recommend this 
 publication, which iii England is to be had through Messrs. Williams and 
 Norgate, London. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 165 
 
 VIII. 
 
 ELECTRIC TIDE OF THE ATMOSPHERE AND WITHIN THE EARTH ; VARIA- 
 TION AND DIP OF THE NEEDLE. EFFECT OF THE AURORA BOREALI8 
 ON THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE. OERSTED AND VON HOFF ON TERRES- 
 TRIAL MAGNETISM. MAGNETIC IRON, COAL AND SALT WITHIN THE 
 BOWELS OF THE EARTH. PROVIDENCE OF GOD. ROTATION OF THE 
 SUN ROUND HIS OWN AXIS. SEAS AND DESERTS ON THE SOLAR BODY. 
 VARIABLE STARS. OSCILLATION OF THE EARTH, CAUSE OF THE 
 SEASONS. NECESSARY POLARITY OF THE EARTH AND PLANETS. 
 OSCILLATION OF THE SUN ; EFFECT ON CLIMATE. 
 
 WHEN treating of thunderstorms, of the aurora borealis and other 
 phenomena, we have seen that the sun exercises the greatest, 
 if not exclusive, influence on the electric condition of the heavenly 
 bodies moving within his sphere. Exterior to the solid body of 
 the earth he causes an electric tide, an apparent electric current 
 from east to west ; and the exterior electric condition always 
 corresponding with the interior one, the effect is manifested in 
 the variation of the magnetic needle, though in many instances 
 caused by the substances which in different places form the crust 
 of the earth, facilitating or obstructing, according to circumstances, 
 a liberation of negative electricity. 
 
 The earth being warmed by the sun, and the sun's rays ac- 
 cumulating on its surface, we experience the greatest heat a few 
 hours after he has passed the meridian. As cold increases, so 
 heat, by its expansive power, decreases, or diminishes the electric 
 density. Thus, the solar heat reduces the positive electric density 
 of the air, as well as the negative density of the earth, and when 
 at its highest, produces electric low tide, or the local evening 
 minimum of positive electric intensity, with its contemporary 
 liberation of negative electricity, and consequent local diminution 
 of the electric intensity of the earth. On both, the west and! 
 eartern sides of the sun, that is, on the sides of electric low tide, 
 
166 THE NEW THEOKY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. \ 
 
 occurring about two hours after the culmination, after mid-day., 
 there will be a corresponding electric high tide, or the morning 
 and evening maxima, leaving between them again, somewhat after 
 the midnight part of the earth, a natural, or normal, electric 
 state, a morning minimum, similar to the tides produced by the 
 moon upon the ocean, though, owing to the absence of the sun at 
 night, the morning minimum of electric intensity of the air causes 
 NO CORRESPONDING DIMINUTION OF TERRESTRIAL electric intensity ; 
 and as the earth turns round, we pass from the atmospheric 
 electric maximum to minimum, from minimum to maximum, 
 and from that again to minimum, according to our gradual 
 approach to, or recession from, the sun. The values of 
 the intensity of the electric tide have been very accurately 
 ascertained. 
 
 Dr. Lardner, speaking of the variation of the electricity of the 
 air, says: "As the diurnal change in the position of the sun, 
 relatively to a given place, produces a periodical variation in the 
 electric state of the air, the change of its declination, from month 
 to month, may be expected to be followed by some, corresponding 
 periodical effect on the mean amount of the maxima and minima 
 values of the electricity. On comparing the mean values from 
 month to month, it is accordingly found that the values of the 
 daily maxima and minima undergo a progressive decrease from 
 January to July and a progressive increase from July to January. 
 It is found, also, that during the winter the electricity of the air 
 increases as the thermometer falls. 
 
 " On comparing the mean values of the maxima and minima 
 throughout the year, it is found that the morning values of each 
 are a little less than the evening values. 
 
 " The hours at which the electricity attains its maxima and 
 minima values are, likewise, subject to variation from month to 
 month. The hour of the morning minimum and maximum 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 167 
 
 continually advances towards noon from winter to summer, and 
 undergoes the contrary change in the latter part of the year. 
 
 " The observations of Schubler indicate that the hour of the 
 evening minimum is invariable. From June 1811 to June 1812 
 it took place at Stuttgart always at 2 P.M. The hour of the 
 second maximum also gradually approached from summer to 
 winter, and receded from it again from winter to summer." 
 
 All this agrees with the theory I have laid down : positive 
 electricity diminishing in intensity, and withdrawing, as it were, 
 from the earth, according to the warming and expansion of the 
 air by the heat of the sun, and the consequent liberation of 
 negative electricity from the earth. Hence also the local varia- 
 tions of electricity. 
 
 In the most elevated places, and in those which are best 
 insulated, heat cannot accumulate ; and accordingly, Saussure has 
 shown, that THERE the positive electricity of the air has the 
 greatest intensity. In the midst of squares and other open spaces 
 in cities, -on the quays, but especially on bridges, it is even more 
 intense than in an open flat country, as Dr. Lardner informs us, 
 because here likewise the air cannot become warm on account of 
 its constant change and motion. In particular localities, such as 
 Genoa, where fogs prevail which lie low and are not converted 
 into rain, the positive electricity, according to the same authority, 
 is not intense, but also, because the rays of the sun not falling and 
 accumulating there upon the earth, the air can neither become 
 warm, nor can negative electricity be liberated from the earth, 
 whilst positive electricity concentrates in the vapours which com- 
 pose the fog. On the other hand, in the interior of buildings, 
 under trees, in the streets, courts, and other inclosed and sheltered 
 parts of towns, no free electricity is found in the air, because 
 the air is warmed either by the sun, or by animal heat and the 
 fires of domestic life, without its being renewed by atmospheric 
 
168 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAK SYSTEM. 
 
 currents, in fact, by ventilation, to supply the positive electricity 
 which has been dissipated, or to counteract the negative electricity 
 rising from the earth, floating on the surface, settling in build- 
 ings and congregating under trees as its natural conductors, and 
 which, as we have seen already, enfeebles and depresses the 
 human frame, whilst positive electricity promotes and strengthens 
 the action of life. Hence, apart from the supply of oxygen, 
 ventilation is of the utmost importance for keeping the frame of 
 the human body in a vigorous condition. 
 
 The correspondence between the diurnal and mensual variation 
 of the electricity of the air and of the earth, and the diurnal 
 and mensual variation of the magnetic needle, will easily be 
 perceived. 
 
 From observation it appears, that in a given place, the north 
 pole of the needle begins to turn westward at seven or eight 
 o'clock in the morning, and continues to deviate in that direction 
 till about two o'clock, when it becomes stationary, and soon begins 
 to turn eastward, arriving at the position it had in the morning, 
 at the same hour in the evening. Canton's observations showed 
 that the amount of this deviation varied- from seven to thirteen 
 or fourteen minutes, being greatest at midsummer, and increasing 
 and decreasing gradually between these seasons. 
 
 From this it will be seen, that the times of greatest eastward 
 and westward variation correspond nearly to the times of morning 
 maximum and evening minimum ; but there are no effects 
 exhibited by the needle corresponding to the evening maximum 
 and morning minimum. 
 
 According to what has been said before, we know that the 
 electric tide, the greatest electric intensity of the air, precedes 
 and follows the course of the sun. Thus, when at the morning 
 maximum the north pole of the magnetic needle begins to turn 
 westward, it follows the maximum, or high tide, which precedes 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 169 
 
 the sun ; but the moment that the evening minimum (two o'clock) , 
 which likewise is the time of greatest liberation of negative 
 electricity from the earth, has passed, the evening maximum gains 
 upon the needle, which, having just escaped the grasp of the 
 morning maximum, gradually returns eastward to meet again the 
 morning maximum, unaffected by the morning minimum. This 
 however does not, in reality, seem to be the true statement of the 
 case. 
 
 The electric condition of the atmosphere, upon the whole, 
 corresponds all over the earth with that of the interior of the 
 earth ; yet, the electric tide caused by the sun in the air does 
 not, as we have seen already, effect an exactly corresponding 
 change, or tide, within the earth ; the change produced during 
 the day amounts only to the liberation of negative electricity from 
 the earth by the sun, and the consequent diminution of its interior 
 electric intensity at the place of liberation, and may therefore be 
 called a single interior tide only, against the double, though very 
 unequal, electric tide of the air. Thus, the magnetic needle is 
 not in reality influenced by the electric tide of the air, though it 
 appears so ; the evening maximum and morning minimum of the 
 electric tide of the air not in any way affecting it, must be evident 
 proof that its variation does not proceed from the electric state of 
 the air, but from that of the earth. 
 
 This state of the earth, as we have seen, undergoes little, if 
 any, change at night ; but in the day the electric intensity is 
 diminished ; and as the electric density of the air as well as that 
 of the earth is greatest when it is coldest, the needle, disturbed, 
 as in the case of the aurora borealis, by the electric evaporation 
 caused by the solar heat, turns alternately to the interior, colder 
 and more intensely electric part on either side of the sun. After 
 the evening minimum, the eastern side of the earth is coldest and 
 most intensely electric and magnetic, and after the morning 
 
170 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 maximum the western side is coldest and most intensely electric 
 and magnetic. 
 
 The diurnal changes of the magnetic needle are greater and 
 more irregular in the northern regions, because the intensity of 
 electricity is there greatest, and the disturbance of its balance 
 consequently more powerful, while towards the line the variations 
 gradually diminish, and at length disappear, because the density 
 of terrestrial electricity becomes less and less, until it ceases to 
 affect or to attract the needle as we approach the equator, owing 
 to the greater, more regular, and uninterrupted liberation of 
 negative electricity from the earth by the heat of the sun. 
 
 The mensual change is an alteration in the direction, according 
 to the season of the year, by which the needle, during the months 
 between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice retrogrades 
 towards the east ; and during the remaining nine months preserves 
 its general tendency towards the west. And this change agrees 
 with the progressive decrease and increase of the intensity of the 
 electric tide from winter to summer and from summer to winter, 
 as well as with the hours of maxima and minima, which con- 
 tinually advance towards noon from winter to summer, and recede 
 from summer to winter, in proportion to our days getting longer 
 or shorter, warmer or colder. 
 
 The eleven-yearly magnetic period which has been observed, is 
 unquestionably due to the change in the solar spots which Schwabe 
 discovered to take place within about that time, and which 
 naturally must affect the climate of the earth. 
 
 Besides these comparatively regular, daily, monthly, and eleven- 
 yearly variations, there are others of an irregular character, 
 which are due to adscititious causes, present only under peculiar 
 circumstances. Chief among these disturbing causes is the aurora 
 borealis, during the prevalence of which the needle is consider- 
 ably disturbed. Mr. Becquerel says : " Generally, the declination 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 171 
 
 increases before the aurora, and often even until the phenomenon 
 has attained a certain degree of intensity ; then the great oscilla- 
 tions commence ; afterwards the needle returns towards the east 
 very regularly; it passes beyond its normal position, which, 
 providing no new aurora disturbs its progress, it regains again, 
 although not until some hours have elapsed." 
 
 The accumulation of electricity, both positive and negative, 
 required for the formation of the aurora borealis, sufficiently 
 accounts for the increasing declination of the needle before the 
 aurora has commenced ; the needle is attracted by the increased 
 density of the electricity of the earth, and liberated from its hold 
 by the amalgamation of the two electricities, by the neutraliza- 
 tion of their power ; and this neutralization, the explosion of the 
 electric elements, produces an exhaustion of electric intensity, 
 both of the air and the earth, which in turn causes the needle to 
 be attracted from a greater distance by the electricity of the earth, 
 arid makes it pass beyond its normal position until the usual 
 electric equilibrium has been restored, and the needle retired to 
 its original direction. 
 
 In confirmation of what I have said, I may add, that Hansteen 
 found by experience, that shortly before the commencement of 
 the aurora borealis the magnetism of the earth is of an uncommon 
 force or intensity, which, however, soon after the beginning of 
 the aurora borealis decreases, and sinks down under the usual 
 force. And on the occasion of an aurora borealis seen on the 
 19th December, 1829, at Alford, in Aberdeenshirc, a most striking 
 disturbance in the direction of the declination of the magnetic 
 eedle was simultaneously observed, not only on the earth at Berlin, 
 Petersburg, Kasan, and Nicolajew, but also deep under the earth 
 at Freiberg, in Saxony. 
 
 Whether the aurora borealis itself is in any way connected with 
 the electric tide, I have not been able to ascertain. 
 
172 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 That earthquakes and volcanic eruptions disturb the needle 
 we have already seen before. 
 
 Owing to the undulated character of the surface of our earth, 
 the construction of its crust, the various materials which here and 
 there lie uppermost, even the position of its seemingly confused 
 strata, the liberation of negative electricity from the earth varies 
 in almost every place ; hence also, in the words of Dr. Lardner, 
 there is a given declination, or deviation, from the true north, or a 
 given direction of the needle, proper to each spot of the earth. 
 That this DECLINATION is influenced by place, i.e., by change of 
 latitude, or longitude, or both, is acknowledged by Lardner, who 
 says further on this point : " It is found by experience, that this 
 relative declination bears no regular ratio to the change in latitude 
 and longitude, but is governed by other laws ; and so regular is 
 the rate of variation, that it is not easy to foresee the precise 
 eifect of a change of place ; so that nothing but actual observation 
 avails for the construction of tables showing the declination in 
 different places ; or at least, no calculations can be confided in. 
 unless well confirmed by observation. Navigators and travellers 
 in former days, and with them philosophers at the present moment, 
 have accumulated their various observations ; and from these data 
 have been constructed magnetic charts, which should present, at 
 one view, the declination of the needle for all parts of the globe." 
 
 These charts are of the highest interest, and may easily be 
 procured ; and it is to be hoped, that the local variations there 
 indicated will be traced to their true source, to those other laws 
 which as yet are unknown, but which I trust my new theory of 
 the interior electric organization of the earth will help, if not be" 3 
 the means, to unfold. 
 
 That the electric state of the earth, and not that of the air, is 
 the cause of the variation of the magnetic needle, is proved also 
 by Cassini, who observed the diurnal variation at Paris, and who 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 173 
 
 found, that neither the solar heat, nor light, influenced it ; for it 
 was the same in the deep caves constructed under the Observatory 
 in Paris, where a sensibly constant temperature is preserved, and 
 from which light is excluded at the surface. But the solar heat 
 influences the electric condition of the earth, and this influences 
 the motion of the magnetic needle. 
 
 In the absence of thunderstorms, sand, land, and waterspouts, 
 and the aurora borealis, positive electricity in the air is not 
 sufficiently concentrated to affect the magnetic needle, unmistak- 
 ingly attracted by the more condensed or concentrated element 
 within the interior of the earth ; and nothing points out to us this 
 fact more clearly than the very DIP of the needle. 
 
 The discoverer of the DIP (quoting from Dr. Lardner) found 
 that at London a magnetic needle, free to move on an axis 
 perpendicular to the magnetic meridian, presented its north pole 
 downwards, forming an angle of above 71. If the instrument 
 be carried northward, it is found that the dip generally increases ; 
 and on reaching a certain region near the pole, the needle would 
 become vertical, the dip being then 90, and its north pole pointing 
 downwards. At such a place the common compass-needle, moving 
 on a vertical support, would lose its directive power, and rest 
 indifferently in any position. A place where these effects would 
 be produced is called a NORTHERN MAGNETIC POLE. 
 
 If, on the other hand, the dipping-needle were carried to the 
 equator, the magnitude of the DIP would be gradually diminished, 
 until, on arriving at a certain region near the equator, the needle 
 would become horizontal, and the dip would become nothing ; and 
 if the dipping-needle could be carried round the globe, always 
 following such a course as would allow it to retain its horizontal 
 position, its course traced on the globe would be the MAGNETIC 
 EQUATOR. 
 
 The magnetic equator does not coincide with the equator of the 
 
174 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 globe, nor is it a great circle of the earth. It never departs from 
 the equator, however, more than twelve or thirteen degrees ; all 
 which agrees with my theory. 
 
 If, after passing the magnetic equator, the dipping-needle be 
 carried southwards ; its south pole will dip or be directed down- 
 wards, and this dip will increase in magnitude as the needle 
 approaches the south pole. A place near that pole where the 
 needle becomes vertical, is a SOUTHERN MAGNETIC POLE. 
 
 The dip also, like the variation of the needle and the intensity 
 of the electricity of the earth, is subject to variation according to 
 place, time, and local causes. 
 
 To account for the phenomena of terrestrial magnetism, Oersted 
 proposes the hypothesis of currents of electricity circulating 
 round the terrestrial globe, from east to west, in planes at right 
 angles to the direction of the dipping-needle ; but it is evident 
 that such currents floating on the earth and surrounding or im- 
 mersing the needle, could not have the described effect either upon 
 its variation or its dip. These currents, then, do not exist besides 
 the electric tide I have spoken of, besides those superior electric 
 currents from the poles to the equator, and their general deflection 
 westward round the globe in proportion to their nearing the 
 equator, owing to the revolution of the earth in the opposite 
 direction. The magnetic needle too significantly points to the 
 poles and to the interior of the earth to allow of one moment's 
 doubt as to the interior electric organization of our globe. 
 
 If there is, as I believe, any current that produces the dip of 
 the needle, that current exists within the interior of the earth; 
 and as a wire, along which an electric current is passed, will have 
 a tendency to turn a magnetic needle at right angles to it : so 
 that interior electric current, according to its intensity, attracts 
 and produces the dip of the magnetic needle. 
 
 One of the greatest evidences of this subterranean agency is 
 
THE NE)W THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 175 
 
 supplied to us by Von Hoff. In the Report of the British 
 Association for 1850, he says : "More remarkable, however, are 
 the changes in the direction of the dip-and-variation needles, 
 which take place (not only in the vicinity of volcanoes as we have 
 seen by Professor Palmieri's report, see page 100, but) AT A 
 DISTANCE from the place where the earthquake was observed, and 
 at a place where the shock itself is not perceptible ; as, for instance, 
 in Paris, on the 19th February and 31st May, 1822, simul- 
 taneously with an earthquake which occured in Savoy and some 
 of the southern parts of France. If this observation should be 
 established by others carefully made, the existence could not be 
 denied of a connection between terrestrial vulcanism and 
 terrestrial magnetism." 
 
 It has been noticed, that severe earthquakes and volcanic 
 eruptions have followed upon severe winters. M. de Tschihatcoff 
 relates, that on the 16th February, 1755, the Golden Horn of 
 Constantinople was covered with a sheet of ice which bore foot- 
 passengers. Upon this followed the memorable earthquake of 1st 
 November, 1755, as upon the strong winter of the beginning of 
 1855 followed the eruption of Vesuvius; in May, the earthquakes 
 at Broussa and in the western parts of Europe. The rigorous 
 winter of 1669 was followed by one of the most remarkable 
 eruptions of Etna. 
 
 These severe winters shut up the evaporation of the elec- 
 tricity of the earth and keep it pent up, when afterwards it finds 
 vent again by sudden shocks and by volcanic eruptions of more 
 than ordinary violence. 
 
 Besides these proofs of an interior electric inflation, or con- 
 stitution and organization, of the earth, we have still to call to 
 witness a certain species of iron ore, or oxide of iron, abundantly 
 found at Roslagen, in Sweden. On being taken from the mine 
 (see Lardner) where it has lain for ages exposed to the influence 
 
176 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 of the earth's magnetism, it is itself found endowed with per- 
 manent magnetic power. It is, in fact, the loadstone. But this 
 magnetism of the earth is its interior electric element, the current 
 coursing through the various strata of the earth, and causing 
 more or less all the phenomena I have just recorded. 
 
 And what, moreover, has caused our enormous beds of coal and 
 salt deep within the bowels of the earth ? 
 
 When after the third day of creation until the creation of man, 
 by the continued, though decreasing, violent action of the elec- 
 tricity of the earth, the configuration of our globe was altered 
 again and again, tracts of land with their overgrown gigantic 
 vegetation ever and arion were engulphed, forests crushed and 
 doubled up within its depths, hills and mountains raised and their 
 vaults and cavities filled by the in-rushing sea : it was the heat of 
 the electric blood of the earth that scorched and coked and coaled 
 the wood and plants swallowed up and entombed in the chambers, 
 
 * Travelling in some of the mining districts in Germany, I have often 
 expressed my belief to gentlemen interested in mining, as well as in science, 
 the same as I have done to various friends in England, that the time would 
 come when certain electric phenomena would guide us in finding out the 
 mineral wealth buried in the earth. It often struck me, that some valleys and 
 hills in the same district, in the same neighbourhood, and in similar direction, 
 very differently remained covered with fogs, whilst others were quite free from 
 them ; and I could not help but ascribing this to the interior condition of the 
 respective areas. All at once, in reading the Journal of Mayence (Mainzer 
 Journal) of 18th October, 1857,1 find both my new theory and my supposition 
 respecting the discovery of metalliferous spots of the earth, confirmed by the 
 following article : 
 
 " These many years already it had been observed, that at the time of heavy 
 thunderstorms, the lightning always struck into the so-called Katzenberg 
 (cat's-mountain), in the Gemarkung (district) of Volkartshain, in the Grand 
 Duchy of Hesse, though several still higher mountains lie around it. Attention 
 being directed to the attraction of this mountain, search was made a few 
 weeks since, and ironstone discovered. The quality is said to be an excellent 
 one." 
 
 If nature points out the way, science will not neglect to follow it up ; it will 
 devise instruments to notice electric exhalations, and so fix upon the coveted 
 deposits within the earth. 
 
 Since this was written, Professor Von Cotta, at the session of 4th October, 
 1859 of the Mining Union at 1'reiberg, Saxony, exhibited an instrument for 
 that purpose, called, the " Iron Seeker," and which was said to be successfully 
 applied in Finland for finding magnetic iron-ore beds. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 177 
 
 
 
 kilns and cauldrons below ; it was the heat of the electric element 
 that, from the colossal masses of the vegetable kingdom heaped 
 together and enclosed within the retorts of the earth, not un- 
 attended with explosions and eruptions, drove off the gas and oil 
 still confined in our subterranean hollows ; it was the same element 
 again that evaporated the hidden reservoirs of sea water, and in 
 the salt mines and springs of various countries left the evidence of 
 a former presence of the ocean. 
 
 But in what inexpressible grandeur, above all these stupendous 
 manifestations of electrical action, do we not see displayed here 
 the evidence of God's love and care in regard to man ! Not only 
 that with the utmost splendour He prepares and surrounds the 
 introduction of our first parents into the paradise of this world, 
 and in abundance bestows upon them everything that could make 
 them happy; but He foresees and provides, even ere man was 
 created not to speak of redemption against the wants of 
 generation after generation unto the remotest future, storing up 
 treasures without which now we could not exist, and for which, 
 alas ! we scarcely ever think of being grateful! 
 
 As to the physical condition of our globe, its interior electric 
 organization leads us to still greater results than those previously 
 noticed, it even leads us to the cause of revolution of our globe 
 round its own axis. 
 
 " Let us," in the words of Dr. Lardner, " consider the case of 
 the attraction or repulsion which is apparently exerted by an 
 electrified body, S, on a non-conducting body, S', also electrified. 
 
 " In this case, the electric fluid on S attracts or repels the 
 electric fluid on S'. Now since the pressure of the surrounding 
 air prevents any motion of the fluid in a direction perpendicular 
 to the surface of S', and the non-conducting power forbids any 
 superficial motion of the particles of fluid, no change of position 
 inter se can ensue, and the shell of the electric fluid will preserve 
 
178 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 its form exactly as if it were solid matter encrusting the body S'. 
 The attraction or repulsion of the fluid on S must, therefore, cause 
 a motion of the entire shell of fluid on S', to or from the body S ; 
 and as this preservation of the form of the electric shell neces- 
 sarily requires the continuance of the body which it invests within 
 it, that body must accompany it as it moves to or from the 
 body S. 
 
 "This may be illustrated in the following manner. Let us 
 suppose a sphere of cork to have its surface covered by iron dust, 
 and imagine this dust to be pressed against the surface of the cork 
 by a surrounding atmosphere, whose pressure is sufficient to 
 prevent its escape from the surface. Also suppose that the rough- 
 ness of the surface of the cork is sufficient to prevent the particles 
 of iron from moving upon it, Let this sphere be placed near a 
 powerful magnet. The iron will be strongly attracted, and if free, 
 would leave the cork and fly to the magnet. But this is prevented 
 by the causes just stated. The iron can neither leave the cork, 
 nor shift its position upon it. It must, therefore, move towards 
 the magnet in virtue of the attraction exerted on it, carrying the 
 sphere of cork which it invests, along with it." 
 
 Now, for the sphere of cork, substitute our globe ; for the iron 
 dust, the loadstone, minerals and coal-fields of the earth, and in 
 place of a powerfnl magnet, let us put the all-powerful magnet of 
 the sun, and the cause of rotation of our earth, riding within the 
 solar atmosphere, is explained. 
 
 But this explanation I nevertheless do not think the correct one. 
 I think it more probable, from all I have advanced, that the 
 electric fluid within the earth, attracted and kept in circulation by 
 the heat of the sun, causing the variation and dip of the needle, 
 and iron to be magnetized within the bowels of the earth, is the 
 true cause of the revolution of our globe round its own axis, 
 the cause of Sir Isaac Newton's supposed centrifugal, as well 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 179 
 
 as centripetal, force, that holds the masses of the earth 
 together. 
 
 As the blood of the human body flows in a prescribed direction, 
 so God ordained, that the electric circulation of the sun and 
 planets should proceed from west to east. The sun shining with 
 intense heat upon the earth, thus causes the electric current to 
 take its course round the most excited part, the belt of the equator, 
 in the direction in which the revolving sun, as it were, precedes 
 the earth ; and the heating of one half of the earth taking place 
 without intermission, the electric current from the cold part, to 
 that which is warmed and expanded, flows without ceasing ; but 
 having to overcome the resisting masses of the earth within which 
 it moves, and its power being more particularly exerted within 
 the outer circle, within the tire, the crust of the earth, is capable 
 of turning it round its own axis ; and thus, moved by the spiral 
 spring of negative electricity, the earth has become the divine 
 chronometer of mankind. 
 
 When, in the foreknowledge of the faith of Joshua, God, the 
 Father of His chosen people, applied the break of His omni- 
 potence to the current of electricity that turns our globe, 
 and by these means slackened the pace of its revolution, He 
 performed that miracle which the Israelites beheld in the apparent 
 standing still of the sun and moon, and by which the prayer and 
 faith of the Jewish leader was rewarded. God, as He often 
 does, did not indeed literally fulfil the request of Joshua, but 
 granted, by an equivalent, as it were, what in His service he 
 demanded. 
 
 The girdle of the earth, shone upon by the sun at noon, presents 
 to us the negative, and at the opposite or midnight part, the 
 positive side of the electric equator, whilst the earth itself, whether 
 orange or lemon-shaped, appears like a magnetic needle in an 
 
 horizontal position, with its electric poles north and south, re^ 
 
 N 2 
 
180 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 volving from west to east within the atmosphere of the sun, the 
 same as all the other planets with their respective poles, revolving 
 likewise in this direction, according to their electric inflation or 
 constitution, the construction or density of their masses, or the 
 circumference of their bodies. 
 
 The sun himself (and fixed stars), no doubt, revolves on his 
 horizontal axis from the same cause which turns our globe. By 
 most scientific men, I may say by almost all, his body is considered 
 to consist of solid matter like our own earth, and to be sur- 
 rounded by a luminous atmosphere. Dr. Elliott, as early as 1787, 
 maintained, " that the light of the sun proceeds from a dense 
 and universal aurora which may afford ample light to the inhab- 
 itants of the surface beneath, and yet be at such a distance aloft, 
 as not to annoy them." And Sir David Brewster, in his More 
 Worlds than One, remarks : " Sometimes by the naked eye, but 
 frequently even by small telescopes, large black spots, many 
 thousand miles in diameter, are seen upon its surface, and are 
 evidently openings in the luminous atmosphere, through which we 
 see the opaque solid nucleus, or the real body of the sun." 
 
 This confirms my new theory of accumulation of positive elec- 
 tricity round the heavenly bodies, of which suns are the largest. 
 
 When a magnetic needle, sufficiently light, is placed within a 
 helix or screw of wire, so as to rest on the lower part of the wire, 
 it will start up and place itself in the centre and remain there 
 suspended in the air without any visible support, and against the 
 law of gravitation, as soon as a powerful current of electricity is 
 passed along the thread of the helix. 
 
 Like a magnetic needle within a helical current, the sun is 
 surrounded by, and kept in suspense within, an accumulation of 
 positive electricity, constantly in motion and action, the attracting 
 and connecting element betweem the body of the sun and the 
 negative bodies of the pfanete. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 181 
 
 As the amalgamation of positive .and negative electricity with 
 us, in the phenomena of the various descriptions of lightning, and 
 of the aurora borealis, which has -, been observed to continue 
 sometimes for two days, take place in the upper parts of our 
 atmosphere, so the amalgamation of the positive electricity 
 collected and collecting round the sun, with the negative elec- 
 tricity with which he is inflated, takes place at a corresponding 
 distance from the opaque body of the sun ; and this constant 
 amalgamation and consequent production of electric light and 
 heat, not for days, but incessantly bursting forth, perhaps from a 
 segment,* an aggregation of matter, similar to that from which 
 the aurora borealis is mostly evolved or developed, or forms the 
 bearer of meteors, acts upon his interior electric organization, 
 the same as it does upon that of our earth. 
 
 It may be objected that this result cannot be caused, as regards 
 the body of the sun, since he is totally surrounded by this electric 
 photosphere, every part of which neutralizing the other, and keep- 
 ing the body of the sun, supposing him to have no other momentum, 
 in a state of repose. But it must not be forgotten, that in this 
 fire-ring there are openings or dark spots, from a few hundred to 
 50, 000 MILES AND MORE IN DIAMETER, which, breaking the contact, 
 render its effect unequal on the different parts of the body of the sun. 
 
 In certain parts of our globe, neither lightning nor thunder, is 
 ever witnessed : and it appears from this, that in these places there 
 is no proper medium for the union of the two electricities in the air. 
 
 Humboldt says, " that in the geographical distribution of thun- 
 derstorms, the Peruvian coast-land offers the most striking contrast 
 to the whole of the other parts of the tropics ; that, whilst in these 
 at certain times of the year, thunderstorms are formed every day 
 
 * Such a segment, the basis, or bearer, of the solar conflagration, would 
 account also for detached, or seemingly -detached clouds of the solar fire- 
 veil, of which one was distinctly noticed during the last eclipse of the sun, 
 by Processor Airy, the Astronomer Royal. 
 
182 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 from four to five hours after the culmination of the sun, in the 
 former it never lightens or thunders." 
 
 This may, no doubt, be accounted for by the fact, that the coast- 
 land of Peru is mostly arid, and covered with sands and deserts, and 
 though it possesses many valleys, conductors in the shape of forests, 
 or otherwise, may not be sufficiently numerous to admit of an 
 accumulation of negative electricity in the superior atmosphere, 
 large enough to attract the positive electricity above, whether free 
 or harboured by clouds. Deserts, or even sandy districts, from 
 want of moisture and of vegetation, or other causes, may not 
 emit, or exhale perhaps, the negative element in that abundance 
 which we witness in cultivated and highly-productive soil, and 
 that which is so emitted has no conductors to carry it upwards. 
 It may be also, though it seems to me less likely, that the moun- 
 tain chain of the Andes, running parallel with the coast, and at no 
 very great distance from it, down to Chili, is so powerful a con- 
 ductor, as to attract the electricity emanating from the coast- 
 land as soon as it has been liberated from the earth. In either 
 case, however, there are no two electricities to come in contact 
 in the atmosphere in such a manner as will produce lightning 
 or thunder. 
 
 If, therefore, the body of the sun, like the body of the earth, as 
 is most probable, has his Egyptian plains, his deserts of Peru and 
 Cbili, of Africa and Asia, his vast oceans of water, where, accord- 
 ing to the distance from land, it rarely or never lightens or thunders ; 
 where the isolated sand, land, and waterspout, the cradle of whirl- 
 winds, perform the office of uniting in destructive embrace the two 
 opposite electricities, instead of the scarcely less awful but more 
 sublime thundercloud, the magnificent aurora borealis, and the silent 
 lightning discharge of our summer evenings : the black spots, how- 
 ever vast in extent, and naturally varying in size from time to time, 
 will then have been explained ; they break the contact of the two 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 183 
 
 electricities, the veil of fire is perforated, its effect becomes unequal 
 over the body of the sun, and the motion of the photosphere, 
 the eddies playing around the borders of its ocean-like openings, and 
 the rotation of the sun round his own axis, are a necessary conse- 
 quence of the attraction of positive and negative electricity, their 
 amalgamation and production of light. 
 
 The production of the solar light, if more analogous to the 
 aurora borealis than to lightning, would lead us to suppose, that 
 vast regions of his body must be very cold, as with us the aurora 
 borealis is produced only in the cold regions of the earth. Whether 
 these regions alternate with cold and warmth, as they do on our 
 globe, will also depend on the interior electric organization and 
 the oscillation of the sun himself. And is it not possible, nay, 
 most probable, that these very cold regions, apart from attraction 
 and repulsion, act upon, or are acted upon, by comets, as on their 
 mighty sweep through the solar system, they approach the great orb 
 of the day, lighting up his unilluminated spaces, and in his presence 
 appear to us with increased splendour and light? 
 
 The periodical appearance and disappearance of the Mira 
 Stella, and of about twenty other fixed stars that are said to have 
 been observed, is, no doubt based upon a constitution of its body, 
 similar to that of the sun* ; the one side is so vast and barren, 
 covered with water, or constituted in such a manner, that no light is 
 produced upon it, or a light so feeble or partial, that to us it remains 
 imperceptible. And yet the organization, like that of the sun, 
 must be such, that by means of its own fiery envelope, the body 
 rotates upon its own axis, becoming invisible to us as by degrees 
 the lightless spot is presented to us, and visible as by degrees the 
 illuminated side returns again before our eyes. 
 
 The sun, then, by means of the black spots, the openings in his 
 
 * Very nearly the same theory, I find, was held by Bullialdus, in a work 
 which appeared about 1667. 
 
184 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 veil of fire, revolving round his own oscillating horizontal axis in 
 one direction, the planets revolving, upon their bellies or equators, 
 round their own horizontal axis in the same direction round and 
 above the equator of the sun, and kept steadily there by the 
 repelling influence of his poles on either side, whilst allowing more 
 margin to the small asteroids on both sides of the ecliptic ; and 
 the equatorial belt of the sun acting upon those of the planets, it 
 follows : that the axes of all these bodies, supposing their time of 
 the equinox happening all at the same moment, should be parallel 
 to each other, revolve in one line and direction, and oscillate 
 according to their constitution and their greater distance from the 
 sun ; and thus the whole of our solar system should present to 
 us one north and one south pole in regard to the centre of the 
 whole universe, the same as the earth does to the sun, unless our 
 own system itself be the centre of creation. In this latter case, 
 the true poles of the universe would have to be determined by the 
 elongation of the solar axis at the time at which the axis of the 
 earth at each equinox, runs parallel to that of the sun. 
 
 With the notion of rotation we naturally associate the idea of 
 progression in the same direction in which the rotation itself takes 
 place; and if thus we consider the planets, with their axes parallel 
 to that of the sun, we cannot but see that, as a matter of course, 
 they ought to revolve round the sun, as a balloon would revolve 
 round the earth, if in its construction we could but give it rotary 
 motion round its HORIZONTAL axis. 
 
 But if this were so, it may be objected, we should not be able 
 to account for the four seasons ; on this principle every part of a 
 planet would always have the same season without any variation, 
 inasmuch as in the case in question, the sun would shine equally 
 upon every respective part the whole year round. And yet, my 
 proposition is true after all, and the difficulty of the seasons easily 
 solved when we bear in mind the interior electric organization of 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 185 
 
 the earth, with its two magnetic poles, and its magnetic or electric 
 centre. For as, apart from the DAILY tide of the electricity of 
 the air -and the earth, of the tide of the atmosphere and the sea, 
 of the blood of living beings and of the sap of plants, there is also 
 a PERIODICAL tide, an equatorial and polar flux and reflux of the 
 air and the water, a flux and reflux of blood to and from the heart 
 of the human body and of animals, a flux and reflux of the sap 
 in plants : so there is also a flux and reflux of the electricity of 
 the upper regions, and, no doubt, a corresponding spiral one of the 
 electricity in the interior of the earth, as proved by the connection 
 of our northern auroras with those of the southern hemisphere, 
 (page 85) with all their attendant phenomena. 
 
 The same then, as the centre, the heart, of the earth is acted 
 upon by the sun, so are the poles, and this in such a manner, that 
 the balance of the electric fluid in the earth, inclining by degrees 
 for six months to the north, the sun will attract the north pole and 
 repel the south, negative electricity preponderating at the former 
 and positive at the latter ; and inclining for the other six months 
 to the south, he will attract the south and repel the north pole, 
 negative electricity preponderating at the one, and positive at the 
 other ; or which is the same : the balance of circulation, of 
 attraction and repulsion, will cause the poles to rise and fall in 
 turn, held, as it were, by the beam of the sun. By this gradual 
 inclination produced by the sun, as he apparently passes through 
 the ecliptic, the earth will undergo but two oscillations a year, 
 shifting, in a manner, the equator in an oblique direction north and 
 south. 
 
 * If in their course round the sun, the superior planets, Jupiter, Saturn, and 
 the rest, undergo but two oscillations during the period of one entire revolu- 
 tion, a change of seasons would require 12 of our years in the case of Jupiter, 
 29^ in the case of Saturn, 84 in that of Uranus, and 164 in the case of 
 Neptune; everything thereon must, therefore, be very different from what it 
 is here, and the idea of their being peopled with A LIVING CREATION SIMILAR 
 TO OURS, can certainly not be entertained. 
 
186 
 
 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAB SYSTEM. 
 
 Whatever may be the true theory of the solar system: the polar- 
 magnetic organization of the heavenly bodies apart from the 
 existing polarity of every atom in creation was, so to speak, an 
 absolute necessity ; for, without this balance, influenced by solar 
 atmospheric currents, interior causes, or any kind of disturbance 
 of their equilibrium, they would, as it were, have been liable to 
 tilt over and be the sport of the winds and waves ; like a billiard 
 or skittle ball, they would have rolled over in every direction, and 
 regularity of motion and seasons, in fact, seasons altogether, would 
 have been out of the question. What a beautiful illustration this 
 of the Divine Wisdom and Intelligence ! 
 
 When, as in the following diagram, facing the south pole of the 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 187 
 
 earth, the same as at page 1, facing the south poles of all our 
 planets* and looking in the distance at the fixed stars of the 
 northern heaven, the reader sees the earth in the sign of Libra, its 
 axis is presented horizontally to the sun, one half of its surface is 
 shone upon by him from pole to pole, we have the vernal equinox, 
 our day and night are equal, we have spring. As the earth on its 
 path advances to Scorpio and Sagittarius, the south pole is 
 repelled by the sun, and by degrees passes into the shade, until, 
 arrived at Capricorn, the repulsion is complete, and it then is, to 
 a considerable distance, altogether enveloped in darkness, making 
 it cold, winter, and short days there, whilst the north pole, attracted, 
 and to a corresponding distance completely exposed to the light of 
 the sun, we have it warm, have long days, and our summer here. 
 Proceeding towards Aquarius and Pisces, the north pole is repelled 
 by the sun, and the south pole attracted, the former pushed back 
 or away from, and the latter drawn towards the light, until, arrived 
 at Aries, the axis of the earth has assumed the horizontal position 
 it had in Libra ; the earth again is shone upon from pole to pole, 
 we have the autumnal equinox, our day and night are equal, we 
 have autumn. Passing on to Taurus and Gemini, the north pole 
 is further repelled from, and the south pole more attracted into, 
 the light of the sun, until, arrived at Cancer, the north pole, to a 
 considerable distance, is completely enveloped in darkness, and the 
 south pole, to the same corresponding distance, completely exposed 
 to the sun ; there is winter with its short days here, summer with 
 its long days there. Progressing towards Leo and Virgo, the 
 south pole is repelled and the north pole attracted, until spring 
 dawns upon us again on our return to Libra. 
 
 By this oscillating motion the apparent obliquity of the ecliptic 
 in reality the obliquity of the earth to the ecliptic is established, 
 and, with the four seasons, not only accounted for in a far more 
 simple, natural, and rational manner than hitherto they have been 
 
188 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 explained, but the key even has been found for the DIVERSITIES of 
 the various seasons in different years, depending upon the greater 
 or lesser oscillation of our globe, caused by the oscillation of the 
 sun himself, and upon the periodical variation in the extent, density, 
 and intensity of the solar photosphere. 
 
 What are the nature and duration of the oscillations of the 
 sun must be left to learned astronomers to find out ; but the unde- 
 cennial or eleven-yearly variation in the solar fire-veil arises no 
 doubt from this, that, like the water of the earth, it is left behind 
 in the rotation of the solid, or opaque, body, round its own axis, 
 the same also as the moon is left behind in the rotation of our 
 planet. And this difference of rotation between the photosphere 
 of the sun and his opaque body, both meeting again after about 
 every ten or rather eleven years in the same relative position in 
 which, or under the same points or constellation of the heavens, 
 under and from which they parted, forms a cycle like that of the 
 moon and the earth (and the moons and rings of the planets with 
 their primaries) in their united /et different speed of rotation. 
 And this gradual shifting of the solar fire-veil with its enormous 
 openings, about 85 on each side of the equator above the opaque 
 body of the sun, causing perhaps to another existence an inde- 
 scribable spectacle of the heavens and the blessings of another order 
 of day and night and seasons to pass in succession over the various 
 portions of his surface, both envelope and body imperceptibly 
 changing their mutual action and reaction, and influencing their 
 own condition : the intensity of the photosphere and the extent 
 and change of the solar spots, as the photosphere is floating by, and 
 its masses, eddy-like, circulating around the vacant island spaces, 
 as it were, above the seas and deserts of the sun, must naturally 
 be productive of a periodical change in the temperature and con- 
 dition of the earth. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 189 
 
 IX 
 
 INFLUENCE OF COMETS AND PLANETS UPON THE EARTH AND ON MAN. 
 COMET-STROKES. CALUMNIES AGAINST THE CHURCH ; ARAGO, VON 
 
 GUMPACH, GIBBON, MIDLER AND OTHERS. THE ANGELUS DOMINI. 
 
 THE PHENOMENA OF NATURE TO LEAD TO GOD ; WHEN LEADING 
 TO HIM, NO SUPERSTITION. THE PHARISEE IN THE " TIMES." SUP- 
 POSED DANGER OF COMETS. GALILEO, MACKINTOSH, MIDLER AGAIN, 
 SIR DAVID BREWSTER, THE U E PUR SE MOUVE." HUMBOLDT, ARIS- 
 TOTLE, THE CHURCH, BARBARISM AND TRUE CIVILIZATION. THE 
 AGE OF LYING AND PROSTITUTION OF THE PRESS. OUTBURSTS OF 
 THE SOLAR PHOTOSPHERE, THE ZODIACAL LIGHT, THEIR INFLUENCE. 
 
 COMETS and planets may indirectly, if not directly, affect the 
 condition of the earth, though the primary cause must again be 
 sought in the sun. 
 
 When a comet appears in sight, on its approach to the sun, it is 
 powerfully attracted by him, and this attraction increases with the 
 increase of proximity. By this means the body of the sun becomes 
 more than ordinarily excited ; this excitement, in proportion to 
 the cometary influence, determines a corresponding intensity, or 
 other change, in the quantity and quality of his luminosity, in the 
 quantity and quality of his rays ; and this, in connexion, perhaps, 
 with the theory of spectral analysis and the hydrogen lens of our 
 sphere, operates a change in the climatic condition of the earth, 
 particularly when comets are large, and in their passage closely 
 pass us by, and most nearly approach the sun. 
 
 It does not follow from this, that this influence must manifest 
 itself in the same manner all over the earth ; for, according to 
 interior and exterior organization, it may produce dryness in one 
 part of the world, and wet in another, thunderstorms in one, and 
 their absence in another. Nor does it follow, that EVERY comet 
 exercises such influence, as there must necessarily exist a difference 
 
190 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 between large ones and small ones, their respective distance from, 
 or nearness to, the sun, and the consequent excitement or non- 
 excitement of his body or photosphere. 
 
 Comets and planets, attracted by, and moving round the centre 
 of the sun, are attached to him by electric links which obediently 
 they follow. If, then, it happens, that we are in conjunction with 
 a comet or a planet, the earth with its electric link will be enveloped 
 or embraced also by the electric link passing from the comet, or 
 planet, to the sun ; and hence the electric condition of our earth 
 will thereby materially be affected, being exposed to a double 
 attracting power, emanating from the sun both upon itself and 
 upon the comet or planet ; the effect will be different, again, when- 
 ever a comet or planet places itself in conjunction between us and 
 the sun. Hence, also, an abnormal influence must be exercised 
 by the sun upon a planet in conjunction with another, or 
 with a comet. And that these electric influences, of which 
 comets and planets are the mediate cause, must more or less effect 
 the electric state of the earth, and produce a different state of 
 fecundity in vegetable life, as they may also act upon minds whose 
 bodies are predisposed to electrical affection,** at the right time 
 and at the right place, for good or for bad, in the good or the 
 wicked, for health or disease, seems to me but very reasonable to 
 believe, and warranted by almost universal opinion and tradition, 
 if not experience, among all nations. And we ourselves, in the 
 train of a most splendid comet, have witnessed the blessings of an 
 over-abundant and luxurious yield of corn and wine ; we have, 
 
 * " In a paper on some of the phenomena of terrestrial magnetism, as 
 observed at Greenwich, read before the Royal Society, the Astronomer- 
 Royal shows that the revolutionary year, 1848, appears to have been one of 
 confusion and disturbance in cosmical as well as tellurian affairs, for changes 
 have taken place which cannot be explained on any established theory . . 
 . . . ". Extract. To myself this is but another proof that the laws of 
 nature are subservient to the super-natural designs of God in regard to man, 
 and in particular to His Church, whose fetters were struck off abroad in this 
 memorable year. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 191 
 
 however, seen also the seed of perjury, sedition, and treason, gown 
 by the enemy and deceiver of mankind from the beginning, fostered 
 and quickened, and the egg of a TOUL, PRETENDED and GODLESS 
 liberty, of premeditated revolution and aggression, hastened in its 
 development, and hatched before the calculated time ; and we have 
 heheld, in the horrors of war let loose against peaceful states, in 
 the destruction of that peace about which there is something so 
 beautiful in families and nations, the abundant harvest of Satan 
 gathered in by his own servants and satellites. We see again and 
 again the deceiving cuckoo, always and always cuckooing, liberty ! 
 liberty ! liberty ! whilst laying its eggs into other birds' nests, its 
 brood pushing out their rightful inmates and keeping them under 
 the yoke of ITS OWN dear enlightened and precious freedom, and 
 for the sake of greater liberty still, driving them from house and 
 home and from their sacred places. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is not the comet which is guilty of all this 
 iniquity, no more than wine is guilty of the vices of the 
 drunkard, but MAN that does not resist the world, the devil, and 
 the flesh, the excited motion of ambition, lust, avarice, and pride, 
 and recklessly throws overboard the last vestige of Christian virtue. 
 
 Apart from the physical effects which, however slightly, may, 
 perhaps in all cases, be traced to the indirect influence of comets, 
 so their mere appearance may strike terror into barbarous 
 nations and uncultivated multitudes, and incite to savage warfare, 
 as in the good it may elevate the soul to God, make it ponder 
 over His wonderful works and prompt it to noble deeds, nay even 
 make a prince exchange sceptre for rosary, for the glorious badge 
 and pledge of the Lily of Nazareth, leave the palace for the cell, 
 the rule over empire for the rule over himself. 
 
 In another form the mere sight of a comet may excite the pride 
 of the worldly-learned at the bare idea of being able to calculate 
 its weight and dimension, and to trace and determine its course 
 
192 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 even through unknown and unfathomable regions. Instances are 
 not wanting to prove all this. 
 
 Pope Calixtus III., in the year 1455, immediately after his eleva- 
 tion to the chair of St. Peter, renewed the encyclical letter of his 
 predecessor Nicholas V., proclaiming a general crusade against the 
 Turks, whilst at the same time he sent out legates into all Christian 
 countries, to settle existing differences among princes, and to induce 
 them to enter into the war against the common foe of Christendom, 
 in which, however, he did not succeed. Numerous preachers of 
 the crusade, among whom also John Capistran, went about 
 in Germany, France, Spain and Hungary, and exhorted the people, 
 not only to make contributions and take a personal share in the 
 war, but also to offer up public and private prayers for the success 
 of the Christian arms. From this invitation dates the ringing of 
 bells for prayer THREE times a day in the whole of western 
 Christendom, being introduced into France by Louis XI., in the 
 year 1472 ; but a Synod of Paris, in 1346, already, expressly calls 
 the evening bell a regulation of Pope John XXII., whilst, accord- 
 ing to the general opinion, Pope Urban II. introduced the morning 
 as well as the evening bell of the " Angelus Domini." Raynaldus, 
 in his Annals of the Church, 1753, says : " That according to the 
 historian Nicolas, of Para, not only the trumpet of the above-named 
 Capistran was sounded for the crusade against the Turks, but that 
 heaven itself, as it were, summoned to it by the appearance of two 
 comets, which, before the arrival of the Turks in June, 1456, were 
 seen in the mornings and evenings in the form of trumpets." 
 
 This last passage is the only existing historical record relating 
 to the grand comets of 1456, which, as indicated before, must 
 have very differently affected the Christians and the fanatical Turks. 
 
 However, ignorantly or wilfully, there are, and always will be, 
 
 writers siding with 
 
 Heathen, Turk, or Atheist, 
 Anyone, but a Papist ; 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 193 
 
 and thus the simple fact above narrated has equally been perverted 
 against Pope and Papist. 
 
 "Lorcequ'en 1456, on vit paraitre Teclatante comete, qui doit 
 revenir en 1835, le pape Calixte en fut si effraye, qu'il ordonna 
 pour un certain terns desprieres publiques, dans lesquelles, au milieu 
 de chaque jour, on excommuniait a la fois la comete et les Turcs ; 
 et afin que personne ne manquat a ce devoir, il etablit 1'usage, qui 
 depuis s'est conserve, de sonner a midi les cloches des eglises." 
 
 Thus Arago, the illustrious astronomer, the intelligent (!) pro- 
 pagator of this fable, in his popular u Notices sur les cometes " 
 published in 1832. 
 
 As far as I ain aware, he does not state whence he got his 
 valuable information, but in the year 1835 he again made the best 
 of the " ingenious device " against the Church ; and as in each of 
 these years a comet appeared, they cannot but have affected his 
 mind in the way I have indicated, and this so much so, that even, 
 after having had his attention drawn to the falsity of his statement, 
 he nevertheless republished it in his later writings; 
 
 I can scarcely bring myself to believe that Arago, on the one 
 hand so learned, should, on the other, have been so ignorant as not 
 to know better, or so " borne " as to believe the story ; and 
 unless at the sight of the comet he was so blinded by pride as 
 not to see the silliness of his anecdote, or by its publication thought 
 to add greater lustre to the halo of his name, there remains but 
 one reason for him to have adhered to it, and this is : he may 
 have felt having committed himself, but finding the tale so easily 
 believed, and not wishing to appear foolish, or having so grossly 
 played the fool with his friends and those whom he addressed, as 
 also those who with so much simplicity had copied -it into their 
 works, he thought it better not to retract. 
 
 But that things like these, so eminently stupid and absurd, and 
 
 so palpably untrue, should, in sober earnest, be propagated and 
 
 o 
 
194 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 believed and repeated, even by men high in literature, science 
 and station, with but very few exceptions, is a sad sign of modern 
 enlightenment and civilization ; it is indeed the splendid tail of 
 the comet, DRIFTED AWAY FROM THE NUCLEUS, making a great 
 stir in the world, all bright outside, but dark and hollow within, 
 the boasted progress of learned ignorance. 
 
 Less precise in the narrative of the story than Arago, the 
 writer of the article on " astrology " in Knight's Cyclopaedias 
 gays : " The astrology of comets, which is hardly yet out of date, 
 has even been recognised by a Pope : in the fifteenth century 
 Calixtus III. directed prayers and anathemas against a comet 
 which had either assisted in or predicted the success of the Turks 
 against the Christians." 
 
 With Arago, the writer ventures to set down this in utter 
 ignorance about excommunication, anathema, and historical fact, 
 quite forgetful, moreover, of what he had written A FEW MOMENTS 
 BEFORE, namely : the truly historical event, that " the Church, 
 in its public capacity, condemned the art (of astrology) in the 
 first councils of Braga and Toledo, and in the Decretals (cited 
 by Vossius)." 
 
 What confidence, then, is to be placed in these writers ? 
 
 Johannes Von Gumpach equally at sea in things which these 
 1800 years have been familiar to the faithful in his recent, other- 
 wise excellent and profound work, called Baby Worlds, introduces 
 the subject of the comet of 1456 as follows: 
 
 " The days are gone by when comets caused 
 
 Roman bishops to exorcise their threatening flames by means of 
 public prayers, which to this day ring in the Catholic's ear." HE, 
 then, at least, in a foot-note, gives the source of his information, 
 which is nothing more than the notorious infidel Gibbon, and in 
 the following words relates the exorcism of " FLAMES," by " PUBLIC 
 PRAYERS," and the *' RINGING OF PRAYERS " in our ears. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM, 195 
 
 " The appearance of Halley's comet, on its return to perihelion 
 in 1456, was, by the Turks, then preparing for a new invasion, 
 hailed as a favourable omen ; while the Christian nations, 
 scourged by a pestilence, looked upon it as the messenger of their 
 approaching destruction. * In this extremity/ GIBBON TELLS us, 
 * and placed between two unavoidable dangers, either of being 
 destroyed by a barbarous enemy, who knew no pity, or by the 
 comet, which in their opinion proceeded directly from hell, they 
 returned imploringly to higher powers, distrusting their own 
 resources. Calixtus III., at whose feet almost all Europe lay 
 prostrated in the deepest humility, had the condescension to 
 hear their prayers. At his intervention, a prayer was read every 
 day at noon in all Churches, in which the comet, as well as the 
 Turks and the destructive plague, were solemnly exorcised and 
 excommunicated. But that no one should neglect this important 
 and solemn act, the custom was introduced of giving the signal 
 for the general assembly, at the moment of noon, by the Church 
 bell, a custom that has been continued to the present time/ " 
 
 This article of Gibbon is so miserably senseless in every line, 
 that I am surprised how any one, with the commonest under- 
 standing, and with the slightest consideration of its contents, can 
 for a moment refer to it except as the aberration and actual 
 imbecility of an infidel and totally perverted mind ; in fact, it 
 seems, generally, as if the intellect of the opponents of the 
 Church were failing and giving way whenever they try their 
 heads against her. Do but analyze and compare the three different 
 versions of the comet, the great Pope Calixtus III., and the 
 hallowed " Angelus Domini ! " 
 
 Yes, the " ANGELUS BELL," with thousands and thousands of 
 silvery tongues, is still ringing in the Catholic's ear and calling, 
 and every morning, noon, and evening, the CATHOLIC'S PRAYER 
 
 is still ascending ; daily still its endless triple garland is twining 
 
 o 2 
 
196 THE NEW THEOKY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 all around this beautiful earth, and without intermission and to the 
 end of the world the Salutation will continue to be said and to be 
 heard : 
 
 " The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary and she conceived of the 
 Holy Ghost. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou 
 among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, 
 Mother of God, pray for us sinners, NOW, and AT THE HOUR OF OUR 
 DEATH, Amen. 
 
 " Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to 
 thy word. Hail Mary, &c. 
 
 "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us. Hail Mary, &c. 
 
 Yes, to this scriptural prayer, to that public act of faith in 
 the incarnation, the bell is still inviting, and may you who read 
 this, if a stranger still to the Church, may you one day join 
 into it with head uncovered ; you will then find how sweet it is, 
 not three times a day, but three times three and more, to say 
 with the angel : Ave Maria ! Hail Mary ! 
 
 Alas ! that I am obliged to return again to the sorrowful task 
 of exposing the errors and perversions of anti-Catholic writers, 
 in matters, too, so old, so palpable, so well-known and clear to 
 every child of faith, and themselves therein so lamentably deficient 
 and ignorant ! 
 
 Madler, the director of the observatory at Dorpat, seems to 
 have laboured under the effects of the comet of 1858 ; for, in an 
 article of his on comets, to be found in a work of Dr. Peters,* 
 he speaks, in scripture phraseology, of a Catholic priest as a 
 " Darkling," an " Obscurantist," simply because he was (falsely) 
 said to have predicted the destruction of the world by this comet, 
 and thereby set millions of people into fear and terror. 
 
 A SO-CALLED Rev. Presbyterian Dr., whose writings abound in 
 diatribes and falsehoods against the Church, counting a large body 
 of even aristocratic dupes and admirers, not long ago predicted 
 the end of the world in three years ; and whilst his work, written 
 in flaming language, chiefly directed against the very old antichrist 
 * See Nature and Revelation, vol. v., 335. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAB SYSTEM. 197 
 
 at Rome, was taken and read with avidity, and I believe, selling 
 in several editions he quietly took a new lease of a house for 
 twenty-one years. 
 
 But what, if in noble opposition to this speculation, the 
 Catholic priest had actually made use of the appearance of the 
 comet to remind men of their duty and make them better and 
 humble ? 
 
 Saint Mary Magdalene of Pazzi one day culled a flower in the 
 garden of her cloister and broke out in rapture : " Oh, my good 
 God, from eternity Thou hast loved me, from eternity Thou knewest 
 that this flower would delight me ! ' ' 
 
 If, then, to the Christian mind, nature is always calculated to 
 turn his thoughts to God : how much more those phenomena 
 that are rare and awe-inspiring ? 
 
 Does not the moon affect the epileptic ? Have not comets in- 
 fluenced the minds of men, learned and unlearned, the godly and 
 godless ? Has not the earthquake shaken down the palaces of the 
 rich and the huts of the poor, and hurried into eternity the guilty 
 and the innocent I . Did not a solar eclipse beneficially influence 
 HEATHENS when it led to the conclusion of war between the Medes 
 and Lydians just as they were going to battle? Did not the 
 lightning of grace convert Saul the persecutor of the Christians ? 
 Has not the lightning of justice more than once struck the 
 blasphemer in the very act of defying the Almighty ? Did not 
 the sign of the cross in the heavens tell Constantino and his army : 
 " In hoc signo vinces : " "In this sign thou shalt conquer? " Did 
 not the star of the Magi lead these truly wise men, and astro- 
 nomers too, to the far brighter Star of the Sea, and to the very 
 Light of the World in whose glory it shone ? Do we forget the 
 awful obscuration of the sun with the attendant convulsion of the 
 earth at the crucifixion of our Lord ? " Either the God of nature 
 is dying or the machinery of the world is being broken in pieces ! " 
 
198 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 exclaimed Dionysius the Areopagite, at the time it occurred, though 
 distant from the spot ; he believed the former and was converted 
 to the religion of Him who then DID die. 
 
 And though nature will have it, yet fault is found and super- 
 stition it is called, when poor mortals, and great sinners moreover, 
 are told to beware, and mind the warning of Him in whose hands 
 they are, who carries the lightning, guides the hurricane, rules 
 the waves, moves the heavens, and makes the earth tremble ! No, 
 I say ; nay, blessed that superstition, if superstition it be, that 
 leads the soul to God, makes the proud one humble, the libertine 
 chaste, the angry meek, the miser give alms, the infidel to pray, 
 the scoffer to adore, the calcumniator to retract, the over-weaning 
 to pause, scientific conceit to see the hollowness of its mere secular 
 knowledge ; which at the contemplation of a comet and beauti- 
 ful, if true makes an imperial sinner repent and abdicate his 
 throne, and, another Magi of wisdom, lay down his crown at the 
 feet of the Blessed Virgin-Mother and Child, to exchange it for a 
 crown in heaven ! Blessed superstition if these be thy effects ! 
 
 But there is a real superstition which NEVER FOUND A RESTING 
 PLACE in the Church, nor in ANY of her moderately-well-instructed 
 PRACTICAL children, which ONLY and EXCLUSIVELY is found 
 outside her precincts, more or less gross according to the depar- 
 ture from her doctrine and teaching. Solomon even became an 
 idolater when he had left the Church of God. Outside to her, 
 and CONDEMNED by her, there is a superstition that LEADS TO EVIL, 
 everywhere and always at the heel of and in opposition to good, 
 as falsehood is opposed to truth, as the shadow clings to light, 
 and night, with its incoherent forms, follows day. 
 
 There is the superstition of spiritualism and all its kindred, and 
 of heresy in general, from manichaeism down to our latest revivals ; 
 there is that satanic superstition, witnessed in Protestant Sweden 
 a few years ago, which forcibly breaking the ranks of the soldiers, 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 199 
 
 greedily seized upon the blood of executed MURDERERS to find a 
 cure for diseases of men and cattle ; there is an abundant crop of 
 real superstition in this kingdom, and next to it that depraved 
 tendency of the mind which collects the relics of criminals high 
 and low, and blasphemes and sins under the gallows. And who 
 would not rather join that superstition, if so you will have it, 
 that collects and venerates the blood and relics of the MARTYRS, 
 of men and women died in the service of their heavenly Master 
 and for the corporal and spiritual welfare of the human race? 
 And who would not be moved by that superstition which teaches 
 and MAKES an assembled crowd fall down on their knees and in 
 awful silence pray for the expiring culprit ? 
 
 But there is that departure from moral perception, FOSTERED 
 by apostates and the robbers of the Church anji their descendants, 
 which cannot distinguish the true from the false, deprecating 
 what leads to God, and exalting what keeps and leads away 
 from Him; that blindness which uses "superstition" without 
 knowing what it is, unless by reference to Catholic authority. 
 
 As a striking proof I need only refer to an article of the 
 Saturday Beview of 14th May, 1864, on Superstition and Education. 
 Though the paper is one of the cleverest of the day, yet, in 
 the article in question, there is a development of ignorance and 
 confusion on the subject which I have seldom or ever witnessed. 
 
 But there is even Sir John Herschel, so learned and acute 
 in astronomical science, and, no doubt, a model to the society 
 he moves in, whom I must class among the blind, and whose 
 ignorance on superstition I must deplore. 
 
 "I have not heard" he says, in Good Words I "that it was 
 neceasary to liquefy the blood of St. Januarius, or to carry his 
 bones about the streets, on account of any of these later great 
 comets." 
 
 The introduction of this paragraph by Sir John is quite gratui* 
 
200 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 tous; but if, what he says, he had heard to have taken place 
 on account of a comet, it would have been as wonderful as if 
 he had seen Lexell's comet paying a visit to the satellites of 
 that stumbling block Jupiter, which it never did. But there 
 are a GREAT MANY REAL THINGS which he never heard either, 
 no more than the true history of what he sneers at, what with 
 the accumulated science, learning, intellect and cleverness, of 
 
 the WHOLE PROTESTANT, HEATHEN AND INFIDEL WORLD, he Can 
 
 neither explain nor reproduce, no more than any of the authen- 
 ticated miracles which the Catholic Church believes and teaches; 
 and if, of the inexhaustible treasure of works of the Catholic 
 Church, ignored by an anti- Catholic and infidel press, and there- 
 fore unknown to the non-Catholic masses, he were to read but 
 the most elementary treatise, so to speak, he would find im- 
 mensely morp than he ever " dreamt of in HIS philosophy," and 
 our younger seminarists could instruct him with more precision 
 in things divine than he ever attained in his most successful 
 astronomical calculations, dissertations and theories. 
 
 However excusable the above may be, it cannot be pardoned 
 in a learned man, and a Christian, I suppose, when he says that 
 it was "the MOST ABJECT SUPERSTITION THAT DETACHED HIS 
 (Charles V.) THOUGHTS FROM EARTHLY THINGS AND FIXED THEM 
 ON HIS ETERNAL INTERESTS ! " Had the emperor not done penance 
 had he had the misfortune to be an unrepenting, excommunicated, 
 licentious, sacrilegious and perfidious robber, the head of military 
 assassins slaying without declaration of war, without notice or 
 warning : I am sincerely afraid that, with many others, from fear 
 of superstition that leads to God, from hatred of the Church, 
 grounded on ignorance and prejudice, he too would have called 
 him an enlightened ruler, an " Imperatore galantuomo," though, 
 without even knowing that the CHURCH THROWS AWAY NO PEARL, 
 that no good children ever leave a true mother, I cannot harbour 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 201 
 
 the uncharitable supposition, that, like many courtiers and others, 
 he would so far have forgotten his dignity, as gratuitously to 
 press his polluted hand or kiss the seam of his dirty garment had 
 he had the opportunity of doing so. 
 
 Besides ignorance and prejudice in matters of the Church pre- 
 siding over many a noble and excellent heart with which we have 
 to contend, there is also the canting pharisee, the artful scribe, 
 and the whitened sepulchre ; for " When cities abandon them- 
 selves to revelry, and are driven by terror-stricken consciences to 
 the altar, then, while the lights are burning, a cloud of incense is 
 rising, and EVERY KNEE is BENDED, the walls totter and gape, 
 and down falls the ponderous vault upon a thousand sinners." 
 But " Here in these cooler climes, with more reasonable tempera- 
 ments, and a purer faith," where its meaning is unknown, no one 
 OUT OF THE CHURCH able to MAKE an act of faith, where mere 
 opinion is substituted for belief, and where the Apostle's and the 
 Nicene creeds are empty words, and, -I hope in ALL CASES, an 
 UNCONSCIOUS falsehood in the mouth of the reciter, " it is hoped 
 that we do not need this awful language. The ALMIGHTY foot- fall 
 is soft here, even in the earthquake and the storm." 
 
 Thus, according to the national Leader and presumptuous 
 Instructor in the Times, of 8th October, 1863, there is no hand- 
 writing against the country, no "social evil," alias sink of iniquity, 
 no infanticides, no crimes, no misery, no starvation cases un- 
 paralleled in civilized Europe, no criminal treatment of the poor, 
 no emaciated and depopulated step-sister-island, no still idolatrous 
 India; the slight earthquake* just experienced need excite no- 
 apprehension, the ring of Polycrates will for ever return, our 
 SUPER- STKATAL happiness and prosperity will not leave us ; why 
 then pray, why the " mea culpa," why the " miserere," though 
 danger seems nigh ! yet the penitent thief on the cross was saved 
 * It occurred on the 6th October, 1863, at 2.30 p.m. 
 
202 THE NEW THEOBY OF THE 8OLAE SYSTEM. 
 
 the very moment the wall fell that separated him from eternity 
 and from his God ! And what good Christian would not rather 
 be surprised and perish with the sinner in Church, than quietly 
 rest with the sinner and pharisee in bed ? And who would not 
 say with me : " Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of 
 thine own eye ; and THEN shalt thou see clearly to cast out the 
 mote out of thy brother's eye ! " 
 
 " Initium sapientiae timor Domini." " The fear of the Lord is 
 the beginning of wisdom." If then the phenomena of nature have 
 swayed and do sway the moral and physical life of mankind, and 
 in bold relief set up in the history of man the indelible evidence 
 of the law of grace and justice going hand-in-hand with that of 
 nature : that BLESSED superstition will continue to the end of the 
 world, " per omnia saecula sasculorum," to teach man that salu- 
 tary fear of God which will bring him to ETERNAL LIFE, whenever 
 the pregnant cloud hovers above his head, whenever the flaming 
 comet reminds him of the flaming sword that drove, and still 
 keeps him out of a forfeited, but to be re-conquered, paradise ; 
 whenever, like a thief in the night taught so by super-wise men 
 of science themselves the comet brings with it the chance of 
 breaking up the earth, or destroying all life upon it, whilst, in 
 reality, there is more to be dreaded from the wicked and ignorant 
 who, at that very time, under the high-sounding names of progress 
 and civilization of which they do not know the meaning, deride 
 the idea and practice of praying against danger of whatever kind, 
 real or imaginary, not knowing, or ignoring, that prayer will 
 always be heard and in some way or other rewarded. 
 
 In his Outlines, p. 341, Sir John Herschel, speaking of Biela's 
 comet, says : " Its orbit, by a remarkable coincidence, very nearly 
 intersects that of the earth ; and had the latter, at the time of its 
 passage in 1832, been a month in advance of its actual place, it 
 would have passed through the comet, a singular rencontre, 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 203 
 
 perhaps not unattended with danger." And Madler, falling foul 
 of the priest : does he not himself, in his Popular Astronomy 
 p. 405, say, according to Baby Worlds, p. 100: "In truth, the 
 chance of a collision between a comet and the earth should not 
 be calculated by hundreds of thousands or millions of years IT 
 MAY HAPPEN OVER NIGHT ; and no Laplace will save us from 
 destruction, if it is thus to come upon us." 
 
 With THIS DANGER OVER NIGHT, with all the " IFS " of astro- 
 nomy, the kindling of houses by fragments of exploded meteors, 
 the precipitation of enormous masses of iron, said to come from 
 beyond the earth ; the extensive shower of stones which attended 
 a falling star at Angers on the 9th June, 1822 ; the remains of 
 Gibers' shattered planet before their mind, and its molten inside, 
 perhaps, still dropping down somewhere in space upon some un- 
 fortunate body, or in the shape of dispersed comets flying about 
 to set other worlds on fire or causing them to burst : are there no 
 grounds for astronomers even to fear? and what wonder if 
 thousands of less enlightened persons of all classes in England 
 were really and truly frightened, and multitudes leaving London 
 in 1832, lest there should be a collision of the earth with Biela's 
 comet at the time of its appearance ? And would it have been 
 blamable, would it have been superstitious, nay, would it not 
 have been beautiful, even as a sign of the pretended spread of the 
 Gospel, if they also had said their prayers, if, following the divine 
 precept, they had in their hearts and with their mouths called 
 again and again : " deliver us from all evil ! " or been reminded 
 to do so? Away, then, with your ignorant or hypocritical 
 aspersions if still you profess to be Christians ! 
 
 If Madler and Arago, in their effusion against the Pope and the 
 Priest, did not know better, it only shows how conceit, inflamed 
 in the learned mind at the sight of a comet, can blind the undqr- 
 standing, and how eagerly every opportunity is caught at by other- 
 
204 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 wise, no doubt, well informed, and in MANY CASES, highly estimable, 
 persons, to cast a stone at a Church of which they have heard and 
 seen nothing but a caricature, and against men, infinitely their 
 superiors in everything, except, perhaps, the coveted opportunity of 
 looking at the stars, the brilliant ornaments of the dome of heaven, 
 and unless dedicated to science and teaching getting a know- 
 ledge of geometrical measurements and mathematical calculations 
 
 tO the NEGLECT OF THE FLOCKS COMMITTED TO THEIR CARE. 
 
 Apart from the effect of comet-strokes, such as noticed, astro- 
 nomy has abundantly been laid hold of to blacken the Church, the 
 greatest patron and promoter of science, whether it came from 
 Galileo or Kepler, from Canon Copernicus or Tycho Brahe, from 
 Friar Bacon, or Lord Bacon, from the Monk Albert the Great, 
 or Newton, from Cardinal Cusa or Humboldt, from friend or foe ; 
 and whilst she abstains from dwelling upon facts like the persecu- 
 tion of Kepler by the Protestant theologians of Wiirtemberg, the 
 condemnation of the Copernicart system by Melanchton, the new 
 theory going straight against the text of the bible, their sole rule 
 of faith; i^s, rejection by Tycho Brahe and Lord Bacon; the 
 tardy acceptation of the Gregorian calendar by all Protestant 
 nations, schismatic Russia still lagging behind simply because it 
 came from the head of the Church ; the destruction of all Catholic 
 art and literature wherever Protestantism predominated, and the 
 like; whilst still less she degrades herself by inventions and 
 misrepresentations, she herself is constantly made the object of 
 slander. 
 
 Mackintosh, so clear-headed in the exposition of his Electrical 
 Theory, informs us at page 38 and 53 : " That Galileo was cast 
 into a dungeon," (which is not true) " because his discoveries 
 UPROOTED the ancient foundations of purgatory ; because they 
 REMOVED purgatory from its ancient foundation." 
 
 This, as it was in every respect new to me, a long practised 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 205 
 
 hand in the Church, will certainly be something new to all Catholic 
 readers not acquainted with the work of Mackintosh, and expose 
 the propounder of this extraordinary fact, if still living, to the 
 merriment and ridicule even of our schoolboys. Or was he aware, 
 according to Baby Worlds, page 72, that the ANGLICAN PARSON, 
 contemporary and protege of Sir Isaac Newton, the celebrated 
 
 "Whiston, made out the comet's purpose to be 
 
 that of a travelling hell, a residence of the damned ? l Wheeled 
 from the remotest limits of the system ' thus Fergusson describes 
 his theory ' the chilling regions of darkness and cold, the comet 
 wafted them (the damned) into the very vicinity of the sun ; and 
 thus alternately hurried its wretched tenants to the terrifying 
 extremes of perishing cold and devouring fire/ " 
 
 Madler makes Galileo discover still the libration of the moon, 
 with "THE REST OF HIS EYESIGHT RUINED IN THE PRISONS OF THE 
 INQUISITION," in which, it is fearful to relate, HE NEVER WAS. 
 For, if Madler had but read the letters of Galileo himself, or The 
 Martyrs of Science, by Sir David Brewster, he would have found 
 that, in the words of the learned author, Galileo suffered only a 
 " nominal confinement." 
 
 Unhappily, Sir David Brewster's honorable vindication of the 
 Church and even of the Inquisition, in the generally-distorted picture 
 of the so-called persecution of the great astronomer, is not untainted 
 by inaccuracies and seemingly-gratuitous aspersions, evidently the 
 result of unacquaintance with the Catholic Church. 
 
 Thus, I have NOWHERE found, that " his (Galileo's) noble dis- 
 coveries were even denounced as crimes which 
 
 merited the vengeance of heaven," page 2 " Galileo must have 
 felt himself . . . . in the possession of the fullest license to 
 prosecute his researches and publish his discoveries, provided he 
 avoided THAT DOGMA of the Church, which, even in the present 
 day, it has not VENTURED to renounce," page 78. " The DOGMAS 
 
206 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH had been brought into direct collision 
 with the deduction of science," page 84. 
 
 What are " THAT dogma and THE dogmas " here alluded to, I 
 have not been able to make out. Whether Sir David refers to 
 Mackintosh's removal of purgatory, to the earth's motion, or to 
 infallibility : it is clear, to a Catholic reader, that however learned 
 in science, he has never enquired what constitutes a dogma of the 
 Church, nor what is the dogma of infallibility : otherwise he would 
 have used neither of the foregoing expressions, nor said at page 
 94 " the presumptuous priest pronouncing infallible the decrees of 
 his own erring judgment." 
 
 Page 235, Sir David speaks of the ROMAN CATHOLICS (of Gratz) 
 HAVING EXCOMMUNICATED Kepler from their body, to which, as a 
 a Protestant, he NEVER BELONGED, no more than the Turks and 
 the comet excommunicated under the auspices of Arago, or the 
 " threatening flames " and the " destructive plague " exorcised and 
 excommunicated by Von Gumpach and Gibbon. Alas ! for the 
 occasion to bring these names together ! And what a pity that 
 the goose-quiU of some anti-Catholic firebrand has not yet been 
 exorcised anfFexcommunicated ! 
 
 Of the tolerance and liberality of the Catholics, having invited 
 the truly persecuted Kepler, as they did Tycho Brahe, and 
 appointed him to office and professorships, not a word is said. But 
 only think of Oxford or Cambridge choosing Catholic professors 
 of astronomy, or the direction of the Observatory of Green- 
 wich being entrusted to one ! 
 
 Truly, persons outside the Church, and candid and sincere 
 minds in particular, should honestly study her in HER OWN WORKS, 
 if it were only to learn her PENNY CATECHISM first before touching 
 upon Catholic ground ; to be more sure still, they should show 
 themselves to the priest, or at least go to practical believers 
 for information, instead of listening to or learning from 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE 80LAB SYSTEM. 207 
 
 aliens, or from bankrupts and insolvents both in religion and 
 morality. 
 
 With the above drawbacks to a candid exposition of the " perse- 
 cution of Galileo," the work of the noble-minded author cannot 
 enough be recommended to a sincere enquirer after an historical truth. 
 
 As to the famous "E pur si muove," Sir David, page 93, 
 quotes the following from the Library of Useful Knowledge, : " It 
 has been said, BUT UPON WHAT AUTHORITY WE CANNOT STATE, 
 that when Galileo rose from his knees, he stamped on the ground 
 and said in a whisper to one of his friends, " E pur si muove." " It 
 does move, though." 
 
 No doubt some clever Arago was father to this story, in which 
 
 " STAMPING ON THE GROUND AND WHISPERING" SO ill agree, but 
 
 which, if true, would stamp the crime of perjury on the " high- 
 minded " Galileo. And yet this perjury is ostentatiously proclaimed, 
 not of the martyr of science, but of the martyr of pride and bad 
 theology : or, if this be not so, then, The Whole of the Natural 
 Sciences, a work published in Germany, and The Earth and its 
 Mechanism, by Henry Worms, published in London, bear the 
 impression of falsehood on their forehead, by having' imprinted 
 thereon the " E pur se muove." 
 
 As to the last-named author, whose work was published only 
 in 1862, I must, in charity, suppose, that he never heard of, much 
 less read, Sir David Brewster's valuable work, the Martyrs of 
 Science, or he would not have been so awfully shocked at the idea 
 that Galileo, for " asserting the justness of the Copernican system 
 was cited before the inquisition, CONDEMNED to prison, but released 
 after some months, ......" without having been in 
 
 it ! His furious sally against " the cruel intolerance of Jesuitical 
 tribunals," the " calumniating fanaticism of a bigoted priesthood ; " 
 is quite in keeping with the " E pur se muove," and I should not 
 wonder if the gratuitous fit of excitement in which he must have 
 
208 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 thrown himself whilst writing the above, necessitated medical 
 assistance, or, at least, a composing draught. 
 
 Otherwise, his laborious work triumphantly proves that a wheel 
 goes round when set in motion. 
 
 Humboldt is grossly unjust to the Church. The following 
 extracts from Cosmos, though written against us, will, to a THINK- 
 ING and conscientious reader, almost of themselves speak in our 
 favour. 
 
 In Vol. ii., p. 29, he gives a description of nature by St. 
 Chrysostom which he thus concludes : " . . . .it might have 
 seemed that eloquence had found again her element, freedom, on 
 returning to the bosom of nature in the then forest-covered 
 mountain districts of Syria and Asia Minor." He then continues : 
 
 " But when during the subsequent period, so HOSTILE TO ALL 
 INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION, Christianity spread among the Ger- 
 manic and Celtic races, who had PREVIOUSLY BEEN DEVOTED TO 
 THE WORSHIP OF NATURE, and who honored under rude symbols 
 its preserving and destroying powers, the close and affectionate 
 intercourse with the external world of phenomena which we have 
 remarked among the early Christians of Greece and Italy, as well 
 as all endeavours to trace the action of natural forces, FELL 
 
 GRADUALLY UNDER SUSPICION, as tending TOWARDS SORCERY. 
 
 They were THEREFORE regarded as not less dangerous than the 
 art of the sculptor had appeared to Tertullian, Clemens of 
 Alexandria, and almost all the most ancient fathers of the Church. 
 In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Councils of Tours (1163) and of 
 Paris (1209) forbade to MONKS the SINFUL reading of WRITINGS ON 
 
 PHYSICAL SCIENCE." 
 
 In Note 51 to Cosmos ii., the Council of Tours (1163) under 
 Pope Alexander in., the Council of Paris of 1209, and the bull 
 of Gregory IX., of the year 1251 are cited, and we are told that 
 " Heavy penances were attached," not to the reading of writings 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 209 
 
 on PHYSICAL SCIENCE as stated just before, but "to the reading 
 of the physical books of ARISTOTLE." 
 
 Note 338, speaking of latin translations of Aristotle from the 
 Arabic and Greek, Humboldt says : " We may recognize an 
 allusion to the same twofold source in the memorable letter 
 which the Emperor Frederick II. of Hohenstaufen sent with trans- 
 lations of Aristotle to his universities, and especially to that of 
 Bologna in 1232," ONE YEAH AFTER THE BULL OF GREGORY ix. 
 
 Note 382. " We can only interpret the wish expressed by him 
 (Roger Bacon) in a letter to Pope Clement VI. to ' burn the works 
 of Aristotle, in order to stop the propagation of error among the 
 schools/ as referring to the bad latin translations from the 
 Arabic." 
 
 Cosmos ii., p, 30. " These intellectual fetters were first broken 
 by the courage of Albert the Great and Roger Bacon ; when 
 nature was pronounced pure, and reinstated in her ancient 
 rights." 
 
 To any careful reader it will appear evident, that, with the 
 material before him, Humboldt, with a biassed mind, did not know 
 what he was writing about ; and if he did not care to enquire 
 into the reasons for the measures, whether active or passive, of the 
 Church whom he blames, that in this case, though otherwise called 
 the " Nestor of Science," he neither displayed discrimination, nor 
 moderately sound judgment and capacity of reasoning. 
 
 When the German and Celtic races were first visited by the 
 Catholic Missionaries, these races had to be converted and civilized, 
 to be made Christians before being made natural philosophers ; and 
 having previously been DEVOTED TO THE WORSHIP OF NATURE, it 
 was necessary by all means to withdraw them from this worship, 
 to lead them to the worship of the true God and His Eternal Son; 
 to prevent and avoid everything that could tend TOWARDS SORCERY 
 which they had practised, and which, alas ! even in our own age 
 
210 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 is practised still ! to absorb their devotion to nature into the 
 devotion of Christianity non angli sed angeli, and not let their 
 infant-christianity merge again into their former heathenism. 
 
 The arduous task of converting nations from barbarism and 
 idolatry to Christianity left neither time nor means to devote to 
 science ; but if this were not so : the necessity of restraining and 
 turning aside devotion to nature among peoples who made it their 
 idol is proved by Humboldt himself, whose Christianity, and with 
 it, nobility of mind, was wrecked in " the intellectual and affec- 
 tionate, but heathenish, intercourse with the external world of 
 phenomena," though living so much later than the conversion of 
 his rude and idolatrous German ancestors, living in our own so 
 highly enlightened time ! 
 
 From what I have said already the reader will easily perceive 
 that, to the first Christians, converted from the worship of idols, 
 the art of the sculptor was equally dangerous towards a relapse 
 into idolatry from which, at the cost of the blood of so many 
 martyrs, they had been rescued ; and as we still see that the 
 cultivation of science is so injurious to the faith and morality of 
 so many ill-directed minds, without going back to the first ages 
 of Christianity, the Fathers of the Church were right and prudent 
 in keeping out of sight, if not removing, in due time and season, 
 all that could re-throw mankind into the demoralizing state of 
 heathenism and idolatry. 
 
 With the slightest circumspection Humboldt ought to have seen 
 this, particularly if he had but reflected upon Catholics being still 
 so ignorantly accused of idolatry and picture worship, the very 
 thing THEY ALONE abolished, and that their finest works of art 
 were destroyed by the Iconoclasts and the Reformation, and of 
 which the remains are still to be seen in museums and the 
 galleries and collections of the rich, and in the many ruins of 
 religious establishments, of desecrated abbeys and cathedrals, 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 211 
 
 Where stood the altar in the ancient days, 
 
 No priest now, but a stranger, sad and lone, 
 Stands on the steps of mossy stone, 
 
 Ascended once with highest note of praise. 
 
 All's silent on the broken altar-stairs 
 
 While through the vacant window the blue heaven 
 
 Looks wistful in, defrauded of the prayers 
 Once here in high response and answer given. 
 
 Where once the glad " Te Deum " flung abroad 
 
 To heaven the music of its matchless song; 
 Where once the Miserere wailed to God, 
 
 Joy echoing sweet, and sorrow sobbing long. 
 
 Where once the prayers were more than words could tell, 
 
 Impatient wishes that besieged the sky; 
 Nor was there doubt of any miracle, 
 
 Save that life's longings and its hopes could die. 
 
 But now, subdued by tedious toils and cares, 
 Desire falls faint hope falters on the strain ; 
 
 And Time and Nature, with a deep Amen, 
 Fill up the breaks and echoes of old prayers.* 
 
 For the same reason as before stated, LECTURES upon Aristotle 
 were forbidden to abate a local and temporary evil ; the SINFUL 
 reading, in the way in which Humboldt states it, was forbidden 
 TO MONKS UNDER OBEDIENCE ; with PERMISSION any work may be 
 read; but with many there was danger of Christianity being 
 absorbed by the Aristotelian philosophy, and that danger over, the 
 school was open again to be canvassed. The same caution, though 
 alas ! not with the same result, was observed with the Bible, when 
 men were tempted to make to themselves a religion, like the mur- 
 muring Israelites, a calf of their own. The evidence of the former is 
 furnished by Humboldt himself, who not only lost his Christianity, 
 but stained his memory with the blackest ingratitude towards 
 his patrons and benefactors, sinking below the animal grateful to 
 the hand that feeds and strokes it ; and by the evidence of the 
 latter we are everywhere surrounded. 
 
 The prohibitions against Aristotle to take the widest range 
 assigned by Humboldt, without its being worth while to examine 
 
 * From a poem, "Amen ! in the Cathedral, St. Andrews," in BlackwoocTe 
 Edmburg Magazine, October, 1863, by M. O. W. O. 
 
 p 2 
 
212 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 their correctness extend from 1163 to 1231, which is 69 years 
 and no more ; for, "these intellectual fetters were broken by Albert 
 the Great and Roger Bacon," TWO MONKS, who, with Cardinal 
 Cusa, Thomas-a-Kempis, Matthew Paris and others, flourished 
 about the very same time of 1231, which could not have been had 
 these fetters at all existed. 
 
 This is proved further by Humboldt's reference to Frederick 
 IT. of Hohenstaufen, who in 1232, a year after the bull of Gregory 
 IX., sent not ONE translation, but TRANSLATIONS of Aristotle, 
 not to ONE university, but to ALL ins UNIVERSITIES ; and these 
 translations must have been in hand long before the time specified, 
 thereby showing, that there was no general interdict upon the 
 works of this great philosopher, though there seems to have 
 been one upon bad translations, as shown by Humboldt's 
 quotation from Bacon. 
 
 The Penny Cydopcediaz is more explicit on this point, for, in the 
 article on Roger Bacon we read that " In 1209, a council at Paris 
 condemned and burnt, if not the works of Aristotle, at least the 
 
 MUTILATED AND INTERPOLATED TRANSLATIONS from the Arabic 
 
 which then existed." And who would not on that account admire 
 the Church in her endeavour to preserve even the philosophy of 
 a heathen in its purity ? And who would not admire her still 
 more in the preservation of the purity of the Holy Scriptures, and 
 her condemnation, though not with equal success, of all SPURIOUS 
 AND INTERPOLATED translations ?f 
 
 That there was no general prohibition of READING and studying 
 
 * As the anti-Catholic press ignores our choicest literary productions, so 
 Humboldt studiously ignores that two monks, two Catholic priests, broke his 
 imaginary fetters ; and Hind, in his Introduction to Astronomy, instead of giving 
 Copernicus his proper title of priest and canon of the Catholic Church, quite 
 coolly calls him : a " PRUSSIAN ASTRONOMER ! *' PRUSSIA and the time ef 
 Copernicus too ! 
 
 f See the little work on The Origin of the Holy Scriptures, their Progress, 
 Transmission, Corruption and True Character. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 213 
 
 Aristotle or other scientific works is again proved by the quotation 
 of Humboldt which expressly refers to MONKS ; and if LECTURES 
 were temporarily forbidden, it was the same as later with Galileo, 
 who ALONE was prohibited to LECTURE upon the Copernican theory, 
 though EVERY ONE ELSE might do so, and, like himself, " IN THE 
 
 POSSESSION OF THE FULLEST LICENSE TO PROSECUTE HIS RE- 
 SEARCHES AND PUBLISH HIS DISCOVERIES," (see page 205) study 
 and perfect it to their heart's content. 
 
 If monks were forbidden to read Aristotle, it was for as good a 
 reason as, according to Note 51, of Cosmos ii., "in the Council of 
 Lateran, of 1139, monks were forbidden to exercise the art of 
 medicine." But Humboldt did not see the wisdom of these 
 measures, could not see that these monks were religious and not 
 doctors, that they could not serve two masters ! But such is 
 human blindness. 
 
 The following are some extracts from Cosmos respecting the 
 learning and enterprise in the Catholic church before the so-called 
 Reformation. 
 
 Cosmos ii., note 385, " II existe aussi de Pierre d'Ailly, que 
 Don Fernando Colon nomme toujours Petro de Helico, cinq 
 memoires de Concordantia Astronomic cum Theologian" And page 
 249, Humboldt says : " I have shown elsewhere that this work," 
 the Imago Mundi of Cardinal Alliacus (Pierre d'Ailly, Bishop of 
 Cambray in 1410) "was more influential on the discovery of 
 America than the correspondence with the learned Florentine 
 ToscaneUi." 
 
 Note 433. Sebastian Cabot, "the great navigator, who gave to 
 Great Britain almost an entire continent, and without whom 
 the English language would perhaps not have been spoken by many 
 millions who now inhabit America." 
 
 But these examples are isolated ; Cosmos is full, full of eminent 
 men before that disastrous period, and the preceding instances 
 
214 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 are only two of the most striking ones, particularly that of Cardinal 
 Alliacus, as it will remind the Catholic reader of the Connexion 
 between the Sciences and Eevealed Religion, by Cardinal Wiseman, by 
 THE CARDINAL par excellence, and, in real eminence, above all the 
 learned men of our age, apart from the nobility of his ecclesiastical 
 character and private virtues. 
 
 Besides this host of talent and learning and spirit, " . . . . 
 Somewhat earlier," than the appearance of Luther, " Michael 
 Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, and Raphael flourished in Italy, 
 and Holbein and Albert Diirer in our German country. In the 
 year in which Columbus died, fourteen years after the discovery of 
 the new continent, the order of the universe was discovered though 
 not publicly announced by Copernicus."* Cosmos, p. 298. Yet in 
 the face of all this splendid array of illustrious Catholic names 
 brought before us from the beginning to the end of Cosmos, Hum- 
 boldt says, at the same page, 298 : "In the same month in which 
 Hernan Cortes, after the battle of Otumba, advanced to besiege 
 Mexico, Martin Luther burnt the Papal Bull at Wittenberg, and 
 laid the foundation of the Reformation, which promised," but did 
 not give, " to the mind of man FREEDOM AND PROGRESS IN ALMOST 
 
 UNTRIED PATHS." 
 
 If Humboldt had said : freedom from confession, fasting, good 
 works, and moral and religious restraint, thereby laying the foun- 
 dation of discord and strife, of the devastation and dismemberment 
 of his own country, and the ungodly despotism of the great 
 majority of its princes, opening the flood-gates of revolution and 
 civil war all over Europe, and the doors of divorce to whole nations, 
 it would have been intelligible ; but 1 really cannot see what other 
 exploits he performed, what other new fields Luther opened in ANY 
 
 BRANCH OF LEARNING, SCIENCE, ART, OR PROFESSION, which, aCCOrd- 
 
 ing to Humboldt's own account, were not opened long before him, 
 * The PRUSSIAN astronomer. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 215 
 
 The still existing monuments of true civilization of the middle ages, 
 and especially of the time of Luther, a vicious literature and 
 machinery excepted have, as yet, not been surpassed; from the 
 stimulus then given, the progress in experimental philosophy and 
 empirical knowledge, was inevitable, but would have been by far 
 greater, had it not been for the deluge of heresy, the vandalism of 
 the so-called Reformation, the continual and still continued oppres- 
 sion of the Church in almost every part of Europe, and the 
 destruction, alienation, and perversion of her seats of learning. 
 Yet, notwithstanding, if NOW I look round for any of the higher 
 tests of progress without finding them outside her pale, and on the 
 other hand to the poverty, degradation, neglect, and ignorance of 
 the great majority of the industrious masses, to the UNCLIMATICAL 
 immorality of society at large with all its frightful consequences ; 
 to dishonesty and fraud in almost every profession, business, or 
 occupation, and a perverted sense of right and wrong, to unbelief? 
 seduction, treason, and revolution in high quarters and low ; to a 
 living industrial mechanism in bloom, and almost everything lofty 
 and exalted in art, science and literature out of the Church 
 stunted : I see a rotten state of society, unprecedented in the annals 
 of Christianity, and far less freedom and expansion of the mind, 
 than at all times was, and is still, possessed by the true children of 
 the Church ever since her foundation by Christ ; she alone has 
 been, is, and ever will remain, the fond nurse and fostering mother 
 of all that is grand ; under the shelter of HER wings there is real pro- 
 gress, a " close and affectionate, BUT CHRISTIAN, intercourse with 
 the external world of phenomena," precisely still the same, " which 
 we have remarked among the early Christians of Greece and Italy," 
 not leading to a re-formation, a re-introduction of refined heathenism, 
 a civilization of vice, a demoralizing industry, and the goddess of 
 reason, but to all that is noble for heaven and earth. The eternal 
 city, CHRISTIAN ROME, with its long line of Pontiffs, the ill-requited 
 
216 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.- 
 
 civilizer of Europe, Is STILL the unarmed mistress of the world, the 
 centre of all Christian nations, the seat of wisdom, learning, arts 
 and science, education and CHARITY, to HER all resorts ; her Pontiff^ 
 what his predecessors EVER WERE, is still the protector and the 
 champion of the slave and the oppressed, the stern, inflexible 
 because the infallible, teacher of religion and morality, the fearless 
 rebuker of the godless ; the Ruler of Rome and the Church, Pio 
 Kono felicemente regnante, he ALONE in the world, with but the 
 pastoral staff of his Lord, stays Atilla, calmly warns off the eagle 
 circling over his head, still beards the tiger ready to spring, the 
 bear with his paws upon his prey, and the lion lurking in his den ; 
 he ALONE in the whole world holds out to every nation and tongue 
 the olive-branch of peace, the palm of a Christian's victory, and the 
 standard of triumphant Christianity. 
 
 When Spain and Portugal whose old monuments of CATHOLIC, 
 but with her Orders departed, GRANDEUR I have lately seen 
 were on the point of war respecting the line of demarcation between 
 their respective possessions; when, Cosmos, p. 282, "Neither the 
 state of science, nor that of the imperfect instruments employed 
 at sea in 1493, whether for measuring angles or time, were compe- 
 tent to the practical solution of so difficult a problem. Pope Alex- 
 ander VI. PRESUMPTUOUSLY divided half the globe between two 
 powerful states." 
 
 That such a decision the line of demarcation to be a hundred 
 miles westward of the Azores should be called PRESUMPTUOUS 
 when solicited by the contending parties or even without, in 
 order to avoid war ; and when Humboldt HIMSELF SHOWS that, 
 owing to the state of science and defective instruments, such a 
 decision was an ABSOLUTE NECESSITY, but too clearly exposes the false, 
 because blind, reasoning of Humboldt, and the animus with which he 
 looked upon this important act of the Pope, and the sentiments, or 
 ignorance, by which writers against the Church are generally guided. 
 
TUB NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 217 
 
 Goodwin, one of the authors of the notorious Essays and Reviews, 
 referring to the Ptolemaic system, says at page 208 : " The 
 Romish Church, it is presumed, adheres to the old views to the 
 present day." 
 
 Whether this passage is the result of culpable ignorance, or of 
 malice, I must leave to the reader to decide. However, both causes 
 collectively and separately, combine to originate and propagate the 
 most stupid though often most serious, stories and slanders against 
 the Church ; and whilst in this way, to the great detriment of all 
 religion and morality, science is made subservient to falsehood ; 
 whilst electricity, the A of created substances, is degraded into the 
 bearer of lying telegrams, conveying them with lightning speed 
 from one end of Europe to the other ; and whilst the greatest 
 talent and most ingenious mechanism is set in motion to multiply 
 them in the press, and deluge society with all kinds of fabrications 
 and misinformation, liberty of writing having become synonymous 
 with liberty of lying : " lying itself," in the words of Cardinal 
 Rauscher, " has become a science," and this so much so, from the 
 highest ministerial to the lowest political mountebank, from the 
 richest to the poorest stock-jobber and gambler, through trades and 
 professions, that, knock at almost every house, and you will find it 
 at home, were it only in the paper on the table, the book on the 
 shelf, or the picture on the wall. And is it, then, a wonder, that 
 we live in an age of learned ignorance, that within this labyrinth 
 of lying and lie-believing, real ignorance, spurious knowledge, and 
 perverted judgment, particularly in matters of religion and morality, 
 should have set up their empire, the empire of internal and inter- 
 national strife and misfortune ? And if in secular science these 
 things happen with the LEARNED and hundreds of well-disposed men, 
 otherwise patterns of society : what can be expected of those who 
 confidingly take them for reliable authorities ? what of thousands- 
 who blindly follow more unscrupulous, if not mercenary, guides ? 
 
218 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLA.R SYSTEM. 
 
 what of the masses who, schooled, misled, and imposed upon by 
 malevolent LEADERS, treasure up the lumber of crazy anti-Catholic 
 minds as the most precious production of an enlightened age ? 
 
 It may be said that this digression, longer than I anticipated, 
 has nothing to do with the " Simplicity of the Creation." But when 
 we see that there is scarcely a single protestant work or publication, 
 of science in particular, even Good Words, in which Catholics are 
 not hurt or offended by all sorts of fables, remarks, false and 
 unjust accusations, it may well be pardoned, if, without having 
 recourse to the same weapons, without wilfully wronging or 
 hurting any one that differs from us, we maintain our own strong 
 positive Catholic stand-point, and in a work on physical science 
 refute and confound those calumnies and misrepresentations with 
 which works of the same class on the other side are abounding, 
 and of which the extracts calling forth my digression are proofs 
 as sufficient and striking as they are discreditable to their originators 
 or propagators. 
 
 However, it is still worse, nay criminal, when extreme ignorance 
 is displayed by Anglican Divines, by men in " priestly garments 
 dressed ;" THEY, AT LEAST, should be expected to be intimately ac 
 quainted with all the Catholic Church believes, and teaches, and 
 practices, the why and the wherefore, the same, at all events, as 
 we PRACTICAL LAYMEN, even among the humbler classes, in most 
 cases know the doctrines and practices, and in ALL CASES the cause, 
 the why and the wherefore, of all heresies and schisms and 
 separations from the Church, that there are such things as pride 
 and ambition, the sixth commandment of God, and the third in 
 the list of mortal sins. 
 
 But the reverse is the pase. 
 
 Just before the preceding portion of my work was going to 
 press, my eye caught, in a shop window, the " Celestial Measurings 
 and Weighings " of Sir John Herschel, on the wrapper of Good 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 219 
 
 Words for June, 1864. A kind Protestant friend lent me the 
 number, as he had done some others before, and having read the 
 article in question, to which I shall have occasion again to refer, I 
 also noticed a communication "From Rome," by the Dean of 
 Canterbury, in which he gives a portrait of his. interior self; and 
 such a portrait ! such a Dean of Canterbury ! a mournful picture 
 for St. Augustine and St. Thomas to look upon. 
 
 This portrait of the Dean, delineated by his own hand, un- 
 happily more than confirms whatever I have said before ; and I 
 most sincerely and earnestly invite every one of my non-Catholic 
 readers for we ourselves have plenty of such drawings every day 
 set before us, and are connoisseurs at the first glance calmly, 
 considerately, and conscientiously, to peruse and analyze this 
 literary production " FROM ROME " BY THE DEAN OF CANTERBURY; 
 and I am confident that, if animated with a Christian spirit, and 
 without even having recourse to CATHOLIC works, and living 
 CATHOLIC authorities, he will find in it neither the gentleman, nor 
 the scholar, natural or moral philosopher, neither the Christian nor 
 the Divine ; he will simply find the Dean of Canterbury, coarse 
 invectives and babbling, and very silly insinuations and exaggera- 
 tions, in fact, the Dean of Canterbury ; that is what HE will 
 find. 
 
 To us, the article is full of misconceptions, senseless and 
 incoherent reasoning, misrepresentation and slander ; and if the 
 Dean of Canterbury, his hand on his heart, cannot plead an 
 excusable ignorance, an affected mind, a disordered, wandering, 
 or excitable brain ; and if, moreover, without any such excuse, 
 with sound mind and intellect, he has read our Penny Catechism, 
 but in particular the instructions on indulgences contained in the 
 Ursuline Manual to which book he refers respecting the ten com- 
 mandments : then, in charity, I must leave the verdict to the 
 candid reader and enquirer, whether he is the CONSCIOUS or MIS- 
 
220 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 TAKEN detractor of the Church of Christ and of her children, of 
 whom he is no member. And he, at any rate, the Dean of 
 Canterbury ! 
 
 And the Rev. Norman Macleod, D.D., ONE OF HER MAJESTY'S 
 CHAPLAINS, and editor of Good Words : is he the IGNORANT or the 
 CONSCIOUS accomplice of the Dean of Canterbury ? Is it in GROSS 
 IGNORANCE, or in the ENLIGHTENMENT of KNOWLEDGE that he 
 propagates the trash and slander of the Dean of Canterbury, and 
 with Good Words mingles poison into the food of his readers ? 
 
 And these two men are " masters and TEACHERS in Israel ! " 
 
 Unless they can plead invincible or excusable ignorance, from 
 whatever unsinful cause it may arise, God will demand of them 
 the souls they have poisoned ; before His throne they will have to 
 give an account of their talents, will have to answer for every 
 IDLE WORD EVEN they have uttered or propagated ; and mercy on 
 the Dean of Canterbury, and most seriously do I mean it if, as 
 he says, " the whole tenet of purgatorial pains is an idle fiction," 
 and that, as our Saviour tells us, " nothing denied is to enter 
 heaven." But if he does not believe in hell either, then we can 
 understand why he rates us for " drawing false and unwarranted 
 distinction between sins venial and sins deadly," for drawing a great 
 distinction between an untruth told by an infant and the false- 
 hood deliberately propagated by a Dean or Minister ; between the 
 stealing of a penny by a child and the sacrilegious stealing in 
 refined language confiscation, annexation, dissolution of temples, 
 sacred vessels, monasteries and convents, dedicated and conse- 
 crated to the service of the living God. The law of England, and 
 even barbarous nations, make distinctions in offences and crimes, 
 but not the Dean of Canterbury ! 
 
 It is from men and authorities such as these that Sir John 
 Herschel, whose name, unfortunately, I have hitherto spelled 
 with a double 1, Sir David Brewster and others of high moral 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 221 
 
 character and rectitude, have their knowledge of the Catholic 
 Church, and upon it base their slurs against her in matters of 
 morals and religion as well as science ; but I trust that henceforth, 
 SOME at least, if not many noble hearts, will seek the right and 
 true CATHOLIC sources of information, which it is neither trouble- 
 some nor difficult to find. Otherwise, no Dean of Canterbury, 
 not even one of Pier Majesty's chaplains, will save them, no more 
 than " Laplace (see page 203) will save us from destruction, if, 
 like a thief over night it is thus to come upon us." 
 
 In treating of this delicate subject, as a matter of duty and 
 necessity, I am not aware of having overstepped the limits of 
 propriety, in any way mis-tstated or exaggerated facts, drawn un- 
 warranted or illegitimate conclusions, or wronged even the Dean 
 of Canterbury in the just indignation he has aroused, much less 
 any of the other writers who engaged my attention ; and though 
 I have freely expressed myself as to the learning, knowledge, 
 enlightenment, and supposed intellectual superiority outside the 
 Church, according to my own humble unassisted truly private 
 judgment, yet I hope I know how to respect myself by otherwise 
 giving honor and respect to whom honor and respect are due, 
 whatever garb he wear, to whatever creed he may belong. 
 
 Would to God, that as a beginning at least, religious strife and 
 aspersion were for ever discarded from science which, above every 
 other pursuit, should bind men in harmony together. 
 
 If all astronomical works were as free from objection on this 
 ground as Mr. Hind's Introduction and Solar System and I do not 
 see why ALL should not be so I should have been spared the pain 
 of noticing the UNJUST reproaches against us, and saved a little 
 for printing and binding too. 
 
 We, on our side, shall never be found the aggressors unless 
 science be turned on Christianity itself; and a writer in the Times 
 will find that ours is not " a Church in which Biblical criticism 
 
222 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 is impossible, and the discoveries of science must be ignored." 
 For the sake of science, private and public morality, the true 
 welfare of nations, and much more for eternal life, WE ARE 
 AFRAID of science being abused, the same as we are afraid of 
 seeing children, the inexperienced and the wicked, handling 
 dangerous weapons and sharp-edged tools. 
 
 Gladly, then, returning from these topics, and from the effects of 
 comets upon certain minds to their effect upon the sun, the varying 
 influence of our luminary upon the earth according to the in- 
 tensity of his light, and the changes in his fiery envelope, it seems 
 to me most probable, that, if the upper surface of thunderclouds, 
 as noticed page 97, presents to us ridgeg and protuberances rising 
 upwards to great altitudes ; and if the aurora borealis (page 84.) 
 sends up lofty cones and streaks of light, such protuberances and 
 mountainous elevations, in conformity with actual observations, 
 should, at times, more or less happen or be produced on the 
 superior surface of the solar photosphere, particularly round the 
 equator* where the electric element is most active, manifesting 
 itself in the zodiacal light and other appearances in the envelope 
 of our luminary ; but, whether in that state the sun differently 
 influences the climate and productive condition of the earth, 
 remains still to be found out. 
 
 That great outbursts of light, f and extraordinary changes of 
 spots, more or less affect the magnetic needle, seems to be an 
 established fact ; and as the zodiacal light, the result of a modi- 
 fied continuance of such outbursts and protuberances, like a faint 
 
 * None have been observed at the poles. 
 
 f One of these outbursts of light, and most extraordinary it must have 
 teen, was observed by Messrs. Carrington & Hodgson, on the 1st September, 
 1859, as noticed in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 
 of llth November, 1859 ; it lasted but five minutes and disappeared instan- 
 taneously, yet, "the magnetic instruments at Kew were simultaneously 
 disturbed to a great extent." 
 
 It is of vast importance, that, according to Mr. Carrington, " the magnetic 
 storm experienced here, subsequent accounts should have established to have 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAE SYSTEM. 223 
 
 luminous cone, is said to extend beyond the orbits of Mercury 
 and Venus, and even to rise nearly to the orbit of the earth, it is 
 more than probable, that the sun at the time, or during the period 
 of its appearance, should differently affect the electric condition 
 and consequent fecundity of our planet. 
 
 X. 
 
 REFUTATION OF THE OLD THEORY OF THE ROTATION OF THE EARTH, 
 THE PARALLELISM OF THE EARTH'S AXIS AND THE CAUSE OF THE 
 SEASONS ; ANOMALIES OF THE THEORY. REVIEW OF THE VARIOUS 
 SELF-ACTING FORCES. THE FAMOUS DISCOVERY OF THE PRIMITIVE 
 IMPULSE ; NEWTON AND LAPLACE. THE GYROSCOPE. IMPORTANT 
 EFFECT OF THE NEW THEORY ON THE CALCULATION OF ECLIPSES ; 
 THEIR INFLUENCE ON MAN. MIRACLES ; EFFECT OF UNBELIEF. 
 
 ACCORDING to the old theory, the earth, like all the planets, has 
 arbitrarily been assumed to rotate round its UPRIGHT axis, giving 
 to the said axis an inclination of about twenty-three degrees from 
 the perpendicular to the plane of its orbit, and to the other planets 
 more or less ; and this inclination is what constitutes the so-called 
 obliquity of the ecliptic. 
 
 The earth, therefore, like a spinning-top on its upright axis, 
 in the most arbitrary manner, is made to dance forward, sideways, 
 backward, sideways, and forward again in a circle round the sun, 
 with its upper end, or north pole, always pointing to the same 
 
 been as considerable in the southern as in the northern hemisphere ; that, 
 though the contemporary occurrence might deserve noting, he would not 
 have it supposed " (why not?) "that he even leans towards hastily con- 
 necting them : One swallow does not make summer." 
 
 But the " contemporary occurrence " confirms the interior electric con. 
 nection of the earth from pole to pole, as proved already page 85, by the 
 contemporary occurrence of polar lights in tne opposite hemispheres. 
 
224 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 constellation, to the same part of the heavens, whilst it constantly 
 rotates at angles, and at one time even in exactly the opposite 
 direction, with the line of pro- or retro-gression, except in one 
 instance, where rotation coincides with its path. The theory 
 reminds me of the boy coming too late to school on a fine 
 slippery winter morning. When asked the reason of his being 
 behind time, he said, that when he made one step forward, he 
 slipped two backward ; and on being required to explain how by 
 that means he came to school at all, he replied, that he began 
 to go home. Thus the earth is made to rotate one way, and to 
 progress the other in its stooping position. 
 
 There might be still SOME reason for this, if the south pole, the 
 pivot of the earth's rotation, were resting and moving forward on 
 a solid or hard substance, like the spinning-top on the table or 
 iloor. The friction of the pivot of the spinning-top is with the 
 wood or the ground upon which it dances, and, of course, much 
 greater than the friction of the body itself with the air in which 
 it turns round. If it were the same with the earth, that the 
 pivot, the point of its south pole, were resting and spinning round 
 upon a solid body or foundation ; that the south pole were attracted 
 by and pointing to a body, to a centre of gravitation underneath, 
 the same as the pivot of the spinning-top, as a balloon twisted or 
 turned r^und its perpendicular axis in the air, and whose lower 
 part, or the car, is pointing to and attracted by the centre of the 
 earth as the fulcrum of gravitation of the whole body, there would 
 be no anomaly in the old theory ; but the earth moves within a 
 fluid which everywhere presses equally upon it ; friction, therefore, 
 can take place on that part of the surface only which rotates or 
 turns over ; and this part being the equatorial belt of the earth, 
 that part through which, from its centre to the CENTRE of the sun, 
 passes the line of attraction or gravitation, not through south or 
 north pole, it follows : that our globe rotates one way, and 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAE SYSTEM. 225 
 
 progresses in another, and this all the more so, when we consider 
 that the earth is said to stoop forward, that its north pole is 
 inclined twenty-three-and-a-half degrees to the plane of its path, 
 and on which plane there is no support or friction. 
 
 If the earth and the balloon twist or rotate round their RESP : 
 PERPENDICULAR axis : why does the lower pole, the south pole of 
 the earth, point into blank space, whilst the lower pole of the 
 balloon always points to the CENTRE OF THE EARTH ? why does 
 the lower pole of the earth not equally point to the CENTRE OF 
 THE SUN ? Whence this anomaly if the old theory be correct ? 
 
 But more. If the theory of gravitation be true, the revolution 
 of the earth round the sun becomes still more arbitrary and 
 inexplicable. 
 
 The earth, ASSUMED to be projected by the Creator in a straight 
 line, is said to be drawn out of it by the attraction of the sun, and 
 these two forces, projectile and attractive, draw and keep it in 
 its orbit. 
 
 Now if this were true, the earth would move round the sun as 
 a bird would fly round the earth, head always foremost, and in 
 advance of the body, because the same forces which are said to 
 make the earth move in a circular or elliptic orbit round the sun, 
 would also influence the position of the body of the earth itself, 
 and throw it into a diagonal direction between the said two forces ; 
 the direction or inclination of the earth, as it was flung into' space 
 by the Almighty, would always coincide with the line or direction 
 of its path or orbit, whether straight, elliptic, or circular, whereas, 
 to sustain the fact of its north pole always pointing to the polar 
 star, in the same direction of the heavens, to make the position of 
 the body of the earth in its course round the sun remain always 
 parallel to itself, to maintain the parallelism of the earth, as it is 
 called, it is on its passage made to go six months in advance with 
 the north, and, by a gradual change, unexplained and inex- 
 
 Q 
 
226 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 plicable, six months in advance with the south pole, or, which is 
 the same, six months foremost with the head, and six months 
 foremost with the tail, including the sideward motion, or pro- and 
 retro-gression, right and left, and all this without the assistance 
 of any given third power to prevent the diagonal direction of the 
 position of the body of the earth WHICH OUGHT TO RESULT from 
 the projectile and attracting forces. 
 
 By what law, except the most arbitrary, however ingenious the 
 invention, should otherwise the earth at one time present head, 
 and at another, tail, and at others again front or side, to the sun ? 
 Bare assumption is NO LAW, and NO CAUSE is given by the old 
 theorists why the body of the earth, under the influence of the 
 said two forces, should preserve its parallelism ; the thing is im- 
 possible upon their own showing : but the object is, to account for 
 the seasons, which, without this arbitrary adoption, THEY CANNOT 
 DO. And because they CANNOT do so, because THEY cannot give 
 any other reason as the cause of the seasons : therefore, they say, 
 the parallelism and inclination of the earth's axis must be true. 
 " The simplicity with which " thereby " the seasons are explained 
 
 may certainly be adduced as a strong presumptive 
 
 proof of the correctness of the principles already advanced ; for 
 on no other RATIONAL SUPPOSITION with respect to the relations of 
 the earth and sun, can these, and other as well-known phenomena 
 be accounted for." 
 
 Thus Mr. Hind in his Introduction p. 13, where he may well 
 call his " relation of the earth and sun " a SUPPOSITION ; for 
 there is not only not a shadow of physical, or even sensible, reason 
 to prove it, but is moreover an unfinished, most illogical, conclusion 
 of the effect of the composition of two forces, to which, in fact, 
 the parallelism of the earth's axis is directly opposed. And yet 
 this is called a RATIONAL supposition, beside which there CAN BE 
 NO OTHER, to account for the seasons, though, with due deference 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 227 
 
 to superior learning, I invite comparison between this supposition 
 without foundation, and my own theory as unfolded p. 187, and 
 based upon physical and very simple REASONS. 
 
 If a straight line of railway of twenty or thirty miles in length 
 were changed into a circle or an ellipse, and carried round London, 
 so that end met end, the engine would always be in advance of 
 the train, whether it travelled on the line when straight or when 
 changed into a circle. 
 
 The same with the earth. If not attracted by the sun, it is said, 
 it would have travelled in a straight line to the polar star regions, 
 stooping with its north pole, its hoary head, as it were, in advance; 
 but since that line was changed into a curve round the sun, why 
 should the north pole not be in advance on the curved line, the 
 same as it was on the straight one ? Why should, on one side of 
 the sun, the feet, the south pole, be in advance ? Is there a third 
 force and where, keeping it by the hair, attracting it to the polar 
 star regions, making the train once turn on a pivot on the line 
 round London, so as to keep the engine always working in the 
 direction of the north or the polar star, to make it preserve its 
 parallelism whilst it completes the circuit of the city ? 
 
 "It is sufficient that the axis (of the earth) has been once directed 
 to a certain point of the heavens in order to remain in that 
 direction, though the earth has an annual motion." 
 
 Thus, in The Earth and its Mechanism, Henry Worms cuts 
 short this ticklish question ; better, no doubt, than if he had 
 tried to explain it and failed like so many others. Galileo, at 
 least had the advantage of perceiving the anomaly, though the 
 astronomers of our own advanced age do not seem to do so ; 
 for, in the words of Humboldt, Cosmos, p. 177, " in his celebrated 
 Dialogo he ascribes the constant parallel direction of the 
 earth's axis to a centre of magnetic attraction existing in space." 
 
 It is contended by some, that the composition of the two forces 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 which turn the straight part of the earth into a circular or elliptical 
 one, does not influence the body of the earth itself, because these 
 two forces act upon the centre, upon a point, and that we can 
 well imagine in this way the eartn to preserve its parallelism 
 during its passage round the sun. True, we may imagine and 
 believe such a thing, because to God everything is possible ; but 
 it is nevertheless a great fallacy, and DOES NOT CORRESPOND* TO 
 
 THE LAW LAID DOWN. 
 
 A point, a centre, is either nothing, or something ; if it is 
 nothing, no power or composition of powers can affect it ; if it is 
 something, it must be something substantial, something tangible ; 
 and if it be substantial or tangible, the composition of the two 
 forces must affect it, whether the point is beyond imagination 
 little, or beyond conception grand. To God, the whole creation 
 is but a point in eternity ; the suns, the planets, the moons : all 
 are but enlarged points, and as such must be subject to the action 
 of forces exercised upon them, not merely as regards their path, 
 but also their corporal position or situation. If the CENTRES OF 
 BODIES, IMAGINARY POINTS without substance, are alone affected by 
 the forces of attraction and gravitation, it seems to me strange 
 that the centre of gravitation of the planets should be laid 
 exterior to the sun, and that that of the moon should be placed 
 outside the centre of the earth. But let us exemplify the fallacy 
 of the old theory. 
 
 A substantial point or ball being the same, whether large or 
 small, let us suppose such a ball, B, within the grasp of the two 
 reputed forces, the dotted line, p, in the annexed diagram repre- 
 senting the projectile force coming from the hand of the Almighty, 
 and the dotted line, a, representing the attractive force em- 
 anating from the centre of the sun. In this position, B 1, the point 
 of such ball would be directed to the top of the page. The pro- 
 jectile force, p, does not allow the ball any rest, and the attracting 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 229 
 
 force from the centre of the sun, NOT FROM ANY SPOT EXTERIOR TO 
 THIS CENTRE, does not relax its hold ; and thus the body of the 
 
 ball must retain its re- 
 lative position and in- 
 clination to the sun. On 
 its onward path, this 
 relative position would 
 have been preserved, the 
 point of the ball would 
 have changed its original 
 direction from the top of 
 the page to the right hand, 
 B 2, of the same; and 
 further on, the same two 
 forces driving and drawing the object of contention with untiring 
 and unyielding energy, the point of the ball, B 3, is directed to the 
 bottom of the page, and so on, the same as the railway train would 
 travel round a town, point or engine always in advance. Let us invest 
 the ball, the heavenly bodies, with four cardinal points culminating 
 in the centre ; let the propelling and attracting powers lay hold of 
 two such points : and will it be said that in the course of a 
 revolution of the ball these forces shift or remove their hold from 
 one cardinal point to the other, that the two forces, acting always 
 in the same direction, will twist the ball, as between two fingers, 
 in a contrary direction from that of its path ? that the ball will 
 be the sport as well as the slave of the two forces ? That, as 
 in figure 2 at the following page, the primitive impulse, or the 
 tangential force, should at one time impinge upon the side of 
 the south pole of the earth, driving the north pole in advance ; 
 that by degrees it should strike on the w<jst of the earth, 
 driving the east in advance ; that three months later the 
 said impulse or force should pounce upon ^he side of the north 
 
230 
 
 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 pole of the earth driving the south pole in advance ; and that in 
 three months more it should gradually strike upon the east of the 
 earth, driving the west in advance ? Or is it really possible still 
 to maintain, according to THE LAW of the composition of the two 
 forces in question, that a substantial point, or ball, the earth, the 
 train, moving in a circle on a plane, can, or could preserve 
 their parallelism under the influence of these two forces ? Imagine 
 these bodies in the following position : 
 
 N N 
 
 1 
 
 Pig. 2. As it is by ASSUMPTION. Fig. 3. As it ought to be BT LAW. 
 
 Propelled by the hand of the Almighty, in some imaginary 
 manner, or by electricity, steam, or otherwise, they come up in 
 straight lines, perhaps in a succession of bodies : what in the world, 
 except a third, unexplained power, a mystery, could make them, 
 as in fig. 2, preserve their original direction, their parallelism, 
 their north pole, N p, or foremost part, always pointing to the top 
 of the page whijst performing their journey round the centre of 
 their orbit ? Whilst on the straight line engine FOLLOWS engine, 
 globe FOLLOWS globe, we find them on the northern curve SIDE BY 
 SIDE, the wheels of tho engine rotating forward towards the polar 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAE SYSTEM. 231 
 
 star regions, and yet the engine going SIDEWAYS on its plane ; on the 
 eastern curve we find them again FOLLOWING one another, but BACK- 
 WARDS, the engine-wheels positively going in the direction opposite 
 to that of their rotation ; and on the southern curve we find them 
 again SIDE BY SIDE, rotating at angles with the line of progression, 
 and the globes rotating one way, and going in the opposite,. 
 
 The planets, thus said to spin round the sun on an hori- 
 zontal plane, whether in a resisting medium or in an alleged 
 vacant space, in this manner, like the engines and globes above, 
 on the theory of the day, move on a false bottom, on an airy 
 foundation, on an imaginary plane, held in suspense by a fictitious 
 lever, centered on a SHIFTING PHANTOM FULCRUM outside or 
 exterior to the centre of the sun ; and the calculation of their 
 weight against the weight of the sun, and the consequent cal- 
 culation of their fulcrum, their point of gravitation as existing 
 somewhere between the centre and the surface of the sun, is every 
 day disturbed and falsified by the discovery of new planets, 
 whilst it will make no difference in my theory, whatever number 
 of planets may still be discovered, whatever their weight, size, 
 and distance, because all find their point of rest in the solar centre. 
 
 In the old system there is no rest. How the suns were planted 
 into their central positions we are not told ; but the planets were 
 somehow or other LAUNCHED into space, and on they must go, 
 carried by nothing, resting upon nothing, resisted by nothing, all 
 at once laid hold of, attracted, by the sun, yet pushed away at a 
 tangent by the primitive impulse attendant upon the launch ; if it 
 were not for this impulse, the planets would have fallen into the 
 sun, and if it were not for the attraction, they would have gone 
 straight into eternity. By the same means ships on the sea, or 
 balloons in the air, might be said to preserve their orbits, and 
 neither go to the bottom, nor fly off into unknown regions, leaks 
 or explosions, I suppose, excepted. 
 
232 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 In the 19th century, the year of our Lord, 1864, the " primitive 
 impulse " with the parallelism of the earth's axis like a deeply- 
 rooted prejudice, is still haunting astronomers and keeping fast its 
 hold on the minds of many. 
 
 In his Introduction to Astronomy, p. 21, with a clearness worthy 
 of a better cause, Mr. Hind continues to detail and explain the 
 motive power and helpless velocity communicated to the planet by 
 the "Divine Hand," and its attraction by the sun; how at 
 perihelion the primitive impulse, that famous discovery, overcomes 
 gravitation, and how at aphelion attraction overcomes the primitive 
 impulse ; how in turn the one is getting exhausted whilst the other 
 is gaining strength, how " the contending forces are so accurately 
 adjusted, that neither can ever gain the ascendancy, and the planet 
 must continue to describe its elliptic path through all time." 
 
 It may be a happy coincidence that at the singular rencontre 
 of sun and planets the primitive impulse was equally matched by 
 the attraction of the sun and vice versa, or we might now, carried 
 along by the propelling launch, be travelling straightforward 
 through an eternity of darkness, instead of being gently wafted 
 round our glorious sun ; but if ever I were to believe in this 
 " hide-and-seek " theory, in this everlasting advance and retreat, 
 meeting and greeting, starting and parting, in this most happy 
 accommodation of two contending parties : 1 still could not un- 
 derstand, how the sun at all came to lay hold of the passing 
 stranger, and that too at such a distance; and how, having 
 overcome the first and greatest difficulty of all, that of drawing 
 off from its path the planet in its rapid course, the attracting force 
 of the sun should have stood still as no magnet ever does 
 instead of increasing, and following up the advantage where no 
 resistance offered, where no resisting medium stood in the way to 
 draw it down to himself. 
 
 Then again, having a certain centrifugal force emanating in some 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 233 
 
 mysterious manner from the sun by the side of, yet opposed to, 
 attraction, acting upon the planets and trying to drive them off into 
 space in a straight line, at a right angle with the primitive im- 
 pulse ; and again having a certain centripetal power of un- 
 fathomable origin, without parentage, in opposition to the 
 centrifugal force and trying to drive them back again : the planets, 
 by this means, like Mahomet's coffin, are kept in suspense between 
 these two contending, each other neutralizing, forces, and thus 
 preserved in their primitive positions. 
 
 Then there is the swinging force of the sun, holding, as it were, 
 each planet at the end of a string, and thus, as in the gyroscope,* 
 on the horizontal representation of the solar system, preventing 
 their fall into space, not having a spot to rest upon. This last 
 force was taken into partnership with that famous discovery, the 
 primitive impulse. 
 
 Mutual attraction and repulsion in equal degrees becomes neutral- 
 ization, and a neutral state in physics means a state in which the 
 balance of owners is equal IT MEANS NOTHING ; if there is no 
 weight in a pair of scales, they are continually in balance. 
 
 Stripping, then, the old system of these neutralizing forces, 
 NOTHING remains but the arbitrary primitive launch and disposition 
 of the planets, the " one and the same force, modified only by 
 distance from the sun, (Herschel's Outlines, 290), which retains 
 ALL the planets in their orbits about it." 
 
 Instead of the planets floating and revolving upon their bellies 
 and on their proper level within the atmosphere of the sun, towards 
 whose centre they gravitate, the above law is so faithfully applied 
 in the old system, " that if the earth were taken from its actual 
 orbit, (HerscM's Outlines, 290), and launched anew in space, AT 
 
 * I have seen nothing better than the gyroscope to prove the exceeding 
 fallacy of the old theory of the solar system, though it has been, and no doubt 
 still is, considered the best evidence in its favour. 
 
234 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAS SYSTEM. 
 
 THE PLACE, in the direction, and with the velocity of ANY OF THE 
 OTHER PLANETS, it would describe the very same orbit, and in the 
 same period, WHICH THAT PLANET ACTUALLY DOES." 
 
 Thus the launch, differently applied to every planet, remains 
 everywhere the same ; the ever-ready forces accommodate them- 
 selves to every size, condition, constitution, and distance of the 
 planet, keeping it in rank and file in whatever station or direction 
 of the solar system it may have been pitched, though it would be 
 all the same if it were neither pushed nor pulled, in which case, 
 at least, there would be -no perturbation. 
 
 Then there is the centrifugal force of the earth itself, for which 
 NO CAUSE is GIVEN, instead of an interior circumferential agent ; 
 but the object is, to account for the rotation of the earth round its 
 own axis. 
 
 Then we have a centripetal force of the earth, for which NO 
 CAUSE is given, instead of the planetary attraction of our globe, 
 which keeps hold of whatever belongs to its sphere; but the object 
 is, that by the antagonism of the centripetal to the centrifugal 
 force, both being equally matched, neutralizing each other, the 
 latter does not cause the earth to fly into pieces, and the former its 
 not shrinking into the size of a nutshell. The centrifugal force, 
 nevertheless, by a number of inappropriate analogies, is said to 
 have produced the protuberance of the earth at the equator, whilst, 
 if the protuberance be really a matter of fact, it is simply and 
 evidently the result of a more active life, and of that enormous 
 oxidation or solidification of matter, which exists, constantly is, 
 and for ages has been, going on there. If, on the other hand, our 
 earth is kept together by this reputed centripetal force : the sup- 
 posed planet of Olbers which burst, and whose fragments we are 
 told to behold in the asteroids cannot certainly have been endowed 
 with it ; or, the centripetal force must by degrees have escaped or 
 worn out, and been overcome by its centrifugal antagonist. 
 
THE NEW THEOEY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 23 5 
 
 This theory is stated and commented upon by Mr. Mackintosh 
 in his Electrical Theory of the Universe, in the following manner. 
 Speaking of Sir Isaac Newton's centrifugal force, he- says : " This 
 is the weak point of the Newtonian philosophy, for very 
 little reflection will enable us to discern that the momentum or 
 centrifugal FORCE, as it is absurdly denominated, is no force what- 
 ever, but an EFFECT derived from, and dependant upon a real 
 force, whatever that force may be. The Creator, it is said, having 
 formed the earth and moon, impelled them from his hand into 
 space, somewhat after the manner that a man impels a cricket or 
 skittle ball, by which PRIMITIVE IMPULSE, as it is technically 
 termed, a momentum was created ; and space being a vacuum, it 
 is said this momentum once created, must remain undiminished 
 for ever, because a body once put in motion, must continue in 
 motion, unless it meet with some resistance from another body to 
 destroy that motion ; and further, under the influence of this 
 momentum, as derived from the c primitive impulse,' the earth or 
 moving body, continually endeavours to proceed in a straight line, 
 and would so move, and be thereby carried out of the solar system, 
 were it not that she is continually deflected from this course, and 
 turned towards the sun by the force of attraction. Again, as the 
 earth revolves upon her axis, it is said, that at the time of her 
 receiving the ' primitive impulse,' she was held, not exactly in the 
 centre, but a little on one side, so that, when she received the 
 great heave, she went off with a whirling motion, which she has 
 retained ever since, just as a stick, held by one end, whirls, when 
 thrown from the hand, with this difference, that the stick does not 
 whirl for ever. It will scarcely be believed that Laplace, 
 * LAPLACE LE GRAND,' actually entered into an elaborate calculation, 
 with a view to determine at what particular point the Creator 
 held the earth at the time of giving the grand push, and that after 
 a most profound investigation, he arrived at the never-to be-for- 
 
236 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 gotten conclusion, that when the * primitive impulse ' was imparted, 
 the earth was held exactly twenty-five miles from the centre, and 
 hence, quoth Laplace, the earth revolves upon her axis once in 
 twenty-four hours. If she had been held a little nearer to the 
 centre, our days would have been longer, and if a little farther off, 
 she would have revolved with greater velocity, and our days would 
 have been shorter These assumptions compre- 
 hend the very essence of what is called the Newtonian philosophy, 
 and the world has been gravely assured that every proposition has 
 been rigidly demonstrated." 
 
 With singular infelicity the gyroscope has been made use of, not 
 only to prove this absurdity, but even to improve upon it and assign 
 to the Creator also the spot at which He must have stood when He 
 " hurled the earth into space." 
 
 I am sure the gyroscopians cannot have deeply reflected upon 
 their favourite illustration, otherwise they would have seen this, 
 and above all, that the instrument represents nothing else but the 
 stone in the sling, with this difference, that in the one instance, 
 the " primitive impulse," that famous discovery, proceeds from the 
 person wielding the string, and in the other it is imparted by a 
 " Prime Mover," standing outside and independent of the object to 
 be set in motion. 
 
 The gyroscope, moreover, represents the earth rotating upon an 
 HORIZONTAL axis by the side of the sun, instead of spinning 
 perpendicularly around him ; and therefore it is also an inappro- 
 priate illustration. 
 
 However, the turning-point of the theory is the " primitive 
 impulse," that famous discovery, and its " centrifugal assistant ;" 
 but, not resting on any solid basis, Newton was obliged to assume, 
 the world has unhesitatingly believed him, and Sir John Herschel 
 still echoes it in Good Words that the heavenly bodies move in 
 VACANT SPACE ! That there is a VACANT CREATION ! And yet 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 237 
 
 many of those who believe in this vacant space, cannot believe in 
 vacant space outside the ball of creation, cannot believe that the 
 exterior of creation is filled by God alone from eternity to eternity. 
 But, allow a substance ever so fine to pervade the universe, and 
 
 THE FOUNDATION OF THE OLD THEORY IS REMOVED, AND THE WHOLE 
 
 EDIFICE CRUMBLES TO PIECES. It is the giant-cripple of universal 
 gravitation, limping upon the crutch of empty space, driven about 
 by an unparalleled primitive impulse of the imagination, and, as 
 yet, kept from tumbling, by the kind concurrence of, in this instance, 
 real astronomical forces. For, that an invisible ether fills all crea- 
 tion is now not only believed by the many as a matter of course, 
 but has also been demonstrated by eminent men. 
 
 After this, the old theory of the rotation of the earth round its 
 own axis, and in its orbit round the sun, must strike every one still 
 more as arbitrary, forced, unnatural and untenable, whilst my own 
 propositions could not be more simple and reasonable, though, 
 perhaps, not without some flaw or other. And if on the old theory, 
 certain astronomical calculations have proved tolerably correct, 
 it is because my new theory very little disturbs the present arbi- 
 trary adoption of the inclination of the ecliptic, the position of the 
 earth in its annual course round the sun ; for, if the axis of the 
 earth, at the time of the equinox, were taken in the exact perpen- 
 dicular instead of the incline of 23 J degrees to the plane of its 
 orbit, the whole theory, in this respect, would almost exactly 
 coincide with my own, according to which, the oscillation of the 
 earth in its rotary course round the sun, in a most simple manner, 
 explains the so-called nutation of the earth's axis, the actual and 
 only cause of the seasons at the same time, whilst more evidently 
 still it explains the circle which the north pole of the earth, in the 
 course of the earth round the sun, describes round the polar star ; 
 and the performing of this circle round the polar star is a NECES- 
 SABY CONSEQUENCE of the path and motion of the earth, the 
 
238 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAE SYSTEM. 
 
 same as its orbital course and oscillation brings us nearer to it at 
 one time than at the other. 
 
 The slight difference in the axial position of the earth above 
 stated as between the old and my new theory, accounting for the 
 tolerable correctness of some, and the inaccuracy and absolute 
 falsity of many, astronomical calculations, is of the greatest im- 
 portance in the determination of eclipses both backward and 
 forward in time. 
 
 Without entering into details I may say, that Von Grumpach, in 
 his Baby Worlds, adduces the most positive evidence of the solar 
 eclipses of Thales, Xerxes, Agathocles, and others, being HIS- 
 TORICALLY true and correct ; that the central part of the moon's 
 shadow has been CALCULATED to have swept over portions of the 
 earth over which, according to HISTORICAL records, it could not 
 have passed, neither as to time or place ; that, therefore, these 
 and other historically-verified eclipses are not represented even in 
 the latest tables of the sun and moon, nor the THEORETICALLY- 
 CALCULATED eclipses any where found in the pages of history. 
 
 Owing to these serious discrepancies between historical and 
 theoretical eclipses, Professor Airy, as Von Gumpach tells us, was 
 induced to go so far as to substitute an obscuration of the moon 
 for the solar eclipse of Xerxes HISTORICALLY CERTAIN. " Indeed," 
 says the same author, " a comparison of the calculated and the 
 observed times, connected with the various places of the total 
 eclipse of July 18th, 1860, referred to different geographical 
 positions, proves to evidence what LITTLE TRUST can be placed in 
 them and in the theory on which they rest, even as applied to the 
 present period." And yet astronomers " call upon our credulity 
 to give them credit for learning ; and upon our faith in science, to 
 prefer ASTRONOMICAL THEORIES TO HISTORICAL FACTS." 
 
 ' It appears, according to Baby Worlds, that the miraculous 
 retrogradation of the shadow on the sun-dial of Ahaz has been 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 239 
 
 tried to be explained by the occurrence of a solar eclipse nowhere 
 recorded, as if, notwithstanding the solar light, God could not 
 make the shadow go back by other means at his command, 
 whether by superseding the light of the sun, as by itself our 
 earthly fires are subdued and superseded, or otherwise, or whether 
 only to the sight of those concerned. 
 
 When in the French revolution the servants and children of the 
 Church, of the God of Revelation, like wild beasts were hunted 
 by the ministers, satellites and abettors of the Goddess of Reason, 
 by the apostles of liberty, fraternity and equality, Abbe Colmar, 
 of Strasbourg, later Bishop of Mayence, regardless of his life, was 
 carrying the consolations of the Church in every direction. 
 
 One day he found himself so closely pursued that he had 
 scarcely time to run into his sister's house to which he happened 
 to be near. Hurriedly saying the " Memorare " of St. Bernard, 
 recommending himself to the protection of the Mother of God, he 
 entered the room where the family were at dinner, and with as 
 much composure as possible sat down to table. The monsters in 
 human form were at his heels. " Where is Abbe Colmar ? " they 
 cried. " If you want to know, look for him," was the sister's 
 reply. They searched the whole house from top to bottom, but all 
 in vain ; they did not find him, and in fury quitted the house. 
 
 When they had left, one of the children, about four or five years 
 of age, said to her mother : " My Dear Mamma, who was that 
 beautiful Lady who covered uncle with her veil whilst the men 
 were here ? " The INNOCENT CHILD ALONE had seen it, ALONE had 
 been made the unimpeachable witness of God's power and 
 protection. 4 * 
 
 By the Holy Ghost, God made the Apostles, and numbers of 
 
 * " Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise, 
 because of Thy enemies, that Thou mayest destroy the enemy and the avenger." 
 Psalm riii. 3. 
 
240 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 their LEGITIMATE successors BUT NO OTHERS speak in foreign 
 tongues which they never knew before ; and in the case of St. 
 Vincent Ferrerius who, travelling through France, Italy, Germany, 
 England, and into Ireland, everywhere preaching in his native 
 Valencian dialect, yet as in Genoa, where Greeks, Hungarians, 
 Germans, Sardinians and others listened to him He made all of 
 them hear as if in their own tongue, all understood him alike, and 
 moreover, the furthest as well as the nearest. 
 
 Thus, in the former instances, God manifested himself by the 
 sense of seeing, and in the latter ones by the sense of hearing. 
 
 When we see these things, and more extraordinary phenomena 
 still in the life of the Church, we may well believe the miracle 
 wrought by Isaiah, though there is nothing wrong in trying as 
 the Church always does by a strict and searching process un- 
 exampled to find out the true character of an event we cannot 
 fathom. In this way it is that she establishes whether there is 
 imposition, the ordinary course of nature, or that which supersedes, 
 goes beyond, the law of nature, a miracle. 
 
 It is inconsistent, however, and all the more reprehensible and 
 culpable where there is a profession of faith, if Von Gumpach 
 though without intention I hope makes the Holy Scripture a 
 book of lies, by representing Isaiah the prophet as a most clumsy 
 rogue and impostor, and Hezekiah, the king of Judah, with probably 
 many witnesses, as nothing less than a short-sighted idiot. 
 
 In a more ASTRONOMICAL way, so VERY LIKELY, the star of the 
 Magi is, by Von Gumpach and others, turned into a conjunction 
 of Jupiter and Saturn ! 
 
 As if He, who allows ships and other objects and pictures by 
 refraction to appear high in the air, and Who sets the bow in the 
 clouds, could not have at His command one of those wonderful 
 temporary, or variable, stars, long since disappeared and at once 
 bursting out again in light upon our vision, and from the stable of 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 241 
 
 Bethlehem reflect the lovely image of the Virgin-Mother and 
 Child upon its radiant disc, direct to it the searching eyes of the 
 three WISE kings longing and looking for the Star of Jacob, and 
 by its bright connecting link between heaven and earth guiding 
 them, as WE still are cheeringly guided, from the image to the 
 living reality. 
 
 And are there no other stars, no meteors, no other creations, to be 
 taken into the service of the Almighty ? and for such a purpose ? 
 
 When in all those cases where the supernatural law of God goes 
 hand in hand with, or supersedes, the law of nature, learned men 
 attempt to find scientific substitutes and think themselves so clever, 
 they inevitably make fools of themselves and ridiculous to the 
 REFLECTING CHRISTIAN mind ; but when impositions and frauds 
 are alleged and related of AUTHENTICATED miracles, they simply 
 become absurd ; and if true : these alleged deceptions both in 
 object and duration, as in the case of the blood of St. Januarius, 
 would be far greater miracles than the miracles themselves. And 
 yet, in almost the very words of the above author : these anti- 
 miracle-mongers, miracles themselves, '* call upon our credulity 
 to give them credit for learning," where in such matters 
 there is neither knowledge nor common sense ; " and upon our 
 faith in science to prefer astronomical theories," and irrational 
 and imbecile tales and explanations u TO HISTORICAL FACTS." 
 
 That these things should be so is in itself one of the greatest 
 proofs how the law of grace and justice go hand-in-hand with the 
 law of nature ; for, persons speaking against the miraculous 
 testimony of the Church instituted by Christ himself not by 
 vicious princes and parliaments, or abandoned monks or eccle- 
 siastics, have the " understanding darkened by the pride or 
 prejudice which is within them," reason is eclipsed, and ENTIRELY 
 FAILS in things divine ; when sun and moon are obscured nothing 
 is seen so distinctly. 
 
 R 
 
242 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOIAR SYSTEM. 
 
 To ourselves it belongs to look where and why our souls and 
 senses are obscured, where lies the central path of the shadow ; 
 HERE we may calculate to a nicety, though not without labour, and 
 ourselves put an end to the eclipse ; but above all set right the 
 axis, and if that be in its true position and inclination, all cal- 
 culation will be easy and infallibly correct. 
 
 And so it is with the earth. 
 
 The parallelism of the earth's axis with the axis of the sun at 
 the time of the equinoxes, and the subsequent oscillation of the 
 earth in its course round the sun, will materially change the path 
 of the moon's shadow over the earth, and bring within its borders 
 portions hitherto excluded by the position which the old theory 
 assigns to the axis of the earth, and pass by others, said to have been 
 obscured. And I have no manner of doubt, that, by the adoption 
 of my theory, the calculation of eclipses, both as to time and place, 
 will reconcile the THEN more exact astronomical science with the 
 positive record of historical fact. 
 
 XL 
 
 PRECESSION OF THE EQUINOX. SIR JOHN HERSCHEL ; THE EARTH A 
 
 SPINNING -TOP. NUTATION OF THE EARTH'S AXIS REMARKABLE 
 
 THEOREMS AND CONCLUSIONS RESPECTING " MASSES " AND THE 
 STABILITY OF THE SEASONS ; VARIATION OF THE ECLIPTIC. 
 FUTILITY OF THE CALCULATION OF MASSES ON THE GROUND OF 
 
 UNIVERSAL-GRAVITATION. CONFUSION OF THE OLD THEORY. 
 
 HOLLOWNESS OF SUPPOSED PERTURBATIONS. HYPOTHETICAL CHANGE 
 OF PLACE OF HEAVENLY BODIES. PREVIOUS CALCULATIONS FALSI- 
 FIED BY LATER DISCOVERIES. ADAPTATION OF ELEMENTS AND 
 CALCULATIONS. 
 
 MY theory of rotary progression accounts also for the precession 
 of the equinox, which seems to be nothing but a slight annual 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 243 
 
 retardation of the earth in its path round the sun, BO that the earth 
 does not perform a complete revolution round the sun during its 
 two oscillations in the year ; or, the apparent retardation proves, 
 that the whole of the heavens are moving eastward round their 
 common centre, our own solar system. 
 
 To an observer on a clear night the whole of the heavens seems 
 to turn round a fixed axis, the one end of which is placed above 
 our horizon in the vicinity of the polar star; and the constellations 
 around the polar star, the constellations of the Great Bear, Dragon, 
 Cepheus, Cassiopeja, Capella, and the Little Bear, of which group 
 the polar star forms the centre, seem to perform a circular move- 
 ment every day, without altering their respective positions to each 
 other. This circular movement, however, is only apparent. The 
 constellations in question are sufficiently distant from us beyond the 
 northern part of the earth, so as to be always visible to us ; they 
 form a circle in the heavens corresponding to the circle of the earth. 
 When thus the earth revolves round its own axis, the spectator 
 passes through, or describes, a circle in twenty-four hours ; and 
 during this time the constellations ranged in a similar circle at an 
 inclination above him will in turn appear in the zenith and rise 
 and fall towards the horizon, the same as the sun on the day he 
 does not set to the observer in the polar regions. The polar star, 
 being the centre of the above constellations, and at a much greater 
 distance from us than they themselves, will naturally describe but 
 a small apparent circle during the rotation of the earth in twenty- 
 four hours. Thus, the circle described by the rotation of the earth 
 as well as that described by its revolution round the sun, makes it 
 appear as if the vault of heaven were moving round a fixed axis 
 having one of its ends near the polar star. But, as I have said 
 before, it is more likely that the precession of the equinox indicates 
 a universal and REAL movement of the heavens from west to 
 east. 
 
 R 2 
 
244 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 In the following diagram, facing the south pole of the sun and 
 Fig. 1 
 
 of the earth, the circle a represents the path of the earth in which 
 it rotates ON ITS EQUATOR round itself every twenty-four hours, 
 performing its journey round the sun in a little more than 365 days, 
 both motions taking place from the left to the right, from west to 
 east. 
 
 In the relative position of the sun and the earth at the time of 
 the equinoxes at Libra and Aries, the prolongation into the distance 
 of the sphere of the universe of the horizontal and parallel axes 
 of the sun and the earth, the further end of the solar axis in space 
 would be to us the NORTH POLE OF THE UNIVERSE, as mentioned 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 already, p. 184, and remain unchanged to our view and 
 calculations if the earth always retained the paral- 
 lelism, the horizontality, of its axis with the axis of the 
 sun as indicated ; and the distance of this POLE OF THE 
 UNIVERSE from where we are being so enormous that 
 the circle of the path of the earth represented in the 
 diagram vanishes altogether in the reality of creation, 
 and falls in with the said pole of the universe ; that, as 
 faintly illustrated by fig. 2 E E, at Libra and at Aries, 1 80 
 millions of miles apart, the annual parallax of the 
 earth, the diameter of the orbit of the earth round the 
 sun indicated by line e e in fig. 1, we see the same star 
 or point in the heavens always in the zenith, right over 
 head : the north pole of our earth in all its positions 
 round the sun would CONSTANTLY POINT to that pole 
 without any deviation. 
 
 On this supposition our days and nights and climate 
 all over the earth would always be equal ; as, however, 
 the days and nights become respectively longer and 
 shorter, and the seasons are called forth by the oscilla- 
 tion of the earth : so that point in the north of the 
 universe to which the north pole of our earth is directed, 
 no longer remains the POLE OF THE UNIVERSE, the POLE 
 OF THE PATH OR ORBIT of the earth, but changes, as 
 in fig. 1, from the centre line e e, into the angle of I 
 lines / /, and becomes the POLE OF THE ECLIPTIC, the 
 centre of THAT path or circle described by the oscilla- 
 tion of the POLES of the earth, the APPARENT path of I 
 the sun round the earth, when in summer we see him 
 on this side, and in winter on the other side of the 
 equator, in the southern hemisphere. 
 
 If, as in the diagram 1, the earth in its course round 
 
 245 
 
246 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 the sun, from Libra to Capricorn, its south pole is repelled by tne sun 
 and the north pole attracted, and going to the opposite extreme at 
 Cancer, the latter is repelled and the former attracted, the CENTRE 
 of the circle g g thus described by the NORTH POLE of the earth 
 will fall into the angle between lines /near the star b in the Little 
 Bear ; hence it is close to this star, therefore called the polar star, 
 that the north pole for a long time to come will constantly be 
 pointing all the year round, being the centre, the vanishing-point 
 of the circle described by it in the heavens, and round which point 
 the polar star itself, owing to its present position and proximity, 
 describes a small circle in the general apparent movement of the 
 circumpolar constellations round the pole of the ecliptic. 
 
 Thus we have the POLE OF THE ECLIPTIC as quite distinct from 
 the POLE OF THE UNIVERSE, the PATH of the earth itself as quite 
 distinct from the ecliptic or the APPARENT path of the sun produced 
 by the oscillation of the poles of the earth ; and in the opposite, 
 the southern hemisphere of the universe, the same will be the case 
 except that THERE the position of the POLE OF THE ECLIPTIC will 
 be determined by the direction of the SOUTH POLE of the earth. 
 
 As the time of noon is exactly ascertained by the stand of the 
 sun, so the time of the equinox, day and night being equal, was 
 always perfectly well known to the ancients, and the starting 
 point and anchor of their observations and calculations. And thus 
 it had been noticed already by Hipparchus, 2000 years ago, in 
 comparing his observations with those of some astronomers about 
 150 years before him, that our earth did not maintain its relative 
 position with respect to the stars, that they had moved forward, 
 and that at the time of the equinox he saw a constellation different 
 from that seen by his predecessors, that Scorpio had advanced and 
 Libra taken its place, that the equinox formerly happening under 
 the sign of Scorpio, had slowly receded to under the sign of Libra, 
 that the equinox preceded the arrival of the earth at Scorpio, 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 247 
 
 And this precession has been steadily increasing, so that, instead 
 of being under the sign of Libra at the time of Hipparchus, the 
 equinox now takes place nearer towards the sign of Virgo. 
 
 By either of the two motions indicated, the pole of the ecliptic 
 will undergo a gradual cycloidal change of place. 
 
 As in the diagram, we now see it close to the PRESENT polar 
 star 6 ; but by the forward movement of the fixed stars to the dotted 
 line d + , or the retrogression of the equinox to dotted line d instead 
 of its assumed position at Libra, corresponding to the recession of 
 the earth from dotted line b to c, the star near c would be the 
 polar star, the pole of the ecliptic would have gradually shifted 
 from its present position to the spot O indicated by the dotted line 
 c, and, as in fig. 1, after an immensity of time, performed a 
 CIRCLE round the pole of the universe, if our system and earth 
 be then what they are now. If, however, the path of our earth 
 lies in an ellipse a a' round the sun, then the pole of the ecliptic 
 would have described an ELLIPSE round the pole of the universe, 
 and our north pole itself trace a minute imperceptibly-elliptic circle 
 in the heavens in its annual course round the sun. 
 
 If the hour and minute-hand on a dial-plate start together on 
 their course at XII., it will take twelve revolutions of the minute, 
 and one revolution of the hour-hand before they will again be in 
 the same position and place from which they set out. And thus it 
 has been calculated that the earth will have to perform 25,848 
 revolutions round the sun, whilst the ball of creation is ONCE going 
 round on its own axis such axis passing from the north pole of 
 the universe through the centre of the sun to the south pole of the 
 universe until the same star or constellation appears again in 
 the zenith of the earth which at present is seen at the time of the 
 equinox. 
 
 The interval occupied by the earth in running its course from 
 one vernal equinox to the other is called the tropical year, from the 
 
248 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM, 
 
 end of which it would further take 22 minutes and 10 seconds to 
 reach the fixed star from under which it started twelve months 
 before, but gone in advance like the hour-hand, and thus com- 
 plete the " sideral year," which therefore, by so much, is longer 
 than the tropical year. 
 
 The forward movement of the fixed stars, relative to the equinox 
 of the earth, or the precession of the equinox relative to the fixed 
 stars, has been observed also to take place with regard to the other 
 planets of our system. The phenomenon of precession, therefore, 
 can only be REASONABLY accounted for, as stated already, by the 
 earth not completing a perfect orbit round the sun in one year, 
 dating from one vernal equinox to the other ; or, by the perfect 
 completion of its orbit within the time given, whilst in the mean- 
 while the unfathomable sphere of creation is gently rolling forward 
 into eternity, with and around our own solar system, with its 
 glorious sun forming the centre, as the prolongation of its own axis 
 north and south forms also the axis of created worlds ; and thus 
 the planets with their independent course and orbits are every 
 year a little left behind the onward motion of the fixed stars. 
 
 It will be evident on referring to fig. 1, that by the gradual 
 shifting of the equinox, and the oscillation of the earth, stars will 
 gradually pass away from, and others rise to, our view ; that with 
 the change of direction of the north pole of the earth, as, for 
 instance, the earth is receding in the heavens from its position at 
 Capricorn to Libra, and further back to Cancer, the circumpolar 
 constellations will be totally different from what they are now. 
 
 In fig. 1, I have followed the example of astronomers; they 
 have adapted their theories to their calculations and their calcu- 
 lations to their theories ; and so I have adapted my theory 
 to my diagram, and my diagram to my theory. In the drawing 
 I do not claim exactness of position, size, distance, or pro- 
 portion, but in principle it represents faithfully the " simplicity 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 249 
 
 of the creation ; " and it will be perceived that, by my theory, the 
 difficulties about the nutation of the earth's axis, its conical 
 motion, its subordinate gyratory movements, ALTOGETHER VANISH, 
 and that these subjects, with the precession of the equinox, have 
 given a vast deal of trouble to scientific men, and involved them 
 into the most trying reasoning, as we shall presently see. 
 
 According to the old theory, the precession of the equinox and 
 the nutation of the earth's axis, so simply accounted for by my 
 own theory, have been CALCULATED to be " due to the action of 
 the sun and moon upon the PROTUBERANT MATTER of the earth's 
 equator ; and that a minute effect is due to the influence of the 
 planet Venus." 
 
 " The precession of the equinox consists in a continual retro- 
 gradation of the node of the earth's equator on the ecliptic." 
 .Notwithstanding the theory of universal gravitation, every 
 heavenly body affecting the other, " its cause must not be looked 
 for IN THE PLANETS, THEIR ACTION excepting Venus is out of 
 the question, and we must therefore look to the massive though 
 distant sun, and to our near though minute neighbour, the moon, 
 for its explanation. This will, accordingly, be found in their dis- 
 turbing action on the redundant matter accumulated on the equator 
 of the earth, by which its figure is rendered spheroidal, combined 
 with the earth's rotation on its own axis. It is to the sagacity of 
 Newton that we owe the discovery of this singular mode of 
 action." (Outlines, 642). 
 
 Then, as far as I understand this " SAGACITY " and " SINGULAR 
 MODE OF ACTION" indeed: "the molecules composing the re- 
 dundant matter at the equator, have contrary dispositions " how 
 found out and by whom, unless by some astronomical Miinchhausen, 
 I do not know ; but so it is SUPPOSED " those who, owing to the 
 disturbing sun and moon, tend to become more inclined, will 
 counteract the effect of those which have at the SAME INSTANT a 
 
250 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAB SYSTEM. 
 
 contrary tendency. The excess on the one or the other side of these 
 contending molecules will change the inclination, and an average be 
 struck " not at the end of the season, or the year, but " at every 
 moment." Certainly an interesting and truly singular mode of 
 action 
 
 Then there are "retrograding molecules, reactionists, their 
 general tendency being to retrograde ; a struggle again will take 
 place within the protuberant ring of the equator by the counter- 
 acting efforts of the progressists, of the molecules contrarily 
 disposed." 
 
 By these means, changing the inclination in order to produce 
 this precession, the earth's axis is said to have " a conical motion, 
 like a child's peg-top, when it SPINS NOT UPRIGHT, or that amusing 
 toy the te-to-tum." This extremely slow conical motion, as 
 affecting the place of the pole of the equinoxial " is not uniform, 
 but compounded of one uniform, or nearly uniform, part, and 
 other smaller and subordinate periodical fluctuations, the former 
 giving rise to the phenomenon of precession ; the latter to another 
 distinct phenomenon called nutation of the earth's axis, which is a 
 small gyratory movement." 
 
 This conical not to say comical motion, and subordinate 
 gyratory movement of the earth's axis, no doubt important 
 discoveries, are said to be the " necessary consequences of the 
 rotation of the earth, combined with its elliptical FIGURE, and the 
 UNEQUAL (yet permanently uniform) attraction on its POLAR and 
 EQUATORIAL regions. Accordingly, the monthly revolution of the 
 moon, and the annual motion of the sun, produce, each of them, 
 small NUTATIONS of the earth's axis." 
 
 "Thus we see that the two phenomena of nutation and 
 precession are intimately connected, or rather both of them 
 constituent parts of one and the same phenomenon." 
 
 The preceding attempts at definition of the equinox and the 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE S01AB SYSTEM. 251 
 
 nutation of the earth's axis, I have more or less LITERALLY, with 
 a few elucidating additions, extracted from Sir John Herschel's 
 Outlines, page 385 to 890 ; but, properly to estimate the : " It is 
 to the sagacity of Newton that we owe the discovery of this 
 singular mode of action," the whole chapter should be read in its 
 entirety, as it is only by a rigourous analysis of every word, line 
 and sentence, as done by Lieutenant E. J. Morrison, in his Solar 
 System as it is, that the absurdity of the old theory and its 
 explanation can be duly appreciated. 
 
 The rigid parallelism of the earth's axis in its orbit round the 
 sun, no more than the theory of the tides, is found from observa- 
 tion to be true IN FACT. Therefore, the precession and nutation, 
 the conical motion and subordinate gyratory movement of a body 
 not spinning on a solid bottom, like the peg-top and the te-to-tum ; 
 the restless and unruly molecules ; the sun and moon becoming 
 disturbers of a body upon which their action is said also to be 
 uniform and permanent, displaying at the SAME INSTANT a com- 
 posing and a disturbing power, whilst the moon, in return, is 
 said also to be subject to and kept in order by the earth and acted 
 upon by the protuberant part of the equator ; the action of the 
 planets, universal gravitation, for the nonce conveniently put aside, 
 the influence of Venus excepted : All are had recourse to in this 
 WONDERFULLY-SINGULAR mode of action, so SAGACIOUSLY dis- 
 covered, calculations made and adapted accordingly All to be 
 swept away by the " simplicity of the creation," by the " oscillation 
 of the earth whilst revolving upon its equator under the ecliptic, 
 on her proper level, within the atmosphere and round the equator 
 of the sun," showing thereby, that " calculation goes for nothing 
 against simplicity of a theory." 
 
 It is remarkable that Cardinal Cusa already (see Cosmos ii, 
 note 403) ascribed a THREEFOLD movement to the earth. The 
 old theory gives it an inclined rotary spinning-top progression, a 
 
252 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 nutation, a separate gyratory or conical motion, and further 
 periodical fluctuations ; but how can this adoption of FOUR move- 
 ments, all so indifferently and poorly accounted for, be compared 
 with the simple rotary progression of a body oscillating twice during 
 its course round the sun, and for reasons so strikingly simple? 
 
 This oscillation of the earth, as well as of the other planets, 
 this consequent obliquity of the earth and planets to the ecliptic, 
 constitutes, as mentioned already page 187, the so-called 
 " obliquity of the ecliptic ; " and what is called " the diminution 
 of the obliquity of the ecliptic," and the " variation of the plane of 
 the ecliptic," is nothing else but a slight diminution of this oscilla- 
 tion IF IT REALLY DOES EXIST. 
 
 Whether in this way as it is at the time of the equinox the 
 axis of the earth will ever come to be permanently horizontal to 
 the horizontal axis of the sun, permanently horizontal to the 
 ecliptic, no one knows but He who created, set in motion, and 
 by His persevering will keeps in action, the magnificent clock- 
 work of creation. 
 
 Sir John Herschel, however, respecting the variation of the 
 
 ecliptic, says in his Outlines, page 385 ;" the sum 
 
 of all these products (of calculation) is actually very small ; THERE- 
 FORE it must always remain so ! j; This is called a " remarkable 
 theorem," and certainly no better appellation could have been 
 applied to it ; it is REMARKABLE IN LOGIC. 
 
 " Meanwhile there is no doubt that the plane of the ecliptic 
 does actually vary by the ACTION OF ALL THE PLANETS, ..." 
 
 thus " this diminution of the obliquity of the 
 
 ecliptic will not go beyond certain very moderate limits, after 
 which although in an immense period of ages, being a compound 
 cycle resulting from the JOINT ACTION OF ALL THE PLANETS it 
 will again increase, and thus oscillate backward and forward about 
 a mean position." 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 253 
 
 Here the obliquity of the ecliptic, the plane of the ecliptic, is 
 oscillating ; with me they are the planets which are oscillating. 
 Whether, as said before, having once come to a comparative state 
 of rest, to a state of equilibrium from oscillation, they would ever 
 again resume their oscillating motion, God only knows ; but, from 
 the " remarkable theorem " above, astronomers have found out 
 that " the diminution of the obliquity will not go on but again 
 increase, etc." Remarkable conclusion ! 
 
 " This REMARKABLE THEOREM, ALONE, then, would guarantee 
 the stability of the orbits of the greater planets, but what has 
 been shown of the tendency of EACH PLANET to work out a com- 
 pensation On EVERY OTHER, it IS EVIDENT that the MINOR ONES 
 -are not excluded from this beneficial arrangement," though same 
 page, 642, THEY are dispensed from working out a compensation, 
 u THEIR action upon the earth is out of the question ;" the stability 
 of THEIR orbits is only evident, not guaranteed ! 
 
 THERE is some work cut out for the simple reader ! 
 
 The theorem in question, so remarkable because so silly, has 
 apparently been adopted by all astronomers, for, Mr. Hind, one of 
 the most learned among them, in his Introduction, p. 15, endorses 
 it without any reserve as to its consistency. 
 
 Applying it to the " permanency of the seasons," he says : 
 " The inclination of the earth's axis to her annual path is subject 
 
 at present to a very slow diminution Supposing 
 
 this could go on continually, the equator and ecliptic would at 
 length coincide " : there would, in the end, be no succession of 
 seasons . . . "But it has been otherwise ordained: before 
 the ecliptic can have approached the equator to the degree sufficient 
 to produce any sensible alteration of climate upon the surface of 
 our globe, its motion in that direction MUST cease," BECAUSE IT 
 HAS BEEN so ORDAINED, " and after becoming stationary for a 
 time, it will begin to recede towards its present state " . 
 
254 THE NEW THEORY OP THE 6OLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 The seasons " must therefore succeed each other through all time ; 
 and this ASTRONOMICAL FACT recalls to our recollection the promise 
 
 of the Creator The permanency of the seasons 
 
 is one of the most beautiful facts, which ASTRONOMY enables us to 
 explain ! ! " 
 
 In vain I have pondered over the theorem, in vain gone through 
 Sir John Herschel's definitions, in vain through the otherwise 
 beautiful passages of Mr. Hind : but in neither have I found ANY 
 
 LOGIC, ANY PHYSICAL, OR ASTRONOMICAL, REASON, CXCCpt the COM- 
 POUND CYCLE OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION, the joint action of planets 
 discovered and undiscovered, miscalculated and uncalculated WHY 
 the slow diminution of the inclination of the earth's axis at 
 some future time MUST CEASE, why it should retrace its steps, why 
 the diminution of the ecliptic will not go on, but again increase ? 
 
 In the theorem itself the logic is actually BAD ; " BECAUSE the 
 product is small, THEREFORE it must remain so ; because the 
 diminution of a something is slow, as, for instance, the estimation 
 of the Newtonian theory, THEREFORE it will not continue, but 
 again recede and stand as high as ever I The system is actually 
 but VERY SLOWLY dying from internal derangment ; THEREFORE 
 it will not go beyond certain very moderate limits, but revive 
 again, and thus oscillate backward and forward about a mean 
 position between life and death! " And this is called an astro- 
 nomical FACT by which ASTRONOMY accounts for, and establishes, 
 the permanency of the seasons through all time ! 
 
 " By the researches of Legrange (of whose analitical conduct it 
 Is impossible here to give any idea), the following elegant theorem* 
 has been demonstrated. 
 
 * IF THE MASS OF EVERY PLANET BE MULTIPLIED BY THE SQUARE 
 ROOT OF THE MAJOR AXIS OF ITS ORBIT, AND THE PRODUCT BY THE 
 
 * The remarkable one of which a portion has been cited before. 
 
THB SEW TIIEOnT OF THE SOtAR SYSTEM. 255 
 
 SQUARE OP THE TANGENT OF ITS INCLINATION TO A FIXED PLANE, 
 THE SUM OF ALL THESE PRODUCTS WILL BE CONSTANTLY THE SAME 
 UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THEIR MUTUAL ATTRACTION.' 
 
 But what is all this calculation against simplicity of theory ? 
 What is it, moreover, " if the mass of every planet and satellite " 
 be incorrect, its calculation based upon false premises, its com- 
 position and constitution unknown and disregarded, and no doubt 
 many planets still undiscovered ? 
 
 Thus, Outlines, 759, "the mass of the moon is concluded, 1st 
 from the proportion of the lunar to the solar tide, as observed at 
 various stations, the effect being separated from each other by a 
 long series of observations of the relative heights of spring and 
 neap-tides which, we have seen ( 752), depend upon the pro- 
 portional influence of the two luminaries. 2ndly from the 
 phenomenon of nutation, which, being the result of the moon's 
 attraction alone, affords a means of calculating her mass, inde- 
 pendent of any knowledge of the sun's. Both methods agree in 
 assigning to our satellite a mass of about one seventy-fifth that 
 of the earth." 
 
 But what, I ask again, becomes of the CONCLUSION and CAL- 
 CULATION of the moon's mass, when based upon a theory of the 
 tides in which, as will be seen by and bye, there is not a particle, 
 not a shadow, of truth, which is contrary to absolutely ascertained 
 and established facts ? From want of a better reason it is CON- 
 CLUDED, that the moon LIFTS UP the water ; and because this is 
 CONCLUDED, it is CONCLUDED again that her mass must be such 
 and such. 
 
 In the same way it is CONCLUDED, " that the phenomenon of 
 nutation is the result of the moon's attraction alone," that the 
 moon affects the north pole (why not also the south pole ?) of the 
 earth by acting upon that protuberant stumbling-block at the 
 equator, thereby giving to the axis of the earth a gyratory 
 
256 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 movement similar to what is witnessed in the peg-top, when 
 
 TOWARDS THE END OP ITS CAREER, it SPINS NOT UPRIGHT ; and 
 
 from this extraordinary explanation of the phenomenon of nutation, 
 being " the result of the moon's attraction alone" and of the 
 consequent war of molecules ; from this CONCLUSION the mass of 
 the moon is CONCLUDED, and the said conclusion has offered a 
 means of CALCULATING her mass, independent of any knowledge 
 of the sun's attraction. 
 
 Thus, erroneous conclusions must naturally lead to erroneous 
 calculations, and erroneous calculations must lead to erroneous 
 conclusions. 
 
 From the perturbation of the WATERS AND OF THE AXIS OF THE 
 EARTH by the moon, the moon's mass is concluded and calculated 
 ( 759) ; the perturbations of the MOONS of Jupiter have led to 
 a knowledge of the proportion THEIR masses bear to their primary. 
 ( 758). 
 
 Thus, a test totally different to that applied to the moon, is 
 applied to the satellites of Jupiter for concluding and calculating 
 THEIR masses ; in one case, as it were, the mass of a balloon is 
 calculated by its disturbing effect upon the earth, and in the other 
 it is calculated by the disturbing effect of the earth upon the 
 balloon, as if there were no atmosphere between to disturb the 
 motion of balloon and moon, no solar atmosphere to Affect the 
 motions of planets and comets, apart from the diminished or 
 increased influence of the sun upon two planets in conjunction, as 
 noticed page 190, and apart still from the consideration, that a 
 small mass, according to its constitution, may be infinitely more 
 magnetic, attracting or repelling, disturbing, than a large mass 
 differently composed. And who is there that will say, that there 
 is no difference in the constitution of the heavenly bodies, and 
 that, for instance, on account for the SMALLNESS of certain masses, 
 THEIR ACTION is out of the question ? 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 257 
 
 Irrespective of the exceptional influence of the sun upon two 
 planets when in conjunction, of the motion and currents of the 
 solar atmosphere, and perhaps also the interior condition of the 
 heavenly bodies : it is nothing but a great though rooted fallacy, 
 that " every planet produces an amount of perturbation in the 
 motions of every other, apportioned to its mass, and to the degree 
 of advantage or PURCHASE which its situation gives it over their 
 movements." ( 757, which should be read in toto). Take away 
 the atmosphere of the sun extending beyond all our planets to 
 the limit of our system ; take away the atmospheres of the planets 
 extending beyond their satellites ; suppose even contrary to the 
 teaching of the old school, contrary to the absurd idea of vacant 
 space that there is a resisting medium within our solar system, 
 neutral, without gravitation or difference of density in any 
 direction : what then becomes of the heavenly bodies and their 
 masses? Without recourse to the assistance of opposite, each 
 other neutralizing, imaginary forces, having neither father nor 
 mother, no existence or origin, save in the arbitrary suppositions 
 and conclusions of astronomers, however learned : the whole theory 
 of your system, all your calculations, with all their consequences, 
 are reduced to nothing, all is naked, a mirage of long-fostered 
 imagination ; the moons would fall upon their primaries by which 
 they are attracted, and the planets with their satellites would 
 descend into the sun by whom they are attracted and towards 
 whom all are gravitating ; you would establish the airless, the 
 exhausted, receiver, in which the feather and the lead descend to 
 the bottom with equal velocity, you would ANNIHILATE your 
 masses ; or, in your scale of the heavens, your pound of cork 
 would weigh heavier than the pound of lead; your primitive 
 impulse even would not save you, for, the magnet, able to draw a 
 swiftly passing object from its course, will not fail either, with 
 ever-increasing intensity, to draw it also to itself. 
 
258 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 As the risen balloon must return to the earth, so the heavenly 
 bodies would descend to their centres of attraction, whatever curves 
 they might have described, and however aided by the primitive 
 push, that famous discovery. They would, if possible, more surely 
 still return again towards their respective centres of gravity than the 
 stone flung from the hand of man ; for, he who flings or whirls 
 the stone, is centered in and upon the centre of the earth, and any 
 force, power, or impulse, emanating from his hand, is virtually 
 emanating from the centre upon which he bases. And in a 
 similar manner the base of the planets is the solar centre, 
 and the base of the moons is the centre of their primaries, 
 whether, like balloons, or the flung- off stone, they rose from their 
 bases, or were launched, or dropped, or created, into their re- 
 spective positions. 
 
 Planets, therefore, are affected only by the sun, and moons only 
 by the planets. But as regards the position of the planets in the 
 solar sphere, their masses go for nothing upon the old suppositions, 
 conclusions and calculations. For, as has been noticed already, 
 " if the earth were taken from its actual orbit, and launched anew 
 into space, at the place, in the direction, and with the velocity of 
 any of the other planets, it would describe the very same orbit, 
 and in the same period, which that planet actually does, a minute 
 correction of the period only excepted, arising from the difference 
 between the mass of the earth and that of the planet;" so that 
 " a MINUTE correction of the period only excepted," as far as the 
 MASSES of the respective planets between each other are concerned, 
 it would make no difference for Jupiter to move in the orbit of 
 the earth, and the earth in that of Jupiter, whether Mercury were 
 to supplant Neptune, and Neptune to revolve in the path of 
 Mercury, whether the asteroids were to rise to the altitude of 
 Saturn, and Saturn to descend to their present level, whether the 
 child were substituted for the giant, or the giant put into the shoes 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 259 
 
 of the child ; the LAUNCH, that famous discovery,- would make 
 everything right, all would go on as it does now ; one planet 
 would adapt itself to the level, depth, or elevation, of the other in 
 the space of heaven on their exchange of places ; the goose 
 would soar as high as the eagle, the ostrich trill at the elevation of 
 the lark, and the proud peacock fly as fast as the gentle dove. 
 
 Evident as it is that, if launched with the same velocity, the 
 cannon-ball and the rifle-bullet would go alike ; that a horse, a 
 cow and a donkey, careering along in a race, would perform the 
 same distance in the same period of time if running with equal 
 speed and in the same direction ; that a letter would travel as 
 fast as a telegram if conveyed at the same rate as the electric 
 spark ; or, in a few words, that two or three different things 
 would be equal if they were equal : still, it is as well to have it 
 confirmed by so high an astronomical authority. 
 
 The accommodation of the planets to their new simulated 
 positions, at first sight, seems MORE wonderful, but, on the old 
 theory, likewise presents little difficulty. For, those self-acting 
 forces would set all right ; these fairies of the solar system, the 
 invaluable co-operators of the launch and motors in astronomy 
 would, in every instance, and particularly in the hands of an 
 experienced mathematician, with facility adapt themselves to the 
 various masses and circumstances of the bodies of our system in their 
 translated stations ; " EVERY PLANET would still produce an amount 
 of perturbation in the motion of EVERY OTHER, apportioned to its 
 mass, and to the degree of advantage or purchase which its situa- 
 tion in the system gives it over their movements," and all would 
 go on AS IT DOES NOW, as if no transposition had taken place ; 
 
 for, THE EARTH WOULD GO JUST THE SAME AS JUPITER if launched 
 
 into that planet's orbit, and JUPITER WOULD GO JUST THE SAME 
 AS THE EARTH if launched into its orbit. 
 
 From Sir John Herschel's reasoning it follows, as a rigid conse- 
 
 s 2 
 
260 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 quence, that, " if all our planets and asteroids were taken from their 
 actual orbits, and launched anew into space, at the place, in the 
 direction, and with the velocity of any one of the planets, they 
 would describe the very same orbit, and in the same period, which 
 that planet, whose orbit might have been chosen, actually does, 
 MINUTE CORRECTIONS of the periods only excepted, arising from the 
 difference between their masses and that of the planet in question," 
 
 ALL GOING JUST THE SAME AS THE BODY IN WHOSE ORBIT THEY 
 WERE LAUNCHED WITH THE SAME VELOCITY ; and thus, as I have 
 
 said before, masses would be ANNIHILATED, would go FOR NOTHING, 
 and our astronomers must agree 'with M. Von Gumpach, that 
 the celestial bodies WEIGH NOTHING. 
 
 This is strictly correct, for, the launch, that famous discovery, 
 and the attraction of the sun, would retain all of them in the self- 
 same orbit, irrespective of everything, none would rise, none would 
 fall, great or small ; and it is clear that, if the earth were to 
 be placed in the orbit of Jupiter, and vice versa, and that with 
 this exchange of place they were also to exchange their respective 
 velocity and motion, " a minute correction of period only excepted," 
 the result would be just the same, whether two, four, or the whole 
 of our planets and asteroids, were re-launched with the same 
 velocity of any one of the planets into that planet's orbit. 
 
 Therefore, the above proposition, like the whole Newtonian 
 system, is based upon nothing but the bare ARBITRARY ASSUMPTION 
 of the launch, upon a false theory of universal gravitation, or 
 universal neutralization, and as a necessary consequence, a confused 
 and contradictory theory of forces and masses; and to speak of 
 these as LAWS OF NATURE would be supremely ridiculous. 
 
 In the preceding simulated transposition of the planets, not only 
 nothing has been said as to the effect which would be produced 
 upon them by the sun, on the one being further removed from him, 
 or the other brought nearer, which, if the theory of masses were 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 261 
 
 worth anything, would be of the utmost consequence ; but the 
 supposition itself is confounded by its own author. 
 
 " EVERY PLANET would affect EVERY OTHER, etc.," as above ; yet 
 the EARTH WOULD GO JUST AS JUPITER if launched into that planet's 
 orbit, THOUGH then so much further from the sun, and so much 
 nearer to Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, than now, and THOUGH in 
 our PRESENT state of the solar system, according to Outlines, 642, 
 " the immense distance of these (superior) planets from the earth 
 puts THEIR action upon it out of the question ; " and yet in opposi- 
 tion to this again it is said that " it is by means of the perturba- 
 tions of the (inferior) planets that a knowledge of those planets is 
 obtained WHICH HAVE NO SATELLITES." 
 
 If, then, the earth, HAVING a satellite, is not affected by the 
 superior planets, how are Mars, Venus, and Mercury, and the 
 asteroids to be affected by them and vice versa ; and how are these 
 last little ones to affect even one another ? and how then are their 
 masses to be calculated ? And what, moreover, is the value of 
 these calculations, based upon the contradictory theory of mutual 
 attraction,perturbation, compensation, and the rest, when every day, 
 as I have said once before, they are so palpably falsified and upset 
 by the discovery of new planets ? 
 
 On this head, listen to Lieut. Morrison, B.N., although an astrologer. 
 
 In his Solar System as it is, he says, page 197: "the reader 
 will observe, that when this was written," (Sir John's disquisition 
 on the subject,) " the great planet Neptune was unknown, and the 
 discovery of some thirty minor planets, (now found to be as plenty 
 as blackberries), had not yet been made. And it is worthy of note, 
 that when Legrange gave out his NOTED THEOREM, the true mass 
 of Jupiter had not been ascertained." (Has it now ?) " Surely 
 these great and important discoveries must in some way affect the 
 " compensation theory " : if things were * all right ' before, there 
 must be a screw somewhere loose now ! " 
 
262 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 Never were astronomical calculations more confounded than by 
 these facts. 
 
 This will appear still more so when we consider 532 of Sir 
 
 John Herschel's Outlines ; for, he says : " the mass 
 
 of a planet which is attended by one or more satellites can be as it 
 were weighed against the sun, provided we have learnt from obser- 
 vation the dimensions of the orbits described by the planet about 
 the sun, and the satellites about the planet, and also the periods, 
 in which these orbits are respectively described. IT is BY THIS 
 METHOD that the masses of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune 
 have been ascertained," though in Good Words, no doubt referring 
 to Jupiter and his famous visitor, he tells us that ' they, the 
 comets, have ACTUALLY informed us of the WEIGHT of one of the 
 planets, which could not have been determined with any exactness 
 if a comet had not on one occasion passed very near to it." And 
 yet, see p. 33, Sir John says : " that not even the SATELLITES of 
 Jupiter suffered any perceptible derangement in THEIR motions, 
 owing to the smallness of the comet's mass, whilst, as above, " it 
 ACTUALLY informed us of the weight of the PLANET," NOTWITH- 
 STANDING the smallness of its mass. What next ! 
 
 NOTO it follows, according to the theorem of Legrange, viz., 
 " If the mass of EVERY planet be multiplied .... under 
 the influence of their MUTUAL attraction," that when Neptune and 
 about fifty asteroids were NOT KNOWN TO EXIST, THEIR attraction 
 could naturally not be thought of, much less calculated, in deter- 
 mining the masses and perturbations of the other KNOWN planets, 
 as will be strikingly demonstrated by the discovery of Neptune 
 itself, and its attempted substitution for the supposed disturber of 
 Uranus. 
 
 Therefore, and apart from the failure established by the discovery 
 of Neptune, calculations made in ignorance of undiscovered planets, 
 based upon a MUTUAL attraction of the mass of EVERY planet, 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 263 
 
 MUST HAVE BEEN INCORRECT, and SUPPOSING the theorem to be 
 true WOULD BE incorrect until ALL the planets, great and small 
 of our system had been discovered, and until " we have learned 
 from OBSERVATION the dimensions of the orbits described by as yet 
 unknown planets about the sun, and by the unknown satellites 
 about their planets, and also the period in which these orbits 
 are respectively described." 
 
 Thus, as we have seen, reciprocal, imaginary perturbations, 
 mutual attractions of the heavenly bodies of every description, 
 are concluded, disregarded, or denied, when and where it suits ; 
 from these assumed reciprocal perturbations, masses are concluded 
 and calculations accordingly MADE and ADAPTED ; presumed facts 
 are taken into the elements of calculation, and these preconceived 
 facts will be sure to be the resultants ; if, as in Hamlet, a camel 
 be imagined in the astronomical cloud, a camel will be sure to 
 appear, if a weasel be fancied, a weasel will be seen, and if a 
 whale be taken into the account, something VERY LIKE A WHALE 
 will come out again. 
 
 In this manner, as has been proved above, and as more particu- 
 larly we shall see in the theory of the tides, calculations, in them- 
 selves difficult, can be, and as easily are, made to fit, as self-acting 
 forces made to govern and correspond to, the harmony of heaven. 
 Von Gumpach, in his Baby Worlds, is overwhelming in his evidence 
 on these points. 
 
 Nevertheless, profound intellects may have found, or hit upon, 
 formula concerning the masses of the bodies of our solar system, 
 by which, in some instances, after months of calculation, reasonable, 
 and to them satisfactory results, have been obtained, the same as 
 getting from London-Babylon to Rome by way of Oxford or Cam- 
 bridge, St. Petersburg or Constantinople. My new system, however, 
 will lead to a short and direct road ; for, in itself already, simpli- 
 city of theory goes beyond all suppositions, abstract notions and 
 
264 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 calculations, and is, and ever will be, the CHARACTERISTIC ot 
 TRUTH. 
 
 XII. 
 
 EQUATORIAL AND POLAR ATTRACTION; PENDULUM OBSERVATIONS; 
 THE PROTUBERANCE AT THE EQUATOR. ELLIPTICITY OF THE 
 
 EARTH; STRANGE REASONING OF -ASTRONOMERS. ABSURDITY OF A 
 CENTRAL SWINGING, OR SO-CALLED, CENTRIFUGAL FORCE. THE 
 FORMATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND LAPLACE. DENSITY AND 
 
 FIGURE OF THE EARTH. THE TORSION-BALANCE. THE ACCIDENTAL 
 
 DISCOVERY OF NEPTUNE BY LE VERRIER. 
 
 THE earth is a spherical body, perfect in its interior constitution 
 and organization, the same as the human body is perfect, for the 
 accomplishment of certain ends. 
 
 That the earth is merely a huge lump of mixed heterogenous 
 material, or its crust only a few hundred miles thick, and the 
 interior in a molten fluid, or a watery liquid state, is contrary to 
 anything created we know of. 
 
 As a perfectly organized body, more properly, perhaps, an organ- 
 ized spherical acting magnet, continually excited by the sun, we 
 know it to have poles at which the magnetic needle is perpendicu- 
 larly inclined, whilst at the equator it remains horizontal, without 
 variation or declination. Hence also the greater attraction at 
 the poles of every other mass, and its consequent greater weight 
 there than at the equator ; the 86,535 ascertained vibrations of a 
 pendulum in London, against 86,400 vibrations of the same 
 pendulum at the equator, where the longer vibrations, no doubt, 
 are assisted by the rarety of the atmosphere, and impeded by its 
 greater density towards the polar regions. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 265 
 
 Hence also, aided by the solar heat upon the equatorial regions, 
 the overflow of water, air, electricity, etc., towards the attracting 
 poles, and their reflux in a colder and regenerated state towards 
 the equator. By reason also of the greater and permanent heat 
 of the sun at the equator, we there have the luxuriance of vege- 
 tation and animal life, and the gradual increase in bulk of the 
 girdle of the earth. 
 
 By this constant heating of the equator by the sun, the electric 
 life-blood of the earth is set and kept in motion, and this motion 
 within the earth makes it turn round its own axis, like a kettle of 
 water hung up by a cord before the fire, producing, once in twenty- 
 four hours, a revolution of its body, upon and within the solar 
 atmosphere. The rotating as well as progressive motion is equally 
 participated in by every atom of which the earth is composed, 
 even of water, air, and the superior oceans of matter ; and this so 
 much so, that at the equator, where the velocity of revolution is 
 greatest, there are not only no tides, but contrarily, it is exactly 
 there where there are the great calms of air and water, the standing 
 still of these two great oceans, not even betraying the westerly 
 course of their surface, though left a little behind by the solid 
 part of the earth in its rotation. 
 
 This, unless the equilibrium of air and water be disturbed by 
 temporary, periodical, or local causes, is also quite natural, because 
 all that constitutes the earth is but ONE BODY, and equally 
 lead and feather gravitates to the centre of the earth, and this 
 in the case of the air so much so that it presses upon the surface 
 of our globe with a weight equal to 15 Ibs. upon the square inch, 
 rooting, moreover, in the earth and water into which it penetrates 
 and descends in its gravitation. 
 
 Hence, no motion of the earth, whether rotary or progressive, 
 can have any influence upon its own figure ; for, as far as THESE 
 TWO CAUSES are concerned, the whole will go on and remain for 
 
266 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 ever AS IT WAS AND AS IT is, because, as in the railway train, 
 every atom of its parts, nay, every action of the passenger, objects 
 dropt, a stone thrown, all partake of the motion of the train, the 
 water in the tank even will remain as smooth and still as in a 
 basin on the table in the room. 
 
 How beautifully simple this divine arrangement for the stability 
 of the earth and all that is upon it that ALL partakes of the 
 same motion, ALL EQUALLY GRAVITATES to the same central nucleus, 
 to the same heart of the earth, acted upon by the sun, making its 
 electric blood to circulate, turn the earth on its axis to give us day 
 and night, and to preponderate here, and preponderate there, for 
 the production of the seasons and their attendant changes and 
 blessings for the enjoyment of animated creation. These are the 
 natural effects of a natural, interior, CENTRIFUGAL AGENT. 
 
 How, according to the old theory, the rotation of the earth is 
 brought about, or whence it comes, I have not been able to find 
 out ; the rotation exists, and there the CAUSE of it ends, though 
 not its effects, which we will now proceed to consider. 
 
 Sir John Herschel, in his Outlines, 237, says : "the rotation 
 of the earth GIVES RISE to the centrifugal force ; the centrifugal 
 force PRODUCES an ellipticity (the protuberance at the equator) 
 in the form of the earth itself; and this very ellipticity of 
 form, etc." 
 
 According to this theory, a fly-wheel does not move by virtue 
 of a centrifugal force, a force emanating from, having its seat in, 
 the centre of the wheel, howsoever imparted ; but, because the fly- 
 wheel rotates round its own centre, the rotation GIVES RISE TO 
 the centrifugal force, which reasoning I consider both against 
 logic and fact. 
 
 Then: "the effected centrifugal force effects the elliptical form 
 of the earth, the protuberance at the equator." 
 
 How this effect can be produced in a body rotating round its 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 267 
 
 own centre, free to move, unimpeded, unarrested by an unyielding 
 frame or fixed axis, with its every atom gravitating to that 
 centre, and every one of its particles equally partaking of the 
 rotating and progressive motion of the whole body, being moreover 
 equally pressed upon by the super-incumbent atmosphere, like- 
 wise gravitating to the common centre, I am at a loss to conceive. 
 
 However, to prove the ellipticity of the earth being produced 
 by ITS OWN centrifugal force, Sir John has recourse to a most 
 unfortunate comparison, viz. : " a pail of water, suspended by a 
 cord, and made to SPIN ROUND, while the cord hangs perpendi- 
 cularly." Upon this a vast amount of labour is spent to show, 
 that "the centrifugal force" CAUSED by the spinning pail 
 "generates a tendency in ALL the water to leave the axis, and 
 press towards the circumference, where it is forced up the 
 sides, &c." 
 
 Every atom of the body of the earth, like truth itself, always 
 gravitates to its centre, to the common point of union, as we have 
 seen before ; the whole structure requires no exterior force, no 
 wall, no bond, foreign to its interior constitution, to keep it to- 
 gether. But the pail of water has no centre, no point of union, 
 no more than error, towards which to gravitate. Hence, when 
 spinning round, the water recedes from an apparent, an unreal, 
 centre, and, like error, would fly in every direction, if the pail, 
 the bondage of superior external force, did not hold it, though 
 impotently rising againt the wooden wall. Pail and water, more- 
 over, are two distinct bodies with regard to each other, they have 
 no common centre, save the centre of the earth. And upon such 
 a puerile illustration so much ingenious argument has been be- 
 stowed, and the alleged cause of the elliptic form of the earth 
 made to rest. 
 
 In the analogy cited, the paramount object is swung round 
 within the pail, both bodies spinning round with unequal speed, by 
 
268 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 means of a force, a cause, exterior and foreign to each of them, 
 In the case of a weight, or a stone, whirled round at the end of a 
 string, the swinging proceeds from a real centre, and from the will 
 of an animated being ; but the swinging centre, the swinging 
 person, is a body different from, exterior and foreign to, the object 
 swung round ; they are not one body like the earth with its every 
 particle, its water, its air, the ship, the balloon, and the moon ; all 
 these the earth simply carries, but does not swing, and they 
 partake of its own proper motion ; there is no will or power in 
 the earth to give them a swing, no mind to guide, no arm or hand 
 to be employed for the purpose, nor are these at all necessary for 
 making them move as they do ; if the rotary motion of the earth 
 by itself involved the swinging of bodies upon and above its solid 
 parts, as the outward effort of its centrifugal force is said to give 
 a swing to the moon, these bodies would make a revolution 
 round the earth in a time equal to its own rotation round its own 
 axis. 
 
 The same holds good with the sun and planets. 
 
 The sun carries the planets as the earth carries the water, the 
 ship, the air, the balloon and the moon ; they partake of the motion 
 proper to his own body and sphere ; but, there being no will, no 
 power, no animate effort, and least of all an outward one, in the 
 sun, in order to give the planets a swing, as, experimentally, we 
 may swing any object around ourselves, so they lag behind his 
 own time of rotation, as the water does on the earth, the ship on 
 the flowing stream, the balloon in the air, and the moon in a still 
 higher ocean. 
 
 With the old theory of a primitive impulse; the swinging, or 
 centrifugal force, the outward effect said to be exercised by the 
 sun upon the planets, becomes altogether superfluous. 
 
 To ascribe, then, a centrifugal force to the sun, the earth, and 
 the other planets and their satellites, with an inner and outward 
 
THE NEW THEORI OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 269 
 
 effort, and effects resulting therefrom, as compared to, and 
 illustrated by, a centrifugal machine or a fixed wheel ; or by an 
 animate being using his arms or hand as an instrument, with the 
 addition of a string, to whirl a stone or weight round about his 
 head, and to make gravity act the part of a living intelligence and 
 supply also both the office of arm and string, seems to me as 
 ridiculous as if a learned man were to make a summersault and 
 sxpect the moon to do the same. 
 
 It is, moreover, very unkind, that in opposition to the centri- 
 fugal force produced by Uranus and Neptune in their rotation from 
 west to east, as well as in opposition to that famous discovery, the 
 primitive impulse, their moons should swing around them in the 
 contrary direction from east to west ; that comets, as if tanta- 
 lizing the outward effort of the centrifugal force produced by the 
 sun in his rotation from west to east, should swing around in and 
 traverse the solar system in every direction ; and that both these 
 facts should give the finishing stroke to the centrifugal force and 
 primitive push theory. 
 
 The previous reasoning may be applied to Laplace's theory of 
 the formation of the solar system, of rings being thrown off by 
 the centrifugal force of the sun when rotating in its supposed 
 original gaseous state; these rings breaking and contracting 
 forming the planets ; and these again condensing and cooling 
 somehow or other, and by their centrifugal force throwing up the 
 equatorial portion, and in the words of Humboldt, Cosmos, pp. 
 350, 351, " showing, announcing, in the Mathematical figure of 
 the Earth, in the existence of compression at the poles .... 
 the primitive condition of fluidity of the rotating mass and " 
 though, or because, not confined in a pail," its solidification into 
 the present form of the terrestrial spheroid !" 
 
 " The dimension of the earth and time of its rotation being 
 known, it is easy thence to calculate the exact amount of the 
 
270 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 centrifugal force ... by which the sea at the equator is 
 
 lightened whilst at the poles, where no such force 
 
 exists, the water may be considered specifically heavier." Sir 
 John, 229. 
 
 Dimension and time of rotation being known, it is, no doubt, 
 easy to calculate the centrifugal force PRODUCED BY a mill or 
 water-wheel, by a barrel turned by a squirrel or other animal, or 
 by a billiard ball set in motion ; if the rotation of these and similar 
 objects PRODUCE a centrifugal force with an inner and outward 
 effort or effect, it is, as said already, because they are fixed to, or 
 moving on, or about, stationary bodies j they are not free to move 
 without the application of exterior force, or a force residing within 
 themselves as an integral part and property of their own substance ; 
 but the heavenly bodies are free to move, the moving force resides 
 within and is part and parcel of their own substance, every atom 
 partakes of the same motion uninfluenced by the centrifugal force 
 produced by the whole ; and if a centrifugal force be produced by 
 the whole, it could only affect* bodies exterior and foreign to 
 itself. 
 
 To be sure, the earth and planets WERE set in motion by a force 
 foreign to themselves, by that famous discovery, the primitive 
 impulse, and thus far the analogy between them and the wheel 
 and the rolling ball would hold good ; but then the constituents of 
 the celestial bodies gravitate to their own interior centres, and the 
 terrestrial objects DO NOT. 
 
 However, waiving this also, the theorem of Sir John still falls 
 to the ground, because he makes the heavenly bodies move in 
 EMPTY SPACE, free in every direction, so that there the centrifugal 
 force of the revolving bodies can much less influence their own 
 exterior parts or molecules, particularly when in a gaseous state, 
 than the billiard ball moving along unrestrained influences the 
 particles that form its crust. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLA.R SYSTEM. 271 
 
 Hence, the centrifugal force produced by the heavenly bodies 
 can throw up no water from their own surface, cannot LIGHTEN 
 THE SEA, not even their atmosphere, though they were moving in 
 vacant space, and of course much less in a resisting medium which, 
 as we have seen, depresses the atmosphere of our earth and 
 elongates into a tail of enormous length the hair of a comet. 
 
 It, moreover, becomes an interesting question, at what time 
 and stage of their existence that famous discovery, the primitive 
 launch, was applied to the planets when in the original form of 
 rings they were, or had been, thrown off from the sun by his 
 centrifugal force, and without the launch would have gone straight 
 into space ? when and at what stage of vaporosity or condensa- 
 tion the equatorial belt began to beige out and the poles to flatten 
 to give later so much trouble to calculators ? Laplace, who 
 found no God in his Celestial Mechanism, has failed to give us the 
 solution of his centrifugal off-shot. 
 
 Page 265 I have said, and there is nothing new in it, that 
 by the heat of the sun the water at the equator is warmed or 
 lightened to overflowing ; but according to Sir John, as we have 
 seen, it is " by the exact amount of the CENTRIFUGAL FORCE cal- 
 culated in 229, that the SEA at the equator is LIGHTENED," that 
 the water recedes from the centre of the pail ! 
 
 Why the land, or solid part of the earth, its molecules at the 
 equator, are not also mentioned as being lightened by the same 
 means, and " thereby, like the sea, rendered susceptible of being 
 supported on a higher level, or more remote from the centre of the 
 earth than at the poles " (same article), we are not told, though 
 no doubt the protuberance of the earth at the equator, the hunch- 
 back of the old theory, is meant to include both LAND and sea, 
 pail and water, and could not exist without the LIGHTENING of 
 the molecules of the one as well as the other. 
 
 The SEA BEING THUS LIGHTENED outside the pail, " the centri- 
 
272 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 fugal force produces an ellipticity in the form of the earth itself ; 
 and this VERY ELLIPTICITY OF FORM modifies its power of at- 
 traction on Jbodies placed at its surface, and thus gives rise to the 
 difference in question ( 237) " namely : that a mass of matter 
 in London, or nearer the pole still, weighing 100,000 Ibs., exerts 
 the same pressure on the ground, that 100,335 of THE SAME 
 POUNDS transported to the equator would exert there. 
 
 We have seen already that it is the polar magnetism of the 
 earth, and not the elliptic form of our globe, that causes the 
 difference ; that attraction, or gravity, does not depend upon the 
 form, not upon the size, but upon the magnetic constitution of a 
 body : I therefore need scarcely ask, which of the two is the most 
 natural explanation of the phenomenon, of one pouud weight 
 exerting more pressure, and of a pendulum making more vibrations, 
 at the poles than at the equator ? 
 
 My reasoning, moreover, will hold good, whatever be the form 
 of the earth, particularly when we consider, that that form is still 
 a problem. For, Humboldt remarks in his Cosmos, p. 159, that 
 " pendulum experiments and measurements of degrees give such 
 different results for different parts of the earth's surface, that it is 
 impossible to assign any regular figure which shall satisfy all the 
 results obtained by these methods." 
 
 However, to MAKE these methods agree, " the density of the 
 earth " according to Von Gumpach, " was arbitrarily so fixed as 
 to RECONCILE the results of pendulum observations with the 
 results of geodetic measurements of meridian degrees, with the 
 view of adapting both " the one and the other resting on a false 
 theory "to the theory of the earth's figure, SUPPOSED to be 
 flattened at the poles." 
 
 * How the lightening of the SEA at the equator can produce an ellipticity 
 in the form of the earth, I cannot conceive ; but, at any rate, the proposition 
 is quite at variance with the molecular war so beautifully described by Sir 
 John Herschel, (see p. 249.) 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 273 
 
 According to the same authority, Professor Airy is said to state 
 in positive terms : " Unless you KNOW what is the structure of 
 the INTERIOR, you cannot say what the ellipticity of the earth 
 will be." 
 
 Whether the above proceedings convey that KNOWLEDGE can be 
 no riddle. 
 
 Nevertheless, with an impudent assurance of infallibility in 
 astronomical science, see Baby Worlds, p. 2, Laplace observes, 
 with reference to certain lunar inequalities : " It is a very 
 remarkable thing, that an astronomer, without leaving his ob- 
 servatory, and simply by a comparison of his observations with 
 the result of analysis, should have been able to determine the 
 EXACT SIZE, and the EXACT AMOUNT, of the earth's polar de- 
 pression, as well as ITS DISTANCE from the sun and moon ! " 
 
 When everything respecting " masses and density" is based upon 
 error, how can truth come out of it ? As a proof look ONLY at 
 the error made in the weight of the sun and the earth, and con- 
 sequently of all the other planets with their moons, and their 
 distances from each other, as noticed p. 152, and the true value of 
 all these " VERY REMARKABLE THINGS " will be strikingly evident ; 
 and with Humboldt you will say " that it is impossible to assign 
 any regular figure (to the earth) which shall satisfy all the results 
 obtained by these methods " by the erroneous theories upon which 
 they are founded. 
 
 " Though nearly, the degrees are not precisely equal. In all 
 geographical longitudes the degrees of latitude are found to 
 increase in length in going from the equator towards the poles. 
 An increase in the length of a degree indicates a less amount of 
 curvature. The earth's surface is therefore less curved, or less 
 convex that is, flatter as we approach its poles on all sides from 
 the equator. Its form then is elliptical, or oblate, and its polar 
 diameter somewhat shorter than its equatorial." Sir John 
 
274 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 HerschePs " Celestial Measurings and Weighings :" Good Words, 
 June, 1864. 
 
 Now I would ask whether this " increase in length of a degree, 
 or less amount of curvature of the earth's surface," would not 
 equally, nay better, be obtained, by a swelling out of the polar 
 portions of the earth, by a protuberance of the poles of the earth 
 BEYOND a perfect sphere, rather than by a flattening of its poles 
 BELOW the perfect sphere ? 
 
 Besides this we must bear in mind, that the measurement of a 
 degree of the meridian has not yet been made at anything LIKE 
 NEAR the poles ; and thus we are still at liberty to take the old 
 orange, or the fresh lemon, side of the question. To myself it 
 seems more natural, more in harmony with my new theory of the 
 solar system, and more particularly corresponding with the polar- 
 magnetic character of the heavenly bodies, that the earth should 
 be of the form of a lemon, rather than of an orange. 
 
 Considering, however, that the earth is a REAL MAGNET, that 
 electricity with its attracting or magnetic property is the binding 
 element of all solid substances, and in another state also the 
 dissolving, the expanding element of matter ; that bodies upon the 
 earth in a certain electric condition as powerfully attract, as in 
 another they repel each other : it cannot be laid down as law, 
 that, according to Newton " every particle of matter attracts 
 every other particle, with a force directly proportioned to the mass 
 of the attracting particle, and inversely to the square of the distance 
 between them." 
 
 If this were true, all things created would either amalgamate 
 into one lump, or, the heavenly bodies being separately posted at 
 their different stations, but attracting each other "as every particle 
 in nature attracts the other " that attraction would keep all of 
 them in their mutual relative position, and no centrifugal force, still 
 less its outward effort, would be able to swing them off their stand. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 275 
 
 Upon this proposition, nevertheless, very ingenious experiments 
 have been made with the torsion balance to find out the degree of 
 attraction between bodies of different size and material, and thence 
 
 tO DEDUCE THE MASS OF THE EARTH. 
 
 The bodies so operated with, were isolated, and electric in- 
 fluences removed, as far as human ingenuity could do it ; but it 
 must not be forgotten, that electricity is the INHERENT CEMENT 
 of all solid substances, and that, therefore, solid bodies and 
 particles can never be deprived of it or be made perfectly neutral 
 relative to each other ; and if the latter could be done, they would 
 no longer attract each other. For this reason, though there may 
 be some remote approximation to truth in the present calculation 
 of the mass of the earth, something like calculating the weight of 
 an elephant from the weight of a fly, ANOTHER TEST must be 
 discovered before it can be calculated with certainty, and, as we 
 have seen also, another test for calculating the masses of the sun, 
 the planets and their satellites, instead of that of a mutual 
 attraction and perturbation, and of an imaginary centrifugal force 
 and swinging disposition, existing only in the artificial arrange- 
 ments of man. And in these arrangements an isolation of particles 
 and their mutual attraction bears no reference whatever to the 
 attraction and mass of the earth, since all particles, however 
 carefully electric influences may have been removed, are and^must 
 always be under the influence of the attraction of the earth itself, 
 whose mass can as little be calculated by its attraction as the mass 
 of a magnet by the weight or mass of the body which it attracts. 
 
 By means of another test, then, it will be found, that the masses 
 of the celestial bodies bear a different proportion to each other, 
 whilst those at present accepted MUST BE WRONG, being based upon 
 laws and assumptions altogether fictitious and untenable, as PROVED 
 ALSO SUFFICIENTLY by the discovery of Neptune and so many 
 
 asteroids, and in 1863 by Le Verrier himself. For, " while studying 
 
 T 2 
 
276 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 some of the phenomena of gravitation, he found certain difficulties 
 which he could explain only on the SUPPOSITION, that the sun is 
 not so heavy by one-tenth as has been estimated, or that the earth 
 is one-tenth heavier. His own opinion^was in favor of the latter 
 conclusion." 
 
 This startling shift CANNOT BE TRUE EITHER, for, NOTHING CAN 
 
 BE TRUE THAT IS BASED UPON THE ABSURD THEORY OF UNIVERSAL 
 
 GRAVITATION. I cannot see, moreover, why THE SAME PROPORTION 
 of one-tenth more or less for sun or earth should apply to two 
 bodies, not only not eqnal, but so vastly different from each other 
 in size and weight. Supposing, however, M. Le Verrier's inference 
 and estimate to be true : what then again becomes of the hitherto 
 adopted masses of the moon and of ALL THE OTHER HEAVENLY 
 BODIES ; their own proper and their common centres of gravitation, 
 their distances and even their sizes, when, in the words of Sir John 
 Herschel, "the FIRST STEP towards ascertaining the real size of the 
 sun is to determine its distance," and that this distance hitherto has 
 been wrong ? what becomes of the theorems and experiments spoken 
 of before, and of all the calculations with which astronomical 
 works are crowded; of the 13,500, 000,000,000,000,000,000,0001b. 
 for instance, which Dr. Miidler found the earth to be weighing 
 when he put her into the scale at Dorpat ? Bewildering thoughts 
 these for the mathematician ! 
 
 
 
 We have seen before that " universal gravitation " is a delusion ; 
 that APART from this delusion the BASES upon which the masses of 
 the heavenly bodies are and have been calculated have no founda- 
 tion whatever, and that THEREFORE these masses, with all the 
 influences they are said to exercise, MUST BE incorrect. We have 
 seen that, if these bases WERE correct, and that the law of uni- 
 versal gravitation WERE true, the masses of the heavenly bodies 
 ALREADY KNOWN, could NEVERTHELESS NOT BE ascertained by 
 calculation, on account of those BTILL UNKNOWN, and that the 
 
THE NEW THEOEY OF THE SOLAK SYSTEM. 277 
 
 masses of these unknown bodies could still less be calculated, as 
 we know nothing about their number, position and orbits ; except 
 ALL the planets of our system, together with each one of their 
 satellites, HAD BEEN DISCOVERED, neither universal gravitation nor 
 the calculation of masses could be tested. The present mode of 
 proceeding is something like a mathematician trying to find out 
 the weight and ages of children standing before him without 
 putting them into the scale, and without evidence as to their time 
 of birth, and pretending thereby to calculate correctly the weight 
 and ages of their distant unseen and unknown parents. 
 
 But WE HAVE SEEN the discovery of planets, and moons, and 
 asteroids, AFTER the heavenly bodies previously known HAD been 
 weighed in the scale of universal gravitation, and the discovery found 
 them wanting. From the many corrections made by astronomers, 
 and by the preceding evidence of Le Verrier himself, WE HAVE SEEN, 
 and we DO SEE AS A MATTER OF FACT, that all the calculations made 
 respecting the masses of the celestial bodies ARE, AND MUST BE, 
 failures ; that, according to the latest edition of Hind's Introduction, 
 p. 93, irrespective of the NEW WEIGHT of the sun and the earth, 
 the mass of Mars is not exactly known, and, p. 95, not even the 
 sizes of the minor planets, and what is more, the size of the sun, 
 as seen at previous page ; that therefore, starting from the same 
 wrong elements, and, of course, arriving at nearly one and the 
 same erroneous result, both the calculations of this eminent 
 astronomer and of Adams, respecting their PRESUMED disturber of 
 Uranus CANNOT HAVE BEEN TRUE ; that, in further proof thereof, 
 the CALCULATED body when looked for, was from two to nearly 
 three times larger, its weight, according to Von Gumpach, " some 
 quadrillions of pounds AVOIRDUPOIS " greater than Neptune, 
 which, in its far inferior orbit and course round the sun, happened 
 at the time to pass in the neighbourhood of the line of observation ; 
 that, as an additional proof, the CALCULATED distance and orbit of 
 
278 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 the STILL UNDISCOVERED perturbator exceed by 500,000,000 miles 
 the actual distance, and by 50 years the actual orbit, of the 
 interloper saving future corrections ; that if the CALCULATED 
 distance of the supposed planet had been nearer the mark, nay, if 
 by a u singular coincidence" its distance and whereabouts had been 
 calculated to the VERY SPOT where Neptune was found at the time, 
 the calculation, notwithstanding, would HAVE BEEN ABSOLUTELY 
 ILLUSIVE, its result a happy chance, being based upon a distance 
 between the earth and the sun, and upon their relative weight, 
 mass, and attraction, now ACKNOWLEDGED TO BE FALSE, and 
 falsehood begets no truth ; that, as further evidence of a great 
 error " the eccentricity of Neptune is only ONE- TWELFTH of that 
 of the theoretical planet ; its longitude of perihelion, in 1847, 
 47 instead of 285 or 299." Von Gumpach. 
 
 We see, moreover, on account of the fallacy of the theory of 
 masses, that the alleged perturbations or anomalies in the motion 
 of Uranus which gave rise to the supposition of an ulterior planet 
 and the calculation of his bodily constitution and place in the 
 heavens, are quite unfounded, and neither exist nor ever existed, 
 and that, therefore, the old planet COULD NEVER have been troubled 
 by the new one, no more than by the one still non-existing. Besides 
 this, though totally independent of the above, Neptune was twice 
 observed in the year 1795 by Lalande, a French astronomer, and 
 by others in 1846, all of whom mistook it for a fixed star before 
 Galle, following the direction of Le Verrier, discovered it as a planet 
 on the 2 3rd September, 1846, in the PROXIMITY of the place indicated 
 by that astronomer, only that, as we have seen, it was 500,000,000 
 miles lower in the heavens, nearer home, than expected. 
 
 Thus, the CALCULATED, or THEORETICAL, planet NOT having 
 been found as yet, and Neptune neither answering in distance, 
 orbit, mass, or motion, the body that was looked for, though he 
 is claimed as the captive stranger and paraded in triumph as the 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 279 
 
 climax of astronomical achievement, it follows therefrom and the 
 reasons advanced before : that the discovery of Neptune, instead 
 of another planet described and predicted, was a pure accident, 
 lying in wait for the king and catching a tartar, shooting at an 
 eagle and hitting a sparrow, as MOST CLEARLY AND STRIKINGLY 
 exposed and developed in Baby Worlds of Von Gumpach ; that 
 its very discovery, more damaging than the prediction of weather, 
 reveals the hollowness of certain astronomical pretensions, 
 however great the talent displayed ; and that consequently all 
 present calculations respecting the masses of the heavenly bodies, 
 whether known or unknown, are as yet nothing but love's labour 
 lost. 
 
 Astronomers, therefore, will do well to strike out from their 
 works EVERY CHAPTER AND VERSE relating to the weight, masses 
 and densities of the celestial bodies, particularly when they consider, 
 that the solar atmosphere will bear aloft the lightest as well as the 
 most solid and gigantic nucleus, provided its being clothed by God 
 in the corresponding envelope of an elastic, light and heat-con- 
 centrating and reflecting atmosphere, in the transparent lens of 
 hydrogen, throwing blessings upon the body it encloses. 
 
 We know that in the building of an edifice the material and 
 masses become lighter as it rises from the foundation, from the 
 most solid part of the whole. 
 
 It is the same with the earth from its centre to the end of its 
 sphere, and so it is the same with the dome of the solar system, 
 rising from the inner foundation of our magnificent luminary to 
 its vanishing limits, bearing aloft in rising scale and proportion 
 the heralds of its wonderful structure, and, mildly shining among 
 them, the abode still of the man-made Creator Himself. Hence it 
 is but reasonable, and conformable to analogy, to suppose, without 
 requiring further proof, that the body of the sun cannot be less 
 dense than the body of the earth, or any other planet, but that the 
 
280 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 centre. of our brilliant system should not only in size, but also 
 in weight, in solidity of construction, in intrinsic power, and, as 
 it were, animation, surpass the smaller bodies which he feeds 
 and warms, and be fit to bear upon his shoulders, and carry 
 round with ease, a stupendous solar world, the evidence of Divine 
 power and wisdom, in the conception and simplicity of the creation. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 COMMON CENTRE OF GRAVITY OF TWO HEAVENLY BODIES ; SIR JOHN 
 HERSCHEL'S MARVELLOUS ELUCIDATION. REVOLUTION OF TWO 
 STARS ROUND EACH OTHER; THE BINARY SYSTEM. SIRIUS, AND 
 OTHER SUNS, MOVING ROUND A DARK BODY AS THEIR CENTRE OF 
 GRAVITY. FIXED STARS IN LIFE, ASTRONOMY AND GEOLOGY. 
 RETROGRADING MINDS AND THEORIES IN SCIENCE. REVELATION 
 
 BORNE OUT BY TRUE SCIENCE. DR. M^EDLER AND THE CENTRE OF 
 GRAVITY OF THE UNIVERSE. IMPORTANCE OF ACCURATE OBSERVA- 
 TIONS. THE THEORY OF NEWTON A LABYRINTH OF ERRORS. 
 
 CONNECTED with the masses of bodies is the theory of their 
 motion round a common centre of gravity. 
 
 That the calculation of this common centre of gravity must be 
 wrong if that of the masses of bodies be incorrect, and vice versa, is 
 evident ; but if even these masses were correctly calculated to the 
 ounce, the theory of a common centre of gravity between the 
 heavenly bodies would be a fiction nevertheless, as will be seen 
 very clearly. 
 
 " If we connect two solid masses by a rod, and fling them aloft, 
 we see them circulate about a point between them, which is their 
 common centre of gravity ; but if one of them be greatly more 
 ponderous than the other, this common centre will be proportionally 
 nearer to that one, and even within its surface ; so that the smaller 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 281 
 
 one will circulate, in fact, about the larger, which will be com- 
 paratively but little disturbed from its place." (359, Sir J. H.'s 
 Outlines). 
 
 Applied to " the earth and moon, while in 
 
 the act of revolving, monthly, in their mutual orbits about their 
 
 common centre of gravity, We may conceive this 
 
 motion by connecting two unequal balls by a stick, which at their 
 centre of gravity, is tied by a long string, and whirled round. 
 Their joint SYSTEM will circulate as one body about the common 
 centre to which the string is attached, while yet they may go on 
 circulating round each other in subordinate gyrations, as if the 
 stick were quite free from any such tie, and merely hurled through 
 the air," ( 452.) 
 
 "Admitting, then, in conformity with the laws of dynamics, 
 that two bodies connected with and revolving about each other 
 in free space do, in fact, revolve about their common centre of 
 gravity, which remains immovable by their mutual action, it 
 becomes a matter of further enquiry, WHEREABOUTS between them 
 this centre is situated. Mechanics teach us that its place will 
 divide their mutual distance in the inverse ratio of their WEIGHTS 
 or MASSES ; and calculations grounded on phenomena, of which an 
 account will be given further on, inform us that this ratio, in the 
 case of the sun and earth, is actually that of 354,936 to 1, the 
 sun being in that proportion, more ponderous than the earth. 
 From this it will follow that the common point about which 
 they both circulate is only 267 miles from the sun's centre, or 
 about l-3000th part of its own diameter." ( 340). 
 
 Error in science, as well as in religion, being as infinite in its 
 variety as truth is infinite in its simplicity, it would require volumes 
 to expose the contradictions of the old theory of the solar system, 
 and pages after pages to dissect all the fallacies in the foregoing 
 extracts from Sir John Herschel's Outlines. The necessity of only 
 
282 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 noticing the most flagrant errors and anomalies on a limited scale 
 is already a great drawback to the simplicity of the " Simplicity 
 of the Creation," and therefore I have tried, and will do so still, 
 to be as brief as possible in my refutations. 
 
 That, as yet, we have no test of calculating masses, I have shown 
 before,and we have seen also how Le Verrier and other astronomers 
 themselves have lately put in their own personal evidence to that 
 effect, and thereby, without intention, no doubt, nullified all 
 their previous labours. 
 
 When we come to calculate to a nicety the mass of a balloon 
 floating above us, we may perhaps find out a means of calculating 
 also the mass of the moon ; and if we can ascertain and calculate 
 the density of the solar atmosphere, its pressure upon the sun, 
 and knowing distance, dimension, and envelope, we may find 
 out the weight of the heavenly bodies revolving within the solar 
 system ; for, the atmospheres themselves of sun and planets are 
 balances, in the scale of which inflated or expanded bodies rise or 
 sink according to their weight and volume. 
 
 Supposing the masses of the heavenly bodies to be truly found, 
 we know, that they are not, two-and-two, tied together, or united 
 by a stick ; that there is no one, no kindly force, to hold the 
 stick or the balance ; that there is nothing imaginable to form, or 
 fix upon, a fulcrum, to establish a real tangible centre or point of 
 gravity, as is done by the human hand in the case of the balls 
 united by, or by means of the string tied to, a stick. There- 
 fore, the point, or centre of gravity, between the two heavenly 
 bodies is simply simulated or fictitious. 
 
 When we see the minute-hand of a clock counterbalanced by a 
 weight, the minute-hand, for all that, forms but one body with its 
 balance, whatever may be fixed or attached to either of the 
 extremities. This one body turns round an axis, round a centre, 
 as do the spokes of a wheel ; this axis is something tangible, 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 283 
 
 something intelligible, held and moved by a tangible means ; and 
 is in fact the axis, the centre, that turns the hand, whether that 
 axis, common centre, or fulcrum, be central or ex-central, nearer 
 to one end of the hand or nearer to the other; " the joint SYSTEM 
 will circulate (revolve) as one body about the common centre," but 
 the two ends will NOT, as it is said they do, " circulate round each 
 other insubordinate gyrations," nor will " the smaller end (or mass) 
 circulate about the larger," but both will REMAIN IN THEIR RELA- 
 TIVE POSITIONS. If the pointing end of the minute-hand were to 
 circulate about the balance-end, it must needs get to the opposite 
 side of it, which, I think, would be rather strange if it did ; or, if 
 the earth and moon were " circulating round each other," the earth, 
 too, should some time or other get to the other side of the moon, 
 which, not being the case, there can, of course, be no question 
 either of their " circulating round each other." 
 
 If the circulation round each other, and their motion about a 
 common centre of gravity were true, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and 
 most likely Neptune, would be placed in most awkward positions. 
 
 These planets having a plurality of moons, there would be also 
 a plurality of " common centres of gravity," a different common 
 centre between the planet and each one of its moons, and different 
 centres between moon and moon, and moons and moons ; but how 
 the planet would manage to move round each one of these several 
 centres of gravity, besides turning on its own axis ; and how 
 moons about planet and moons about moons would contrive to 
 " circulate round each other in subordinate gyrations ; " or how 
 the JOINT SYSTEM of moons and planet could and would circulate 
 round a mutual ONE common centre of gravity, I must leave to 
 more learned men than myself to unravel ; it is an astronomical 
 article of faith beyond anything ever proposed to our belief in 
 revelation. 
 
 The same difficulty would apply to the sun. 
 
284 THE NEW THEOEY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 Between the sun and each one of the planets, according to the 
 old theory, there is a different " common centre of gravity ;" each 
 centre " IMMOVABLE by their mutual action," and THEREFORE 
 SHIFTING as each planet progresses in its course round the sun. 
 Now if " both the SUN AND EARTH circulate about the common 
 point, which is only 267 miles from the sun's centre," how is the 
 circulation to go on, " about the other immovable yet shifting 
 common points of gravity " between the sun and each one of all 
 the other planets ? 
 
 And if " every particle (or body) of matter in the universe 
 attracts every other particle (or body) etc.," there must be then a 
 common centre of gravity between planet and planet in every 
 fathomable direction ; and what a wonderful " circulation about 
 common centres of gravity, AND ABOUT EACH OTHER in subordi- 
 nate and I suppose insubordinate gyrations," should we not 
 have ? 
 
 If, moreover, " the earth and planets be retained in their orbits 
 about the sun by SOLAR ATTRACTION " emanating from the SOLAR 
 CENTRE ; and " if gravity, or the attraction of the earth and 
 planets " emanating from their CENTRES, " be the force which retains 
 the moons in their orbits ; " and if this gravity, this attraction of 
 the primaries, is counteracted by the centrifugal force said to 
 emanate at the same time from these very primaries, in order to 
 prevent the moons and planets falling down upon them : what 
 then, is the use, and what becomes, of the EX-CENTRAL COMMON 
 CENTRES of gravity alleged to exist somewhere between these 
 primaries and their secondaries, and about which all of them and 
 all about each other are said to move and circulate ? Was there 
 ever a more eccentric theory ? 
 
 Besides this, in the words of Sir John Herschcl, Outlines, 841, 
 there still " exist sideral systems, composed of two stars revolving 
 ABOUT EACH OTHER in REGULAR ORBITS, and constituting what 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 285 
 
 may be termed BINARY STARS, to distinguish them from double stars 
 
 generally so-called, ; " they, 840, " describe 
 
 orbits round each other, and around their common centre of 
 gravity." " But it is not," 847, " with the revolutions of bodies 
 of a planetary or cometary nature round a solar centre that we are 
 concerned ; it is with that of sun round sun each, perhaps, at 
 least in some binary systems where the individuals are very 
 remote, and their period of revolution very long, accompanied with 
 its train of planets and THEIR satellites, closely shrouded from 
 our view by the splendour of their respective suns, and crowded 
 into a space bearing hardly a greater proportion to the enormous 
 interval which separates them, than the distances of the satellites 
 of our planets from their primaries bear to their distances from 
 the sun itself." " No doubt can therefore, remain as to the preva- 
 lence in this remote (binary) system of the Newtonian law of 
 gravitation." 864. " We have the same evidence, indeed, of 
 their rotation ABOUT EACH OTHER, that we have of those of 
 Uranus and Neptune about the sun," 846. 
 
 Now after what we have seen before of eccentric centres of 
 gravitation, very few, if any, of my readers, will be inclined to 
 accept the preceding allegations of Sir John Herschel : that the 
 Newtonian law of gravitation, which altogether fails in our own 
 solar system, should prevail in systems so remote, that their 
 distance cannot be measured, not even fairly guessed ; and that 
 two suns should revolve round EACH OTHER, round a common 
 centre of gravity, and that this common centre of gravity, according 
 to Madler, who has " signalized himself in this line of enquiry," 
 should be IMMATERIAL, and in IMMATERIAL VACANT SPACE ; that, in 
 the words of Humboldt, Cosmos p, 81, " two or more self-luminous 
 bodies do, indeed, revolve around a common centre of gravity ; " 
 that " this centre of gravity falls in a space, occupied, possibly, 
 only by unagglomerated matter, i. e. cosmical vapour, whilst in our 
 
286 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 system, the centre of gravity is included WITHIN THE SURFACE of 
 a visible central body ; " and that, p. 134, " our sun REVOLVES 
 
 AROUND THE COMMON CENTRE OF GRAVITY OF THE WHOLE SYSTEM, 
 
 which centre, in consequence of the varying position of the planets, 
 falls sometimes WITHIN and sometimes WITHOUT the body of the 
 sun itself." How the sun gets round this imaginary centre 
 Humboldt does not tell us. 
 
 The law of " universal gravitation " would keep systems, suns, 
 planets, satellites, and comets, immovably fixed in their respective 
 positions like one universal still-standing machine, if this " uni- 
 versal gravitation " were not, happily, counteracted and equally 
 matched by centrifugal force, and heavenly systems and bodies, 
 fortunately, not set in motion by an ever-acting, everlasting, primi- 
 tive impulse, and sundry other forces, acting upon and counter- 
 acting each other. Hence all the confusion and uncertainty of 
 the theory of universal gravitation. 
 
 The unfathomable ball of creation, by God gently wafted through 
 eternity, holding within its vast expanse worlds and systems in 
 numbers beyond the reach even of the utmost stretch of our 
 imagination, yet all are harmoniously distributed within the sphere 
 of the universe, all have assigned to them their proper place of 
 permanency and motion ; and the intermediate space between the 
 larger systems is taken up by minor constellations innumerable, 
 yet all so beautifully arranged, that by a divine provision of 
 universal systemal repulsion, each one pursues its destined course 
 and follows the laws laid down by its Creator, uninterfered with 
 by one another, the greater systems neither pressing upon nor 
 absorbing the lesser ones, nor the lesser ones stepping beyond their 
 limits to obstruct the path of the greater systems, yet all held by 
 one common electrical sphere in which they are poised, and, how- 
 ever grand or diminutive, minutely balanced. 
 
 It is possible, perhaps probable, as I have said before, that all 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 287 
 
 the systems of the universe gravitate to one common centre ; and 
 if this be so, that this common centre of gravity is our own solar 
 system. But it is, perhaps, still more likely, that our own solar 
 system is simply the centre of created worlds, without being their 
 centre of gravitation, in as much as with an universal systemal 
 repulsion, no universal gravitation can co-exist, no gravitation to 
 a common centre, no gravitation of system towards system is 
 required, though their polarization may effect each other. This 
 polarization and mutual repulsion, this keeping apart, does not, 
 however, affect the interior order and arrangements of the indi- 
 vidual systems, whether revolving round a central sun simply as 
 their centre, or as their centre of gravitation ; none encroaches 
 upon, nor interferes with, the other. 
 
 Therefore, as our solar system unchangingly performs its func- 
 tions, in its INTERNAL ORGANIZATION uninfluenced by any other 
 system, so every other system similarly and independent of every 
 other, carries out the work and object of its own constitution. 
 
 Without a tangible centre no system can exist, as witnessed even 
 upon earth, whether religious, political, or social ; and two systems, 
 or more, can still less act in harmony for one common purpose, 
 without a real tangible centre keeping them linked together in the 
 bond of unity. 
 
 It is the same in the binary system of the fixed stars, where sun 
 is said to revolve about sun, both revolving round each other. 
 For, as we have seen before, they have, or at least are said to have, 
 no common tangible centre, and their revolving about each other 
 is a physical impossibility. 
 
 That this should be so, at first gave me a little trouble when I 
 began the experiment of turning my forefingers round each other ; 
 it seemed so beautifully to illustrate " two mighty stars " revolving 
 about each other. On reflection, however, I found this turning 
 about each other to be a simple delusion, something like the moon 
 
283 
 
 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 turning round her own axis, that it existed only in appearance, 
 chiefly caused by both fingers preserving their parallelism whilst 
 moving. 
 
 Let us illustrate it in the case of a binary system, confined within 
 a certain space of the heavens, and completely filling the same 
 when moving in a circle. Let the following figure be the space 
 occupied by the two suns a and b with their systems ; between 
 N. and s. they are side by side ; pursuing 
 their proper course with equal velocity, a 
 will arrive at B., whilst b arrives at w. ; and 
 E so on it will be found that both systems 
 preserve their relative position, that both 
 move in the same path and circle and 
 FOLLOW EACH OTHER, and that consequently 
 
 a never gets round Z>, and b never round a ; and if their 
 velocities were unequal, the one would run into the other, but they 
 would never course ABOUT EACH OTHER. 
 
 Illustrate it by separating a and b to whatever distance from 
 the centre of their sphere, and the result will precisely be the 
 same. 
 
 Let our next figure be the space assigned to the two systems, a 
 
 and b placed opppsite each other and 
 within the skirt of their sphere; 
 follow the same test and reasoning 
 as before, and you will again find 
 .the physical impossibility of their 
 revolving ABOUT EACH OTHER. They 
 revolve round a common centre, to 
 be sure ; but this common centre is 
 arbitrary, not real, not tangible, 
 therefore, only an imaginary point 
 nowhere to be fixed, and consequently neither fulcrum nor centre 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 289 
 
 of gravity ; the confines of their spheres, or envelopes, simply 
 touch each other as in the previous figure. 
 
 Moreover, being SUNS, each one having its own photosphere 
 they MUST repel each other, they CANNOT gravitate towards each 
 other,' though both MAY gravitate to some real centre of 1 the 
 universe. 
 
 If b were to describe a smaller circle within the circle of a, 
 whatever their velocity of motion, it would be proof of a circu- 
 lating round 6, not only as its centre, but also as its centre of 
 gravitation. And this, always supposing observations to be 
 correct, and taking " circulation round each other " to be but a 
 misapplied expression no doubt is the case in what are called 
 binary systems, and what takes place also with the so-called double 
 stars, in systems where three or four SUNS SEEM to move round a 
 common centre of gravity, and which centre is considered to be an 
 opaque, a dark, non-shining, central body, towards which the 
 shining stars are gravitating. This last assumption, however, is 
 in the highest degree improbable, though not impossible. 
 
 A shining body, like our own luminary, by its radiating heat, 
 causes the dilatation and expansion of its own atmosphere, and 
 bodies 1 like our earth and the other planets, gravitating to the 
 centre of the sun, are thus repelled, as it were, to that distance 
 from the sun himself, where in the tension of the solar atmo- 
 sphere they find their level and therein course around the sun by 
 a truly natural process as further back has been described. 
 
 If our central body were dark, non-luminous, and particularly 
 without radiating heat : all resistance to the gravitation of the 
 planets would be removed, the atmosphere of the sun would 
 collapse, and they would inevitably fall upon him. If, on the 
 other hand, in their present respective proportions and it has 
 been surmised that Sirius, and other suns, are moving round dark 
 bodies by which they are far surpassed in bulk and mass the 
 
290 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 planets were shining in their own radiating light and heat, they 
 would recede, push back, from their dark central body, towards 
 which they COULD NOT be attracted, towards which, at least, they 
 COULD NOT GRAVITATE, the condition of gravitation being removed. 
 The planets, self-luminous, would, in fact, be suns, and as such 
 maintain their respective positions in the universe, independent 
 of their present attracting central body ; and instead of gravi- 
 tating to him, the sun and planets would MUTUALLY repel each 
 other, and the latter would no longer follow in the track of the 
 former, they would cease to belong to the solar sphere or system. 
 
 Nevertheless, as I have said before, it is possible still, that in 
 other systems of the heavens God may have reversed the organ- 
 ization which exists in our own, and that in these other systems 
 the central body, the centre of gravitation should be dark and yet 
 carry within its atmosphere, not planets like our own, but planets 
 shining in their own light and even surpassing our own sun in 
 brightness, splendour and size, and throwing light, though by us 
 unseen, upon the body round which they circulate, and from which, 
 being suns, they can have no light or heat in return, unless it be 
 electricity to feed their photospheres. 
 
 Whether, in this case, the dark central body would be suspended 
 and move within an electric helix like self-luminous orbs and 
 centres of systems ? Whether it would revolve on its own axis by 
 its own interior and atmospheric exterior organization, without a 
 photosphere? or whether the planetary suns coursing around it 
 would influence its interior life and cause a rotation on its own 
 axis I Whether the presumed central body can gravitate to its 
 solar satellites ? Whether between these solar satellites and their 
 dark common centre of gravity, there exist other common centres 
 of gravity the same as between Jupiter and each one of his 
 moons are said to exist round which mutually they are moving ? 
 And whether these common centres of gravity are eccentric like 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 291 
 
 the one round which the earth and the moon are calculated to 
 revolve ? Whether these planetary suns to a dark central body, 
 by the very nature of their constitution, are not independent 
 systems ? And if these splendid luminaries do throw their light 
 upon their presumed common centre : should not its darkness 
 disappear and give us, the same as with the unassisted eye we 
 see the distinct outline of the body of the moon a little before 
 and a little after NEW moon, in outline at least, a glimpse of the 
 colossal globe that is said to bear two, three, four, if not more, 
 suns with their systems on his shoulders ? 
 
 These and other difficulties connected with the theory of suns 
 circulating round a dark central body, like most other facts 
 assumed in astronomy, cannot be reconciled with, nor explained 
 by, the theory of universal gravitation. However, the assumption 
 MAY be true, though I do not think it likely, scarcely more so 
 than that suns and systems should circulate round an imaginary 
 immaterial common centre, whether in vacant space or lying 
 within unagglomerated matter, '. e., cosmical vapour. 
 
 As to the masses of these distant bodies it would be waste of 
 time to speak of them in the present state of astronomical science, 
 when, as we have seen, the masses of our own sun, earth, and moon, 
 are still unknown, whatever some astronomers may maintain to 
 the contrary, and when on more important questions and calcu- 
 lations leading authorities are by no means agreed, though 
 they may hold general views and some special articles in 
 common. 
 
 Before gaslight illuminated the habitations of man, and oil 
 and tallow in their humble capacities still everywhere had un- 
 disputed sway over darkness, a private in the army one day asked 
 one of his betters the diiference between a fixed star and a planet. 
 The superior replied, that the difference consisted in the fixed star 
 
 shining in his own light, but the planet in the light he got from 
 
 U 2 
 
292 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 the star. Then I am sure to be a planet, said the soldier, for I 
 always get my light from the master of the barrack. 
 
 As thus there are thousands still in the military world receiving 
 their light from the heads of barracks, that great landmark of 
 TRUE CIVILISATION, " gas," not having penetrated everywhere 
 so there are thousands of civilian planets receiving their light 
 from self-shining masters of more elevated masonry ; and as a few 
 only of the fixed stars of the heavens outshine, as it were, those 
 of second and more subordinate magnitudes : so but a few of the 
 fixed stars of the astronomical sphere here below shine over the 
 lesser lights who crowd around them ; but all of them oscillate 
 and scintillate and flicker, and differ in their spectra ; yet, wifh all 
 that, there is an apparent unity, with its imposing mathematical 
 mystery covering the incongruity and moth-holes of their creed, 
 imperceptible to the multitude of planets having no light of their 
 own. 
 
 Hence, all this seeming unanimity about the theory of Newton 
 has no reality in fact, the borrowed light of astronomical planets 
 reverts to but a few glittering luminaries, to a certain number of 
 self-shining dominating lights, all differing except in name ; there 
 is no unmistakeable sun in which they centre, and thus all is 
 uncertain, their elements ever varying, their calculations always 
 at fault ; there are long sights and short sights, there are broad 
 views and narrow views, high ones and low ones, according to the 
 stand point and lens of the observer. 
 
 Therefore, no sensible man would pin his faith to such fallible 
 guides, put himself into the relationship of the planet to the star 
 of the barrack, though he admire their light and their talents, and 
 pay deference to their learning and observatory eminence. 
 
 In geology it is the same as in astronomy, only that in this 
 branch of science there is still more diversity, uncertainty and 
 speculation. The different schools hold different theories, but 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAJR SYSTEM. 293 
 
 amongst these, almost every independent enquirer, with thought 
 and a mind of his own, entertains different views and deductions ; 
 a good many are agreed only when there is anything seemingly 
 to tell against revelation and the account of the creation given by 
 Moses. Nevertheless, these ultras of the science follow but a few 
 prominent leaders, wanting no God, no virtue, no sin, no re- 
 demption, looking upon beasts as their kindred and venerable 
 companions ; and in this ignoble fraternity having lost the dignity 
 of man, they also lost his prerogative, common sense. 
 
 Geological Don Quixotes, they hope with a fossil bone to break 
 up creation, with a piece of old broken earthenware to scratch 
 out the history of mankind and tear up in bits the sacred writings ; 
 with a pointed boulder of flint to put aside Moses and the Prophets 
 and the Martyr-testimony of the Church ; with the spear of a 
 savage to sink the ark of Noah and overthrow the tower of Sion ; 
 with a handful of sand taken from the pit of their cranium to 
 blind all the nations of the earth, their gorilla brothers included ; 
 and yet these pretended men " call upon our credulity to give 
 them credit for learning ; and upon our faith in science to prefer 
 their geological crotchets to universally-established historical 
 facts." 
 
 Is there nothing simple to recall the remembrance of these 
 philosophers to future ages ? Dr. Scheuchzer, a Swiss naturalist, 
 took a fossil skeleton found near the lake of Constanz to be the 
 remains of a man, calling it " homo diluvii testis." It turned out, 
 however, that this " homo diluvii testis " was nothing but the 
 skeleton of a salamander, of which a living specimen may be seen 
 at the Zoological gardens, Regent's Park, London, and which 
 ever since, in commemoration, bears the name of "Andrias 
 Scheuchzeri." 
 
 Upon foundations, such as these, the whole history of man, with 
 all that is dear to him, with his hope in eternal life, is to be thrown 
 
294 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 overboard ! Where then is the presumptuous folly, and where is 
 common sense ? Where is the illusion, where the naked fact ? 
 Where the retrogradation to animalism, where the progress to the 
 life of angels ? Where the vulgar and narrow mind, and where 
 the glowing soul expanding beyond the limits of nature into the 
 regions of a happy eternity ? Oh, for the difference ! to lean on 
 the ape, and to lean on a Heavenly Father ! 
 
 To dwell any longer on such DEBASING ABSURDITIES as taught 
 by Lyell, Huxley, Darwin, & Co. would be an insult to the natural 
 perception and understanding of the reader. However, LEARNED 
 men are not wanting either who, on SCIENTIFIC grounds, inch by 
 inch cut away the plank of infidelity, vindicate the high position 
 of man in creation, the sacred character and truth of Holy Writ, 
 and palpably reconcile with it the discoveries made in every 
 science. The most eminent work on the subject I have met 
 with is that of Bibel und Natur by Dr. Reusch, Professor of 
 Theology, in Bonn, published by Herder, in Freiburg, Baden. 
 
 Revelation and true faith can never he affected by true science, 
 and no science can be held as true if it bear not the test of 
 revealed religion and the sacred writings truly interpreted. 
 
 As then, without regard to this test even, there is no end of 
 differences in matters of science, save the science of the saints, so 
 there can as yet be no science as an ESTABLISHED TRUTH except 
 in -minor points ; and this will be found to be the case the more 
 every branch be sifted. In geology man is lost at a few fathoms 
 deep in the earth, scarcely knowing the surface he treads on ; in 
 astronomy he is erring about In the distance, not knowing as yet 
 the bright sun and moon shining upon him, launching out into the 
 deep without catching any fry near the shore. 
 
 Thus Dr. Madler loses himself in space without knowing the 
 weight or interior of the body that bears him ; calculates the path 
 and direction of the sun, not knowing the path of comet or 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 295 
 
 meteor, or the correct orbit of earth and moon ; calculates the 
 centre of gravity of our solar system and of the WHOLE UNIVERSE 
 to lie somewhere in vacant space in the group of the Pleiades, 
 if not in its principal star Alcyone, yet not knowing the centre 
 of gravity of our own globe and satellite. In this instance 
 the Doctor alone is the pointer, all are to follow ; but the 
 differences of scientific men before spoken of are here manifest 
 also, for, Sir John Herschel affirms, that the Pleiades seem to 
 him rather an eccentric point of gravity for our solar system and 
 the universe. 
 
 How then can we have faith in present astronomical pro- 
 positions and dicta, when doctors differ, and when in the highest 
 of the secular sciences, eccentric common centres of gravity, as 
 between the earth and the moon, and the sun and the earth and 
 the planets, and between each other, are taught and believed in ? 
 and when in the calculation of distances, seemingly the most 
 simple of all astronomical problems, they are so seriously at fault, 
 and when, upon their own showing, their observations even 
 cannot be relied upon, as seen already in treating of comets ? 
 
 Hind, in his Introduction to Astronomy, p. 34, says : "ACCURATE 
 
 OBSERVATIONS have PROVED that the mean distance 
 
 between the Earth and the Sun exceeds 95,370,000 miles." 
 
 "It is of the HIGHEST IMPORTANCE in astronomy that this 
 number should be exactly known, because it is used in calculations 
 AS A SCALE by which to estimate planetary distances ; and if WE 
 
 HAVE NOT THE ACCURATE DISTANCE OF OUR OWN GLOBE FROM THE 
 
 SUN, we cannot find that of any other planet with precision." 
 
 Pray, then, remember the lucky finding of Neptune, and also 
 consider what becomes of these ACCURATE OBSERVATIONS, and of 
 Kepler's third law applied to them, and what of the distances of 
 ALL OUR PLANETS, if, in the same year in which the above of the 
 " HIGHEST IMPORTANCE " was written, it is found, that the distance 
 
296 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAK SYSTEM. 
 
 between the earth and the sun is only 3,000,000 of miles less 
 than hitherto PROVED ! what of the fact (Introduction, p. 212) 
 that " it is from the observations of the transits of Venus which 
 happened in the years 1761 and 1769, that astronomers have fixed 
 the received distance of the Sun from the Earth ! " what of the 
 result of Sir John Herschel's proposition that " the first step 
 towards ascertaining the real size of the sun is to determine its 
 distance ? " What becomes of universal gravitation if in the 
 " Celestial Measurings and Weighings " of Sir John, in Good 
 Words, of June, '64, we read that " there is reason to believe too 
 that the distance of the moon" THOUGH (our knowledge of which 
 does not assume that of the sun as known) " has been somewhat 
 MIS-ESTIMATED," not MIS-CALCULATED, " and that an alteration" 
 (though not nearly to so great a proportional extent as the error 
 in the distance of the sun), " bringing our NEAREST CELESTIAL 
 NEIGHBOUR into somewhat closer proximity than heretofore 
 SUPPOSED, is required." 
 
 This, then, is the result of universal gravitation, that as yet WE 
 
 DO NOT KNOW THE MASS AND DISTANCE OP OUR NEAREST 
 
 NEIGHBOUR ! The calculation of the tides then also wrong ? The 
 moon draws ten feet and the sun two feet ! 
 
 In a fair notice of my first edition in the Athenaeum I have 
 been told that I did not seem to understand the theory which I 
 assailed, and have confessed already in my Concise View that 
 I do not do so, because it CANNOT BE UNDERSTOOD. 
 
 In this respect I stand much in the same position to universal 
 gravitation as the two Papal gendarmes to the Dean of Canterbury. 
 They did not understand him ; in his letter " From Rome " he is 
 wroth at the poor fellows for their ignorance; but, good innocent man, 
 it never struck him that they took his Italian for broken English !* 
 
 * They, perhaps, took him for the Dean of Canterbury ? However, he 
 does not seem to know LATIN either, or ever to have read, the Litany of the 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 297 
 
 Such is to ME the SINGULAR MODE OF ACTION OF UNIVERSAL 
 
 GRAVITATION. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION A VICIOUS CIRCLE. ELLLIPTIC ORBITS. 
 GREATER AND LESSER DISTANCE OF THE SUN AND MOON FROM THE 
 EARTH. PATH AND PASSAGE OF THE MOON. BACKWARD MOTION 
 OF THE MOONS OF URANUS AND NEPTUNE. COMETS, PLANETS AND 
 MOONS INFLUENCED BY THE POLES OF THEIR PRIMARIES. OLD 
 THEORY OF THE TIDES ; ITS ANOMALIES AND REFUTATION. NEW 
 AND CORRECT THEORY. NON-ROTATION OF THE MOON ROUND HER 
 
 OWN AXIS ; PROOFS. ECCENTRIC THEORY OF AN ECCENTRIC COMMON 
 
 CENTRE OF GRAVITY BETWEEN EARTH AND MOON. TIDE OF II IK 
 ATMOSPHERE. NO TIDES IN THE OPEN SEA ; NONE ROUND THE 
 EQUATOR ; TABLE OF TIDES. 
 
 WE have seen that neither observation, parallax, measurements, 
 the velocity of light, comets, nor the transit of Venus, have given 
 us the TRUE DISTANCE, SIZE and MASS of the sun ; and as these 
 
 Blessed Virgin to which he refers in his classical epistle "From Rome." 
 
 In that beautiful composition of titles of the IMMACULATE MOTHER OF OUR 
 LORD, the "MISEREUE NOBIS," "HAVE MERCT on us," occurs four times at 
 the beginning and ONCE at the end, as a prayer addressed to God Himself. 
 Intermediate, in our invocation of the "Blessed among women " to intercede 
 for us, there is, once after every title, FORTY-FIVE TIMES RUNNING, the 
 petition "ORA FRO NOBIS," "PRAY for us." 
 
 " The priest was kneeling at the altar, singing the Litany of the Virgin in 
 which she is addressed in direct prayer, 'Mother of mercy, have mercy on 
 us : ' ' Mother of grace, have Mercy upon us,' etc. : the CONTADINI repeating 
 the ' MISERERE NOBIS ' AFTER EACH TITLE of invocation had been given out 
 by the priest." So the Dean. 
 
 Now his ear never caught or understood the forty-five times repeated " ORA 
 pro nobis ; " but, ro doubt, the last " MISERERE nobis " must have come upoa 
 him like the discovery of Neptune, for he actually quotes it in its native 
 Latin, whilst the former he neither gives in Latin nor in English. 
 
 Is not this very odd, very, indeed, if he DO know Latin, and if he HAVE 
 read the Litany of that Blessed Virgin ? Surely, he cannot have meant to 
 deceive ? And yet that REASONABLE, LOVING, anxiety, lest his flock should 
 read CATHOLIC works ! What a strange Dean of Canterbury ! at once so 
 rich and learned, and yet so poor and ignorant ! 
 
 "Atrocious translation" is a specimen also of the DEAN'S ENGLISH ! 
 
298 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 are used as a SCALE in the science of astronomy, it follows : that 
 the error in distance, size and mass of the sun NULLIFIES the 
 ACCURACY of all the observations hitherto made, every parallax 
 and measurement, the velocity of light, the distances, orbits, sizes, 
 masses and velocities of all the planets and moons and comets, 
 their mutual attraction, perturbation, common centres, the tidal 
 theory, etc . ; that in fact, universal gravitation itself is nothing 
 but a vicious CIRCLE, that NOT ONE calculation based upon it can 
 be accepted as true even for our own solar system, much less for 
 celestial bodies and systems beyond our own. 
 
 My new system, I trust, will give a sound and firmer basis to 
 astronomical science, and that the talent and intellectual labours 
 of so many gifted men hitherto thrown away upon a thankless 
 theory, may be applied to mine and lead to happier results, both 
 as to astronomy itself as well as to the higher questions involved 
 in it, and in the latter of which so many of the learned have 
 failed far more than in the former. 
 
 As my theory so simply explains and proves everything connected 
 with our solar system, so also the elliptical orbit of the earth, as 
 well as of all the planets, if not disproved, is at least accounted 
 for by it. 
 
 When the moon is near the horizon, either rising or setting, she 
 appears much larger, than when she is higher up. The sun 
 likewise looks much larger in the morning and evening than at 
 mid-day, when he is nearly above our heads. The reason of it is 
 this : that when these bodies are (to us) high in the vault of 
 heaven, their rays fall nearly in a perpendicular line upon the spot 
 we live, without being refracted by the atmosphere ; if, however, 
 they are near the horizon, and consequently FURTHER AWAY FROM 
 us, though equally near to the earth at large, their rays are re- 
 fracted by the atmosphere which they penetrate in a slanting 
 manner, and therefore also to a greater depth or thickness, and 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 299 
 
 hence they appear to us through a magnifying medium, although 
 with diminished brightness. 
 
 The same must be the case when the earth is oscillating above 
 the equator of the sun. 
 
 When in our summer the northern part of it is attracted, and 
 the southern one repelled, the luminary of our system appears to 
 us small, though NEARER than in winter, because his rays are 
 almost perpendicular to us, we are nearly in the immediate centre 
 of the focus of his concentrated light ; and in our winter he 
 appears to us large, though we are repelled and the northern part 
 of the globe retiring from him, because he has apparently receded 
 into the tropic of Capricorn, his rays come to us obliquely through 
 a greater depth or thickness of the refracting atmosphere, the 
 hydrogen lens above has shifted from a perpendicular to an 
 oblique position, from the zenith, as it were, towards the southern 
 horizon, showing to us a larger picture of his disc. But throughout 
 this oscillation of the earth, the sun, probably, is always equally 
 near to it in its orbit in general, and his supposed perigee and 
 apogee most likely an optical deception. 
 
 Upon the very opposite assumption the theory of the ellip- 
 ticity of the earth's orbit is founded. According to this the sun 
 is said to be further off from us in summer than in winter, because 
 he seems so much smaller, and in winter he is said to be so much 
 nearer than in summer, because he looks so much larger. 
 
 This reasoning would be true, if the intervening atmosphere 
 and still more the shifting focus of our hydrogen lens, did not 
 counteract, or rather reverse, the law, that, the more distant the 
 object, the smaller its apparent diameter, and the nearer the 
 object, the larger its diameter, as is the case with the moon, who 
 appears greater when she is in perigee than when she is in apogee, 
 not being, like the sun, affected by the hydrogen lens in, or upon, 
 which she floats. 
 
300 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 Now if the calculation of the greater or lesser distance of the 
 earth from the sun, and the elliptical orbit of the earth round the 
 sun, have no other foundation than the fact, that the sun appears 
 to us smaller in summer than in winter ; that the time between 
 the vernal and autumnal equinox is about eight days longer than 
 that between the autumnal and vernal equinox, and that therefore 
 the sun is much further away from the earth in our summer than 
 he is winter, we may well doubt it after what has been said before, 
 and according to which the earth is more likely to move always 
 at the same, or nearly the same, relative distance from the sun. 
 
 As to the longer journey, or slower motion, of the earth between 
 the vernal and autumnal equinox, than between the autumnal and 
 vernal equinox, it does not follow that therefore the earth must be 
 at a greater distance from the sun, that it has to sweep through a 
 wider curve during the former period. I think it more probable, 
 that the earth this side the equator, having more land, and there- 
 fore being more intensely electric than the south, and consequently 
 more strongly attracted by the sun, it travels slower, that is, it 
 makes less progress in its orbital motion, though the axial rotation 
 remains the same when the sun attracts the northern, as when he 
 does the southern hemisphere. It is like the paddle-wheel of a 
 steamer ; the rotation of the wheel remains the same, whether 
 against or with the current, though the progressive motion is 
 different. Or, like the wheels of the locomotive, which for want 
 of sufficient friction with the rail do not make much progress, 
 though the revolutions remain the same. It may be also that in 
 our summer, for the reason before stated, the envelope of our 
 earth becomes more expanded than when the rays of the sun are 
 upon, and absorbed by, the waters of the south of our globe, and 
 that therefore the earth may ascend and float a little higher in the 
 atmosphere of the sun than generally. We should thus have an 
 expansion and contraction of the atmosphere of the earth which 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 301 
 
 would bring it further from the sun in our summer and nearer to 
 him in winter, as the old theory has it, though the expansion and 
 contraction, unlike that of the hair of the comet, would not, 
 perhaps, influence the distance from the sun in any perceptible 
 degree. At all events, my new theory, in either case, seems to me 
 to solve the problem of the ellipticity of the orbit of the earth 
 round the sun, not proved, at least, by the difference of the 
 apparent diameter of the disc of the sun in summer and winter 
 according to the old theory. 
 
 It is natural that during the oscillations of the earth, the 
 alternate attraction and repulsion of its poles, and the expansion 
 and contraction of its envelope, perhaps influenced also by the 
 oscillations of the sun, or by the passing planets of our system, it 
 should not move in a straight, undeviating line round the sun, but 
 at times pass a little more to the right, and at others more to the 
 left ; and hence, no doubt, what are called PERIODIC AND SECULAR 
 
 INEQUALITIES. 
 
 By my theory the mutual attraction and repulsion of the planets, 
 though not on the law of universal gravitation, is clearly de- 
 monstrated if at their respective distances it exist at all ; they 
 may affect each other when approximating in their passage round 
 the sun, but they do not disturb, or keep each other, in their 
 respective positions and orbits. My theory, moreover, seems most 
 beautifully to illustrate the passage of the moon round the earth, 
 and assigns a probable reason for her course. 
 
 Having, like a nascent meteor, risen from the earth to be 
 converted into a glowing lamp and suspended high above us to 
 shine into the darkness of our nights, but as a body without the 
 electric inflation or constitution of the planets, she is deprived of 
 rotary motion, and only floats upon our sphere like a vessel on 
 the ocean. God placed her on our ethereal atmosphere, THAT AS 
 A LIGHT TO THE EABTH, in turn attracted and repelled, she might 
 
302 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 pass from, pole to pole, and shed her benignant rays on those 
 portions of our globe in particular, which are least in the en- 
 joyment of the light of the sun. And for this purpose the Creator 
 of the world had constructed her in such a manner, that, arriving 
 within the equatorial regions, where there is neither pointing nor 
 dipping of the magnetic needle, her craters and mountains should 
 prevent her turning over, and that they also should act as divinely- 
 arranged rudders, to keep her always in the path that had been 
 assigned to her. 
 
 Drifting across her ethereal ocean from south to north she passes 
 slowly on to the ecliptic, to the equatorial region of the earth, 
 gently carried eastward by the revolving motion of our globe, 
 though still making for the north. On nearing the ecliptic, the 
 middle of the ethereal current she has to cross, her speed increases, 
 and the rapid revolution of the earth, in its greatest circumference, 
 would carry her out of her course and whirl her round the equator, 
 if the rudders. of the divine Constructor did not keep her in her 
 path; she hastens, as it were, to take her light to the north, 
 and drifts slower again on passing out of the current of the 
 ecliptic. 
 
 In this manner the moon passes round the earth from pole to 
 pole, from one side of the south to the other side of the north, 
 crossing her ocean like a -steady ferry the river, without ever 
 altering her course or position. Every succeeding passage she 
 fails, like the earth in its orbit round the sun, to reach the exact 
 point from which she started, until after about nineteen years she 
 arrives again at the starting-point ; and this is called the retro- 
 gression of the line of nodes. 
 
 The motion of the moons of the other planets, as well as 
 the rings and moons of Saturn, whether his rings be solid 
 like the moon, or an electric product like the fire-veil of the sun, 
 or the aurora borealis rests upon the same foundation ; as the 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 303 
 
 planet revolves, it carries them round on its ethereal ocean, on the 
 same principle on which a ship moves slower than the current 
 which bears her; or, the motion of the planet eastward exercises 
 a more powerful influence on the moon than the westerly current 
 of the planet's atmosphere. 
 
 The planets Uranus and Neptune, however, as we have seen 
 already page 269, seem to form an exception; for it has been 
 found, that all the satellites of Uranus, and according to the 
 discovery of Mr. Hind, that of Neptune, move in the opposite 
 direction, that is, from east to west ; and hence it follows, that 
 the upper atmospheres of these planets must have a westerly current 
 so strong as to counteract, to overcome, the rotary influence from 
 west to east of the planets themselves.* 
 
 The same happens with the sun and the comets, of which many 
 move from west to east and many from east to west in the solar 
 atmosphere ; those moving from east to west, or having a retro- 
 grade motion, belonging almost exclusively to those comets which 
 travel to the furthest limits of our system, into regions beyond 
 Neptune, the most distant of all our hitherto discovered planets. 
 The westerly current, or flow, of the more remote parts or oceans 
 of atmosphere of the sun becomes stronger the nearer we approach 
 the confines of the system; and the westerly motion of these 
 infinitely-attenuated and elastic oceans of fluids or gasses, overcomes 
 the eastward attracting influence of the eastward revolving sun ; 
 or the comets, or moons, in question, have no ballast, they are too 
 light, and therefore, as it were, carried back by the superior stream 
 
 * As the water is left behind by the rotation of the earth, so is its 
 atmosphere of air more and more left behind as its distance from the earth 
 increases ; hence also the increased motion or flow of the air, of wind, the 
 higher we ascend the mountain. It is the same with the atmosphere of 
 the sun; it is more avid more left behind in proportion to its distance from 
 the solid body. Hence also the planets are left behind in proportion 
 to their size as well as distance ; and for this reason they move slower the 
 more they are elevated above the sun. 
 
304 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 or streams of the solar or planetary atmosphere. These moons 
 and comets may also want a proper or necessary amount of elec- 
 tricity, so that in their passage from one part of the planet to the 
 other, from one pole of the solar system to the other in almost 
 every direction across the ecliptic, the attraction of the eastward 
 rotating planet and orb is insufficient to draw them in their respec- 
 tive train, and thus, by some other law, are firmly guided in their 
 missionary courses by the legitimate centre that governs the whole. 
 Comets, in their diversified, spiral, and cyclical course round the 
 sun, are no doubt influenced, if not positively directed, in their 
 motions, by the poles of the solar system and the sun himself, as 
 they are also more numerous about the former than in any other 
 region of the solar sphere, the same as the auroras are more 
 abundant in the polar regions than in the temperate zones of the 
 earth, whilst none have been observed at the equator ; the same 
 also as meteors, mostly from the polar hemispheres, take their 
 course in the direction of the meridian : but the extraordinary 
 eccentricity of the orbits of the comets, and the scarcity of their 
 visits, as already noticed before, seems to be due to the polar 
 attraction and repulsion of the solar system, and their consequent 
 passage from one solar ocean into the other ; and as thus they 
 plunge into a denser medium the more they approach the sun, 
 their hair is driven back and elongated into tails of enormous size, 
 and often parted into two or more ;* : * sometimes even, according 
 to the resistance of the matter or current they move in 
 or come across, these elastic bodies themselves divide, if not 
 in reality, at least apparently, and for a considerable time, 
 
 * The tails are often of stupendous magnitude, varying from 5 to 200 
 millions of miles in length. But the brief period, in which they are often 
 formed is no less amazing. The tail of the comet of 1843, which was long 
 enough to reach from the sun to the planetoids, was formed in less than 
 twenty days. The tails of comets are not always single ; some have apeared 
 with several tails. The comet of 1744 had six tails. Worlds Beyond the 
 Earth, p. 219. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 305 
 
 into two seemingly-distinct comets, as was the case with Biela's 
 in 1846. 
 
 It has hitherto been supposed that the moons of Saturn, (as well 
 as the sun and celestial objects) are carried parallel to the edges 
 of the rings ; but it is shown now, that, by the apparent motion 
 of the heavens, produced by the diurnal rotation of Saturn, they 
 are moved so as to pass alternately from side to side of each of 
 these edges, the same, and for the same reason, no doubt, as our 
 moon alternately passes, attracted and repelled from pole to pole. 
 
 The tides are caused by the ship-like passage and PRESSURE of 
 the moon upon one of our oceans above ; but the present, or New- 
 tonian, theory of the tides, ascribes them to the ATTRACTION of 
 the moon. In one of the most current works upon this subject 
 we read, that " the tides are occasioned by the attraction of the 
 sun and moon upon the waters of the earth. 
 
 " Let A B c D be supposed to be the earth, and E its centre : 
 let the dotted circle represent a mass of water covering the earth ; 
 
 let M be the moon in its orbit, and s the sun. 
 
 " Since the force of gravity, or attraction, diminishes as the 
 squares of the distances increase, the waters on the side of c, are 
 more attracted by the moon M, than the central parts at E, and 
 the central parts are more attracted than the waters at A ; conse- 
 quently, the waters at a will recede from the centre ; therefore 
 while the moon is in the situation M, the waters will rise toward 
 a and b on the opposite sides of the earth ; that is, they will rise 
 at a by the immediate attraction of the moon M, and will rise at 
 b by the centre E receding, and leaving them more elevated there. 
 
 " The moon goes round the earth in an elliptical orbit, and 
 
306 
 
 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 therefore she approaches nearer to the earth in some parts of her 
 orbit than in others. When she is nearest, the attraction is the 
 strongest, and consequently it raises the tides most ; and when 
 she is farthest from the earth, her attraction is the least and the 
 tides the lowest." 
 
 In another work on Natural Philosophy we read that " the tides 
 proceed from the attractive force of the sun and moon, which 
 diminish the gravity of the waters of the ocean, or, which is the 
 same thing, draw or lift up the waters towards themselves. 
 
 " The force of attraction acts in straight lines ; and, therefore, 
 if we draw two straight lines from the moon's centre, M B, M D, to 
 represent this force, acting on the parts B and D, it is obvious that 
 BIT 
 
 the water at B and D will not be raised, but depressed, by being 
 drawn away from B to H, and from D to F, and so of every part of 
 the circle BED. But the waters will, at the same time, rise on 
 the side of the earth away from the moon, because the EARTH'S 
 CENTRE being more strongly drawn TOWARDS THE MOON than the 
 point A, recedes from A, which is the same in effect, as if the 
 waters at A receded, or rose up from the earth's centre." 
 
 By the earth's rotation on its axis, the two tide-waves will be 
 continually making their round over the ocean. 
 
 " The force of attraction acting in straight lines, it should be 
 high water at any place in the OPEN SEA when the moon is upon 
 the meridian of that place ; but, in fact, the greatest (and least) 
 heights of the water at such a place do not occur till about three 
 hours after the periods fixed in this supposition. The delay is 
 thus explained : the elevated parts of the sea have received such 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 307 
 
 an impulse towards ascent, that they continue to rise after the 
 earth's rotation has carried them from under the line of the direct 
 attraction of the moon ; this impulse being also aided for a time 
 by the moon continuing to attract the water upwards, though in 
 a less degree. 
 
 " The sun, though his attractive influence is three times less 
 than that of the moon, acts upon the ocean in the same manner, 
 though in a less degree. When these two bodies unite their influ- 
 ence, which they do at the seasons of new and full moon, the 
 tides naturally rise the highest : they assist each other in raising 
 the ocean as before described, and depressing it in a corresponding 
 manner. 
 
 " Of the irregularities of the tides, caused by the continually- 
 changing position of the sun and moon, those are the greatest 
 which are occasioned by the obstacles offered by the land to the 
 ebb and flow of the waters. The impediments created by shallows 
 in the ocean, and by shores, bays, gulfs, and promontories of 
 islands and continents are such, that the tides are greatly delayed, 
 altered both in degree and direction, and in many places so accu- 
 mulated, that they rise to heights far exceeding what is witnessed 
 in the open ocean." 
 
 If, as Humboldt says, the tide-waves of the waters of the ocean 
 in the OPEN SEA, rise hardly to a FEW FEET, they mount, in conse- 
 qence of the configuration of the coasts, which oppose the coming 
 tide, to 50 feet at St. Malo, and from 65 to 70 feet in the Bay of 
 Fundy. 
 
 This is, as far as I have been able briefly to represent it, the 
 present theory of the tides. Let us now consider its 
 ANOMALIES. 
 
 And here I cannot do better than have recourse to a work on 
 the Anomalies of the Tides, by Thomas Kerigan, R.N., F.R.S. 
 
 In his Address to the Reader he says : 
 
 v 2 
 
308 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 " I have shown that when the moon is vertical to St. Helena, 
 she is 2,362 miles nearer to it than to the point called the 'Land's 
 End/ in Cornwall ; and that as her REPUTED power of gravitation 
 is NOT OP SUFFICIENT FORCE to raise a tide at the former place, it 
 CANNOT be the cause of the high tide which flows at the Land's 
 End, particularly since she is in the MERIDIAN of both places at 
 the same instant, which adds another link to the chain of proofs 
 already given respecting the NEGATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE MOON 
 over the tides of the ocean." 
 
 Besides this palpable instance of the moon's exercising no 
 ATTRACTIVE influence whatever upon the ocean, I continue from 
 his pamphlet, page 8 : " The THEORY OF THE TIDES expressly 
 states, that * the action of the moon over the waters of the ocean 
 is the most direct and intense when she* is moving in the equi- 
 noctial ; and, should the times of conjunction or opposition take 
 place when she is so circumstanced, and at her LEAST DISTANCE 
 from the earth, the tides will be the greatest possible. But, in all 
 cases, the highest tides must take place WITHIN THE TROPICS ; 
 and the nearer any port or harbour is to the equator, the 
 greater will be the force of the tide in such harbour.' 
 
 " Now we know from actual experience that there ARE NO 
 TIDES at any of the islands within the torrid zone that are 200 or 
 300 miles from the nearest mainland. At St. Thomas' Island, 
 lying very nearly under the equator, in the middle of the ocean, 
 and free from interference on every side, we find from actual 
 observation that instead of a high tide in that harbour, there is a 
 total absence of anything like a rise and fall of the water, except 
 the FEW INCHES flux and reflux which keep pace with the alternate 
 returns of the sea and land breezes, the same as at most other 
 islands adjacent to the equator, and that are at a proper distance 
 from the mainland, as already noticed." 
 
 Though the moon of necessity must and does exercise some 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 309 
 
 little indirect influence upon the magnetic needle wherever she 
 passes, on account of the electric link which, as it attaches planets 
 and comets to the sun, attaches her to the earth, thereby disturbing,* 
 to a slight degree, the normal electric state of those parts she is 
 passing over, perceptible also in the epileptic, the somnambulist, and 
 other objects in nature immersed into, or overshadowed by, this link : 
 these FACTS, with the preceding and many other valuable remarks 
 of the author, must for ever nullify the theory of her attraction 
 
 NOT EVEN EXTENDING TO THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE of the Waters of 
 
 the ocean. And yet, contrary to these undisputed FACTS, it has 
 been computed by Sir Isaac Newton, and believed to this day, 
 that the attractive force of the moon raises the water in the great 
 ocean ten feet, whereas that of the sun raises it only two feet ; 
 ' that, when both the attraction of the sun and moon act in the 
 same direction, that is, at new and full moon, the combined forces 
 of both raise the tide twelve feet. But when the moon is in her 
 quarters, the attraction of one of these bodies raises the water, 
 while that of the other depresses it ; and, therefore, the smaller 
 force of the sun must be subtracted from that of the moon ; con- 
 sequently the tides in THE MIDST of the ocean will be no more 
 than eight feet. 
 
 Here we have a theory, universally and tenaciously believed, in 
 positive opposition to a well-ascertained fact ; and though the fact 
 for ever nullifies the theory, it is well, that, besides the preceding 
 anomalies, others should still be noticed. 
 
 According to Sir Isaac Newton, it is the attraction of the earth, 
 
 * This disturbing influence must necessarily vary with the phases of the 
 moon, and be different when the side turned towards us is illuminated or 
 darkened, when our satellite is in opposition or in conjunction, when we 
 receive the fulness of the sun's rays, with their reflection, more or less, by 
 the moon, or when, more or less," she interrupts that fulness of light and 
 warmth, preventing its falling upon the earth, and thereby diminishing his 
 electric influence. Hence also a lunar monthly electric tide, and the different 
 effect on plants and seed put into the ground at different times, as we have 
 seen before. 
 
310 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 revolving by centrifugal force, which keeps the moon in her orbit. 
 Captain Kerigan, on the other hand, maintains, that by calculation, 
 based upon the laws of UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION, the moon is NOT 
 retained in her orbit by the mere force of terrestrial attraction; 
 for if left entirely to THAT, she would fly off from the present 
 orbit and be lost upon the body of the sun. 
 
 Now if it be true, as no doubt it is, that, under equal conditions, 
 the earth attracts the moon, the larger body the smaller one, how 
 can it be said, as in the present theory is done, that the moon 
 attracts, or " draws to herself the earth's centre? " It is a perfect 
 contradiction, and this the more so, as their mutual point of 
 gravitation has been laid down at rather more than about two- 
 thirds the distance from the centre to the surface of the earth. 
 If, moreover, the earth have more attractive power than the, 
 moon, if it attract the distant moon herself: should not then the 
 earth also exercise more attractive power over its own waters than 
 the moon ? Or is it at all likely, that more affinity should exist 
 between the surface of the water and the moon, than between the 
 water and the earth itself, both forming but one body ? And as 
 the earth is drawing down the moon, keeping her forcibly in her 
 orbit : is the moon, in return, thirstingly, as it were, drawing 
 away, and lifting up towards herself, the waters of the ocean ? 
 This again, is a pure contradiction, unless it were asserted, that 
 the earth and moon attract each other like positive and negative 
 electricity, and that the earth throws up the tide- wave to attract 
 the moon. But this would ascribe attraction to the water, which 
 no one ever dreamt of doing. The tide-wave, moreover, is more 
 than three hours IN ADVANCE of the moon, and it has never been 
 asserted that the moon follows in its wake like a cart after the 
 horse. If, on the other hand, the moon attracts the water : do 
 her attractive rays act more powerfully when exercised in the 
 vertical, or more in the oblique direction? According to the 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 311 
 
 positive, unalterable, law of attraction, the action is more powerful 
 in the vertical, than in the oblique line ; why then is the tide 
 highest three hours after the moon has left the vertical position, 
 that is : why is it three hours away from the vertical line of the 
 moon, and that, too, in ADVANCE of the moon I This has certainly 
 been explained by the holders of the present theory ; but is the 
 explanation reasonable and natural? I think it to be^ neither 
 the one nor the other. 
 
 If a given power is not able to lift up a certain weight per- 
 pendicularly, it will not be able to do so in an oblique line. 
 Suppose the body to be drawn up, or to be attracted, to be elastic, 
 very heavy, of great length, as we may consider the water to be ; 
 and that, as in the case of the moon, the attracting, or lifting 
 power, is not stationary, but constantly moving forward : it must 
 be clear to the most ordinary capacity, that the body drawn, or 
 attracted, must drag along until it gets into the perpendicular line 
 with the lifting, or upwards-attracting power, and that in all cases, 
 whether the attracting power be able to lift the attracted body 
 from the ground, or not, the object attracted must always follow 
 in the wake, at the tail of the onward-moving attracting body. 
 But in the case of the moon, the body said to be attracted, is 
 always in ADVANCE, the cart before the horse. 
 
 No case can be made out in which an attracted body is, or can 
 be, swung forward, or forced, in advance of the body attracting, 
 except by an extraordinary power, suddenly applied ; and this 
 extra power, suddenly applied, would have to be greater if the 
 attracting body were moving on without intermission, as is the 
 case with the moon, than if it were stationary. This, therefore, 
 cannot be applied to the tides. It might, however, be said, that, 
 though the moon does not give a rising impulse to the tide-wave, 
 notwithstanding what is actually taught, this impulse is given by 
 the earth, carrying the water away from under the moon more 
 
312 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 than twenty-five times faster than the moon is progressing in the 
 same direction in which the earth revolves ; but this is not so 
 either. If, upon this supposition the moon drew, or attracted, the 
 water at all, she wouid have to draw it from the western side, and 
 that too, with a still greater rapidity than that with which the 
 earth revolves, as otherwise she could not raise the water ; and IN 
 THAT CA^E, the tide-wave would flow from west to east, whereas 
 the current of the ocean, as well as that of the tide-waves, comes 
 from the opposite side, flowing from east to west. If it were 
 contended, that the rapid revolution of the earth has nothing to 
 do with the raising of the tide, or with the pretended impulse 
 given to its wave, on the comparatively quiescent ocean : then 
 the carrying away of the tide-wave in advance of the moon, and 
 the attraction of the moon after the water has gone away from 
 under her, along with the revolution of the earth, falls of itself 
 to the ground. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this, and in order to reconcile a forced 
 theory with fact, to establish the moon's attraction in advance, 
 contrary to the law of attraction being strongest when exercised 
 in the vertical line, it is actually maintained by some, that the 
 inoon really does draw the tide in an oblique direction, and this 
 too, on the most simple principles of mechanics. How this is 
 possible, and how it can be reconciled with tidal phenomena, I 
 do not understand. 
 
 The earth E revolves from west to east, the moon M goes in 
 the same direction, and the water of the earth flows in the opposite 
 way, as it were, between both. The tide-wave is always on the 
 east-side of the moon, at the same relative distance from her, 
 without any intermission, or change, and flowing from east to 
 west ; it is always, according to the divisions in fig. 3, high 
 water being at A about three hours and a half, let us say three 
 hours, in ADVANCE of the moon, though flowing TOWARDS HER. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 313 
 
 The tidal wave, moving towards the advancing moon, and yet 
 permanent in its relative position to her, makes the theory of 
 
 Fig. 3. 
 
 oblique attraction very plausible, and would certainly remove the 
 anomaly of high water meeting the spectator on the revolving 
 earth, about three hours after he^ has passed under the moon's 
 meridian, did it not nullify the positive law of attraction, which 
 acts strongest in the vertical line. But apart from this, the 
 question will naturally arise : why should the moon attract towards 
 the east, and not towards the west ? Why before, and not after 
 her ? Why should she draw water from the east, and not from 
 the west, nor equally from the north and south ? If the theory 
 of attraction be true at all, why does the moon, a completely 
 round body, not attract on all sides at the same time towards her 
 own centre, and give us high water under her perpendicular line ? 
 The theorists of oblique attraction have yet to prove, that the 
 moon is positive in the east, and negative in the west of her body ; 
 
314 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 that she has a pole of attraction for the WATERS of the earth, not 
 for the earth itself, towards the east; one of repulsion, or negative, 
 towards the west; neutral north and south, and no attractive 
 power at all in her perpendicular, and therefore nearest, line to 
 the earth ; and yet upon this totally unwarrantable supposition 
 alone, of attraction on one side only, and that in advance too, can 
 the theory of oblique attraction be maintained. 
 
 Drawing in an oblique direction, on the most simple principles 
 of mechanics, it is said: that the moon does not draw the tide- 
 wave all at once, but sheet after sheet, globule after globule ; and 
 taking the tide to attain a height of thirty feet during the six 
 hours it is rising, would give the one -sixtieth part of an inch for 
 every second, so that, apparently, the operation would be very easy. 
 
 Now it must not be forgotten, that the moon goes faster towards 
 the east, than the waters of the earth are flowing from east to 
 west, like a steamer that ascends the river with greater rapidity, 
 than the river itself is descending ; whilst, however the waters 
 are flowing westward, they RECEDE AWAY from the face of the 
 moon at the same time, on account of the daily revolution of the 
 earth from west to east round its own axis ; the revolution of the 
 earth carries the waters along with it, but imparts to them at the 
 surface in particular, a movement, or flow, in the opposite direction, 
 that is, from east to west. But, as said before : this westerly 
 current of the waters is not as rapid as the passage of the moon 
 from west to east, though the earth itself revolves at the rate of 
 fifteen degrees per hour, whilst the moon in the same direction, 
 progresses but at the rate of thirteen degrees per day. 
 
 Therefore, if the moon were drawing forward a sheet of water 
 over the level of the westward moving, yet eastward receding, 
 ocean, and in succession adding another, and another over another : 
 she could not wait drawing the second sheet until she had finished 
 the first, nor wait for the third until she had drawn the second ; 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 315 
 
 for, if the waters were flowing towards the moon at the same rate 
 at which she is moving against the current of the water, without 
 taking into consideration the revolution of the earth, the first or 
 preceding sheet would always have moved in advance, away from 
 the next, as the water never stands still ; and in order thus to raise 
 a tide, each successive sheet of water would have to be drawn 
 with an ever-increasing velocity and power, so as to render it 
 possible for every following sheet to overtake and accumulate upon 
 its predecessor ; and this cannot be accounted for if the moon's 
 power of attraction be always steady and equal. If the attraction 
 of every successive sheet of water were to follow immediately 
 after the preceding sheet had been commenced, then the operation 
 of raising the tide would no longer be little by little, sheet after 
 sheet, as a person would draw blanket over blanket, or globule 
 over globule, over a constantly-rising incline, as shown by figure 
 4 ; but it would be an uninterrupted simultaneous elevation of the 
 
 Fig. 4. 
 
 waters, the focus of attraction being exactly at the top of the 
 tide-wave, or high water. 
 
 We here have reasoned upon an imaginary case ; but if we take 
 
316 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 the fact, as it really is, that the waters of the ocean, though flowing 
 towards the advancing moon, are yet much more rapidly receding 
 away from her than just now we have supposed them to advance, 
 the raising of a tide-wave becomes still more difficult and im- 
 probable, and not at all easy on the simple principle of mechanics. 
 Indeed, it seems to me more intelligible that the moon should lift 
 and keep* up the tide-wave, whether perpendicular or obliquely, 
 with one steady uninterrupted effort of her whole power, than that 
 she should draw it by forming sheet upon sheet. This theory, in 
 fact, would make the attractive power of the moon greatest at 
 the greatest distance, confined to the eastern side only, and com- 
 pletely null everywhere else ; the tide- wave once raised, the moon 
 would have to keep it up by supplying it from the most distant 
 eastern point of low water, to the top of high water ; and thus, 
 the proposition of oblique attraction cannot for a moment be 
 entertained. 
 
 The theory of the tides states, that the water being attracted 
 by the moon, it recedes at the sides of the earth, B and D, figs. 1 
 and 2, and thus causes the tide- wave on the side of the earth 
 opposite to the moon ; but what becomes of this tide-wave, if, on 
 the oblique theory, the moon attracts the water on one side of the 
 earth only ? This consideration seems entirely to have been over- 
 looked by the theorists of oblique attraction, and is in itself 
 enough for ever to discard this assumption. 
 
 We must, then, pass again to the theory of vertical attraction, 
 and once more notice the constant following of the tide- wave three 
 hours after the moon has receded from our meridian, or, which 
 is the same, after we have been carried forward away from his 
 meridian. 
 
 I have shown already, and must notice it once more, that the 
 revolution of the earth cannot carry the tide-wave in advance of 
 the moon, as, in that case, it would have to flow from west to east, 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 317 
 
 whilst it flows, with the waters of the ocean, in the contrary 
 direction. Or, if the earth does carry away the tide-wave, in 
 advance of the moon : where was the wave first, formed '? Under- 
 neath the moon, or on her western side ? It is curious, if, as we 
 are taught, the moon continues to attract the water after the 
 rotation of the earth is said to have carried the tide- wave from 
 under her to the east, because in that case she MUST ALSO HAVE 
 BEGUN TO ATTRACT the water before it came to her from the west, 
 and thus have drawn it BACKWARD from its westerly flow, QUICKER 
 STILL than by the rotation of the earth it is carried eastward ; and 
 
 HENCE, BY REASON OF THIS NECESSARILY BACKWARD DRAFT FROM 
 
 ITS WESTERLY CURRENT, if it be true that the earth carries away 
 the tide-wave in advance of the moon, the tide-wave OUGHT to 
 flow from west to east ; and yet its course and flow is westward. 
 Attractive power itself is not of a sudden, impulse-imparting 
 nature, and for this reason the ATTRACTION OF THE MOON cannot 
 be of that kind, as to swing the tide-wave, if there were any, 
 from her western to her eastern side. Attraction, moreover, is 
 not a thing that accumulates, like the power of a steam engine, 
 which will be followed by the train, though it should be separated, 
 or have passed away, from it. And if the engine were to be 
 placed at the end of the train, it would no longer draw, or attract, 
 but propel or push it. 
 
 The rays of attraction, supposing the moon to possess them 
 like the rays of the sun, are strongest in the vertical line ; those 
 of the moon, however, do not accumulate on the earth, and least 
 of all, in advance, but they are like ropes, like a plumb-line, by 
 which the moon, in a manner, lifts, as it is said, the water. On 
 the other hand, the rays of the sun do accumulate by refraction 
 and reflection, though they are never so strong as at mid-day ; 
 and this accumulation from the early part of the morning gives 
 us the height of heat in the afternoon, two or three hours after he 
 
318 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 passed the meridian. Thus, the delay of the tide-wave, following 
 the moon three hours after she has passed from her vertical 
 position, cannot be compared with the delay in the warmer state 
 of the air in the afternoon ; it is like a room, which will remain 
 warm for some time after the fire of the day has gone out. But, 
 to compare to this the rising of the tide after the moon has passed, 
 would be expecting the water to rise after you have ceased to 
 pump. 
 
 It must, besides this, be borne in mind, how enormous the 
 attraction of the moon ought to be, in order to overcome the 
 pressure of the atmosphere upon the water, of 15 Ib. to the square 
 inch, particularly if on the vertical theory, she causes the wave 
 still to rise for three hours after she had ceased to influence it ; for 
 we cannot raise an inch of water ourselves unless we pump, or 
 suck, the air away from over it first. 
 
 The earth attracts the moon, and yet, according to the current 
 theory of the tides, the moon would draw up the entire sea, if the 
 air were not between. 
 
 According to the exposition of the Newtonian theory of the 
 tides, as explained before, " the water will rise on the side of the 
 earth away from the moon, because the earth's centre is more 
 strongly drawn towards the moon than the point A, and recedes 
 from A, which is the same in effect, as if the water at A receded, 
 or rose up from the earth's centre." 
 
 Now if this were the case, that the side of the earth away from 
 the moon leaves the water behind ; would it not be more natural 
 still, that, the earth's centre being so strongly attracted by the 
 moon, the water facing the moon should give way on all sides to 
 the pressure of the atmosphere, and cause the solid earth to peep 
 out like a ball drawn out of a basin of water, rather than allow 
 the water to accumulate upon it ? A momentary attraction might 
 cause a momentary swell, but permanent attraction is permanent rest. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 319 
 
 If the moon is able to " draw towards herself the earth's 
 centre," I beg to ask, on the strength of this law : at what time 
 does she do so ? At what time does she relax her hold ? For, if 
 the CONSTANT production of the two tide-waves depended upon 
 this attraction of the earth's centre, the moon would have to 
 attract the earth powerfully and WITHOUT INTERMISSION, and this 
 would be drawing it out of its sphere, and ultimately bringing 
 them both together ; and if this result were not to follow, it would 
 completely neutralize the attraction, and there would be no 
 attraction at all ; and for the moon at any time relaxing her hold, 
 would be equally nullifying the theory. Nor can the proposition 
 of the moon's attracting the earth's centre be true, if, as it is said 
 also, the moon exercises more" power over the water than over the 
 earth. 
 
 But this last proposition, illustrated in the following manner, 
 cannot be true either. A, B, C, at first are equally distant 
 from each other ; they are travelling towards a certain point ; 
 but C walks faster than B, and B again faster than A ; the con- 
 sequence is, that when C arrives at the point, B is left much 
 behind C, and A more behind B; and this is applied to the 
 tides. In the following diagram (fig. 5) the moon M attracts the 
 water at C more strongly than at B, and at B more than at A ; 
 
 Fig. 5. 
 C 
 C 
 
 B B 
 A A 
 
 the water at C is consequently raised with velocity, depressed at B 
 by being drawn away towards C, and raised at A by the very 
 WANT of velocity ; or,' as the illustration has it : C goes faster than 
 B, and B goes faster than A. 
 
320 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 Now this certainly seems very plausible, but would, if true, stand 
 good merely for the time when the moon was created ; this MIGHT 
 have been the first operation for producing the tides ; but, when 
 once set in motion, C would no longer go faster than B, nor B 
 faster than A; thenceforward they would travel with EQUAL 
 VELOCITY, or if the proposition were true, C, B, A moving in a 
 circle, C would soon overtake A and gain upon B, and B would 
 overtake A also, and the three ultimately be lost one in the other. 
 
 If the moon attracts B, D, equally at the same time, she anti- 
 cipates, or hastens, the flow of water coming from the east, and 
 retards, or holds back, that of the water going to the west ; and 
 this operation would give us high water at C, immediately under 
 the moon, WHICH is CONTRARY TO FACT ; and if, on the principle 
 of oblique attraction, the moon draws only at C, D, anticipating, 
 or quickening the flow of water on her eastern side, the illustration 
 becomes still more untenable, apart from the certainty, that want 
 of velocity will not make water rise, nor raise the tide, though it 
 had not to contend against the even pressure of the atmosphere. 
 Thus, in whatever light we view the theory, we meet with nothing 
 but anomalies. 
 
 What has been said of the attraction of the moon, is equally 
 applicable to the attraction of the sun. If, by this means, he 
 causes the tide-wave to rise, his attraction must then not only be 
 more powerful on the water than upon the earth, but so strong 
 as to raise the water in opposition to the whole atmosphere pressing 
 upon it ; or, the sun must attract the air and water at the same 
 time in a peculiar manner. If the sun attracts the earth itself 
 with a kind of violent effort, then the fluid water, and the still 
 more fluid and elastic air, would give way to the forward impulse 
 of the solid earth, and cause, as with the moon on the same 
 supposition, low, instead of high water. If the sun and moon 
 attract our globe, including its water and atmosphere, in an equal 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 321 
 
 manner, as one whole, then they cannot cause the raising of the 
 tide ; the effect of the attraction upon the water would be the 
 same as if there were no attraction at all. 
 
 If, in theory, the attractio'n of the moon is sufficient to raise 
 a high tide on the open ocean, why can she not raise a tide in the 
 Mediterranean, or Baltic, and other smaller inland lakes ? *' In 
 small collections of water," it is argued, " the moon acts with the 
 same line of attraction, or nearly so, upon every portion of the 
 surface at once, and therefore, the whole of the waters being 
 equally elevated at the same period, no part of them is ever higher 
 than the other." 
 
 But then, the same takes place in the open sea ; " there the 
 moon acts with the same line of attraction upon a similar portion 
 of surface," beyond which the waters, by degrees, cease more and 
 more to be under her influence ; and yet it is said, "that in this 
 wide expanse of waters she raises up the parts immediately under 
 her," which is equal to saying, that a loadstone attracts a large 
 piece of iron better than a small one. " The moon raising up the 
 parts of water immediately under her," that is, in her per- 
 pendicular (which is against fact) the depression at the sides 
 naturally FOLLOWS ; but this depression does not, as we are told 
 it does, assist the raising, it cannot be cause and effect at the 
 same time ; and this raising, moreover, can only be supposed to 
 be done, by the moon's rays of attraction being concentrated in 
 one focus immediately underneath, or, by their being more 
 powerful there than everywhere else ; and in either of these cases, 
 she would as strongly attract when above the Mediterranean, or 
 Baltic, as when above any portion of the open sea. And this, 
 moreover, would be less striking and wonderful to us, than " that 
 the whole of the waters should be equally elevated," particularly 
 when we consider, that this EQUAL ELEVATION AT THE SAME 
 PERIOD ALL OVER is not observable at the islands, or the shore, 
 
 w 
 
322 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 and that the water is not elastic, and consequently incapable of 
 such an equal, imperceptible, and incomprehensible elevation. 
 
 If, besides this, the theory of the attraction of the moon, as 
 applied to the absence of a tide in the Mediterranean, were correct, 
 we should have no tide on any of the shores of either the Atlantic, 
 Indian, or Pacific Oceans. 
 
 It has, to my knowledge, never been calculated, how many 
 
 Mediterraneans it would take to enable the moon to raise a tide. 
 
 If this sea had a tide of but one foot, we might make out, that a 
 
 sea ten times the size, or less, would give a tide of ten feet, or 
 
 more ; but, the moon having NO TIDAL INFLUENCE WHATEVER on 
 
 ONE Mediterranean : how many Mediterraneans are to be added 
 
 before such influence begins ? How many more, before such 
 
 influence becomes perceptible ? And how many more still before 
 
 euch influence will draw a tide of ten feet only ? Suppose that 
 
 it would take ten or twenty times the space of the Mediterranean 
 
 to render the attraction of the moon upon the water perceptible, 
 
 or to enable her to draw a tide of a few feet ; she would then, on 
 
 passing from one shore of the Atlantic to the other, not begin to 
 
 exercise any perceptible influence on the water, or draw up any 
 
 tide, unless she had passed over a space more than ten or twenty 
 
 times that of the Mediterranean ; and on arriving at the other 
 
 side, the tide would pass away, and her influence again become null, 
 
 as soon as she should have got within the same space from the 
 
 land. The tide-wave, upon this theory, would begin and increase 
 
 with the distance of the moon from the shore, and, AGAINST FACT, 
 
 be highest in the middle of the ocean, where' she would have 
 
 abundance of surface to raise a tide. If, indeed, in the middle of 
 
 the ocean she were to raise a tide of 100 feet, she would draw the 
 
 water from such an immense extent of surface, as not to require 
 
 one drop from the shore ; but, apart from this, the highest tide in 
 
 tbe middle of the ocean, if there were one at all, would precisely 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 323 
 
 be as imperceptible at the shores of the Atlantic, as at the shores 
 of the Mediterranean, inasmuch as the influence of the moon 
 would as imperceptibly cease, and that too at the same distance 
 from the shore on the one side, as it began at the other. Like a hill 
 of sand in the middle of a desert ; it may be raised and scattered 
 without any sensible effect on the level, and without the slightest 
 encroachment on its borders. 
 
 It is almost impossible to notice all the arguments which have 
 been had recourse to to prop up the Newtonian theory of the 
 tides ; everyone has tried to explain a simple fact, but no ex- 
 planation is found fitting. In the meanwhile, since my first 
 edition, the old theory of the absence of a tide in the ISaltic and 
 the Mediterranean seems to have been abandoned, for, in his 
 Introduction, p. 54, Mr. Hind says: "In the Mediterranean and 
 Baltic, both inland seas, the tides are scarcely appreciable, for the 
 inlets to these seas are so narrow, that the ocean has not time to 
 fill them with the tidal wave, before the ATTRACTION of the moon 
 is REVERSED, or tends to make the waters ebb." 
 
 That the attraction of the moon also TENDS to make the waters 
 EBB, is certainly something new to me ; but as it is more trouble- 
 some to prevent an old house from falling than to build up a new 
 one, to refute fallacies thAn to establish a truth, I will now, without 
 entering further into the contradictions of the present, proceed to 
 state my 
 
 NEW AND CORRECT THEORY OF THE TIDES. 
 
 God's will, by fixed laws, governs the whole universe. These 
 laws are arbitrary, but cease to be so to our understanding, when 
 we are able to account for their operations ; by them He guides 
 the heavenly bodies, as the will of my soul guides my pen, moves 
 my limbs, and rules my whole frame. So then it is the will of 
 God, that this earth should be girt by the ocean, that its waters 
 
 should neither displace the air and fly off to the moon, nor be 
 
 w 2 
 
324 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 absorbed by the bowels of our globe. So it is the will of God, 
 that this earth should be enveloped in a fluid, called the air ; that 
 this mixture of the air should have no tendency towards the 
 centre of the earth, but withdraw, and keep away from its pits 
 and subterranean cavities, nor a tendency to escape beyond our 
 sphere, as proved by its rarity in the upper regions. It was His 
 will, that this ocean of air should constantly flow round, and cover 
 our globe ; that above this ocean, called the atmosphere, as a 
 matter of extreme probability, if not necessity, and as I have 
 shown already, there should be a still clearer and purer element, 
 commonly called ether, but which, as I have demonstrated before, 
 is almost beyond doubt, an ocean of oxygen ; and that above this 
 ocean of oxgyen there should be other oceans of still more subtle 
 and elastic fluids ; that somewhere above one of these oceans, 
 
 ,. destined like these, and like the 
 
 /'*' ...---. \ water and the air, to remain in the 
 
 space assigned to her by God, and 
 
 like a ship on the sea, there should 
 N P ' ' : ^SHWI g p 
 
 appear the bright moon, AS A LIGHT 
 
 TO THE EARTH, as the beneficial 
 agitator of the oceans of matter 
 beneath, her upper part enveloped, 
 perhaps, in a substance quite different from that in and upon which 
 her lower part is immersed and floating. 
 
 Be this, however, as it may ; whether two, three, or four oceans, 
 or rings, of different matter, separate us from the moon : for the 
 peculiar purpose for which she was created, God placed her, 
 gravitating to the' centre of the earth, on one of the oceans above 
 us, not like a revolving planet, like a revolving wheel, but like 
 a well-laden ship on the sea which she has to traverse ; on this 
 ocean she performs her journey round our globe, according to the 
 laws which I have treated of before, always presenting to us 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 325 
 
 part, or the whole, of her hull, without our ever, like a fish in the 
 water, beholding the deck or the masts. 
 
 The theory that the moon rotates round an axis of her own 
 is a totally false assumption, based upon the idea that a body 
 moving in a circle, and a body forming the centre of a sphere or 
 a circle and moving on its pivot, is one and the same thing. If 
 this be proved not to be true, the controversy must naturally be at 
 an end. It is only to be regretted, that in so simple a matter, so 
 many words should have been, and have to be, wasted. 
 
 The earth rotates 3 65 times round its own axis, whilst perform- 
 ing one revolution round the sun. If the earth, in its revolution 
 round the sun, did not rotate round an axis of its own, one side 
 of it only would ever be presented to the sun ; if it rotated but once 
 a-year round its own axis, every part of the earth, during that 
 year, would once be presented to the sun. 
 
 The moon and the earth occupy the same relative position. If 
 the moon turned but once round her own axis during the month, 
 every part of her would once be presented to the earth during that 
 month ; but as the moon does not rotate upon an axis of her own, 
 so but one side of her alone is for ever presented to the earth. 
 
 A body moving in a circle, and keeping with the same side, 
 or the same face, the axis, or centre of such circle, constantly in 
 view, would be SUBJECT TO THE CONDITION OF NON-ROTATION. 
 If without intermission you will keep in sight a fixed, or central, 
 object, whatever the line you move in, your non-rotation becomes 
 a condition. The same face of the moon, the same lower part of 
 a balloon, the same bottom of a ship, keeping the earth, the centre 
 of their circular orbit or motion, constantly in view, their non- 
 rotation round an axis of their own, round a centre within them- 
 selves, becomes a condition. 
 
 Thus, to the inhabitants of the earth, the moon does not seem 
 to, nor does she, rotate round an axis of her own, because they 
 
326 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 always see the same face ; but to the sun, it is argued, she does 
 rotate round an axis of her own, because in turn she presents to 
 him every part of her surface. 
 
 A little consideration only, will show, that to the sun even, the 
 rotation of the moon round an axis of her own, is but apparent, 
 supposing the inhabitants of that fiery globe to 'hold the contrary 
 doctrine. 
 
 Moving in a circle, without the earth round which to revolve, 
 the inhabitants of the sun might easily be misled respecting 
 the rotation of the moon round an axis of her own. The space 
 described by the orbit of the moon might, to their eyes, be 
 quite inappreciable ; they might consider her rotating on her 
 own axis, subject to certain changes of positions in the heavens. 
 But when they see her move round another dark body, they 
 will at once conclude that she does not move on her own pivot, 
 but in a circle, round the centre of that circle. They would see that 
 there is no rotation, but a simple floating motion round the earth. 
 Let the moon gradually sink down towards the earth, towards the 
 centre of her gravitation, and by degrees the interior part of the 
 circle, the FACE WHICH WE NOW SEE, will be hidden from the 
 sun ; let the moon finally float close to the earth, or ride upon 
 the mountain tide she will then have raised by her attraction, (! !) 
 and nothing but the part away from us, the ONLY PART SEEN BY 
 THE SUN NOW WHEN IN CONJUNCTION, will ever be beheld by his 
 inhabitants, and that also but once a month only. The moon to 
 them will then, like the ship, be nothing but part and parcel of the 
 earth which she really is, with this characteristic, that she would 
 present to him her deck, her sun-turned face but once a month, 
 whilst the earth presents to him the same face once every day, and 
 that for this reason : that the moon is too heavy and the fluid upon 
 which she floats too light, to enable the earth to carry her round 
 with it, on her present ocean, within the time of its own rotation. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 327 
 
 The axis of the earth, then, is the axis of the moon's rotation, 
 though the old theory does not make it clear where that axis 
 lies. 
 
 " Strictly speaking, the centre of the earth is not the point 
 round which the moon revolves ; but both bodies have a revolution 
 round their common centre of gravity. This point is situated at 
 an average distance of 2690 miles from the centre of our globe, 
 or about 1270 miles beneath the surface, and subject to a variation 
 of rather more than 165 miles, one way or the other, in conse- 
 quence of the variable distance between the earth and the moon. 
 The perturbation in the place of the earth, or rather its re-action 
 on the place of the sun, owing to this motion round the centre 
 of gravity, may affect the sun's longitude more than five seconds 
 of arc, and his latitude about 0'7." Hind's Solar System. 
 
 If the earth and moon revolve round a COMMON CENTRE of 
 gravity, this common central point involves an axis, and as that 
 point is said to be about two-thirds removed from the centre of the 
 earth towards its surface, this axis or common point must be 
 eccentric. 
 
 Now how the earth can revolve round its own CENTRAL axis 
 passing from pole to pole, and how at the same time it can revolve 
 round an ECCENTRIC point or axis, I cannot understand, nor do I 
 understand this proposition when applied to the moon. 
 
 Suppose an uneducated person to turn on his own axis, round 
 himself, and at the same time, or any other, trying to turn or 
 circulate round his own nose ; would this not be very ridiculous 
 in the poor fellow ? Suppose, however, that a LEARNED man, the 
 Astronomer Royal, for instance, were trying the same thing ; what 
 should we think of him ? Yet this is the theory which scientific 
 men teach and apply to every heavenly body. 
 
 Though so evidently absurd, as in the comic instance indicated, 
 I would still ask, when applied to the earth and the moon : is the 
 
328 
 
 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 common centre of gravity in question a point or object fixed, or is 
 it moving ? an axis stationary or shifting I a point material or 
 immaterial? Does the earth, in its diurnal rotation, carry this 
 point away with it from under the moon, take it back under her 
 again, and away from her again and again ? Or does that common 
 centre remain stationary in a direct vertical line under the moon 
 whilst the earth is going round ? How, in any case, can the earth 
 revolve round this common centre of gravity which is either an 
 IMMOVEABLE eccentric somewhere, or a point carried about every- 
 where ? Does this common centre of gravity round which BOTH 
 BODIES are said to revolve, being 2690 miles outside the centre of 
 the earth, ever come in opposition as well as conjunction with the 
 moon in regard to to the CENTRE of our globe ? And if this be 
 so, does the moon rise and fall in her course as every 24 hours 
 this fixed centre of gravity, as in fig. 1 and 2, comes in conjunction 
 
 o the common centre or POINT. 
 At midnight. At midday. Carried all round. 
 
 or opposition ? And if this common centre of gravity exists all 
 round within the earth, forming a ring, a kind of tyre, the POINT 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THB SOLAR SYSTEM. 829 
 
 of gravity carried all round as in fig. 3, at 1270 miles beneath the 
 surface : why not then at once draw aline from the moon direct to 
 the centre of the earth, the centre of this supposed ring of gravity? 
 what does otherwise become of the POINT ? And how can the 
 earth revolve round this interior ring or line of gravity ? how at 
 all can it revolve or circulate round an excentric point or spot 
 whether IMMOVEABLE, FIXED, OR SHIFTING, when and whilst it 
 performs its central axial rotation ? 
 
 To solve this riddle, or even properly to propose and dissect it, 
 is more than I can do ; but the reader will not fail to see, with all 
 the drawbacks of my indistinct exposition, that, though calculated 
 to a mile, the whole affair is a pure fallacy, as already noticed page 
 4 and 237, and that the central axis of the earth, the centre of 
 the earth itself, is AND MUST BE the axis of the moon's rotation, 
 her ONLY centre of gravitation, the fulcrum of her motion ; and 
 this truth no distance of the moon from the earth can change. 
 
 The moon, therefore, does neither revolve round a centre 
 of gravity which she has in common with the earth, nor has 
 she a rotation on her own axis ; then only could she be said to 
 rotate round an axis of her own, if she were substituted in the 
 place of the earth, or if but once within a given time she were to 
 show every part of her surface to the earth. 
 
 A ship sailing round the earth is in exactly the same condition 
 as the moon ; like her she always presents the same face to the 
 centre of the earth, and consequently does not rotate round an axis 
 of her own, but round that of the earth to which she belongs ; 
 remove her to the distance of the moon, and nothing will change 
 her law of motion ; she only is further removed from the centre 
 of her orbit, from the solid body round which she floats. Imagine 
 the ball in the diagram page 229 to be a ship going round the earth, 
 and you will perceive that she CANNOT turn round her own axis, 
 no more than with a constant wind, a primitive impulse, at her 
 
330 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 back, and attracted by the earth's centre, she can preserve her 
 parallelism, always point to the top of the page. 
 
 Ship, moon, or balloon, whether floating on the sea of water, 
 of air, or of ether of our earth, behold every quarter of the globe 
 the same as the earth itself ; but it does not follow that for this 
 reason, as it is argued, they should also move round an axis within 
 themselves, round an axis separate from that of the earth ; to suppose 
 this, would be a manifest absurdity, because, in fact, they are nothing 
 but part and parcel of the earth round whose axis alone they revolve. 
 
 A different thing it would be with the wheels of a carriage 
 drawn round the earth. Whilst no one would say that the carriage, 
 presenting always the same inferior part to the earth, to the centre 
 of its gravitation, was rotating on an axis of its own in going 
 round the earth, everybody would be obliged to acknowledge, that 
 the wheels by themselves, during the same journey, would make 
 many revolutions round their own respective axis ; but, put drags 
 to the wheels, and in that instant rotation round their own axis 
 would cease, because, like the moon, the ship, and the carriage, 
 they would always present the same part, the same face, to the 
 centre of the earth. The test of the rotation of a body must, in 
 fact, be taken from the point or centre of gravitation round which 
 such a body moves, by which it is attracted. If, for instance, vis- 
 a-vis the sun, the moon were to present to him always the same 
 face during her orbit round the earth, it would amount to non- 
 rotation ; hence, astronomers say, the moon DOES ROTATE on an 
 axis of her own because the above does not take place. And yet, 
 the case stands quite different. We do not, in the first place, 
 know of any motion of a body like the one supposed, moving in a 
 circle or orbit, without this circle or orbit having an axis, its 
 point or centre of gravitation ; the motion, in fact, according to 
 the laws of nature, is simply impossible, except to an intelligent 
 or living creature. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 331 
 
 A person may, for instance, move round a centre, round a chair, 
 so as to present front, and at the opposite side, back to the chair, 
 and a spectator outside see nothing but the person's back ; but this 
 is simply going FORWARD, sideward and BACKWARD, though the 
 motion is in a circle round the chair, the same as the earth is 
 made to go round the sun, preserving its parallelism, page 230, fig. 
 2 ; it is not WALKING FORWARD in a circle as shown by fig. 3 
 same page. To reason, therefore, upon this so HIGHLY INTEL- 
 LECTUAL performance and illustration, would be an absurdity. 
 
 The moon, in the second place, would, on the above supposition, 
 present every part of her surface once a month to the earth, and 
 this really would be one rotation round her own interior axis 
 during one of her revolutions ; but, this not being the case, non- 
 rotation is established as a matter of course, 
 
 To prove this, stretch out your arms and hold a hat between 
 your hands ; then turn round yourself, round your own axis, as 
 often as you like, and see whether you can see the opposite side 
 of the hat UNLESS YOU TURN IT ROUND ITS OWN AXIS BETWEEN 
 YOUR HANDS. This not being the case UNLESS YOU DO so, non- 
 rotation, as with the moon, is absolute. Body and axis are equally 
 attracted by the centre of gravitation ; body and axis never change 
 their relative position ; both, like the clogged wheels, present 
 always the same part to the centre of the earth ; and wherever 
 a body and its axis present always the same face to the centre of 
 their gravitation, though that centre be only the axis of a silken 
 thread round which they move, THERE is NON-ROTATION ; and to 
 a spectator, or body, outside the circle of such motion, the rotation 
 would be in appearance only. 
 
 Before the drags were applied to the carriage -wheels, they had a 
 double motion like the earth ; the one motion in a circle round the 
 earth, and the other round their own respective central axis. 
 When clogged, the wheels made a simple revolution only round 
 
332 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 the earth, they simply moved in a circle, and rotated once round 
 the axis of that circle. 
 
 A circle, then, MUST have an axis ; a body simply moving in a 
 circle must naturally move round such axis as its centre, the same 
 as in drawing a circle one leg of the compass moves round the 
 other as its rotating centre, though, like the earth round the sun, 
 like the unclogged wheels round the earth, such a body may at 
 the same time rotate round an axis of its own. In the latter case, 
 the rotating body does not with the same face, with one particular 
 part of its surface, keep the axis of its circular motion constantly 
 in view ; and this is the test of its rotation. The moon in her 
 circular orbit, the ship, the carriage and the clogged wheels, in 
 their motion round the earth, do with the same face always look to 
 the centre of the earth, and hence the proof of their non-rotation. 
 
 Take another test, and instead of a vulgar hat, let a person 
 hold a mirror between his outstretched hands, and, if fond of it, 
 steadfastly look at his own beloved image whilst turning round 
 his own axis ; and if during one complete rotation the image does 
 not turn its back upon him, he may be sure that neither his 
 likeness, nor the mirror, have turned round their respective axis, 
 though he himself has done so round his own. If this be not 
 convincing, nothing will. 
 
 A central body, in order to keep another body moving in a 
 circle round it, constantly in view, whether with a particular or 
 any or every other part of its surface : rotation round its own axis 
 becomes a condition. Hence, moving simply in a circle, and 
 moving in, or upon, a centre, forming a moving centre, are two 
 different motions, though both may be combined. That they are 
 not so combined in the moon, and that she does not rotate round 
 an axis of her own, I think I have sufficiently proved ; and no 
 experiments will establish the contrary, unless they grapple with the 
 special arguments, and disprove the illustrations, I here have used, 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 333 
 
 From the coincidence of the exact time of the tides, with the 
 exact time of the progress of the moon round the earth, in con- 
 nection with the rotation of the earth round its own axis, there 
 can be no question but that they are occasioned by the moon, 
 contrary to the idea of Capt. Kerigan, who believes her influence 
 to be entirely negative. Now, if we substitute " pressure " of the 
 moon for " attraction " we shall be able easily to point it out as 
 the cause of high and low water. 
 
 It seems natural, that, like a ship on the sea, or a boat on a 
 canal, the passage of the moon over the ocean of matter in which 
 she swims, should produce a pressure, and a corresponding ex- 
 pansion at the sides. This pressure upon the said ocean, we will 
 call it ether, acts directly, or indirectly, upon the air, the same as 
 the pressure of the air acts upon the water ; and the nearer the 
 moon, the stronger the pressure, and the further away, the less 
 her influence ; it is like the pressure of a ship according to the 
 width of the river, and her distance from, or nearness to, the 
 shore. The pressure will also be influenced by the greater or 
 lesser rapidity with which the ship is progressing. 
 
 We all know the corresponding eifect of the wind, or of an 
 agitated atmosphere, upon the water, in causing the rise of waves. 
 The agitation of the atmosphere itself is caused in a variety of 
 ways, partly known, partly unknown, into which, however, I here 
 cannot enter ; but I have shown already, on treating of thunder- 
 storms, with what force the lowering cloud presses upon, and 
 displaces, the air beneath it. Yet the passage of the moon is 
 more than the lowering cloud, though her pressure seems to be 
 unfelt, because so even and so far extended. 
 
 That, apart from winds and the various currents of the 
 air, there is a regular movement belonging to the whole of 
 the atmosphere, is proved by Humboldt. In his Cosmos he 
 says : " One of the main features of the atmosphere is the variation 
 
334 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 of the pressure of the air between the tropics, a regular, so easily 
 discernable, hourly oscillation, a kind of ebb and flow of the atmo- 
 sphere, which is not to be ascribed to the attraction of the moon, 
 and which very much varies according to the geographical latitude, 
 the seasons, and the height of the point of observation above the 
 level of the sea." In another place he speaks of " the hourly varia- 
 tions of the atmospheric pressure, which successively take place 
 from east to west, and which in the tropics are so regular." 
 
 Whence, then, comes this regular ebb and flow of the tide of 
 the atmosphere ? It does not result from the ATTRACTION of the 
 moon, as Humboldt truly observes, nor from any cause operating 
 on the surface of the earth, no more than the tide of the ocean is 
 caused by some operation at the bottom of the sea. If the surface 
 of our atmosphere were as tangible to observation as the surface 
 of the sea, I have no manner of doubt, but that the tide of the air, 
 in all its features, would resemble the tide of the sea, particularly 
 after what is said by Humboldt of its variation according to place 
 and season. 
 
 This, and that the tide, both of the sea and the air, successively 
 takes place from east to west, renders it still more probable, that 
 the tide of the sea is but the effect of the tide of the air, and that 
 both are caused by the PRESSURE of the moon. 
 
 My new theory of the tides seems to me, in the highest degree, 
 to be the true one, inasmuch as it requires no forced application, 
 and is simple,without any contradictory points between law, theory, 
 and fact ; and because it solves all the anomalies which cannot be 
 reconciled with the theory of Newton. I do not think, for instance, 
 that it is overstraining my reasoning, if I account for the 
 two opposite points of high water, and the two intervening opposite 
 points of low water, in the following manner : 
 
 It is a well-known fact, that, apart Jfrom particular currents, 
 produced by particular causes, the general flow, or motion, of the 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 335 
 
 air, as well as of the waters of the sea, is from east to west, the 
 same as their tides ; and this flow from east to west, with Galileo 
 and Kepler, I ascribe to the rotation of the earth in the opposite 
 direction, from west to east. The moon, sailing, as it were, in the 
 same direction from west to east, though across the earth, goes 
 against the currents of water and air that flow on the earth from 
 east to west. By her pressure, direct or indirect, upon the atmo- 
 sphere : the air, an elastic body, is depressed and displaced under- 
 neath, and raised in front by her onward course against the 
 contrary current. The first tide-wave is thus created immediately 
 in front, or to the east of the moon ; and the air, escaping behind, 
 will rise as much, or nearly so, beyond its ordinary level, as it 
 had been depresssed below it, and thus cause the formation of the 
 second tide-wave, on the western side, and at a greater distance 
 from the moon than in front. These atmospheric tide-waves will 
 press upon the water, and present to us the tide-waves of the ocean 
 in a corresponding manner ; the pressure of the moon, extending 
 in its effect over at least one-fourth part of the earth, each of the 
 tide-waves will cover a similar space, leaving between them, 
 immediately under the moon, and, by the very want of velocity, 
 also on the other side of the earth, opposite to the moon, one- 
 fourth part each of low water. 
 
 Or, the moon may also be considered a floating bridge ; the 
 ethereal current strikes against her bulk, is arrested and accumu- 
 lates, then forces its way underneath and over, like the air through 
 the arches of, and over, a bulky bridge, and rises and accumulates 
 again on the other side in proportion to the disturbance of its level. 
 And this disturbance of the ethereal level acts upon the air, and 
 the air causes the tides of the sea. 
 
 As the height of the tides of the sea is influenced by shallows 
 in the sea, by the configuration of the coasts of the mainland : so 
 the variation of the ebb and flow of the air depends much 
 
336 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 on the chains of mountains it has to pass by, or over, and on 
 the nearness, or distance, of the moon from such coasts or 
 mountains., 
 
 All this appears simple and beautiful, and yet, excepting the 
 preceding paragraph without having overstrained my reasoning 
 upon old assumptions, I have nevertheless been labouring in vain 
 to reconcile my own new theory with the received facts and explan- 
 ations of the tides; in trying to refute the fallacies of the old 
 theory, I have been striving against a phantom of the imagination, 
 because the FACTS of the old theory of the tides, STATED AS SUCH, 
 are nothing but THINGS CALCULATED, and as UNTRUE IN REALITY, 
 as the theory itself is inconsistent and forced, and its result, the 
 child of so much labour, a grand mistake. 
 
 It looks very well on paper to see the sun pulling at the earth 
 one way and the moon pulling it another, and thus to make them 
 raise a tremendous tide on either side of the earth, of course 
 directly under the sun, and under the moon's path and motion ; 
 but, as Capt. Kerigan states, there is not only no tide at St. 
 Helena : there is none either, or scarcely any, under the whole of 
 the ecliptic, under the direct passage and line of attraction of the 
 moon. And yet it has been assumed and I have before been 
 misled by the assumption that, the sun kindly helping her at 
 times, there is a tide raised by the moon, before, behind, or under 
 our satellite; it has been calculated to a fraction how many per cent, 
 of the height of the tidal wave are due to the attraction of the sun, 
 and how many due to that of the moon ;* that the tides OUGHT TO 
 BE of a certain height, and that there OUGHT TO BE the highest 
 tide in the middle of the ocean, particularly under the ecliptic ;f 
 yet notwithstanding all these OUGHT TO BE'S and calculations, there 
 is NO TIDE AT ALL in the open sea, neither in front, nor after, nor 
 
 * See Anomalies, page 142. f See Anomalies, page 141. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 337 
 
 under the moon, and consequently much less a tide at the opposite 
 side of the earth, directly or indirectly caused by the moon. 
 
 The old theory, therefore, is IN EVERY RESPECT SIMPLY UNTRUE. 
 
 On looking over the authorized tide-tables of the Admiralty for 
 1861, for places all over the earth, I find the following islands and 
 ports under the ecliptic, within the tropics, where there is a tide, 
 well observed a SPRING TIDE* ONLY of from 2 to about 6 feet, 
 but chiefly inclined towards the lower figure, viz. : 
 
 St. Helena 3' ; Ascension 2' ; St. Thomas 4' ; Princes Island 
 4^' ; the ports from the River Niger upwards to Sierra Leone 
 from 2' to 5', and a few only from 6' to 7' ; Cape Verde Islands 
 5' ; the Azores, though beyond the tropics, 4' to 6' ; all the islands 
 and ports in the Caribbean sea and the Bahamas, including 
 Bermudas j' to 4' ; Tobago, Trinidad, Carthagena 1J' to 4' ; 
 West Coast of Mexico 1^' to 7' ; Galapagos Islands 5' to 6J'; Coast 
 of Peru 2' to 6' ; ports of Bolivia and Chili 3' to 6' the ISLANDS 
 in the North Pacific 2' to 4' ; the ISLANDS in the South Pacific 
 Ocean 1' to 6'; the Phillipines 2 % to 6'; Java 2' to 6' ; Coast of 
 Sumatra 3' to 6' ; Crimon Islands, Celebes, Moluccas 3' to 6' ; the 
 ISLANDS in the Indian ocean IJ'to 7' ; Ceylon !' to 3' ; Mauritius 
 3' ; and at all these islands and ports, without almost an exception, 
 there are no " neap " or low-tides recorded, simply because there 
 are none. 
 
 Some of the coasts and islands under the ecliptic do, however, 
 form exceptions ; for, in several places the SPRING-TIDES rise 
 from 6' to 20' and even higher, where the shores of continents, 
 islands and prominent headlands, are exposed to the direct current 
 of the ocean, like Madagascar, the east coast of Africa, of South 
 America from Paraiba to Maranhan and Para, orwhere the oceanic 
 
 * Spring tides are those produced at new and full moon, twice a month, 
 when both sun and moon are said to combine for a good pull, a long pull, 
 and a strong pull altogether, at mother earth. 
 
338 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 current has to pass through narrow straits as at Malacca, the 
 straits of Banca, etc., where the rise is evidently not due to the 
 attraction, and in part only to the pressure, of the moon. 
 
 Going from the tropics towards the poles, the tides rise higher 
 and higher at the shore of the mainland, the " neap-tides " even 
 from 9' to 30', and yet the islands do not follow in proportion ; for, 
 the Falkland Islands have a " spring-tide " of only from 5' to 8' ; 
 the Bermudas only 4', and Newfoundland only from 2' to 8 J' ; New 
 Zealand 7' to 8' ; Japan 3' to 7', and Kamchatka 6|' : proof all 
 this, that the moon draws no tide ANYWHERE IN THE OPEN SEA as 
 she OUGHT TO DO according to the old theory, and that calculation 
 goes for nothing against simplicity of theory, and still more cannot 
 stand against FACT. 
 
 But all this makes it clear, that the moon passing along the 
 ecliptic, by her mediate pressure upon the water, drives the tide 
 down towards the poles, and that the second tide within 24 hours 
 is but a reaction of the first one actually caused by the moon ; 
 that the first tide occuring regularly, the re-action must be regular. 
 And if, further, there are any tides under the ecliptic, they are not 
 so much to be ascribed to the direct pressure of the moon there, as 
 to the re-action of the tides she produces upon the shores of the 
 islands and continents north and south of the ecliptic, and to the 
 confinement of certain portions of the ocean and its consequent 
 course and accumulation of the water through narrow straits, or 
 along, or upon, an opposing coast. 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAE SYSTEM. 339 
 
 XV, 
 
 ANOMALIES OF THE OLD THEORY OF THE TIDES DISAPPEAR IN THE NEW 
 ONE. BAROMETRICAL PRESSURE AND THE MOON. LIBRATION AND 
 FACE OF THE MOON. IMPORTANCE OF THE NEW THEORY TO 
 METEOROLOGY. VARIATION IN THE PRESSURE OF THE AIR ; THE 
 
 EQUINOCTIAL GALES ACCOUNTED FOR. ACCELERATION OF THE 
 MOON'S MOTION ; IF TRUE, REASONS FOR THE SAME. REMOVAL, OR 
 
 COLLAPSE, OF THE ENVELOPES OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES. LIBERA- 
 TION OF THE ELECTRIC ELEMENT FROM WITHIN THE EARTH. 
 
 DESTRUCTION OF THE EARTH BY FIRE AND THE END OF THE 
 WORLD. CONCISE RECAPITULATION OF THE NEW THEORY OF THE 
 SIMPLICITY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 I WILL now try to reconcile a few anomalies of the theory of at- 
 traction, with my new theory of pressure. 
 
 If the attractive power of the moon is not sufficient to raise a 
 tide at St. Helena, whilst it is said to be the cause of the high 
 tide at the " Land's End," which is not east of the moon, but on 
 the same meridian with St. Helena : then this anomaly disappears 
 by substituting the PRESSURE of the moon for her ATTRACTION ; 
 for, the water is running away from the moon instead of running 
 up to her ; and this pressure is perhaps the only means of assisting 
 a mere difference of temperature to drive the warm water of 
 the tropics over the poles of the earth, and there to make them 
 more freely circulate. 
 
 A ship on the water will displace as much water as her bulk is 
 immersed in, and the pressure of the ship on the water underneath 
 will not be greater than that of the water which she displaced, 
 inasmuch as the water displaced is equal in weight to the body that 
 has taken its place. But the pressure of the ship will force the 
 water displaced to the sides, and manifest itself in a rise at the 
 shore to which it is driven, supposing the ship to be large, and the 
 channel narrow, enough for the purpose. 
 
 The moon is nothing else but a ship, a boat, to which the ocean 
 
 is as a large river, and gulfs, bays, and rivers, are as canals ; the 
 
 x 2 
 
340 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 elastic air readily gives way to the pressure of the moon, to the 
 pressure of her weight, and therefore exercises but little, if any, 
 influence on the water directly underneath ; but it accumulates in 
 a wave, increased by the onward pressure of the moon, and weighing 
 upon the water at a distance, makes it rise at the shore Hence 
 the imperceptible change in the ebb and flow of the water at St. 
 Helena, though the moon be there in the zenith, and the high tide 
 at the Land's End so far away. Hence also, as we have seen, 
 NO TIDES at any of the ISLANDS within the torrid zone. Islands, 
 at the same time, are to the flow of water what single hills, or 
 solitary mountains, are to the motion of the air ; they are not suffi- 
 ciently large, unless the flood be very rapid and strong, to offer 
 any perceptible resistance, so as to be an obstacle to its course ; 
 they simply divide the approaching current, which has time and 
 space enough to pass and expand on either side, without rolling 
 up the shore to any tidal degree. 
 
 By my theory, the anomaly of the tide-wave continuing to rise, 
 by impulse, or by continued influence, for three hours after the 
 water has been carried away, by the rotation of the earth, from 
 under the vertical line of attraction of the moon, as well as the 
 theory of oblique attraction, is solved without difficulty ; for, the 
 moon, by her pressure, DOES give a propelling impulse to the 
 water, which will continue to flow, and to rise at the shore, THOUGH 
 she has long passed away ; and the greater the pressure extends 
 into distance, the greater the accumulation of the wave ; and the 
 shorter the distance, the lower the tide. Hence the higher tide 
 when the moon is right above the equator, driving the water on 
 each side all the way to the poles, and the low tide when she is 
 in her quarters nearer the north or south pole. 
 
 " It has also been observed, that the height of the barometer is, 
 one time with another, less in the middle of the second quarter 
 than in that of either of the others ; and that it is somewhat greater 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 341 
 
 at new and full moon than at the quarter." Knight's Penny Cyclo- 
 paedia, 372. 
 
 According to my theory of pressure the rising tide has no super- 
 incumbent weight to overcome, though it is said (Cyclopaedia, 372) 
 that '* the ATMOSPHERE is continually undergoing a slight altera- 
 tion from the EFFECTS of THE TIDES," and (Manual of Scientific 
 Enquiry, 1859, p. 181) "We have already alluded to the influence 
 of its (Mediterranean) WATERS IN ORIGINATING small ATMOS- 
 PHERIC WAVES," which are pure fallacies ; for the water is like 
 the scales of a balance, of which the one will not rise, unless the 
 other is PRESSED DOWN BY WEIGHT. And with the tides it is 
 still more necessary, that one scale should SINK FIRST by accumu- 
 lated pressure, and thus cause the other to rise, because the weight 
 of the atmosphere is precisely equal all over the ocean, which 
 being entirely covered and pressed upon by the air everywhere, 
 the weight of the ATMOSPHERE would prevent the rise of the tide, 
 unless, on the old theory, the moon, in ATTRACTING the water, 
 were powerful enough to attract, or draw up also, to displace, or 
 overcome the resistance of, the air. The work performed by the 
 ocean in rising against the atmospheric pressure, is precisely equal 
 to the force exercised by the accumulating influence of the moon, 
 the pressure of the air-tide, on the portion which it causes to sink. 
 Therefore, the phenomenon of the tides is the result of weight, of 
 water THROWN, not DRAWN, into motion, by an external force 
 ever varying, both in direction and amount ; and this external 
 force is beyond all doubt the pressure, and not the attraction, of 
 the moon ; it is, as it were, the rocking to and fro of our atmo- 
 sphere upon the ocean. The loftier ocean of our sphere, in the 
 course of the earth pressing against the atmosphere of the sun, is 
 not free from agitation either, and as its mighty tide is oscillating 
 from pole to pole, the moon likewise oscillates, so that at one time 
 we see more of one or the other of her sides than at another, 
 
342 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 as we do also see more or less of her edge according to her distance 
 and position from us, north or south, east or west ; and this is 
 called the libration of the moon. 
 
 " It has been stated that the Moon always presents the same 
 
 face towards the Earth strictly speaking, however, 
 
 it is not precisely so we occasionally see a little 
 
 further round each limb than at other times we 
 
 sometimes are able to see a little more than usual of her north 
 and south polar regions." Hind's Introduction to Astronomy -, p. 91. 
 
 Thus, if a learned man, endowed with whiskers, at one time 
 shows a little more of the right, and at another a little more of the 
 left one to the person he may be speaking to, " he then does not 
 always present to him precisely the same face !" 
 
 Respecting the absence of tides in the Baltic and Mediterranean, 
 it is easy to conceive that the continents of Europe and Africa, 
 their mountain-chains and configuration, may prevent the tide- 
 waves of the atmosphere having effect upon these seas, or, that 
 they are already BEYOND the influence of the moon. This influence, 
 however, would exist, if the Mediterranean, for instance, were 
 connected with the southern ocean by means of the Red Sea ; it 
 would then most certainly have tides at the place of junction, if 
 not all over. But the chief cause, no doubt, is this : that these 
 seas are too small to allow the motion given to the water by the 
 gentle pressure of the moon, to accumulate into a very perceptible 
 tidal wave by the time it reaches the shore ; for, it is natural, 
 that, the smaller the sheet of water, the less time and material 
 there is to raise a wave, or tide, at the shore, as we have seen 
 already. 
 
 When the moon is in conjunction with, or opposition to, the sun ; 
 when she either receives the full reflected light of the earth, or the 
 earth receives that of the moon, her pressure is greatest, because 
 in her passage round the earth, she happens, at that time, to be 
 
THE NEW THEOB1 OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 343 
 
 not only nearest, but also travelling with greatest velocity. For, 
 according to observation, the true velocity of the moon becomes 
 always greater, the nearer she herself comes to New and Full Moon, 
 or, within the ecliptic ; and at these points of her orbit she obtains 
 her maximum, as in the two quadratures she moves with her 
 minimum of speed, being then also at her .greatest distance from 
 the earth. 
 
 The difference of distance, apogee and perigee, and consequently, 
 difference of pressure, of the moon, must, of course, influence the 
 height of the tides, apart from the longer or shorter course of the 
 wave. 
 
 The distances of the moon from the earth, from observation, 
 do not agree with the theory of a purely elliptical motion, for 
 these distances are always less at New and Full Moon, and greater 
 in the quadratures, than they should be. Whether my accounting 
 for the apogee and perigee of the moon will clear up this point, or 
 help to do so, I must leave to the reader to judge. 
 
 The earth being a magnet, electricity is accumulated at the 
 poles in the form of a brush, and depressed, or neutral, at the 
 equator, as shown in the diagram; if, therefore, the moon 
 
 approaches either of the poles, she 
 will be pushed further off from the 
 
 solid part of the earth, from the 
 SP 
 normal position or distance when 
 
 right above the equator, until com- 
 pelled to return on her course. 
 Hence her path will be elliptical. 
 
 Or, the solid part of the earth being surrounded by various 
 envelopes, upon one of which the moon is swimming: these 
 envelopes, especially the outer ones, will become depressed round 
 the equator, and consequently elongated at the poles as the earth 
 ia rolling forward on its belly, on its equator, in the solar atmo- 
 
344 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 sphere against which it goes and upon which it presses, the same 
 as an egg rolling on its soft inner skin ; the envelope, in fact, will 
 assume an elliptical shape, the same as the nucleus of Donati's 
 comet, see page 29, or the diagram page 32. 
 
 Thus, by this means also, the moon, floating upon one of 
 the upper oceans or envelopes of the earth, repelled or attracted 
 from pole to pole without crossing either, and apart from the special 
 electric repulsion noticed before, would be carried away further 
 from the solid part of the earth after having crossed the line. 
 
 The depression of the envelopes of the earth on the equator 
 would change, or shift, become inclined, according to the oscilla- 
 tion of the earth, and thereby influence the PERIODICAL apogee 
 and perigee of the moon. 
 
 When at each equinox, the axis of the earth being perfectly 
 horizontal to the sun, this rotary depression on the equator 
 coincides with the full, or new, moon, that the moon is 
 right above the equator of, and, owing to this depression, also 
 nearer to, the earth ; the pressure of the earth against the solar 
 atmosphere, and the pressure of the moon, MAY and no doubt DO 
 COMBINE to produce the equinoctial storms and tides which, at that 
 time, on both sides of the equator, have their widest range to 
 blow and roll towards the poles the greatest volumes of air and 
 water, and accumulate them into the most gigantic waves and 
 currents of the atmosphere and the ocean ; and the equinoctial gales 
 would be constant if it were not for the oscillation of the earth. 
 
 Whether the depression, particularly the daily one, of the 
 envelope of the earth around its equator, does actually, and how, help 
 to produce or influence the tides, I have not made clear to myself 
 as yet ; but the daily and regular variation of the barometer, 
 apart from the dilatation and contraction of the air from heat and 
 cold and the variation noticed page 340, I think we may safely 
 ascribe to the daily depression of our higher exterior envelopes, 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 345 
 
 and its action upon our atmosphere of air, according to season and 
 the oscillation of the earth. 
 
 " Without doubt, the most interesting phenomenon, and one that 
 lies at the root of all the great atmospheric movements, especially 
 those proceeding northward in the northern hemisphere, and 
 southward in the southern, is the equatorial depression of the 
 barometer, with its characteristic belt of calms, known by the name 
 of Doldrums. The barometer, at the level of the sea, does not 
 indicate a mean atmospheric pressure of equal amount in all parts 
 of the earth ; but, on the contrary, the equatorial pressure is 
 uniformly less in its mean amount than at and beyond the tropics." 
 
 The preceding, taken from the Manual of Scientific Enquiry 
 referred to before, is also readily explained by the equatorial 
 depression of the envelopes of the earth. 
 
 The position and pressure of the moon will no doubt be influenced 
 by the expansion and contraction of our atmosphere above, accord- 
 ing to the seasons, and therefore also affect our atmospheric and 
 oceanic currents and tides and barometric indications. 
 
 It has also been observed, that the moon is gradually accelerating 
 in motion, and, like Encke's comet to the sun, approaching nearer 
 to us ; this approach has been calculated at less than one inch per 
 annum, and accompanies what is called : the secular acceleration 
 of the moon's motion. 
 
 La Place's theory of this acceleration is thus BRIEFLY stated in 
 the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society of June, 
 1859. 
 
 " ' The time of revolution of the moon round the earth depends 
 upon the amount of her gravitation towards the earth ; and if her 
 orbit were not disturbed by the sun and PLANETS*, it would be 
 
 * 642, Sir John Herschel says : " THEIR (the planet's) action upon the 
 earth are out of the question," and in the present instance the planets are said 
 to affect the moon, the SATELLITE of earth. 
 
346 THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 absolutely constant. The sun's disturbing force, however, on the 
 whole, during a revolution, diminishes the central or radial force, 
 and her orbit is, therefore, larger and her period greater than it 
 would be if she were undisturbed. The period will, therefore, 
 depend upon the sun's distance from the earth, and will be different 
 for the different months of the year, but will have a mean value 
 which will be pretty nearly constant for each year. On account, 
 however, of the decrease of the eccentricity of the earth's orbit, 
 the sun's average distance in any year is slightly greater than it 
 was in the preceding, and his disturbing power diminishing the 
 moon's gravity towards the earth is less, and, therefore, the moon's 
 gravitation towards the earth is greater, and her motion becomes 
 accelerated.' " 
 
 " La Place, with his usual sagacity and power of analysis, deduced 
 the effect of this secular disturbance in the mean motion ; but 
 he concluded, Mr. Adams thinks erroneously, that the RADIAL 
 FORCE only is concerned in producing this effect, and that the 
 equal description of areas would not be affected by it, the TANGEN- 
 TIAL FORCE producing no effect. It is a curious fact, that, in the 
 infancy of the lunar theory a similar mistake was made with 
 respect to the motion of the moon's apogee. It was assumed 
 correctly, that only the radial disturbing force was concerned 
 DIRECTLY in producing the motion of the apse, but it was not 
 taken into account that the tangential force, by diminishing or 
 increasing the velocity, caused the position of the moon to be 
 at a given time, different from what it otherwise would have been, 
 and, therefore, INDIRECTLY altered the radial force, and tended to 
 produce a motion of the apse : and it is remarkable that this 
 indirect effect of the tangential disturbing force was in this case of 
 the motion of the apogee equal to the direct effect of the radial dis- 
 turbing force ; and that Clairaut by this discovery relieved men's 
 minds from one of those periodical panics, which, ever since the 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 347 
 
 publication of the Principia, have at intervals seized the minds 
 of astronomers with regard to the absolute truth of the theory of 
 gravitation." 
 
 There are still great differences among astronomers respecting 
 the true causes of this acceleration. As to my own part, without 
 pretending to understand the operation of the disturbing sun and 
 the planets, the radial force, the tangential force, their action 
 direct and indirect, and without being insensible to the important 
 relief of the minds of astronomers, to their ease of heart when so 
 enormous a stone fell from it by the discovery, that the " tangential 
 disturbing force " is equal to, neutralized by, the " radial disturbing 
 force," I nevertheless think, that the acceleration of the moon's 
 motion and her gradual but slow approach to us if true may 
 arise from one of three simple natural causes, applicable also to 
 the planets and comets, if they should be found to approach the 
 sun, and their progressive motion to accelerate. 
 
 1. The earth is constantly increasing in bulk by feeding upon 
 its atmosphere ; this atmosphere, then, though God, at any time, 
 can re-extend it by a liberation of gases from the earth must in 
 the meanwhile diminish, contract, or loose in density ; and in con- 
 sequence of either, the moon would sink lower to find her level. 
 
 2. The moon may still be feeding upon the ocean on which she 
 moves, thereby become heavier, and by degrees go deeper towards 
 us. Or : 
 
 3. The moon may still give up gases with which she may 
 originally have been inflated; and by giving up an expansive 
 
 * Of the sun, in connexion with the tides, I have not spoken, as, ac- 
 cording to my theory, he has nothing whatever to do with them. He 
 attracts all the heavenly bodies of our system in their ENSEMBLE, whilst 
 upon individual parts as upon air, water, gases, electricity he exercises 
 an expanding, a dispersing influence ; hence also the contradiction once 
 before noticed: of his being said to attract the watery envelope of the 
 earth, and consequently contracting it, and to repel, not the nucleus, but 
 the ENVELOi'E, of the comet, aud dispersing it. 
 
348 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 element, she loses more and more of her floating capacity and 
 approaches nearer and nearer. 
 
 Every approach of the moon to the earth will bring her more 
 and more into the attracting grasp of the latter by narrowing her 
 orbit and thereby accelerating her motion ; but which of these 
 three reasons is actually operating to bring about this gradual 
 approximation and consequent acceleration of the moon's motion, 
 it would be difficult to decide. The contraction, diminution, or 
 rarefaction, of our atmosphere, as already noticed, page 148, seems 
 to me the most natural. As to the others : our satellite appears 
 already and has appeared so for some time since, most likely 
 from the time of Adam like a huge piece of coke, all her vitality 
 exploded or burnt out, and consequently unable to attract matter, 
 or to emit any gases, yet so constituted as to be kept afloat within 
 certain limits, and gravitating to the earth's centre. 
 
 The earth would be turned into a body like the moon, if the 
 electric power within were to explode and break through the bonds 
 which hold it confined ; it would, as it were, become a floating, 
 lifeless body, if by the burning and wasting influence of the 
 liberated and enkindled elements it were to be deprived of the 
 momentum, of the spring, that gave it diurnal rotation, that im- 
 parted warmth and fertility to the whole frame, the same as blood 
 does to that of living beings. 
 
 If the veil of the earth were removed, or to collapse, the moon 
 would come down upon it. Or, the moon would burn and be 
 blown into a thousand fragments, if, like the earth, she were in- 
 flated with the electric fluid. 
 
 It is the same with the earth itself, as well as with all the planets. 
 If my theory be true, that, when the sun was placed in the 
 heavens by the Eternal Word, the planets began to rise and to ride 
 on the expanding matter of his atmosphere, or were wafted into 
 it by the same omnipotent power: so, by the contraction or 
 
THE NEW THEORY OP THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 349 
 
 removal of this attenuated atmosphere, they also would be affected. 
 Thus, when at the last day, with the breath of Omnipotence, God 
 will blow out the light of the world, a universal chill and con- 
 traction will take the place of warmth, expansion, and life ; and 
 the earth having in the meanwhile outgrown in bulk, its crust 
 become thicker and augmented in density, and thus the electric 
 life-blood within more and more shut up by impeded perspiration, 
 there will come to pass, according to the laws He laid down, what 
 the Creator of heaven and earth Himself predicted : " The sun 
 shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the 
 stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be 
 moved." And from the darkness and universal chill, and the 
 closing of the earth's pores, the evaporation of electricity of the 
 earth will be stopped, and the confined element, throwing the 
 bowels of the earth into convulsions, often of a sudden rolling 
 mountains of water over devoted cities and places, opening the 
 abyss of the deep and the yawning chasm on land, to engulf the 
 ship and swallow up the habitations of man, will then, with 
 terrific thunder burst forth in millions of volcanoes on land and 
 water, with the rapidity of thought search the intestines of the sea 
 from pole to pole, in length and in breadth, set on fire the coal- 
 beds of the earth and its interior reservoirs of gas and lakes of 
 petroleum, and from its unfathomable depth throw up heaven-high 
 millions of surging fountains ; fearfully lighting up darkness, it 
 will pour out, from its newly-opened craters and outlets, electric 
 fire, burning oil, and molten lava, in streams so incessant and 
 enormous, that the ocean itself will evaporate like a drop of water 
 on a heated plate of iron ; countless meteors, as if in anger, will fall 
 from heaven upon the earth to aid in its destruction ; terrible flashes 
 of lightning in fitful embrace will fill and dart about in the air, and 
 threatening auroras and clouds pregnant with wrath girt our 
 sphere ; and above all this the sign of redemption will be blazing 
 
350 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 before the Son of ^BHHiMmiMHH ^ an * n His glory, 
 a welcome to the I I blessed who loved, 
 
 kissed, and dropped pf B ^% \ tears u P on ^ ^ ere > 
 
 and a horror to the I f BflBflB ^ I wicked who could 
 not bear its sight ; I I and the light of the 
 
 sun and moon and I I the planets being ex- 
 
 tinguished, the whole I I universe is invited to 
 
 witness the judgment I I of the justice of God; 
 
 and then indeed, in I I the words of St. Peter, 
 
 "the earth will be I consumed by fire," 
 
 and at the approach ^^fc"*"^^H of all this " there 
 truly will be distress of nations by reason of the confusion of the 
 roaring of the sea and the waves." 
 
 But, we need not go the end of the World for the confirmation 
 of the operation of these laws. A slight, but awful, instance of 
 a mere, as it were, momentary, obscuration of the sun, was 
 witnessed already at the crucifixion of our Lord. When, at that 
 momentous sacrifice of the atonement, the Heavenly Father threw 
 a veil of mourning for His only-begotten Son over the orb of 
 light ; when horror-struck at the awful crime which was being 
 committed, the sun was paralysed, its life blood chilled and the 
 evaporation of electricity stopped : all became dark, cold and 
 dismal, the earth expanded and trembled, its bosom heaved from 
 sorrow, rocks were rent, and the waters of the earth threatened 
 to overflow the land. And though then no electric fire issued 
 from the rent on Calvary, yet later, about the same spot, at the 
 right time and place, it broke out from the quaking earth, in fiery 
 balls and flashes, when there was question of destroying the works 
 for the third temple which was facing built at Jerusalem under 
 Julian the Apostate, with the avowed object of nullifying the 
 prophecy of Christ, and taking away from His Church the founda- 
 tion which on Calvary He had laid and sealed with His blood. 
 
THE NEW THEOBY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 351 
 
 There are many subjects connected with my new theory of the 
 Solar System, which would require particular notice, and many 
 which especially and more favourably would elucidate it ; but, as 
 an amateur in Natural Philosophy, I have neither the facilities, nor 
 leisure, to prosecute this agreeable study with that continuity and 
 perseverance which it demands. 
 
 The work, as it is, labours under the disadvantage of a 
 fortuitous division into chapters, and the absence of proper 
 classification ; but this must be excused from want of time, having 
 been commenced without any previous knowledge of astronomy, 
 therefore without any pre-conceived plan, written by degrees, 
 mostly at long intervals, adding here and there, and branching off 
 into other subjects closely connected and intimately linked 
 together. 
 
 As, moreover, no new theory can be expected to be received as 
 true without proving the old one to be false, and as it is not 
 sufficient to refute an old theory without having a new and 
 better one to substitute in its place : so the pure treatment of my 
 New Solar System was impossible, and of necessity became in- 
 terspersed and broken into by references to the fallacious system 
 of Newton and his followers. 
 
 Therefore, having gone through the stately building, the work 
 of love, beheld its rising columns, taken notice of its light and 
 shade, its polished and decorated as well as of its cruder parts, 
 but, too often interrupted and impeded, as it were, by falling 
 forces, conical motions and eccentric bodies, by the ruins and 
 rubbish of a crumbling and empty universal-gravitation-rookery, 
 it will be well to recapitulate the chief points of my New Theory, 
 to re-call to the reader the leading traits of the astronomical 
 monument, in order to impress upon his mind the sound founda- 
 tion and clear and striking outlines of a new construction, in its 
 imposing grandeur and majestic simplicity an edifice worthy of the 
 
352 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 Queen of the Sciences to possess, gathering round her throne hosts 
 of wise men of the West, as once BUT THREE came from the East, 
 led by the stars of heaven to do homage to the Star of the Sea, 
 bright in the glory of the SUN AND THE SON OF GOD HIMSELF. 
 
 God, the self-existing, self-acting, eternal Being, created matter 
 to which He imparted the property of motion. 
 
 Motion is synonymous with force ; it is an effect of, and de- 
 pendent upon, matter. Therefore, motion, or force, cannot come, 
 cannot act, of itself, cannot be self-acting, being dependent upon 
 matter. 
 
 All changes in nature are due to the motion of matter, and 
 motion, in all cases, is due to expansion and contraction, to 
 attraction and repulsion, the result of light and darkness, of heat 
 and cold, the product of positive and negative electricity, in 
 their mutual relation the cause of force and motion. 
 
 Light and darkness are latent in every created substance, i. e. 
 every substance is electric, and as a matter of fact and theory, has 
 its poles of attraction and repulsion, the cause of motion. 
 
 Chaos itself was endowed with motion, both as a whole and 
 in every individual atom. 
 
 The seed of the heavenly hosts, visible and invisible, having 
 been cast by God and the law given, worlds began to grow and 
 to enlarge by feeding upon, by precipitation from, chaos, as 
 solid bodies by degrees to separate from imponderable matter, and 
 system to separate from system, as grain separates from grain, 
 and cell from cell. 
 
 The central orb of every system, at first dark, but later bursting 
 out into light, is clothed in a vast envelope of imponderable 
 matter. Within this envelope the planets and their satellites are 
 stationed in rising gradation above the equator of their luminous 
 centre ; and this centre, carrying the whole weight of the system, 
 revolves round its own central axis in the universe of worlds and 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF' THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 853 
 
 systems, all wonderfully poised and balanced against each other 
 in the electric globe of creation. 
 
 The earth, and the other celestial bodies of our solar system, 
 nourished by and grown forth from chaos as we see it now, also 
 surrounded with a vast envelope of air and gases, floats and 
 rotates forward upon its equator, the balance-keeper between 
 its poles, in the atmosphere of the sun, in the ethereal and lofty 
 ocean of our system, in its proper level according to size and 
 weight or density, bearing in mind, that the envelope of the sun 
 becomes more and more dilated as it reaches the end of the system, 
 and that the envelopes of the planets also become more and more 
 expanded or rarefied as they recede from the solid nucleus until 
 they terminate, the moons at the same time floating in their re- 
 spective levels in the atmospheres of the planets, the same as the 
 planets do in the atmosphere of the sun. 
 
 The sun and planets, like all that grows and moves, must of 
 necessity have an interior organization to have grown^ to be 
 possessed of, and to evolve, heat ; they MUST AND DO POSSESS an 
 electric constitution, the cause of attraction, repulsion, motion, 
 and rotation. 
 
 As by polarization system is balanced by system, and system 
 acts upon system, with mutual breaks of contact : so, without 
 disturbing each other, all the millions of systems move onward in 
 inconceivable grandeur and harmony within the sphere of 
 creation ; and as in time each system revolved, so its planets 
 were gently borne along and carried forward by their common 
 centre and bond of union and attraction. 
 
 Before suns were enkindled this motion was slow, though pro- 
 gressive with the progressing development and maturity of the 
 heavenly bodies ; when, however, they had broken out into 
 radiant light, all became more active with life ; the light of the 
 sun acted upon the electric element within his own solid body, the 
 
354 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 electric blood coursed more quickly, and the contact of radiation 
 from the solar photosphere upon the body below being broken by 
 the spots of the sun, the body itself, the centre of the system, 
 with all that it carried, revolved with greater rapidity ; and the 
 sun shining upon the earth and expanding its electric element 
 within, disturbing its balance and causing a constant current more 
 strongly to flow from midnight to mid-day, turned it also more 
 rapidly round its own axis, whilst the moon partook of the ac- 
 celerated motion of her primary. 
 
 The revolution of the heavenly bodies round their own axis is 
 but the revolution of the heated vessel suspended before the fire. 
 
 Moons, being without a living interior organization, simply float 
 in the atmospheres of the planets without revolving round their 
 own axis. 
 
 Our moon floats round the earth above the equator, under the 
 ecliptic, where there are only low spring tides, or, in fact, no tides 
 at all. In her progress round the earth she displaces the atmo- 
 sphere on which she swims, it accumulates on each side of the 
 moon, on each side of the equator, weighs and mediately presses 
 upon the ocean below, and drives the water towards the poles, 
 thus causing the tides by making the water run up the shore 
 wherever it has no room to expand, the second flood during the 
 twenty-four hours of the day being but a reaction of the first. 
 
 The exterior envelopes of the planets perform the office of 
 reflector and burning-lens, throwing * he light and heat of the sun 
 in a focus upon the body beneath. 
 
 The seasons are caused by the oscillation' of the earth, at one 
 time the south-pole inclining towards the sun, and at another the 
 north-pole ; and the burning-lens of our planet being thus shifted, 
 as it were, we have it cold in winter and see the sun larger, and 
 warm in summer whilst seeing him smaller. 
 
 All other phenomena in nature are due to electric attraction and 
 
THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 355 
 
 repulsion, contraction and expansion, to motion, caused by electri- 
 city in its two-fold nature. 
 
 Thus the beautiful arrangement of the universe resolves itself 
 into Systemal Repulsion, and Solar and Planetary Gravitation, the 
 clothing of the heavenly bodies within various spheres of air and 
 gases, the inflation of their interior with negative, and the investi- 
 ture of their exterior with positive electricity. 
 
 Of this simplicity of the creation, I trust, to have convinced the 
 unbiassed reader ; if, however, I should still have left some doubt 
 upon his mind, he will nevertheless agree with me, that my con- 
 ception of the solar system is more simple, more consistent, 
 and consequently more natural and true than the theory hitherto 
 received. 
 
 Whether, as balls of gas, or globes of fire, God projected the 
 heavenly bodies in straight lines and curved their paths by the 
 reputed law of universal gravitation; whether at once they were 
 created as they are and dropped by His Omnipotent Power and 
 Will into their respective centres and orbits, with the unquenchable 
 electric fire within, surrounded and kept enclosed by a vault, by 
 a crust entwined of gold and silver, copper and iron, coal and 
 layers of stone and clay of every description, harmoniously bound 
 and blended together, but subject to superficial changes, according 
 to the designs of God in regard to man ; whether, by electricity 
 moulded out of and separated from chaos, they first formed little 
 specks of matter in the blank of space, and, themselves conceived 
 by the thought of the Omnipotent, suns gave birth to planets and 
 planets to moons; or whether, as I believe, from the seed of 
 worlds cast into chaos by God, suns and planets with their systems 
 grew into existence, comets rose up from the suns and moons from 
 the planets, as meteors still rise from the earth : no mind can 
 fathom the First Cause, how from the depth of His Godhead the 
 
 Almighty called everything into existence ; the Eternal Wisdom 
 
 Y 2 
 
356 THE NEW THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 spoke, and, in the language of a divine, chaos heard tremblingly 
 the voice of its Creator, and separated the newly-ordained bodies. 
 At His call, not only our sun, but suns without number, enkindled 
 in the night of the spheres of creation, and to millions of stars and 
 planets He assigned their course. His WILL became order, beauty 
 and wonder throughout the whole sweep of creation ; suns cast 
 their light through the darkness, and adoring worlds coursed 
 around them in their illuminated paths ; the whole new creation 
 became a MIRROR OF HIS ETERNAL GODHEAD, AND THE 
 MANIFESTATION OF HIS SELF-EXISTING GLORY. 
 
 
SEQUEL 
 
 TO 
 
 DEDICATION AND PREFACE. 
 
 THE LAWS OF GRACE AND JUSTICE AND THE LAWS OF NATURE. 
 
 Mr DEAR WIFE, the favoured object of the miracle spoken of in my 
 dedication, gently breathed her last on Wednesday, the 30th of 
 November, 1859, about a quarter past 10 o'Clock in the morning. 
 On the 26th, the previous Saturday evening, she became very 
 feverish and was attacked with a slight inflammation of the lungs 
 which caused her death ; but the infant which she bore for nearly 
 nine months had already ceased to live within her the day before 
 she died. 
 
 Under these circumstances, fearing a speedy decomposition, 
 she was put into her coffin in the evening; but the truly 
 angelic expression which the departing spirit, like a last seal, had 
 impressed upon her countenance, did not change ; she retained the 
 complexion almost as of one sleeping, and no offensive vapour 
 escaped from her body. An odour, not unpleasant, was certainly 
 perceptible on the second, and on the four or five succeeding days; 
 every object in the room was examined, and we came to the 
 conclusion that this odour proceeded from the wax-lights we kept 
 burning, the deceased being entirely free from smell. 
 
 Not being able to separate from so lovely a corpse, and more- 
 over under the apprehension lest she be in a trance, the solemn 
 Requiem-mass and her burial had to be postponed, and at last 
 indefinitely so, after she had lain for six days. 
 
 Thus we kept watching and praying by her side, looking upon 
 her morejn joy than in sorrow ; friends and strangers came to see 
 her, but no one had ever beheld anything like it, no one could 
 easily quit the lovely picture, all felt a kind of attraction which 
 
358 SEQUEL. 
 
 kept them gazing at her heavenly countenance. And still no 
 corruption came, notwithstanding all the elements of corruption 
 within her, as nothing whatever passed from her body. By 
 degrees her eyes sank back into their sockets, and afforded the 
 only evidence of positive change ; but still, nothing escaped, no 
 sign of decomposition appeared, though since her death three or 
 four strong changes of temperature and weather had taken place, 
 and though during the last four days before her burial the gas- 
 stove in her room had been lighted, keeping up a temperature of 
 52 degrees. 
 
 On the 16th of December I received the following letter from 
 our physician, eminent in his profession : 
 
 " 48, FINSBURY SQUARE, 16TH DEO., 1859. 
 " MY DEAR MR. ADOLPH, 
 
 " I am sorry we had not the good fortune to meet you last night. It 
 was my intention to have sent you word at what time a medical friend would 
 call along with me. I found however that Dr. Letheby whom I had in view was 
 absent in Southampton. I fixed upon him. on account of his great experience 
 as chemist, medical jurist, and officer of health, &c. I subsequently found that 
 opportunity would present of taking with me Mr. Wells, editor of the Medical 
 Times and Gazette, &c., of Upper Grosvenor Street. He agreed with me that 
 he had not witnessed anything in the way of preservation of the body like that 
 presented in the case^of your dear wife. From what I saw last night, however, 
 it is plain that a change has at length occurred. I am not sure, however, but 
 that the change of colour may not be attributed to the frost rather than to 
 DECOMPOSITION. It seems to me in fact that the process going on is one of 
 simple DESICCATION rather than decomposition. 
 
 " I am, &c., " ARTHUR LEARED." 
 
 On reading this, that the body of my dear wife was under 
 process of drying up, and no smell having been perceptible in the 
 room since the first four or five days after her death, we could not 
 but come to the conclusion, that the odour first perceived, at times 
 very strongly and at times not at all, of a sweetish nature, 
 differently compared by different visitors and by the inmates of 
 
SEQUEL. 359 
 
 the house, must have come from the departed whilst the body was 
 fresh, as a signal mark of God's favour. 
 
 No further change having taken place than the one indicated in 
 the above letter, we took her to her last resting place on the 
 20th December, 1859, the twenty-first day after her death. 
 
 On the 21st of January, 1860, the following letter appeared in 
 the Medical Times and Gazette : 
 
 Qr. No. 404. SIGNS OF DEATH. 
 
 " Can any of your readers afford information with regard to the following 
 circumstance ? A lady entering upon the ninth* month of pregnancy died of 
 pneumonia. All the other phenomena of death ensued, except that the colour 
 of the face was unusually life-like. On the fifteenth day from that of death there 
 was not the least cadaverous odour from the corpse, nor had its appearance much 
 altered, and it was only on the sixteenth day that the lips darkened. The 
 temperature of the atmosphere had undergone many changes during the time 
 mentioned, but although there had been frost for a short period, the weather was 
 in general damp and not very cold. 
 
 "lam, &c. "SIGMA." 
 
 To this letter there was no reply. 
 
 Why thus in the case of my dear wife, still bearing the infant, 
 with a change of cold, warm, wet and frosty weather againsfr her, 
 with the mild temperature of her room in the end the law of 
 nature should have been reversed from decomposition into desic- 
 cation, was and remains a mystery to the medical men who saw 
 her ; and it will continue so to be until they look for higher laws 
 than those of nature. 
 
 To me, her state in death is but a consequence of her life, 
 which was moderate in her meals, fervent in her devotion, generous, 
 noble, and ardent to a fault in her feelings, with a most exalted 
 PURITY OF MIND, and an EXTRAORDINARY PATIENCE IN SUFFERING, 
 all the more pleasing to God, as she was also of a warm temper ; 
 and as once before in life he favoured her with a special mark of 
 
 * She was very near her confinement, most likely but a few days. 
 
360 SEQUEL. 
 
 His love, so, no doubt, as a reward for her patient suffering during 
 seven years in the prime of life, He also bestowed upon her the 
 privilege of her body being so lovely in death, and, thus far, 
 preserved from corruption. 
 
 In respect to the above it is laid down beautifully by Gorres, in 
 his Christian Mystic, how the laws of grace and justice not only 
 go hand-in-hand with, but also supersede, the laws of nature. 
 
 A person living o%ly for this world, satisfying every appetite, 
 giving himself up only to eating and drinking, and indulging in 
 vice of one kind or another, more and more darkens, and thereby 
 animalizes his soul ; because his body, being of earth, and living 
 only by and for the earth and all its lower elements, the soul in 
 darkness is more and more carried away by the inclinations of the 
 body, and with it drawn into and incorporated with the earth to 
 which the body belongs. 
 
 A stage further, all spiritual life is drowned, smothered, ex- 
 tinguished, the body indulges in every animal propensity ; and, 
 clothed in mortal sins, and directed by the spirit of evil, the soul 
 with its body is immersed in every degrading passion ; this will 
 bring disgusting disease, contagion and rottenness, of which the 
 diseased and abandoned soul will be the governing agency; and like 
 water meeting water, oil meeting oil, like other kindred substances 
 meeting and amalgamating, like the wicked holding to the wicked : 
 so infection of the body will induce infection in the kindred body, 
 corruption of the soul will induce corruption in the kindred 
 soul ; and when sin and the spirit of evil have arrived at cul- 
 mination, then the bridge is thrown by which the worst evils pass 
 into the human frame ; resistance is removed, the conductor is 
 formed by which the infernal demon himself, the origin of evil, 
 the liar from the beginning, strikes into, cohabits with, and 
 possesses the soul, possesses the RUINED image of God, and thus 
 rules^the body ; and owning both, by guilt or consent, he invents lies 
 
SEQUEL. 361 
 
 without limit, and often performs false signs and wonders to deceive 
 the good and retain the wicked, as amply recorded in Holy Writ, 
 in sacred and profane history, and as witnessed in our own days. 
 
 Corrupt and hideous as are such souls, so in proportion will be 
 their bodies ; repulsive in life they become loathsome in death, 
 and quickly decay and dissolve in the foul flame and vapours of 
 the infernal regions, as it were, in which they lived. 
 
 A person living an ascetic, an abstemious pious life, by degrees 
 restraining every passion which the human heart is prone to, 
 subjecting himself to abnegation of every kind, doing violence to 
 himself and not only rubbing off the film and rust of his soul and 
 driving off darkness, but by degrees practising every virtue and 
 letting in more and more light, for, every good deed, and more 
 particularly every heroic virtue, is an additional lens, a magnify- 
 ing glass, around the soul, bringing nearer and nearer to it the 
 vision of God, the Light Eternal : such a person, keeping the 
 body under the rigourous control of the soul, drawing his chief 
 nourishment from bread and wine and kindred substances, and being 
 ruled and inspired therein by true religion and its divine author, 
 spiritualizes the body, the same as the other animalizes and 
 degrades the soul. 
 
 A stage further, a spiritual instead of a spirituous, a divine fire 
 instead of an earthly, animal, and hellish fire, pervading the body, 
 that body, refined, clarified and spiritualized, will be under the 
 lofty control of the soul and be governed by it ; and as the soul 
 progresses in light, life, and power, derived from a pure spiritual 
 source, by degrees clothing itself with almost every cardinal virtue : 
 so the body and all its senses and organs will become partakers of 
 the interior light and life, as evidenced in the lives of the saints, 
 in whom even the birds of the air, the beasts of the field and the 
 forest, 4 -* and the fishes in the water, have recognised again the 
 * As particularly evidenced in the Koman Amphitheatre. 
 
362 SEQUEL. 
 
 RESTORED image of God, joyfully hovering about the likeness of 
 their Creator, listening and doing homage to it, the same as in 
 paradise they did to Adam and Eve. The wicked also recognise 
 the image of God, but, children of the serpent, like their adopted 
 parent they lie in wait to destroy it. 
 
 Hence, whatever there is sublime in morality, virtue, and 
 godliness, will take up its abode in such a soul and body ; kindred 
 will pass over to kindred, and in the end the laws of nature- 
 having at first gone hand-in-hand with those of grace will be 
 subject to such souls and bodies and apparently reversed. 
 
 As has been said before, every good work and act of divine 
 love is a magnet which attracts and draws down the grace of God; 
 and when thus the measure is full, when the spirit of sanctity in 
 body and soul has reached the point of culmination, then every 
 obstacle has been removed, the bridge thrown, the conductor 
 raised, the channel completed by which God Himself enters and 
 performs the most wonderful acts in His servants, until 
 He strikes into, unites Himself with, and possesses the soul 
 itself. 
 
 "Blessed are the clean of heart for they shall see God;" but 
 here the clean soul does not only see God, He actually removes 
 it in ecstacy from the consciousness of this world, as He did St. 
 Paul, and holds it in embrace according to His own measure. 
 He also possesses the body, and with the soul often draws it to 
 Himself so as to raise it above the earth, temporarily suspending 
 the law of terrestrial gravitation, as He suspended it when He 
 and many faithful followers after Him walked over the water; 
 and when our bodies shall have been transfigured and glorified, 
 gravitation will be suspended for good, the same as He set it 
 aside when He ascended into heaven. 
 
 Rooting and reposing in God, the branch truly attached to 
 the Vine, the soul and body, when in that state, are directly 
 
SEQUEL. 363 
 
 nourished by God, and earthly food is no longer a necessary of 
 life; it is then that He verifies what He says: "My BODY is 
 meat indeed and my BLOOD is drink indeed." For, it is no 
 longer the THOUGHT of God that is embodied in every created 
 object, not the BLESSING incorporated in the manna which rained 
 down in the desert : but it is God, the GOD-MAN HIMSELF, 
 who, by His own act and will, clothed HIMSELF into the forms 
 of bread and wine ; and the bodies of souls thus nourished by 
 the LIVING BREAD that came down from heaven, though often 
 diseased and heavily afflicted by illness, having been purified by 
 the spiritual, the heavenly fire that pervaded their frame, by 
 the heavenly atmosphere in which they breathed, often not only 
 do not decay, but emit the odour of sanctity, as it is called, to 
 rise up and commingle with the incense of nature and the incense 
 and the prayers of the Church, to be carried by angels to the 
 throne of the Lamb. 
 
 Such, in a few words, is the picture drawn by the soul and 
 body, by free will and consent covered all over with the dis- 
 gusting ulcers of vice, and like the falling stone to the earth 
 gravitating to the origin of evil, to the horrible embrace of the 
 serpent ; and of that soul and body, with free-willed self-denial, 
 violence, and aspiration, radiant in the halo of virtue, detaching 
 itself from the earth, and like the balloon rising higher and 
 higher in the scale of perfection, and persevering in the ascent, 
 at last is attracted by the centre of All Light, and rests in the 
 bosom of the Eternal Father. 
 
 To each of these two conditions the laws of grace and justice are 
 attached and go hand-in-hand, and finally supersede already 
 on earth the laws of nature ; and as the followers and the seed 
 of the serpent, often like splendid meteors, turned into destruc- 
 tive masses, are gravitating to the earth but to be for ever 
 buried in oblivion in its bowels, or bursting and leaving nothing 
 
364 SEQUEL. 
 
 behind but an odious smell ; or falling from their height, vanish- 
 ing like a shooting star, blotted out from the catalogue of pre- 
 supposed orbs, leaving no trace but the memory and regret 
 of an extinguished luminary : so the seed of the woman, in 
 numberless hosts, rise up from the garden, of the Church to 
 adorn the firmament of the Kingdom of God and cluster round 
 the Star of the Sea ; and as the earth turns round its axis every 
 day and courses around the sun every year : so each day and 
 every year brings round to our contemplation the splendid array 
 of the zodiac and all the other constellations of the Church ; 
 the nebula3 of time disperse, and, never weary, with the telescope 
 and the microscope alike sweeping the world and searching and 
 seeking the seed of heaven, the Watchman, triple-crowned, standing 
 on the elevated Observatory of the Universal Lighthouse and 
 Beacon on the Rock of Ages, every day still and every year 
 reveals to us new stars to follow, stars that long ago shed their 
 light upon the Church, but were hid from our vision ; and ever 
 and anon to the world unexpected, new comets swing aloft in 
 splendour, coming and going, re-invigorating the life of the 
 system by the mysterious power derived from the centre, and 
 transmitting the record of their lustre from generation to genera- 
 tion. Opposed, however, in their progress towards the fountain 
 of light, they only more lay bare their bosom to the influence 
 of its heavenly glow, and with renewed and persevering vigour 
 pursue and hasten their impetuous course to the attracting furnace 
 of Eternal Love which set their hearts on fire ; and the more 
 they are resisted the more gloriously they shine. 
 
 And thus both these heavenly systems go on in infallible order 
 and harmony, each one undergoing a process of purification and 
 elevation in its members, until both shall have been transubstan- 
 tiated into superior existence by their common Author and God. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 ADAMS discovery of Neptune, 277 ; 
 346. 
 
 Airy, Prof. on magnetic envelope of 
 the Earth, 57 ; on solar clouds, 181 ; 
 on magnetic disturbances, 190 ; and 
 the eclipse of Xerxes, 238. 
 
 Animals life of, 121 ; hybernating, 
 122 ; soul of, 123 ; creation of, 13, 14. 
 
 Angelus Domini, the 192-196. 
 
 Aristotle and the Church 209-213. 
 
 Arago and the comet of 1456 193, 
 194; 203; 207. 
 
 Ashburner, Dr". the sleep of plants, 
 114. 
 
 Atmosphere, the of suns and planets, 
 26-31 ; of the Earth, 32, 127 ; height 
 of, 9; plants feeding upon it, 118; 
 constituents of, 126-148; purification 
 of, 162; electricity of, 165-173; 
 rarity of, 264 ; pressure of, 265, 267 ; 
 of the Sun, 289 ; retraction by, 298- 
 300; 301; and the tides, 341-343; 
 depression of, 343-348. 
 
 Auroras 78-87 ; brilliancy and eleva- 
 tion, 164; and the magnetic needle, 
 170, 171 ; in opposite hemispheres, 
 86, 223. 
 
 BARKING of trees 112. 
 
 Barometer height of, 340 ; variation of, 
 344, 345. 
 
 Biot 37 ; on aurora borealis, 83 ; 202. 
 
 Birds of passage and electric currents 
 67. 
 
 Blessed Virgin, the 136, 161, 191, 197, 
 239, 241, 297. 
 
 Brewster, Sir David on precipitations, 
 17 ; on planet of Gibers, 72 ; on con- 
 vex lenses, 154 ; on stars to be seen, 
 162; on solar spots, 180 ; his "Martyrs 
 of Science," 205-207 ; 221. 
 
 CALIXTUS III., Pope and the comet of 
 1456, 192-195. 
 
 Carbonic acid and plants 132-140. 
 
 Carrington on magnetic storms, 222. 
 
 Centres of Gravity 280-295; 298; 352. 
 
 Church, the development of, 17 ; her 
 lighted altar, 117; her incense, 144; 
 a focus of light, 158 ; comets, science, 
 
 and superstition, 190-222 ; testing 
 miracles, 240; 241 ; 350. 
 
 Chaos 4 ; precipitation from, 6, 7 ; 
 352 ; 355, 356. 
 
 Challis, Prof. on envelope of the Earth, 
 69. 
 
 Comets formation of tail, 27, 28 ; 
 densation of nucleus, 29 ; of Encke, 
 approach to the Sun, 30 ; Lexell's, 32- 
 39, 64 ; Halley's, Encke's and Biela's, 
 35, 36 ; to supply the Earth with 
 moisture, 147 ; vibration of tail, 151 ; 
 and planets in conjunction, 190 ; their 
 effect on the Earth and man, 190-222; 
 Halley's 195 ; and the weight of 
 Jupiter, 262 ; 298 ; 301 ; passage of, 
 303-305 ; Biela's, 305 ; Donati's, 28, 
 344 ; Encke's, 345 ; 347. 
 
 Colour of meteors, 66 ; of plants, 119 ; 
 of aniline, 119; 126. 
 
 Cook, M.D. on dust-storms, 57. 
 
 Creation beginning and days of, 1 -20 ; 
 arbitrary, 23 ; inexplorable, 23, 24 ; 
 of the firmament, 146 ; vacant spaces, 
 236. 
 
 Cusa, Cardinal 251. 
 
 Cyclones 55, 56. 
 
 DARWIN origin of species, 14, 17 ; 294. 
 
 Dean of Canterbury, Alford 218, 296. 
 
 Deluge, the 106-110, 145-147. 
 
 Diamonds formation of, 135-137. 
 
 EARTHQUAKES 100-104, 175. 
 
 Earth, the its atmosphere, 32 ; passing 
 through a comet's tail, 37 ; con- 
 stituents of its atmosphere, 126-148 ; 
 its warming and lighting, 154-158; 
 its electricity, 165-176; cause of its 
 rotation, 177-188; its seasons, 184- 
 188; its climate affected by comets 
 and planets, 189, 190, and by solar 
 outbursts of light and protuberances, 
 222 ; its spinning-top rotation, in- 
 clination and parallelism of axis, and 
 primitive impulse, 223-237 ; parallel- 
 ism of axis, 242 ; rotation, oscillation, 
 equinox, 243-252 ; parallax 245 ; 
 inclination of axis, 253 ; its supposed 
 transposition, 258-262 ; an organic 
 
366 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 body, 264 ; its polar attraction, 264- 
 272 ; its rotation, figure, and mass, 
 265-276 ; its weight, 276; 295, 296 ; 
 its elliptical orbit, 298-301 ; 303 ; its 
 pressure against the solar atmosphere, 
 343-345 ; its destruction by fire, 348- 
 350 ; 353, 354. 
 
 Ecliptic variation of the, 252-254 ; 
 302 ; 304. 
 
 Eclipses 238. 
 
 Electricity chief acting agent, 4-6, 21, 
 22 ; within and without the heavenly 
 bodies and thunderstorms, 41-51 ; 
 cause of meteors and auroras, 51-87 ; 
 its correspondence from pole to pole, 
 86, 222 ; the basis of sound, 95 ; 
 earthquakes and the deluge, 100-109 ; 
 growth and life of plants and animals, 
 110-123 ; the essence of everything, 
 117; the A of creation, 124; cold 
 and warm, 125 ; within and without 
 the Earth, 164 ; tide of, 165 ; and the 
 variation and dip of the magnetic 
 needle, 168-175; and mining, 176; 
 and coal and salt in the Earth, 177 ; 
 cause of rotation of the Earth and Sun, 
 177-188 ; and polar magnetism, 272 ; 
 and the torsion balance, 275 ; 290 ; 
 300 ; 309 ; 343 ; and the end of the 
 world, 348-350. 
 
 Envelopes of the Earth and heavenly 
 bodies; 23, 27, 68-71, 127, 289, 290, 
 298-304, 339-349, 352, 353. 
 
 Equinox its precession, 242-251 ; 
 344. 
 
 FATE on shooting-stars, 76. 
 
 Faraday on sound, 93; on oxygen, 130. 
 
 Firmament --creation of the, 7, 146 ; 
 its purification, 149. 
 
 Forces, self-acting their non-existence, 
 2, 3, 126 ; acting on the Earth, their 
 neutralization, 232-234 ; centrifugal, 
 266-272 ; 345-347. 
 
 Foucault on the velocity of light, 152. 
 
 GALILEO 204-207, 213, 227. 
 
 Geology 292, 293. 
 
 Gilbert, William on electric interior of 
 the Earth, 42 ; electricity and mag- 
 netism one, 117. 
 
 Goodwin Essays and Reviews, 217. 
 
 "Good Words" 199, 218-221, 236, 
 262, 296. 
 
 Gravitation universal and planetary, 
 25, 237, 249, 276, 285-297, 298, 301, 
 310, 355. 
 
 Gumpach, Von. on anomalies of old 
 theory of light, 155; on comets and 
 the Church, 194; on eclipses, 238; 
 on sun-dial of Ahaz and Star of the 
 Magi, 240 ; 205 ; 263 ; on figure of 
 the Earth, 272 ; on discovery of 
 Neptune, 277-279. 
 
 Gyroscope 233, 236. 
 
 HAIL 54, 79, 136. 
 
 Haidinger on meteors and the envelope 
 of the Earth, 68. 
 
 Hansteen sound and the aurora, 87 ; 
 magnetism of the Earth, 171. 
 
 Herschel, Sir John on the Sun, at 
 once attractive and repulsive, 30 ; on 
 LexelPs comet, contradiction, 33 ; on 
 cause of the moon's motion round 
 the Earth, 33, 34 ; on superstition and 
 comets, 199, 200, 202 ; on the launch 
 of planets, 233 ; and vacant space, 
 236 ; on the precession of the equinox 
 and nutation, 249-252 ; on variation 
 of the ecliptic, 252 ; on the masses of 
 the heavenly bodies, 255-263 ; on the 
 figure of the Earth, 266-272 ; on 
 length of a degree, 273 ; and size of 
 the Sun, 276 ; on centres of gravity, 
 280-296 ; on action of the planets, 
 345. 
 
 Hind on Halley's comet, 35 ; the Earth 
 passing through a comet's tail, 37; 
 on planet of Olbers, 73 ; on cause 
 of seasons, 226 ; on primitive impulse, 
 232 ; his " Introduction," and " Solar 
 System," 211 ; and Copernicus, 212 ; 
 on variation of the ecliptic, 253, 254 ; 
 on mass of Mars, 277 ; on observa- 
 tions,295 ; 303 ; face of the moon, 342. 
 
 Humboldt volcanic thunderstorms, 50 ; 
 mists at sea, 58 ; falling stars, 62 ; on 
 certain meteoric stones, 71 ; electric 
 change of the atmosphere, 80 ; on 
 sound, 87 ; on earthquakes and sound, 
 100 ; on carbonic acid gas, 133, 137 ; on 
 theory of light, 151 ; the oxygen of 
 the air, 163 ; on thunderstorms, 181; 
 and the Church, 208-216 ; on figure 
 of the Earth, 269, 272 ; 285 ; 290 ; 
 on the tides, 307. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 867 
 
 Huxley 294. 
 
 Hydrogen reflector of light, 39, 146 ; 
 round the heavenly bodies, 40 ; 135, 
 154 ; water and ice, 140, 141 ; 143, 
 145, 148 ; round Mercury and Venus, 
 
 156 ; a lens, 289. 
 
 JUPITER and Lexell's comet, 32 ; a 
 stumbling block to comets, 37 ; its 
 envelope, 38 ; and velocity of light, 
 150-153; mass of, and its moons, 
 256 ; supposed transposition of, 258- 
 262 ; 283. 
 
 KEPLER 206. 
 
 Kerigan, Capt. anomalies of the tides, 
 307, 308, 310, 336, 339. 
 
 Kouzeau and ozone 130. 
 
 LA PLACE formation of the Solar 
 System, 269; 271 ; on figure of the 
 Earth, 273 ; acceleration of the moon, 
 345. 
 
 Lardner, Dr. electricity of the air, 43- 
 48 ; transmission of electric currents, 
 82, 109 ; on the aurora borealis, 85 ; 
 storms, 104; 111, 112; variation of 
 the electricity of the air, 166 ; on the 
 magnetic needle, 172, 173. 
 
 Laws of grace and justice, and of 
 nature, 357. 
 
 Le Verrier light, and weight of the 
 Sun and Earth, 152 ; 275 ; discovery 
 of Neptune, 277-279. 
 
 Liebig analysis of rainwater, 109; 135 ; 
 137. 
 
 Light creation of, 5-7, 50 ; of suns 
 and stars, 9, 16, 21, 39 ; Young and 
 Fresnel, 24; plants turned to it, 118; 
 and colour, 126 ; transmission of, 149- 
 153 ; new theory of, 154-162 ; 291 ; 
 298 ; 352 ; 353. 
 
 Lightning 48, 49, 50, 54, 60, 62, 82, 
 97, .111. 
 
 Luther 214, 215. 
 
 Lyell 294. 
 
 MACKINTOSH on Galileo and comets, 
 204 ; on the primitive impulse, 235. 
 Macleod, Norman, Rev. D.D. 220. 
 Maedler, Dr. astronomers on the moon, 
 
 157 ; on comets and the Church, 196 ; 
 danger of comets, 203 ; weight of the 
 Earth, 276 ; 285 ; centre of universe, 
 294. 
 
 Magnetic Needle variation of, 168- 
 173; dip of, 173-175; 264; 309. 
 
 Magnetic poles and equator 173, 174 ; 
 264-272 ; 345. 
 
 Mary Magdalene, Saint, of Pazzi 197. 
 
 Masses of heavenly bodies, 254-280, 
 282, 291, 296. 
 
 Man no descendant of the ape, 15 ; 
 privileged to explore the mysteries of 
 creation, 23; diminution of life, 110; 
 his body changing, 123 ; his soul a 
 reality, 124, a living light, 160, and 
 image of God, 160-162. 
 
 Meteors 60-78 ; elevation of, 164; 
 meteoric stones, 71, 113. 
 
 Miracles of Joshua,179; 238-341; 350. 
 
 Morrisson, Lieut. R.N. 251, 261. 
 
 Moon, the brightness and outline, 39 ; 
 attachment to the earth, 70 ; a meteoric 
 product, 71 ; influence on plants and 
 on man, 115, 309; agitator of our 
 atmosphere, 143; acceleration of, 148, 
 345-348; inhabited, 157; eclipses, 
 238 ; her shadow, 242 ; her mass and 
 attraction, 255, 256, 268; error in 
 distance and mass, 296 ; apparent size 
 298, 299 ; a light to the earth, 301 ; 
 her passage, 302 ; and old theory of 
 the tides, 305-338 ; and the new theory 
 of the tides, 338-343; libration of, 
 341 ; apogee and perigee, 343. 
 
 Moons of Jupiter, 32, 256 ; of Uranus 
 and Neptune, 269 ; 298 ; of Saturn, 
 302, 305. 
 
 Muschenbroeck clouds reflecting sound, 
 98. 
 
 NEUMAYER Polar lights, 86. 
 
 Newton, Sir Isaac source of moisture 
 of the Earth and planets, 147 ; vacant 
 space, 236 ; his primitive impulse, 237 ; 
 249; his theory, 254; 274; 292; theory 
 of the tides, 305-307, 309, 318; his 
 system, 351. 
 
 Neptune 262, 269, 275; its accidental 
 discovery, 277, 278 ; 283, 295, 297 ; 
 its moons, 303. 
 
 Nitrogen 129, 135. 
 
 Nutation 249, 251, 255. 
 
 OLBERS planet of, 72 ; 234. 
 
 Origin of species 14, 17. 
 
 Oxygen 126-148, 163. 
 
 Ozone 130, 139. 
 
368 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PALMIERI eruption of Vesuvius 51 ; 
 101. 
 
 Paradise 17, 18, 20. 
 
 Patricius, Saint 102. 
 Planets atmosphere of, 23, 27; origin 
 of, 72 ; inhabited, 156 ; and comets 
 in conjunction, 190 ; their launch, 231 ; 
 mutual affection, 249-253 ; 256 ; per- 
 turbation of, 257-263 ; 268 ; form- 
 ation of, 269 ; their masses, 276-280 ; 
 and their moons, 283-284 ; human, 
 291-294; their distances, 295; 298, 
 303, 304, 347, 348, 352,356 
 
 Plants creation of, 13 ; growth of, and 
 influenced by the moon, 110-118; 
 absorb from the air, 119, 120; res- 
 piration of, 132-134. 
 
 Poles of the universe and ecliptic, 244- 
 247 ; of the Earth flattened, 266-274 ; 
 of systems, 353. 
 
 Poisson on electricity of the atmosphere, 
 42 ; on envelope of the earth, 68. 
 
 Precipitations from Chaos and the 
 atmosphere, 6, 7, 9, 61, 109, 110, 
 135-137, 146, 352. 
 
 Primitive Impulse 225-237, 268-271. 
 
 Public Opinion 36. 
 
 QUETELET on the envelope of the 
 Earth, 69. 
 
 Recapitulation of the New Theory of 
 the Simplicity of the Creation 351- 
 356. 
 
 Redfield observations on storms, 55. 
 
 Reichenbach electricity,cold and warm, 
 125. 
 
 Repulsion systemal, 24, 25 ; 286-290 ; 
 355. 
 
 Rome Christian, 215. 
 
 Romer velocity of light, 150-153. 
 
 Reusch, Dr. 294. 
 
 Saturn 283 ; its moons, 302. 
 
 Sandspouts 54, 57. 
 
 Schoenbein, Prof. and ozone, 30. 
 
 Scheuchzer, Dr. 293. 
 
 Sequel to Dedication and Preface 
 357. 
 
 Seasons explanation of the, 184- 
 188; on the Sun, 188; their perma- 
 nency, 253, 254. 
 
 Separation of the dry land from the 
 water 8; 103, 104. 
 
 Sound 87-100. 
 
 Spectral analysis 149. 
 
 Stone fixes new distance of the Sun, 
 
 136. 
 
 Sun, the first lighted, 9 ; first setting, 
 18 ; centre of system, 22 ; atmosphere 
 of, 23, 26-28; _nature of, 25, 26; 
 at once attractive and repulsive, 30 ; 
 protuberances of, 32, 222 ; error in 
 distance of, 36 ; his rays intercepted 
 by the Moon, 115; his influence 
 when eclipsed, 116 ; and colours, 119, 
 126 ; his rays absorbed by vapours, 
 149; concentration of his rays, 154; 
 the cause of the electric tide, 165- 
 170; cause of his rotation, 180, 184; 
 spots of, 180-183; day and night, 
 and seasons on, 188; action of, on 
 comets and planets, 189, 190 ; his 
 hold on the planets, 232 ; and equi- 
 nox, centre and poles of the universe, 
 243-248 ; 268 ; centre of our system, 
 279 ; 295, 296 ; 297 ; apparent size, 
 298-300; 302; 303, 304; and old 
 theory of the tides, 305-336 ; and 
 new theory of the 'tides, 341, 347; 
 disturbing force of, 345 ; extinguished, 
 348-350 ; 352-356. 
 
 Superstition 198, 202. 
 
 Sutton, Thomas description of a hail- 
 storm, 136. 
 
 THUNDERSTORMS 43-48 ; their lati- 
 tude, 44-46 ; 104, 109, 112, 113, 144, 
 181, 182, 
 
 Thunder 97-99, 
 
 Tides electric, of the air and the earth, 
 165-171 ; lunar and solar, 255 ; 265 ; 
 old theory, 305-307, its anomalies, 
 307-338 ; table of tides, 337 ; an- 
 omalies of the, and the new theory, 
 339-343. 
 
 URANUS 269, 277, 278, 283; its 
 moons, 303. 
 
 VOLCANOES 103, 349. 
 
 WATERSPOUTS 51-54. 
 
 Wiseman, Cardinal 214. 
 
 Wheatstone, Prof. and sound, 91. 
 
 Worms, Henry " The Earth arid its 
 Mechanism," and the Church, 207 ; 
 parallelism of the earth's axis, 227. 
 
 Young and Fiesnel theory of light, 24 
 
 Year tropical and sideral, 247. 
 
 Zodiacal Light 159, 222. 
 
U. C. BERKELEY LIBRAKItb 
 
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