Tales about the sun, moon, and stars

Front matter

Google to make the world's books discoverable online.

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject

to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books

Preface

There was once a city upon the coast of Ae Mediterranean, (says Ibrahim Califi, the Arabian biographer of Gengis Khan,) whose King bore the name of Altun. His wife was called Corlauch, and his daughter was the Princess CorecK, Such was the beauty of Corecli, that even dry wood, if she smiled upon it, immediately shot forth leaves ; and if she smiled upon barren ground, immediately grass grew up from it. If she combed her hair, her hair showered forth precious stones ; and if she shed tears, her tears turned into drops of silver and gold. But, to take the care that was thought requisite, of so beautiful and excellent a Princess, she was kept in a palace of stone, forty fathoms high, and where neither the Sun nor the Moon could he seen.

I quote the words of the Arabian author only in the words of his English translator, who, as I think, has partly misrepresented his meaning. My young

b

VI PREFACE.

readers will be surprised at hearing of a palace " where neither the Sun nor the Moon could be seen/' only because of its great height ; even if that were forty fathoms^ or two hundred feet ! They know that astronomers are particularly fond of great heights^ for the express purpose of " seeing*' still so much the better tbe Sun, Moon^ and Stars ; and that for this very reason some high mountains are often fabulously described as the ancient resort of astronomical giants for that purpose : of which we have an example in the Welsh mountain^ Cader Idris, or the Chair of Idris ; fabled to have had its top used as a seat by the astronomer and giant Idris, while studying the Stars.

But what, no doubt, is really said by the Arabian, is in itself sufficiently marvellous, though more consistent with right reason. He says, that the beautiful but unfortunate Princess Corecli was confined in a palace of which the walls about it (being forty fathoms high) hid from her sight the Sun and Moon ; that is, she could see neither for a long time, while they were ascending or descending in the skies, as all of us usually do, but only for the short times when, if ever, they were directly over her head ! And, here, my

PREFACE. VU

young readers know, that this is a very possible effect of being surrounded, either by high mountains, or byhigh walls; so that every day, or every night, in deep valleys, both in this country and in others much more mountainous, the Sun, or Moon, or Stars, can only be seen, or even their light received, for a few hours ; and never at their rising or their setting. In the course of my travels in the North of Europe, I picked up a pretty little fancy of a poet of the cold country of Lithuania, suggested by these hidings of the sun upon one of the sides of high mountains, as well as by the early and late enjoyment of its presence upon their opposite sides, — which follows, as you know, of course : " Why art thou so late, this morning, O Sun," inquired (says my poet) of the Sun the Day ? " I lingered," answered the Sun, " upon the other side of the mountain, to warm two orphans sitting at a cottage door."

But thus, then, this account of the palace of the Princess Corecli reminds us of two valuable considerations, as to a possession of the light of the Sun, and Moon, and Stars. My young readers (if, indeed, any of them are not quite so beautiful as that Princess, nor so capable of producing buds, and grass, and pre-

Vlll PREFACE.

cious stones, and drops of silver and gold,) are certainly more fortunate in the free view of the all-glorious skies ! The youngest child, in the smallest garden, has the means of this indulgence ; and I am sure that the sight of the Sun, Moon, and Stars has continually attracted the attention of every one of those whom I am addressing.

Simply, however, to see the Sun, Moon, and Stars, is not enough for my young readers. They want to know what they are; — to know where they are; — to know why and how they shine ; — what blessings they pour down upon us ; — and how they are supported in the heaven, and yet made to move? They want to know about Eclipses, the late Comet, and Shooting or Falling Stars, of which last so many extraordinary things are just now said? But instruction and entertainment upon all these subjects are the very aims of my little book, which, without further remark, I therefore commend to their kind welcome.

PETER PARLEY.

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE

SECOND EDITION.

The pleasant news that I lately had from my Puhlishers, about the rapid sale of I cannot tell how many thousand copies of the first edition of this little book, and the absolute necessity they were under to print, as quickly as possible, I cannot tell how many thousand more ; — all this, as my little readers will believe, flattered me very much, but it also seemed to impose upon me a fresh duty.

** Why, bless me I Gentlemen Publishers," said I, " if it is really true that so many little boys and girls are to learn their first accounts of the Sun, Moon, and Stars, from Old Pbter Parley, I must teke still more pains than before, to make my Tales about all these heavenly bodies as worthy of my scholars as I am able. Though the ice and snow are thick and slippery upon the ground, and though hundreds of sad young rogues are thoughtlessly making slides on the footways, yet I can hobble along, with cautious steps; so, I will not only go home, but I will go to several friends and public places of instruction ; and both reconsider all that I have already written in these Tales, and collect all that I can hear of, which ought now to be added to all that was in my first edition^

X ADVERTISEMENT

I know, that even in the few months which have elapsed since the printing of those pages, several novelties naTe presented themselves, in the history of the knowledge of the Sun, Moon, and Stars ; and I shall go hack, instead of going forward, if I do not bring them into your new impression, however hastily you may desire its appearance. My little followers cannot properly be said to be taught astronomy, unless they are informed of its latest truths, no less than its most ancient."

My Publishers listened to my argument, (beseeching me, however, to lose no time,) and accordingly I have been enabled, through a litde patience upon their part, and through the help of a learned friend or two, very greatly to improve as well as multiply my chapters ; and to subjoin tnis brief account of the new points about which I have given notices of less or greater length.

I. Later and fuller accounts of the extraordinary' telescopic appearances of Halley's Comet, as seen in the years 1835 and 1836, in Europe, and at the Cape of Good Hope, appear in this edition; with fuller explanations of the astronomical interest attached to the punctual reappearance of that Comet ; and with other new facts, relating to the history of Comets in general.

II. The Annular Eclipse of the Sun, of the 15th of May, 1836, as well as the general explanation of Eclipses, are here SLinply described to the youthful reader.

III. The whole of the little that is yet known of the Fifth New Planet, of which the existence is certified to us by Signor Cacciatore, in Italy, and by M. Valz, at Nismes, is given in this impression.

TO THE SECOND EDITION. xi

IV. Reports of Observations of the " November Asteroids/' or Shooting or Falling Stars, as seen in Europe on the night of the 13th of November, 1836, are added to what had been stated in the first edition ; together with other facts, and with accounts of the Planetary explanations of Messrs. Arago, Olmsted, and Biot; of the Meteoric explanation, both of these starz, and of the zodiacal lights by other astronomers and philosophers ; and a retrospective glance at the opinions of the preceding century, as to Shooting or Falling Stars, and Star-jelly ; and at the improved explanation, in the same century, of that particular substance. Star-jelly^ as being either vegetable, or else naturally formed of the bodies of dead frogs,

y. Sir John HerschePs latest description of his discoveries and observations under the Southern Celestial Hemisphere, will be found in this edition.

"VT. The formal denial of the pretended " Lunar Discoveries'^ of the same indefatigable astronomer, appears, also, in these pages.

VII. In the brief chapter upon the Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces, room, though but of two lines, has been found, for intimating the existence of the new doctrine of Professor Mozotti, of Corfu, already favourably received by the highest philosophical authorities in England; a doctrine which, enlarging, but not detracting from the philosophy of Newton, reduces the phenomena of all the forces discovered in nature to a single force ; conformably with the glimpse of many preceding inquirers, and with the persuasion, for years past entertained, that *' perhaps the day may come, when even gravitation, no longer regarded as an ultimate principle, may be

Xll ADVERTISEMENT

resolved into a yet more general cause, embracing eveiy law that regulates the material world */'

To admit the introduction of these new materials into the volume^ besides an extension of the number of its pages^ many chapters, or parts of chapters, have been re-written, or re-modelled, and many changes as to the distribution of the engravings have been made ; all to the end of providing, for the little readers of the work, increased instruction, pleasure, and entertainment.

Finally, the order of almost the whole of the chapters (and that, therefore, of the several topics to which they are respectively devoted) has been entirely new disposed. In doing this, a notion has been acted upon, that the most general contemplation of the heavenly bodies, and a description and explanation of their most obvious, and most familiar phenomena, are the objects of the earliest interest to the youthful observer ; and that all which is particular, and still more all which is recondite, and the topic of a higher curiosity, should come but after the foregoing. With this view, the order observed in the present impression, afler conmiencing in a manner inca^ pable of improvement (that of dilating upon the Moon, and of illustrating the Moon^ which is always distant from us, by a Balloon, which we can see both near and at a distance) ; this order leads us, in the second place, to the Sun ; then, to the Stars ; then, to the Nebules of the astronomers ; thus embracing the whole heaven under a general aspect; and thus leaving us to contract our subsequent picture, from the whole starry heaven^ to that

* Somerville's Connexion of the Physical Sciences. London. 1836.

TO THE SECOND EDITION. XIU

of what Sir William Herschel has called the Nebule of the Earth, within which is the Solar System ; and^ in this System, to descend, at last, from the general survey of all its Planets, — all its Comets, — and all the recent sugges. tions of its extended contents,— to our single and dearest planet the Earth, with its familiar and yet wonderful phenomena of Day and Night, and the Four Seasons. We descend, in short, even in the bounds of the Solar System, —

From solitary Mars ; from the vast orb

Of Jupiter, whose huge gigantic bulk

Dances in ether like the lightest leaf ;

To the dim verge, the suburbs of the System,

Where cheerless Saturn, 'midst his watery moons,

Girt with a lucid zone, in gloomy pomp.

and, after having begun our contemplation from the Eaith, repose upon Earth once more :

-The known accustomed spot.

Dressed up with sun and shade, and lawns, and streams : — A mansion fair and spacious for its guest, And full replete with wonders *•

Upon the whole, then, this second edition of my Tales OF THE Sun, Moon, and Stars, presents almost an entirely new and original volume, the contents of which (as it is hoped) will be found at least not less pleasing, nor less instructive, than those that were offered in the first impression.

* Barbauld's Summer Evening's Meditation. London. 1771. The Georgium Sidus was at this date unknown.

1. TALES OF ANIMALS. Comprising Quadrupeds, Birds. TiiitftA, Reptiles, and Insects. The Sixth Edition, embellished with Two Hundred and Eighty Cuts. Price 55. in cloth boards.

" Naiaral HiHtorv is a inbject which affords more amnsing details and more astonliblng facts, and soggetti more deep and important reflections, Uian any other in the whole range of natural science. The matter in this volame is very excellently adapted to the capacity and the wants of children. The style is simple, neat, and pertpicoons ; the sabJecU are well selected and happily treated."

2. TALES ABOUT EUROPE, ASIA,AFRICA, and AMERICA. A New Edition, with great Additions. Embellished with One Hundred and Thirty-six Cuts. Price 7s, 6d, in fancy hoards. .

" The execntion of this work, as respects typography and arrangement, is admirable and attractive ; the wood cots are of uncommon excellence. Here is that specific kind of literature for youth, combining information with amusement, which is adapted to counteract the taste for silly tales, awaken a laudable curiosity, and gratify an intelligent youth in a manner and to an extent which mere fiction never can.*'

3. TALES ABOUT GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. A

New Edition, greatly improved, and embellished with One Hundred and Thirty-two Cuts. Price 7». 6d. in fancy hoards.

4. TALES ABOUT THE SEA, AND THE ISLANDS IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN. The Second Edition, enlarged. EmbeUished with numerous Cuts. Price 45. 6d. in fancy boards.

" The recent boisterous weather and its calamitous results on our shores, make us take up this volume in the hope of soothing our anxiety for those whose ' march is on the mountain waves, and home upon the deep.* The charm of its graphic descriptions and fascinating tales fell on us with all the power of enchantment. It is a lively little volume, well adapted for the instruction and amusement of children.**

5. TALES ABOUT ANCIENT AND MODERN GREECE.

Embellished with One Hundred Cuts. Price 45. 6d, in fancy boards.

** The works of Peter Parley will need no puffing to insure success, they are really the roost ingenious and taking conceits yet developed to aid the cause of education ; they are full of Bimple and substantial food for the Juvenile mind, and add to the many claims of the benevolent Peter to the gratitude both of parents and children.*'

6. TALES ABOUT THE SUN, MOON, STARS, and COMETS. A New and yery greatly improved Edition. With One Hundred and Thirty Cuts. Price 4s. 6d. in fancy hoards.

Contents

Chap. P^Sf

1. Parley telU about a Balloon 1

2. Parley tells of the Moon. Map of the Fall Moon. Powers of

Chapter I, Paslet Tells About A

Here is a picture of a balloon. It is an immense bag of silk, as big as a small house. A net iu thrown over it. To the bottom of this net i« attaclied a little car, in figure like a boat.

The balloon is filled with gas, which is a kind of air. This gas is very light, and as it rises up, it takes the balloon, car and all, up with it. There are two persons in the car, each with a flag in his left hand. You have heard about balloons and gas, in my Tales about Frost and Snow, and Winds, and Fiery Meteors.

The balloon has just begun to ascend. It is now no higher than the top of a house. A great many people are standing below, looking at the balloon. They can distinctly see the little car, and the aeronauts in it. They can see the little flags which they are waving in their hands. They can see the network that is over the balloon, and can easily distinguish the countenances of the adventurous persons who are now taking a ride into the regions of the clouds.

Describe a balloon. What carries up a baUoon into the air?

Well ! the balloon rises higher and higher ;

I it is soon far above the tops of the highest steeples. How small it looks ! The little flags in the aeronauts' hands are not to be seen. The aeronauts themselves appear like specks, and the car is scarcely visible.

Still it continues to pierce further and further into the regions of air ; it is borae along by the wind, and passes rapidly away over the hills and valleys, and woods and meadows, and villages and towns.

Look ! here is still another picture of the balloon. How very small it appears to be! It seems scarcely bigger than a pin's head. It is, you see, higher than the clouds, and I suppose is now about twenty miles off. We can see nothing but a dark speck ; yet we know that it is the same balloon. We know that it is very large ; we know that it has a car attached to it ; and that two men are riding along with it.

Now, what is the reason that this balloon appears so very small? Why cannot we see the car and the men? You will tell me it is because they are so far off. Very well ! that is what I wish you to remember. Any thing a great way off, appears smaller than it really is.

How large does a balloon appear to be, high in the air, and at the distance of twenty miles ?

A balloon, that is as big as a small house, does not look bigger than a pin's head, when it is twenty miles off.

PABLEVS TALES OF

Here is a picture of the moon. You have often seen the moon. How very beautiful it is ! When the sun is set, how sweetly the moon shines on the trees, and on the grass !

Have you never looked up at the moon, and wondered what it was ? This is what I am now going to tell you.

How large does the moon appear to you to be? I suppose not larger than a melon ? But remember it is a great way off. It is many thousands of miles from us. It is, therefore, a great deal lai^er than it appears to be. It is many thousand times larger than the balloon. It is a great deal larger than all the mountains you ever saw, put all together.

The moon is, in short, a planet. It has mountains, and valleys, and plains upon it, but, as some would persuade us, it has no water. We cannot see these mountains and the rest of the objects with the naked eye, because they are so far off.

How large is the moon T What is the moon ?

What is the shape of the moon ? What is on its surface ?

I showed you how small, and how dwindled to an almost imperceptible point, a balloon, the size, and figure, and colours, and the rest of which we know ; — how small and dwindled, and indistinct, and finally imperceptible, a balloM may become, through its being raised high into the air, or carried to a distance from our eyes. Now, you are to consider the reverse of this. You are to think how large, and how distinct the moon would easily seem, could it be but brought nearer to us ! For, as the balloon seems to grow smaller and less distinct, the further it departs from us ; so, the moon would seem to grow larger, and all that belongs to it more distinct, the nearer it could be brought to us, or the nearer to it we could go.

Why cannot we see the mountains in the moon 1 Does a balloon seem smaller and less distinct, the higher it ascends?

Would the moon seem larger and more distinct, the nearer it

should come ?

But, though we can have no hope from any change of the real distance between us and the moon, there are admirable instruments (spyglasses and telescopes, of which I shall say more another time) which so effectually afford us views of distant objects, in the same manner as if they were brought nearer, that the difficulty of distance, by their help, is very much overcome. It is for this reason, that while the learned denomination, telescope, signifies what shows us distant things; sailors have found out a plain English name for the same instrument — calling it a bring- em-near.

Well, then ! by help of a telescope, we get views of the moon that are wonderfully minute ; and such are the daily improvements that are now making in telescopes, that it is almost impossible to say with what distinctness we

Do telescopes give us the same Tiews of the moon as if it really came nearer to us ?

What do sailors sometimes call a telescope ?

10 parley's tales op

shall come to see objects m the moon. The distance of that planet from the earth is reckoned to be two hundred and forty thousand miles, or thirty times the distance from one end of the world to the other, measured through the centre ; but makers of telescopes assure us that, if not now, yet very soon, we shall have instruments to show us the moon as if its distance were only sixty miles ; add to which, that if, at the time, our own sky or atmosphere is clear, we ought to have nothing to obstruct our prospect, through clouds or hazy weather in the moon : for the moon, as some also assure us, has no atmosphere at all. Here, then, is a map of the moon, such as it shows itself at its full ; and as discovered through a telescope, though yet a far inferior

What is the moon's distance from the earth ?

Is it said, that we shall become enabled to view the moon as if its distance were no more than sixty miles ?

Is it said, that there are no clouds or hazy weather in the moon, to interrupt our prospect ?

one to the powerful instruments now promised to us, or even to the most powerful of those now made.

Chap. III

PARLEY TELLS AGAIN OF THE MOON. SPOTS UPON THE MOON. FACE OF THE MOON. OLD WOMAN IN THE MOON. MAN IN THE MOON. GERMAN PHILOSOPHER. PERUVIAN TALE OF THE SPOTS ON THE MOON.

You may now compare this telescopic map of the moon with what you can yourself discover in it, at its full, with only your little naked eyes. Bright, and white like silver, as the moon is, your commonest view shows you gray or darkish spots or marks upon it; and those spots or marks which you constantly see upon the moon are what this map shows you more distinctly, or at least more minutely.

What the spots or marks, to the mere naked eye, look like, in the moon, is variously described, both by different people, and from different

Are there spots upon the face of the moon ? How are those spots explained by the telescope, and upon the map ?

causes. Some think them like eyes, nose, and mouth in a human face; and thus it is, that besides our talking of the fact of the moon, meaning only its surface, figure, or appearance ; it is often painted as a real human face. Others say, that the same spots or marks are like an old woman, bent almost double ; while others, also, tell you that they are like an old man, who is carrying a lantern, or else a reaping-hook, and a bundle of sticks ; and is followed by a dog. By the first of these, something, perhaps, is alluded to, concerning Hecate, or the fabled witch or goddess of the moon; and, by the second, concerning the equally fabled Man in the Moon*. But of both of these, as they have nothing to do, either with astronomy, or with

* See << Burford Cottage, and its Robin Redbreast,'* by the Author of " Keeper's Travels," Chapter xvii.

What about a human face in the moon ? What about an old woman ? What about an old man ? What about a fabulous witch or goddess in the moon ?

natural history, or with natural philosophy, I add no more.

Much, in the mean time, has been said and written upon the latter subject particularly ; and, very lately, a critical writer tells us, that a German philosopher once proposed to scale the heaven for the purpose of ascertaining the fact or falsehood that there is a Man in the Moon, armed with a reaping-hook; and that he certainly would have prosecuted his design, if he could but have hit upon the means of making the necessary ascent.

The Peruvians have a tale, that the spots on the moon have been occasioned by a beast of the forest, which, being in love with the moon, climbed up to it, and dirtied it with his paws. This is to be understood, however, as a jest.

What about the Man in the Moon ?'

What about a certain German philosopher?

How do the Peruyians account for the spots upon the moon 7

THE &UN, MOON, AND STARS. 15

Chap. IV

PARLEY TELLS STILL MORE OF THE MOON. TELESCOPIC APPEARANCES IN THE MOON. ANCIENT ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE MOON. ANCIENT AND MODERN QUESTIONS. CRESCENT, OR INCREASING MOON^ EASTWARD OF THE SUN.

The moon has always fixed in a considerable degree the attention of mankind. I must not stop to recount to you in how many ways it has been the object of their thoughts and examination. In modern times, the improvements in the telescope have assisted a wonderfully minute examination of its surface. That surface is held to be full of mountains, and on the tops of most of its mountains are held to be the cups, or craters, or circular hollows, of volcanoes :

Are the spots upon the moon occasioned by the peculiarity of its sarface 1

Is that surface diversified into mountains and yalleys ? Are the mountains said to contain volcanoes f

16 PARLE r's TALES OF

" Turned to the bud direct, her spotted di»k Shows monntainB rise, umbrageous dales descend, And caverns deep, — as optic tube descries,"

Thus sings Thomson ; and Milton, at an earlier date, had touched on the same theme, and even supplied the original of the foregoing :

" The moQp, whose orb,

Through optic glass, the Tuscan artist views At evening, from the top of Fesol^, Or in Valdamo, to descry new lands, Rivers f or mountains, in her spotted globe/ n

The " Tuscan artist" alluded to by the poet is Galileo, often reputed the inventor of the telescope; and who, at least, in the year 1608, or 1609, constructed one, and published accounts of the discoveries he made with it. But, whenever, and by whomsoever, the telescope was invented, antiquity had not waited for Gralileo, in order to form those very notions of the moon which the modems are proud of entertain-

Who is the Tuscan artist alluded to by Milton ?

ing. Among the verses attributed to Orpheus, are some that describe the moon as containing mountains, plains, and even cities ; Democritus attributes the spots in the moon to the shadows of its hills and mountains ; and even its support and motion in the heavens were philosophically accounted for by Anaxagoras, and by others of the old Grecian schools.

Whether the moon has cities, that is, whether it is inhabited by men, women, and children like ourselves, as well as other points, are matters still debated by many philosophers ; but, in my humble opinion, you will always deny that this habitation is in any degree probable. I pass, at present, to quite another subject.

I have shown you the figure of a full moon ; where it is its mountains which cause it to offer to the telescope that jagged internal outline which appears in the following beautiful figure of the

What did the ancient Greek philosophers say of the moon ?

C planet, when, a little after the new moon, it is seen as a fine crescent, to the eastward of the sun, a short time before it sets.

What ia the evening teleacopin figure of the crescent, t B or increasing moon, a little after the aevr moonl

Chap. V

PARLEY TELLS OF THE MOUNTAINS IN THE MOON. SIR DAVID BREWSTER'S DESCRIPTION OF THE MOUNTAIN-SCENERY IN THE MOON, AND HIS DISAGREEMENT WITH SIR WIL- LIAM HERSCHEL AS TO THE HEIGHT OF THE MOUNTAINS.

Before the time of Sir William Herschel, some of the mountains in the moon were held to be of the most extraordinary height, in proportion to those of the earth ; and you may still meet with statements of that kind in many modem books : but, "I believe," says Sir William, "that the height of the lunar mountains is in general overrated, and that when we have excepted a few, the generality do not exceed half a mile in perpendicular elevation."