Astronomy: or The perfections of God displayed in his works

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

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OR

CHAPTER I, Creation

Much has been written for the instruction of the young, and upon a great variety of subjects. Almost every department of literature and science has been made to contribute its share to enrich and elevate the youthful mind. History, biography, and fiction — sermons, lectures, and anecdotes, have all opened their treasure for the benefit of the rising generation. I know not that any have attempted to lead the young into that grand and sublime field of knowledge, presented in astronomy, for the purpose of raising their thoughts to God, and producing 1*

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sentiments and feelings of true piety. It is with the desire of doing this, and of contributing to form early the habit of tracing effects to their causes, of looking " from nature up to nature's God/' that this little work is presented to the public. I shall begin with the creation, because this affords the most wonderful exhibition of the power and wisdom of God, and is the first idea which enters the mind in contemplating the Creator's works.

If you saw a watch, your first impression would be that it was made by some ingenious artist. Its nicely adjusted wheels, the spring w 7 hich set them in motion, and the hands moving on its face to point out accurately the time, would convince you at once and without any other argument, that this curious machinery could not have formed itself, but must have proceeded from some skillful workman. So were you to go into a great factory while in operation, and observe the movement of all its parts, and the results produced in the articles manufactured, you

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would be filled with admiration at the operations yon witnessed, and the art by which the whole was contrived and set in motion. — You would have no doubt that some wise mechanic had been employed in doing all this.

The world we inhabit is the greatest and most glorious machine with which we are acquainted. The operations of nature in the productions of every field and forest, in the changing seasons, in the growth and decay of every vegetable, and the adaptation of every living thing to the sphere which it occupies, proclaim the power and wisdom of the great architect. The different tints in the rose and the violet, and the admirable contrivance with which every plant and seed is protected on its stalk, tell us they owe their existence to a wise Creator. The plains and mountains, the diversified productions and minerals of the earth, manifest a divine hand by which they were formed.

The word of God and his works, mutually illustrate each other, and neither is to be ful-

8 THE CREAtl'ON,

ly understood alone. The scriptures inform us that God created all things. Moses gives a particular account of this great work in the first chapter of the Bible. u In the beginning ""saith he, " God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep : and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" This was the first step in the wonderful process by which the earth became the delightful abode of man. It was first formed in a chaotic state. The earth was one vast watery abyss, in which every thing was in confusion, in which were mingled all the substances which finally formed its various rocks and earths, its trees and plants, and organized bodies. The qualities of this early ocean, this mighty abyss, must have differed entirely from every thing which we now behold. How long the earth continued in this state, we are not informed. Many have supposed it was a long period, and the chaotic mass underwent various changes previous to its being settled into order by the separation of parts which were unlike, and the union of those which were of a similar nature. But though we may not know the length of the interval between the creation of matter and its organization, we are told of the different steps by which the Creator advanced in completing his great and glorious work. " And God said, Let there be light ; and there was light." Nothing can exceed the sublimity and grandeur of this work, nor the admirable simplicity with which it is recorded by the sacred writer.

Fancy to yourself the darkest night which you ever witnessed ; imagine the thickest gloom spread over all the earth, unbroken by the twinkling of a single star, or the shining of a lamp from a single human habitation. Not a ray of light meets the eye, not a single object is visible, whether near or remote, except to that Being with whom the darkness and the light are both alike. Then, instantly, at the command of God, behold the light poured around you ; —it spreads over the globe like the sun shining in his strength, so that all is bright and luminous, where but a moment before nothing could be seen. Who, that should witness such a scene, would not be constrained to acknowledge and adore the Creator. What an exhibition of his power, beyond all that language can describe. The same Being created lights in the firmament, ' : the sun to rule the day, and the moon to rule the night." He made the stars also. You could not create so much as a small pebble, or the least speck of earth. If you think you could, try your skill, and see whether you can bring any thing into existence, which did not before exist. You may alter the form or the mode of being, but you cannot create. You may refine the ore and produce from it the precious metals — but you do not create the gold and silver. They existed in the mine before it was explored. You may construct houses and ships, and manufacture every thing needed in the common affairs of life ; but after all, you have not given existence to one new

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particle of matter. You have only changed the form of those things on which you have exhausted your ingenuity. How great, then, must be the divine Architect, who performed the stupendous work of creating all things with perfect ease, and in the most simple manner. By a w T ord spoken, u the earth stood complete ; the work of divine power, resulting from divine wisdom and mercy. It was made the theatre of his goodness, on which he might display it, and communicate it to his various creatures, who thus might rejoice in their existence, and manifest his praise, by enjoying happiness, and rising in perfection through endless ages. The earth was designed to be the repository of the human race, the seminary of men ; — a volume of instruction open to them, in which they might read and understand the invisible things of God."

Various accounts of the creation are found among the heathen nations, which are interesting chiefly from their resemblance to the sacred record, and the comfirmation they afford of its truth. A few rays of that divine light which shown on the true Israel of God, were scattered among other nations. The revelations made to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and other friends of God, were communicated, not only to their families and dependents, but by them were diffused over the face of the earth. While Moses, assisted by the spirit of inspiration, gives a correct and consistent account, others, receiving their information by report or tradition, have communicated it mingled with various shades of resemblance to the truth. Such were the views of the Phenicians, Greeks, Romans, and the inhabitants of India. According to Sanchoniatho, a Phenician, who lived about three hundred years after Moses, " there w&s a dark chaos, and a spirit which, by a certain operation, affected the inert mass, and gave birth to creation." Anaxagoras was the first among the Greeks who taught the agency of an intelligent mind in arranging the chaotic materials, in the morning of creation. But of all heathen writers, Ovid most nearly resembles Moses in his account of the creation. When we consider that this Roman follows the very order observed by Moses in the separation of the sea from the dry land, the creation of the heavenly bodies, of marine animals, and lastly, of man, we can scarcely doubt that he borrowed his information from the Scriptures. In the Hindoo writings, many sublime sentiments are found in agreement with the sacred historian of the Bible. They say of him who exists from eternity, that " He formed the heaven above and the earth beneath : in the midst he placed the subtle ether, the eight regions, and the permanent receptacle of waters. He framed all creatures. He gave being to time and the divisions of time, to the stars also, and the planets, to rivers, oceans, and mountains, to level plains and uneven vallies. He, whose powers are incomprehensible, having created this universe, was again absorbed in the Spirit, changing the time of energy for the time of repose." All other accounts are mixed with fable, and overhung with a mist of impenetrable obscurity. Geologists, too, have attempted to show from the structure of the earth, the manner of its formation and the length of time since its recovery from the chaotic state. But it is only in the Bible, that we can obtain any clear knowledge of the creation of all things. From the period when the elements were separated, and the earth w T as prepared for the habitation of man, is almost six thousand years.

But you may, perhaps, ask, why was not this theatre of life and enjoyment formed sooner ? Why was it not earlier fitted for human residence, since the Creator has existed from eternity? But supposing the earth had been created a million of years, or any number of years, sooner than it w T as — could not one of its inhabitants, with equal reason have made the same inquiry? Besides, there may have existed other worlds, long before this which we inhabit, on which the Creator was displaying his attributes and diffusing all the varieties of life and enjoyment.

Confining our views to the earth, we may see enough to call forth the exclamation of the Psalmist, " O Lord, how manifold are thy works ; in wisdom hast thou made them all." Ci The great divisions of land and water — the continents and oceans into which it is distributed : nay, the mountains and plains, the lakes and rivers, with which it is magnificently adorned — are, severally, sufficiently wonderful and affecting to fill our minds and engross all the power of contemplation. Nor are our thoughts less deeply interested by the vast multitude of plants, trees, and animals, with which every part of the globe is stored at every period of time. All these, also, rise and fall in an uninterrupted succession. When one perishes, another immediately succeeds. No blank is permitted, and no vacuity found; but creative energy, always operating, produces a continual renovation of that which w T as lost."

Contemplate the creation of animal life. How much more wonderful is the skill here displayed, than in giving existence to mere matter. "Even vegetables, of which life is predicated in a figurative sense only, derive from it a total superiority to all those beings which are found in the mineral kingdom. Animal life, which is life in its humblest degree, raises the being in whom it exists, totally above all those things which are not animated, by making them, at once, objects on which the emotions of the soul may be employed, and subjects of pleasure or pain, happiness or misery. 7 ' "Rational life is an attribute of importance and distinction far higher still, and is the most wonderful display of the divine energy, which the universe contains. Indeed, it is in a sense the end for which all things else were created, and without which there is no probability that they would ever have been." The creation of man, as though it were the highest and noblest act of creative power, w T as reserved to the last. It was attended with circumstances, which bespoke its vast importance. A spacious mansion had been provided, and now the tenant was to be formed, by whom it was to be occupied. Then God held a solemn consultation on this new and interesting work, and said, Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness. " This consultation, holden by the Persons of the Godhead, on the subject of communicating rational life, plainly and atTectingly declares it" to be a greater work "than all those which had preceded.''

" Magnificent as they had been, one mind is a more wonderful, more important, more illustrious display of creating power, than the whole inanimate universe. Suns, with* all their greatness and glory, are still without life, without consciousness, without enjoyments — incapable, in themselves, of action, knowledge, virtue, or voluntary usefulness. A mind, on the contrary, is possessed of all those exalted powers, and is capable of possessing all these sublime attributes. A mind can know, love, and glorify its Creator ; can be instamped with his image, and adorned with his beauty and loveliness, and can appear desirable and delightful in his eye. It can reflect, as a mirror, the glory of the Lord, (for so ought the passage* to be translated) and be changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the spirit of the Lord. It can love and bless its fellow minds, be loved and blessed by them, and become an useful and honorable instrument of advancing endlessly the universal good of the intelligent kingdom. In all these glorious attainments, it can advance with unceasing progress, throughout eternity. In this progress, it can rise to the hights where angels now dwell ; and passing these hights, can ascend higher and higher, till, in the distant ages of endless being, it shall look down on the most exalted created excellence which now exists, as the mere dawnings of infantile intelligence. Worlds and suns were created for the use of minds ; but minds were created for the use of God."

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CHAPTER II. History of Astronomy

Nothing, except the plan of redemption^ is so well calculated to lead the mind up to God, as the study of Astronomy. While it expands our views over the immensity of the Creator's w T orks, it inspires us with continual admiration of his wisdom, power, and benevolence. It is fitted alike to secure the attention and improve the mind of the young and the aged, the peasant and the philosopher. That a study so delightful and ennobling should ever have been opposed by superstition and ignorance, may seem surprising. But such is the fact. The knowledge of Astronomy has advanced to its present degree of perfection, by slow, and, at some periods, by imperceptible steps. In the early ages of society, the heavenly bodies were observed from necessity or superstition. The sun

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and moon were among the first objects of idolatrous worship, and regarded as emblems of that great Being who made all things. The Egyptians and Chaldeans appear to have been the first who paid any considerable attention to the study of Astronomy. They made such advances as to discover the causes of eclipses, and to calculate the time when they w r ould happen. From them, Greece derived the most precious of her intellectual treasures, and science w^as diffused over Europe. The Persians and Phenicians, also, seem to have drawn from those favored kingdoms a considerable portion of astronomical knowledge. While other nations were applying astronomy to the purposes of agriculture and chronology, the Phenicians were employing the stars to guide them on the trackless ocean, and assist them in those distant voyages for which they were distinguished above any other people.

The Chinese w T ere very early distinguished for their knowledge of the heavenly bodies. As early as 2752 years before Christ, Fohi, the first Emperor of China, is said to have computed astronomical tables, to have given the figures of the heavenly bodies, and to have instituted sacrifices at the time of the solstices. From this period, the science of astronomy was held in the highest veneration by the Chinese for above two thousand years, when the progress of knowledge was checked by civil commotions, and the spirit of discovery seemed to have perished with Confucius. About seven hundred and two years before Christ, Y-hang seems to have made considerable advances in astronomy, though he had the mortification to fail in the calculation of two eclipses. " They were announced with great formality to the empire, and preparations were made for the ceremonious solemnities with which these phenomena were usually observed. The emperor and his subjects watched in vain for the fulfilment of the predictions ; and Yhang had the ingenuity to attribute their failure to some unexpected change in the motions of the stars."

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The inhabitants of India and Siam successfully prosecuted this interesting study.

f hales, of Miletus, who flourished 640 years before Christ, was the first of the Greeks, who made any discoveries in astronomy. This illustrious philosopher, a descendant of the Phoenician kings, spent the greater part of his life in acquiring knowledge in Egypt, and when he returned to Greece, he established the Ionian school, and communicated to his disciples the information he had collected. " He maintained that the stars were of the same substance as the earth ; that the moon borrowed her light from the sun ; that the eclipses of the moon were occasioned by her immersion into the earth's shadow ; that the earth w 7 as round ; that it was divided into five zones by the polar circles, the tropics, and the equator. He predicted an eclipse of the sun, and the fulfilment of this prediction raised him to a high place among his countrymen, and drew around him a number of disciples.' 7

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Anaxagoras, of the Ionian school, which he caused to be removed to Athens, improved upon the knowledge of Thales. He taught that the moon was a habitable world like our globe, and attempted to explain the phenomena of the heavens by natural causes. But such was the superstition of the age in which he lived, that he was proscribed as an enemy of the gods, and of the established religion. Pericles, his friend and disciple, interposed in his behalf, but the only mitigation of punishment which he could procure, was, that his teacher should be banished instead of beingput to death.

Pythagoras, another disciple of Thales, taught the present system of astronomy 590 years before the Christian era. He was compelled by fear of persecution and death to deliver his instructions in private. Many of his disciples became the victims of a wicked and idolatrous superstition, and were either banished or suffered death.

These persecutions were instigated by the pagan priests, who kept the people in degrading and gloomy ignorance for many centuries. The great truths against which their jealousy and hatred were directed, were the diurnal and annual motions of the earth, and that the sun occupied the centre of the planetary system. These truths w r ere entirely contrary to common opinion, and exceedingly offensive to vulgar prejudice. Philolaus, a disciple of Pythagoras, ventured to maintain them publicly about 450 years before Christ, but was obliged to fly from Italy for that protection from popular fury, which the law T s of his country denied him. The vulgar belief that the earth was a vast plain, that the heavens formed another vast plain stretched out beyond the sun, and that hell was another plain beneath the earth — this belief was incorporated with the superstitious worship of pagan idolatry, and interwoven into political institutions. To reject it, or attempt to substitute another in its place was accounted treason and sacrilege, deserving the severest punishment.

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No wonder that the true system of astronomy was lost amidst the prevalence of such notions. It remained in oblivion during the long period of the dark ages. The human mind, however, continued to struggle for light. Ptolemy Philadelphus, an Egyptian king, held out splendid encouragements to literature and science. " Forgetting the cares and the vices of a prince, he encouraged the philosophers of the Alexandrian school by his presence and conversation, and inspired them with that emulation and ambition of excellence, which call into action every exertion of industry, and every spring of genius. The possession of a crown is a poor inheritance, unless when it is subservient to the advancement of the human species." To him who views every subject in the light of eternity and of his accountability to God, every distinction and opportunity to do good, if misimproved, will appear to be a curse instead of a blessing. One hundred and thirty years after

Christ, Ptolemv, the Egyptian philosopher, 3 published the system which bears his name. The Ptolemaic system supposes the earth in the middle of the universe, and the centre round which the planets and fixed stars revolve, in the following order : the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn. Beyond these were placed the fixed stars. The great and essential defect of this system, is, that it places the earth instead of the sun in the centre ; the order of the planets otherwise, is the same which is adopted by modern astronomers. From this time, the spirit of discovery appears to have fled, and the science of astronomy was completely neglected for many centuries.

It began to be revived by Alphonzo of Castile, about thirteen hundred years after Christ, but little advance, however was made, until the time of Copernicus, a native of Poland, in the sixteenth century. This distinguished astronomer adopted and defended the system of Pythagorus as the true solar system, and from him it received the name of Copernican system. Its beautiful simplicity and the case with which it accounts for the celestial phenomena, led Copernicus to say of it, ", The several appearances of the heavenly bodies will not only follow from this hypothesis, but will so connect the order of the planets, their orbits, magnitudes, and distances, and even the apparent motion of the fixed stars, that it will be impossible to remove one of these bodies out of its place without disordering the rest and even the whole universe also." He defended this system against every objection, in a work which he was prevented by vulgar prejudices from giving to the world, until near the close of life. The very day on which a complete copy of his work was brought him, the rupture of a blood vessel terminated his life. How justly is man compared to the flower of the field which is soon cut down and withered. In the midst of the most splendid career of usefulness, we may be suddenly cut off by death. But that life is sufficiently long, which has been

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The Copernican system, at this time, found but few advocates. It had come forward in an age of prevailing ignorance and superstition, and like a blighted plant, was doomed to wither in solitude. Tycho Brahe, a nobleman of Denmark, advanced a theory which was more in accordance with popular prejudice, and on that account better received. He supposed the sun and moon revolved round the earth as their centre ; and that Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn moved round the Sun, and were carried with it about the earth. He was succeeded by Kepler, who discovered and explained some of the most important laws of the solar system, and paved the way for the great discoveries of Newton. But he was poorly recompensed by the age in which he lived, for his services. " While magicians and conjurers were rewarded by the munificence of kings, Kepler was doomed to subsist on a trifling pension, and even this he obtained with difficulty. On a journey to Ratisbon, to solicit his arrears, this great man, worn out with age and fatigue, terminated his valuable life."

In the sixteenth century lived Galileo, a a celebrated Italian astronomer. Though not the inventor of the telescope, he greatly improved that instrument, and first applied it to the examination of the heavens. By its help, he was enabled to make discoveries beyond all who had preceeded him. He perceived four satellites revolving round Jupiter, verified the prediction of Copernicus, that Venus would exhibit places similar to those of the moon, and saw a multitude of stars which were beyond the reach of unassisted vision. He published and defended the doctrine of the earth's motion. But the Popish inquisition, the pretended guardian of the Christian faith, soon denounced and persecuted him, and forbid his supporting the new system, either in conversation or writing. " Galileo was not insensible to the

enthusiasm which the discovery of truth 3* never fails to inspire ; and he burned with impatience to throw off the fetters which had been imposed on his mind. The horrors of a prison, and the vengeance of superstition entrenched in power, were the sufferings w 7 hich he had to balance against the abhorrence of cherished error, against the impatience of a persecuted # spirit/ 5 and the hope of being useful to mankind. In this situation, he resolved neither to shrink from his convictions, nor yet openly to avow them. He published a dialogue in which one of the speakers with great force of reasoning supports the true system, while the others argue against it. This roused the hostility of the inquisition, and Galileo was compelled to "disclaim belief in a system to which he had devoted his days, and which had filled his soul with the most elevated conceptions of nature and its divine Author." " What a mortifying picture of human infirmity on the one hand, and of atro-

* Encyclopaedia, 560, 56 L

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cious presumption on the other ! A venerable old man turned of seventy, with his head silvered over by the study of nature : disavowing, against reason and conscience, the great truths which he had published to the world ; and which shone forth in every part of those heavens to which he appealed ! An assembly of cardinals, encircling the aged philosopher on his knees, fixing the laws and arrangements of nature, repressing the great truths which she unfolds, and condemning to perpetual imprisonment, the venerable sage, who first disclosed to man the unexplored regions of boundless space.' 7 He was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, for maintaining the motion of the earth on its axis, and died soon after at the age of eighty-four years. The same system of Popish religion which persecuted this venerable old man, and labored to perpetuate the darkness which brooded over the human mind, lives in our day, and is making fearful advances in some parts of our land. Its spirit is the same as in past ages. It takes

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away the key of knowledge, prohibits the free use of the Scriptures, and endeavors to keep the lower classes of society in the most profound ignorance. Beware of a belief which enchains the mind in bondage, and holds it at an awful distance from God and saving knowledge of the wav of salvation through a Redeemer.

New T ton lived at a more favorable period for improvement, and his comprehensive mind and patient research enabled him to develope and demonstrate some of the most important principles of nature. He appeared to be raised up, in the providence of God, to remove the mists which had obscured the human mind and extricate it from the labyrinths of error in which it had long wasted its energies. Dr. Herschel followed him in his discoveries near the close of the eighteenth century. Aided by the most powerful telescopes, he greatly extended our knowledge of the planetary and sidereal system. He discovered the planet which bears his name, together with its satellites.

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and exhibited views of the construction of the heavens equally sublime, and fitted to fill us with adoring conceptions of their great and wise Author.

From this imperfect sketch of the history of astronomy, we learn that true religion is favorable to the progress of knowledge. It fits the mind for the successful prosecution of study, and by producing distinct views of God and divine truth, it creates a desire for clear views upon all other subjects. Superstition and false religion have ever spread darkness over the human intellect, and prevented advancement even in human science. Does any youth thirst for knowledge ? Let him yield his heart first in supreme love to God. Let him embrace Christ and commence with the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom. He will then find an expansion of thought, an elevation of mind, a fixedness of purpose, which will be the most powerful helps to advancing in every other useful attainment. What is the cause of the general diffusion of knowledge over our happy land ? It has its origin in the piety of our ancestors, in the enlarged and benevolent views with which their piety had inspired them, and the consequent efforts which it produced to establish institutions of learning adapted to all the people.