Letters on Astronomy: in which the Elements of the Science are Familiarly Explained in Connection with Biographical Sketches of the Most Eminent AstronomersOlmsted, Denison
Science
Letters on Astronomy: in which the Elements of the Science are Familiarly Explained in Connection with Biographical Sketches of the Most Eminent Astronomers
Olmsted, Denison
Astronomy
In a Life of Kepler, very recently published in his native country,
founded on manuscripts of his which have lately been brought to light,
there are given numerous other examples of a similar devotional spirit.
Kepler thus concludes his Harmonics: "I give Thee thanks, Lord and
Creator, that Thou has given me joy through Thy creation; for I have
been ravished with the work of Thy hands. I have revealed unto mankind
the glory of Thy works, as far as my limited spirit could conceive their
infinitude. Should I have brought forward any thing that is unworthy of
Thee, or should I have sought my own fame, be graciously pleased to
forgive me."
As Galileo experienced the most bitter persecutions from the Church of
Rome, so Kepler met with much violent opposition and calumny from the
Protestant clergy of his own country, particularly for adopting, in an
almanac which, as astronomer royal, he annually published, the reformed
calendar, as given by the Pope of Rome. His opinions respecting
religious liberty, also, appear to have been greatly in advance of the
times in which he lived. In answer to certain calumnies with which he
was assailed, for his boldness in reasoning from the light of Nature, he
uttered these memorable words: "The day will soon break, when pious
simplicity will be ashamed of its blind superstition; when men will
recognise truth in the book of Nature as well as in the Holy Scriptures,
and rejoice in the two revelations."
LETTER XXV.
COMETS.
----"Fancy now no more
Wantons on fickle pinions through the skies,
But, fixed in aim, and conscious of her power,
Sublime from cause to cause exults to rise,
Creation's blended stores arranging as she flies."--_Beattie._
NOTHING in astronomy is more truly admirable, than the knowledge which
astronomers have acquired of the motions of comets, and the power they
have gained of predicting their return. Indeed, every thing appertaining
to this class of bodies is so wonderful, as to seem rather a tale of
romance than a simple recital of facts. Comets are truly the
knights-errant of astronomy. Appearing suddenly in the nocturnal sky,
and often dragging after them a train of terrific aspect, they were, in
the earlier ages of the world, and indeed until a recent period,
considered as peculiarly ominous of the wrath of Heaven, and as
harbingers of wars and famines, of the dethronement of monarchs, and the
dissolution of empires.
Science has, it is true, disarmed them of their terrors, and
demonstrated that they are under the guidance of the same Hand, that
directs in their courses the other members of the solar system; but she
has, at the same time, arrayed them in a garb of majesty peculiarly her
own.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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