Thus more than three hundred years ago the cross, significant of the religion of Jesus, was planted upon the banks of the Mississippi, and the melody of Christian hymns was wafted across the silent waters and blended with the sighing of the breeze through the tree-tops. It is sad to reflect how little of the spirit of that religion has since been manifested in those realms in man's treatment of his brother-man. It is worthy of especial notice that upon the night succeeding this eventful day clouds gathered, and the long-looked-for rain fell abundantly. The devout Las Casas writes: "God, in his mercy, willing to show these heathen that he listeneth to those who call upon him in truth, sent down in the middle of the ensuing night a plenteous rain, to the great joy of the Indians." FOOTNOTES: [52] By permission of the executor of the estate of the late John S. C. Abbott. REVOLUTION OF ASTRONOMY BY COPERNICUS A.D. 1543 SIR ROBERT STAWELL BALL The promulgation of the accepted system of astronomy, called the Copernican system, which represents the earth as revolving on its axis and considers the sun as the centre of motion for the earth and other planets, marked the greatest of scientific revolutions. Copernicus, whose name, thus Latinized, was Koppernigk or Kopernik, was born at Thorn, Prussia, February 19, 1473, and died at Frauenburg, Prussia, May 24, 1543. The founder of modern astronomy was probably of German descent: according to some authorities his father was a Germanized Slav, his mother a German; and the honor of producing him is claimed by both Germany and Poland. With equal conciseness and lucidity, in the following pages the eminent British astronomer furnishes important particulars concerning the life of Copernicus; and he gives an account, no less interesting than instructive, of the evolution of the Copernican astronomy in its founder's mind.