Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
SYSTEM OF THE HEAVENS AS REVEALED BY LORD ROSSE'S TELESCOPES.
[Footnote: Thoughts on Some Important Points relating to the System of
the World. By J. P. Nichol, LL.D., Professor of Astronomy in the
University of Glasgow. William Tait, Edinburgh. 1846.]
Some years ago, some person or other, [in fact I believe it wasmyself,] published a paper from the German of Kant, on a veryinteresting question, viz., the age of our own little Earth. Those whohave never seen that paper, a class of unfortunate people whom Isuspect to form rather the majority in our present perversegeneration, will be likely to misconceive its object. Kant's purposewas, not to ascertain how many years the Earth had lived: a million ofyears, more or less, made very little difference to him. What hewished to settle was no such barren conundrum. For, had there even beenany means of coercing the Earth into an honest answer, on such adelicate point, which the Sicilian canon, Recupero, fancied that therewas; [Footnote: Recupero. See Brydone's Travels, some sixty orseventy years ago. The canon, being a beneficed clergyman in the Papalchurch, was naturally an infidel. He wished exceedingly to refuteMoses: and he fancied that he really had done so by means of somecollusive assistance from the layers of lava on Mount Etna. But theresurvives, at this day, very little to remind us of the canon, except anunpleasant guffaw that rises, at times, in solitary valleys of Etna.]but which, in my own opinion, there neither is, nor ought to be,—(since a man deserves to be cudgelled who could put such improperquestions to a lady planet,)—still what would it amount to?What good would it do us to have a certificate of our dear littlemother's birth and baptism? Other people—people in Jupiter, or theUranians—may amuse themselves with her pretended foibles orinfirmities: it is quite safe to do so at their distance; and,in a female planet like Venus, it might be natural, (though, strictlyspeaking, not quite correct,) to scatter abroad malicious insinuations,as though our excellent little mamma had begun to wear false hair, orhad lost some of her front teeth. But all this, we men of sense know tobe gammon. Our mother Tellus, beyond all doubt, is a lovely littlething. I am satisfied that she is very much admired throughout theSolar System: and, in clear seasons, when she is seen to advantage,with her bonny wee pet of a Moon tripping round her like a lamb, Ishould be thankful to any gentleman who will mention where he hashappened to observe—either he or his telescope—will he only have thegoodness to say, in what part of the heavens he has discovered a moreelegant turn-out. I wish to make no personal reflections. I name nonames. Only this I say, that, though some people have the gift ofseeing things that other people never could see, and though some otherpeople, or other some people are born with a silver spoon in theirmouths, so that, generally, their geese count for swans, yet, afterall, swans or geese, it would be a pleasure to me, and really acuriosity, to see the planet that could fancy herself entitled tosneeze at our Earth. And then, if she (viz., our Earth,) keeps but oneMoon, even that (you