PARY

MISCELLANEOUS

NOTES AND QUERIES,

S. C. GOULD,

Editor.

"The human soul is infinitely richer than it is itself aware of."-LEIBnitz.

VOL. XI.

SEPTEMBER. 1893.

No. 9.

The Stellar System-The Sun and the Earth.

The following astronomical theory of the sun and the earth was printed for the author in 1868, and circulated anonymously at the time to induce thought. It is now twenty-five years since its appearance; and we reprint now, to put it on record :

It is acknowledged in the learned world that man is a microcosm, that in him are united all the faculties of the lower types of creation; that there are connecting links between him and every other creation thing; that in short, he is a miniature picture of the universe and the image of God.

Now man has four periods of existence : his boydood, his manhood, and old age. His infancy resembles the Winter, in this, that all his faculties lie dormant; he only lives the life of an animal. Next comes his boyhood; then there begins to crop out the green grass, flowering shrubs, and the young trees; this is the Spring of his life. Next comes his manhood, when all the grass, and shrubs, and trees attain maturity; this is his Summer. And lastly comes old age, when the fruits of the earth are gathered, and this is his Autumn. Thus man has four seasons as well as the earth, his Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn, and so he resembles the earth. Now our earth, as is well known, has its four regular seasons, which return in succession every year. What shall we say then of the grand system of

the universe?

It has been discovered by astronomers that our Sun, with its attending planets, revolves about a point, situated somewhere in the constellation Hercules. May we not then reasonably suppose that our solar

system is a picture of the grand system; in other words, that the grand system has its season also, its Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn? Let any one cast his eye to the heavens, and he will observe there the Milky Way, a broad silver belt that girdles the entire sky, and if he has a telescope let him turn it upon it, and he will find the milky whiteness resolved into stars, so thickly sprinkled in that broad band that, to use the words of Sir John Herschel," they look like diamond dust thickly sprinkled on a dark ground"; and yet all these stars are so many suns, and they too have their planets, and these suns are revolving about the great central Sun, carrying with them their multitude of planets, with all their satellites. And well may Ezekiel the prophet have exclaimed, that he saw "a wheel in the middle of a wheel" (I, 16), and “full of eyes round about them "(18). But let us return to the earth and our own Sun. It has been shown conclusively by astronomers, as I said before, that our Sun revolves about the great central Sun. Then,if this is the case, there must necessarily be a regular return of the grand seasons, each not to last a few months or days, but more probably millions of years. Now, geology shows that at one time the whole earth was covered with water, after which came the glacial period when the whole earth was frozen up, and became one mass of ice. In this dread winter, lasting probably millions of years, there was no living thing on the face of the earth or in the waters thereof. It was one dismal dreary waste of ice and snow. But, as our Sun advanced in its grand revolution, it carried the earth along with it, and the end of the grand winter drew near. The grand vernal equinox was at had, and as this period is always ushered in with violent storms, so we might expect the same in the grand system. Had we lived in those days we might have seen the heavy clouds rolling up their dark masses, and gathering for the storm. The air, the earth, the sea of ice is all charged with electricity. At length the period of the grand vernal equinox is reached, the tempest bursts with all its fury, the rain pours in torrents, the lightnings flash, the thunder rolls. The whole heavens are black; there is no Sun, nor Moon, nor Stars; in the meantime the internal fires begin to shake and toss the crusts of the earth, huge billows rebound to and fro, whilst innumerable volcanoes burst forth in the great sea. The great sea boils like a pot; dense vapors arise and still more obscure the skies, and all is one dark dismal night, or in the language of Genesis, "Darkness was on the face of the deep " (1, 2); and then God said, "Let there be light, and there was light" (1, 3). The storm ceased as the sun carried the earth on and on out of the great and a faint glimmer of light appeared; this was the dawn of the great day which universal Spring of which we see so many wonders today. In the meanwhile the great icebergs went drifting and ploughing the earth's surface as they went, and dropping the great bolders

from the mountains of New Hampshire in the valleys of Virginia, Kentucky, and Mississippi; and dropping those taken from the Ural mountains, in France, in Italy and Spain.

Then God separated the waters under the firmament from those above the firmament. This would seem to mean that God caused the rain to cease. Then God caused the waters to subside, and dry land to appear, and it was so; and he caused the earth to bring forth grass, and the herb yielding seed, and the tree yielding fruit, and it was so. And these plants began to absorb the poisonous vapors from the air, and hence at that period geology shows that there were immense ferns resembling trees, tremendous grasses, and gigantic trees and immense forests. Then the sun began to appear, and the Moon and Stars also, and this was the forth grand day of creation.

Then God caused the waters to bring forth abundantly; and he created great whales and every living thing that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind; and every winged fowl after his kind; and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day, or the end of the Spring; and next is ushered in the grand universal Summer, as the sun carried our earth to the grand Summer solstice, when God created all the beasts of the earth. It has been shown by geology that at that period there existed enormous serpents, huge lizards, flying crocodiles, the mammoth, the mastodon, the meglatheron, the plereosaurus, gigantic skarks, and birds of such enormous size as to rival in magnitude the fabulous roc of the the "Arabian Nights." Geology shows that all these troptical animals existed, and the remains of many of these are even now found in the neighborhood of the North Pole. Hence there was a universal Summer over the whole earth; its surface teemed with living, moving, and breathing animals. And as the sun flies on and on, and ever onward in its grand evolution, the end of the grand Summer approaches. The air is filled with vapours from the sea, until the grand Autumnal equinox is reached. Then comes another terrific tempest; the land is again submerged; new continents are thrown up; old ones are sunk; and then we see the consummation of the age. The great womb of the earth brought forth, and man was produced, an image of God a microcosm a little universe in himself. And this was the beginning of the sixth day, the beginning of the grand Autumnal season.

As the earth was being carried on and on a second electric storm was encountered; this was the Noachian deluge, when the foundations of the great deep were broken up; and then men began to gather together in rational communities, and then it was the consummation of the age, for men had been gathering the fruits of the earth, the goods and the truths, when Jesus Christ made his appearance. He was the consummation of the age. At this time was gathered as

in a storehouse the goods and the truths of the earth, as in a true man, the image of God himself, the grand man. And no one need to be surprised at this ascertion, that Jesus Christ appeared at the grand Autumnal equinox, for we must not consider that epoch as a single moment of time, but may have been comprised, for aught we know, of months, years, or even thousands of years, For we read in Genesis that "He rested on the seventh day" (II, 2). In other words, the Christian religion was established, and man began to gather the Autumnal fruits, and store them up for the coming grand Winter. For as we are carried on and on, we are approaching the grand Winter solstice, when we may expect another glacial period. When this begins men will gather in closer communities around their Winter firesides, and to consume the fruits of the earth. As we are carried onward into the depths of the stellar Winter, then there may set in another great glacial period; the intense cold destroying all animal and vegetable life, and the seas again be frozen up until the fishes will be all exterminated; and this state of things will continue until the new grand Vernal equinox, which will be ushered in.as before with a tremendous electric hurricane. Then a new heaven and a new earth will be created, and man again will make his appearance on the earth, at the regular Autumnal season of the universe.

But will these men be the same as we are? Will they not be infinitely superior? Will they not be more beautiful, and more rational? Will not they, when digging in the bowels of the earth, discover the remains of the previous man, and wonder, as we do, what they were? Will they not speculate on the queer and uncouth forms of ourselves, and of our animals? Such is conceived to be the rational and truthful representation of the phenomena of the grand steller system.

That the advent of Jesus Christ took place at the grand Autumnal equinox, we think that there is irrefragable proof in the constellations of the heavens. For at that point of the heavens, namely, the Autumnal equinox, is placed the Virgin; she has a child in her arms, and is fleeing into the wilderness from the great Solstitial dragon, the dragon of the Summer time. The fossil remains are found today embedded in rocks of that period. And this was, and is the sixth sign of the Zodiac, or the end of the sixth day. These signs were placed there by the prophets of old to signify these very facts. In fact, we repeat, with confidence, that the whole history of the creation, the fall and the redemption of man, is pictured in the heavens. Let those read who can.

Note. It may happen at the beginning of the grand stellar Winter, that the spots on the sun will be wonderfully increased in magnitude; and the sun plunging deeper and deeper into that universal Winter, its heat and light will grow fainter and fainter; and then the Moon, which shines by reflected light, will disappear from the heavens, and