The fact of their creation had been stated before in the first verse." Against this it may be urged-"The text says the sun was made on the fourth day, not made to appear. Just as God made the firmament, made the beast of the earth, made man, so did He make two great lights and the stars. There is an end of all ingenuousness in interpreting Scripture, if we foist in one of these examples a meaning not borne in any of the others." The reply is simple and convincing-The word "made" is not to be strained in the least, and when we say it means, not the making of globular and opaque masses in the depths of space, but the making of visible lights as they appear moving in the sky, that meaning is correct and natural. If, moreover, our science is correct as to the progressive condensation of the sun, the luminous atmosphere would be cleared gradually during the sun's process of integration as a revolving light. The development of the earth is an analogue of the suns and stars. As the earth condensed, so the sun condenses. One theory supposes the condensation of the sun and planets from a nebulous mass, whatever that may mean; and the condensation of the sun from the original mass can be calculated. Professor Helmholtz gives a formula.1 Work of condensation The mass = r2M2 of the sun is M, the mass of the earth is m; the sun's radius is R, the earth's radius is r. Taking M = 4230 X 1027 lbs., m=11,920 X 1021 lbs., R=2,328,500,000 feet, and r = 20,889,272 feet, we have for the total work performed by gravitation in foot-pounds— 3. (20,889,272*5)2 × (4230 × 1027)2. Work= 5 2,328,500,000 X 11,920 X 10:1=168,790 × 1036 foot-pounds. The heat, thus produced, would suffice for 20,237,500 years; and the quantity of heat given out, which previously existed as original temperature, was 49,850,000 years' heat; making in all 70,087,500 years' heat. This represents the total amount of heat given out since the mass began to condense. Mr. Croll says-"Let us assume that by the time that the mass of the sun had condensed to within the space encircled by the orbit of the planet Mercury (that is, to a 1 "Phil. Mag." sect. 4, vol. xi. p. 76 (1856). Also in "Climate and Time," p. 348: James Croll. God has not done all He can. 199 space having, say, a radius of 18,000,000 miles) the earth's crust began to form; and let this be the time when the geological history of our globe dates its commencement. The total amount of heat generated by the condensation of the sun's mass from a sphere of this size to its present volume would equal 19,740,000 years' sun-heat. The amount of original heat given out during that time would equal 48,625,000 years' sun-heat, thus giving a total of 68,365,000 years' sun-heat enjoyed by our globe since that period." If the sun's gravity is greatly increased at the centre, the quantity will be considerably more; but there is no warrant for anything like the period demanded by some geologists, and the general conclusion arrived at by measurement of the sun's heat is that one hundred millions of years amply suffice for condensation of the nebulous mass into the present form. 1 A process of condensation has not only taken place in the sun, but in all members of the solar system. There has been or will be advance, if the generally received hypothesis be true, in every one from the gaseous to the liquid, from the liquid toward the solid state, to be followed by extinction of their light. There was a time when the sun did not give light to the extent now given; a time when the earth, even if light were given, could not behold it; a time when all the now visible glory was invisible; a time when Nature, as now known, was not; in a Source beyond Nature is Nature's origin to be found. Worlds precede worlds in time, worlds lie beyond worlds in space. When shall a man dare to say "God has done all He can?" "God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth." The stars seem mentioned lest they should be accounted uncreated. Also because of the fact that they emit every year heat enough to melt a crust of ice seventy feet thick. Nearly equal to that sent by the sun. Sun, moon, stars, are classed according to their apparent magnitude and importance. The word "made" is more formative than the word "create." It is used for "dressing," arranging," "making ready." The calf was dressed for Abraham's mysterious visitors, and the cakes were made of "Climate and Time," p. 352: James Croll. meal (Gen. xviii. 6, 7). The same Hebrew word, used for "dressing," "making,' making," "crowning," states that the sun was dressed, made, crowned ruler, to give light on the earth. By the time earth and water were separated, and dense vaporous clouds rarefied, the earth's mass attained a measure of consolidation, and began to exhibit vital power in lowest forms of vegetable organisms; the sun, clearing the photosphere, sent rays of light and heat through the vast pressure of his own vapours, and became lord of the day. The actual then is the present phase. The Sun's Physical Constitution. The actual density is about one-fourth that of the earth, or a little greater than the density of water.1 The tremendous heat, whatever pressure the gases and vapours are subject to, renders a solid nucleus improbable; and we regard the sun as, in the main, a gaseous body. Hardly any definite theories can be adopted concerning other than its gaseous condition. The attractive and repulsive forces are such, and the elements exist in forms and quantities with which we are so nearly unacquainted, that when one difficulty is removed from our understanding it gives place to another. The sun's envelope cannot, in any ordinary sense, be counted a crust at all; but as the vaporous globe is in the presence of the cold of space, there is necessarily a process on the outer surface corresponding to the formation of clouds in our skies. The vapours composing them are chiefly metallic elements, which condensing may descend in sheets of fire, and form a nearly continuous envelope, through which the central imprisoned gases are erupted with great violence. Mr. Proctor states The sun is a gigantic bubble whose walls are gradually 1 The sun is 1,260,000 times larger than the earth, and 882,000 miles in diameter. More than 1,200,000 earths would be required to form the substance of one sun, and the weight or mass is 300,000 times greater than that of the earth. Our sun is not a large star compared with others, for Sirius is equal in bulk to more than 4000 suns. The surface of the sun is about 2,284,000,000,000 square miles, there are 3,097,600 square yards in every square mile, and on every square yard a heat is produced equal to that which would be caused by burning on it six tons of coal an hour. The impact of matter falling into the sun merely from the earth's distance, would give 6000 times the amount of energy which would be produced by mere burning. The sun travels at the rate of 154,185,000 miles the year. His mean distance from the earth is 91,430,000 miles; rotation on the axis occupies about 25.38 days. Theories of the Two Herschels. 201 thickening, and its diameter diminishing, at a rate determined by its loss of heat. It differs, however, from ordinary bubbles in the fact that its skin is continually penetrated by blasts and jets from within."1 Sir W. Herschel viewed the sun as a solid globe, around which lies an atmosphere of a complex nature. He thought that the real body of the sun was neither illuminated nor heated very greatly. "Whatever fanciful poets may say in making the sun the abode of blessed spirits, or angry moralists devise in pointing it out as a fit place for the punishment of the wicked, it does not appear that they had any other foundations than mere opinion and mere surmise; but now I think myself authorised, upon astronomical principles, to propose the sun as an inhabitable world." Sir John Herschel, the son, took a different view as to the coolness of the sun; and, incredible though it seem, regarded certain bright objects, shaped like willow leaves, lying athwart and across each other, as the immediate sources of the solar light and heat. He says "We cannot refuse to regard them as organisms of some peculiar and amazing kind; and though it may appear too daring to speak of such organisations as partaking of the nature of life, yet we do know that vital action is competent to develop at once heat and life and electricity." The sun's surface has not only spots which have a central part and a fringe less dark; but also contains certain bright streaks, by some called faculæ, in the neighbourhood of the spots. "The sun-spots are really hollows or cavities in the solar atmosphere where the temperature of the glowing gases has been reduced." 2 The spots are said to be confined to two definite zones, extending about 35° on each side of the equator: a scene of solar tornadoes of white-hot hydrogen, which blow with such fierceness that, compared with these, our most destructive storms are summer breezes. The spots are certainly depressions of greater or less depth, and the light received from the umbra of a spot shines through absorbing vapours. 'A great difficulty lies in the fact that we have no clear evidence to show whether the sun-spots are formed by forces acting from without or from within, whether the seat of that action which leads to the 1 "The Sun a Bubble:" R. A. Proctor. 'Spectrum Analysis," p. 263: Henry E. Roscoe. formation of a spot lies below or above the level of the photosphere.. As to the prominences, it seems to be demonstrated that some are mere clouds in the upper regions of the solar atmosphere, while others are due to some form of eruption, and only assume the cloud form after the eruption which gave them birth has ceased."1 There are bridges, arcs, stalks, leaves, and veils of clouds, most intricate in structure. The wildest and most fantastic variations take place, renewals of fresh forces with scenes of tremendous tornadoes, swift rushes of glowing vapours and cyclonic motions. The least spot, perceived with the most powerful telescope, has an area of fifty thousand miles; those visible to the unaided eye are enormous. The largest spot recorded had a greater breadth than 143,500 miles. The spots sometimes burst in pieces, like a piece of ice dashed on a frozen pool, and disappear in a moment. The eruptions, which occur at all times, are vast explosions, seeming to come from some twenty thousand miles below the edge of the sun's disc, and extend many thousands of miles in every direction. There are brilliant, silver, copper, and ruby-coloured coruscations. The velocity has been known to exceed two hundred and fifty miles a second; of glowing hydrogen and other vaporous elements sent through an atmosphere of hydrogen. Coloured prominences consist of glowing gas of various tints and forms-their origin is still a mystery. The sierra, or rugged line of projections, is made up of ranges of red and other coloured flames, called the chromosphere. The whole disc of the sun is much marked with roughness like an orange, and some of the lower parts of the inequalities are blackish. The faculæ are ridges of elevation above the rough surface, and sometimes, next to a spot, will be a protuberant lump of shining matter. Many metals exist in the sun, more than thirty of those known on earth. He consists chiefly of metals; in our earth metals form the minority. The surface of the sun is exceedingly complex. Analysis of spots shows three envelopes within the photosphere: the penumbral fringe, the dark umbra, the so-called black nucleus about ten thousand miles below the photosphere. The photosphere is a fourth solar level. The fifth is a 1 "The Sun,” pp. 438, 489: R. A. Proctor. |