Heliocentrism

“ In the universe of being the difference between a heliocentric and a geocentric theory of our solar system is of as small moment, as the reconcilement of fixed fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute is in the realm of absolute intelligence. ”

“ No attention is paid to the circumstance that the helium line is only seen in the spectrum of the solar protuberances, so that its universality in Nature remains as problematic as the primary matter itself ”

“ As the universal law of concentration or integration proceeds to reduce all these varied forms to one, and to cement all in a single homogeneous solid, it is met by the powerful but somewhat irregular and erratic force of the solar radiations, reënforcing the inherent cosmical influences already so far overcome in the evolution of the planet as to have brought it to its given state. The result of this conflict of forces is the condition in which we find our globe. Without the aid of the sun's rays, organic evolution might have been impossible. ”

“ In a similar experiment, in which a very minute trace of helium had been added to the argon, there was no difficulty in detecting the helium on heating the tube. The conclusion therefore follows that no helium is present in our atmosphere.
It is, besides, exceedingly improbable that helium should be present. For, as shown by Dr. Johnstone Stoney, the rate of motion of a molecule of hydrogen is so rapid that, on finding its way to the confines of the atmosphere, it would escape, and travel through space until it found a [Pg 180] planet of sufficient attractive force to hold it. ”

“ Enough has been said to show that the false geocentric theory has been displaced by the heliocentric doctrine, which has been demonstrated to be true. The earth is no longer looked upon as the centre of the universe, with the sun, the moon and stars especially created to revolve about it, to give it light by day and preserve it from total darkness in the night. ”

“ But this, of course, is in no sense a guide to the state of general opinion regarding the theory. We shall gain a true gauge as to this if we assume that the greater number of important thinkers had accepted the heliocentric doctrine before the middle of the seventeenth century, and that before the close of that century the old Ptolemaic idea had been quite abandoned. A wonderful revolution in man's estimate of the universe had thus been effected within about two centuries after the birth of Copernicus. ”

“ In some respects, therefore, the correctness of an hypothesis is best shown by the values of the geocentric or heliocentric distances which are derived directly from it. The logarithms of the heliocentric distances are brought together in the following table, and corresponding values from Gauss [9] and Oppolzer [10] are added for comparison. It is worthy of notice that the positions given by our second hypothesis are substantially correct, and if the orbit had been calculated from the first and third of these positions with the interval of time, it would have left little to be desired. ”

“ It followed that in regions of the cosmos where the helium atoms were in process of formation owing to the grouping together of the protons and electrons, enormous amounts of heat and light would be radiated continually. This consequence of the theory enabled astrophysicists to account for the enormous temperature of the sun, maintained through thousands of millions of years in spite of incessant radiation in a frigid space. Helium atoms are in constant process of formation in the sun, and in this fact resides the source of its apparently inexhaustible supply of energy. ”

“ It was natural that a geocentric and anthropocentric universe should be drawn, because these errors were conducive to man's interests, pleasing to his extreme egotism, and resulted in the apotheosis of himself. The anthropocentric dogma culminated in the belief that man was the preordained center and aim of all creation, while the new heliocentric mechanism of the planetary system relegated both the earth and man to subordinate positions. ”

“ Indeed, the philosophic mind will not be satisfied with the sufficiency of any hypothesis which will not unlock the mysteries and clearly explain the phenomena of other systems,—of comets, variable and temporary stars, double stars, and all the complicated celestial economy which to the eye of the mere observer presents a bewildering scene of the operation of independent and inscrutable forces. The fifth hypothesis cited, that of meteoric impact, doubtless plays a part, as we know from the generation of light and heat by the constant passage of similar bodies through our own atmosphere. ”

“ This opinion was for a time so confidentially entertained, that there was founded upon it an hypothesis, that these were gaseous masses, out of which suns and systems might afterwards be formed, by the concentration of these luminous vapors into a solid central sun, more intensely luminous; while detached portions of the mass, flying off, and cooling down so as to be no longer self-luminous, might revolve round the central body, as planets and satellites. This is the Nebular Hypothesis, suggested by the elder Herschel, and adopted by the great mathematician Laplace. ”

“ The greatest dignity we may assign them is meta-element.
The formation of helium from the emanation was first shown by Ramsay and Soddy, and later confirmed by Indrikson, by Débierne, by Curie and Dewar, by Giesel and by Himstedt and Meyer. Helium, a conventional element which is devoid of any evidence of chemical affinity, is produced by or from radium, a conventional element, but the most active substance known. This occurs when the emanation is dry, and we have reason for assuming that the emanation may in reality be an active allotropic form of helium, as ozone is of oxygen. ”

“ The heliocentric hypothesis is here stated in language which leaves no room for doubt about its meaning. The sun, like the fixed stars, remains unmoved and forms the centre of a circular orbit in which the earth moves round it; the sphere of the fixed stars has its centre at the centre of the sun. ”

“ The heliocentric doctrine has for a century been making its way into the minds of thoughtful men on the general ground of its simplicity and symmetry. Galileo appears to have thought that now, when these original recommendations of the system had been reenforced by his own discoveries and reasonings, it ought to be universally acknowledged as a truth and a reality. And when arguments against the fixity of the sun and the motion of the earth were adduced from scripture, he could not be satisfied without maintaining his favorite opinion to be conformable to scripture as well as to philosophy ”

“ These effects could be explained and the difficulties attendant on the view that the helium comes from an impurity of the ordinary kind avoided by some such view as the following. The evolution of helium is not due solely to the bombardment, by the cathode rays. In the atoms of the ordinary elements and especially in those of the alkali metals a process is at work analogous to that which causes the expulsion of a particles from the atoms of the ordinary radioactive elements ”

“ Is our sidereal system to be regarded as an oceanic island in space, or is it in such connection with the systems in other parts of space as might lead us to infer that the various systems had a common character? The evidence seems to show that the stars in our system are probably not permanently associated together, but that in the course of time some stars enter our system and other stars leave it, in such manner as to suggest that the bodies visible to us are fairly typical of the general contents of the universe. ”

“ The assumption that the Earth is the fixed centre, and that all the heavenly bodies revolve round it, is doubtless wrong; but such a conception is found necessary for the easier explanation of the subjects above enumerated. Again, when at a further stage of progress the heliocentric system is expounded, the sun is assumed to occupy in space a fixed position. This assumption is equally erroneous, as it is now ascertained that the sun has a proper motion in space. ”

“ That the popular, but pseudo-scientific, idea of a series of ever-widening concentric orbits, increasing at every new expansion by an inconceivable ratio, is incredible we can well understand, and it is a satisfaction to know that such a wild hypothesis finds no warrant in the dicta or the demonstrations of science. ”

“ For even as in the world of sense-perception we can clearly discern air and water set between fire and earth, [66] as the link that binds together the extremes, would one not reasonably suppose that, in the case of the cause which is separate from elements and prior to them — and though it is the principle of generation, is not itself generation — it is so ordered that, in that world also, the extreme causes which are wholly separate from elements are bound together into one through certain modes of mediation, by King Helios, and are united about him as their centre? ”

“ The primary polarity, the dyas, the radiality, the light establishes itself in nature as bicentrality, which is the cosmogenic expression for self-manifestation or self-consciousness. Self-consciousness is a living ellipse.
233. The bicentrality determines the distance of the planets from the sun. If the sun as the active pole be strong or energetic, the planets will occupy a remote situation; if it be feeble or weak, one that is near. The strength of the polar energy depends, however, upon the quantity of the mass. Were the mass of the sun less, all the planets would range nearer to it ”

“ But nothing can be further from the truth. We know, of course, that the law is universal, as expressed in the statement of its terms by Newton, but the mere statement of the law itself, as applied to interstellar distances, refutes the idea that solar systems and galaxies can rotate around any common center by virtue of the attraction of gravitation as a controlling force. The universality of the law itself has even been doubted. Professor Ball says, “In the first book about astronomy which I read in my boyhood there was a glowing description .... ”

“ Adams communicated to me values which he had obtained for the heliocentric longitude, excentricity of orbit, longitude of perihelion, and mass, of an assumed exterior planet,—deduced entirely from unaccounted-for perturbations of Uranus. The same results, somewhat corrected, he communicated, in October, to the Astronomer Royal. M. Le Verrier, in an investigation which was published in June of 1846, assigned very nearly the same heliocentric longitude for the probable position of the planet as Mr. Adams had arrived at, but gave no results respecting its mass and the form of its orbit. ”

“ There is no more famous incident in the history of science than the heresy trial through which Galileo was led to the nominal renunciation of his cherished doctrines. There is scarcely another incident that has been commented upon so variously. Each succeeding generation has put its own interpretation on it. The facts, however, have been but little questioned. It appears that in the year 1616 the church became at last aroused to the implications of the heliocentric doctrine of the universe. ”

“ It is easy to see why the apparent motions of the planets were accounted for by deferents and epicycles, before the Copernican system revealed the true nature of the solar system as heliocentric and not geocentric. ”

“ We must not forget that even so great an observing astronomer as Tycho Brahe, so late as the seventeenth century, declined to accept the heliocentric theory, though admitting that all the planets except the earth revolve about the sun. ”

“ By the law of the diffusion of gases, and that of the diffusion or transference of heat-energy from molecule to molecule, the vast realms of interstellar space must tend to be all brought into approximate uniformity of tensions, and the force abstracted at those points of space occupied by the relatively few and insignificant solar systems will be returned, not directly at the identical places where such solar systems may exist, but at every part of space to which their radiant energy extends. ”

“ Hence the inference is irresistible that the planets must derive their primary force from an external source not solar, and this they can only do by means of their rotation in space, and the only force derivable from space of which we have any knowledge is electricity, so that the circle thus becomes complete. How now shall we explain these periodical aberrations of energy? The color of a star, as we know, is no criterion of its age or size. The color is due to atmospheric absorption of the radiant light. ”

“ The inanimate bodies of inorganic Nature are fettered to the conditions of Space, which limits them to one place, or they are only moved from it by external forces. The motion, in short, does not originate in themselves; and, when it is visible upon them, it appears as an [Pg 170] energy which is foreign to them, to remove which the only force they exert is that of reaction. And if the motion of the planets with similar phenomena appear to be otherwise produced, such are at least wholly fettered by natural laws and their abstract necessity. ”

“ A fact which may have a significance which we cannot at present see is that the emanation from radium gradually and spontaneously changes into helium, an alchemistical feat of nature that has opened many curious vistas to speculative thinkers. The eruptive prominences, which do not spread horizontally like the others, but ascend with marvelous velocity to elevations of half a million miles or more, are apparently composed largely of metallic vapors—i.e. metals which are usually solid on the earth, but which at solar temperatures are kept in a volatilized state. ”