Cosmographer

“ The geologist, who has hitherto guided our view, cannot render us much further assistance; but the physicist is at hand—he teaches us that the warm globe on which life is beginning has passed in its previous stages through every phase of warmth, of fervour, of glowing heat, of incandescence, and of actual fusion; and thus at last our retrospect reaches to that particular period of our earth's past history which is specially illustrated by the modern doctrine of Time and Tide. ”

“ Of all the departments in the domains of physical science, it is the most Christianizing. Astronomy is grand and sublime; but astronomy overpowers with its infinities, overwhelms with its immensities. Physical geography charms with its wonders, and delights with the benignity of its economy. Astronomy ignores the existence of man; physical geography confesses that existence, and is based on the Biblical doctrine that the earth was made for man. Upon no other theory can it be studied; upon no other theory can its phenomena be reconciled. The astronomer computes an ephemeris for his comets ”

“ Since the geographical description of the earth according to latitude and longitude, both by maritime voyages and by celestial observations becomes more accurate day by day, it happens to scarcely any one man to perfect (a globe) by his own observations for these can be partial only. Therefore it behooves us to make use of the most accurate modern observations. In so far as they agree with the truth or depart from it it is left for you with your more exact judgment to decide. ”

“ The early history of our globe forms one of the great problems of geology, but there is evidence enough upon which to form conclusions and show that the earth had undergone some great and varied changes embracing immense periods of time, and if the sciences of astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, &c., be brought in to assist the inquiry, some plain facts become evident. Astronomy shows us orbs circulating round the sun (the planets) , strictly analogous to our earth, and furnishes us with their densities ”

“ But geology is really distinct from cosmogony. Inquiries into the origin of the planetary bodies belong to one of the highest of human sciences,—astronomy. Geology, far from intruding within its precincts, supposes the globe to be constituted as a planet moving round the sun; takes for granted all the laws which this relation implies, and limits itself to the discovery of the strictly terrestrial phenomena which have happened upon this globe under these conditions. ”

“ It is one of the characteristics of geology to gather evidence from sources which at first sight seem far removed from its scope, and to seek aid from almost every other leading branch of science. Thus, in dealing with the earliest conditions of the planet, the geologist must fully avail himself of the labours of the astronomer. Whatever is ascertainable by telescope, spectroscope or chemical analysis, regarding the constitution of other heavenly bodies, has a geological bearing. ”

“ To astronomy belongs the investigation of the history of the globe, as a part of the planetary system, and the results thus reached help to correct and limit geological inferences. Chemistry employs itself upon the inquiry into the laws and modes of mutual action among the particles of matter, and gives its results to aid in the general history of terrestrial phenomena. It is the province of zoology and botany to arrange and interpret the facts connected with life and organisation in plants and animals; and to these branches of knowledge geology owes immeasurable obligation. ”

“ But while thus culling freely from the dominions of other sciences, geology claims as its peculiar territory the rocky framework of the globe. In the materials composing that framework, their composition and arrangement, the processes of their formation, the changes which they have undergone, and the terrestrial revolutions to which they bear witness, lie the main data of geological history. It is the task of the geologist to group these elements in such a way that they may be made to yield up their evidence as to the march of events in the evolution of the planet. ”

“ But the progress of investigation has changed all this, and has brought physical and natural science back to a position nearer to that of the old cosmogonies. Physical astronomy has shown that the constant emission of heat and light from the sun and other stars must have had a beginning, and is hurrying on toward an end, that the earth and its satellite the moon are receding from each other, and that even the spinning of our globe on its - 5 - axis is diminishing in rapidity. ”

“ Let the astronomer raise his telescope and reflect, on our astonished eyes, the light which flashed from morning stars, on the first day of this earth's existence, or even the rays which began to travel from distant suns millions of years ere the first morning dawned on our planet: they shall shed a sacred lustre over the pages of inspiration, and give new beauties of illustration to its majestic symbols. But never in this life will geologists penetrate the depth of its mysteries, nor astronomers attain the sublimity of that beginning revealed in its pages. ”

“ The general advancement in the knowledge of our globe, which follows the work of polar exploration, is not at first perceived. The collective results are rearranged and interwoven with the other threads which go to make up the fabric of the various branches of natural science. Around the two poles of the earth, and particularly around the south pole, there are extensive unknown [454] regions. In these regions are hidden the finishing filaments of much exact knowledge. To seek these is the true object of polar exploration. ”

“ Science, beginning with its crude efforts at the hands of [Pg 10] Alonzo de Santa Cruz, in 1530, has so mapped the surface of the globe with observations of its multifarious freaks of variation, and the changes are so slow, that a magnetic chart is not a bad guide to-day for ascertaining the longitude in any latitude for a few years neighbouring to the date of its records. So science has come around in some measure to the dreams of Columbus and Cabot. ”

“ Oceanography has to do then, directly or indirectly, with a multitude of sciences and, more than any other, with geology. The present is at the same time the key of the past and of the future, especially in natural history. Man, in his investigations, works from the known to the unknown, from what he can see with his eyes, touch with his hands, measure with his instruments, to that of which he can perceive only the results; from phenomena present before him to those which were accomplished thousands of centuries ago. ”

“ Never, perhaps, did any science, with the exception of astronomy, unfold, in an equally brief period, so many novel and unexpected truths, and overturn so many preconceived opinions. The senses had for ages declared the earth to be at rest, until the astronomer taught that it was 61carried through space with inconceivable rapidity. In like manner was the surface of this planet regarded as having remained unaltered since its creation, until the geologist proved that it had been the theatre of reiterated change, and was still the subject of slow but never-ending fluctuations. ”

“ But to the boy, or to the grown man, the literary or the illiterate, the story of Columbus, of Cook, of Dampier, and the grand roll of Arctic and Antarctic heroes, is for ever fascinating, and inspires in present and future generations high ideals and heroic aims.
Nautical discovery occupied a pre-eminent position in the earlier stages of our geographical knowledge. It is different to-day. The 19th century gave birth to Geography as a science, as it did to Chemistry and Biology, and, I may add, to New Astronomy, and to-day as a science it embraces land and sea ”

“ THE beginnings of the science of astronomy and of the science of geography are traceable to a remote antiquity. The earliest records which have come down to us out of the cradleland of civilization contain evidence that a lively interest in celestial and terrestrial phenomena was not wanting even in the day of history’s dawning. ”

“ It would be ludicrous to limit Astronomy to hypotheses about the origin of the Solar System, and to limit Geology to speculations how the Earth came about, neglecting all notice of the Earth as we find it. ”

“ These are problems which have occupied the attention of philosophers in every age of the world, and in periods long antecedent to the existence of a science of geology. The mere existence of cosmogonies in the religion of almost every nation, both ancient and modern, is a sufficient proof of the eager desire of the human mind to know something of the origin of the earth on which we tread. ”

“ For fully eighteen hundred years, from the age of Aristotle to that of Columbus and Copernicus, no advance was made in the elucidation of natural phenomena or even towards exploring the surface of the globe. The same globe has been surveyed and delineated in its widest extent by the industry of our cartographers, has been seamed with a labyrinth of railways for the conveyance of substance, and invested in a network of wire for the transmission of thought. In the universe of suns our solar system appears to us as a minute and isolated disc, the earth a speck within that disc ”

“ Astronomy had been unable to establish the plurality of habitable worlds throughout space, however favourite a subject of conjecture and speculation; but geology, although it cannot prove that other planets are peopled with appropriate races of living beings, has demonstrated the truth of conclusions scarcely less wonderful,—the existence on our own planet of so many habitable surfaces, or worlds as they have been called, each distinct in time, and peopled with its peculiar races of aquatic and terrestrial beings. ”

“ In proportion as materials were yet lacking from which to construct a history of the evolution of our planet in accordance with the teaching of the church, imagination supplied the place of ascertained fact, and there appeared during the last twenty years of the 18th century a group of English cosmogonists, who, by the sensational character of their speculations, aroused general attention both in Britain and on the continent. ”

“ The globe balls were constructed of papier-mâché covered with plaster over which were pasted the gore maps, each map composed of twelve parts with the usual polar discs. The engraver, we are told, in a brief legend on the terrestrial globe, was Carolus Simonneau, “Car. Simon. del. et sculpsit.” On the larger of the terrestrial globes is the title legend “Globe terrestre dressé sur les observations de l’Académie Royale des sciences et autres mémoires,” and a dedication reading, “À Son Altesse Royale Monseigneur Le Duc de Chartres. ”

“ The astronomer, joining camera to telescope, expands the sphere of the known universe a million fold; he discovers system after system in stages of life such as our sun and its attendant orbs have passed through in ages so distant as to refuse conception. The geologist, deciphering the birth register of our planet's oldest rocks, gives them a lifetime scarcely to be distinguished from eternity. ”

“ If there were a geologist at present on the moon he would be constrained to admit that his globe was once the seat of volcanic activity of the most widespread character, and of a vehemence and potency the like of which could not be paralleled on any known globe. ”

“ That very splendour which makes the evening star so lustrous an object decks the planet in such a shining robe that we are unable to make out the details on its surface. We can, no doubt, sometimes see that her form is an exquisite crescent which passes through a succession of phases. We can occasionally detect, under rare favourable circumstances of climate and instrumental equipment, slight indications or marks on the surface of the planet which, with some help from the imagination, we can suppose to be indications of continents. ”

“ For what geology properly investigates is the antiquities of this terrestrial planet, and the primal condition of the mountain ranges, observing and seeking to read the long-hidden memorials that are daily brought to light of pristine convulsions, and to number the successive epochs of gradual change and decay. But it was not at once that geological science made any progress beyond the mere acquaintance with the surface of our globe. ”

“ This globe has, on account of its great size, an advantage over all others, namely that all details on it can be given with the utmost exactness and minuteness. And those points concerning the doctrine of the primum mobilum and the study of the heavenly bodies in their relations to the position of the ecliptic and the equator and of certain other circles on the globe, are easily determined with a minimum of trouble and without any laborious effort, by the machine. ”

“ Besides the geographer, the geologist and his scientific brother the mineralogist are concerned with the Earth regarded as a planet moving through space as the other planets do. The geologist studies the actual structure of the Earth, its circumstances and history so far as they have been revealed to us, whilst the mineralogist investigates and names the materials of which it is composed, and classifies such materials with the assistance of the geologist on the one hand and of the chemist on the other. ”