The Universe of Suns: And Other Science Gleanings |
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Common terms and phrases
actually æther appear asteroids astronomers atmosphere body bright cards celestial sphere centre chance cluster coloured comet consider corona crust disc distance disturbance doctrine of chance earth earthquake eclipse effect eruption evidence existence fact favour femoral artery fixed stars flush four greater Greek fire hand heavens Herschel Huggins idea increase infer Jupiter labour lapilli less light Lombok Mars Martial mass matter means meteor systems miles Milky moon nature nebula noticed object observed orbit Orion Orion nebula passing period photographic eye planets player poker portion principle probably pyramids race reason recognised regarded region remarkable respecting result Saturn says seems seen side sidereal solar system space spectroscope spectrum spots stellar straight line stratum Struve subterranean Sumbawa sun-spots sun's surface supposed telescope theory tints tion triplet upright Vesuvius visible volcanic whole zone
Popular passages
Page 325 - When all aloud the wind doth blow, And coughing drowns the parson's saw, And birds sit brooding in the snow, And Marian's nose looks red and raw, When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl, Then nightly sings the staring owl, Tu-whit; Tu-who, a merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
Page 189 - When they had heard the king, they departed; and lo, the star which they saw in the east went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.
Page 320 - Turn'd only to the grove his horse's reins, The grove I named before ; and, lighted there, A woodbine garland sought to crown his hair ; Then turn'd his face against the rising day, And raised his voice to welcome in the May: ' For thee, sweet month, the groves green liveries wear. If not the first, the fairest of the year : For thee the graces lead the dancing hours, And Nature's ready pencil paints the flowers : When thy short reign is past, the feverish sun The sultry tropic fears, and moves more...
Page 34 - it were possible to distinguish between the parts of an indefinitely extended whole, the nebula we inhabit might be said to be one that has fewer marks of profound antiquity upon it than the rest.
Page 28 - ... dangerous. If we indulge a fanciful imagination and build worlds of our own, we must not wonder at our going wide from the path of truth and nature; but these will vanish like the Cartesian vortices, that soon gave way when better theories were offered. On the other hand, if we add observation to observation, without attempting to draw not only certain conclusions, but also conjectural views from them, we offend against the very end for which only observations ought to be made.
Page 124 - The Creator of the universe set up two great luminaries in the firmament of heaven; the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night.
Page 284 - The fact itself, of causing the existence of a human being, is one of the most responsible actions in the range of human life.
Page 38 - I have borrowed from the vegetable kingdom, is it not almost the same thing, whether we live successively to witness the germination, blooming, foliage, fecundity, fading, withering, and corruption of a plant, or whether a vast number of specimens, selected from every stage through...
Page 26 - ... and, calling this a sidereal stratum, an eye placed somewhere within it will see all the stars in the direction of the planes of the stratum projected into a great circle, which will appear lucid on account of the accumulation of the stars; while the rest of the heavens, at the sides, will only seem to be scattered over with constellations, more or less crowded, according to the distance of the planes or number of stars contained in the thickness or sides of the stratum.