Views of astronomy : seven lectures delivered before the Mercantile Library Association of New York in the months of January and February, 1848 / by J.P. Nichol ; reported for the New-York Tribune by Oliver Dyer.
- John Pringle Nichol
- Date:
- 1848
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Views of astronomy : seven lectures delivered before the Mercantile Library Association of New York in the months of January and February, 1848 / by J.P. Nichol ; reported for the New-York Tribune by Oliver Dyer. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![LECTURE III. The Solar System Its Plan and Mechanism Laws governing Motion Gravitation Centrifugal and Centri- petal forces Copernicus.... New ton Galileo Kepler Euler,C!airaut and D Alemberf....Les Bernouillis Macl'unn....Lagrange and Laplace Adumsand Leverrier Discovery of Uranus Its strange move- men s Discovery of the Planet NEfTUNE—Sublime position of Leverrier before the Royal Academy of Paris Concluding remarks. Prof. Nichol remarked, previous to commencing his lecture, that he had, after mature consideration, concluded that it would be advisable to divide the lecture announced for the evening into two lectures, as it would be impossible for him to do the subjects which he wished to present to the audience any- thing like justice in one lecture. After the applause with which this announcement was received had subsided the eloquent Professor spoke as follows: Ladies and Gentlemen : I proceed to expose, as arising out of the mechanism of our Planetary System, through effect of Man's profound and tri- umphal exploration of its secrets, a discovery than which the entire annals of Physical Science proba bly present none more brilliant or apparently strange—to endeavor to remove the difficulties and doubtfulness with which that remarkable achieve- ment has seemed to some to be surrounded—and, if I can, to clear away all obscurities connected with its history. I feel persuaded that it were needless, even at the outset, to dwell with any special attention on the outline or general constitution of our Planetary Scheme, for they have for the mo3t part passed, as the ages have coursed along, among the details of common knowledge; but since the entire discover- ies, whose steps we shall seek to follow, is but a deduction from that constitution, I do trust I will be pardoned if, even here, I seek for the satte of future distinctness to exhibit to you as succinctly as pos- sible the most important of the elementary facts re- lating to our System to which we shall require fre- quently to appeal. 1 need not more than refer to the Planetary Sys- tem, which, as we first descry it. is alike simple and majestic. Resting in one portion of Space, from which his lustre is diffused through the profundities which environ him, is the San—our magnificent Luminary, ranking in glory and corresponding in destiny with the myriads of the fixed stars.— Around this orb, which illumines, cherishes and up- holds them, those smaller worlds—of which our Earth is one—roll, with admirable and unwavering regularity, atdivers distances and in stated periods. Nearest of all, as shown in the diagram, is placed the planet Mercury ; next in remoteness we descry the brilliant Venus ; tlien oar Earth with its Moon; then Mars; then that complex group of small planets, [Asteroides,] remarkable through their extreme diminuti veuess, and also because the orbits in which they move so nearly approach each other, that one meau distance might almost he tak en as indicating the position or them all; behind these lies Jupiter, with his satellites—the noblest and most beHutiful hmong the secondary constitu- ents of our System; then Siturn, with his Moons and remarkable King; and finally, the planet Ura- nus, which, until the advent of these latter revela- tions, we deemed to be at the outer limit of Planet- ary existence—the remotest of the regular globes attendant on our Sun. This plan, so simple in itself, was not easily dis- covered by mankiud, and was not arrived at till af- ter long years of perplexity and toil. The discov- ery of it save immortality to the name of Copek- nicus. This discovery, grand and sublime though it was. did not satisfy the ever active human mind. The question speedily became, not merely in what order are these various orbs located, and in what manner do they move?—but, Can that mechanism as a whole, be reconciled with any known mechan- ical principles—are these arrangements of the Heav- ens indicative of the presence of Laws whose effi- cacy we discern among the changes more immedi- ately around us ? It was the answer to this ques- tion that bestowed immortality upon the great Eng- lishman, Sir Isaac Newton. Prior to his time—](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21143821_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
