Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief | Page 6

day, "and if
inhabited at all, it must be by beings constructed altogether differently
from ourselves. Nothing that has life, either animal or vegetable as we
know them, can exist without air, and it follows that nothing having life,
according to our views of it, can exist in the moon:--or, if any thing
having life do exist there, it must be under such modifications of all our
known facts, as to amount to something like other principles of being."
"One side of that planet feels the genial warmth of the sun for a
fortnight, while the other is for the same period without it," he
continued. "That which feels the sun must be a day, of a heat so intense
as to render it insupportable to us, while the opposite side on which the

rays of the sun do not fall, must be masses of ice, if water exist there to
be congealed. But the moon has no seas, so far as we can ascertain; its
surface representing one of strictly volcanic origin, the mountains being
numerous to a wonderful degree. Our instruments enable us to perceive
craters, with the inner cones so common to all our own volcanoes,
giving reason to believe in the activity of innumerable burning hills at
some remote period. It is scarcely necessary to say, that nothing we
know could live in the moon under these rapid and extreme transitions
of heat and cold, to say nothing of the want of atmospheric air." I
listened to this with wonder, and learned to be satisfied with my station.
Of what moment was it to me, in filling the destiny of the linum
usitatissimum, whether I grew in a soil a little more or a little less
fertile; whether my fibres attained the extremest fineness known to the
manufacturer, or fell a little short of this excellence. I was but a speck
among a myriad of other things produced by the hand of the Creator,
and all to conduce to his own wise ends and unequaled glory. It was my
duty to live my time, to be content, and to proclaim the praise of God
within the sphere assigned to me. Could men or plants but once elevate
their thoughts to the vast scale of creation, it would teach them their
own insignificance so plainly, would so unerringly make manifest the
futility of complaints, and the immense disparity between time and
eternity, as to render the useful lesson of contentment as inevitable as it
is important.
I remember that our astronomer, one day, spoke of the nature and
magnitude of the sun. The manner that he chose to render clear to the
imagination of his hearers some just notions of its size, though so
familiar to astronomers, produced a deep and unexpected impression on
me. "Our instruments," he said, "are now so perfect and powerful, as to
enable us to ascertain many facts of the deepest interest, with near
approaches to positive accuracy. The moon being the heavenly body
much the nearest to us, of course we see farther into its secrets than into
those of any other planet. We have calculated its distance from us at
237,000 miles. Of course by doubling this distance, and adding to it the
diameter of the earth, we get the diameter of the circle, or orbit, in
which the moon moves around the earth. In other words the diameter of
this orbit is about 480,000 miles. Now could the sun be brought in
contact with this orbit, and had the latter solidity to mark its

circumference, it would be found that this circumference would include
but a little more than half the surface of one side of the sun, the
diameter of which orb is calculated to be 882,000 miles! The sun is one
million three hundred and eighty-four thousand four hundred and
seventy-two times larger than the earth. Of the substance of the sun it is
not so easy to speak. Still it is thought, though it is not certain, that we
occasionally see the actual surface of this orb, an advantage we do not
possess as respects any other of the heavenly bodies, with the exception
of the moon and Mars. The light and warmth of the sun probably exist
in its atmosphere, and the spots which are so often seen on this bright
orb, are supposed to be glimpses of the solid mass of the sun itself, that
are occasionally obtained through openings in this atmosphere. At all
events, this is the more consistent way of accounting for the appearance
of these spots. You will get a better idea of the magnitude of the
sidereal system, however, by remembering that, in comparison with it,
the distances of our entire solar system are as mere specks. Thus, while
our own