Essays in AstronomyD. Appleton, 1900 - 536 pages |
Common terms and phrases
61 Cygni appear astronomical atmosphere axis Bessel bright lines brighter stars celestial centre colour comets condensation condition cooling dark lines density determined diameter direction discovery distance double stars earth existence fact gaseous globe gravitation greater heat heavenly bodies heavens heliometer Herschel hydrogen hydrogen lines increase instrument Jupiter known latitude less Lick Observatory light luminous magnitude Mars mass matter means measure Mercury meteoric meteorites method miles minor planets molecules moon moon's moving nature nearly nebula nebular hypothesis north pole object observations observatory orbit pass period photographic planet planetary plate position possible present probably produced proper motion question radiation region revolution revolving ring rotation satellites Saturn seen solar parallax solar system space spectra spectroscope spectrum stellar sun's supposed surface telescope temperature terrestrial theory tion Uranus vapour variable stars velocity Venus visible whole
Popular passages
Page 89 - Thou makest thine appeal to me: I bring to life, I bring to death: The spirit does but mean the breath: I know no more.
Page 89 - Are God and Nature then at strife, That Nature lends such evil dreams? So careful of the type she seems, So careless of the single life...
Page 80 - Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
Page 459 - And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.
Page 92 - They say, The solid earth whereon we tread In tracts of fluent heat began, And grew to seeming-random forms, The seeming prey of cyclic storms, Till at the last arose the man...
Page 418 - Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But how is it, That this lives in thy mind ? What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time ? If thou remember'st aught, ere thou cam'st here, How thou cam'st here, thou may'st.
Page 442 - First the flaming Red Sprung vivid forth ; the tawny Orange next ; And next delicious Yellow ; by whose side Fell the kind beams of all-refreshing Green : Then the pure Blue, that swells autumnal skies, Ethereal...
Page 82 - On the other hand, in the regions beneath the dark side, a solar eclipse of fifteen years in duration, under their shadow, must afford (to our ideas) an inhospitable asylum to animated beings, ill compensated by the faint light of the satellites. But we shall do wrong to judge of the fitness or unfitness of their condition from what we see around us, when, perhaps, the very combinations which convey to our minds only images of horror, may be in reality theatres of the most striking and glorious displays...
Page 92 - CONTEMPLATE all this work of Time, The giant labouring in his youth; Nor dream of human love and truth, As dying Nature's earth and lime; But trust that those we call the dead Are breathers of an ampler day For ever nobler ends.
Page 313 - Our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws to a close. The millions that around us are rushing into life cannot always be fed on the sere remains of foreign harvests.