Show astronomical LECTURES BY PROF ORSON PRATT lecture first astronomy is that science encLe which treats of the figures magnitudes distances motions relative I 1 I 1 positions appearances and physical cons titu I 1 1 i eions of the great bodies which compose the vis j ible universe or in other words it is that department part ment of science which has for its object to investigate the phenomena of worlds and of worlds which exist in countless numbers in the immensity of s space itee it is that science which lifts the veil ov of obscure ob obscurity and exhibits the grand scenery of the universe universe as it existed in ages past as it now exists and if not interfered with by causes unknown irwill it will exist in ages to come it is that science which above all others is calculated to give us the most profound sublime and exalted views of I 1 the power wisdom and goodness of that being who ha formed those magnificent syr systems adems from the eternal elements and devised laws calculated to maintain their stability through all their complicated and infinite variety of movements for indefinite ages to come this is a science which has engaged the attention of individuals nations and generations I 1 from the earliest period of man for what rational being can look upward into the blue I 1 vault of heaven and behold the sun in its effulgent f glory the moon shining with a silvery brightness exhibiting its ever varying changes the stars be spangling the vast concave of a nocturnal sky twin twinkling klink as it were with joy and lighting up the dark unfathomable ab abyss ass of an unknown immensity what rational being r we again agai n enquire can behold this august and sublime scenery without feeling the most intense ten ge desire to know something more about it P kings upon their thrones and the humble shepherd in the field have alike participated in this feeling the poet enraptured with the magnificent glories of the heavens has poured forth his sublime st ef fusions in the most melting harmonious strains of glowing eloquence while the man of goda god with i th loftier views views and higher aspirations has soaped aloft from nature up to natures author and overpowered i i 1 with the ideas of the infinite resplendent glories which surround him on every side he bows in humble adoration before the great eternal and exclaims what is man that thou art mindful of hn hm or the son of man that thou test him i i among the early cultivators of this science oe the prophet enoch stands conspicuous before the antediluvian world this great astronomer ascertained that the sun moon and stars were not merely lights placed in the firmament of heaven for the meagre purpose of giving light to the inhabitants of this world but he learned that they were made for a more noble purpose p ose to accomplish more noble ends in in ear fine e i lt that they were worlds of themselves inhabited in by rational intelligent and moral beings neither did he limit the an universe iverse to the few sh shining inina orba orbs visible to the naked eye but while enrapt enrapt in the visions of the spirit his mind expanded and the immensity of of creation presented itself before him stretching out to infinity in all directions and overwhelmed with the magnitude of this magnificent scenery he gave vent to his feelings in the f following ol lowing 0 beautiful and sublime language were it possible that man could nuns number bathe the particles of the earth and millions of earths like this it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations and thy isi curtains are stretched out still and yet thou art there and thy bosom is there and also thou art pst just thou art merciful and kind forever thou hast taken zion to thine own bosom from all thy creations from all eternity to all eternity and nought but peace justice and truth is the habitation of thy throne and tand mercy shall go before thy face and have no end see prophecy of enoch revealed reveal edby by joseph smith th Seer none of our oar M modern astronomers though aided by tho the most powerful werf ul telescopes can take tae in a mare more enlarged view of the universe than is here given he not only declares the immensity of the present universe but he declares the immensity of unnumbered millions of universes traced back in almost an endless succession that these were all habitable worlds is clearly shown from the fact that a people called zion were taken or redeemed from them all from which we learn that the great plan of redemption is not limited to our our world nor indeed to the present universe of worlds but bat has been continued in all anterior worlds from all eternity anity abraham also through the fhe arim and anum mim enriched the science of astronomy b by discovering the grand presiding central world amono among 15 those of the same order in the present universe it is from the diurnal and annual revelations revo lations of this vast body that god and the highest orders of celestial measure their time situated comparatively near dolob abraham disco discovered verea many other great worlds of the same order each governing i r and controlling vast systems of their own according cord in to the laws and forces which god ordained dain for those of the some same order worlds of a superior order or those which have ascended higher in in the grand scale of progression are not under the dominion of dolob lut but they constitute that vast assemblage of celestial kina kingdoms dows redeemed in in eternal ages past where gods enthroned in majesty power and might arrayed in in all the gorgeous splendors of celestial light sway a universal sceptre over all knoob and the universe I 1 of kin kingdoms over which it presides have advanced 1 I 1 by degrees through a long succession of ages until they have bave drawn nigh unto the throne of the eternal and are waiting in their turn to be admitted j among amborg the higher order of worlds under superior la laws v s and with superior privileges see book of A abraham b r a ham translated by joseph smith the seer from egyptian papyrus taken from the catacombs cata combs of egypt moses like the astronomers who had preceded him contributed much valuable information in I 1 lation to the origin extent purpose and final desti j ny of the present universe by him we learn concerning the agencies that were engard ift m the magnificent magi inagi I 1 ent work of forming the worlds by him we learn that the organization of our globe though hut but a speck among the fhe vast constellations of heaven was wall not done in a moment but by a succession of laws issued biorn the mouth of jehovah each law i taking effect during a certain period r called day or age gradually arranged the elements combined them in ther proper proportions and placed them in craper positions until it had fulfilled the purpose ot 01 end for which it was given when it gave place to other laws of a higher order which further organized arranged and perfected the globe for its future destiny until at last after a succession i of ages ages it is prepared for the habitation of man 1 and pro pronounced very good by him we learn that vast numbers of worlds have already passed away or their substances have been dissolved into their original elements and new worlds formed in their place by him we learn that the end or purpose to be accomplished by the formation of worlds is the immortality and eternal life of man by him we learn that the dimensions of the universe are inconceivably ceiva bly great and that the creations of which it is i composed cannot be numbered unto man but that they are all nambe numbered Ted by him who made them I 1 i see the visions of moses revealed anew by joseph Smith the seer it is easy to perceive from these discoveries of moses that the universe however great in the estimation ti of man still has its limits or boundaries it is not infinite if so its creations could not as we conceive be numbered but as the almighty has numbered them they must be finite therefore there must be an infinity of space where organized worlds do not exist but as there is no space e without a kinor kingdom dom thee see revelation to joseph smith the seer it follows that there must be an infinity oft of the he smaller kingdoms of matter which have not as yet been organized into bodies sufficiently capacious to accommodate rational and intelligent beings like man and therefore there is an ample sufficiency a jr to enlarge eternally the boundaries of that vast system of worlds now in existence I 1 I 1 1 j i passing over many distinguished and celebrated astronomers of ancient times we merely observe that during the dark ages ignorance usurped its dominion over the mind of man and the light of ancient astronomy became nearly extinguished from the world the earth was assumed to be the station 1 ary centre of the universe around which the sun i moon and stars were said to perform their revolutions I 1 eccentrics cycles and epicycles beresin in 1 vented to account for the irregular motions among the planets and the whole system of astronomy became encumbered with absurdities invented to uphold the false theories of ptolemy and aristotle which held for many generations an alinosi universal sway over the mind of man I 1 i copernicus at the beginning of the sixteenth century broke through in a measure the superstition and ignorance of his predecessors by transfer ing the centre of the planetary system from the I 1 earth to the sun and thus forming the heliocentric theor theory y to account for the phenomena observed I 1 kepr kepler nearly a century afterwards discovered the elliptical theory of the planets and overturned the favorite hypothesis of circular orbits which had up to that time been universally received he a also I 1 so discovered the law of motion in elliptical orbits and unfolded the relation existing between their periodic times limes and distances I 1 these grand improvements in the science of astronomy laid the foundation for the great discoveries ies of the immortal newton who revealed to the astonished nations that great areat law of universal gravitation or the law of offeree foree by which the great bodies of the universe are bound together in their respective orbits during the last century and a half the newtonian an system has been studied with unwearied diligence and astronomy has been rescued from the errors and absurdities of the dark ages and established upon the firm foundations of mathematical certainty which aich can never be overthrown it is the newtonian system which we shall endeavor to illustrate in the present series of lectures and to which we earnes earnestly dy solicit your undivided attention we shall commence with an examination of the earth as one of the constituents of our solar system and as the planet with which w we e are I 1 more immediately connected and as the station from which all ai the others are seen if we form erroneous opinions in in relation to the earth the same errors will be interwoven in a greater grater or less degree with all our notions concerning t the he other bodies of the system if we suppose the earth to be a flat extended plane the phenomena exhibited in the heavens as seen from different points of its surf acce would be inexplicable if we suppose it to be stationary the motions observed among the heavenly bodies can no longer be considered a as s apparent arising from the motion of the earth but as the real motions of the bodies themselves many of which would appear inconceivably strange if not absolutely absurd being being subject to no regular law of order which characterizes other phenomena with which we are acquainted if the rising generation among these mountains were to grow up without any instruction in regard to the form magnitude and motions of the earth only what they should gain by their own observations their first impression would be that the earth is a kind of concave valley bounded by mountains on every side aide and after an exploration of fifty or a hundred niiles miles thir their views would be somewhat en barged they would now consider the surface of the earth a sue succession cession of bills and valleys delineated upon a comparatively flat plane all ideas concerning the extent or thickness of this plane would be exceedingly vague and uncertain some might s suppose it to be limited by an awful precipice extending down thron through gh the infinite depths of space others might suppose the earth itself an all infinitely jwied ext n led plane without boundaries in any direction except its upper surface we will now suppose that a committee should be appointed by them to explore the earth in an eastern direction when they had traveled due east between seventeen and eighteen thousand miles alternately over land and sea what would bp be their astonishment at finding themselves just entering the valley of the great salt lake on the west they would searce scarcely lv believe the evidence of their senses the only just conclusion they could form upon so strange a phenomenon would be that the earth is round at least from vast ast to west but a question would immediately arise among among them aln m whether the earth was round or convex in all all directions like a ball or whether it might not be of a cylindrical form like a saw log being convex frow from east to west but straight from north to lo south tha th it question could be decided in the following manner if wea stand on the deck of a ship ata at apa a when out oj 0 sight of land we should be able to see sec hundreds ol 01 0 miles in all directions if the surface of the ocean were a level plane indeed were our view not ob strutted ted by bv mists fogs or clouds we should be abl t to n side see liggA reds of millions of miles large continents continent a and n d isla islands n ds thousands of offles in th distance won oil la a ie I 1 e render d visible ovation aws this not t ti be the case but we find in ill every direction from oui I 1 station a clear well defined boundary only a fl few ean niles miles in the distance As ships pass over thi boundary we gradually lose sight of them the baill disappearing first then the lower sails and finally th the P top sails seem to sink out of sight as they r n cede in the distance after they have thus thiis disna the he most powerful telescopes will riot not render thern them visible but by ascending to the mast hea apai they seeni seem gradually to rise again above the horizon and ard are distinctly visible to the naked eye clearly demonstrates that it is not owing to any in capacity of the organs of vision to see further bu that the convexity of the water intervenes be between the eye and the object and thus hides it from our view since the same effects are observed from evera ever part jart of the ocean and in every possible possie I 1 e dir direction e action north and south as well as past east and we west astl it fonow follows that the same convexity must prevail on e very every sid side I 1 and therefore that t the lie ear earth ill cinn cannot t be of a cylindrical form but inist be round like a globe another demonstrative proof that the earth is a globe is given by considering the form of thi th earths shadow when it falls upon the surface of thi th moon during a lunar eclipse when the moon passes directly behind tho earth so as to form a straight line with the earth arid and sun the shadow ol of the earth extend ng in a direction op opposite to the sun will fall upon the moon and will at all time appear circular upon the moon s disc if lie he earile were considered stationary and if a lunar eclipse should a always ways happen at I 1 the he same hour of the night this would be considered unsatisfactory evidene evidence e ol oi its globular figure for there are many bodies besides a gobe globe which will in certain positions casta cast a circular shadow A grindstone a sugar loaf or 01 even a log of wood when held field with |