NEW VIEWS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. The heading of this article will no doubt strike many of your readers as not only presumptuous, but extremely ridiculous. To suppose that a new view of the solar system can be presented to the learned, and such a view as will deserve the attention, the examination of the philosopher and mathematician, will appear rather a strange undertaking, to many, who would think well of any effort, claiming less pretensions. I had proposed publishing my view of the solar system, with the appropriate diagrams; but being advised by a few learned friends to present to the public, through the Messenger, my view of the distances of the planets from the Sun, their velocity in their paths, and the kind of orbits they describe round the Sun, he being a progressing body, I now comply with that advice. It will be admitted by both the philosopher and mathematician, that if the Sun is a progressive body, then the planets cannot describe round him orbits returning into themselves, as now taught by astronomers. It will be also admitted, that our systems of astronomy, as they now exist, and are taught in the schools, had their foundation in the supposition that the Sun is a stationary body, and that the orbits of the planets were drawn in pursuance of this supposition. It is now, I believe, generally admitted by astronomers in England, France and Germany, that the Sun is not a stationary body; but moving on in his grand orbit, and carrying his planets as Jupiter carries his moons. Then, if we admit this fact, and it must be admitted, as the whole phenomena of the heavens tend directly to prove it, consequently, there is not a diagram in any of our systems of astronomy, which represents the solar system as it is: they represent a system which has no reality in creation. I have no hesitation in saying, that this single fact, the progressing motion of the Sun, proves clearly that the whole system, as it now exists, requires recasting-and such a recasting as will furnish a substitute representing the sytem as it is, and not as it has heretofore been supposed to be. Before I advert to the probable distances of the planets from the Sun, I will bring into view the rotatory phenomena of the Earth. It has been supposed that the Moon was furnished by the Creator for the purpose of giving light to this globe during the absence of the sun. But the object of this creation was for a very different purpose. We see that the Moon revolves on her axis once only during her revolution round the Earth. This would have been the case in relation to the Earth, if she had not been supplied with this agent; she would have revolved once only on her axis during her revolution round the Sun, as is the fact, in relation to the Moon. To give quick successions of day and night, suited to the well-being of vegetable and animated nature on this Earth, the Moon was given. That this is the fact, the agency of the Moon, in raising the tides, abundantly proves. I will, however, now, only say, that the planets give rotatory motion to the Sun, and the moons to the planets; and that I have here noticed this agency of the Moon, for a purpose which will here. after appear, hoping that the great difference between the rotations of the Earth and Moon, may excite the attention of your learned readers. In thus proposing to show to the learned world, that our physical systems of astronomy are not true, either in the distances of the planets from the Sun-their velocities in their paths—the kind of orbits they describethe forces by which they are impelled through the heavens-the cause of their perturbations, and the entire insufficiency of that something called the attraction of gravitation, though presented to us in a full suit of mathematical problems and demonstrations, to produce the phenomena we observe among the planets and their satellites-I hope I shall not be considered as attacking systems idly, and without just grounds for the attack. I am well aware of the force of educational impressions, and that there are men who cannot brook the questioning of the truth of such impressions. Every theory or system must be consistent with itself. If it is not-if it involves inconsistencies-it cannot be accepted as true. Astronomers have been long engaged in efforts to discover the magnitude of the Sun, of the planets, and their distances from one another; but with what success, a few of their supposed discoveries will show. It is universally admitted, I believe, that the magnitude of a body diminishes as the distance increases. Then, at the distance of the Sun from the Earth, whatever it may be, he presents an apparent diameter, I will say, of about thirty inches; but they have, in retracing the distance of the Sun from the Earth, brought up that apparent diameter to a real one of 780,000 miles. Now suppose the Sun to be 95,000,000 of miles from the Earth, with an apparent diameter of 30 inches, and then suppose him removed 95,000,000 of miles further off, what would be his apparent diameter at that distance? We might see him, perhaps, as we now see the light of some distant star. They give to Jupiter a measurable apparent disk, and say that his nearest approach to this Earth is about 390,000,000 of miles; but in tracing back that distance, more than four times the distance of the Sun, they give to him a real diameter of only 90,000,000 miles. Then taking into view the distances given the two bodies, the real diameter of Jupiter ought to be much greater than that of the Sun. Now what can be said in favor of a mathematical theory involving such discrepancies—a theory, too, pretending to infallibility? It is, however, not to be considered very extraordinary that such errors should exist theoretically, and continue to exist, as neither distance, magnitude, nor velocity, are required in the labors of the practical astronomer. The distances of the planets from the Sun, and the velocity they have in their orbits, must be ascertained from physical data very different from the means now employed. The mathematicians have been, also, too much employed, and uselessly so, in attempts to prove that their gravitation, their attraction and projection, alone wields the planets in their courses. It is, for us, equally easy to conceive the Deity creating elastic materials, and specifically applying them, as to conceive the creation of our globe; and we see, and feel, that they do exist, and exist formidably. Can such materials be without agency in the fields they occupy? Do we not see that this globe would be a barren waste without them? Philosophers have at all times paid too little attention to the use, the agency, and indeed the necessity of such materiel in the vast ranges of creation; but if we can succeed in ascertaining the true distances of the planets from the Sun, VOL. IV.-55 and I have no doubt this can be done with great accu- given in our physical systems of astronomy, then the racy-if we can by any means arrive at the exact dis- distance and velocity of Mercury cannot be. This dis tance of the Moon from the Earth--there will be but lit-crepancy or inconsistency, would, however, very natutle difficulty in arranging the electro-magnetic machinery rally grow out of the discoveries of Galileo, and Coperof the Sun and planets, so that the whole of the phe-nicus. Copernicus assumed that the Sun was a stanomena presented to us in the solar system may be tionary body, and he whirled the planets round him, in readily accounted for, even that anomaly discovered in paths returning into themselves. This led his followers the motions of the four bodies between the orbits of to suppose, from the times or periods of the planets, that Mars and Jupiter. they must have different velocities. Now it is very evident, that the Sun being a progressive body, that that progession must limit the progression of the planetsnone can advance ahead-none can be left behind; they must all have the same velocity. The Moon will make twelve revolutions round the Earth, while Mercury makes four round the Sun; Mercury describing precisely the same kind of orbit round the Sun, that the Moon describes round the Earth; the Earth and Mercury having the same velocity. This opens the field fully to our view, and we see evidently from the nature of the orbit described by the Moon, that she must move faster in her path than either the Earth or Mercury; and, therefore, the distance of Mercury from the Sun cannot be, if we assume the distance of the Moon to be rightly given, 37,000,000 of miles. No one will deny that the Moon moves round the Sun with the same certainty, the same exactitude, that Mercury does ; and the Sun being a progressive body, Mercury must describe round him the same kind of orbit the Moon Now, our physical systems of astronomy teach us, that the Moon makes one revolution round the Earth in 29 days, at the distance of 240,000 miles from her primary. They also teach us, that Mercury makes one revolution round the Sun in 87 days. Then three revolutions of the Moon round the Earth, will be performed in the same time, (87 days,) that Mercury performed one round the Sun, leaving out fractions in both cases. Suppose then, for convenience, we place the Moon three times her supposed distance from the Earth, which will be 720,000 miles, and give Mercury his supposed distance from the Sun, 37,000,000 of miles, and use their several velocities as given by the mathematicians, the Moon 70,000 miles an hour, and Mercury 110,000 only. Then so far as time is concerned, the Moon, at 720,000 miles distance from the Earth, would make one revolution round the Earth, while Mercury makes one, at the distance of 37,000,000 of miles, as supposed, from the Sun. The Moon moving 70,000 miles an hour, and Mercury 110,000 only. Here then mathe-describes round the Earth. matical astronomers have blundered most extraordina- Respecting the action of the Moon upon this Earth, rily. But this question having been submitted for the and the nature of that action, I feel confident I shall be consideration of a distinguished mathematical professor, able to demonstrate, that the same force which raises he at once dismissed it, by saying it was "an incorrect the tides, gives to the Earth axillary or rotatory moprinciple to compare a body moving round one, with a tion, and if that force was attractive, it would reverse the body moving round another," without giving any reason whole phenomena of the tides, and give to the Earth why it was so. I will admit, that if the two bodies rotation upon its axis from east to west, instead of belonged to different systems, and existed under differ from west to east. But what would be much worse ent circumstances, that then it might be considered an it would bring the Earth and Moon together at the incorrect principle. If, "to compare a body moving point where the Moon passes the orbit of the Earth, in round one, with a body moving round another," be an her descent towards the Sun. But my principal object incorrect principle, it must be, because the bodies com- now, is to excite a full examination of the correctness or pared, belonged to different systems. But in this case, incorrectness of the principle of comparing the distance the Sun, Mercury, the Earth, and the Moon, belong to and velocity of the Moon, with the distance and velothe same system, they move in the same direction, city of Mercury, as they are presented to us by the never vary in their times, and are indissolubly bound astronomical mathematician. There can be no statogether. Mercury moves round the Sun-the Earth tionary worlds,-no stationary systems-the whole moves round the same body, and so does the Moon, universe is in motion, and that description of forte Then if the Moon is 240,000 miles from the Earth, which moves a feather, moves a world. The natural and moves 70,000 miles an hour, and three periods of gravitation of all systems must be counteracted, not by the Moon are equal to one of Mercury, it is evident, a projectile force in a direct line, and a drawing off from that, if there is any truth in figures, in mathematics, or that line, but by a force quite of a different nature: in anything else, Mercury cannot be 37,000,000 of miles such a force as we discover in the action of one magnet from the Sun. Then, if the comparison here made, is upon another. The magnetic phenomena will develope made upon correct principles--and I see no defect-what to us the true nature of the planetary gravitation, and, is the probable distance of Mercury from his luminous also, the true nature of the counteracting forces. leader? The question may be thus stated: Moon's velocity. 70,000 Distance. 110,000 7(0,000)79,200,00(0,000 1,131,428,4-7 miles. Mercury's velocity. I shall probably offer you for your next number my view of the tides, which will bring before your readers an entirely original theory, founded upon the real facts as they exist, and not as they have been said to exist. The whole of the oceanic phenomena produced by the action of the Moon, have been altogether misrepresented In thus speaking, I hope I shall not be considered as intending to give offence to any one; my object is revo lutionary, so far as our physical systems of astronomy Now if the distance and velocity of the Moon are rightly are concerned. Near those fountains where Pleasure and Fashion bear sway, A very distinguished European mathematician seems | really indebted to the physical astronomer for this art; to be not altogether convinced that the primary object and that gravitation, attraction, and projection, are in the creation of the Moon, was to give light to this necessary; and that he could not get on without such Earth during the absence of the Sun. Now if he had supposed forces. But this art was brought into practice attended more particularly to dynamical principles, and thousands of years before Copernicus had an existence, the nature of the force producing rotatory motion, he or such forces were even thought of by our modern would have discovered that there was evidently a force astronomers. In fact the practical astronomer derives applied to the Earth, which was not applied to the no advantage whatever from what is now called the Moon. Then the inquiry would have been, whence physical department of the science. this force? He would have seen, and clearly too, that the force which could drive the Earth 68,000 miles an hour in her path, could not be the force that gave her MEMORY, FANCY, AND LOVE. such a slow rotatory motion compared with the motion 'Tis to Mem'ry and Fancy that mortals most owe given her in her orbit. He seems to have had no idea The good or the evil they meet with below: of the true office of the Moon, and which will be shown, For Memory's mirror reflects back again in showing the true cause of the tides. I know that the The image of every past pleasure or pain; And in Fancy's strange prism the future appears, office or agency I give to the satellite, is new-is ori-As color'd and shaped by our hopes and our fears; ginal. But this, so far from constituting an objection, From the first dawn of thought to life's latest hour, ought rather to excite inquiry, and a thorough investi- What mortal has felt not their magical power? gation of the question. I say that the original design of the Creator, in the creation of the Moon, was the rota-Two beautiful sisters chanced lately to stray; tory motion of this Earth. The light she gives is truly of some importance, but this rotatory motion is still of more importance, and indeed is absolutely necessary to animated nature as it exists here. It may be said that the Moon has still a slower rotatory motion than the Earth, and which is true, and just such a rotation as the Earth would have had, if she had been left without the agency of her Moon. The projectile force of astronomers must strike the planet equally, and therefore could not give rotatory motion; and their gravitation must also affect or act upon the planet equally, and of course neither force could give axillary motion;-to give axillary or rotatory motion, the planet must be acted upon unequally and obliquely. Then, as the projection and gravitation of our physical astronomers, can neither of them act both equally and unequally at the same time, they can have no agency in producing rotatory or axillary motion. It may be replied to this, however, that the Moon has herself this axillary motion, and that she has no agent to give her such a motion independent of the projection and gravitation of our physical astronomers. To show how this is effected, the electro magnetic machinery, which wields the planets in their courses, must be brought into view. This, however, will require diagrams showing how this material is applied, and which cannot here be given. Though the damsels were equal in beauty and grace, The one who was younger, with form light and airy, Displays all the grace of a sylph or a fairy: Awakened to pity, the sisters employ But my principal object in offering for the Messenger this paper, is to have the question, whether the distance of the Moon from the Earth, and her velocity in her path, furnishes "correct" data for ascertaining the probable distance of Mercury from the Sun; Mercury making one revolution round the Sun, in the same The urchin, ungrateful their cares to requite, time that the Moon makes three round the Earth. IfI Soon tasks the two sisters from morning till night : In the mirror first looks-through the prism then gazes, am correct in this, the distances and velocities of the As his object's the past or the future's bright phases: planets, as heretofore given, cannot be true; and I will Each by-gone delight now with rapture beholds; show that the Earth itself is not more than 5,000,000 of Then hope's lovely hues, which the prism unfolds, miles from the Sun, instead of 95,000,000; and that If some frightful shape should here meet his sight, To the mirror he turns for remembered delight; Jupiter is not more than 55,000,000 from the same Or if some clouded spot in the mirror arise, body, and that he moves with the same velocity that To the beautiful tints of the prism he flies. Mercury, Venus, the Earth and Mars do. This will These signs were together sufficient to prove bring the field occupied by our solar system within To the sisters the child they had cherish'd was Love; reasonable bounds. I will conclude this paper by Twas to Fancy and Mem'ry his life he had owed. remarking that because the practical astronomer pre-Thus, if they nurse the Passions, the Passions again dicts transits, eclipses, &c. many suppose that he is Over Fancy and Memory triumphantly reign. As the symbols they wore had in like manner show'd ness-his pride must yield. Ah! my beloved Sidney," she continued, unclosing a miniature case, and gazing fondly on the picture which it contained, "Heaven has stamped upon that brow its own seal of nobility, and who shall dare to say that thou art not a match for the envied heiress." As Lucile stood with her earnest gaze fixed on the face which had become to her young heart its beau-ideal, her lovely features borrowed an additional charm from the pensive expression which stole over them. The massy folds of raven hair were parted over a low, broad brow, and knotted at the back of the head, so as to display the whole of a beautiful face and throat. The features were of the purest Grecian mould, but the exquisitely curved lips and large lustrous eyes, gave more in the most perfect copies of the loveliness of the far famed daughters of Greece. The evening was closing in, and the mysterious twilight was beginning to envelope every object in its misty veil. The hour most dear to the dream-expression to the countenance than is usually found ing and poetic mind, is that between sunset and the falling of night: the indistinct and imperfect outlines suggest a thousand visions as flitting and unreal as the shadows before us. The happy love that hour, for then fancy has full sway, and bright and gorgeous is the future which she pictures forth the wretched love it, because the quiet and dream-like repose of nature allows them leisure to brood over the past, and recall the image of the being whose presence was the sunshine of their existence to remember a bright and happy face, or the tones of a glad voice which once was the music of their home. "My own Lucile," murmured a low voice at her elbow; and her pale face flushed even to the temples, as she met the eyes of the original of that picture, on which she had been so abstractedly gazing. And never did woman yield her love to one whose outward form was better calculated to win it. A tall, stately figure, with a face whose every feature was strictly beautiful; yet no one would have thought of calling it effeminate: the large clear eyes were filled with light from the spirit within, and the intellectual brow redeemed it from the possibility of having such an epithet applied to it. It was a face which breathed of The day had been intensely hot; a slight breeze was just beginning to crisp the surface of the ocean, and the murmur of the waves as they genius-passion-truth. broke in ripples on the beach, came with a lulling sound to the ear of Lucile Montressor, as she leaned from the balcony in front of her window. A servant entered the chamber, and lit the crystal-lamp, which stood on a table in the centre of the room. Lucile turned and exclaimed Quickly recovering from her confusion, Lucile exclaimed "Ah! Agnes, why did you bring that odious light? It has destroyed the brightest dream that ever moon-struck fancy mirrored forth." "'Deed, Miss Lucile," said the girl; "if de dream made you so pale and ghost-like, it could'nt be such a one as is very pleasin' for a young lady like you. Look at yourself in de glass, and see if you isn't more like a corpse than a livin' lady." Lucile threw herself on a sofa, and motioned her attendant to leave her. "Let me know," said she," when my father returns-I wish to see him immediately." Yes, ma'am," responded Agnes, and in another instant Miss Montressor was alone. Starting up, and pressing her hands on her temples, she exclaimed "Have you seen my father? Tell me in a word what he says. Methinks your face speaks not of failure." "I have seen him, dearest, but will you-can you forgive me, for again leaving his presence without speaking of my hopes-my wishes? When I approach the subject, my tongue falters, and my heart faints within me; for how can I, the object of his bounty, ask him to give me his gifted, lovely child. I, who would gladly give my life for her, yet dare not hope to win from her proud father the consent to call her mine. I have lingered around you, dear Lucile, until I fear that if I breathe my presumptuous hopes, I shall be banished from my paradise, without the Eve whose companionship could lighten every toil-make dear every priva tion endured for her sake.” Lucile waved her hand impatiently. "No, Sidney-no! I would not be the means of bringing sorrow on you; for if my father were to "Ah, if he should not consent! This suspense is refuse his consent to our marriage, and I should horrible: I can hear the pulsations of my own elope with you, what would become of your hopes heart in this still and silent hour: yet he must-of future greatness! In struggling with the wearhe will sanction our engagement: he is my father, ing cares of life, the fire would be extinguished— and I his only child—he will not refuse me happi-the enthusiasm of genius fade from your soul ; and 1—even I-fondly as you say you love me, would | can make nothing out of it; and you both look as be dearly purchased at such a price." melancholy as if you had just lost the best friend you have in the world. Been reading Tasso's Lament, perhaps, and are sympathizing with his woes. Well, there's no harm in that, for there's genius in that poem; that fellow Byron had a soul of fire, and a heart of ice,' as somebody said of him, but I am proud that he is my countryman nevertheless." "Lucile no price, save that, can be too dear to me for the possession of your love-the right to claim you as my own forever; for if the glory depart from my mind, I should be unworthy of you, and could not hope to retain your affection. But the history of genius has no such record: it is in sorrow and poverty that the brightest spirits have been nursed; and many-many, gifted be- As this was uttered, the speaker advanced in the yond myself, have been lost to the world and pos- room. He was a middle-aged man, with a fine terity, by the inglorious love of ease which the noble countenance, and an expression of firmness possession of wealth allowed them. Thus you in his thin compressed lips, which might well see, dearest, that even if Gen. Montressor should deter one from confiding to his decision the happirefuse to sanction our love, it may be to my advan-ness of a life. tage in the end. 'Tis true, I lose the opportunity "I am happy, dear father," said Lucile," that of visiting Italy, and studying the master-pieces of you have a soul to appreciate and admire talent. my art, but with thy form before me as a model, But for that—” and the beauties of nature in such a clime as ours "But for that! well, what next, girl? Is it anyspread around me, I shall be inspired with such thing new to you to learn that I have soul enough visions as never before visited the brain of dream-to admire the beautiful? Is it a discovery to my ing painter or poet. Oh! Lucile, promise me that you will hold sacred the pledge which you have given, that no other influence shall destroy your love for me." "Sidney, Sidney," said Lucile, reproachfully, “have I ever given you cause to doubt the stability of my affection? Have I not turned coldly away from the proffers of love? Have I not even offended my father by the indifference with which I received the attentions of others, and yet you can suffer a doubt to dim your trust in me? Alas! this should not be." daughter that I am not as dull as the fat weed that rots on Lethe's brink?' Pooh-nonsensewhat are you thinking of? I sought you, Lucile, to have a little private conversation with you. We can dispense with ceremony with Sidney, for he is one of ourselves. Come with me, love, to my library." CHAPTER II. Love! summer flower, how soon thou art decayed, L. E. L. "Forgive me, Lucile-I have no doubts of your truth; but when I view the vast disparity in our situations, I cannot prevent a chill from creeping over my heart. You are bright, beautiful and happy, while I am poor, lonely, and nearly friendless; the gift-perhaps the fatal gift of genius-my "Lucile," said Gen. Montressor, after a pause, only claim to the consideration of others. What I heard that boy making love to you, though I then can I offer to your haughty father that he pretended not to understand the scene; and what will consider worthy the acceptance of his che-surprised me more, heard you, my daughter, the rished heiress? Ah! Lucile, would that your lot had been cast among those to whom I durst aspire, and how proudly would I have shown that love was all to me; but I cannot ask you to leave your own proud halls to become a wanderer on the face of the earth with me. Blindly presumptuous, I "Lucile Montressor!" said her father sternly, have, like the godlike Tasso, raised my eyes to "what is this I hear? Do you hope to win my one so far above me that I dare not hope for a consent to see you the bride of one so far beneath happy termination to our love: though more for-you? If I thought that you had so far descended tunate than him, I am not scorned by the object of my idolatry.” "Scorned! Ah no, dear Sidney-deeply, truly loved; and believe me when I say that I am prouder far of being the chosen of thy noble heart than—” last descendant of my ancient house, reply some nonsense about love and faith and all such foolishness." "Foolishness! nonsense! Oh, father, are all my hopes of happiness in life to be thus termed?" from your high estate, as to look with the eyes of favor on this boy, I would cast you from me forever-disown you, and sink to my grave a lonely, blighted man, without an interest in life. What, he-the orphan son of my overseer-my hired servant-he wed my daughter?" "Pooh! pshaw! what is all this waste of senti- "He has wooed and won the love of your ment about?" said a voice from the door. "Here daughter," said Lucile, with a pale cheek, but I've been listening for the last two minutes, and unfaltering voice, "and she acknowledges in him |