Their study of the heavens lifted
them out of themselves, in my belief, and their observations of
celestial phenomena led them to the discovery of the fact that eclipses
of the great heavenly lights happened in a regular rotation of eighteen
years and ten days. This discovery has been very useful in purging the
idolatry from eclipses--as, had it not been for the Chaldaeans, perhaps
the mother of the atheist might have offered him as an oblation in
THE FIRST TOTAL ECLIPSE
after his birth! Again, Proctor and Airy have been for ten years mapping
stars for the use of humanity 25,868 years after the map is done--that
is, that period will furnish the first opportunity for the utilization
of a truly laborious task. There is no glory in it. The difference
between glory and hard work in astronomy is just the difference between
Ptolemy and Hipparchus. The one made a great noise in the world and got
up an atheistic solar system which put science back a thousand years,
while the other stayed on his island and mapped stars to the best of his
ability, rendering possible some of
THE GODLIKE DEDUCTIONS
of Kepler, Halley, and Newton.
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