CHAPTER VIII TO END OF BOOK.

By ALBERT M. MARTIN, GENERAL SECRETARY C. L. S. C.

1. Q. How many primary planets have been discovered between the sun and the earth? A. Six; four planetoids, Mercury and Venus.

2. Q. When and by whom were the four planetoids discovered? A. In 1878, during a total eclipse of the sun, Prof. Watson, of Ann Arbor, Mich., and Lewis Swift, the famous comet-finder, each discovered two small bodies within the orbit of Mercury.

3. Q. What is the distance of these planetoids from the sun? A. About thirteen million miles.

4. Q. What is the time of their orbital revolution? A. About twenty days.

5. Q. What is the mean distance of Mercury from the sun? A. Thirty-five million miles, in round numbers.

6. Q. What is the diameter of Mercury in round numbers? A. Three thousand miles.

7. Q. How does its axial revolution compare with that of the earth? A. It is nearly the same.

8. Q. With what kind of a light does Mercury shine? A. With a white light nearly as bright as Sirius.

9. Q. In what part of the heavens is Mercury to be seen? A. It is always near the horizon.

10. Q. What is the distance of Venus from the sun, in round numbers? A. Sixty-six million miles.

11. Q. How does its diameter compare with that of the earth? A. It is nearly the same.

12. Q. How does its axial revolution compare with that of the earth? A. It is also nearly the same.

13. Q. What is said of the appearance of Venus in the heavens? A. It is the most beautiful object in the heavens, and is often visible in the day time.

14. Q. What is the mean distance of the earth from the sun? A. Ninety-two million five hundred thousand miles.

15. Q. What is the polar and what the equatorial diameter of the earth? A. The polar, 7,899 miles; the equatorial, 7,925½ miles.

16. Q. State three facts in regard to the aurora borealis. A. It prevails mostly near the arctic circle rather than the pole; it is either the cause or the result of electric disturbance; it is often from four to six hundred miles above the earth, while our air can not extend over one hundred miles above the earth.

17. Q. What is the cause of tides? A. The attractive force of the moon and sun.

18. Q. What shores have the greatest tides? A. All eastern shores have far greater tides than western.

19. Q. What is the mean distance of the moon from the earth? A. Two hundred and forty thousand miles.

20. Q. What is the diameter of the moon in round numbers? A. Two thousand miles.

21. Q. What is the time of its revolution about the earth and of its axial revolution? A. Twenty-nine and one-half days.

22. Q. How clearly do the best telescopes we are now enabled to make reveal the moon? A. No more clearly than it would appear to the naked eye if it were 100 or 150 miles away.

23. Q. What is said about the moon presenting the same side to us? A. The moon always presents the same side to the earth.

24. Q. What is the difference of heat on the moon in the full blaze of its noon-day and midnight? A. No less than five hundred degrees.

25. Q. What is said as to the presence of air and water on the moon? A. There are no indications of air or water on the moon.

26. Q. What is said of the maps of the side of the moon toward us? A. They are far more perfect than those of the earth.

27. Q. What planets have been discovered that revolve around the sun outside of the orbit of the earth? A. Mars, asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

28. Q. What is the mean distance of Mars from the sun? A. One hundred and forty-one million miles.

29. Q. How does the axial revolution of Mars compare with that of Mercury, Venus, and the earth? A. It is nearly the same.

30. Q. What is the diameter of Mars in round numbers? A. Four thousand miles, or one-half that of the earth.

31. Q. What is the appearance of Mars to the naked eye? A. It is the reddest star in the heavens. Sometimes it scintillates, and sometimes it shines with a steady light.

32. Q. How many satellites has Mars? A. Two.

33. Q. When and by whom were they discovered? A. In August, 1877, by Prof. Hall, of Washington, D. C.

34. Q. How many asteroids have been discovered up to the present year? A. Two-hundred and twenty-three.

35. Q. What is the distance of the asteroids from the sun? A. From two hundred million to three hundred and fifteen million miles.

36. Q. What are the diameters of the asteroids? A. From twenty to four hundred miles.

37. Q. How does the mass of all the asteroids compare with that of the earth? A. It is less than one-fourth of the earth.

38. Q. Since what time have all the asteroids known been discovered? A. Since the commencement of the present century.

39. Q. What is the mean distance of Jupiter from the sun? A. 475,692,000 miles.

40. Q. What is the mean diameter of Jupiter? A. Eighty-six thousand miles.

41. Q. What is the volume of Jupiter compared with that of the earth? A. It is thirteen hundred times larger.

42. Q. What is the length of a Jovian day? A. About ten hours.

43. Q. How many satellites has Jupiter. A. Four.

44. Q. What is the mean distance of Saturn from the Sun? A. 881,000,000 miles.

45. Q. What is the mean diameter of Saturn? A. Seventy thousand five hundred miles.

46. Q. How does the time of the axial revolution of Saturn compare with that of Jupiter? A. It is nearly the same.

47. Q. How many moons has Saturn? A. Eight.

48. Q. By what is Saturn surrounded? A. By three rings.

49. Q. What has been proved in reference to the state of Saturn’s rings? A. That they are in a state of fluidity and contraction.

50. Q. What is the mean distance of Uranus from the sun? A. 1,771,000,000 miles.

51. Q. What is the mean diameter of Uranus? A. Thirty-one thousand seven hundred miles.

52. Q. What is the length of the year on Uranus? A. Eighty-four of our years.

53. Q. How many moons has Uranus? A. Four.

54. Q. When and by whom was Uranus discovered? A. By Sir William Herschel in 1781.

55. Q. What is the distance of Neptune from the sun? A. 2,775,000,000 miles.

56. Q. What is the diameter of Neptune? A. Thirty-four thousand five hundred miles.

57. Q. How many moons has Neptune? A. One, and probably two.

58. Q. What is the length of the year on Neptune? A. A little over one hundred and sixty four of our years.

59. Q. When was Neptune discovered? A. In 1846.

60. Q. By what name is the scientific theory known which attempts to state the method by which the solar system came into its present form? A. The nebular hypothesis.

61. Q. How are the stars in a constellation indicated? A. The brightest stars are indicated in order by the letters of the Greek alphabet. After these are exhausted the Roman alphabet is used in the same manner, and then numbers are employed.

62. Q. What have many of the brightest stars also received? A. Proper names by which they are known.

63. Q. Around what star do the stars of the northern circumpolar region appear to revolve? A. Polaris, the North Star.

64. Q. Name five northern circumpolar constellations. A. Ursa Major, or the Great Bear; Ursa Minor; Cepheus; Cassiopeia, or the Lady in the Chair; and Perseus.

65. Q. When are the circumpolar constellations visible in northern latitudes? A. They are always visible.

66. Q. How many stars does the constellation of Ursa Major contain that are visible to the naked eye? A. One hundred and thirty-eight.

67. Q. What does a group of seven stars in this constellation form? A. The Great Dipper.

68. Q. What are the names of the stars in the Dipper? A. The pointers are Dubhe and Merak; the stars forming the handle are Benetnasch, Mizar, and Alioth; the star at the junction of the handle and the bowl is Megrez, and the remaining star at the bottom of the basin is Phad.

69. Q. How many stars does Ursa Minor contain? A. Twenty-four stars, of which only three are of the third, and four of the fourth magnitude.

70. Q. What is a cluster of seven of these stars termed? A. The Little Dipper.

71. Q. What do three stars besides the double pole star form? A. The curved-up handle of the Little Dipper.

72. Q. How many stars visible to the naked eye are contained in the constellation Cepheus? A. Thirty-five.

73. Q. Which is the brightest star of this constellation? A. Alderamin.

74. Q. In what portion of the constellation is Alderamin situated? A. In the right shoulder.

75. Q. What is the position of the head of Cepheus? A. It is in the milky way, and is indicated by a small triangle of three stars.

76. Q. What figure, easily distinguished, do a number of stars in Cassiopeia form? A. An inverted chair.

77. Q. Give the names of two prominent stars in the constellation Perseus. A. Algenib and Algol.

78. Q. Name four of the more brilliant equatorial constellations, only a portion of whose paths is above our horizon. A. Andromeda, Orion, Cygnus, and Canis Major.

79. Q. Give the names applied to some of the groups of stars in the equatorial constellations. A. The Pleiades, the Great Square of Pegasus, the Belt of Orion, and the Milk Dipper.

80. Q. Name eight stars of the first magnitude in the equatorial constellations. A. Aldebaran, in Taurus; Capella, the Goat Star, in Auriga; Castor, in Gemini; Betelgeuse, in Orion; Sirius, the Dog Star, in Canis Major; Procyon, in Canis Minor; Spica, in Virgo; and Arcturus, in Boötes.

81. Q. What are some of the more remarkable sights in the southern circumpolar region of the sky? A. The constellations of the ship Argo and the Southern Cross, the Dark Hole, and the two Magellanic Clouds.

82. Q. How many stars are visible in the whole heavens to the naked eye? A. About five thousand.

83. Q. How many are there of each magnitude to the sixth? A. Twenty of the first, sixty-five of the second, two hundred of the third, four hundred of the fourth, eleven hundred of the fifth, and thirty-two hundred of the sixth.

84. Q. How many stars are there in the zone called the Milky Way? A. Eighty millions.

85. Q. How much of the light on a fine starlight night comes from stars that cannot be discerned by the naked eye? A. Three-fourths.

86. Q. How does the whole amount of starlight compare with that of the moon? A. It is about one-eightieth that of the moon.

87. Q. Give the names of five double or multiple stars. A. Polaris, Sirius, Procyon, Castor, and sixty-one Cygni.

88. Q. What is said of the color of stars? A. They are of various colors.

89. Q. Name five stars each having a different color. A. Sirius, white; Capella, yellow; Castor, green; Aldebaran, red; and Lyra, blue.

90. Q. What are clusters of stars? A. In various parts of the heavens there are small globular well-defined clusters, and clusters very irregular in form marked with sprays of stars.

91. Q. How do these clusters appear to the eye, or through a small telescope? A. As little cloudlets of hazy light.

92. Q. What is the new and better substantiated possibility of thought concerning these clusters? A. That they belong to our system, and hence that the stars must be small and young.

93. Q. What does the spectroscope show that some of these little cloudlets of hazy light called nebulæ are? A. That they are not stars in any sense, but masses of glowing gas.

94. Q. What are some of the shapes of nebulæ? A. Nebulæ are of all conceivable shapes—circular, annular, oval, lenticular, conical, spiral, snake-like, looped, and nameless.

95. Q. Of how many stars has a variation in magnitude been well ascertained? A. One hundred and forty-three.

96. Q. What are temporary stars? A. Those that shine awhile and then disappear.

97. Q. What are new stars? A. Stars that come to a definite brightness and so remain.

98. Q. What are lost stars? A. Those whose first appearance was not observed, but which have utterly disappeared.

99. Q. What movements have these stars? A. There is motion of the stars in every conceivable direction.

100. Q. What is said of the appearance of the Great Dipper in thirty-six thousand years? A. The end of the dipper will have fallen out so that it will hold no water, and the handle will be broken square off at Mizar.

ANSWERS

TO QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY IN THE JANUARY NUMBER OF “THE CHAUTAUQUAN.”

By ALBERT M. MARTIN, GENERAL SECRETARY C. L. S. C.

1. The expression, “Possession is nine points in the law,” probably had its origin in an old Scottish proverb, “Possession is eleven points in the law, and they say there are but twelve.” It is found in a play by Colley Cibber, called “Woman’s Wit,” reading “Possession is eleven points of the law.” Later, DeQuincey uses the expression in a criticism of Shakspere’s drama of “King Lear,” in the form employed by our author. DeQuincey says: “The best of Shakspere’s dramas, ‘King Lear,’ is the least fitted for representation, and even for the vilest alteration. It ought, in candor, to be considered that possession is nine points in the law.” It occurs in the writings of a number of writers of the present century with a change of the numeral.

2. The preying sadness that Cowper sought to escape from by the work of translating Homer was occasioned by disappointment in youth; attempted suicide; dread of everlasting punishment, and fear of insanity. A romantic attachment for his cousin in his youth met with the disfavor of his father. Doubts of his ability to fill the requirements of an office for which he was named so preyed upon his mind that he attempted suicide. After this he believed that in that act he had committed a deadly sin, and he could only see between him and heaven a high wall which he despaired of ever being able to scale. He possessed a naturally melancholy temperament, and was subject to insanity, of which he had a great dread. He began the translation of Homer into blank verse to divert his mind from morbid introspection, and he succeeded so well that the six years he spent in this labor were among the happiest of his life.

3. The original of the quotation, “From the center to the utmost pole,” is to be found in Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” book I, line 74. The quotation is not, however, literally made. In Milton it reads:

“As far removed from God and light of heav’n, As from the center thrice to th’ utmost pole.”

Pope also uses a similar expression in his lines reading:

“Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul, And waft a sigh from Indus to the pole.”

4. Macedonia’s madman was Alexander the Great. He was so called because he was dazzled or crazed with his own success; from his rash and impetuous disposition, and the many acts of inhumanity he perpetrated; because his horrible butchery and cruelty at times indicated a species of madness; because his brilliant successes so turned his head that he sought to be worshiped as the son of a god. Byron, in his Age of Bronze, refers to him as the madman in these lines:

“How vain, how worse than vain, at length appear The madman’s wish, the Macedonian tear. He wept for worlds to conquer—half the earth Knows not his name, or but his death and birth.”

5. Some of the features of the Cathedral of Cologne that render it famous are as follows: It is considered one of the finest monuments of Gothic architecture in existence. It contains the shrine of the three kings, or magi, who visited and worshiped the infant Savior, and their reputed bones. It is the largest Gothic church in the world. It was begun in 1248 and finished in 1881—six hundred and thirty-two years in building. It is the loftiest building in the world, the tower being about five hundred feet high. Its beauty is in its exquisite proportions, and it does not invite long study to appreciate its grandeur. It has beautiful stained-glass windows, a double range of flying buttresses, a perfect forest of pinnacles. Under a slab in the pavement the heart of Maria de Medici is buried. The cathedral is in the form of a cross, 510 feet long and 231 feet broad. The roof rests on 100 columns, of which the four center ones are 30 feet in circumference.

6. The expression “Perish the thought” probably had its origin in a speech of Gloucester, interpolated by Colly Cibber, in Shakspere’s “Richard the Third.” The reading there is “Perish that thought,” and is to be found in Bell’s edition of Shakspere’s plays as performed at Drury Lane Theater. The part of the speech containing the expression is as follows:

“Perish that thought! No, never be it said That fate itself could awe the soul of Richard, Hence, babbling dreams; you threaten here in vain; Conscience, avaunt, Richard’s himself again!”

7. The lines of Pope in his paraphrase of the moonlight scene, given in the closing part of the eighth book of the Iliad, are “false and contradictory” in the following particulars: The planets do not revolve around the moon. The stars do not make bright the pole. Those near the pole are scarcely visible on such a night. It is not a correct translation of the original. The light on a moonlight scene is mild, subdued and silvery, and therefore is not glorious, yellow and golden. It is contradictory, because he says the stars gild the pole, and cast a yellow verdure o’er the trees, and at the same time tip with silver the mountain heads. He speaks of a flood of glory bursting from all the skies which he calls blue. The night filled with the noises of neighing coursers and ardent warriors, waiting for the morn, could not be like the one “when not a breath disturbs the deep serene.”

8. Webster’s famous seventh of March speech was delivered in the United States Senate on the seventh of March, 1850. The occasion was the discussion of a series of resolutions submitted by Mr. Clay in reference to the admission of California as a State, and embodying a basis of a proposed compromise of all differences relating to the territories and to slavery. In this speech Mr. Webster took ground against the abolitionists; against further legislation prohibitory of slavery in the territories; against secession or disunion; against whatever seemed calculated to produce irritation or alienation between the North and the South. In consideration of its character, and the manner in which it was received by the people throughout the country, it has been entitled, “For the Constitution and the Union.”

9. Athene was called the “Stern-Eyed” because she was considered the goddess of pure reason, raised above every feminine weakness, and disdaining love; because of her martial mein; also, that no flattery or other influence could deter her from executing justice alike on friend or foe. She watched over Athens to protect it from outward foes; consequently she was watchful, or “stern-eyed.” She generally appeared with a countenance full more of masculine firmness and composure than of softness and grace.

* * * * *

Correct replies to all the questions for further study in the January number of THE CHAUTAUQUAN have been received from Maggie V. Wilcox, 605 North Thirty-fifth Street, West Philadelphia, Pa.; Margaret D. Mekeel, Trumansburg, N. Y.; A. U. Lombard, 382 Oak Street, Columbus, Ohio; Eleanor A. Cummins, 243 Tenth Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Addie L. Crocker, 439 Sixth Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Mrs. D. W. Eaton, Allston, Mass.; Mrs. W. D. Beaman, Winchendon, Mass.; Abbie L. Wheeler, West Gardner, Mass.; Alice M. Hyde, Gardner, Mass.; the Alpha C. L. S. C., of Lewistown, Me.; “Right Angle” of the Trumansburg, N. Y., “Triangle;” and the Phillipsburg, Pa., local circle.

OUTLINE OF C. L. S. C. STUDIES.

MARCH.

The March required C. L. S. C. reading includes the latter part of Bishop Warren’s Recreations in Astronomy, from page 135 to the end of the book; the corresponding parts of Chautauqua Text-book, No. 2, “Studies of the Stars;” Chautauqua Text-book, No. 4, English History, by Dr. Vincent; and the required readings in the present number of THE CHAUTAUQUAN. The following is the division according to weeks:

FIRST WEEK.—1. Warren’s Recreations in Astronomy, chapter viii to the sub-reading “Mars,” from page 135 to 159—the Planets as Individuals.

2. Chautauqua Text-book, No. 2, Studies of the Stars, the Planets, from page 16 to page 28, inclusive.

3. Chautauqua Text-book, No. 4, English History, from the commencement of the book to the third exercise on page 14.

4. History of Russia, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

5. Sunday Readings, selection for March 4 in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

SECOND WEEK.—1. Warren’s Recreations in Astronomy, the remainder of