Author: William Tyler Olcott

Publisher: Theclassics.Us

Published: 2013-09

Total Pages: 72

ISBN-13: 9781230209371

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1914 edition. Excerpt: ... Chapter xiii The Sun Revealed by Science inasmuch as the foregoing chapters have treated of the mythology of the sun, its worship, and the curious legends and traditions regarding that luminary, any discussion of the sun astronomically speaking, and considered in the light of modern science, would seem out of place and irrelevant. Still, the fact that lore does not necessarily embrace the archaic and mythological alone but may include fact as well as fancy, renders a reference to what scientific solar research has accomplished entirely proper in this volume. Further than this, such matter must also serve to bring to mind what man has achieved in his desire to know more about the great system of which the world is such an insignificant part. The pages of the history of man that record his knowledge of the sun, as revealed by long years of research, are among the most interesting, if not the most wonderful, that human progress has inscribed. Marvellous strides have been made toward solving the many enigmatic problems that the subject presents, and man has of late, through the wonderful ingenuity of those tireless and gifted toilers in this field, accomplished so much, that a resume of what has been done even in the last ten years reads like the pages of a romance. Our knowledge of the sun, physically and scientifically speaking, is of comparatively recent date. In fact, only a hundred years ago the question of the habitability of the sun was discussed in all seriousness by the astronomers of the day, but with the invention of new apparatus, the construction of powerful telescopes, the development of spectroscopic research, and the zeal of intelligent men, this question and many other difficult solar problems have been positively solved, ..