Had my God not stood my Friend, Had His countenance not been TALK ON SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS. Sun Spots. BY A. F. BECHDOLT. In our last talk with you, we endeavored to make clear to you how scientific men have succeeded, in finding out so many things about the nature of the Sun, by means of the spectroscope. This instrument, as we explained to you then, chiefly consists of a three cornered piece of glass, called a prism. All that was spoken of in our last talk was found out, by immersing the spectroscope in a beam of sunlight. We had the general light of the Sun there to deal with, and considered the Sun as a whole, just as we would a star that gives us only a glimmering beam of light. The Sun is a star, but it is the nearest star to us, and is so large that we can examine only part of it at a time with the telescope. The star nearest to the Sun is distant from the Sun 7000 times the Sun's distance from us; that is 7000 times 91,000,000 miles. Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Neptune, etc., are not stars proper, but are planets, bodies moving around our Sun. Stars are suns just like our Sun, only God has placed them so far from us, that they seem to be little spots of light. This time we are to speak to you about Sun spots. Over two hundred years ago it had already been noticed, that the Sun was not equally bright, that there are spots on it brighter than the surrounding portion, which those people called "faculæ," or torches, and also dark spots, called by them "maculæ," or spots. They had a very definite notion, as they thought, as to what a Sun spot really was. In a drawing over two hundred years old, the bright spots are represented by large fires, and the dark spots by dense columns of smoke. Sir William Herschel had announced in the last century, that the Sun was probably a cool globe, and that it might have on it mountains, rivers, valleys, and woods just like our earth, that it was surrounded by bright clouds, which gave us light. The Sun spots were rifts in the clouds, exposing the cool surface of the cool globe beneath. From the last talk you know that the spectroscope has upset this theory, and proved the Sun to be an intensely hot body. From observations made during a long period, we know that these spots are not of a uniform darkness. There are irregular bright portions mingled among them. These spots are never constant, but change immensely in the space of ten minutes. If we follow a spot around to the edge of the Sun, as it revolves, we find that they are saucer-like hollows. Sometimes the moon comes between us and the Sun so that no light comes to us from the Sun. Around the edge of the Sun, when eclipsed, are seen bright points and prominences of light. Some of these prominences are from twenty-seven thousand to eighty thousand miles high. But outside there are often seen bands of light, and rays such as painters love to paint about the head of Christ. These bands and rays are supposed to indicate a comparatively cool atmosphere around the Sun. This atmosphere must be cooler than the Sun itself, else there could be no dense vapors between us and the Sun, and consequently no dark lines or absorption bands, as they are called, in the spectrum. In order to examine the Sun bit by bit, we must use the telescope, and so arrange matters, that we shall receive through it only the light of that portion of the Sun we wish to examine. But, as you can easily see by a moment's thought, the telescope will transmit to us not only the light desired, but also some of the atmospheric light, which would give us a continuous spectrum from red to violet. To the eye-glass of the telescope a spectroscope is attached, having more than one prism. The one used by Mr. Norman Lockyer, who probably knows more about the Sun than any other man living, has seven prisms. It has been observed, that when the rays from a body giving a continuous spectrum are passed through a number of prisms, they are absorbed or gobbled up. This is not the case with the rays from a body giving only a partial spectrum. If now we turn our instrument on one of the "maculæ," or spots, we have the dark lines of hydrogen, sodium, etc. These dark lines are thickened also. This proves to us, that, between us and the surface of the glowing Sun, there is a comparatively cool vapor of hydrogen, sodium, etc., absorbing the light from the glowing body beneath. Hence the spot seems dark to us. The thickening of the lines is due to the immense pressure these cool masses of vapor are subject to, as has been proved by experiments on gases confined in tubes and then examined by the spectroscope If next we turn our instrument on to the "facula," or brightest bit of Sun we can find, we have here no dark lines, and the lines that are thickened in the "macula are thin in the "facula." The prominences seen on the edge of the Sun are called by many "red flames," "red prominences." They give to us the spectrum of hydrogen; furthermore, hydrogen when heated by electric discharge is red. Hence we cannot go wrong to call them hydrogen flames. Whenever there is a storm on the Sun, and these red hydrogen flames shoot up, there are injected into them underneath vapors, whose bright lines we see thickened and dark in a spot We spoke above of a storm in the Sun. It remains for us to prove, that such a wind storm does exist there. We have told you of these bright and dark spots, and that in the space of ten minutes bright spots frequently change into dark ones. We have shown you, that these dark spots are cooler masses of vapor undergoing great density. If now we can prove, that these bright spots are vapor masses, flames, shooting up at the rate of thirty or forty miles a second, up into the Sun's atmosphere to the distance of from twenty-seven thousand to eighty thousand miles, we must conclude that there are terrible storms on the Sun. In order to do this we must go back and consider what light is. Light is a wave-like motion of particles in the air. These are not air particles, but ether particles, an infinitely rare and elastic medium, diffused throughout all nature and permeating even the most solid bodies. A ray of light is made up of seven primary colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. To produce these colors there are light waves of different lengths, and moving at different rates of motion. The motions that produce red are slower, and the waves longer than those that produce violet, the other extreme of the spectrum. We can illustrate this by a fiddle string. If the bow is drawn across it slowly so that the vibration will be slow, and the waves of the string long we have a deep note; if quickly, a shrill, high note. There are sound and light waves, moving so slow or so fast, that the ear and the eye cannot take them in. Let us take two other illustrations. If a person is walking and a procession of soldiers is coming toward him in single file, it is plain that he will meet more soldiers in a given time, than if he were standing still. It is the same as if he were standing still, and the procession were moving at their rate of motion with his added on to it. If a strong swimmer in the surf at the ocean side is swimming against the waves, he will meet more waves, and they will seem to be shorter to him, than if he were standing still and the waves broke over him. On the contrary, if he is swimming with the waves, he will meet less waves, and they will seem longer to him than if he stood still and they broke over him. Now we may take the light coming to us from the Sun and stars to be such waves, and the earth to be the swimmer. The stars have, many of them, a color peculiar to themselves. If such a star is moving toward us, and we toward it, more waves of light will come to the earth in a certain time, than if one or the other body stood still, or moved in a direction perpendicular to one another's course. The reverse holds true, if they move from one another. In the one case the light waves are quickened, and the color of the star approaches nearer to the violet end of the spectrum. In the other case they will be retarded, and the color will approach the red end of the spectrum. Let us turn now to the Sun. Light moves at the rate of one hundred and ninety-two thousand miles per second, and it would seem as if this motion were so immense, that we could not compare the motions of these gas flames with it, and yet these flames give as clear a change of wave length as when a star is transferred from one space to another. In the spectroscope the lines from these sun spots are not really straight, but twist now toward the violet end, now toward the red end of the spectrum. These contortions change with every moment of time. By carefully measuring these contortions the rate of motion is calculated. If the twisting is toward the violet end, the region of shorter waves, the flames are then shooting up towards us, if they are toward the red end, the region of longer waves, the flames are going from us, that is they are sinking down into the Sun. We can watch storms pass over the Sun at the rate of one hundred and twenty miles in a second, that is ten thousand and eight hundred times faster than an express train, moving at the rate of forty miles in an hour. We can see the Sun's covering torn up and carried high up into the solar atmosphere, at the rate of forty miles a second, and then again down into the Sun, how far we cannot tell. In conclusion, what shall we say? Before the Infinite majesty displayed in such a creation, man stands stupified. We know this, and with our hearts should we continually speak it. God has done all this that man should see and glorify Him for it. INTIMACY WITH THE HEAVENLY WORLD.-The nearer one gets to the heavenly world, and the more he is in sympathy with all holy spirits, the less is the probability that he will ever lose the life of God in the soul. And if any one feels a painful foreboding of apostasy from Christ, let him hasten from the frontier of God into its interior, and there, with his soul deeply fixed in God, let him forever rest. * * The intellect can never rest until it has attained the true knowledge of God. * * * The obedience rendered to God by those who dwell in love, is not a chain which the soul reluctantly drags, but a wreath of freedom which it rejoices to wear.-Evans' Happy Islands. THE WIFE OF JOHN ADAMS. BY THE EDITOR. In the first half of the last century Weymouth, Massachusetts, was an humble country village. It then had a small Congregational Church, whose pastor was the Rev. William Smith. He is said to have been a man of humble means and habits, but of earnest piety and ardent zeal. Himself, and wife, and a few affectionate daughters, constituted their happy home circle. The children received a good home training and education, but nothing more. Indeed this home education then, was more thorough and practically useful than many a young lady now-a-days receives from a full course of study in institutions of learning. It seems that, in the last century, many good people were, from principle, opposed to sending their daughters away to school. It was thought they were in danger of learning more evil than good therein. That it would turn their heads, fill them with vanity and conceit, and make them unwilling to perform the practical duties of life. So-called "female learning," was a subject of ridicule. Mrs. Adams assures us, that in her day "female education, in the best families, went no further than reading, writing, and arithmetic; in some, and rare instances, music and dancing." Abigail Smith, who afterwards became the wife of John Adams, did not even receive the limited benefits of the small village school. On account of her delicate health she was deprived of this advantage. But her pious and intelligent parents were better teachers for their daughter than the best schools could then afford; indeed, perhaps better than any could now afford. For, many a school girl with all the education and artificial polish that the most popular female seminaries afford, returns home with false views of life and very often a character that unfits her to be a kind and obedient child. No longer than thirty years ago, good Dr. J. W. Alexander said: "I find no girls decently educated except at home or in the country." Abigail Smith could not parade a diploma. A poor figure would she make among many of the elated lady graduates of our day, who assume airs of great learning, and regard home duties a drudgery intended only for servant-girls. In later life she says: "I have not forgotten the excellent lessons which I received from |