Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

Gould's Uranometry. Heis was occupied on this work not less than twenty seven years the number of stars marked is 5421 for these stars are "innumerable" only in the sense that as one continues to gaze steadily at the heavens fresh stars continually become visible. A further merit of Heis' atlas is that it contains the first trustworthy chart of the Milky Way. This had not been included in Argelander's work: and, incredible as it may seem, in older charts the treatment of the Milky Way had been founded not on observation but on the description of it given by Ptolemy. The Münster astronomer was the first to present an exact delimitation of the boundaries of the Milky Way, and a reliable account of the gradation of brightness among the stars of which it is composed.

Next in importance to this Atlas come his studies of the variable stars. These were first published in 1903 (together with Krueger's observations) by his pupil and friend J. G. Hagen S. J. Heis' notes extending over 37 years, exhibit, as his editor remarks, extraordinary tenacity of purpose and rare precision. Two Latin essays of Heis rank among the earliest contributions to Photometry 1. Heis as a teacher was interesting and stimulating his activities in this direction produced some very valuable text-books. One of these, "A Collection of Examples", had before his death reached a fiftieth edition.

Heis was a perfect type of the fervent and zealous Catholic who finds his greatest joy in his faith, and in the practical discipline prescribed by his faith. He went

1 De magnitudine relativa numeroque accurato stellarum quae solis oculis conspiciuntur fixarum. Münster 1852. Beobachtungen über Mira Ceti von 1840–1859, in the Vorlesungsverzeichnis der Münsterer Akademie 1859-1860.

to Mass every day, unless prevented by illness, received the Sacraments regularly, said the Rosary every night with his family, and was an honorary member of the Academic Congregation of Mary. He made it a rule to forego his lecture on the feast of St. Aloysius, the patron of youth, and took part with the greatest pride and devotion in every ceremony of the Church. Nor did he make any attempt to conceal his faith when, as in the Kulturkampf, to profess it openly meant to sacrifice one's interests. One of the first copies of his Atlas he sent to Pius IX: and the letter of thanks, signed by the Pope's own hand, was one of his proudest possessions. It was his desire that his tombstone should bear the symbol of the dove with the olive-branch such as we find it in the Catacombs.

Heis had no lack of the critical faculty. When A. Von Humboldt was commissioned by the Prussian Government to investigate the alleged visions of the battle at Birkenbäumchen, and was prevented by illness from discharging his commission, he appointed Heis as his substitute. Heis summoned before him all who had claimed to have seen the visions, but it proved on examination that nobody had seen anything definite. “It is a cloud battle", said Heis at the end of his judgment 1.

Johann Franz Encke († 1865) is known chiefly through the comet called after him. He did not actually discover it, but proved mathematically that it travels round the sun in a closed elliptical path, and so, like the planets, belongs to our solar system. Encke was also director of the great undertaking which had for its

1 Cf. F. Zurbonsen, Die Sage von der Völkerschlacht der Zukunft 'am Birkenbaume', Köln 1897, 73 f 78 f.

ENCKE. VON REBEUR-PASCHWITZ.

WOLF. GAUTIER.

III

object to produce charts of the whole celestial equator. The work stretched over the years 1826-1859. One amongst its many good results was to make possible the discovery of new planets: and to the accuracy of this Berlin Atlas is to be ascribed e. g. the prompt discovery of Neptune, the location of which had been mathematically determined by Leverrier 1. In Encke's writings and lectures we find numerous references to a ruling Providence: and although he was not an exemplary church-goer there was never any doubt as to his religious convictions 2.

Among more recent German astronomers the name of E. L. A. Von Rebeur-Paschwitz († 1895) stands very high. "Dying at the age of thirty four he had done work which most men of twice his age might regard with satisfaction as the fruits of time wellspent." To him is due above all the employment of the horizontal pendulum. "He was as distinguished for depth of religious feeling", writes a biographer, "as for keenness of scientific insight." 3

To this long list of Italian, German, and French savants we may add the names of two leaders of astronomy in Switzerland who also were fervent Christians. We refer to Rudolf Wolf (1816-1893) of Zurich, and Alfred Gautier (1793-1881) of Geneva, the two discoverers of the relations between sun-spots and terrestrial magnetism. The former left instructions in his will that "his grave should be marked with a cross

1 E. g. Monatsberichte der Berliner Akademie 1861, 506; 1869, 173. 2 C. Bruhns, Joh. Franz Encke, sein Leben und Wirken, Leipzig 1869, 321.

3 Leopoldina XXXII, Halle 1896, 14.

similar to that which he had erected over his mother and sister' 1. And that the Cross was for him no empty symbol is shown by numerous passages in his writings. As to the relations of science and religion he was of the same mind with Secchi 2. Gautier's adherence to the Christian belief is clearly affirmed in a memorial article in the Review edited by Wolf3.

We may then conclude our inquiry among the leaders of Astronomy with the words of J. H. Von Mädler of Dorpater († 1874), himself an adept in the science:

"No! Science and its true and genuine champions do not merit the censures and contempt which have been heaped on them by certain writers, who accuse them of hiding away from view the things of God, and degrading men to atheism. Such charges are absolutely groundless: of astronomy in particular we hope to show that exactly the opposite is true, and that appeal should be made to it to restore and confirm those beliefs which are rightly esteemed the noblest possession of mankind."

"If science is to take up arms against materialism, it must rely strictly on observed facts, all the more as it is from these that materialists profess to derive their conclusions. Were we to be silent as to the implications of these facts, it would amount qui tacet consentit, says the proverb to a confession that our views are at variance with them."

"But to this it must not and cannot come. Spirit as such . . . is no obstacle to our research and cannot be, for otherwise it would not be spirit at all. From the fact

1 Mitteilungen der naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Bern aus dem Jahr 1893, Bern 1894, Nr. 1305-1334, p. 214.

2 V. infra in the Section VIII.

3 "Pratiquant sans bruit les vertus chrétiennes, il est mort comme il avait vécu, au milieu de ses livres et de ses œuvres pieuses" (Vierteljahrsschrift der naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Zürich XXVI, Zürich 1881, 398).

that we abstain from transgressing the necessary limits of our science, and trespassing on other provinces of thought, it must not be inferred that we deny the principles established in those other provinces. . . .'

IV. PHYSICS.

1. THEORY OF ELECTRICITY.

[ocr errors]

In three directions, especially, Physics has brilliant conquests to record during the 19th century in the fields, namely, of electricity, light, and heat. While as regards light and heat the advance made has consisted, not so much in the discovery of new facts as in the deeper and more systematic interpretation of those already known, the reverse has been the case with electricity. The nature of electricity remains as before an enigma; but the immense body of new facts discovered in the first half of the century, the wonderful applications of this knowledge in the second half, have outshone nearly every other achievement of Physics. The 19th century is the age of electricity. At its opening the discoveries of Volta, at its close the discoveries of Röntgen held all eyes fixed in admiration: and the interval is filled with the illustrious names of Faraday, Oersted, Ampère and the long list of inventors who translated the accumulated stores of discovery into practical appliances the value of which is beyond estimation. Our survey of the leaders of Physics may, therefore, appropriately begin with the pioneers of Electricity.

As to who these pioneers really were, we find official testimony in the very terminology of the science.

1

1 J. H. v. Mädler, Reden und Abhandlungen über Gegenstände der Himmelskunde, Berlin 1870, 326 328.

Kneller, Christianity.

8

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »