OUR LITTLE SYSTEMS

The discoveries of Professor Harlow Shapley direct attention to that indescribably enormous void which exists outside and around the comparatively modest solar system of which the earth is one of the lesser planets. Man has always been extremely egotistical in his consideration of the universe; for centuries it was popularly supposed that the earth was the largest, and in fact the only independent body. The sun and moon, mere lamps for the convenience of humanity, passed round and under the earth, sometimes through great caverns and archways, sometimes between the legs of a giant turtle, on whose back rested a huge pillar which supported everything. The difficulty with this latter theory was that the turtle had to have something to stand on, and whatever the turtle stood upon had to stand on something else and so on, until even the most complete Noah's ark was exhausted before anything definite could possibly be reached.

Even modern conceptions, based as they should be, on the discoveries of the spectroscope and telescope, are not always as broad as one might expect. The spaces involved in astronomical measurements are too great to be comprehended. Astronomers, like Flammaxion, for example, realize that there are universes without end, infinite distances apart in infinite space. They know that the whole solar system has been moving through space for ages,--that no star, no planet ever has the same absolute position twice. The popular classification of stars as "fixed", is therefore a purely arbitrary one.

Impossible as it is to grasp the true immensity of the universe, the study of its composition nevertheless develops some appreciation of the insignificance of the earth and its puny inhabitants. It should produce a feeling of serenity and poise quite unlike anything to be gained from familiarity with the intimate details of everyday existence; one might suppose all astronomers were large-souled and venerable; preferably with long white beards.