Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Rev. B. F. KIDDER, Ph.D., New Haven, Conn.

Rev. J. W. BROOKS, Ph.D., Chicago, Ill.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPTION OF GOD......

W. P. ODELL, Ph.D., D.D., Buffalo, N. Y.

[blocks in formation]

METHODIST REVIEW.

JANUARY, 1896.

ART. I.-EDGAR A. POE'S ADDENDA TO HIS

REKA," WITH COMMENTS.*

"EU

THESE extracts relate to, and constitute a part of, a letter written on February 29, 1848, by Edgar A. Poe to a correspondent still living in one of the States of our Union. Since Professor Stringham, of the California State University, has seen fit to publicly comment upon the matter embraced in these extracts, without having given a clear, comprehensive idea of the text of Poe's Addenda (refer to Mr. George E. Woodberry's Life of Poe), it seems but fair to all parties concerned, including such portion of the public as may have read the professor's strictures, that the lack be now supplied by a publication of the hitherto unpublished Addenda.

In the letter referred to Poe writes to his correspondent:

"I presume you have seen some newspaper notices of my late lecture upon the Universe. You could have gleaned, however, no idea of what the lecture was, from what the papers said it was. All praised it as far as I have yet seen, and all absurdly misrepresented it. . . . To eke out a chance of your understanding what I really did say, I add a loose summary of iny propositions and results.

"By the by, lest you infer that my views, in detail, are the same with those advanced in the Nebular Пypothesis, I venture to offer a few addenda, the substance of which was

*Being Extracts from Siftings, by Sieve. Copyrighted in 1889, but not hitherto published.

1-FIFTH SERIES, VOL. XII.

penned, though never printed, several years ago, under the head of

[blocks in formation]

"As soon as the beginning of the next century, it will be entered in the books that the Sun was originally condensed at once (not gradually, according to the supposition of Laplace) to his smallest size; that, thus condensed, he rotated on an axis; that this axis of rotation was not the centre of his figure, so that he not only rotated, but revolved in an elliptical orbit (the rotation and revolution are one, but I separate them for convenience of illustration); that, thus formed, and thus revolving, he was on fire and sent into space his substance in vapor, this vapor reaching farthest on the side of the larger (equatorial) hemisphere, partly on account of the largeness, but principally because the force of the fire was greater here; that, in due time, this vapor, not necessarily carried then to the place now occupied by Neptune, condensed into that planet; that Neptune took, as a matter of course, the same figure which the Sun had, which figure made his rotation a revolution in an elliptical orbit; that, in consequence of such revolution-in consequence of his being carried backward at each of the daily revolutions— the velocity of his annual revolution is not so great as it would be if it depended solely upon the Sun's velocity of rotation (Kepler's third law); that his figure, by influencing his rotation. -the heavier half, as it turns downward toward the Sun, gains an impetus sufficient to carry it past the direct line of attraction, and thus, to throw outward the centre of gravity-gave him power to save himself from falling to the Sun; that he received, through a series of ages, the Sun's heat, which penetrated to his centre, causing volcanoes eventually, and thus throwing off vapor, and which evaporated substances upon his surface, till finally his moons and his gaseous ring (if it is true that he has a ring) were produced; that these moons took elliptical forms, rotated and revolved, 'both under one,' were kept in their monthly orbits by the centrifugal force acquired in their daily orbits, and required a longer time to make their monthly revolutions, than they would have required, if they had had no daily revolutions.

"I have said enough, without referring to the other planets, to give you an inkling of my hypothesis, which is all I intended

« AnteriorContinuar »