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The
Destinies of the Stars
By
Svante Arrhenius, Ph.D.
President, Nobel Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
(Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1903)
Authorized Translation from the Swedish
By
J. E. Fries
Fellow A.I.E.E.
_Illustrated_
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1918
COPYRIGHT, 1918
BY
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE
When Dr. Svante Arrhenius in the year 1903 received the NOBEL PRIZE in
Chemistry it came as a fitting reward of his achievements principally
in the electro-chemical field. It was natural, however, that a genius
of his calibre would not limit his interest to the “infinitely
small” but would gradually broaden it to encompass the “infinitely
large.” And “to take an interest” means with Dr. Arrhenius to push
the boundaries of the unknown and of the unexplored a little farther
away from man. His evolution in this respect runs parallel with that
of all the great men who stand out as leaders in the history of
science. Wrapt up in the solution of a particular problem and fired
with the divine yearning to reach ultimate causes they are inevitably
driven to ever widening circles of research until this whole material
universe, its whence and whither, becomes the overpowering passion
of their spirits. Thus the mere titles of the works of Dr. Arrhenius,
read in the sequence of their publication, give us, better than any
biography, the history of a soul, which, no matter what his unprofessed
philosophical faith may be, constitutes our strongest evidence in
favour of that theory of “purposiveness” in the universe which Dr.
Arrhenius so heartily abhors (and justly so) when resorted to in
natural science, but which theory nevertheless (and justly so) is so
dear to the philosopher:--_Researches in Regard to the Conductivity of
Electrolytes; Conductivity of Extremely Diluted Solutions; Chemical
Theory of Electrolytes; Textbook in Theoretical Electro-Chemistry;
Textbook in Cosmological Physics; Worlds in the Making; Infinity of the
Universe; Life of the Universe as Conceived by Man from Earliest Ages
to the Present Time_;--thus run the titles of a few of the works we
already have by Dr. Arrhenius’ hand. How were it possible for him NOT
to write _The Destinies of the Stars_? The volume came as inevitably
as fruition follows flowering. What remains to be seen is if Dr.
Arrhenius can withstand the tremendous temptation that must be at work
in his soul to lift, be it ever so little, the curtain that separates
natural science and philosophy; we hope he will give in; we admire in
this book how he reads “The Riddle of the Milky Way”; we certainly wish
to know how he reads--the riddle of the universe.
_The Destinies of the Stars_ met with unexampled success in Sweden.
Three editions appeared within two months when the book was published
in November, 1915. The American version has been somewhat delayed
principally due to war conditions. This, however, has not been wholly
a loss to the English-speaking world as Dr. Arrhenius by no means has
been idle in the meantime. Considerable additional subject matter,
including three new pictures, has been added, chiefly based on the most
recent astronomical discoveries some of which have been recorded as
late as 1917.
For valuable suggestions and for all the American equivalents of the
metric measures in the original, the reader as well as the translator,
is indebted to a member of the Publishing House that presents this
volume in such an attractive way, Mr. E. W. Putnam, himself an ardent
lover of astronomy and a writer on the subject.
Dr. Arrhenius is justly renowned for his lucid style and polished form.
All that is lacking in these qualities within the covers of this volume
is wholly due to the deficiencies of the translator, who however could
not resist the temptation of transferring to Anglo-Saxon soil this
monument to the genius of his former teacher, Dr. Svante Arrhenius.
J. E. FRIES.
BIRMINGHAM, ALA., December 15, 1917.
PREFACE
Since I presented _Worlds in the Making_ and _Life of the Universe
as Conceived by Man from Earliest Ages to the Present Time_ to the
public--which received them with far greater interest and appreciation
than I could foresee--I have had repeated occasions to treat new
questions of a cosmological nature, questions largely arisen from
new discoveries and observations within the scope of astronomy. Vast
new vistas have been opened through the study of the relation of the
stars to the “Milky Way” and through observations of our neighbour
planets. The last mentioned give plain indications of the course of
planetary evolution and thus enable us to surmise the changing fate and
future position of the Earth. In an earlier German publication, _Das
Schicksal der Planeten_ (1911), I dealt with some of these problems.
As, further, the evolution of the solar system from the Milky Way
nebula, to which I have devoted several lectures at home and abroad,
may be considered as the pre-history of the evolution of the planets, I
have given this collection of cosmogenic articles the common title _The
Destinies of the Stars_. I offer as introduction a lecture delivered
before the Fourth International Philosophical Congress in Bologna,
1911, dealing with the “Origin of Star-Worship.”
Hoping that this little book will, to a considerable extent, fill the
gaps in my previous works, I present these treatises in remodelled form.
SVANTE ARRHENIUS.
STOCKHOLM,
_November, 1915_.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
ORIGIN OF STAR-WORSHIP 1
Position and practical value of astronomy. Worship of stars.
Chronology. The Australian negro’s conception of the stars.
Day and night, summer and winter. Solar year. Sun-worship.
Changing phases of the moon in chronology. The Mexican
“Tonalamatl.” Moon-worship in Mesopotamia. Significance of
the moon in astrology. The sun and the heat. Agriculture’s
demand on chronology. Worship of the planet Venus by the
Mexicans and the Babylonians. The Church Calendar. The
Zodiac. The seven planets. The week. Correspondence and
sympathetic magic. The Platonic-Aristotelian philosophy.
Astrology and alchemy. Tycho Brahe. Occult sciences.
Aristarchos from Samos. Kopernicus. The progress of
Astronomy.
CHAPTER II
THE MYSTERY OF THE MILKY WAY 41
Primitive conceptions of the Milky Way. Anaxagoras and
Demokritos. Ptolemaios. Galilei. Cosmogenic speculations.
Wm. Herschel’s statistical researches regarding the
distribution of the stars. The Milky Way as the foundation
of the stellar system. The Milky Way as a nebula.
Classification according to age of the stars, their
distribution and velocity. Motion in the Orion nebula.
The planetary nebulæ. Kapteyn’s “star-drifts.” The origin
of the Milky Way. Comparison between the Milky Way and a
spiral nebula in “The Dogs of Orion.” A few details from
the Milky Way. The infinitely great and the infinitely
small. The magnitude and destiny of the Milky Way.
CHAPTER III
THE CLIMATIC IMPORTANCE OF WATER VAPOUR 84
The four elements of Aristotle. Humid-warm climates. The Congo
and Amazon basins. The carboniferous age. The effect
of cloudiness. Desert climate. Steppes. “Kevirs” and
“Bayirs.” Sand dunes. The great Kevir. Climatic changes.
Khanikoff’s description. Salt lakes. Deposits of salt
through evaporation. Huntington about the arefaction of the
earth. Humid period during the ice-age. Climatic changes
during historic time. Africa, Asia, Greece, Italy, Sicily.
West-Europe’s climate has grown more marine. Present
conditions.
CHAPTER IV
ATMOSPHERE AND PHYSICS OF THE STELLAR BODIES 119
Outer envelope of the stars. The large planets. Spectra. Mars,
Earth, Venus, Mercury. Atmosphere impossible on the moon.
The light from the Earth. The atmosphere of Mercury. The
atmosphere of Venus and its Clouds. Composition of air and
its change with height. Forced circulation. Troposphere
and Stratosphere. Hydrogen in the highest strata of the
atmosphere. Water vapour and carbonic acid in the air.
“Geokoronium.” Influence of gravity on composition of the
atmosphere. The air on Venus and Mars.
CHAPTER V
THE CHEMISTRY OF THE ATMOSPHERE 155
Inhabited Worlds. Kinship of the stellar bodies. Presence
of life. Importance of water and carbon. Importance of
temperature. All life evolved from existence in water.
Necessity of oxygen. Bacteria. Reducing substances
preponderable in the World-matter. Volcanic gases and gases
in solidified lava. Water, vapour, carbon dioxide, nitrogen
gas, and sulphurous acid. Permanent gases and hydrogen. The
poisonous character of the original air. Its purification.
The importance of plant life and necessity of a solid crust
in this process. Supply of carbonic dioxide and production
of oxygen. The work of Koene. Silica. Cooling of the Earth
and changing surface temperature. The ice-periods. Centres
of collapse and lines of fissure in the crust. General
survey of the gradual change of the air.
CHAPTER VI
THE PLANET MARS 180
The controversy about the habitableness of Mars. Humidity on
Mars. Early observations. The spectra of Mars and of the
Moon compared. Investigations by Campbell and Marchand. The
work of Lowell. Measurements by Slipher. Calculations by
Very. The temperature on Mars according to these sources.
Campbell’s expedition to Mount Whitney in California.
Oxygen on Mars. The cold on Mars detrimental to anything
but the lowest forms of life. Cause of different results
by Slipher and Campbell. Very’s answer to Campbell’s
criticism. New measurements by Slipher. Campbell’s new
method of measurement of 1910. Christiansen calculates
the temperature on Mars from intensity of the Sun’s
radiation. The sun-constant. Average temperature of Mars
about forty degrees Centigrade. Possibly low plant life
around the poles during summer. The canals on Mars are
probably fissures in the crust. The length of the canals
compared with that of the fissures in Earth’s crust.
The double canals on Mars compared with the parallel
fissures in Calabria. Emanations along the fissures. The
canals as affected by increasing cold or heat. The polar
snow. Thawing of the canals. Travel of the water vapour
independent of the topography. The desert sand on Mars.
Clouds and mists. Highlands and mountains on Mars. Sand
filling of the canals. The seas on Mars. The straightness
and uniform breadth of the canals an illusion. Light and
dark spots. “New” canals. The fancies of Lowell.
CHAPTER VII
MERCURY, THE MOON, AND VENUS 228
Fissures on Mercury. Lowell’s drawing. Centres of collapse.
Absence of atmosphere. The climate on the Moon. W.
Pickering’s belief in frost formations on the Moon. The
mountains on the Moon. Volcanoes. Circular elevated rings.
“Seas” on the Moon. The Crater “Linné.” “Sinuses” and
“Streaks” on the Moon. The light matter of the streaks
probably lava-scum. The colour of the Moon and of the
Earth. Comparison between the Moon and Mars. Changes on
the Moon. “Snow” and “Vegetation” on the Moon according to
W. Pickering. The fate of Mars and of the Earth. Falling
meteoric dust. The climate on Venus. Swamps like those of
the carboniferous age. Abundant vegetation. Low organisms.
“Culture” on Venus will proceed from the poles. The future
of Venus. The claims of astrology in modern light. Tycho
Brahe. The dreams of Giordano Bruno probably true.
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
FIG. 1.--THE MILKY WAY 46
Photo by Easton.
FIG. 2.--PLANETARY NEBULA NO. 7009, NEW GENERAL CATALOGUE 52
FIG. 3.--NEBULA NO. 4594, NEW GENERAL CATALOGUE 66
FIG. 4.--NEBULA NO. 101 IN MESSIER’S CATALOGUE 70
FIG. 5.--NEBULA NO. 51 IN MESSIER’S CATALOGUE 71
FIG. 6.--MILKY WAY BETWEEN CASSIOPEIA AND SWAN 76
According to Wolf.
FIG. 7.--MILKY WAY IN EAGLE AND SAGITTARIUS 76
According to Wolf.
FIG. 8.--THE “TRIFID” HOLE IN EAGLE 77
According to Wolf.
FIG. 9.--TARIM RIVER WITH LAKES AND BAYIRS 96
According to Sven Hedin.
FIG. 10.--THE FORMER LAKE BONNEVILLE IN UTAH 106
FIG. 11.--JUPITER, 1909 122
According to F. le Coultre.
FIG. 12.--SATURN, 1909 123
According to F. le Coultre.
FIG. 13.--SPECTRA OF THE MAJOR PLANETS 124
According to V. M. Slipher.
FIG. 14.--VENUS OBSERVED BY LANGLEY IN 1882 136
FIG. 15.--ROCK FISSURE AT HANGO, SWEDEN 204
Photo by I. I. Sederholm.
FIG. 16.--EARTHQUAKE CENTERS IN CALABRIA 205
According to I. I. Sederholm.
FIG. 17.--MAPS OF MARS BY SCHIAPARELLI AND ANTONIADI _At the end_
FIG. 17a.--MAPS OF MARS BY SCHIAPARELLI AND ANTONIADI _At the end_
FIG. 18.--PHOTO OF MARS BY LAMPLAND 210
FIG. 19.--MARS ON APRIL 8, 1909 210
According to Quenisset.
FIG. 20.--THE SOUTH POLE SPOT ON MARS, 1909 210
According to Jarry Desloges.
FIG. 21.--SANDSTORM ON MARS, 1909 210
According to Antoniadi.
FIG. 22.--CLOUD ON EDGE OF MARS, THE 7TH OF MARCH, 1901 216
According to Molesworth.
FIG. 23.--MARS, JULY 11, 1907 216
According to Lowell.
FIG. 24.--MARS, OCTOBER 6, 1909 216
According to Antoniadi.
FIG. 25.--MERCURY 230
According to Lowell.
FIG. 26.--THE MOON NEAR THE CRATER TYCHO 230
Photo from Yerkes Observatory.
FIG. 27.--MARE SERENITATIS AND MARE TRANQUILLITATIS 231
Photo from Yerkes Observatory.
FIG. 28.--THE MOON NEAR ITS SOUTH POLE 240
Photo from Yerkes Observatory.
FIG. 29.--THE LUNAR CRATER COPERNICUS AND VICINITY 242
Photo from Yerkes Observatory.
The Destinies of the Stars
CHAPTER I
THE ORIGIN OF STAR-WORSHIP
Astronomy occupies a rather unique position among the natural
sciences. While physics, chemistry, and the biological sciences form
the foundation of the extraordinary material development of our day,
astronomy, in the eyes of most people, is of little practical value.
What benefit could we derive from knowing whether a star lies a hundred
or a thousand billion miles from the Sun, or from understanding how the
stellar bodies have evolved in the course of billions of years? And yet
astronomy has not been as futile as is commonly imagined, neither is
it useless at the present time. This science is still of the greatest
importance to common life by fixing our standards of time and, before
the introduction of the compass, was invaluable also to navigation,
which art, moreover, depends now upon astronomy for determination
of geographical position on the open sea. Observations for these
purposes, however, are of such a simple nature, that they hardly fall
under the astronomical science proper, but rather under the applied
sciences. They have entered into daily life much as, in commerce, the
determination of the weight of a body is not considered as belonging to
the science of physics, although it depends on the use of a physical
instrument, the scale.
But we must not forget that what we now consider so commonplace that
it entirely has lost the grand aspect of science, once was the goal of
groping scientific endeavour. All natural science has grown out of the
needs of practical life.
Geometry is probably even older than astronomy. The name means: to
measure land, and the oldest geometry was, accordingly, devoted to the
measurement of distances on the Earth and later to the determination
of the area of land-holdings. This extremely important practical
application of geometry is of such a simple nature that it is not
mentioned in modern mathematical science, to which geometry belongs.
In this manner, the original theses of all our natural sciences have
become the possession of the public to such a degree that they are
looked upon as self-evident. This is the case also with those parts of
astronomy which, because of their practical importance at the outset,
gave rise to the science itself.
The growing knowledge about the stars, like all higher insight, became
among primitive peoples the private possession of their leaders, was by
these kept a secret and made a part of the venerable realm of religion.
We find that a majority of these old peoples rendered worship to the
stars, believing them to govern the fates of human beings. This may
indeed seem highly remarkable, as our everyday experience is that the
stellar bodies, with the exception of the Sun, exert no perceptible
influence on organic nature, and such conclusion is emphatically
confirmed by the systematic collection of all our experiences which we
call modern science. The Sun, as stated, is the exception as it reigns
over the entire nature, the living as well as the lifeless, by virtue
of the heat and light which abundantly flow from this autocrat of our
planetary system. Perhaps the Moon also plays some small active part as
it seems somewhat to affect the barometric pressure, the magnetic and
particularly the electric conditions of the atmosphere, which, in turn,
appear to influence several life processes. On the other hand we cannot
point to any influence upon nature traceable to the other stellar
bodies.
Obviously, primitive man devoted his thoughts only to such conditions
as affected his interests in a beneficial or detrimental way. On
the assumption that these conditions were governed by spirits who
resembled man and who in particular were endowed with will, our
ancestors endeavoured by sacrifice and exorcism to move the spirits
they feared to discontinue their harmful activity. Some such spirits
dwelt in beasts of prey and in other noxious animals, such as poisonous
snakes; others caused earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, snowstorms,
lightning ravages, fires, floods, heat, drought, etc. Against these
calamities religious exercises formed a protection. Religion sprang
mainly from fear of spirits. Later on thank offerings and hymns were
bestowed upon benevolent objects and phenomena in nature.
It is evident that this primitive, simple religion is of far greater
age than star-worship. The latter presupposes a comparatively high
degree of culture. The stars were of no benefit to man until it became
necessary to measure time intervals comprising a greater number of
days than might be counted on one’s fingers. How this growth in
all probability took place we shall endeavour to explain in the
following. Fairly certain it is that star-worship did not grow out
of man’s admiration for the sublime drama which at dawn of morning
commences at the eastern horizon, and proceeds in the course of a day
over the firmament in order to close before night just beyond the
western expanses, neither was it founded on man’s gratitude toward the
torch-bearers of night for their incessant battle against gloomy clouds
and all the other spirits of darkness.
Even tribes on a rather low stage have no doubt noticed the most
conspicuous among the stellar bodies. The attitude of the Australian
aborigines is significant in this connection. According to Spencer and
Gillen they possess legends about the Moon, which is male, about the
Sun and Venus, about the pernicious Magellanic clouds, and about the
Pleiades, who, like the Sun and Venus, are considered female. Eclipses
have, as is natural, attracted the greatest attention. While these
primitive men indulge in an incredible number of religious ceremonies
pertaining to conditions of their daily life, none of these exercises
are devoted to the stars, if we except stone throwing against the Sun
during eclipses. Even this treatment is left with considerable serenity
of mind for the medicine-men to perform. It is very significant that
all stellar bodies are of earthly origin, that the Moon is of male
gender while the Sun, Venus, and the Pleiades are female, which
indicates that the Moon is considered of greatest distinction. They
count time according to “sleeps,” _i. e._ the number of times they have
slept, or according to moons; longer periods according to seasons; they
have names for summer and winter. They can count to five, or perhaps
rather to four, as the term five also means “many.” Ideas of power
centred in the stellar bodies are evidently absent and therefore also
religious ceremonies pertaining thereto. A few tales exist relating to
the stars as to other objects within their observation. Thus conditions
would undoubtedly have remained but for the high value which the want
of a chronometry gave to the regularly changing light of the stellar
bodies.
The difference between day and night is of such a deeply fundamental
importance that it has left its stamp on the whole organic nature on
the surface of the Earth. Plants entirely change their life processes
in the course of twenty-four hours; during the day they add to their
growth under the stimulus of light; during the night they partly
expend the strength gathered in daytime. This cycle is so regular
that it functions automatically. The prominent botanist, Pfeffer, has
experimented with a Mimosa, which, as is well known, unfolds its leaves
during the day but curls them during the night. If left in a dark room
any arbitrary day, it nevertheless uncurls its leaves. By means of
electric light Pfeffer changed night into day for the plant kept in the
dark room. It took considerable time before the plant adjusted itself
to the new conditions so that it unfolded its leaves to the influence
of the electric light. Animals behave similarly. The night and day
period is instilled in their blood. In a certain sense they possess an
instinctive chronometry.
It is often stated that the assurance of the return of sunlight after
the darkness of night enabled humanity with greater equanimity to
acquiesce in the loss of light during one half of its existence and
that worship was rendered to the Sun in gratitude therefor. “A new
outlook upon life,” says Troels Lund, “awakens the moment the great
discovery is made that the night of sleep and the night of fear are
equally long and always followed by morning and subsequent day.” This
discovery, however, our predecessors made long before they reached the
human stage. Sun-worship by no means derived its origin therefrom.
Rather it is traceable to evidence of the Sun’s connection with
the changing seasons, although this change also is of domineering
influence in the vegetable world inasmuch as the plants store reserve
nourishment in the autumn, particularly, and on a large scale, during
fructification. Also, lower and higher animals, for example, bees and
squirrels, gather winter-stores. It is therefore small wonder if men on
a comparatively low stage lay in provisions for the recurring periods
of scant food supply.
But a true chronometry beyond five days is foreign to the Australian
negro as long as he can only count to four or five. He is aware that
Moon-phases reappear and that summer and winter return, but he has no
conception of the duration of the time passed between the recurrences
of these phenomena. Further progress was made by the people who took
the bold step to count the fingers, not on one hand alone, but on both
hands, and thus reached the number ten. This was utilized in reckoning
time so that the larger unit became a decade, _i. e._ ten days and
nights. This unit was original with the Indo-Europeans, Semites,
Hindus, Egyptians, and the islanders in the Pacific Ocean. Another
advance yet was made in Mexico where the number twenty was introduced
corresponding to the sum of all fingers and toes, and thus a unit of
time was obtained comprising twenty days and nights. But to rise from
these units to one of 365 days was a step exceedingly difficult for the
primitive peoples to take.
Thousands of years elapsed before the most intelligent among the
races established the length of the solar year. Those who lived in
regions where the Sun’s altitude notably changes, _i. e._ far from
the equator, undoubtedly reckoned time in years, without knowing its
length expressed in days. Imagine a nomadic tribe like the Lapps in
the north of Sweden. In the autumn their reindeer wander down toward
the coast in search of food and the Lapps go with them. In spring the
reindeer lead their masters back again to the mountains. It cannot very
well escape the observation of these nomads that the Sun shines almost
continuously during their stay in the uplands while dreary night reigns
nearly without interruption during their sojourn in the lowlands. They
are obviously forced to co-ordinate the beautiful summer with the
duration of sunlight. To them, therefore, the Sun’s extraordinary great
importance to life is unquestionable. The same holds true about all
people who live sufficiently far from the equator. As a consequence,
they become Sun-worshippers. It is not difficult to find examples of
peoples who have worshipped the Sun; only a few of the more important
ones will be mentioned here.
The people of the bronze age here in the North were zealous
Sun-worshippers thousands of years ago, as the many relics from this
period, and particularly the rock-carvings, bear witness. The Celts of
Western Europe have frequently symbolized the Sun as a cross, while the
worship of Moon and stars seems to have been foreign to them as well
as to the bronze-age people of the North. The Jewish Samson (Simson)
was a Sun-hero, the name being related to the Babylonian Shamash, the
Sun-god. In Hesiodos’ cosmogony the Sun (Helios) is mentioned before
the Moon (Selene). The old Germans worshipped both Sun and Moon,
particularly the former. The Slavs possessed a Sun-god Dazbogu, but no
deity identified with the Moon. Similar conditions obtained among the
Finnish forefathers. The Chinese Tao-priests light fires during the
vernal equinox as we do at Walpurgis and midsummer, and they sacrifice
rice and salt to the flames. “This is a remnant of the Sun-cult,”
says Solomon Reinach, from whom these data in regard to Sun-worship
principally are taken. In Japan, the Moon is of male sex, the Sun of
female sex, which indicates that there, as with the Australian negroes,
the Moon was originally considered more important than the Sun.
Nevertheless the Japanese are now Sun-worshippers; the Sun is placed
as emblem of the most high in their flag and the Mikado is known to
trace his lineage from the Sun. They have, therefore, long ago passed
from Moon-cult to Sun-cult. It is probable that this step was taken
even earlier in China, where the Sun furthermore is of male sex.
With growing civilization all people learn to understand, as have the
Japanese, the superior importance of the Sun. The Incas of Peru, who
reached a very high grade of culture, were sun-worshippers and called
themselves children of the Sun, although they lived near the equator
where the Moon-cult, as we presently shall see, owns its most faithful
adherents.
In the neighbourhood of the equator, winter and summer differ very
slightly with respect to temperature and altitude of the Sun. Rather,
it is the alternation of humid and dry seasons that is of deciding
importance. No sheet of snow covers the ground in winter-time, kills
the vegetation, or decimates the supply of nourishment for animals
and men. Indeed, contrary to our experience, a suppression of growth
often accompanies a high altitude of the Sun due to the drought
which simultaneously occurs. The altitude and luminosity of the Sun
change altogether too slightly in the course of the year to attract
the attention of primitive man. The light of the Moon, on the other
hand, varies from full intensity to nothing and this takes place in
periods so short that memory has no time to forget the cycle. Even
the low-standing Australian negroes utilize the phases of the Moon to
denote remote times. Chronometry in any true sense they do not possess,
unable as they are to state the number of days in a month. How much
more fortunate the peoples who could count to ten or better yet to
twenty and thus were able to use the single or the double decade as a
measure of time. For them it was easy to determine the time between two
successive phases of the Moon, seven and a half days apart.
The truth once grasped that four phases separate two new Moons the
important bridge could be established between the short measure, a day,
and the longer measure, a month. The latter was then found to be nearly
thirty times longer than the former. On a higher stage of culture, it
was discovered that this ratio was not exact and the discrepancy must
greatly have puzzled the people. The correct ratio is 29.53. At all
events the periodic return of full Moon and new Moon proved the most
reliable measure of time within their experience. This was something
entirely different from the irregular occurrences of earthquakes,
storms, lightning, and floods, not to mention the ravages of beasts and
foes. Spaces of time that hitherto appeared boundless could be surveyed
and computed. The idea of eternity dawned for the first time on
humanity. The Moon was the great master, measurer of all. In Sanskrit
the Moon’s name is _Mâs_, _i. e._ measurer, and “_mensis_” (Lat. month)
is closely related to “_mensura_” (Lat. measure).
With peoples who did not live too far from the equator, the Moon,
therefore, took precedence of the Sun. Among the Mexicans existed,
long ago, a peculiar unit for measuring long periods of time, called
“_tonalamatl_,” comprising 260 days. It was undoubtedly intended to
contain nine synodical months (reckoned from new Moon to new Moon).
But such a period would consist of 265.58 days and so could not be
made to agree with the double decade and was therefore shortened to
260 days, as we round off the solar year, in reality 365.24 days, to
an even 365 days. Elaborate studies have been made in order to explain
why the Mexicans chose nine synodical months instead of twelve, as
most other peoples, but the question has not been solved. This much is
certain, that “_tonalamatl_” has nothing to do with the solar year,
but only with the month. The high age of “_tonalamatl_” is proved by
the fact that the priests adhered to it in magic and horoscope casting
long after the solar year came into public use. A learned Mexican, de
Jonghe, has pointed out that “_tonalamatl_” was used by all the tribes
belonging to the Nahua-group, which tribes separated very long ago.
This unit of time, therefore, bears all the evidence of a very high
age, but is obviously younger than the synodical month.
Our information in regard to Moon-worship among the peoples of
Mesopotamia is even more explicit. The Moon (Sin) was rendered homage
far earlier than the Sun (Shamash). The following translation of a hymn
in cuneiform letters I quote from L. Bergström, who published a study
on “Semitic Moon-Worship” in _Nordisk Tidskrift_, 1909:
Oh, Sin, thou who alone givest light,
Thou, who bringest light to men,
Thou, who showest favour to the dark-tressed ones,
Thy light shines on the firmament,
Thy torch illuminates like fire,
Thy radiance fills the wide earth.
Oh, heavenly Anu, whose insight and wisdom no one comprehends,
Thy light is splendid as Shamash, thy firstborn,
Before thee prostrate the great gods themselves in the dust
For on thee rests the fate of the world.
Anu was god of the heaven and seems here to stand for god in general.
Sin was father to the daughter Shamash, who in this hymn already is
considered almost comparable to the father. Later on during the
Hammurabi-dynasty (about 2000 B.C.) the Sun, Shamash, was accepted as
supreme god, but the Moon remained the regulator of time for religious
purposes. For astrological forecasts the priests preferred to use the
Moon, and the “signs” in the Moon were the most important. This is true
of astrological prophecies also at the time of Tycho Brahe. “Oh, Sin,
thou tellest the oracles to the gods who pray them of thee,” reads an
incantation. From Babylon, the heart of civilization, Moon-worship
spread to Arabs and other Semites, and with the Hebrews, as Bergström
remarks, the Moon originally played a far greater part than the
Sun, although at the time of Christ the condition was reversed.
Nevertheless, the Moon has still retained its position as chronographer
in the Church Calendar. In Psalms 104:19 we read: “He appointed the
Moon for seasons.”
In general, we have built on the belief that the stellar bodies made
an impression on men by virtue of the light they radiate and it has
therefore been difficult to explain why the Moon ranked above the Sun.
It is frequently said that the Sun (in Babylonia) was considered an
enemy of mankind as its heat destroyed the vegetation. (It is true that
a period of severe drought occurs there in the height of the summer.)
As opposed to this, the moonlit nights would be considered refreshing
and salutary. Another explanation is essayed by Bergström, who says
that the luminous Moon with its ever-changing shape appealed to the
imagination of primitive people in a far higher degree than the fairly
constantly brilliant Sun. He is partly correct; the enormous variation
in luminosity from full to new Moon enables the observer to notice
the difference from night to night. The change by about one hour in
each twenty-four hours of the time for the rising and setting of the
Moon as compared to the disappearance and reappearance of sunlight,
and more important yet the short periods of the Moon phases which
leave the observations from each receding phase fresh in memory,--both
these phenomena contribute toward the high value of the Moon’s synodic
revolution as a measure of protracted time duration. The purely
practical need dominates, not, probably, any desire to visualize the
changes in legends. The Australian negroes use four different names
for the Moon according to its four quarters, showing that they, in all
probability, believe themselves confronted with four different stellar
bodies, just as the Greeks at the time of Homer considered the morning-
and the evening-star, _i. e._ Venus, as two separate planets.
On the other hand, no ground worth mentioning supports the theory that
the scorching heat of the Sun diminished the peoples’ inclination
for its worship. On the contrary, homage was generally rendered to
phenomena one feared. It is further not true that the Babylonians
themselves considered the Sun, Shamash, hostile, the Moon, Sin,
friendly. The Sun-god, Shamash, by virtue of his light, was believed
to give life and health. The scorching quality of the Sun was
attributed to another god, Nergal, prince of the underworld, demon of
war and slaughter, source of fever, and, pre-eminently, of plague. No
reason existed, therefore, why Shamash should take second rank after
Sin, who is said “to carry water and fire,” meaning, according to
Schrader, that he brought fits of ague and fever. When the Sun after
the oppressive day sinks behind the horizon, it is well known that
a sharp fall of temperature occurs, particularly in arid zones, but
also in humid regions within the tropics where this very phenomenon
is utilized for the production of ice. He who exposes himself to the
sudden cold of the night falls an easy prey to illness. Particularly
is this true under a clear sky--primitive people say “when the Moon
shines”--because of the strong radiation. Those who sleep in moonlight
are struck by delirium and madness according to primitive thought, an
opinion by no means dead among civilized nations--it is common with
seafaring men--and is no doubt the origin of the expression: moonstruck
(German: _mondsuchtig_, Ital.: _lunatico_, French: _lunatique_, Swedish:
_månadsrasande_, etc.). To this belief has probably contributed
the fact that epileptic fits frequently possess a period nearly
corresponding to the synodical month, which, as I have shown elsewhere,
most likely depends on a periodic change in the atmospheric electricity.
In this connection it might also be stated that the third among the
great star-deities, Ishtar, the queen of heaven (Astarte, Venus),
was the mild but potent, all-merciful sister in every affliction,
who delivered from sorcery and illness and gave pardon for sin and
guilt. This radiant goddess, who corresponds to the attractive figure
of the Catholics’ Virgin Mary, was, in spite of her solicitude for
the afflictions of men, placed third in the illustrious triad, Sin,
Shamash, and Ishtar.
The traveller in the desert is certainly often tortured by the severe
drought and a consequent insufferable thirst. This, however, was
justly ascribed to the scarcity of water and not to the Sun. The
Egyptians, therefore, wished that their departed ones on the journey to
their new dwelling-places would meet with refreshing springs where they
might quench their thirst and northerly winds that might cool the air.
It is well known that the Mohammedans have formed similar conceptions
of a paradise in life to come.
Entirely new conditions arose when the population grew until
agriculture became a necessity for the production of sufficient food.
The influence of the Sun now became so dominating that it must be given
the first place among the powers that affect the fates of men. The
plants have a decided annual period and so have the overflows of the
rivers which were of the utmost importance in those countries where
the cradle of civilization stood. The rainfalls themselves were of
annual recurrence as were also the intervening droughts. In Egypt the
great importance of the floods caused the introduction of the solar
year at a very early stage and its length was fixed at 12 months of 30
days, or 360 days, so that the beginning of the year occasionally had
to be adjusted. This was accomplished by resorting to observations of
the rising and setting of the Dog Star or Sirius. Thus we realize how
difficult it was to determine the exact length of the solar year from
everyday phenomena. The great reformer Amenhotep IV. endeavoured about
1400 B.C. to have the Sun-god recognized as sole master of all the
world. He met, however, with such great obstacles on the part of the
conservative priesthood, which as they largely were serving different
gods would have lost part of their power if the reform had prevailed,
that his successor was obliged to yield to the solid opposition.
In Babylon the local god Marduk, once representative of the planet
Jupiter, and among the star-gods ranking next to the three Super-gods,
became about 2000 B.C. elevated to the highest position among the gods
and assumed at the same time the dignity of Sun-god. It may here be
mentioned that Marduk also played a great part as healer of illness.
The evolution in ancient Rome followed the same course although at a
far later time. Emperor Aurelianus (270–275 A.D.) under the influence
of oriental Mithras-cult elevated the Sun-god to supreme god of the
whole Roman Empire, which then comprised almost the entire known world.
Especially significant is the fact that Venus with the Mexicans played
as important a part as did the Moon and the Sun. The luminosity of
Venus, unlike that of planets outside of the earth’s orbit, but like
that of the Moon, changes from a maximum, intense enough in the
tropics to throw a shadow, down to a minimum which approaches complete
darkness. Its period is closely 1.6 years. It falls short of this
figure by about two hours and the Mexicans therefore introduced a
correction similar to the bissextile day in our leap year, of one day
in every twelve years, which day, however, had to be deducted instead
of added. Observations of the changing luminosity of Venus and of its
position relative to the Sun obviously lent themselves admirably to
measurements of long periods of time and particularly to determination
of the length of the important solar year as five Venus-periods very
nearly equal eight solar years. The Mexican priests established the
fact that 104 solar years correspond to 65 Venus-periods or 146
“_Tonalamatl_.”
Star-cult was as strongly developed in Mexico as in Babylon. Its
main doctrine is stated by Alfredo Chavero thus: “The Father-Creator
was Heaven, Xiuhtecutli, or the Azure-blue master. The mother was
Omecihuatl, the Milky Way, or the dual mistress.” It is well known that
a large part of the Milky Way, from the “Swan” to the neighbourhood of
the Southern Cross, is divided in two parallel branches, which fact
probably is responsible for the title, the “Dual Mistress.” “Heaven
influenced the Milky Way through fire; from its cosmic matter the stars
were set free, the most prominent of which were Tonatiuh, the Sun;
Tezcatlipoca, the Moon; and Quetzalcoatl, Venus. These were made the
supreme gods. For the purpose of worship, they were symbolized in human
shape. Myriads of images, representing these star-gods, were modelled
in clay, wood, or stone.”
According to this remarkable picture the Mexicans should have
arrived at a far better solution of the world-riddle than even the
Babylonians did. While most other peoples assumed heaven and earth as
the original principles, they gave the high position of progenitress
of all to the Milky Way. From her the innumerable stars, with the
Sun in the lead, issued. This agrees to a considerable extent with
the present conception which we have arrived at during this very
last decade, principally thanks to the work of American astronomers.
Their investigations have shown how the stars are segregated from
the nebulous primeval matter of the Milky Way; how they add distance
between themselves and their matrix with age, while simultaneously
they develop an increasing individuality.
We have seen that Venus-Ishtar was honoured with membership in
the august triad of star-gods, also among the Babylonians. Their
successors, the Assyrians, retained the inherited traditions. Thus
their kings in the ninth century before Christ symbolized their divine
lineage by wearing a necklace with a moon-crescent in the middle, a
cross in a ring, emblem of the Sun, on one side, and on the other a
star, emblem of Venus (compare Montelius, _Nordisk Tidskrift_, 1904, p.
13, fig. 30). The Jewish synagogues are generally decorated with the
star-emblem.
The Mohammedans, like the Jews, utilize the position of the Moon for
determination of the Church calendar, and we employ the same means for
fixing Easter time. The Mohammedans reckon with a year of 12 synodical
months. Twelve such months contain only 354.4 days while a solar year
comprises 365.24 days, and as a rule, therefore, the synodical month
was rounded to 30 days instead of 29.53 and the solar year to 360 days.
Such was the arrangement in Egypt and originally also in Babylon.
Primitive men comprehend fractions only with extreme difficulty. In
order to correct the discrepancies, odd months were introduced about
every sixth year.
From this time we may trace the high reputation of the number twelve.
The Zodiac was divided into twelve houses in each of which the Sun
was to dwell a month at a time. Day and night were each divided into
twelve hours. The circle was divided into 360 degrees corresponding
to the number of days of the year, so that the position of the Sun
at noon should proceed one degree of the heaven from day to day. As
the Moon dominated chronometry, a complication which must have caused
considerable confusion was in many places introduced. We have seen
that the Australian negroes gave four different names to the Moon in
its four different phases. The great change in appearance of the Moon
from quarter to quarter makes such a division natural. The synodical
month was therefore made to consist of four parts, called weeks. As the
length of a month is 29.53 days, the nearest number evenly divisible by
four, namely 28, was substituted, and so seven days were allotted to
each week, thus introducing an error of not less than 5.5%.
To the establishment of this week the assumption of seven wandering
stars has no doubt largely contributed. The priests had discovered
that besides Sun, Moon, and Venus, four other stars shift their
position on the firmament with reference to the fixed stars, which
latter appear always to maintain their relative distances. These four
wandering stars were Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Each day in
the week was dedicated to one of the seven wandering stars and received
its name. These names have been maintained to the present day, for
instance, Sunday, the Sun’s day, Monday, the Moon’s day, etc. The lunar
calendar, established through religious considerations, supplanted
the more rational one, which latter, however, survived in Egypt, and
was reinstated in the Occident during the French revolution, although
unfortunately only for a short time (1793–1805). As a result, the
synodical month, in order to suit the calendar, has been changed not
only with half a day to thirty days, but also with one and a half days
to twenty-eight days. If decades had been adhered to we would have had
months of even thirty days and either five leap months of thirty-one
days each (during leap year six) or half a decade interpolated at new
year.
Besides the seven wandering stars known to antiquity (at present
over eight hundred planets have been observed), several other stars
and constellations played an important part. The Magellanic clouds,
considered of evil nature, and the Pleiades appealed already to the
Australian negroes. In the northern hemisphere, where the opportunity
of observing the Magellanic clouds is small, situated as they are near
the South Pole, the Pleiades have attracted the greater attention
and the Phœnicians especially appear to have taken interest in this
constellation. From them, reverence for the Pleiades spread to a large
part of Africa, where we now to our surprise find this star cluster
reproduced along with symbols of Sun, Moon, and Venus. Homer also
mentions the Pleiades and a few other constellations, namely, the
Hyades, Orion, the Great Bear, and the stars Sirius and Arcturus. At
all events, the Pleiades have frequently occupied a unique position in
the old world. Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens, and Canopus,
the second in brightness, also belonging to the southern hemisphere
but only half as far removed from the South Pole as Sirius, have both
evoked the attention and the worship of the primitive people, in this
case the South Africans.
At length, the nations, particularly the Babylonians and the Mexicans,
acquired a wider knowledge of the different stars. As the most
important ones, Sun, Moon, and Venus, guided the seasons and hence
all natural phenomena, a certain mundane significance was naturally
ascribed also to the younger ones. Not only seasons, months, days, and
hours were each ruled by its star, but so was everything in nature;
different winds, provinces, trades, bodily organs, animals, persons,
each possessed its star and celestial protector. Comprehensive studies
of these correspondences and connections were made and the conclusions
were drawn from immaterial semblances and often wholly arbitrarily,--as
regards persons from the configuration of the stars at the time of
birth. Thus grew an enormously extensive collection of correspondence-
and sympathy-doctrines accompanied by a detailed symbolism, an entire
quasi-science, which must never be questioned as it originated with
the infallible priests. With the Babylonians, religion and science
completely melted together and even art was entirely subservient to
the same interests. Occasionally the loss of this blissful state draws
forth a sigh. Fortunately it is gone never to return.
The oriental wisdom was brought over to Greece and was there
amalgamated with the Platonic-Aristotelian philosophy. In this form
the Babylonian heritage held sway over the thought of mankind up to
less than 200 years ago. The most important branches of this fanciful,
so-called science were astrology and alchemy. Tycho Brahe himself made
it the object of his life to strengthen astrology by contributing new
material to it. Kepler is said not to have believed in astrology but he
nevertheless cast horoscopes not only for princes and persons of high
position in order to improve his economy, but also for his own family.
Probably traces of the old superstition clung to him, and presumably he
thought: “If it does no good, neither does it do any harm.”
In the same manner, alchemy was carried on by faithful adepts, but more
often by impostors, seldom averse to “occult” sciences. Astrologers and
alchemists exist even yet among the numerous devotees to occultism; at
high price many of them make their predictions or sell their secrets.
I have heard a Swedish engineer of very high standing state that their
prognostications agreed with events. Among the few alchemists in
Europe, most of whom seem to be religious visionaries, Strindberg is of
a certain interest to us. Correspondence-theory has played a very large
part in the speculations of the learned up to comparatively recent
time. It is utilized extensively in the later fantastic writings of
Swedenborg. Numerous traces are to be found also in the weakest works
of Strindberg.
The renowned French chemist, Berthelot, has given a valuable analysis
of the alchemist’s method of treating chemical phenomena. His general
conclusion is that the false principles which led the alchemists astray
revert back to Plato’s and Aristotle’s philosophical theories regarding
the composition of matter. Something similar can be said of astrology.
It plays with ideas of its own fabrication with hardly any foundation
in reality. The result is almost wholly without value.
The greatest astronomer in Babylon, Kidinnu (about 200 B.C.),
constructed tables of great accuracy giving the position of the stars.
In this work he utilized observations gathered over thousands of years.
These ephemerides were also intended as scripture source for reading
the fate of men and for determination of the auspicious moment for
the commencement of an undertaking. At all events, they placed great
revenue and power over souls in the hands of the ruling priesthood. It
does not appear that these priests were able to rise to an attempt of a
physical explanation as to the nature of the stellar bodies. That was
probably also considered dangerous. The stars were deities composed
of purer and more refined matter than found on Earth. It were not
improbable that the gods would inflict vengeance on the presumptuous
one who dared to intrude upon their secrets and pass judgment on their
peculiarities.
Fortunately, there existed in Greece another tendency in philosophy
besides the scholastic and the Platonic-Aristotelian. But this was
mainly represented in southern Italy, Sicily, and later in Alexandria.
Already the followers of Pythagoras had made important progress toward
a solution of the stellar problems. The crowning point was reached by
Aristarchos from Samos, who lived in Alexandria about 2100 years ago.
He established 1700 years before Copernicus the heliocentric system.
It is often said that his work was of little value, as Copernicus
nevertheless must do it over again. It is then forgotten that
Copernicus himself cites the philosophers of antiquity who expressed
theories in agreement with the heliocentric system and expressly states
that he was bold enough to advance his hypotheses because so many
prominent authorities could be mentioned who favoured them. Copernicus
did not dare entirely to break away from the Ptolemaic system, and was
inconsistent enough partly to use it in his calculations of the motions
of the stars.
We have lately advanced farther along the road of Pythagoras and
Aristarchos, of Copernicus and Galileo, and we have perfected their
methods to a high degree. Progress in astronomy and kindred sciences
is nowadays made at a dizzying speed if measured with the standard
of antiquity. Occasionally we hear a warning voice asking us to
show more deference to a philosophy directly descending from the
Platonic-Aristotelian. He who is at all familiar with the history of
natural science will understand us when we answer: “We have had more
than enough thereof.”
That non-naturalists sometimes have a peculiar conception of the
present status of astronomy is well illustrated by the statement of one
of our foremost theologians in a review of a popular astronomical work
where he remarked that the astronomer of today had not advanced much
beyond those of ancient time who also could forecast eclipses of the
Sun. The predictions were then founded on the recurrences of eclipses
after regular intervals much as the new Moons were foretold, with the
difference only that the latter occur much more frequently.
Our knowledge of the stellar bodies at present and fifty or sixty
years ago are a world apart and the same is true of the latter and
that of antiquity. But we must not therefore forget that our brilliant
star-science today is derived from men’s desire to measure time, and
particularly from their need to foresee the food supply in coming days.