The Astronomy of Milton's 'Paradise Lost' - Thomas Nathaniel Orchard (best free novels TXT) 📗
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Though, by means of the nebular hypothesis, it is impossible to explain all the phenomena associated with the motions of the orbs which enter into the structure of the solar system, yet this does not detract much from the merits of the theory, the fundamental principles of which are based upon the evolution of the solar system from a rotating nebula. The retrograde motions of the satellites of Uranus and Neptune, the velocity of the inner Martian moon, and other abnormalities in the system, have not as yet been explained, but doubtless there are reasons by which those peculiarities can be accounted for if they were only known, ‘felix qui potuit cognoscere causas omnium rerum.’
No attempt has been made to supplant the nebular hypothesis by any other theory of cosmical evolution. Modern investigations and discoveries have strengthened its position, and at present it is the only means by which we can account for the existence of the visible material universe by which we are surrounded.
In the days when Milton lived—three hundred years ago—the nocturnal heavens presented the same appearance to an observer as they do at the present time. The stars pursued their identical paths, and looked down upon the Earth with the same aspect of serene tranquillity, regardless of the vicissitudes which affect the inhabitants of this terrestrial sphere. The constellations that adorn the celestial vault duly appeared in their seasons,
Of Heaven the stars that usher evening rose.—iv. 354-55.
The winter glories of Orion, the scintillating brilliancy of Sirius, and the spangled firmament, bearing no impress of change or variation which would lead one to conclude that the heavens were other than eternal, attracted then, as now, the admiration of beholders.
Apart from the orbs which constitute the solar system, little was known of the sidereal heavens beyond the visual effect created by the nocturnal aspect of the star-lit sky. Though ancient philosophers hazarded an opinion that the stars were suns, they received but scant attention from early astronomers, by whom they were merely regarded as convenient fixed points which enabled them to determine with greater accuracy the positions of the planets and the paths traced out by them in the heavens. The Ptolemaists, who believed in the diurnal revolution of the spheres, assigned to the stars a very subordinate place in their cosmology, which was the one adopted by Milton; and although Copernicus relegated them to their proper location in space, yet he had no clear conception of a universe of stars. Tycho Brahé, who declined to accept the Copernican theory, disbelieved that the stars were suns, and Galileo, who discovered the stellar nature of the Milky Way, remarked that the stars were not illumined by the Sun’s rays in the same manner that the planets are, but expressed no opinion with regard to their physical constitution. It is only within the past fifty years that proof has been obtained of the real nature of the stars. By the spectroscopic analysis of their light it has been ascertained that the elements of matter which enter into their composition exist in a condition similar to what is found in the Sun. The stars are therefore suns, many of them surpassing in magnitude and brilliancy the great luminary of our system.
Though Milton makes frequent allusion to the magnificence of the starry heavens, we have no evidence that he regarded the stars as suns, nor does he refer to them as such in any part of his poem.[12] What impressed him most was their number and brilliancy, to which reference is made in the following passages:
Stood thick as stars.—iii. 60-61.
Stars distant, but nigh hand seemed other worlds.—iii. 564-65.
With thousand lesser lights dividual holds,
With thousand thousand stars, that then appeared
Spangling the hemisphere.—vii. 381-84.
Milton describes the number of the fallen angels as
Innumerable as the stars of night.—v. 744-45,
and the attention of Satan is directed by the archangel Uriel to the multitude of stars formed from the chaotic elements of matter:
Each had his place appointed, each his course;
The rest in circuit walls this universe.—iii. 719-21.
Though Milton was doubtless familiar with the leading orbs of the firmament and knew their names, and the constellations in which they are situated, yet he makes no direct allusion to any of them in his poem. Neither Arcturus, which is mentioned in the Book of Job, nor Sirius, which attracted the attention of Homer, who compared the brightness of Achilles’ armour to the dazzling brilliancy of the dog-star, finds a place in ‘Paradise Lost.’ And yet the superior magnitude and brilliancy of some stars when compared with those of others did not escape Milton’s observation when, in describing the lofty eminence of Satan in heaven, prior to his fall, he represents him as
Of angels than that star the stars among.—vii. 132-33.
There is but one star to which Milton makes individual allusion, and, though not of any conspicuous brilliancy, yet it is one of much importance to astronomers—
Andromeda far off Atlantic seas
Beyond the horizon.—iii. 558-60.
This is α Arietis, the first point in the constellation of that name, which signifies the Ram, and from which the right ascensions of the stars are measured on the celestial sphere. In the time of Hipparchus the ecliptic intersected the celestial equator in Aries, which indicated the commencement of the astronomical year and the occurrence of the vernal equinox; but, owing to precession, this point is now 30° westward of Aries and in the constellation Pisces. The star was called Hamal by the Arabs, signifying a sheep, and the animal is represented as looking backwards. Manilius writes:—
Looks back and wonders at the mighty Bull.
Aries is associated with the legend of the Golden Fleece, in quest of which Jason and his valiant crew sailed in the ship ‘Argo.’ In the autumn, Andromeda is situated above Aries, and would seem to be borne by the latter, which accounts for Milton’s description of the relative positions of those two constellations.
Milton alludes to the starry sphere in several passages in his poem, and also mentions the starry pole above which he soared in imagination up to the Empyrean or Heaven of Heavens. His contemplation of the Galaxy must have impressed his mind with the magnitude and extent of the sidereal universe, for he was aware that this luminous zone which encircles the heavens consists of myriads of stars, so remote as to be incapable of definition by unaided vision. Milton’s description of this vast assemblage of stars is worthy of its magnificence, and the purpose with which he poetically associates this glorified highway testifies to the sublimity of his thoughts and to the originality of his genius. In those parts of his poem in which he describes the glories of the celestial regions, and instances the beautiful phenomena associated with the individual orbs of the firmament, we are able to perceive with what exquisite delight he beheld them all.
The invention of the telescope, and the important discoveries made by Kepler, Galileo, and Newton in the seventeenth century, were the means of effecting a rapid advance in the science of astronomy; but that branch of it known as sidereal astronomy was not then in existence. The star depths, owing to inadequate telescopic power, remained unexplored, and the secrets associated with those distant regions were inviolable, and lay beyond the reach of human knowledge. The physical constitution of the stars was unknown, nor was it ascertained with any degree of certainty that they were suns. The knowledge possessed by astronomers in those days was but meagre compared with what is now known of the sidereal heavens. Milton’s astronomical knowledge, we find, was commensurate with what was known of the stellar universe, and this he has conspicuously displayed in his poem.
CHAPTER VIII DESCRIPTION OF CELESTIAL OBJECTS MENTIONED IN ‘PARADISE LOST’ THE SUNThe surpassing splendour of the Sun, as compared with that of any of the other orbs of the firmament, is not more impressive than his stupendous magnitude, and the important functions which it is his prerogative to fulfil. Situated at the centre of our system—of which he may be regarded as ‘both eye and soul’—the orb has a diameter approaching 1,000,000 miles, and a mass 750 times greater than that of all the planets combined. These, by his attractive power, he retains in their several paths and orbits, and even far distant Neptune acknowledges his potent sway. With prodigal liberality he dispenses his vast stores of light and heat, which illumine and vivify the worlds circling around him, and upon the constant supply of which all animated beings depend for their existence. Deprived of the light of the Sun, this world would be enveloped in perpetual darkness, and we should all miserably perish.
The Sun is distant from the Earth about 93,000,000 miles. His diameter is 867,000 miles, or nearly four times the extent of the radius of the Moon’s orbit. The mass of the orb exceeds that of the Earth 330,000 times, and in volume 1,305,000 times. The Sun is a sphere, and rotates on his axis from west to east in 25 days 8 hours. The velocity of a point at the solar equator is 4,407 miles an hour. The density of the Sun is only one-fourth that of the Earth, or, in other words, bulk for bulk, the Earth is
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