File:Astronomy for amateurs (1904) (14597148239).jpg

Identifier: astronomyforamat00flam (find matches)
Title: Astronomy for amateurs
Year: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: Flammarion, Camille, 1842-1925 Welby, Frances A. (Frances Alice) tr
Subjects: Astronomy
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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tion, and shouldhave no exact notion of the immense reality. To-day, thanks to the intellectual labor of so manycenturies, thanks also to the immortal genius of themen of science who have devoted their lives to search-ing after Truth—men such as Copernicus, Galileo,Kepler, Newton—the veil of ignorance has been rent, andglimpses of the marvels of creation are perceptible intheir splendid truth to the dazzled eye of the thinker. The study of Astronomy is not, as many suppose^the sacrifice of oneself in a cerebral torture that oblit-erates all the beauty, the fascination, and the grandeurof the pageant of Nature. Figures, and naught but fig-ures, would not be entertaining, even to those mostdesirous of instruction. Let the reader take courage!We do not propose that he shall decipher the hiero-glyphics of algebra and geometry. Perish the thought!For the rest, figures are but the scaffolding, the method,and do not exist in Nature. We simply beg of you to open your eyes, to see where 14
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Fig. I.—The great Book of the Heavens is open to all eyes. ASTRONOMY FOR AMATEURS you are, so that you may not stray from the path oftruth, which is also the path of happiness. Once youhave entered upon it, no persuasion will be needed tomake you persevere. And you will have the profoundsatisfaction of knowing that you are thinking correctly,and that it is infinitely better to be educated than to beignorant. The reality is far beyond all dreams, beyondthe most fantastic imagination. The most fairy-liketransformations of our theaters, the most resplendentpageants of our military reviews, the most sumptuousmarvels on which the human race can pride itself—all that we admire, all that we envy on the Earth—•is as nothing compared with the unheard-of wondersscattered through Infinitude. There are so many thatone does not know how to see them. The fascinatedeye would fain grasp all at once. If you will yield yourselves to the pleasure of ga-zing upon the sparkling fires of Space, you

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