THE THINGS THAT MATTER

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 234, 29 June 1922, Page 5

THE THINGS THAT MATTER

AN ASTRONOMICAL DISTURBANCE (By M.) Astronomy is the most pernicious of studies. I sat on Saturday night listening to a man eminent in the science. He talked with a suave and modest air, (his. choice of language was charming, and his delivery, except for a slight foreign accent, was impeccable. Despite his prepossessing qualities, I .was not slow to see throe ch Jj’™. ■ He hadl-too much, to say. about worlds beyond worlds, stars beyond stars, systems beyond systems, and universes ueyond universes. He was too intriguing with his speculations about the contents of‘those gaping black holes in the Milky Way j too ready, to take off from a star a million light years away only for a further plunge into immensity. _ His motive was .'perfectly clear,* and it showed me the character of the man: he was trying to tamper with people’s sense of proportion and to distract their attention from the Things That •*’ You would be surprised how easily when you gpt your mind full of worlds and light-years and nebulae and things, you do forget the Things That Matter. And the more shame to these astronomers that they take advantage of your wealmess. National prestige, sect in religion,_ class in society, divorce news, racing weights, dog-fights, political scandals, assassinations, the price of beer —what right has any scientific person to try to diminish our interest in these beautiful and essential matters with wild ideas about apace and grandeur? It is time we protested. Suppose we all gave ourselves up to this sort of bathing in infinity. It might be impossible even to _ have a war? Some fool would gaze into the heavens, recall that the earth is a speck, remind his fellows of a - star with a diameter 400 times that of the sun, and create a general impression that what to-day would be an excellent ca|sus belli was scarcely worth noticing. World conquest would seem too mean a trifle to attempt when once these conceptions of immensity had taken root. Interest in politics would flag. We should lose our reverence for titles and honours, we should laugh at the “grand old” this and that whenever they were trotted from platforms for applause. You see, our sense of proportion —the- standards of right-thinking people and pillars of society—would have become confused, and the question “Does it really matter?” would be raised about everything. ' Thank goodness that for most ot : us the sun and the moon and the constellations are still the hand-maidens of the earth. We feel they are, even if we don’t exactly think it. Galileo s heretical ideas about the cosmic order have not really sullied our souls. There is hardly a prejudice of his day with which we could not live comfortably to-day. We can brawl and hate as 'o£ old. and cut one another s throats with a zest unspoiled by .any speculations abput whether the game is worth ,the candle. As for myself, the astronomer /unbalanced mo for a moment, but only for a moment. When I got out ■of that stuffy lecture-room and beheld'the immensity of Wellington: when I gazed at those glorious luminaries, the electric lights;, when I saw those noble and aspiring monuments of greatness, the factory chimneys: when I looked upon Parliament Buildings and remembered it was Election Year; when I said “Good-night, sir.” to a gentleman who got a title lately: when I snubbed a little boy who said Roodnight to me —when I did all these things I was a man restored to his normal senses, and I could have enjoyed a riot or the antics of an intoxicated man with anybody. My natural and healthy curiosity ahput the Things That Matter has certainly come back: for at this, moment I would give five shillings to oe told simply, clearly, and without prevarication : „ „ Who kicked Mark Nicholls?