very. The Rev. S.H. Saxby looked up at a new star, in the nebula of Andromeda, and he saw it.
There is much uppishness to anybody who says, or announces, that of all cults his cult is the aristocrat. But most of his upward looking is likely to be at the supposed altitude of himself. All over this earth, professional astronomers were looking up at themselves. In England and Ireland, three amateurs, besides the Rev. S.H. Saxby, being probably of only ordinary conceit, looking up beyond themselves, and saw the new star. For the records, see the English Mechanic, of this period.(15) Whatever the professional astronomers of the United States were looking up at, they saw nothing new. But somebody, in the U.S.A., did see the new star. Sidereal Messenger, 4-246 -- an amateur in Red Wing, Minnesota.(16) It was not until August 31st that upness in an Observatory related to the stars. Finally a professional astronomer either looked up, or woke up; or waking up, looked up; or looking up, woke up.
The whole nebula of Andromeda shone with the light of the new star. Several observers thought that the newly illuminated nebula was a comet (Observatory, 83-30).(17) From the light of the new star the whole formation lighted up, like a little West Indian island, at a time of an eruption in it. According to conventionalists, this nebula is 60 x 60 x 24 x 365 x 8 x 186,000 miles in diameter, and light from a new star, central in it, would occupy four years in traversing the whole. But as if because this nebula may not be so much as 60 x 186,000 inches in diameter, no appre- [340/341] ciable time was occupied, and the whole formation lighted up at once.(18)
Other indications -- whatever we think we mean by "indications" -- that the nebula of Andromeda is close to this earth:
Sweden -- and it was reported that wild fowl began to migrate, at the earliest date (Aug. 16th) ever recorded in Sweden --
Flap of a duck's wings -- and the twinkles of a star -- the star and the bird stammered a little story that may some day be vibrated by motors, oscillating back and forth from Vega to Canopus.
So the birds began to fly.
It was because of unseasonable coldness in Sweden. Unseasonable coldness is a phenomenon of this earth's volcanic eruptions. It is attributed to the shutting off of sunlight by volcanic dusts. The temperature was lower, in Sweden, than ever before recorded, in the middle of August (Nature, 32-427).(19) Upon August 31st, the new star reached maximum brilliance, and upon this date the temperature was the lowest that it had ever been known to be, in the last of August, in Scotland (Nature, 32-495).(20)
All very well -- except the unusual coldness may be explained in various ways, having nothing to do with volcanoes --
See Nature, 32-466, 625 -- that nine days after the first observation upon the new star in Andromeda, an afterglow was seen in Sweden.(21) There is no findable record of a volcanic eruption, upon this earth, to which this phenomenon could be attributed. Sept. 3rd, 5th, 6th -- afterglows appeared in England. These effects continued to be seen in Sweden, until the middle of September.(22)
I don't know whether these data are enough to jolt over our whole existence into a new epoch, or not. From [341/342] what I know of the velocity of thought, I should say not.
If a volcanic discharge did drift from Andromeda to Sweden, it came from a northern constellation to a northern part of this earth, as if to a part of this earth that is nearest to a northern constellation. But, if Andromeda were trillions of miles away, no part of this earth could be appreciably nearer than any other part, to the constellation. If repeating afterglows, in Sweden, were phenomena of repeating arrivals of dust, from outer space, they so repeated in the sky of one part of this earth, because this earth is stationary.
I note that I have overlooked the new star in Cygnus, late in the year 1876. Perhaps it is because this new star was discovered by a professional astronomer that I neglected it. However, I shall have material for some malicious comments. Upon th