his afual humour, took no notice of has frequently been the theme of pa ir; but in the way home, to her great mortification, he unriddled the jeft, by acquainting her with what he had, done the preceding day. Holbein, who came to England in 1526, was first patronized by fir Thomas More, and during the space of three years lived in his houfe at Chellea, where he was employed in drawing the portraits of his patron and his friends. Among the numerous works attributed to this celebrated master, none perhaps are more noted than the groups of fir Thomas More's family, but very good reasons have been affigned for fuppofing, that though the heads were sketched by Holbein, the pictures were finished by an inferior artif. Among other inftances of fir Thomas More's benevolent difpofition, we are told, that he hired a house at Chelsea for the reception of aged people, who were fupported by his bounty, and that it was the province of his amiable daughter Margaret to fee that all their wants were daly relieved. This great man was beheaded in 1535, for refafing to take the oath which acknow ledged the king's fupremacy. It may be thought worthy of notice, perhaps, that the morning he was fummoned to repair to Lambeth for the purpose of taking that oath, he went to his parish church, attended mafs, and received the facrament; after which, ftepping into his barge, he bid a laft adieu to the favourite scenes of his retirement, and refigned himself to the fate he faw approaching. A few years previous to his death, fir Thomas More caufe a vault to be made on the fouth fide of the chancel of Chelsea church, to which he removed the bones of his first wife, and which he defigned for the place of his own interment, It has been a matter of difpute whether his body was depofited there or not; fome authors fay, that his daughter Margaret, whofe pious affection to her father's memory negyric, removed his corpfe from the Tower, where it had been buried, to the vault at Chelfea. More, the chancellor's great grandfon, who wrote his life, does not mention this fact and it has been thought unlikely, from the circumftance of bifhop Fisher's body having been removed to the Tower by Margaret Roper, that it might be interred, according to his request, near her father, who was there buried. Soon after fir Thomas More refigned the office of lord chancellor, he wrote an epitaph for himfelf, which is engraved upon a tablet of black marble on the fouth wall of the chancel at Chelfea. It has been feveral times printed, but not correaly. A letter of fir Thomas More's is faid to be extant, in which he boafts of having expreffed his enmity to heretics in his epitaph. How much is it to be lamented, that a bigoted zeal fhould have thus perverted a, difpofition in every other refpect fo charitable and benevolent! THE duchefs of Northumberland was a fingular inftance of the viciffitudes of fortune: having been the wife of one of the greatest men of that age, the lived to fee her husband lofe his head upon a fcaffold; to fee one fon fhare his father's fate; another efcape it only by dying in prifon; and the reft of her children living but by permiffion. Amid this diftrefs, which was heightened by the confifcation of her property, the difplayed great firmnefs of mind, though left deftitute of fortune and of friends, till the arrival of fome of the nobility from the Spa nih court, who interested themselves fo warmly in her favour, that they prevailed upon the queen to reinftate her in fome of her former poffeffions and the conducted herself with fuch wisdom and prudence as enabled her to restore her overthrown houfe even in a reign of cruelty and tyranny. Her furviving progeny were no less John Duke of Northumberland was beheaded August 22, 1553, for proclaiming Jady Jane Grey, remarkable for their profperity than their brethren for their misfortunes. Ambrofe was restored to the tide of earl of Warwick, and enjoyed many other honours and preferments. Robert was created earl of Leicefter, and became one of queen Elifabeth's prime minifters, and her daughter Mary was the mother of fir Philip Sidney. The duchefs, a fhort time before her death, wrote her will with her own hands. She bequeath d to fir Henry Sidney the gold and green hangings in the gallery at Chelsea, with her Lord's arms and hers; to her daughter Mary Sidney, her gown of black barred velvet furred with fables, and a gown with a high back of fair wrought velvet; to her daughter Catherine Haftings, a gown of purple velvet, a fummer gown, and a kirtle of new purple velvet to it, and fleeves; to Elifabeth, daughter of lord Cob ham, a gown of black barred velvet furred with lizards; to the duchefs of Atva, her green parrot, having nothing elfe worthy for her. My will (fays the) is, earnefly and effectualJy, that little folempnitie be made for me, for I had ever have a thoufand foldes my debts to be paide; and the poore to be given unto, than pompe to be fhewed upon my wretched carkes; therefore to the wormes will I goe, as I have afore wrytten in all poyntes, as you will answer yt afore God. And you breke any one jot of it, your wills hereafter may chaunce be as well broken.' anye In another place, the fays, After I am departyd from this worlde, let me be wonde up in a fhete, and put into a coffyn of woode, and fo layde in the grounde with fuch funeralls as parteyneth to the buriall of a corfe. will at my yeres mynde have fuch devyne fervice as myne executors fhall thynke mete, with the whole arms of father and mother upon the tone graven; nor in no wife to let me be opened after I am dead. I have not loved to be very bold afore women, much more wolde I be lothe to come into the hands of any lyving man, be he physician or furgeon.' Notwith ftanding her ftrict injunctions to the contrary, he was baried with great folemnity, Feb. 1, 1554-5, two heralds attending, with many mourners, fix dozen of torches, and two white branches, and a canopy borne over her effigies in wax, in a goodly hearse, to the church of Chelsey.' A TRADITION prevails at Chelsea, that the famous Nell Gwyn first projected the fcheme of building an hofpital fuaded the king to become the founder. for fuperannuated foldiers, and per, The fign-board of a public-houfe, not far from the college, is still decorated with her portrait, underneath which is an infcription afcribing the founda tion to her defire. Whether this ce the palm with fir Stephen Fox, it lebrated lady has any claim to difpute would be difficult perhaps to deter mine. The following paragraph from a newfpaper of that day, affords a prefumption that the had been refident in the neighbourhood: We hear, that madam Ellen Gwyn's mother, fitting lately by the water-fide at her house by the neat-houses near Chelfey, fell accidentally into the water, and was drowned.' Domestic Intelli gencer, August 5, 1679. In the burial ground, belonging to Cheffea college, near the entrance, is the following fingular epitaph: Here refts William Hifeland, a veteran, if ever foldier was, who merited well a penfion, if long fervice be a merit, having ferved upward of the days of man; ancient, but not fuperannuated engaged in a feries of wars, civil as well as foreign, yet maimed or worn out by neither. His complexion was fresh and florid; his health hail and hearty; his memory exact and ready. In ftature he exceeded the military fize; in ftrength he furpaffed the prime of youth; and what rendered his age ftill more patriarchal, when above a hundred years old, he took unto him a wife. Read, fellow-foldiers, and reflect that there is a fpiritual warfare as well as a warfare temporal. Born the 1ft of Auguft 1620; died the 17th of February 1732, aged 112.? On the NATURE and CONSTRUCTION of the SUN and FIXED STARS. By William Herfchel, LL. D. F. R. S. [Read at the Royal Society, December 18, 1794.] A MONG the celeftial bodies the fun is certainly the firft which should attract our notice. It is a fountain of light that illuminates the world! it is the caufe of that heat which maintains the productive power of nature, and makes the earth a fit habitation for man! it is the central body of the planetary fyftem; and what renders a knowledge of its nature ftill more interesting to us is, that the numberless stars which compose the universe, appear, by the strictest analogy, to be fimilar bodies. Their innate light is fo intenfe, that it reaches the eye of the obferver from the re. moteft regions of space, and forcibly claims his notice. Now, if we are convinced that an inquiry into the nature and properties of the fun is highly worthy of our notice, we may alfo with great fatisfaction reflect on the confiderable progrefs that has already been made in our knowledge of this eminent body. It would require a long detail to enumerate all the various difcoveries which have been made on this subject; I shall, therefore, content myfelf with giving only the molt capital of them. Sir Ifaac Newton has fhewn that the fun, by its attractive power, retains the planets of our fyftem in their orbits. He has alfo pointed out the method whereby the quantity of matter it contains may be accurately determined. Dr. Bradley, has affigned the velocity of the folar light with a degree of precision exceeding our utmost expectation. Galileo, Scheiner, Hevelius, Caffini, and others, have afcertained the rotation of the fun upon its axis, and determined the pofition of its equator. By means of the tranfit of Venus over the difc of the fun, our mathematicians have cal culated its distance from the earth; its real diameter and magnitude; the denfity of the matter of which it is compofed; and the fall of heavy bodies on its furface. From the particulars here enumerated, it is fufficiently obvious, that we have already a very clear idea of the vaft importance, and powerful influence of the fun on its planetary fyftem. And if we add to this the beneficent effects we feel on this globe from the diffufion of the folar rays; and confider that, by well traced ana logies, the fame effects have been proved to take place on other planets of this fyftem; I should not wonder if we were induced to think that nothing remained to be added in order to complete our knowledge: and yet it will not be difficult to fhew that we are still very ignorant, at least with regard to the internal conftruction of the fun. The various conjectures, which have been formed on this fubjeft, are evident marks of the uncer tainty under which we have hitherto laboured. The dark spots in the fun, for inftance, have been fuppofed to be folid bodies involving very near its furface. They have been conjectured to be the fmoke of volcanoes, or the fcum floating upon an ocean of fluid matter. They have also been taken for clouds. They were explained to be opaque mafies, fwimming in the fluid matter of the fun; dipping down occafionally. It has been fuppofed that a fiery liquid furrounded the fun, and that, by its ebbing and flowing, the highest parts of it were occafionally uncovered, and appeared under the fhape of dark fpots; and that, by the return of this fiery liquid, they were again'covered, and in that manner fucceffively affumed different phases. The fun itfelf has been called a globe of fire, though perhaps metaphorically. The B wafte it would undergo by a gradual be found that a general conclufion confumption, on the fuppofition of its may be made which feems to throw being ignited, has been ingenioufly a confiderable light upon our prefent calculated. And in the fame point of fubject. view, its immenfe power of heating the bodies of fuch comets as draw very near to it has been affigned. The bright fpots, or faculæ, have been called clouds of light, and luminous vapours. The light of the fan itself has been fuppofed to be di rectly invifible, and not to be perceived unless by reflection; though the proofs, which are brought in fup port of that opinion, feem to me to amount to no more than, what is fufficiently evident, that we cannot fee when rays of light do not enter the eye. But it is time to profit by the many valuable observations that we are now in poffeffion of. A list of fucceffive eminent aftronomers may be named, from Galileo down to the prefent time; who have furnished us with materials for examination. In fupporting the ideas I fhall propofe in this paper, with regard to the phyfical construction of the fun, I have availed myself of the labours of all thefe aftronomers, but have been induced thereto only by my own actual obfervation of the folar phænomena; which, befide verifying thofe particulars that had been already obferved, gave me fuch views of the folar regions as led to the foundation of a very rational fyftem. For, having the advantage of former obfervations, my latest reviews of the body of the fun were immediately directed to the moft effential points; and the work was by this means facilitated, and contracted into a pretty narrow compaís. The following is a fhort extract of my observations on the fun, to which I have joined the confequences I now believe myself entitled to draw from them. When all the reafonings on the several phænomena are put together, and a few additional arguments, taken from analogy, which I fhall alfo add, are properly confidered, it will In the year 1779, there was a spot on the fun which was large enough to bé feen with the naked eye. By a view of it with a feven-feet reflector, charged with a very high power, it appeared to be divided into two parts. The largeft of the two, on the 19th of April, measured 1′8′′,06 in diameter; which is equal, in length, to more than 31,000 miles. Both together muft certainly have extended above 50,000. The idea of its being occafioned by a volcanic explofion, violently driving away a fiery fluid, which on its return would gradually fill up the vacancy, and thus reftore the fun, in that place, to its former fplendour, ought to be rejected on many aecounts. To mention only one, the great extent of the spot is very unfavourable to that fuppofition. Indeed a much lefs violent and lefs pernicious caufe may be affigned, to account for all the appearances of the spot. When we fee a dark belt near the equator of the planet Jupiter, we do not recur to earthquakes and volcanoes for its origin. An atmosphere, with its natural changes, will explain fuch belts. Our fpot in the fun may be accounted for on the fame principles. The earth is furrounded by an atmosphere, com pofed of various elaftic fluids. The fun alfo has its atmosphere, and if fome of the fluids which enter into its compofition fhould be of a fhining brilliancy, in the manner that will be explained hereafter, while others are merely tranfparent, any temporary caufe which may remove the lucid fluid will permit us to fee the body of the fun through the transparent ones. If an obferver were placed on the moon, he would fee the folid body of our earth only in thofe places where the transparent fluids of our atmosphere would permit him. In others, the opaque vapours would reflect the light of the fun, without permitting his ! view to penetrate to the furface of our globe. He would probably alfo find that our planet had occafionally fome fhining fluids in its atmosphere; as, not unlikely, fome of our northern Fights might not efcape his notice, if they happened in the unenlightened part of the earth, and were feen by him in his long dark night. Nay, we have pretty good reafon to believe, that probably all the planets emit light in fome degree; for the illumination which remains on the moon in a total eclipfe cannot be entirely ascribed to the light which may reach it by the refraction of the earth's atmosphere: For inftance in the eclipse of the moon, which happened October 22, 1790, the rays of the fun refracted by the atmosphere of the earth toward the moon, admitting the mean horizontal refraction to be 30′ 50′′,8, would meet in a focus above 189,000 miles beyond the moon; fo that confequently there could be no illumination from rays refracted by our atmosphete, It is, however, not improbable, that a bout the polar regions of the earth there may be refraction enough to bring fone of the folar rays a fhorter focus. The diftance of the moon at the time of the eclipse would would require a refraction of 54′′ 6 equal to its horizontal parallax at that time, to bring them to a focas fo as to throw light on the moon. The unenlightened part of the planet Venus has also been feen by dif. ferent perfons, and not having a fatellite, thofe regions that are turned from the fun cannet poflibly thine by a borrowed light; fo that this faine illumination must denote fome phof phoric quality of the atmosphere of Venus. 1 In the inftance of our large spot on the fun, I concluded from appear ances that I viewed the real folid body. of the fun itself, of which we rarely fee more than its hining atmosphere. In the year 1783, I obferved a fine large fpot, and followed it up to the edge of the fun's limb. Here I took notice that the spot was plainly de preffed below the furface of the fun; and that it had very broad shelving fides. I alfo fufpected fome part, at leaft, of the fhelving fides to be elevated above the furface of the fun; and obferved that, contrary to what ufually happens, the margin of that fide of the fpot, which was farthe from the limb, was the broadeft. The luminous fhelving fides of a spot may be explained by a gentle and gradual removal of the fhining fluid, which permits us to fee the globe of the fun. As to the uncommon appearance of the broadest mar. gin being on that fide of the spot which was farthest from the limb when the spot came near the edge of it, we may furmife that the fun has inequalities on its furface, which may poffibly be the caufe of it. For, when mountainous countries are expofed; if it should chance that the higheft parts of the landscape are fituated fo as to be near that fide of the margin; or penumbra of the spot, which is to ward the limb, it may partly inter! cept our view of it, when the spot is feen very obliquely. This would require elevations at lealt five or lig hundred miles high; but confidering the great attraction exerted by the fun upon bodies at its furface, and the flow revolution it has upon its axis, we may readily admit inequalities to that amount. From the centrifugal force at the fun's equator, and the weight of bodies at its surface, I compute that the power of throwing down a mountain by the exertion of the former, balanced by the fuperior force of keeping it in its fituation of the latter, is near fix and a half times lefs on the fun than on our equatorial regions: and as an elevation fimilar to one of three miles on the earth would not be less than 334 iles on the fan, there can be no doubt but that a mountain much higher would stand very firmly. The little denfity of the folar body feems alfo to be in favour of the height of its mountains; for, cæteris paribus, denfe bodies will fooner come to their level than rare ones. |