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This table exhibits to us grand truths, which, we may venture to say, neither Newton nor La Place ever contemplated as within the range of human intellect. But even these are surpassed in interest by the determination of the actual velocity with which our own solar system, our sidereal home, is wheeling its ethereal round, guided by some great central body, whose light, if it has any, we may, perhaps, not have seen, and whose position we have not determined. To the solution of this great problem, M. Peters applies the numbers in the preceding table. M. Otto Struve, by combining the results of his calculations with those of M. Argelander, has determined that the point to which our solar system is advancing is situated at the epoch of 1840 in

Right Ascension, 259° 35'.1, with a probable error of 2° 57'.5; and north Declination, 34° 33.6, with a probable error of 2° 24' 5.

M. O. Struve has also determined the angular value of the annual motion of the sun as seen at a right angle to its path, and at the mean distance of the stars of the first magnitude.

By Right Ascension of stars, 0.32122, with a probable error of 0.03684; by Declination of do. 0.35719, with a probable error of 0.03562; or by combining these 0.3392, with probable error of 0.0252.

But as the parallax of stars of the first magnitude is 0.209, we can change the angular motion of the sun into linear motion in space; and hence, taking the radius of the earth's orbit as unity, we have 1-623, with a probable error of 0.229, the annual motion of the sun in space.

μ

0 3393

0-309

for

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The sun and all his planets, primary and secondary, are therefore now in rapid motion round an invisible focus. To that now dark and mysterious centre, from which no ray, however feeble, shines, we may in another age point our telescopes-detecting, perchance, the great luminary which controls our system, and bounds its paths-into that vast orbit which man during the whole cycle of his race may never be allowed to round. If the buried relics of primeval life have taught us how brief has been our tenure of this terrestrial paradise compared with its occupancy by the brutes that perish, the sidereal truths which we have been expounding impress upon us the no less humbling lesson, that from the birth of man to the extinction of his race, the system to which he belongs will have described but an infinitesimal arc of that immeasurable circle in which it is destined to revolve. It is as if the traveller or naturalist, equipped for the survey of nature's beauties and wonders had been limited only to a Sabbath's journey. Some mountain tops might rise to his view as he creeps along, and some peaks might disappear beyond the horizon which he leaves behind; but had the first man surveyed the constellation Hercules, to which our system is advancing, it would have seemed to him as remote as it will appear to the last of our race.

In the contemplation of the infinite in number and in magnitude, the mind ever fails us. We stand appalled before the mighty spectre of boundless space, and fal

"Here, then," says M. F. W. G. Struve, " we have the splendid result of the united studies of MM. Argelander, O. Struve, and Peters, grounded on observations made at the three (Russian) observatories of Dorpat, Abo, and Pulkova, and which is expressed in the following thesis:The motion of the solar system in space is directed to a point of the celestial vault situated on the right line which joins the two stars and Herculis, at a quarter of the apparent dis-tering reason sinks under the load of its tance of these stars, reckoning from Herculis. The velocity of this motion is such that the sun, with all the bodies which depend upon it, ad vances annually in the above direction 1.623 times the radius of the earth's orbit, or 33,550,000 geographical miles. The possible error of this last number amounts to 1,733,000 geographical miles, or to a seventh of the whole value. We may then wager 400,000 to 1 that the sun has a proper progressive motion, and 1 to 1 that it is comprised between the limits of thirty-eight and thirty-nine millions of geographical miles.'"-p. 108.

bursting conceptions. But placed, as we are, on the great locomotive of our system, destined surely to complete at least one round of its ethereal course, and learning that we can make no apparent advance on our sidereal journey, we pant with new ardor for that distant bourne which we constantly approach without the possibility of reaching it. In feeling this disappointment, and patiently bearing it, let us endeavor to realize the great truth from which it flows. It cannot occupy our mind without exalting

and improving it. It cannot take its place perpétual darkness. What man's reason has among our acquirements without hallowing made known, man will be permitted to see and ennobling them. Though now but a and to understand. "He that bindeth the truth to be received, it may yet become a sweet influences of the Pleiades, and looseth principle of action, and though now veiled the bands of Orion, and quieteth Arcturus by a cloud, it may yet be a lamp to our feet with his sons," will in His own time "disand a light to our ways. Whom God made cover deep things out of darkness," and after his own image, he will not retain in" reveal the ordinances of heaven."

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"Those few battles of which a contrary event would have essentially varied the drama of the world in all its subsequent scenes."-HALLAM.

No. II.-DEFEAT OF THE ATHENIANS AT SYRACUSE.

"The Romans knew not, and could not know, how deeply the greatness of their own posterity, and the fate of the whole Western world, were involved in the destruction of the fleet of Athens in the harbor of Syracuse. Had that great expedition proved victorious, the energies of Greece during the next eventful century would have found their field in the West no less than in the East; Greece and not Rome might have conquered Carthage; Greek instead of Latin might have been at this day the principal element of the language of Spain, of France, and of Italy; and the laws of Athens, rather than of Rome, might be the foundation of the law of the civilized world."-ARNOLD.

stowed on its walls, rendered it formidably strong against the means of offence which then were employed by beseiging armies.

FEW cities have undergone more memorable sieges during ancient and mediæval times than has the city of Syracuse. Athenian, Carthaginian, Roman, Vandal, By- The ancient city, in its most prosperous zantine, Saracen, and Norman, have in times, was chiefly built on the knob of land turns beleaguered her walls; and the re- which projects into the sea on the eastern sistance which she successfully opposed to coast of Sicily, between two bays; one of some of her early assailants, was of the which, to the north, was called the Bay of deepest importance, not only to the for- Thapsus, while the southern one formed the tunes of the generations then in being, but great harbor of the city of Syracuse itself. to all the subsequent current of human A small island, or peninsula (for such it events. To adopt the eloquent expressions soon was rendered), lies at the south-eastof Arnold respecting the check which she ern extremity, of this knob of land, stretchgave to the Carthaginian arms, "Syracuse ing almost entirely across the mouth of the was a breakwater, which God's providence great harbor, and rendering it nearly landraised up to protect the yet immature locked. This island comprised the original strength of Rome." And her triumphant settlement of the first Greek colonists from repulse of the great Athenian expedition Corinth, who founded Syracuse 2500 years against her was of even more wide-spread ago; and the modern city has shrunk again and enduring importance. It forms a de- into these primary limits. But, in the fifth cisive epoch in the strife for universal em-century before our era, the growing wealth pire, in which all the great states of antiquity successively engaged and failed.

The present city of Syracuse is a place of little or no military strength; as the fire of artillery from the neighboring heights would almost completely command it. But in ancient warfare its position, and the care be

and population of the Syracusans had led them to occupy and include within their city-walls portion after portion of the mainland lying next to the little isle, so that at the time of the Athenian expedition the seaward part of the knob of land recently spoken of was built over, and forti

fied from bay to bay, and constituted th larger part of Syracuse.

sufficient armament against her to menace her with capture and subjection. But, in The landward wall, therefore, of this dis- the spring of 414 B.C. the Athenian navy trict of the city, traversed this knob of land, was mistress of her harbor, and the adjawhich continues to slope upwards from the cent seas; an Athenian army had defeated sea, and which to the west of the old forti- her troops, and cooped them within the fications (that is, towards the interior of town; and from bay to bay a blockadingSicily), rises rapidly for a mile or two, but wall was being rapidly carried across the diminishes in width, and finally terminates strips of level ground and the high ridge in a long narrow ridge, between which and outside the city (then termed Epipolæ), Mount Hybla a succession of chasms and which, if completed, would have cut the uneven low ground extends. On each flank Syracusans off from all succor from the inof this ridge the descent is steep and pre- terior of Sicily, and have left them at the cipitous from its summits to the strips of mercy of the Athenian generals. The belevel land that lie immediately below it, siegers' works were indeed, unfinished; but both to the south-west and north-west. every day the unfortified interval in their The usual mode of assailing fortified lines grew narrower, and with it diminished towns in the time of the Peloponnesian war all apparent hope of safety for the beleawas to build a double-wall round them, guered town. sufficiently strong to check any sally of the Athens was now staking the flower of her garrison from within, or any attack of a forces, and the accumulated fruits of sevenrelieving force from without. The interval ty years of glory, on one bold throw for the within the two walls of the circumvallation dominion of the Western world. As Nawas roofed over, and formed barracks, in poleon from Mount Coeur de Lion pointed which the besiegers posted themselves, and to St. Jean d'Acre, and told his staff that awaited the effects of want or treachery the capture of that town would decide his among the besieged in producing a sur- destiny, and would change the face of the render. And, in every Greek city of those world; so, the Athenian officers, from the days, as in every Italian republic of the heights of Epipolæ, must have looked on middle ages, the rage of domestic sedition Syracuse, and felt that with its fall all the between aristocrats and democrats ran high. known powers of the earth would fall beRancorous refugees swarmed in the camp neath them. They must have felt also, of every invading enemy; and every block- that Athens, if repulsed there, must pause aded city was sure to contain within its for ever from her career of conquest, and walls a body of intriguing malcontents, sink from an imperial republic into a ruinwho were eager to purchase a party-tri- ed and subservient community. umph at the expense of a national disaster. At Marathon, the first in date of the Great Famine and faction were the allies on whom Battles of the World, we beheld Athens besiegers relied. The generals of that time struggling for self-preservation against the trusted to the operation of these sure con- invading armies of the East. At Syracuse federates as soon as they could establish a she appears as the ambitious and oppressive complete blockade. They rarely ventured invader of others. In her, as in other on the attempt to storm any fortified republics of old and of modern times, the post. For, the military engines of an- same energy that had inspired the most tiquity were feeble in breaching masonry, heroic efforts in defence of the national before the improvements which the first independence, soon learned to employ itself Dionysius effected in the mechanics of de- in daring and unscrupulous schemes of selfstruction; and the lives of the boldest and aggrandizement at the expense of neighbormost highly-trained spearmen would, of ing nations. In the interval between the course, have been idly squandered in charges Persian and the Peloponnesian wars she against unshattered walls. had rapidly grown into a conquering and

A city built upon the sea, like Syracuse, dominant state, the chief of a thousand was impregnable, save by the combined tributary cities, and the mistress of the operations of a superior hostile fleet, and a largest and best-manned navy that the superior hostile army. And Syracuse, Mediterranean had yet beheld. The occufrom her size, her population, and her mili-pations of her territory by Xerxes and tary and naval resources, not unnaturally Mardonius, in the second Persian war, had thought herself secure from finding in ano- forced her whole population to become ther Greek city a foe capable of sending a mariners; and the glorious results of that

struggle confirmed them in their zeal for law of nature, that the weak should be their country's service at sea. The volun- coerced by the strong."* Sometimes they tary suffrage of the Greek cities of the stated and not without some truth, that the coast and islands of the Ægean first placed unjust hatred of Sparta against themselves, Athens at the head of the confederation forced them to be unjust to others in selfformed for the further prosecution of the defence. To be safe, they must be powwar against Persia. But this titular ascen- erful; and to be powerful, they must dency was soon converted by her into plunder and coerce their neighbors. They practical and arbitrary dominion. She never dreamed of communicating any franprotected them from the Persian power, chise, or share in office, to their dependents; which soon fell into decrepitude and decay, but jealously monopolized every post of but she exacted in return implicit obedience command, and all political and judicial to herself. She claimed and enforced a power; exposing themselves to every risk prerogative of taxing them at her discretion; with unflinching gallantry; embarking readand proudly refused to be accountable for ily in every ambitious scheme; and never her mode of expending their supplies. Re- suffering difficulty or disaster to shake their monstrance against her assessments was tenacity of purpose; in the hope of acquirtreated as factious disloyalty; and refusal ing unbounded empire for their country, to pay was promptly punished as revolt. and the means of maintaining each of the Permitting and encouraging her subject 30,000 citizens, who made up the sovereign allies to furnish all their contingents in republic, in exclusive devotion to military money, instead of part consisting of ships occupations, or to those brilliant sciences and men, the sovereign republic gained the and arts in which Athens already had double object of training her own citizens reached the meridian of intellectual splenby constant and well-paid service in her dor. fleets, and of seeing her confederates lose She had hitherto safely defied the hatred their skill and discipline by inaction, and and hostility of Sparta, and of Corinth, become more and more passive and power- Thebes, and the other Greek States that less under her yoke. Their towns were still adhered to Lacedæmon as the natural generally dismantled, while the imperial head of Greece; and though entangled in city herself was fortified with the greatest a desperate war at home, which was scarcely care and sumptuousness: the accumulated suspended for a time by a hollow truce, revenues from her tributaries serving to Athens now had despatched "the noblest strengthen and adorn to the utmost, her armament ever yet sent out by a free and havens, her docks, her arsenals, her thea- civilized commonwealth," to win her fresh tres, and her shrines; and to array her in conquests in the Western seas. With the that plenitude of architectural magnifi- capture of Syracuse all Sicily, it was hoped, cence, the ruins of which still attest the would be secured. Carthage and Italy intellectual grandeur of the age and people, were next to be attacked. With large which produced a Pericles to plan, and a levies of Iberian mercenaries she then Phidias to perform. meant to overwhelm her Peloponnesian All republics that acquire supremacy enemies. The Persian monarchy lay in. over other nations rule them selfishly and hopeless imbecility, inviting Greek invasion; oppressively. There is no exception to nor did the known world contain the power this in either ancient or modern times. that seemed capable of checking the Carthage, Rome, Venice, Genoa, Florence, growing might of Athens, if Syracuse once Pisa, Holland, and Republican France, all could be hers.

tyrannized over every province and subject The national historian of Rome has left state where they gained authority. But us, as an episode of his great work, a disnone of them openly avowed their system quisition on the probable effects that would of doing so upon principle with the candor have followed if Alexander the Great had which the Athenian republicans dis- invaded Italy. Posterity has generally played, when any remonstrance was made regarded that disquisition as proving Livy's against the severe exactions which they patriotism more strongly than his impartiimposed upon their vassal allies. They ality or acuteness. Yet, right or wrong, avowed that their empire was a tyranny, the speculations of the Roman writer were and frankly stated that they solely trusted directed to the consideration of a very to force and terror to uphold it. They **Αεὶ καθευτῶτος τὸν ἴσσω ὑπὸ δυνατωτέρου κατείργεσ appealed to what they called "the eternal ear, THUC. 1. 77.

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remote possibility. To whatever age Alex- sionary terrors which a set of designing men ander's life might have been prolonged, the among themselves strove to excite, in order East would have furnished full occupation to get power and influence thrown into their for his martial ambition, as well as for own hands. He told them that Athens those schemes of commercial grandeur and knew her own interest too well to think of imperial amalgamation of nations, in which wantonly provoking their hostility: "Even the truly great qualities of his mind loved if the enemies were to come," said he, to display themselves. With his death the distant from their resources, and opposed to dismemberment of his empire among his such a power as ours, their destruction would generals was certain, even as the dismem- be easy and inevitable. Their ships will berment of Napoleon's empire among his have enough to do to get to our island at all, marshals would certainly have ensued, if and to carry such stores of all sorts as will he had been cut off in the zenith of his be needed. They cannot, therefore, carry power. Rome, also, was far weaker when besides an army large enough to cope with the Athenians were in Sicily, than she was such a population as ours. They will a century afterwards in Alexander's time. have no fortified place from which to comThere can be little doubt but that Rome mence their operations, but must rest_them would have been blotted out from the on no better base than a set of wretched tents independent powers of the West, had she and such means as the necessities of the mobeen attacked at the end of the fifth centu- ment will allow them. But in truth I do ry, B. C., by an Athenian army, largely not believe that they would even be able to aided by Spanish mercenaries, and flushed effect a disembarkation. Let us, therefore, with triumphs over Sicily and Africa; in- set at naught these reports as altogether of stead of the collision between her and home-manufacture; and be sure that if any Greece having been deferred until the latter enemy does come, the state will know how to had sunk into decrepitude, and the Roman defend itself, in a manner worthy of the naMars had acquired the full vigor of man- tional honor."

hood.

Such assertions pleased the Syracusan The Syracusans themselves, at the time of assembly; and their counterparts find fathe Peloponnesian war, were a bold and tur- vor now among some portion of the English bulent democracy, tyrannizing over the weak-public. But the invaders of Syracuse er Greek cities in Sicily, and trying to gain came; made good their landing in Sicily; in that island the same arbitrary supremacy and, if they had promptly attacked the city which Athens maintained along the eastern itself, the Syracusans must have paid the coast of the Mediterranean. In numbers penalty of their self-sufficient carelessness and in spirit they were fully equal to the in submission to the Athenian yoke. But, Athenians, but far inferior to them in mili- of the three generals who led the Athenian tary and naval discipline. When the pro- expedition, two only were men of ability, bability of an Athenian invasion was first and one was most weak and incompetent. publicly discussed at Syracuse, and efforts Fortunately for Syracuse, the most skilful made by some of the wiser citizens to im- of the three was soon deposed from his prove the state of the National Defences, command by a factious and fanatic vote of and prepare for the impending danger, the his fellow-countrymen, and the other comrumors of coming war, and the proposals for petent one, Lamachus, fell early in a skir preparation were received by the mass of mish: while, more fortunately still for her, the Syracusans with scornful incredulity. the feeble and vacillating Nicias remained The speech of one of their popular orators unrecalled and unhurt, to assume the unis preserved to us in Thucydides, and many divided leadership of the Athenian army of its topics might, by a slight alteration and fleet, and to mar by the alternate overof names and details, serve admirably for caution and over-carelessness, every chance the party among ourselves at present, which of success which the early part of the opeopposes the augmentation of our forces, and rations offered. Still, even under him, the derides the idea of our being in any peril Athenians nearly won the town. They defrom the sudden attack of a French expedition. The Syracusan orator told his countrymen to dismiss with scorn the vi

* Lib. vi. Sec. 36, et seq. Arnold's edition. I have almost literally transcribed some of the marginal epitomes of the original speech.

feated the raw levies of the Syracusans, cooped them within the walls, and, as before-mentioned, almost effected a continuous fortification from bay to bay over Epipolæ, the completion of which would certainly have been followed by a capitulation.

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