Astronomy and the Bible;

DIFFERENCEINGLORY 191

and an acetylene light,are placed at equal distance
fromtheeye,andthelightineachcaseisofthesame
size,thespotofbrightnessineachcasewillbeofthe
samesize. Butthebrilliancyisnotequal. Thecandle
isquitedim,thelampshinesatriflebrighter,andthe
acetyleneandtheelectriclight,thoughpossiblysmaller
insizethantheothertwo, faroutrivalthem inbril-
liancy. Onelight differsfrom anotherinbrightness.
Carrying our investigations tothe regions of the
skies,aswearetofindthedifferenceinthestarsone
fromanotherbythedifferenceintheirlight,weask,
Isone star brighterthan another? And afterlong
and careful search and much thinking, astronomy
answersthatsomestarsaremuchbrighterthanother
stars,evenasanelectriclightoutshinesacandle. One
stardiffersfromanotherstarinradiance,orbrilliancy.
Let usgobacktoartificiallightsandbeginanew
investigation. We burn salt in a white light—the
lightturnsfromwhitetoyellow. Wemixalcoholand
boracicacidandignitethem—abeautifulgreenflame
results. Inthesameway,alcoholandnitrateofstron-
tiagiveredflame. Intheseexperiments,adifference
inthecharacterofthethingconsumedgivesa differ-
enceinthelightemitted.
Againturningtothestars,wewonderifweshall
findanythinglikethisinthelighttheyemit. Wedis-
cernthatAldebaranandBetelgeuseshinewithabright
redlight;Sirius,Regulus,Vega,andSpicaarewhite;
Procyon,Capella,andPolarisareyellow. Asadiffer-
ence in the character of the objects giving out the
artificiallight gavea difference incolor,so astrono-