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THE ROMANCE OF SCIENCE.
TIME AND TIDE,
A Romance of the Moon.
BEING TWO LECTURES DELIVERED
IN THE THEATRE OF THE LONDON INSTITUTION,
ON THE AFTERNOONS OF NOVEMBER 19 AND 26, 1888.
BY
SIR ROBERT S. BALL, LL.D., F.R.S.,
ROYAL ASTRONOMER OF IRELAND.
PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF
GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION APPOINTED
BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN
KNOWLEDGE.
LONDON:
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE,
NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C.; 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.
BRIGHTON: 135, NORTH STREET.
New York: E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO.
View of the Moon two days after first quarter.
From a photograph by Mr. Lewis M. Rutherford.
Frontispiece.
TO
The Members of the London Institution
I DEDICATE
THIS LITTLE BOOK.
PREFACE.
Having been honoured once again with arequest that I should lecture before the LondonInstitution, I chose for my subject the Theory ofTidal Evolution. The kind reception which theselectures received has led to their publication inthe present volume. I have taken the opportunityto supplement the lectures as actually deliveredby the insertion of some additional matter. I amindebted to my friends Mr. Close and Mr. Rambautfor their kindness in reading the proofs.
Robert S. Ball.
Observatory, Co. Dublin,
April 26, 1889.
TIME AND TIDE.[9]
LECTURE I.
It is my privilege to address you this afternoonon a subject in which science and poetry areblended in a happy conjunction. If there be apeculiar fascination about the earlier chapters ofany branch of history, how great must be theinterest which attaches to that most primeval ofall terrestrial histories which relates to the actualbeginnings of this globe on which we stand.
In our efforts to grope into the dim recesses ofthis awful past, we want the aid of some steadfastlight which shall illumine the dark places withoutthe treachery of the will-o'-the-wisp. In theabsence of that steadfast light, vague conjecturesas to the beginning of things could never be[10]entitled to an