But this great globe is unlike the earth in one respect; for while _it_ is
in itself quite dark, the sun which is used in the Bible as an emblem of
God Himself shines by his own glorious light, and though he is believed to
be made of the same materials as our earth, it is likely that they are in a
state of very great heat.
Astronomers, who look at the sun through their wonderful telescopes, and
so get much nearer to him than we can, tell us that we never see the sun
himself; but that what we look at is the bright garment of light which is
wrapped around him. They tell us also about great holes which sometimes
appear in this bright covering; and they believe that they have actually
seen, through these holes, the dark globe which is the real sun. These
holes are called spots upon the sun, and very dark they look upon his
bright face. The astronomers have long tried to find out what makes the
sun-spots, and some of them now think that they are caused by furious winds
which make great rents in this bright garment; for they tell us that there
are sun-storms far more terrible than any storm that ever raged on sea or
land.
It was while patiently watching the movement of these dark spots, through
the little telescope which he had made and set up in Rome, that Galileo,
nearly three hundred years ago, discovered that the sun moves round upon
itself once during twenty-eight days, just as the earth turns round on
herself once in twenty-four hours.
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