LESSON 103

THE INFLUENCES OF THE SUN

日光的影响

John Tyndall, 1820-1893, one of the most celebrated modern scientists, was an Irishman by birth. He was a pupil of the distinguished Faraday. In 1853 he was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Royal Institution of London. He is known chiefly for his brilliant experiments and clear writing respecting heat, light, and sound. He also wrote one or two interesting books concerning the Alps and their glaciers. He visited America, and delighted the most intelligent audiences by his scientific lectures and his brilliant experiments. The scientific world is indebted to him for several remarkable discoveries.

As surely as the force which moves a clock’s hands is derived from the arm which winds up the clock, so surely is all terrestrial power drawn from the sun. Leaving out of account the eruptions of volcanoes, and the ebb and flow of the tides, every mechanical action on the earth’s surface, every manifestation of power, organic and inorganic, vital and physical, is produced by the sun. His warmth keeps the sea liquid, and the atmosphere a gas, and all the storms which agitate both are blown by the mechanical force of the sun. He lifts the rivers and the glaciers up to the mountains; and thus the cataract and the avalanche shoot with an energy derived immediately from him.

Thunder and lightning are also his transmitted strength. Every fire that burns and every flame that glows, dispenses light and heat which originally belonged to the sun. In these days, unhappily, the news of battle is familiar to us, but every shock and every charge is an application or misapplication of the mechanical force of the sun. He blows the trumpet, he urges the projectile, he bursts the bomb. And, remember, this is not poetry, but rigid mechanical truth.

He rears, as I have said, the whole vegetable world, and through it the animal; the lilies of the field are his workmanship, the verdure of the meadows, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. He forms the muscles, he urges the blood, he builds the brain. His fleetness is in the lion’s foot; he springs in the panther, he soars in the eagle, he slides in the snake. He builds the forest and hews it down, the power which raised the tree, and which wields the ax, being one and the same. The clover sprouts and blossoms, and the scythe of the mower swings, by the operation of the same force.

The sun digs the ore from our mines, he rolls the iron; he rivets the plates, he boils the water; he draws the train. He not only grows the cotton, but he spins the fiber and weaves the web. There is not a hammer raised, a wheel turned, or a shuttle thrown, that is not raised, and turned, and thrown by the sun.

His energy is poured freely into space, but our world is a halting place where this energy is conditioned. Here the Proteus works his spells; the selfsame essence takes a million shapes and hues, and finally dissolves into its primitive and almost formless form. The sun comes to us as heat; he quits us as heat; and between his entrance and departure the multiform powers of our globe appear. They are all special forms of solar power—the molds into which his strength is temporarily poured in passing from its source through infinitude.

【中文阅读】

同移动钟表的手力来自于上紧发条的胳膊一样，所有陆地上的动力皆源于日光。不考虑火山喷发、潮水落潮和流动的话，地球表面的每一种机械运动，动力的每一种表现形式，不论有机体的还是无机体的，不论生物体的还是身体上的，都产生自日光。日光的温暖能使海水保持液态，大气层保持气态，将海洋和大气层搅得天翻地覆的暴风雨，是由太阳的机械力吹动的。他能将河水和冰川“举到”高山上；因此，大瀑布和大雪崩的能量直接源于日光。

雷电也是它发送的力量。燃烧的每一种火以及发出光辉的每一种火焰，散发出原本属于日光的光和热。不幸的是，这些天来，关于战场上的新闻我们耳熟能详，可是每一次由爆炸引起的剧烈震动和放电现象，都是应用或错误应用日光的机械力量的结果。日光能吹响喇叭，促使子弹或炮弹弹射出去。要记住，这不是诗歌，而是严格的机械真理。

正如我指出的那样，日光养育整个植物界，并通过植物界传导给动物；地上生长的百合花是日光光合作用的体现，还有草地的青绿色，以及依大大小小的山丘而生的牛。日光形成肌肉组织，促使血液流动，大脑组织也是日光开发的。日光就在狮子的蹄下，豹子跳跃之间，雄鹰怒吼之上，蛇爬行之中。日光开发了森林，然后再将树木砍到，它的威力能将树连根拔起，锋利如斧。三叶草生长和吐蕾，刈割者挥舞镰刀，也是同样的力作用的结果。

日光从矿脉挖掘矿石；它能让铁转动，它能往板子里钉铆钉，它能将水烧沸，它能拉动火车。它不但能生长棉花，还能织布和编网。在这些过程中，并没有举起过锤子，让轮子转动起来，或者让织机的梭子来回移动，而这一切的始作俑者都是日光。

它的能量随意地大量涌进空间，但是我们的世界是一个能量受限的地方。在这里，变形杆菌动用它的魔力，完全一样的东西可以变幻出一百万种形式和色彩，最终分解为原始的几乎无形的形式。

日光让我们直接感受到的是热量，离开我们时也以体现为热量散去；在它进入和退出之间我们地球出现多种形式的能量。它们都是太阳能的具体形式——它的能量通过无限之物从其源泉暂时转变为具体能量模式。