THE THEATRES.
ORRERIES and Oratorios were in days of yore the signs of Lent in the theatrical world ; but sacred music has found a more appropriate abode in Exeter Hall ; and, since the involuntary observance of fast-days by players has ceased to be enforced by law, scenic astronomy is compelled to seek for an unappropriated stage. This is not so great a difficulty, in the present state of theatres, as the finding of an " audience fit though few " : the fewness is indisputable, but the fitness is doubtful. May not this be in part the fault of the lecturer ? Mr. C. H. Aromas has taken the Lyceum, where he exhibits his orrery and delivers a lecture on astronomy on Wednesdays and Fridays during Lent, and oftener during Passion-week. His apparatus is extensive, and demonstra- tive; the illuminated diagrams are clear to the mind and attractive to the eye; and the orrery itself affords a tangible notion of the relative sizes and movements of the planets in our solar system. Mr. ADAMS himself, we believe, is thoroughly versed in the science on which he discourses : with a camphine lamp for the Sun and two white balls for Moon aud Earth, he exemplifies the phmnomena of the Moon's phases and eclipses as satisfactorily as his transparent apparatus does the succession of seasons and fluctuations of tides. But the oral disqui- sition throws no light upon the scenic illustrations : it rather ob- scures their clearness. The pictures are bright and beautiful ; the text is dark and dull : the explanations are conveyed in terms unintelligible to all but those who have as much knowledge of astronomy as the lec- turer professes to impart. We could not but fancy that to the majority of the audience assembled on Wednesday night the terms "opposition" and " conjunction " had more significance in a Parliamentary than an astronomical sense ; and that "nodes "were more intimately associated with disease of the shin-bone than with planetary movement. It is a common mistake with scientific men to suppose their hearers to be as familiar as themselves with technical phraseology : but if Mr. Aram would only assume his auditory to be completely ignorant of astronomy —no very outrageous assumption, since it is not composed altogether of juvenile sages and polytechnic philosophers—and would condeseentlto be more simple and explicit in his facts and figures, and more familiar in his manner of stating and explaining them, his success would be much greater.
Previous page
