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James McDonald Chaney (1831-1909) was a Presbyterian minister best-known for authoring William the Baptist. This fictional dialogue between an immersionist and a Presbyterian minister remains a classic presentation of the Biblical view of baptism.
However, Chaney was a man of varied interests. Besides William the Baptist and its sequel, Agnes, Daughter of William the Baptist, or The Young Theologian, he wrote other works of science fiction, such as Poliopolis and Polioland, or A Trip to the North Pole (1900) and Mac or Mary, or The Young Scientists (1900) [these works are not yet available at Log College Press, although the former can be read online here].
Moreover - in the vein of John Calvin who wrote “Let us mark well Job's intent here is to teach us to be astronomers, so far as our capacity will bear… [for] God intends to make us astronomers, so far as each man’s capacity will bear it” (Sermon 33 on Job 9:7-15) - Chaney invented a small-scale planetarium. It is described for us here in an 1896 publication.
Source: The Observer (March 1896), p. 123.
A “greatly improved” edition of this planetarium is pictured in another journal the following year.
Source: Popular Science (January 1897), p. vi.
It is not known by this writer whether any of Chaney’s planetariums still exist. But his love of science remains an inspiration to those who heed the counsel of Ovid, as quoted by John Calvin: “While other animals look downwards towards the earth, he gave to man a lofty face, and bade him look at heaven, and lift up his countenance erect towards the stars” (Calvin’s commentary on Isaiah 40:26).
