the governing principle of the universe, and such it should remain for ever and ever.

We now see the association that exists between science and religion, and how one testifies, with resistless force, to the divine authority of the other. We have arrived at the primary elemental truth-the earth moves; and we have now to consider, as briefly as the subject will permit, what are the various relations of this capacious globe, and how it is connected with the sidereal heavens. We may

then view it in its structure, its geological history, its ever-changing phenomena, its vegetation, and its inhabitants.

THE EMPIRE OF THE SUN.

THE Earth is one of a group of orbs, which circle round the sun, and hence are called the

"Solar System." The cluster consists of twenty-five primary orbs, or planets, so named from their perceptible motion, the term signifying "wanderers"-at least twenty secondary planets, or moons, which revolve round the larger masses, a number of aerolites, familiarly designated shooting stars," and a host of comets. Three of the primary planets, just distinguished by names, were discovered during the present year (1852); one by Signor Gasparo of Naples; the others by Mr. Hind. Astro

include in the system a ring of vaporous matter, lying in an apparently pyramidal form, beyond the orbit of the earth, and which bears the name of the Zodiacal Light. The whole forms. a thin stratum in the heavens, on the plane of the Milky Way.

The

The control of the vast group is vested in the sun, which, by unerring laws, at once sustains it in space, and holds it in complete subjection. From this mighty orb the cluster is overlooked, and stability carried, on the wings of light, to its remotest frontier. The aspect of the sun accords with such supremacy of position, and is unrivalled in magnitude, in lustre, and in majesty. immeasurable sphere of heaven, in which our entire system is less than a span, seems his exclusive domain; and when his glorious effulgence bursts forth, all other luminaries disappear. Throughout the broad expanse of his stupendous empire, if we may judge from the effect visible to ourselves, he exercises the same benignant, kindly, and exhilarating influence. To our Earth he extends

the genial blessings of light, warmth, and everrecurring fruitfulness. His beams, spreading from furthest East to the remote West, shed unmingled gladness over the face of nature, and cover her naked form with a rich mantle of vegetation. He clothes the stately forest with foliage, and carpets the rugged ground with verdure and flowers. The waters sparkle under his light; and the refreshing shower, exhaled by his rays, descends to cool and fertilize the earth. To him we owe the successive and charming variety of the seasons, which bring us, first, the snows of winter, driven onward by the fierce blasts of the North; then, in regular and unbroken order, the promise and lovely blush of spring, the glorious fulness of summer, and the mellow tints of more sober autumn. Through all he is alike ascendant, the monarch of the skies.

This sovereign rule very soon attracted the attention of mankind, and led them to regard the sun with peculiar veneration. Few generations had passed before his attributes and his physical supremacy were recognised, and

FIRE WORSHIPPERS.

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in the estimation of the infant world, he was elevated into a god. The renowned sect of the Magians, or fire-worshippers, whose tenets prevailed over a large portion of the East, were his earliest adorers, and their faith was the most primitive of antiquity. They conceived the world to be the work of an eternal God, who combined in himself the opposite principles of good and evil; and that the sun, hung in the highest sphere of heaven, was his flame-girt throne, whence his glance surveyed the universe. Gradually the sun itself became the object of their worship, and at length they even extended their adoration to fire, which, adopting the opinion then universal, they supposed to be the material of the guardian orb, and consequently sacred and divine.

Although the self-luminous stars which so thickly stud the heavens, further than the eye can penetrate, are possibly but the centres of numberless other systems-beacons in the sky to worlds as perfect and as vast as our own, but far removed from human observation our sun, whose every movement has been so