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SUBLIMITY OF NATURE.

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as it is complex-if the harmony that sustains it were not the effect of known laws, directed by an overruling, inscrutable, and almighty power. But, thus viewed, the sublime spectacle calls up a solemn feeling of joy; and we thankfully remember that the same beneficent Creator who constructed the heavens, far above out of our sight, has declared that none of his creatures are forgotten before him, and that even the very hairs of our head are all numbered.

III.

THE REGIONS OF SPACE.

It is impossible to look up at the heavens on a clear still night, and not be struck with wonder at the countless multitude of stars, spread over its everlasting sphere in every direction. The mind is reluctant to admit, on any other evidence than absolute demonstration, that all those twinkling orbs are grand and magnificent suns-most probably the centres of whole systems of worlds, as vast and as perfect as our own. Even Religion hesitates, as if it were an impious thing to magnify so marvel

IMMENSITY OF CREATION.

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lously the unbounded power of the Almighty, and show the adorable majesty of the Creator in the immensity of His works.

But what shall we say, if we start at this, when the searching gaze of the telescope reveals a cluster of stars for every single one apparent to the naked eye-when far, far away in the illimitable ocean of space, the galaxy of sparkling gems still presents itself, suspended at a distance which the ordinary medium of figures utterly fails to express. The reflection is indeed tremendous, but still suggests an inspiring moral. We feel elevated by the lesson which, awful and occult though it is, we have been gifted with faculties to acquire. The soul finds an anchor in its own endowments, and we worship and glorify the Being who has given such power unto men.

Probably the first point that attracted the primitive observers of the heavens, in considering their structure and economy, was the remarkable configurations of stars composing the twelve constellations, and which still bear the names they received in the earliest ages of

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THE MILKY WAY.

the world. By them the sphere is divided into distinct regions, which serve, by their welldefined boundaries, to mark the position of any individual star. The stars themselves are arranged in five classes-namely, fixed stars, plural stars, lost stars, periodic stars, and new stars. The other celestial bodies constitute the scarcely visible clusters of the nebulæ, and the dazzling stream of the Milky Way.

The Milky Way forms the grandest feature of the firmament. It It completely encircles the whole fabric of the skies, and sends its light down upon us, according to the best observations, from no less than 18,000,000 of suns. These are planted at various distances, too remote to be more than feebly understood; but their light, the medium of measurement, requires for its transit to our earth periods ranging from ten to a thousand years. Such is the sum of the great truths revealed to us by the two Herschells, who, with a zeal which no obstacle could daunt, have explored every part of the prodigious circle. Sir William Herschell, after accomplishing his famous section, believed

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that he had guaged the Milky Way to its lowest depth, affirming that he could follow a cluster of stars with his telescope, constructed expressly for the investigation, as far back as would require 330,000 years for the transmission of its light. But, presumptuous as it may seem, we must be permitted to doubt this assertion, as the same telescope, in the same masterhand, was not sufficiently powerful to resolve even the nebulæ in Orion. Nor must we forget, that light, our only clue to those unsearchable regions, expands and decomposes in its progress, and, coming from a point so remote, its radiant waves would be dispersed in space. Thus the reflection is forced upon us, that new clusters and systems, whose beaming light will never reach our earth, still throng beyond; and that though it is permitted to man to behold the immensity, he shall never see the bounds of the Creation.

From the Milky Way, we turn to contemplate the fixed stars, which constitute the great landmarks of the heavens. Their motion, on account of the tremendous distance, being

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