THE SUN A SMALL STAR. 571 
ance whatever of time and shading. The evening of the 24th of November proved 
clear and favorable as the day; when the mirror and prism, placed at the same angle, 
were combined and applied to view a Lyre, from five to six hours west of the me- 
ridian, through the same perforations in the strip of brass. 
I suppose the percentage of loss by the prism and mirror would be the same with 
both objects; so that an allowance for the lens only is to be made; which, according 
to the best means of judging in my power, would be about ten per cent. Since we 
found the star and Sun rendered sensibly equal in the above comparisons, it would 
appear that a removal in space to 103,224 times his present distance would reduce 
the light of the Sun to an equality with that of the star in question. This is less 
than half the supposed distance of the nearest star in the whole heavens. 
Coupled as this single determination has been with many preliminary experiments 
and studies, I am prepared to believe that it is very near the truth; though differ- 
ing largely from the photometrical deductions most generally accredited, and most 
frequently quoted by astronomical writers. The earth itself, it is supposed, was once 
a self-luminous body; and there may exist innumerable suns like ours, or even less, 
within the limits of, and interspaced with, those which decorate a nocturnal sky, and 
yet remain unknown to man. This, however, would depend much upon the actual 
diversity existing among them; but that the Maker has chosen variety there, as well 
as in our more immediate surroundings, I see no reason to doubt. The inequality 
of such binary stars as € Herculis and à Cygni, which cannot be caused by unequal 
distances of the components from us, are sufficient to confirm such a conclusion. If 
we suppose the extremes to be many millions to one, as they are in the planets 
of our system, and give due weight to the effect of celestial perspective, we could 
not but expect to find our glorious Sun a small star, if ever adequate means could 
be devised for demonstrating the true relationship between him and the hosts which 
are gleaming from such immeasurable distances beyond. The planet Jupiter is sen- 
sibly the fourth luminary in the heavens, and yet his four satellites are invisible to 
the naked eye, though at precisely the same mean distance from us; and further, 
there exist more than threescore of planets, well known, all of telescopic magnitudes, 
at distances less than that of Jupiter. 
In viewing the Sun reduced 93,840 times, in the dark chamber, I could have stated 
that it was seen in contrast with a darkness deeper than that of any nocturnal sky, 
which would favor the supposition that the difference in light between that and 
a Lyre might be even less than 10,655,194,176 to 1; but I have no desire to differ 
more than I feel obliged to do from the teachings of those who have preceded me 
in this interesting field of research. + 
