NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 99 



the remotest reach of the great telescopes, though the great and the 

 small might be there, it would be only the great that we should see ; 

 and those only as the most minute specks of light that can be im- 

 agined. 



The vast number of smaller, or more moderate lights, like our sun, 

 which may remain concealed among those of extraordinary splendor, 

 }-et so remote as only just sensibly to impress our vision when aided to 

 the utmost that human skill can do, will be better understood when we 

 consider the ratio in which an increase of radius increases the cubic 

 contents of a sphere. Upon the outer limits of such a sphere as would 

 embrace the great mass of telescopic stars, a moderate depth, extended 

 round the whole, would afford an immense amount of room for stars of 

 all imaginable sizes. I desire to be particularly understood, that it is 

 in those very remote regions, or beyond where any telescope, now in 

 use, can possibly show stars of the average, or smaller sizes, that we 

 may look for the modification introduced, by such supposed diversities, 

 into the investigation of this doctrine of an absorbing medium. Were 

 all the stars in existence of one pattern, one uniform brightness, scat- 

 tered broadcast through all space, I think the great telescopes would 

 count up more nearly the numbers belonging theoretically to their 

 powers than they now do. However, with these suggestions, I leave 

 this interesting branch of my subject for the present. 



The ratio, in which the light from a celestial object diminishes with 

 an increase of distance, needs no explaining; and I will close by 

 briefly giving, in tabular form, my own results, with those published by 

 Mr. Bond oi'the Harvard College Observatory, and by Dr. Wollaston, 

 in the Transactions of the Royal Society of London, of comparisons be- 

 tween the bright'star a Lyra3 and the sun. 



To bring the magnitude of our sun to an equality with that of this 

 star, his distance would require to be increased, according to 



Wollaston, nearly 425,000 times. 



Bond, 155,000 " 



Clark, 102,000 " 



"She light received from these luminaries differs, according to 



Wollaston, as 180,000,000,000 to 1 



Bond, 24,000,000,000 " 



Clark, 10,400,000,000 " 



I have alluded to the light in the atmosphere about the sun, as giv- 

 ing an increase to his photometrical force, though I am aware that 

 such must be the case with a star ; and it must bear the same propor- 

 tion to the star's light that it bears to the sun's light. The difference, 

 in effect is here : we have several thousand stars playing into our at- 

 mosphere at once, but only one sun. If the distances imputed to 

 several of the stars, from parallax, can be true, I am sure those having 

 the taste, talent, and leisure, necessary for following up photometrical 

 researches with efficiency, cannot fail to find our glorious luminary a 

 very small star ; and to the human understanding, thus enlightened, 

 more than ever must the heavens declare the glory" of God. 



