i2d 



e_ye a spuce equal to the hurulredtli part of an inch ; and 

 though that mighty- longitude were traversed by the heavenly 

 bodies with the velocity of light — to us, though observed for 

 ages, or perhaps for ever, the amazing tale of their travels 

 might still remain undivulged. 



But the acquisition of facts only prompts us to the acqui- 

 sition of facts yet unknown. The love of novelty ripens into 

 an appetite for knowledge ; and we hunger and thirst to riot 

 without stint in the feast of reason, among new objects, new 

 facts, new truths, in endless variety. And scarcely have we 

 learned that the magnitude of our sun may surpass that of 

 all the heavenly bodies united, which roll around him a* 

 their centre, and that he and his attendant worlds are ad- 

 vancing together through space, than our imagination trans- 

 ports us into the centre of all nature : and there it frames a 

 mighty orb, equal iu mass to the thousands of universes that| 

 are attracted by its gravity, and rdll in majestic splendour 

 around this heaven of heavens — " this throne itself of God." 



Magniticent as this scheme may appear, it must still fall 

 short of the works of the Creator. What He has achieved^ 

 i.t is not for nx;in ii\ the utmost stretcl]; of his imagination to 

 conceive. 



In the several instances to which we have had occasion to 

 recur, we. find that the love of novelty becomes gradually- 

 exalted into a much nobler passion. Nor in any of them 

 can we discover that this desire exists without a preconceived 



