1856.] The Immensity of the Universe. 591 



The space in which the system composing the universe moves is il- 

 limitable. Were we to attempt to assign its limits, what would we im- 

 agine to be beyond ? The number of worlds is infinitely great ; it is 

 inexpressible, indeed, in numbers. A ray of light traverses 180,000 

 miles in a second of time. A year comprises millions of seconds, 

 yet there are fixed stars so immeasurably distant, that their light 

 would require, millions of years to reach our eyes. We are acquaint- 

 ed with animals possessing teeth, and organs of motion and digestion, 

 which are wholly invisible to the naked eye. Other animals exist, 

 which, if measurable, would be found many thousands of times smal- 

 ler, which, nevertheless, possess the same apparatus. These crea- 

 tures, in the same manner as the larger animals, take nourishment, 

 and are propagated by means of ova, which must, consequently, be 

 again many hundreds of times smaller than their own bodies. It 

 is only because our organs of vision are imperfect, that we do not 

 perceive creatures a million of times smaller than those. What va- 

 riety and what infinite gradations do the constituents of our globe 

 present to us in their properties and their conditions ! There are 

 bodies which are twenty times heavier than an equal body of water ; 

 there are others which are ten thousand times lighter, the ultimate 

 particles of which can not be known by the most powerful micro- 

 scopes. Finally, we have starlight — that wonderful messenger which 

 brings us daily intelligence of the continued existence of numberless 

 worlds, the expression of an immaterial essence which no longer 

 obeys the law of gravitation, and yet manifests itself to our senses 

 by innumerable efi'ects. Even the light of the sun — with the arrival 

 of which upon earth, inanimate nature receives light and motion — 

 we cleave asunder into rays, which, without any pov/er of illumina- 

 tion, produce the most important alterations and decompositions in 

 organic nature. We separate from light certain rays, which exhibit 

 among themselves a diversity as great as exists among colors. But 

 nowhere do we observe either a beoinninir or an end. 



A Farmer returning home in his wagon, after delivering a load 

 of corn, is a more certain sign of national prosperity, than a noble- 

 man riding in his chariot to the opera. 



