LECTURE ON THE VASTNESS OF THE VISIBLE CREATION. 



BY PROFESSOR STEPHEN ALEXANDER OF THE COLLEGEj OF NEW JERSEY. 



My object on this occasion is, in itself, a very simple one. I desire to 

 give some illustrations of the vastness of the visible creation, as made 

 known by modern astronomy. I say emphatically modern astroDomy, 

 for some knowledge of this science is probably nearly as old as 

 the world itself. Almost from the first issuing of the great decree 

 that the sun and moon should serve for signs, and for seasons, and for 

 days, and for years, men have been careful to observe the heavens ; 

 for the Great Creator had so written that decree upon the heavens 

 themselves that men have not been slow to read the lesson thus visi- 

 bly inculcated, I would observe, moreover, that the objects of astro- 

 nomical research, with very trifling exceptions, are, of all others, with 

 which we have to do, the most unalterable. It is almost exactly true 

 that the very constellations which we now see were gazed upon by the 

 antedeluvian patriarchs ; were in full view of Noah when the great 

 flood of waters was upon the earth ; met the upturned eye of Abraham 

 when he was led out by Divine command to behold in them the sym- 

 bol of the promise ; guided the ancient Greeks in navigation, and 

 still serve the modern astronomer as so many guide-points in the 

 heavens. 



My purpose, as already indicated, is to illustrate, not to demonstrate. 

 To accomplish the latter in a single lecture would not be practicable ; 

 and certainly of astronomy, above all other sciences, it is true that it 

 may throw itself on its character for veracity when it requests that its 

 conclusions should be received as reliable. A science which can trace 

 a comet in its course, where no eye has had even a telescopic view of 

 it for three-quarters of a century, and bring it back by computation 

 correctly almost to a day, or which can predict an eclipse a century 

 hence as readily as one that will occur this year, and to whose accu- 

 racy experience throughout bears such abundant testimony — such a 

 science may fearlessly throw itself on its character for veracity. Be- 

 fore I proceed, however, to elucidate the subject, let me call attention 

 for a moment to an old-fashioned problem, whose bearings upon the 

 subject will, I trust, be presently seen. I allude to the problem of the 

 price of a horse, in which a farthing was allowed for the first nail in his 

 shoes, two for the second, four for the third, and so on. There were 

 thirty-two nails in all, and yet, from the small beginning of a farthing, 

 owing to this doubling thirty-one times, the value of the horse was only 

 to be computed in millions of pounds. Now, with reference to the 

 subject of astronomy, we shall have occasion to see that, though com- 

 mencing with a comparatively moderate unit, we shall advance upon 

 a similar plan, but much more rapidly. Keeping, then, in view the 

 illustration already given, you will at once see how gigantic, after a 

 very few steps, must be the last result compared with the first. Our 

 first object to-night will be to gain some idea of the size of the earth 

 itself, on which we stand. The half diameter of the earth is the 



