THE VISIBLE CREATION. 171 



remark, that I give you here, are most of them originally devised, and 

 the results in all cases verified hy actual computation. We could not 

 pass over the surface of the earth and take a good look at the surface 

 at a more rapid rate than that of twenty square miles a day, and yet 

 this would occupy us a period of 27,090 years. To view that portion 

 of the earth which is inhabited, if we should estimate it at but one- 

 fourth of the whole, would, at the same rate of progress, require 6,750 

 years ; or to view the habitable portion of the surface of the earth would 

 require, in the case of the same individual, provided he could live so 

 long, more than the time from the creation of man down to the present 

 day to walk. If the surface of the earth be so large, its capacity, of 

 course^ compared with an ordinary standard, will be found to be to it 

 in a still greater ratio. The largest tangible measure, as I have said, 

 is the largest mountain on the earth's surface. Suppose such a moun- 

 tain to be regularly shaped, and to have a diameter of twenty miles at 

 the base, it would then contain 576 cubic or solid miles of material. 

 Make use of that huge body as the unit of measurement of the bulk of 

 the earth, and the bulk of the earth would contain it 450,000,000 of 

 times, and even more. How can we appreciate so large a number? 

 We find it even difficult to form an idea how large a number a mil- 

 lion is ; we may obtain some idea of the vastness of numbers, such as 

 those in quf^stion, by ascertaining the time required to count them. 

 If, then, you should count at the rate of two per second, continuing the 

 work for eight hours a day, twenty-one years and five months would be 

 spent in counting the number which expresses the bulk of the earth 

 in comparison with that of the mountain. Perhaps I do not exag- 

 gerate the matter when I say, that the most accurate idea of a bulk so 

 vast may be obtained by regarding the image which we frame to our- 

 selves when we attempt to form an idea of infinite space. As we 

 cannot grasp infinity this image must have a dim and misty outline ; 

 but it may be that it approaches more nearly than anything else to 

 presenting an adequate idea of the actual size of the earth. 



Having obtained some idea of the size of the earth let us proceed a step 

 further, not in the way of doubling, but much faster. In so doing we 

 next notice the distance of the earth from the moon, which is represented 

 here on a much smaller scale than that employed in our first figure. 

 The distance from the centre of the earth to the centre of the moon is 

 about sixty radii, or thirty diameters of the earth. The magnificent 

 appendage of Saturn compares very well in size with this, its diame- 

 ter being about twenty times that of the earth. We pass from this to 

 the diameter of the sun, which is about one hundred and twelve times 

 that of the earth, and, of course, the surface is more than ten thou- 

 sand times the surface of the earth. The scale we have at first adopted 

 we should find to be inadequate to compare the earth with the sun. 

 No ordinary apartment could contain the necessary illustration. The 

 scale has therefore been reduced a thousand times, instead of being 

 that of a hundred miles to a foot. This diagram is constituted on a 

 scale of 100,000 miles to a foot. On it the earth has shrunk down to 

 3^0*0 of an inch in diameter. This, then, [pointing to the figure,] is 

 the relative size of the sun, 112 diameters of the earth being equal to 

 tbe diameter of the sun. The liveliest imagination^ however exer- 



