172 



LECTURES. 



cised, can form no adequate idea of the size of this magnificent luminary 

 of the day. Its surface occupies an area greater than that of twice ten 

 thousand oceans, each larger than the Pacific. And this surface is 

 tossed into waves of intense brilliancy, beneath which the Himalayas 

 would be buried and "melt with fervent heat;" and whether we 

 regard him as issuing from the chambers of the east, he commences 

 like a giant to run his course ; or whether in unveiled meridian splen- 

 dor, he almost seems to pause a moment to gaze upon a world rejoicing 

 in his presence, or enwrapped in robes of surpassing magnificence he 

 sinks to rest at night ; under any and all these points of view, he is 

 at once the fitting representative and chosen emblem of all that is 

 good and beautiful. 



From the size of the sun we proceed, in the next place, to that of 

 the diameter of the earth's orbit. But I would observe, in passing, 

 that the relative size of most of the planets is represented in this 

 diagram. Thus, we have that of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, 

 Saturn, &c. The moon is represented by a ball, the size of a pea, at 



Upper line — 1. Mercury. 2. Venus. 3. Earth. 4. Mars. 5. Moon. 6. Jupiter. 

 Lower line — 7. Saturn and the three largest of his satellites. 8. Uranus, with the two 

 large satellites. 9. Neptune, with his satellites. 



the place to which I now point, almost touching the sun. That rep- 

 resents the comparative size of the moon. The distance from the 

 centre to the surface of the sun is one and two-thirds the distance of 

 the moon from the earth, which itself is thirty diameters of the earth. 



