332 The Construction of the Heavens. [July, 
be required for him to gather in from its outermost parts 
the material over which his sway extends, is in zfs turn 
reduced to mere nothingness by comparison with the 
scheme of suns of which our sun is a member. Then 
lastly—so far as human researches are concerned, but by no 
means lastly in real truth—let us picture to ourselves 
that the scheme of stars to which our sun belongs is but one 
of the atoms, so to speak, of which the frame of the 
sidereal system is built. We can speak of these things, but 
who shall understand them: who shall form adequate con- 
ceptions respecting them? The astronomer can spread out 
the figures which represent these wonders, but there his 
power ceases; he can neither conceive them himself nor 
render them conceivable by others. I know not, then, how I 
can more fitly draw my subject to a conclusion than by 
quoting that wonderful dream in which the German poet 
presents the feebleness of human conceptions in the pre- 
sence of the infinite wonders of the universe. It may, 
indeed, truly be said, that on the one hand astronomical dis- 
coveries have made this dream a reality, while on the other, 
if we accept as well what the poet’s words suggest as what 
they actually present, they exhibit the truest picture which 
words can convey of that universe which nevertheless is 
unpicturable :— 
‘““God called up from dreams a man into the ves- 
tibule of heaven, saying, ‘Come thou hither, and see 
the glory of my house.’ And to the servants that stood 
around his throne he said, ‘Take him and remove from 
him his robes of flesh, cleanse his vision, and put a new 
breath into his nostrils: only touch not with any change 
his human heart, the heart that weeps and trembles.’ It 
was done: and with a mighty angel for his guide, the man 
stood ready for his infinite voyage; and from the terraces of 
heaven, without sound or farewell, at once they sailed away 
into endless space. Sometimes with the solemn flight 
of angel wings they fled through Zaharas of darkness, 
through wildernesses of death, that divided the worlds 
of life; sometimes they swept over frontiers that were 
quickening under prophetic motions from God. Then, 
from a distance that is counted only in heaven, light 
dawned for a time through a shapeless film; by unutterable 
pace the light swept to them, they by unutterable pace 
to the light. In a moment the rushing of planets was upon 
them ; in a moment the blazing of suns was around them. 
“Then came eternities of twilight that revealed but were 
not revealed. On the right hand and on the left towered 
