OF INFINITE SPACE. 67 



be a large and bright one ; even startling from its sudden- 

 ness." The simple fact of the visibility of the stars across 

 the mighty expanse which we know to exist between them 

 and ourselves, necessarily gives us high ideas of their di- 

 mensions. Calculations have been made, from a compari- 

 son of the light of the stars with that of the sun, but the 

 result can only be regarded as a rude approximation. Let 

 us consider the case of Sirius, the brightest in the heavens. 

 The light of Sirius, as determined by Sir John Herschel, 

 is 324 times that of an average star of the sixth magni- 

 tude. The ratio of his light to that of the sun has been 

 calculated by Dr. Wollaston to be as 1 to 20,000,000,000. 

 To diminish the light afforded to us by the sun to that of 

 Sirius, the sun must be removed to 141,400 times his pres- 

 ent distance, or to a distance of 13,433,000,000 miles. But 

 no star can be within the range of 19 billions of miles. 

 The fact therefore of Sirius being immensely larger than 

 our sun, from the preceding comparison, is at least certain, 

 though to what extent we know not. Dr. Wollaston as- 

 sumes, upon reasonable grounds, a much lower limit of pos- 

 sible parallax than that which would give Sirius a computed 

 distance of 19 billions of miles ; and hence concludes, that, 

 occupying the sun's place, he would appear 3-7 times larger, 

 and give 13*8 times more light, or be equal to nearly four- 

 teen suns. 



Eudoxus of Cnidus, a contemporary of Plato, about 370 

 years before Christ, sent forth a description of the face of 

 the heavens, containing the names and characters of all the 

 constellations recognized ^n his time. Though this produc- 

 tion has perished, yet a poetical paraphrase of it, written 

 about a century later, is still extant, the work of Aratus, a 

 Cilician, and probably a native of Tarsus. This astronom- 

 ical poem opens with a statement of the dependence of all 

 things upon Jupiter, whose children all men are, and who 

 has given the stars as the guides of agriculture. 





