82 SCENERY IN A PATCH 



therefore, that our firmament is but one of a series : one of 

 the smaller chambers in the great mansion of the universe. 

 All the stars and constellations that shine in the midnight 

 sky, constitute a stellar scheme which is but a unit of a 

 countless number. As seen from the faint objects we dis- 

 cern in the side of Hercules and the sword-handle of Per- 

 seus, our whole sphere would be compressed into a small 

 streak of light, and appear in space like a snow flake in our 

 atmosphere ! 



" Distrusting the power of the Refracting Telescope," 

 says Professor Mitchell, " Lord Rosse determined to give 

 his energies to the construction of a Reflecting Telescope, 

 that would enable him to make grander discoveries than had 

 hitherto been made. He wanted an instrument that would 

 burst through the barriers that had hitherto bounded human 

 vision ; that would show him what lay in the vast deep 

 beyond. I need not detail to you the construction of this 

 mighty instrument. Instead of limiting it to four feet 

 in diameter, as Herschel did, he has given his speculum six 

 feet, with a focal distance of sixty feet. The power of this 

 instrument is almost incredible. Such is its capacity that 

 if a star of the first magnitude were removed to such a 

 distance that its light would be sixty thousand years in 

 traveling to the earth } this telescope would reveal it ; were 

 it removed so far that its light would be three millions of 

 years in reaching us, this telescope would show it to the 

 human eye. With such an instrument, then it is not won- 

 derful that great discoveries should be made. It has but 

 been pointed to the heavens ; we have only entered upon the 

 beginning of its career, but it has already accomplished 

 mighty things. There are scattered throughout the heav- 

 ens objects nebulous in their appearance which would not 

 yield up their character to the instruments heretofore em- 

 ployed; but this instrument resolves them completely. 

 Among the different objects that have been subjected to its 



