THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER. 



me now attend to another circumstance, no less 

 admirable than the preceding, and that is, the 

 distinct impression which I have of the shape, 

 colour, and motion, of the multiplicity of objects 

 I am now contemplating, and the small space 

 within which their images are depicted at the 

 bottom of my eye. Could a painter, after a long 

 series of ingenious efforts, delineate the extensive 

 landscape now before me, on a piece of paper not 

 exceeding the size of a silver sixpence, so that 

 every object might be distinctly seen, in its pro 

 per shape and colour, as it now appears when I 

 survey the scene around me, he would be incom 

 parably superior to all the masters of his art that 

 ever went before him. This effect, which far 

 transcends the utmost efforts of human genius, 

 is accomplished in a moment, in millions of in 

 stances, by the hand of nature, or, in other words, 

 by &quot; the finger of God.&quot; All the objects I am now 

 surveying, comprehending an extent of a thousand 

 square miles, are accurately delineated in the bot 

 tom of my eye, on a space less than half an inch 

 in diameter. How delicate, then, must be the 

 strokes of that Divine pencil, which has formed 

 such a picture ! I turn my eyes to the castle of 

 Edinburgh, which appears one of the most con 

 spicuous objects in my field of view. Supposing 

 that portion of it which strikes my eye to be 500 

 feet long, and 90 in height, I find, by calculation, 

 that it occupies only the six hundred thousandth 

 part of the whole landscape, and, consequently, 

 fills in my eye no more than the twelve hundred 

 thousandth part of an inch. I next direct my 

 eye towards the Frith of Forth, and perceive a 

 steamboat sailing between Q,ueensferry and New- 

 haven, I distinctly trace its motion for the space 

 of 40 minutes, at the end of which it reaches the 

 chain pier at Newhaven, having passed over a 

 space of five miles in length, which is but the 

 eighth part of the lineal extent of the landscape 

 in that direction ; and, consequently, occupies, 

 in the picture formed on my retina, a lineal space 

 of only one-sixteenth of an inch in extent. And, 

 if the boat be reckoned about 88 feet in length, 

 its image is only the three hundredth part of this 

 extent ; and of course, fills a space in the eye of 

 only the four thousand eight hundredth part&quot; of a 

 lineal inch. Yet, my perception of the motion 

 of the vessel could be produced only by a corres 

 ponding motion of its image in my eye ; that is, 

 by the gradual motion of a point one 4,800th of 

 an inch in diameter, over a space one-sixteenth 

 of an inch in length. How inconceiveably fine 

 and accurate, then, must be the impression of 

 those strokes which the rays of light, from visible 

 objects, produce on the retina of the eye ! The 

 mind is lost, in wonder when it attempts to trace 

 so exquisite and admirable an effect. 



I take a reflecting telescope, and, through it, 

 view some of the distant parts of the landscape. 

 My wonder is still increased, when I consider 

 &amp;lt;he new direction into which the rays of light are 



bent the crossings and recrossings, and refrao 

 tions, and reflections, that take place between 

 the mirrors and the lenses of the instrument, 

 and the successive images that are formed so 

 that, instead of a scene of confusion, which, 

 previous to experience, might have been expecf- 

 ed from the numerous additional bondings and in 

 tersections of the rays I now perceive hun 

 dreds of objects, with the most perfect distinct 

 ness, which were before invisible. Rays of light 

 from distant and minute objects, which a moment 

 before made no sensible impression on my eye, 

 being collected and variously modified by tiie 

 telescope, now paint a vivid representation of 

 their objects, in their true figures, colours, and 

 positions. 



From a consideration of the innumerable 

 modifications of the rays of light, and of the 

 immense variety of effects they produce in every 

 region of the earth I am led to investigate what 

 proportion of the solar light falls upon our globe, 

 in order to produce so diversified a scene of sub 

 limity and beauty. Supposing the sun s rays to 

 be chiefly confined, in their effects, within the 

 limits of the planetary system, since they diverge 

 in every direction, they must fill a cubical spaee 

 of 3,600,000,000 miles in diameter ; which, con 

 sequently, will contain about 24,000,000,000,- 

 000,000,000.000,000,000 cubical miles; so that 

 an eye, placed in any point of this vast space, 

 would receive a distinct impression from the 

 solar rays. The solidity of the earth is about 

 264,000,000,000 cubical miles, and, therefore, 

 it receives only the I-jth part of 



the light which fills the sphere of the solar sys 

 tem. So that the light which cheers all the in 

 habitants of the world, and unveils such a variety 

 of beautiful and magnificent objects, is nothing 

 more than a single stream of celestial radiance 

 out of ninety thousand billions of similar streams 

 which the great source of light is every moment 

 diffusing throughout the surrounding worlds. 

 But the solar rays are not confined within the 

 bounds of the planetary system ; their influence 

 extends, in every direction, as far as the nearest 

 stars, filling a cubical space at least 40.000,000,- 

 000,000 miles in diameter, and which contains 

 33,500,000.000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,- 

 000,000 000, or thirty-three thousand, five hun 

 dred sextillions of cubical miles. And, were 

 we to institute comparisons and calculations, 

 with respect to the possible variety of effects 

 they might produce throughout this immense 

 region, whole pages might be filled with figures, 

 cyphers, and computations. We might compute 

 how many globes similar to the earth, or any of 

 the larger planets, might be contained within 

 this vast space, allowing several hundreds of 

 cubical miles of empty space around each jjfobe 

 how many myriads of refractions and reflec 

 tions the rays of light would suffer, in regard to 

 the peculiar objects connected with every one 



