119 



THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER. 



the magnifying powers of the telescope are, the 

 anore numerous those celestial orbs appear; 

 eaving us no room to doubt, that countless 

 myriads more lie hid in the distant regions of 

 creation, far beyond the reach of the finest glasses 

 that can be constructed by human skill, and 

 which are known only to Him &quot; who counts 

 the number of the stars, and calls them by their 

 names.&quot; 



In short, the telescope may be considered as 

 serving the purpose of a vehicle for conveying 

 us to the distant regions of space. We would 

 consider it as a wonderful achievement, could 

 we transport ourselves two hundred thousand 

 miles from the earth, in the direction of the 

 moon, in order to take a nearer view of that 

 celestial orb. But this instrument enables us 

 to take a much nearer inspection of that planet, 

 than if we had actually surmounted the force of 

 gravitation, traversed the voids of space, and 

 left the earth 230,000 miles behind us. For, 

 supposing such a journey to be accomplished, 

 we should still be ten thousand miles distant 

 from that orb. But a telescope which magnifies 

 objects 240 times, can carry our views within 

 one thousand miles of the moon ; and a tele 

 scope, such as Dr. Herschel s 40 feet reflector, 

 which magnifies 6000 times, would enable us to 

 view the mountains and vales of the rnoon, as 

 if we were transported to a point about 40 miles 

 from her surface.* We can view the magnifi 

 cent system of the planet Saturn, by means of 

 this instrument, as distinctly, as if we had per 

 formed a journey eight hundred millions of miles 

 in the direction of that globe, which at the rate 

 of 50 miles an hour, would require a period of 

 more than eighteen hundred years to accomplish. 

 By the telescope, we can contemplate the region 

 of the fixed stars, their arrangement into sys 

 tems, and their immense numbers, with the 

 same distinctness and amplitude of view, as if 



Though the highest magnifying power of Dr. 

 Herschel s large telescope was estimated at six- 

 thousand times, yet it does not appear that the doc 

 tor ever applied this power with success, when 

 viewing the moon and the planets. The deficiency 

 of light, when using so high a power, would ren 

 der the view of these objects less satisfactory than 

 when viewed with a power of one or two thousand 

 times. Still, it is quite certain, that if any portions 

 of the moon s surface were viewed through an in- 

 gtrument of such a power, they would appear as 

 large, (but not nearly so bright and distinct) as if 

 we were placed about 40 miles distant from that 

 body. The enlargement of the angle of vision, in 

 this case, or, the apparent distance at which the 

 moon would be contemplated, is found by dividing 

 ttie moon s distance 240,000 miles by 6000, the mag 

 nifying power of the telescope, which produces a 

 quotient of 40 the number of miles at which the 

 moon would appear to be placed from the eye of the 

 observer. Dr. Herschel appears to have used the 

 highest power of his telescopes, only, or chiefly, 

 when viewing some very minute objects in the re 

 gion of the stars. The powers he generally used, 

 and with which he made most of his discoveries 

 were, 227, 460, 754, 932, and occasionally 2010, 3)68, 

 and 6450, when inspecting double and triple stars, 

 and the more distant nebula;. 



we had actually taken a flight of ten hundiea 

 thousand millions of miles into those unexplored 

 and unexplorable regions, which could not be 

 accomplished in several millions of years, though 

 our motion were as rapid as a ball projected from 

 a loaded cannon. We would justly considei it 

 as a noble endowment for enabling us to take an 

 extensive survey of the works of God, if we had 

 the faculty of transporting ourselves to such im 

 mense distances from the sphere we now occupy 

 but, by means of the telescopic tube, we may 

 take nearly the same ample views of the domi 

 nions of the Creator, without stirring a foot from 

 the limits of our terrestrial abode. This instru 

 ment may, therefore, be considered as a provi 

 dential gift, bestowed upon mankind, to serve, 

 in the mean time, as a temporary substitute for 

 those powers of rapid flight with which the 

 seraphim are endowed, and for those superior 

 faculties of motion with which man himself may 

 be invested, when he arrives at the summit ol 

 moral perfection.* 



The Microscope. The microscope is another 

 instrument constructed on similar principles, 

 which has greatly expanded our views of the 

 &quot; manifold wisdom of God.&quot; This instrument, 

 which discovers to us small objects, invisible to 

 the naked eye, was invented soon after the 

 invention and improvement of the telescope. By 

 means of this optical contrivance, we peceive a 

 variety of wonders in almost every object in the 

 animal, the vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms. 

 We perceive that every particle of matter, how 

 ever minute, has a determinate form that the 

 very scales of the skin of a haddock are all beauti 

 fully interwoven and variegated, like pieces of 

 net-work, which no art can imitate that the 

 points of the prickles of vegetables, though mag 

 nified a thousand times, appear as sharp and 

 well polished as to the naked eye that every 

 particle of the dust on the butterfly s wing is a 

 beautiful and regularly organized feather that 

 every hair of our head is a hollow tube, with 

 bulbs and roots, furnished with a variety of 

 threads or filaments and that the pores in our 

 skin, through which the sweat and perspiration 

 flow, are so numerous and minute, that a grain 

 of sand would cover a hundred and twenty-five 

 thousand of them. We perceive animated beings 

 in certain liquids, so small, that fifty thousand of 

 them would not equal the size of a mite ; and 

 yet each of these creatures is furnished with a 

 mouth, eyes, stomach, blood-vessels, and other 

 organs for the performance of animal functions. 

 In a stagnant pool which is covered with a 

 greenish scum during the summer months, every 

 drop of the water is found to be a world teeming 

 with thousands of inhabitants. The mouldy 

 substance which usually adheres to damp bodies 

 exhibits a forest of trees and plants, where the 

 branches, leaves, and fruit, can be plainly dis- 

 * See Appendix, Nfr vj. 



