HORIZON LINES 



Milky Way be found in another part of the heavens. 

 When viewed from the extreme points in space one 

 hundred and eighty millions of miles apart which the 

 earth's orbit around the sun gives us,the fixed stars re- 

 main fixed, they show little or no parallax. To touch 

 but the skirts of the Infinite exhausts our powers. 



The geological changes upon the surface of this 

 earth — mere mustard-seed in space that it is — 

 are on such a scale of time that only an unfaltering 

 scientific faith can take them in. The mountains 

 and the valleys seem eternal, but to the eye of the 

 geologist they are as flitting as the summer clouds. 

 Look upon a Catskill landscape with its long, flow- 

 ing mountain-lines curving over summits three or 

 four thousand feet high, and its deep, broad, cradle- 

 like valleys checkered with fertile farms and home- 

 steads, and try to think of it as all the work of the 

 slow and gentle rains and snows — geologic time 

 stroking them almost as gently as a mother caresses 

 her baby. Tried by human standards we live in a 

 stable universe; change stops with the hills and the 

 stars; but, tried by geologic and astronomic stand- 

 ards, it is as unsubstantial as the snows of winter or 

 the dews of summer. Perpetual flux and transition 

 mark even the stars in their courses. Astronomers 

 calculate the weight of the earth in terms of its own 

 tons, something like six sextillion tons, but in and of 

 itself it weighs nothing; its weight is the pull of 

 some other body, in itself pound balances pound; it 



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