re 
x THE STARRY HEAVENS 429 
all of course preceded, and preceded again 
by another incalculable period, the very com- 
mencement of that geological history which 
itself indicates a lapse of time greater than 
human imagination can realise. | 
Thus, then, however far we penetrate in 
time or in space, we find ourselves surrounded 
by mystery. Just as in time we can form no 
idea of a commencement, no anticipation of 
an end, so space also extends around us, 
boundless in all directions. Our little Earth 
revolves round the mighty Sun; the Sun 
itself and the whole solar system are moving 
with inconceivable velocity towards a point 
in the constellation of Hercules; together 
with all the nearer stars it forms a cluster 
in the heavens, which appears to our eyes as 
the Milky Way ; while outside our star cluster. 
again are innumerable others, which far trans- 
cend, alike in magnitude, in grandeur, and 
in distance, the feeble powers of our finite 
imagination. 
