122 LIGHT OF FIXED STARS. 



of the fixed stars each ray of light requires more than 

 six years to traverse the intervening space between it 

 and the earth. Allow the mind to advance to the 

 regions of nebulae, and it will be found that hundreds- of 

 years must glide away during the passage of their radia- 

 tions. Consequently, if one of those masses of matter, or 

 even one of the remote fixed stars, was "blotted out of 

 heaven" to-day, several generations of the finite inhabi- 

 tants of this world would fade out of time before the 

 obliteration could be known to man. Here the immen- 

 sity of space assists us in our conception^ Mmited though 

 it be, of the for-ever of eternity.* 



All the planets of our system shine with reflected 

 light, and the moon, our satellite, also owes her silvery 

 lustre to the sun's radiations. The fixed stars are, in 

 all probability, suns shining from the far distance of 

 space, with their own self- emitted lights. By the pho- 

 tometric researches of Dr. Wollaston, we learn, however, 

 that it would take 20,000 millions of such orbs as Sirius-, 

 the brightest of the fixed stars, to afford as much light 

 as we derive from the sun. The same observer has 

 proved that the brightest effulgence of the full moon is 

 yet 801,072 times less than the luminous power of our 

 solar centre. 



* R suits of Astronomical Observations made during the years 

 1834-38, at the Cape of Good Hope, 8fc. By Sir John Herschel, 

 Bart.,. K.H., D.C.L., F.R.S. " In the contemplation of the infi- 

 nite, in number and in magnitude, the mind ever fails us. We 

 stand appalled before this mighty spectre of boundless space, and 

 faltering reason sinks under the load of its bursting conceptions. 

 But, placed as we are on the great locomotive of our system, des- 

 tined surely to complete at least one round of its ethereal course, 

 and learning that we can make no apparent advance on our side- 

 real journey, we pant with new ardour for that distant bourne 

 which we constantly approach without the possibility of reaching 

 it. In feeling this disappointment, and patiently bearing it, let us 

 endeavour to realise the great truth from which it flows. It cannoL 

 occupy our mind without exalting and improving it." Sir 1). 

 Brewster : North British Review 





