178 THE WHOLE AND ITS PAKTS. 



little more defined. With a still larger telescope, it appears 

 still more definite ; and so he goes on increasing his optical 

 power, until the same object is resolved into myriads of mi- 

 nute stars, which appear like particles of diamond dust sprinkled 

 upon the blue concave. By another increase of power, these 

 stars are made to exhibit appearances of internal systematic 

 arrangement. This is as far as the most powerful telescopes 

 will go ; but suppose that he had the ability to augment his 

 optical power indefinitely ; each of those stars, which at first 

 appeared only as a shining point, may soon be made to glow 

 as a resplendent sun, revealing a multitude of planets swim- 

 ming in the sea of light by which it is surrounded. He now 

 singles out one of those planetary globes as the special object 

 of inspection ; and as, by our imagined possibilities, the visual 

 power is enhanced through other successive degrees, the 

 forests, the fields, the streams, the trees, the flowers, and even 

 the insects, which may exist upon the surface of that planet, 

 or the animalcules which sport in its stagnant waters, would 

 successively come into view. Now, be it remarked, that all 

 these successive particularizations, even down to ultimate mi- 

 nutiae, are involved in that faint luminous spot, which, as a 

 most comprehensive general, is first seen by the naked eye in 

 the remote heavens. 



Our process of synthetical investigation has been similar to 

 that just supposed, we having the advantage of the actual 

 presence and personal inspection of the minutiae included in 

 the general subject of our thoughts. With a mental telescope 

 we have penetrated, not into the distance of space, but into 

 the corresponding distance of time, and beheld the universe in 

 the aspect of one common nebulous mass. By following the 

 natural history of this one general mass through its suc- 

 cessive approximations to our own period, we have seen it 



