FIELD AND STUDY 



spaces, and still others without end, like daisies 

 here and there in the broad meadows the vacant 

 spaces are so immense. Or, they are like vessels upon 

 the sea, with a vast waste of waters between. But 

 for all the room, collisions do happen at sea, and col- 

 lisions, no doubt, do happen in the abysses of side- 

 real space. Astronomers see evidences of them at 

 times. The meteors that cut through our atmos- 

 phere, and the meteoric dust, doubtless have their 

 origin in these collisions; the blazing stars, and the 

 paling stars, the same. The relative space occupied 

 by one system is like the palm of one's hand in one's 

 lap compared with the spread of the Western prairie 

 thousands of miles away. The spaces between the 

 stars in Orion's belt, or in the Pleiades, would open 

 to hundreds of millions of miles, if we could ap- 

 proach them. Like fruit on the same vine seem many 

 groups of stars, but the spaces that really separate 

 them overwhelm the mind that tries to grasp their 

 magnitude. 



Ground-room is cheap in heaven; there are oceans 

 of it to spare. The grouping of celestial bodies which 

 we see are as of a flock of birds upon the same 

 branch. 







I never tire of contemplating the earth as it swims 



through space. As I near the time when I know 



these contemplations must cease, it is more and 



more in my thoughts its beauty, its wonder, its 



312 



