26 The Universe. 



excited the particular attention of the hu- 

 man species, and have obtained the ado- 

 ration of all those nations which have not 

 been blessed with revelation. 



Those who are not accustomed to as- 

 tronomical calculation, will be surprized 

 at the real magnitude of this luminary ; 

 \vhich, on account of its distance from us, 

 appears to the eye not much larger than 

 the moon, which is only an attendant on 

 our earth. When looking at the sun, 

 we are viewing a globe, whose diameter 

 is 890,000 English miles ; whereas the 

 earth is no more in diameter than 7,97O 

 miles : so that the sun is about 1,392,500 

 times bigger than the earth. Thus as it 

 is the fountain of light and heat to all the 

 planets, so it also far surpasses them in 

 its bulk. 



. The sun has several spots, which are 

 visible on its surface. These spots were 

 entirely unknown before the invention of 

 telescopes, though they are sometimes 

 of sufficient magnitude to be discerned by 

 the naked eye. There is a great variety 

 in their magnitudes ; some have been so 

 large, as by computation to be capable of 

 covering the continents of Asia and Af* 



