90 ASTRONOMY. ^ 



occasion of such unworthy fears, but to forewarn men o^j 

 their occurrence ; and by predicting the time, place, and  

 circumstances of the phenomenon, to disarm it of its terror. \ 



There is, however, nothing perhaps so surprising in this 

 science, as that it makes us acquainted with methods, by^ 

 which we can survey those bright fields on which it is em-y 

 ployed, and apply our own familiar measures to the pathsl 

 which are there traced, and to the bodies that trace them ; ; 

 that we can estimate the form, and dimensions, and inequa- ] 

 lities of objects so immense, and so far removed from the ; 

 little scene of our labours. What would be the astonish- 

 ment of an inhabitant of one of those bodies, of Jupiter for ] 

 instance, to find that, by means of instruments of a few feet| 

 in length, and certain figures and characters still smaller, = 

 all of our own invention, we had succeeded in determining^ 

 the magnitude and weight of this great planet, the length of i 

 its days and nights, and the variety of its seasons, that we had J 

 watched the motions of its moons, calculated their eclipses, and  

 applied them to important domestic purposes ? What would >; 

 be our astonishment to learn, that an insect, one of those for \ 

 instance which serve sometimes to illuminate the waters of \ 

 the ocean, though confined by the exercise of its proper j 

 organs and locomotive powers, to the sphere of a few inches, | 

 had, by artificial aids of its own contriving, been able to i 

 extend its sphere of observation to the huge monsters that ; 

 move about it ; that it had even attempted, not altogether '■ 

 without success, to fathom the depth of the abyss, in which ^ 

 it occupies so insignificant a place, and to number the beings ' 

 it contains ? ^ 



The first use of the telescope, about the commencement j 

 of the seventeenth century, opened a new and most brilliant | 

 era in the science of astronomy. The defect of the natural | 

 organ with respect to the objects of this science had never ; 

 been recognised. We had gazed upon them without com- - 

 prehending what we saw. We had cast a vacant eye over 

 the splendid pages of this volume, as children amuse them- 

 selves with a book which they are unable to read. We had 

 caught here and there a capital letter, or a picture, but we 

 had failed to distinguish those smaller characters on which the 

 sense of the whole depended. It is not the least of the ad- 

 vantages of this wonderful instrument, that it has taught us 

 the importance of those means of improvement and enjoy- 



