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uninstructed regard the tiny lights which twinkle 

 there, as so many lamps, suspended from the 

 azure vault to enlighten and cheer their earthly 

 abode. And, so far as their knowledge extends, 

 they think truly. But he who studies nature, 

 learns that this beneficent provision, so far from 

 being the sole object of Divine intelligence, is 

 one of the least astonishing of those wonders of 

 power, and of wisdom, and of goodness, which 

 astronomy displays. He finds himself placed in 

 a world which, instead of being the centre of the 

 universe, and the largest and the most important 

 of the objects around him, is but an insignificant 

 planet, revolving round a small, and, compara- 

 tively, inconsiderable star; whilst in every 

 sparkling diamond of the sky he beholds a new 

 sun, the source of light and heat to new worlds 

 such as his own , and even these, numerous and 

 glorious as they are, he is taught to consider, 

 when compared to the created universe, but as a 

 small group a single nebula, amongst the count- 

 less myriad^ of nebulae which exist in the im- 

 mensity of space. 



What an astonishing view is this, and how re- 

 dolent of moral instruction to the well regulated 

 mind ! If the shepherd king of Israel, in the 

 contemplation of the wonders which sight reveals 

 to the unassisted eye, was, even with his imper- 

 fect light, overwhelmed with admiration, and 

 awed into humility, how unspeakably more deep 

 and powerful ought to be the inward sentiment 

 which forces the exclamation from the inmost 



