332 HUMBOLDTS COSMOS: 



It becomes more difficult to obtain understanding or assent 

 to the far higher numbers and relations which lie beyond. 

 The stars of our sidereal system, down to the 9th magnitude, 

 form but a small fraction of those which the space-pene- 

 trating powers of the telescope, in what have been very 

 appropriately called star-gauging s, now render visible to the 

 eye. Sir W. Herschel calculates that 18 millions may be 

 seen in the Milky Way alone. Struve estimates for the whole 

 heavens 20,374,000 stars. Allowing a large margin for these 

 numbers, which can be but approximate, they yet possess 

 certainty enough from the methods of observation employed, 

 to impress upon the mind the immensity of this universe of 

 worlds. It may be that the feelings receive more of this 

 impression than the understanding. But there is one im- 

 portant fact which the intellect can scan, and which even in 

 its simplicity has a grandeur commensurate to the magnitude 

 of the objects concerned. Whatever be the actual nature of 

 the two great physical powers, Gravitation and Light, we 

 have absolute proof that these pervade and operate through- 

 out the whole of the vast system thus disclosed to us. 

 Gravitation acts by the same law among the double stars, as 

 in the fall of an apple, or the flight of a stone on the earth. 

 The solar spectrum on a screen, and the ray polarised by a 

 crystal, represent properties of Light, which we have every 

 reason to believe identical with those of the same element, as 

 transmitted to us from stars the most remote in space. 

 Here then we attain at once the proof of the unity of power, 

 of design, and even of instrumental operation, in the creation 

 of the universe. It is an argument as clear and cogent as 

 any that we habitually employ in the ordinary transactions 

 of life ; the marvel being that we, the feeble and short- 

 lived tenants of a mere satellite in this system of suns, should 

 reach by any road to these high conclusions which everywhere 

 border on infinity. 



