2 THE HARMONIES OF NATURE. 



behind in many a glorious tradition, and spreads a halo over his 

 tomb. 



At length even the last faint glimmerings of light have 

 disappeared ; night has fully vanquished day, and an increasing 

 gloom seems about to cover all nature with a funereal pall. But 

 this triumph of death is only apparent and of short duration, for 

 as the darkness deepens, new worlds blaze forth from the dark 

 heavens, and open the portals of the Infinite to our astonished 

 gaze. Thus night, far from contracting our horizon, withdraws 

 in reality the veil which hid from us the wonders of a boundless 

 universe. 



Who can describe the splendour of the starry heavens ? With 

 vivid colours the painter imitates the blushing morn or the 

 moonbeam dancing on the lake ; the forest, the sea, the moun- 

 tains appear on his canvas like reality itself; but the wonders 

 of the starry heavens mock the weakness of his art, for how 

 could he confine the boundless fields of ether within the narrow 

 limits of a painting ? * 



In all times, in all zones, the aspect of the nocturnal firma- 

 ment has awakened feelings of pious awe in the breast of man ; 

 and surely the idea of a single and omnipotent God first dawned 

 in his soul while his eye was plunging into the depths of the 

 skies, and star after star shone down upon him from that 

 amazing dome whose cupola is everywhere extended and whose 

 pillars are nowhere to be found ? 



The beauties of Nature are unequally distributed over the 

 surface of our earth ; some lands are gifted with all that can en- 

 chant the eye, while others are scenes of barren desolation : but 

 the starry heavens are equally magnificent at the equator and at 

 the poles, and wherever man exists their splendour is open to 

 his gaze. But how many centuries may have elapsed before he 

 first raised himself from the admiring contemplation of this 

 august spectacle to a more attentive observation of its mecha- 

 nism before he first attempted to measure the orbits or to 

 calculate the size of the celestial spheres ! 



The first step to a more accurate knowledge of the starry 

 heavens was to ascertain the form and size of our earth, for it 

 was thus only that a measure could be gained for the dimen- 

 sions of the planetary system, a solid basis for the future deve- 

 lopment of astronomical science. 



