10 THE HARMONIES OF NATURE. 



the threshold of new worlds ; and how far should we have to fly 

 before we reached the regions of formless void, if such there be ! 

 So much is certain that all we can see is but as a speck in the 

 immensity of the creation, as our earth is but a speck in the solar 

 system, and the solar system itself but an imperceptible atom in 

 the stellar cluster of which it forms a part. The vastness of the 

 universe may well overpower the weakness of our comprehen- 

 sion well may we feel humbled to the dust on comparing our 

 utter nothingness with the amazing grandeur of the surrounding 

 world ; but our heart soon recovers from its depression at the 

 consoling reflection, that the same bounteous Father who in- 

 stilled into us the breath of life, maintains all this vast universe 

 in constant harmony and beauty. As the planets revolve in 

 regular orbits round the sun as the comets, however far they 

 roam in their erratic course, are yet obliged, in obedience to the 

 law of gravitation, to return to their central orb as, within the 

 comparatively narrow confines of our solar system, the beautiful 

 spectacle of order, regularity, and unity strikes us in every 

 detail, thus also we cannot possibly doubt that the same order, 

 the same harmony, the same unity of plan pervades all the 

 unknown recesses of the universe, and that the whole of the 

 amazing structure proclaims in all its parts, throughout all time 

 and space, the infinite power and wisdom of Grod ! 



