VASTNESS OF THE UNIVERSE. 275 



with those which the microscope detects. We 

 know that we may magnify objects thousands of 

 times, and still discover fresh complexities of 

 structure ; if we suppose, therefore, that we thus 

 magnify every member of the universe and every 

 particle of matter of which it consists ; we may 

 imagine that we make perceptible to our senses 

 the vast multitude of organized adaptations which 

 lie hid on every side of us ; and in this manner 

 we approach towards an estimate of the extent 

 through which we may trace the power and skill 

 of the Creator, by scrutinizing his work with the 

 utmost subtlety of our faculties. 



3. The other numerical quantities which we have 

 to consider in the phenomena of the universe are 

 on as gigantic a scale as the distances and sizes. 

 By the rotation of the earth on its axis, the parts 

 of the equator move at the rate of a thousand 

 miles an hour, and the portions of the earth's 

 surface which are in our latitude, at about six 

 hundred. The former velocity is nearly that 

 with which a cannon ball is discharged from the 

 mouth of a gun ; but, large as it is, it is incon- 

 siderable compared with the velocity of the earth 

 in its orbit about the sun. This latter velocity is 

 sixty-five times the former. By the rotatory 

 motion of the earth, a point of its surface is 

 carried sometimes forwards and sometimes back- 

 wards with regard to the annual progression ; 

 but in consequence of the great predominance of 

 the annual motion in amount, the diurnal scarcely 



