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CHAPTER III. 



On Mans Place in the Universe. 



THE mere aspect of the starry heavens, without 

 taking into account the view of them to which 

 science introduces us, tends strongly to force 

 upon man the impression of his own insignifi- 

 cance. The vault of the sky arched at a vast 

 and unknown distance over our heads ; the stars, 

 apparently infinite in number, each keeping its 

 appointed place and course, and seeming to belong 

 to a wide system of things which has no relation 

 to the earth ; while man is but one among many 

 millions of the earth's inhabitants; all this 

 makes the contemplative spectator feel how ex- 

 ceedingly small a portion of the universe he is ; 

 how little he must be, in the eyes of an intelli- 

 gence which can embrace the whole. Every 

 person, in every age and country, will recognise 

 as irresistibly natural the train of thought ex- 

 pressed by the Hebrew psalmist : " when I con- 

 sider the heavens, the work of thy hands the 

 moon and the stars which thou hast ordained 

 Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him, 

 or the son of man that thou regardest him ?" 

 If this be the feeling of the untaught person, 



