'280 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 



when he contemplates the aspect of the skies, 

 such as they offer themselves to a casual and 

 unassisted glance, the impression must needs be 

 incalculably augmented, when we look at the 

 universe with the aid of astronomical discovery 

 and theory. We then find, that a few of the 

 shining points which we see scattered on the 

 face of the sky in such profusion, appear to be 

 of the same nature as the earth, and may perhaps, 

 as analogy would suggest, be like the earth, the 

 habitations of organized beings ; that the rest of 

 " the host of heaven" may, by a like analogy, be 

 conjectured to be the centres of similar systems 

 of revolving worlds ; that the vision of man has 

 gone travelling onwards, to an extent never 

 anticipated, through this multitude of systems, 

 and that while myriads of new centres start up 

 at every advance, he appears as yet not to have 

 received any intimation of a limit. Every person 

 probably feels, at first, lost, confounded, over- 

 whelmed, with the vastness of this spectacle ; 

 and seems to himself, as it were, annihilated by 

 the magnitude and multitude of the objects 

 which thus compose the universe. The distance 

 between him and the Creator of the world ap- 

 pears to be increased beyond measure by this 

 disclosure. It seems as if a single individual 

 could have no chance and no claim for the 

 regard of the Ruler of the whole. 



The mode in which the belief of God's govern- 



