208 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 



be surrounded with, for attempering the sun's rays 

 as they fall more directly or obliquely upon it. And 

 we have an example of this in what we ourselves 

 experience in winter, when our situation is nearer 

 to the sun than it is in summer. 



But whatever uses these eccentric bodies are of 

 otherwise, the astonishing courses that the comets per- 

 form in empty space, suggest to our minds an idea 

 of the vast distance between the sun and the nearest 

 fixed stars, of whose attractions all the comets must 

 keep clear, in order to return periodically and move 

 round the sun, and, consequently, of the infinite great- 

 ness of that Being, who has stretched out the hea- 

 vens like a curtain, and afforded such ample scope 

 for all those numerous orbs. <e I cannot forbear re- 

 fleeting/' says the author of the Guardian, " on the 

 insignificance of human art, when set in comparison 

 with the designs of Providence. In the pursuit of 

 this thought, I considered a comet, or, in the lan- 

 guage of the vulgar, a blazing star, as a sky rocket 

 discharged by a hand that is Almighty. What an 

 amazing thought is it to consider this stupendous bo- 

 dy traversing the immensity of the creation with such 

 a rapidity, and, at the same time, wheeling about in 

 that line which the Almighty had prescribed for it! 

 How spacious must the universe be, that gives such 

 bodies as these their. full play, without suffering the 

 least disorder or confusion by it! What a glorious 

 show are those beings entertained with, that can look 

 into this great theatre of nature, and see myriads of 

 such tremendous objects wandering through those 



