BOOK I. 



THE STARS AND IMMENSITY. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE STARS. 



KEPLER, whose genius surmounted all obstacles, was the 

 first to trace the great physical laws of the spheres. All 

 the stars are, according to him, only suns like ours, each 

 of which has its planetary system. And our luminary, 

 with its whole host of satellites, is itself thrown, like a wan- 

 dering star, into the ocean of worlds, where it forms the 

 central point in the stellar cloud which we call the Milky 

 Way. 



All round the sun, disseminated in immensity, the stars 

 majestically lend life to the vault of heaven. Their splen- 

 dor, the dazzling spectacle which they display to our eyes, 

 fill the soul with a sense of humility and nothingness. It is 

 in the valleys of the glowing Thebais, never wetted by a 

 drop of water, that we ought to yield ourselves up to such 

 contemplations. One enjoys there nights which are eter- 

 nally serene ; and under their magnificent dome the stars, 

 these immortal flowers of heaven, as St. Basil calls them, 



