&50 COSMOS. 



different stages to which art has gradually exalted itself. 

 Without attempting to express in definite numbers the dis- 

 tances to which the space-penetrating powers of telescopic 

 vision may already reach ; and without attaching much con- 

 fidence to such numbers, the knowledge of the velocity of 

 light yet proclaims that the appearance of the remotest star, 

 the light-generating process on its surface, is the " most 

 ancient sensuous evidence of the existence of matter." 102 



102 Cosmos, vol. i. p. 145. 



