30 SPECIAL RESULTS IN THE URANOT,OGICAL 



I. 



COSMICAL SPACE, AND CONJECTURES RESPECTING WHAT 



APPEARS TO OCCUPY THE INTERVALS BETWEEN THE 



HEAVENLY BODIES. 



WE may in some respects view a commencement of the phy- 

 sical description of the Universe, by the consideration of 

 what fills the intervals between the stars in the remote re- 

 gions of space and remains inaccessible to our organs, in 

 the same light as mythical commencements of the world's 

 history. In infinite space, as in infinite time, everything 

 appears in uncertain and often illusive twilight. Imagi- 

 nation is then doubly stimulated to draw from her own 

 abundance, and to give to the indeterminate and varying 

 forms outline and duration. ( 54 ) Such an avowal may, I 

 hope, suffice to shield me from the reproach of having 

 confounded what direct observation or measurement have 

 raised to mathematical certainty, with what rests only 

 on very imperfect induction. Wild reveries belong to 

 the romance of physical astronomy : nevertheless, minds 

 exercised in scientific labour may dwell, not without 

 pleasure, on questions which, in connection with the present 

 state of our knowledge and the hope winch this state excites, 

 have been deemed by some of the most distinguished 



