6 INTRODUCTION. 



forth by those conquests from the dominion of the unknown, 

 which have been achieved by observation and intellectual 

 research. The sense of this regularity and periodicity had 

 impressed itself so early on the minds of men, that we often 

 find it reflected in their forms of speech, indicating a refe- 

 rence to the preordained course of the heavenly bodies. To 

 this it may be added, that among the laws which men have 

 as yet been enabled to recognise in the material universe, 

 those which regulate the movements of bodies in celestial 

 space are perhaps the most admirable by their simplicity ; 

 being founded exclusively on the measure and distribution 

 of aggregated ponderable matter, and its powers of attraction. 

 The impression of the sublime arising from the sensibly vast 

 and immeasurable, passes, almost unconsciously to ourselves, 

 by virtue of the mysterious bond which links the sensuous 

 with the supersensuous, into a higher region of ideas. There 

 dwells in the image of the immeasurable, the boundless, the 

 infinite, a power which disposes the mind to a serious and 

 solemn tone, with which, as with the impression of what- 

 ever is intellectually great or morally exalted, emotion 

 mingles. 



The effect which the occurrence of unwonted celestial 

 phenomena produces so generally and simultaneously on 

 entire masses of population, testifies the influence of this 

 association of feelings. The power exercised on more sen- 

 sitive minds by the simple aspect of the star-strewn canopy 

 of heaven, is further augmented by augmented knowledge, 

 and by the application of instruments, which, invented by 

 man, extend his visual powers, and with them the horizon of 

 his observation. The impression of the incomprehensible 

 immensity of the universe thus subjected to law and regu- 



