256 GENERALIZATIONS. 



become aware of this immediately when we compare the relations 

 of time and those of space, and when we examine the means 

 which Man is obliged to employ in order to obtain an idea, or 

 at least a presentiment, of their overpowering grandeur. 



We should remember that, although the earth, when compared 

 and measured with our bodies, is certainly very large, it is almost 

 infinitely small in comparison with the universe. The distance of 

 China from Switzerland seems to us to be very great ; but what 

 are several thousand miles to the 91,430,000 English miles 

 which separate the earth from the sun, or the twenty billions * 

 of miles between the solar system and the nearest fixed star ? 

 We know of stars which are distant from us from three to six 

 of such star-distances, and innumerable stars which the instru- 

 ments of astronomers are not able to reach, and for some of 

 which we may assume distances of 10,000 star-distances. A 

 glance at the starry heavens therefore shows us stars beyond stars 

 to infinite and inconceivable distances. And our solar system 

 comprises the planet which is assigned to us as a habitation. Its 

 developmental periods must be measured by a similar standard 

 to the conditions of space in the universe ; and whilst mathe- 

 matical astronomy has found the means of expressing these by 

 numbers, at least for the stars nearest to the earth, these powers 

 of numerical expression are still wanting to geology ; and easy 

 as it is now to determine the sequence of the formations, and to 

 say what is newer or what is older, it is just as difficult or, rather, 

 impossible, to express the measure of time even approximately 

 in absolute numbers. All attempts that have hitherto been 

 made to obtain absolute numbers from aqueous deposits and 

 erosions, from the formation of coral-reefs, and from the oscilla- 

 tions of the ground have led to no satisfactory results, because 

 in early times the conditions which now exist may not have pre- 

 vailed, and thus the standard which we bring with us may be 

 erroneous. Nevertheless there can be no doubt that in this in- 

 quiry we have to deal with very high numbers. Even if the 

 grounds should be uncertain on which the supposition of Morlot 



* [Of this distance some idea may be obtained by remembering that light 

 could not travel so far in less than three years (Ferguson's ' Astronomy,' 

 edited by Sir David Brewster, vol. ii. chap. xl). EDITOR.] 



