556 THE VISIBLE STARS. 



there is no region of space however remote, which does not teem with evi- 

 dences of the exalted power, the inexhaustible wisdom, and the untiring good- 

 ness of the Most High. 



But science has not so deserted us. It has not failed to afford us much in- 

 teresting and elevating information regarding those distant regions of space. 

 The sagacity and activity of modern astronomers have supplied us with much 

 interesting information respecting regions of the universe the extent of which 

 is so great that even the whole dimensions of the solar system supply no mod- 

 ulus sufficiently great to enable us to express their magnitude. It-will not, then, 

 be unprofitable or unpleasing, on the present occasion, to carry our inquiries 

 into those realms of space that stretch beyond the limits of our own system, 

 and to inquire into the condition of the physical creation there. 



We are furnished with a variety of evidence, establishing, incontestably, the 

 fact, that around our system to avast distance on every side there exists an un- 

 occupied space ; that the solar system stands alone in the midst of a vast soli- 

 tude. What are the proofs of this ? Newton has demonstrated in his investi- 

 gations respecting the law of gravitation, that all masses of matter exercise 

 upon each other mutual attraction ; in virtue of which, the presence of any 

 mass in the neighborhood of another is betrayed, even though we should not 

 see it, by the effects which it produces on the condition and motion of the other. 

 The group of globes constituting the solar system, exercise upon each other 

 this influence ; arid although, from the enormous preponderance of its mass 

 above all the rest, the sun seems to annihilate the separate influence of the 

 planets and satellites upon each other, yet, by rigorous examination of the mo- 

 tions of these bodies, we are able to detect the effects of their reciprocal influ- 

 ences. The motion of each body of the system is the combined result of the 

 attraction of the sun and the other bodies of the system upon it. A rigorous 

 analysis of the motions of the planets has exhibited all these effects, and in 

 these motions we can distinctly see the gravitating influences of the various 

 bodies of the system. Now, if there exists beyond the limits of the system, 

 and within a distance not so great as to render the attraction of gravitation im- 

 perceptible, any mass of matter, such as another sun like our own, such a mass 

 would undoubtedly exercise a gravitating force upon the various bodies of the 

 solar system. It would cause each of them to move in a manner different from 

 what it would have moved if no such body existed. 



Thus it appears that, even though the presence of a mass of matter in our 

 neighborhood should escape direct observation, its presence would be invaria- 

 bly betrayed by the effects which its gravitation would necessarily produce 

 upon the planets. No such effects, however, are discoverable. The planets 

 move as they would move if the solar system were independent of any external 

 disturbing attraction. These motions, which are accurately observed, are such, 

 and such only, as can be accounted for by the attraction of the sun and the re- 

 ciprocal attraction of the other bodies of the system. The inevitable inference 

 from this is, that there does not exist any mass of matter in the neighborhood 

 of the solar system within any distance which permits such a mass to exercise 

 upon it any discoverable gravitating influence, and that, if any body analogous 

 to our sun exists in the universe, it must be placed at a distance from our sys- 

 tem inconceivably great so great, indeed, that the whole magnitude of our sys- 

 tem will shrink into a point compared with it. 



But we have other indications of this condition of things. The solar system 

 is supplied with feelers, which it. is enabled to throw out into the regions sur- 

 rounding it to vast distances, and these are endowed with the highest con- 

 ceivable susceptibility, which would cause them to betray to us the presence in 

 these regions even of masses of matter of very limited dimensions. These 



