NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION. 13 



visible to the naked eye must be vast beyond all powers 

 of conception. 



The number visible to the eye is about three thousand \ 

 but when a telescope of small power is directed to the 

 heavens, a great number more come into view, and the 

 number is ever increased in proportion to the increased 

 power of the instrument. In one place, where they are 

 more thickl}- sown than elsewhere, Sir William Herschel 

 reckoned that lifty thousand passed over a Held of view 

 two degrees in breadth in a single hour. It was first 

 surmised by the ancient philosopher, Democritus, that the 

 faintly white zone which spans the sky under the name 

 of the Milky Way, might be only a dense collection of 

 stars too remote to be distinguished. This conjecture 

 has been verified by the instruments of modern astro- 

 nomers, and some speculations of a most remarkable kind 

 have been formed in connection with it. By the joint 

 labours of the two Herschels, the sky has been "gauged" 

 in all directions by the telescope, so as to ascertain the 

 conditions of difierent parts with respect to the frequency 

 of the stars. The' result has been a conviction that, as 

 the planets are parts of solar systems, so are solar sys- 

 tems parts of what may be called astral systems — that is, 

 systems composed of a multitude of stars, bearing a cer- 

 tain relation to each other. The astral system to which 

 we belong, is conceived to be of an oblong, fiattish form, 

 ■with a space wholly or comparatively vacant in the 

 centre, while the extremity in one direction parts into 

 two. The stars are most thickly sown in the outer parts 

 of this vast ring, and these constitute the Milky Way. 

 Our sun is believed to be placed in the southern portion 

 of the ring, near its inner edge, so that we are presented 

 with many more stais, and see the Milky AVay much 

 more clearly, in tliat direction, than towards the north, 



