THE NUMBER OF THE STARS. 251 



cleaning or repairing it, when he appears a mere pigmy 

 in comparison with the mighty dial which points out the 

 hours. In a similar way with every increase of distance, 

 the apparent size of the sun would decline, and in the 

 lapse of a year the sunlight would be reduced to a feeble 

 twilight. The sun itself would remain visible for many 

 years, even if it were steadily moving away, though its 

 lustre would continually decline, and its size would con- 

 tinually diminish, until at last it would have shrunk to 

 the insignificance of a small point of light, still visible 

 as a glittering object, but too minute to enable any de- 

 finite form to be perceived. Further still, the sun might 

 recede until it passed beyond the reach of vision of the 

 unaided eye; the telescope would, however, be able to 

 pursue the retreating luminary until at last it sank into 

 the depths of space beyond the reach of any instrument 

 whatever. 



This little argument will prepare us for an explanation 

 of the stars. They merely appear to us to be points of 

 light of varying degrees of brightness, but we have seen 

 that our own sun might be reduced in lustre to that of 

 the very dimmest of the stars if only it were removed suffi- 

 ciently far. If, therefore, the stars are at a great enough 

 distance from our system, it may indeed be that they also 

 are suns, possibly equalling, or possibly even surpassing, 

 our own sun in magnificence. 



Here is indeed an imposing suggestion. Can it be that 

 the host of stars which adorn our midnight sky are ac- 

 tually suns themselves of an importance comparable with 

 that of our own ? This is a great thought, and we desire 

 to test it by every means in our power. You will see 



