260 IN STARRY REALMS. 



reached us. When we look at those lights to-night we are 

 actually viewing them as they were 18,000 years ago. In 

 fact, those stars might have totally vanished 17,000 years 

 ago, though we and our descendants may still see them 

 glittering for yet another thousand years. 



We shall realise a little more fully what this reasoning 

 involves if we suppose that astronomers dwelt on such a 

 star, and that they had eyes and telescopes sufficiently 

 keen not only to discern our little earth, but even to 

 scrutinise its surface with attention. Let us suppose that 

 the stellar astronomers looked at England : do you think 

 they would see a network of railways joining mighty and 

 populous cities, furnished with immense manufactories and 

 with countless institutions. Such would be the England 

 of to-day. But from the distance at which these astro- 

 nomers are situated light takes 18,000 years for its 

 journey, and, therefore, what they would see would be 

 England as it was 18,000 years ago. To them England 

 would even now appear as a country mainly covered with 

 forests inhabited by bears and wolves, and totally void of 

 any trace of civilisation. This illustration will at all events 

 serve to convey some conception of the distance at which 

 the outskirts of our visible universe are plunged in the 

 depths of space. 



