THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 
On 
Ny 
are not absolutely right this time, I think there will be some 
little ground for thinking that there may yet be still another 
planet belonging to our system out in space, more than five 
thousand millions of miles from the sun. ‘There is no more 
extravagance in this thought than there would have seemed to 
have been 1f one had predicted a century ago the discovery of 
Neptune. Extravagance, did I hearsomeonesay? Why, sir, 
we are dealing with a subject where the wildest extravagance of 
the mind of mortal man becomes reasonable ; where the most 
unbridled imagination of man loses heart and lags behind in its 
struggle with actual reality. Nowhere else is the proverb 
more fitting than here. ‘‘ Truth is stranger and greater than 
any fiction can possibly be.’’ When we meditate on the great- 
ness of God and his wonderful works, we can see no opportun- 
ity for extravagance of imagination. It is a dwarf. Reality 
only is gigantic. The German poet Richter has given us his 
lofty thought on this theme, ‘‘God called up from dreams a 
man into the vestibule of Heaven saying : ‘‘Come see the glory 
of my house.’’ To his servants near the throne he said ‘‘Strip 
him of his robes of flesh ; cleanse his vision; put new breath 
into his nostrils, but touch not with any change his human 
heart, which trembles and weeps.’’ It was done, and with a 
mighty angel for his guide, he began his voyage through end- 
less space. Sometimes with solemnity of the flight of the 
angels’ wings they sped through saharas of darkness, through 
wildernesses of space, which divided worlds of hfe. From dis- 
tances which can be reckoned only in Heaven, they swept on 
towards dawning light. Light by unutterable pace came on 
to meet them, till in a moment the rushing of worlds was upon 
them and the blazing of suns was about them. ‘Then came 
eternities of twilight whose depths were not and could not 
be revealed. On the right hand and on the left towered mighty 
constellations built up of triumphal gates whose architraves 
and archways rose to altitudes which were ghostly from infin- 
itude ; without measure were the architraves, past number the 
archways, beyond memory the gates. Depth was swallowed 
up in height insurmountable, height was swallowed up by 
