44 THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 
This, more poetic than real in the creation of stars, tells 
us something, however, of the delights of man who studies 
those luminous bodies, whether one by one or grouped in their — 
constellations. 
Lord Byron has compared the mid-night heavens to the 
mighty ocean; they are sown with stars as the sands in the sea, 
and while they twinkle o’er our heads our great desire would 
be to wing our flight and mingle with their immortal light. 
Again here nature has made a compromise. With our 
rapid wings carrying us at the speed of 100 miles a minute, it 
would take us 15 years to reach Jupiter, which we are going 
to visit this evening, and even billions of years to reach some 
of the stars. Nature has provided a more rapid and less peri- 
lous and less fatiguing means of visiting these heavenly bodies. 
It is by observation, light, the telescope, and the retina of the 
eye will accomplish this journey and afford us quite a pleasant 
visit. 
Light: A poet has compared light to the sun as heaven’s 
first born and to the Deity from which it radiates. “ Light,” 
he says “is the offspring of heaven’s first born and of the eter- 
nal coeternal beams.” 
With its volatile and rapid waves it kisses the shores of 
space and returns to man’s eye to reveal to us the great pano- 
rama of night with its twinkling stars shining like so many 
bright souls of the Great Beyond. 4 
But I have been too long in coming to Jupiter. It is the 
ereatest planet in the solar system. Just a short digression 
here for the benefit of those who may not have studied astrono- 
my. There are many distinctions to be made between a star 
and a planet. Both light up the heavens at night and appear 
very much alike to the naked eye. If you watch a star, how- 
ever, you will find its light penetrating, fine and twinkling. 
The planet’s light is blunt, constant, and never twinkles. This 
you will readily understand when it is explained that the stars 
are luminous bodies of themselves, perhaps immense suns more 
brilliant than our sun. They allow inspection from the naked 
eye because their brilliancy loses its intensity. from the bil- 
