HARLAN T. STETSON 223 



of them would differ vastly as light from the various 

 sources arrives sometimes early, sometimes late. 

 These stellar universes are composed of hundreds of 

 millions, yes billions, of gigantic, hot, gaseous bodies 

 — the stars. One among these systems is the galactic 

 system, composed of a billion or more of such bodies 

 all In rapid motion. These stars differ enormously in 

 dimension; some are so huge we call them giant stars, 

 others so tiny we call them dwarf stars. Among these 

 dwarf stars Is the sun. About the sun whirl little 

 planets, the largest of which Is a planet called Jupiter. 

 There are other planets — Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, 

 Mars, Venus, and Mercury. Then there Is the earth 

 also. On the earth, as presumably on many other 

 bodies, arise all sorts of forms of life and among the 

 various forms of life at length comes man, who looks 

 Into star-strewn space and wonders, as we wonder. 



Apart from the direction of gravity which draws all 

 things towards the centers of stars and planets, there 

 is no such thing as up or down. Man looks, there- 

 fore, out into space and comes to find that he dwells 

 among the stars — stars about him on every hand. He 

 dwells upon a moving earth, spinning on Its axis like 

 a top, giving him a view into nearly every niche of 

 space In the course of twenty-four hours. Again, he 

 travels on a moving earth which whirls about the sun 

 a turn a year, and earth and sun together pursue a 

 flight through space of 40,000 miles an hour, 400,- 

 000,000 miles a year, while the passing stars are so 

 far distant, they stream by so slowly, that centuries 

 elapsed before man perceived their slightest drift. 



Thus has man's view of the cosmos changed from 



